@drxbarbie
closed starter
location: ICU in Baptist Fisherman’s Hospital
Waking Up
The slowed and controlled rate of his heartbeat flashed in vibrant green on a monitor fixed beside the bed, beeping forebodingly in unison with his very existence. The man’s body lay limp, trapped into the mattress by two fall prevention guardrails and a cocoon of bleached bed sheets. As if he would be able to turn and fall out of bed anyway.
Three weeks prior he’d been frantically placed into a coma to reduce the swelling in his brain after his motorcycle accident. Three weeks prior, a doctor had shaved the deep brown curls from his scalp, and drilled a hole through the bone underneath to stop the bleeding. Even having been wearing his helmet, being ejected from his bike and nosediving straight into asphalt didn’t fare well for him. He was lucky it had happened on Duval, just a few yards from where an ambulance was already staging. In fact, as he was falling, the crew was already flicking on their sirens. But Lucifer wouldn’t remember that.
Various lines ran from his body to bags hung high on racks beside the bed. A feeding tube drawn up his nostril, IVs stuffed into the veins that coasted his muscular forearms. Sedation, antibiotics, steroids—a slew of medication coursed through Lucifer’s bloodstream. A tube connecting oxygen to his lungs through a forced pathway down his trachea, jutted out between his lips, where a ventilator was forcing him to breathe. To stay alive.
This scene had been the same for three weeks. Doctors and nurses would flit in and out of the room, as would his lawyers and assistant, who he’d named POA. Two burly men in black suits would stand outside of the room’s door at all times. In the dead of night, when just the street lamps could be seen outside the window and the sound of his own heartbeat was all he could hear through the seemingly eternal slumber, Lukas had dazed and incoherent nightmares of being trapped inside a wall, unable to move, unable to scream for help. Three weeks’ worth of them. It’d become his new reality. With road burn slowly scabbing over on his face and arms, with his right arm pinned up against his torso by a sling, with gauze wrapped tightly around his bare abdomen. His hair had started to grow back, a full beard having grown in the wait. His swelling had started to come down. His bruises had started to yellow and fade. But he was still trapped in that wall, uncertain where he was or how to get out.
Lights flickered on in the room as a doctor entered for the first round of vitals on her shift. Lucifer’s assistant lay slumped against the chair beside him, laptop resting on the floor still open. An article on its screen read his title in the headline—’Is the Devil of Key West Dead?’ Maybe mistaken as clickbait before actually reading it.
‘…Our sources have confirmed that the motorcyclist who we all saw crashed on Duval Street last month was none other than Lucifer Vale, the CEO and owner of Second Circle Entertainment Studios. Lawyers of Vale’s refuse to comment on his condition but another source of ours has told us he is currently in intensive care being treated for severe injuries. The medical staff is unsure of the prognosis yet and has stated to our journalists that he is currently in a coma….’
she’d been doing her best, moving on with her life like he hadn’t really walked into it all those weeks ago. if she thought about it, which she’d say she hadn’t, her life would have been far less complicated had he stayed away and never stolen her cigarette. he’d been a whirlwind, one that gave her whiplash to say the least and there were other men in her life, albeit not in her company, that could give her what she needed so... why was he still a thought of hers?
she’d been filling her time since their last falling out (if you could even call it that) focusing on work, and using tinder once again to aid her downfall. she wasn’t perfect, hell, she knew she was far from it and if she closed her eyes tight enough she could hear her mother saying those exact words. she’d done well to unlearn a lot of her mothers teachings, but some ran under the skin, too deep to dig out.
she’d attended work meetings, expecting to see him but met only with the unpleasant company of his assistant, one who wouldn’t give up the details of why the man wasn’t there, or why she had to deal with him instead. she grit her teeth, dealt with the man and left the meeting as quickly as she could. how could he still be upset with her? how could he be so upset with her that he refused to attend a meeting they’d personally set up together? the audacity of it. drew was angry enough to throw herself at anything and anyone, even stooping to the lowest of lows and looking up her ex girlfriend on facebook. was everyone just happier without her?
it was late, very late, and drew was a decent way through a bottle of wine when she stumbled across something on her phone. new stories often broke of him, but none like this, and as her eyes scanned the article and made multiple other searches.... she discovered the information was true. the night only got rougher, and drew woke more tired than she had been before she forced herself to sleep three hours beforehand. that didn’t stop her from turning herself out in the best presentation she could.
her heels commanded attention as she made her way down the hall, locking eyes with the two security at his door and giving them both looks that could well and truly kill a man dead. she was scorned after all, the assistant had failed to mention a rather important detail, and that was that lucifer was laid up in hospital. it was only a moment, albeit one she had to talk herself through, but drew pushed through the doors and her eyes met his form.
she was speechless for a moment, throat dry as she just stood there and looked him over. she wasn’t used to seeing him like this, in seeing him in any situation that was less that kingly. it hit her in a way she didn’t think it would, like their complicated mess of a relationship meant something more than she expected— but maybe that was just the shock of it, seeing him as actually vulnerable rather than that god-like tower she’d built him up as.... she shook her head, swallowing before regaining her composure and looking over to his assistant.
“Wake up!” louder than perhaps she expected, she tossed an empty plastic cup in the assistants direction. “don’t you think I should know he’s here?! You come and sit in those meetings with me and tell me to deal with you, yet you failed to tell me this?! And what are you doing still sleeping? is he paying you right now?! Where’s the doctor in charge? I wanna speak to them.”
