Unbroken

Chapter 32

It was hours before loki started to wake up. His mind was lifted out of a very very deep sleep, when he started to become conscious his brain was a jumble and he couldn't think clearly. He groaned a little bit when he stared to wake, his head was pounding and he couldn't really remember what had happened. He made himself open his eyes fully and winced when the bright light of the room hit his eyes.
He felt a mask over his nose and mouth that was helping him breath, and when he looked down to keep his eyes out of the bright lights he saw that he had sticky tabs in various places on his chest that connected to some monitor that had graphs on it that he didn't understand. There was also an IV in the back of his hand that he greatly disliked. He didn't like any of this; the breathing mask, the wires connecting him to a screen, the beeping sound that tracked his heart rate, he hated it all. But he quickly forgot all of that when he tried to move. He wanted to disconnect himself from all of this, but as soon as he tried to move his arm he felt that his wrists were strapped to the sides of the bed. Suddenly he didn't care about anything but getting untied, he was panic stricken when realized he was bound to the bed. then he remembered everything that happened with the horse and he realized he was in deep deep trouble. The royals probably all thought he'd tried to escape and now had him tied down so they could punish him in a Fun and entertaining way. His breathing became erratic and he started pulling and tugging at the straps securing his wrists, then he realized his ankles were also bound and started panicking more, trying desperately to get himself free. His eyes darted around the room and he saw that he was alone, maybe if he could get free before anyone came back he could- well he didn't know what he'd do, but it didn't matter, because in he middle of him struggling and pulling on the straps, the door opened and Frigga came in. She saw Loki panicking and fighting to get free so she came over to him, he pulled as far away from her as possible. His head was so clouded that he wasn't even thinking about the fact that Frigga was obviously not a threat to him. When he passed out in the woods he thought he was in Jotunhiem again, so he was having a hard time remembering the differences.
"I didn't- I wasn't-  the- the horse just- I'm-" he was stuttering to explain what happened and his breathing was as broken and frantic as his speech. If Frigga didn't calm him down soon he'd pass out again from anxiety.
"Shh Loki calm down, it's okay" Frigga said sweetly as she stood next to his bed and Reached to put a hand on his face, he turned away at first, thinking that she was going to hit him like Ilkay would have, but instead she just cupped his cheek gently and turned his head back to face her again, then removed the mask from over his nose and mouth. His breathing calmed slightly as soon as he felt her gentle touch, he remembered that she wasn't like Ilkay, she was always kind to him, she let him cry once.
"You're home now, you're safe" Frigga said, softly stroking the side of his face. He looked like he wanted to believe her but he wasn't sure, he was still tied down and in his experiences that was never a good thing. He glanced down at the straps with his eyes and then gave another sharp tug to try and get free.
"No no don't do that" Frigga said as she put a hand over his wrist so he would stop tugging.
"Why- why am I tied?" Loki asked, sounding a little bit nervous "am- I didn't meant to run, the horse just-" Frigga gave him a sympathetic look and shook her head.
"No no you're not in trouble, Thor told us what happened with your horse, none of this is your fault. We just wanted to make sure you didn't panic and try to get up when you woke" she explained "you have a pretty bad head injury so we needed to make sure you stayed in bed for now" she added.
Loki wasn't sure what to think now, She seemed to believe him that he hadn't been trying to run, and since Thor told her everything he assumed Thor believed he wasn't trying to run too, but what about the king? He was really the biggest threat. He decided he could worry later, right now he just wanted to get untied. He was no longer worried that Frigga was going to punish him, but he still didn't like the feeling of being tied down, it reminded him of Ilkay and he hated her.
"Will..... will you untie me then?" He asked her. Frigga felt terrible, he asked her for a favor without stuttering or shaking or sweating, he was finally getting more comfortable with her... and she had to say no.
"Not yet, just wait until Trinity comes back alright?" Frigga said. Loki looked confused.
"Who's Trinity?" He asked, becoming able to calm himself now. His head was still throbbing so bad that he could hear his heartbeat in his head, and his back was really hurting him, but his brain was clearing up a little bit so he didn't feel so lost and vulnerable now.
"She's the healer who's been tending to your Injuries. She went on the search party when they found you" she explained. Loki tried to process what she was saying. Search party? He hadn't thought about it, but clearly someone had gone out to find him, how else would he have gotten back? But he didn't think they'd bring a healer, he thought the only reason they'd go out looking for him would be to punish him for running, but clearly he was wrong. She wasn't planning on punishing him, so that means they went out to look for him to bring him back safely... he was worth their time?
"There- a search party? Why?" He asked her "if- if you're not going to punish me then why- why bring me back?" He added.
"Because we wanted you to be safe... I was really worried about you, Thor said your horse just bolted. You could've been in a lot more danger" she explained to him. "And Thor felt terrible, apparently he refused to return to the palace until he had you with him" she added, trying to show him how much they all care about him. His face was blank for a few minutes as he thought about what she said, it didn't really seem possible that they cared about his safety, he's nothing. But lately she's proven a lot of his thoughts wrong. He opened his mouth to speak again but the door opened and a young woman entered the room. She was younger than most of the healers, probably about a year or two younger than Loki. She was a little bit confusing to look at, she had black curly hair that just passed her jaw, which contrasted starkly with her fair skin, she also had bright green eyes that stood out well, and she stood very straight. At first glance she would seem very unwelcoming, she looked harsh and cold and very serious, but then she smiled and that all changed. She had a bright warm smile that lit up her face and was enough to make anyone feel more comfortable, she was also a rather petite young woman; someone Loki's hight could easily rest their chin on her head if they stood behind her.
When she first came in Loki wasn't sure he was happy about seeing her, he already had a dislike for healers and medicine or anything related to making someone recover from injury or illness, Ilkay always used those things to torture him so he hated all of it. But as soon as she saw Loki and Frigga she smiled and Loki felt less uncomfortable.
"Hey, it's good to see that you're awake" she said as she came over to his bed. "How do you feel?" She asked as she checked the monitors that were keeping track of his heart rate, oxygen levels, etc.
"My head hurts" he said simply, and Frigga gave an mental shout of joy at the fact that he didn't say 'I'm fine'
"Well that's to be expected" she said as she looked intently at his eyes to see if his pupils were still dilated.
"Are the lights to bright?" She asked while she checked him. Loki was still squinting a bit from the lights that (to him) were very bright.
"Um, y- a little bit" he said, he still didn't feel right about complaining. But The healer nodded a bit.
"I'm Trinity by the way" she said as she went over and dimmed the lights so that Loki's eyes weren't aching anymore. Then  went back to where the monitors were and clicked a button a few times. in a few seconds Loki felt drowsy and his body became very relaxed.
"You- Trinity?" He asked, she was the one Frigga was talking about before.
"That's me" she said with a small smile. "Sorry you woke up in so much pain, you were tired and slept for hours, I wanted you to be able to wake up so I only gave you a little bit of medication to ease the pain" she explained, "but I'm giving you more" she said as she tapped a bag that was connected to the IV in his hand.
by now the pounding in his head had lessened quite a bit.
"Can... can you untie me?" He asked sleepily, he didn't know why he was tired again, he didn't know that pain medication did that.
"I will, but you can't rip this stuff off" she said as she gestured to all the tabs that were attached to him. Loki didn't like any of it, but he didn't want to argue because then she might not untie him and that was the bigger deal to him.
"I won't. Just please untie me" he said. Trinity nodded a bit and Unstrapped his wrists. As soon as he was loose he brought a hand to his head to feel where he'd hit it. But all he could feel was the bandage that wrapped around his head.
"You'll be able to take that off soon, it's just until I know you're alright" Trinity explained. Loki didn't say anything, but he lowered his hand and set it back in his lap.
"The prince wants too see you. Can I let him in?" She asked. Loki was quiet for a minute, he knew Thor wasn't mad at him, but for some reason he was still hesitant to say yes.
Maybe because he wasn't able to move yet and he hated how tall and large Thor was, or maybe it was just a thousand years of bad experiences that were influencing his thoughts. But after a minute he tried to get himself to forget his bad memories.
"Yeah... he can come in" Loki told her, And not because he was afraid to say no, but because he knew Thor wasn't going to hurt him.