Let me take care of you

Hospital

(Small trigger warning, there are mentions of self harm in this chapter.)

Beep

Beep

Beep

The slow beeps of the machine repeated themselves, the same tone over and over again. Charlie groaned, he heard machines buzzing and beeping around him, wait? Machine's, where was he? Charlie tried opening his eyes, they felt like weights to him. He slowly opened his eyes, they fluttered open and he looked around him, his vision blurring at first. He saw a lot of white, he tried moving up his bed but his head felt like it had been hit with a hammer.

His vision finally cleared and he could see where he was. He saw machines, he was sitting in a white bed, he had wires attached all over him. He has been changed into a blue hospital shirt, it has short sleeves, revealing his arms which were covered in cuts and bruises and a single huge slash all the way down to his elbow. It had a large patched up bit, it was the same on his other arm. He quickly put his arms under the covers, the old scars on his arm were in clear view.

He looked to his side, his neck felt stiff like he hadn't moved it in forever. He saw a doctor on the right side of the room, checking a clipboard.
"Huh..." His voice ached, it felt like someone had cut his vocal chord off. The doctor looked up from his paper,
"Oh my! Charles Spring! You're awake! That's amazing!" The doctor said, not really sounding like he was excited but more fascinated. Charlie tried to ask what was going on, but the doctor shook his head and shushed him,
"No, don't try speaking. Your vocal chords were severally damaged from the extent of screaming you did." The doctor said, looking at a page on his clipboard and writing something down.

Charlie gave him a confused look, his mind was blurry, what had happened again? The doctor continued,
"At the same time you also severely broke your left leg in six different places, along with four ribs, all sustained from what seemed to be and from the evidence on the scene a crow bar. You have severe bruising all over your body and the amount of blood you loss from you stab wounds has not been fully refilled yet. Other then that, very luckily, you do not have any life threatening injuries."

Charlie was still confused, where had he... Why was he so? Who did this, what happened.
"What... Happened?" Charlie said, feeling at his throat in pain but quickly putting his arm down under the covers.
"Mr Spring please don't use your voice if you can help it, it needs to rest for at least a couple of days." The doctor said, telling him off slightly. Charlie still wanted answers though, the doctor gave him an odd look,
"Really? I don't think any damage came to your memory. Well... The events that went down to lead you to this... State were still quite recent. It happened at your school, we don't know exactly what happened, the police caught the boys though, that a relief. If that teacher and your friend hadn't found you who knows what else they could've done. I think it was mainly this one boy, I think his name is Ben?"

The doctor was going to continue but that was just enough, the mention of his name was enough. Suddenly, as soon as the word was said, the memories came back, the stormed back into his memory. He remembered pain, he remembered he crowbar, watching his own blood splatter. The way Ben grinded on him, the hickeys, the touching. The way he looked at him, the way he spoke to him, it was horrible. Suddenly his breathing was about if control, where was Nick, what happened after he passed out, what jail were the boys at, were they in jail. What was he going to do, would he have to go to court, how long would he stay in the hospital for?

He put his hand up to his heart, oh god, he couldn't breath. Was he having a panic attack, he tried to control his breathing, it wasn't working. Oh yes he was having a panic attack, at the worst time ever. He looked at the doctor for help, the doctor looked down at him, sighing, he almost looked annoyed.
"Calm down." He simply said, Charlie wanted to just stare at him in shock, but he was busy trying to breathe. What kind of doctor says that? Obviously it didn't help, his breathing got worse and worse, he clawed at the bedsheets. The doctor took on more look at him, and pressed the help button to get an extra nurse. And quickly a nurse rushed in, looking at him and leaning down to his bed, where he was sweating and his chest was heaving up and down.

"Okay okay, Charlie right? Your going to look at me okay, yes, just like that. Now, breath in, breath out, think about someone you love, your going to be fine. Your stable now, all patched up by what I can see, so your not going to let a silly panic attack knock you down, okay?" She had a calming voice, it was kind and sweet, like she actually cared. Before long Charlie was breathing normally again, he was catching his breath still, but he was calmed down,
"That's good, okay, see? You're okay, you're fine. Okay, call me if you need anything else okay Charlie? The buttons right there." She pointed to the large blue bottom next to him, with red text over it that said, 'Emergency call.'

Charlie nodded and the nurse left the room, soon after the doctor started speaking,
"Well I suggest you get some more sleep, when you get up again visitors will be open, are you okay with that?" The doctor asked, his pen hovering over the clipboard. Charlie nodded violently, he wanted nothing more than to see Nick, have him hold him, just see him again, hear his warming laugh. And all of his other friends were probably worried sick, they have been waiting for him to wake up for like, how long, probably around a day he'd guess.

He nodded at the doctor, laying back down with a struggle, and turning around to a comfortable position, he couldn't move his body around much though, especially anywhere below his chest, it was all wrapped up and strapped so that he didn't hurt the already broken area. The doctor nodded once more, writing something quickly once more on the clipboard and walking out of the ward,
"And scars are nothing to be ashamed of Charles." He said, exiting the room without looking back. Charlie looked down at his arms, oh, he knew then. He sighed, maybe he shouldn't be ashamed of his scars, but it was a hard thing to do when he had been so closed off about the subject for so long.

Anyways, there wasn't time to think about that. He just wanted to see Nick tommorow, and if he slept now the time would go by quicker, and he could get to Nick quicker. He could see the people he loved, and tell them he was okay.