A Mockingbird In The Crows Nest

A Steady Beep Of A Heart Monitor

"I know.." Charon murmured; reaching out like he's going to touch him. Tommy flinched away and he pulled his hand away instantly. "I know you're thirsty..But we need to be careful..You were out for 3 days. We don't want to flood your system and make you sick all over again." He chuckled. "Even if the potion is diluted."

Tommy swallowed thickly and nodded; turning his head so he didn't have to look at the hero. He just..He looks so kind. So warm and open- and it's too confusing to try and dissect right now. His head hurts too much and he's definitely not awake enough to think about the possible motives Charon might have for looking at him like that. For looking at him like he's something precious.

Instead, he glanced around the small hospital room with half-interest. There's a window on the wall behind Charon, and a door with a clipboard hanging on the wall on the opposite wall. There's an old-looking tv hanging up in a corner of the room; looking like no one's used it in decades if the thick layer of dust over the buttons and on the screen were anything to go by. Directly beside his bed was a small table with purple and yellow flowers sitting in a vase. There was a "Get Well Soon!" card sitting beside it with a chocolate bar, and an alarm clock showing the time was well into the afternoon.

Beside the table was a heart monitor covered in wires and a bag with clear liquid hanging off of it. The bag had tubes hooked up to it, and Tommy traced them down to his wrist. He blinks long and slow at the crisp, clean bandages covering his hands, and flexes his fingers weakly. He can see them move, but he still can't feel them.

He decides not to think about it.

There's a couple wires trailing from the monitor as well, and it leads to his chest. Weakly, Tommy raises his arm to tug the hospital gown out a bit so he could see where it went.

He sees thick, padded bandages wrapped under his armpits and strapped across his chest in an odd pattern- but the wires are attached to some cold, clear, sticky patch that's attached to his chest above his heart.

"That's the heart monitor." Charon explained when Tommy frowned at it. "They couldn't put it on your finger without risking the burns getting worse, so they put it on your chest."

"Burns..?" Tommy frowned. How did his hands get burned? He doesn't remember anything like that happening..

"We're um..We're not sure how your hands got that severely burned- but they were pretty bad..It wasn't from the fire, but we're not sure what it could be from." He paused, and glanced over at Tommy. "Do you have any idea what might've happened?"

He shook his head. "No..No, I don't."

Charon's wings drooped a bit but he still smiled. "That's alright. Just..Thought I'd ask."

Tommy hummed in acknowledgement, letting go of the hospital gown and letting his hand fall back to the blankets. He furrowed his eyebrows at the far wall, trying to think. He doesn't really remember what happened, now that he thinks about it. He can remember falling. And heat. A lot of heat. And an overwhelming sense of guilt..But what happened?