Trials, Traits and Truth

Nurse Patton

  TW: (Spoiler alert) Virgil's eating and vomiting is discussed, and Virgil starts having a Panic Attack at the very end.  

Virgil hazily lifted his head, feeling weightless yet heavy.

It was pitch black...but Virgil felt sure - for whatever reason - that he was not in the back of the mind.

"Tristan?" Virgil meant to sound confident, but the break in his voice said otherwise.

Nothing happened...for a long time. Virgil just...floated...in complete...nothingness...

"I would like to leave." Virgil burst out, not able to take the deafening silence. He was so nervous he thought he might be sick...

He knew he was shaking.

The silence seemed to thicken into something impossibly tangible, and enveloped the squirming Virgil. It invaded his lungs, wrapped around him, choked him so he couldn't even cry out...

It was cold...

Virgil was so so cold...

So cold...

He was...

He was waking up.

Virgil grunted and Patton heaved a huge sigh of relief, continuing his act of dabbing the youngers' forehead with a wet flannel.

"He's waking up." Patton mumbled, presumably to Logan who was reading in Pattons' armchair. Logan nodded and swapped his book for the open journal on the coffee table. He checked his watch, then noted the time on the page.

The two of them had turned the living room into a makeshift sick bay - with Roman asleep on the couch and Virgil lying on top of two mattresses stacked on the floor. They had pushed all the furniture to the walls in order to make enough room, and had buried the two patients in blankets. The coffee table in between Virgil and Logan held towels, bottles of water, buckets, disinfectant, bandages, and just about anything else a temporary hospital wing for two sides could need.

Patton knelt in the space they had left between the couch and the mattresses, tending and fussing to Roman and Virgil for hours. Anything to ignore his own confusion and fatigue.

Virgil groaned, and sluggishly swiped Patton's helping hand away. Wincing, Virgil opened his eyes and tried to sit up.

"Woah there, easy there tiger." Patton signaled to Logan to get more pillows to prop Virgil up. Virgil tried to complain but felt suddenly dizzy again, and grudgingly accepted the help.

It was dark, the only light coming from a dim lamp in the corner beside Patton's armchair.

"How long - "

"Shhh, don't worry about that noe." Patton hesitated, but leant over and lightly stroked Virgil's arm. Virgil flinched away from the touch, but halted himself with a sigh.

"You okay buddy?" Tristan was hesitant and sounded...scared. Virgil felt immense relief wash over him. For a moment there...not being able to talk to Tristan in his dream...he had begun to think the worst.

"I'm okay buddy." Virgil muttered, closing his eyes again and relaxing into the new set of pillows. His head felt incredibly foggy and there was a distinct ringing in his ears. Even under the mountain of blankets on top of him, he felt shivery.

Logan and Patton shared a look, but Patton held out his hand as Logan opened his mouth.

"Virgil, it's Patton. You're safe." He spoke low, trying not to wake the slumbering Prince behind him. He felt Virgil stiffen under his hand.