Sleeping Dogs

Chapter 13: Falling to Pieces

"I have a couple of questions to ask you, if that's alright?" She doesn't say anything and he continues, placing her chart in the compartment next to her bed. "Have you tried speaking yet?"

Caroline clenches her jaw before opening her mouth slowly, tasting the word in her mouth before she tests her voice. "No." It's rough but understandable.

Doctor Cullen nods. "I won't try to make you speak too much then. Can you tell me anything about yourself? Your name, age, the current president?"

She swallows slowly, her nose scrunches as she tries to soothe her sore throat, the twitching of skin around her nose bringing tears to her eyes. "Caroline Talltree-Young," she says in a shaking voice. "19," she doesn't speak in full sentences, in fact she thinks it may be too painful to try. "Obama."

Carlisle smiles reassuringly. "You're doing good, Caroline. Take your time." He nods to the tall, russet man besides her bed. "Do you know his name?"

Caroline turns to look at him and her heart clenches when she sees the traces of panic in his eyes. He's afraid she forgot him. She tries to smile at him even as her mind goes back to their last night together and a different kind of pain builds in her chest. "Jacob Black," she says and his face relaxes and he beams at her. She can't help but give a toothy grin back to him.

"Very good, Caroline." The doctor turns to her aunt who is now holding her charts. "She is responsive, answering questions and coherent. No major memory loss." Sue scribbles down what he is saying to her. When he looks back at her, he has a small frown on his face and he looks like he doesn't want to ask the next question. "Now Caroline, can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

She is floored by repressed memories. She didn't remember anything until he asked and she almost wishes he didn't. Her heart rate skyrockets, the monitor beeping aggressively besides her does nothing to calm her. Jake's hand is wrapped around hers and she squeezes his hand until she is sure her knuckles are white and she shakes from the effort. How could she forget?

She whips her head to her aunt, immediately eliciting a pounding in her skull that causes her to flinch. "Charles?" The emotion in her voice scares herself.

"He's fine, Care." Sue moves to stand besides her and takes her free hand. The stark contrast in temperatures shocks her. "Charles is at home waiting for you." Her runs her other hand up and down her arm carefully, trying not to cause her any more pain than she is already in.

"Ranger Daniels?"

Jake and her aunt share a look but another nurse comes in before she can answer and Caroline suspects the worst.

The next hour is a blur as she goes over the memories again and again. People come in and out, nurses check her charts and vitals, Dr Cullen asks her more questions but her throat hurts now and she doesn't want to talk anymore.

She's afraid if she says too much she'll sound crazy.

Jake tries to get her to sleep but she can't close her eyes. When she does she sees Ranger Daniels and the other man across the river. She sees a large beast come out and rip into one of them. The darkness is suffocating and she forgets she isn't underwater. She forgets she can breathe.

The discharge papers are filled out and she is cleared to go home. A couple of nurses come in to help transfer her into a wheelchair but Jake picks her up from the bed easily and wheels her out of the hospital.

She is numb the entire drive home. Her Aunt Sue and Charlie are in the front, and Jake is sitting with her in the back, but even with his elevated heat, she can't stop shivering. No one talks on the way home but for Jake whispering to her to take another sip of water, just one more whenever she stops drinking.