The Wave of the Stars

Chapter Two // Obviously Bad News

Incessant beeping filled empty white space when Kanoa Esca woke up. Her eyes twitched in response to the noise, the painful noise which made her head buzz and her ears wiggle and her skin crawl and she waited for somebody to turn it off. She never set alarms for the morning--the ocean woke her up. It must be Brennan's. It had to be Brennan's. Despite her inward turmoil, the beeping wouldn't shut up and kept steady on until she couldn't think about anything but turning it off. Kanoa groaned and reached a hand out towards the source, waving frantically in search of a button or something she could grab a hold of and throw across the room. If Brennan wasn't going to--

"She's awake!" Footsteps slapped hard ground close to her bed and Kanoa finally opened her eyes. Why would--

Brennan's consuming, dark eyes were staring at her, a look of relief? On his face.

She took in the flowers on an industrial white dresser and the solid, thick white blankets wrapped securely around her body and the muted television mounted in the corner of the room next to the ceiling and she became aware of the various contraptions attached to her body, on her fingers, on her chest, in her arms, and the nurse standing next to Brennan, a clipboard firmly in her lavender-gloved hands.

Kanoa smacked her lips, grimacing at the disgusting, stale taste in her mouth, ready to tell somebody off about something but she couldn't talk when her throat was so dry and her breath was rancid. When was the last time she had brushed her teeth? She ran her tongue over them, and she desperately wanted a sip of water.

Brennan unscrewed his water bottle and lifted it to her face. Bless him, he always knew what she needed. Kanoa lifted her limbs, heavy as they were, and snatched it in slow motion, giving him a semi-deserved scowl which she hoped said what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here-?, and gulped down the liquid, her insides already bloating with water-fullness.

The nurse lowered her clipboard and reached a hand out towards Kanoa, grabbing the end of the water bottle, and Kanoa yanked it closer to her, spilling some of the precious liquid over the white blanket, drenching it. The nurse remained passive but for the quick twitch of her eyebrows. "Careful there--take small sips only. We don't want you to excite your system too much."

After another ill-advised gulp, Kanoa lowered the water bottle, it sloshed and remained steady at just below the halfway point, and she held it out to Brennan. The water was just enough to lubricate her throat, but the staleness remained in the nooks and crannies of her mouth, sticking around like an unwelcome old friend. "What am I doing here?" She asked Brennan, looked only at Brennan, raised her tired eyebrows at Brennan, not wanting to excite the stern nurse.

The nurse, her name tag read Blythe, bit her lip and looked to Brennan, pleading for him to tell Kanoa. That in itself wasn't good news. Now she wanted anybody but her husband to tell her what she was doing here in this hospital room. Nurse Blythe?

He sat on the edge of her bed and grabbed her hand, not relinquishing when she squirmed, and her arms were too heavy to fight him for too long. His smooth face wrinkled at his broad forehead, his wide chin, and his eyes closed and his nose blew out a long stream of air. He'd aged. When had this happened? His eyes remained closed and he rubbed her hands with one of his. "Oa, you were in an accident." His voice, ever quiet, ever strong, wavered just a bit.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Obviously. Tell me something I don't know, Bren. What kind of accident was I in?"

He gripped her hand tighter, then looked back at her. "A surfing accident."

"You're kidding, right? The last time I seriously injured myself on the water was when I was nine. And you're telling me that this time I've injured myself so seriously to the point where I'm waking up in a hospital? You're hiding something from me." Surely it couldn't be all that bad, she reassured herself, looking to him looking to Nurse Blythe, but the trepidation in their expressions sent skittering through her heart. Brennan's thumb continued massaging the back of Kanoa's hands and she swallowed the lump in her throat. There had to be more. He wouldn't be acting like this if there wasn't more. But, suddenly, in this moment, Kanoa didn't want to know everything. She just wanted to be with Brennan. She didn't care if she was mad at him and she didn't care if it made her look too vulnerable to want to be with her husband for a few moments. She needed it. She looked up at the nurse, who was still biting her lip and looked a little bored and a little frightened. Summoning up her sea-Lord voice which could boom over the pounding of the waves, "Would you give us a few minutes alone, please?" It was a command rather than a request.