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lothinielflowermaiden) wrote2012-06-04 06:29 am
The Long Road Chapter 24
Author's notes: This chapter is a little shorter than usual, but this was where it wanted to be divided. See previous chapters for warnings.
Chapter Twenty-four
By the end of the first day after the new restrictions had been imposed, the rest of family had come up with a schedule that allowed them to sure that at least one of them was always with Norway. They only left when the hospital staff asked them to, and then, whoever's turn it was to be in the room, would go back in a soon as they were allowed. None of them wanted to be away from Norway, as they were all afraid of losing him, and they knew from what the doctor had told them, that that was a very real possibility.
As far as they could tell, there had still been no change in Norway's condition, but after a couple of days the doctor told them that Norway's condition had stabilized, although there was still no real improvement. A couple of days later, the doctor claimed that there was some improvement, but the rest of the family could not see any sign of that improvement—all they saw was that Norway still had not woken up, and that all of the machines were still in the room. It was hard for all of them to see him like this—just the condition that he was in acted as a constant reminder of the fact that they could still lose him.
It had been almost two weeks now, and the rest of the family was still worried that Norway might never wake up. They continued to take turns staying in the hospital room with him and talking to him, but the lack of response seemed more discouraging with every day that passed. Still, they held onto the hope that Norway would be alright, and tried to remember that the doctor had told them his condition was improving.
For a long while after the room had faded, there was nothing but darkness. Eventually, though, sound began to return. At first, there was nothing distinct, but eventually Norway was able to recognize the voices of his family. Sometime after that, he began to be able to understand what they were saying, and he knew that what his mother had told him was true—his family had stayed with him and they were waiting for him to wake up.
Sensation was the next thing to return. Gradually, he began to be able to feel the bed that was lying in. And sometime after that, he felt a pressure on his hand, and realized that someone must he holding his hand. He tried to move his own hand to return the gesture, but was not sure if he succeeded. But it was with that attempt that full awareness began to return to him.
Despite the fact that he had been asleep for some time, Norway still felt completely exhausted. It was several minutes before he found the energy to try to open his eyes and actually doing so took a couple of attempts.
It took a little while for his surroundings to register, although he had known from comments in the dream that he was in a hospital. If he had not known that before, he would have guessed from the equipment he could see once he was able to take in his surroundings. He was not surprised to discover that Denmark was the one holding his hand—what he was surprised by was the way that discovery made him feel.
"Nor? Are you awake?"
It took a couple of moments for Norway to be able to speak, and when he did, his voice was raspy from disuse. "That's a stupid question." The fact that he was able to answer meant that he was obviously awake. He was unable to say anymore before he was pulled into an embrace. Although part of him wanted to struggle to be released, another part of him felt comforted by the embrace. He tried to convince himself that he was only enjoying it because he was tired though—he usually hated being touched when he hadn't been expecting it. It was only once he was released from the embrace that Norway saw the other person in the room.
"Don't scare us like that again, bróðir," Iceland said, as he approached the bed. He remained a short distance away, but still closer than he would have come a few months ago.
Norway was not really surprised that it was these two members of his family that were in the room with him. He remembered that they had been the ones to call him, and stop him from going through the door—he had felt that call more than he had actually heard it, but he had still known.
Still, though, on some level, he had been afraid that he would be alone when he woke up. Despite having been told that his family was waiting for him, and having heard their voices as awareness had returned, he had still been afraid that they would not be there when he actually woke up.
He did not even know how long he had been asleep for, as he had never had any sense of actual time passing during the dream. He now suspected though, it had been longer than he had believed it to have been. At least, Norway assumed that was the reason for the way they had reacted to seeing that he was awake—despite knowing what Scandia had been trying to do, he had no idea just how close he had really come to dying.
A few moments later, the doctor entered the room, apparently having been alerted by some change in the monitors.
"It's good to see you awake again, Haldor," he said, as he entered the room. "A lot of people have been very worried about you."
Shortly after entering the room, the doctor had made Denmark and Iceland leave so he could examine Norway. Although neither of them had really wanted to leave the room, they at least had the knowledge that Norway was awake.
By the time the doctor came in search of the rest of the family, all four of the family members were in the waiting area, and Sweden and Finland had been told that Norway had woken up.
As relieved as they all were that Norway was awake, they were still worried that he might not be out of danger. There was still the risk of complications from the malnourishment after all, and the fact that there was no guarantee that situation was going to improve. None of them felt like they could fully be relieved until the doctor had told them that Norway would be alright.
So, when the doctor did come out to get them, and led them to the room where all of the conversations took place, they were still apprehensive about what they might be about to be told. And, the doctor wasted no time before filling them in the latest information about Norway's condition.
"Haldor is still very weak, and he's a little disoriented from having lost two weeks, but other than that there seem to be no serious side effects from the length of time he was unconscious. Due the length of time he has been bedridden, he will need some physical therapy, and it might take him some time to get his strength back, but that is nothing he won't recover from. I am still concerned about the malnutrition, and he is going to be kept on the feeding tube for time being—to make sure that he doesn't lose any more weight. Tomorrow morning, once he is a little less disoriented, a therapist will meet with him and see if we can get him to stop this behavior. There does seem to be some improvement to his emotional state, but I am not entirely sure if it will last. And before you ask, you can see him, but you will all need to leave when visiting hours are over."
"Have his chances of surviving increased at all?" It was a difficult question, but it still needed to be asked. After all, they had all known before this that Norway might not survive past the end of the summer.
"If he stops refusing to eat, he has a good chance at survival," the doctor said. "Although he is starting to have some of complications I mentioned before, he is still at the point where they are reversible. The fact that we had to put him on a feeding tube while he was unconscious may have helped to save him in the end. But it is too soon to say anything for sure—it all depends on whether or not Haldor is willing to accept help this time."
This was the first they had all been allowed to see Norway since that awful night when he had almost died. Given that association, they were at least glad to see that he was awake, even if he wasn't really recovered.
The number of the machines in the room had decreased, although several of the monitors still remained. And the feeding tube, but they had at least been warned that was being left for the time being.
From what they could see, Norway's condition was much the same as it had been in the days leading up to that morning when they had not been able to wake him up. He was still noticeably underweight, in fact, that was more noticeable now, as he had lost even more during the two weeks he had been unconscious. And, despite the fact that he had been asleep for so long, he still looked tired. But his eyes were open, and he seemed aware of their presence.
For several moments, no one said anything, as the right thing to say in this situation was not easily apparent. There had been too many wrong things said in the past few months.
"We've all been so worried about you, Norja," Finland said, after the silence had lasted long enough to begin to feel slightly uncomfortable. "We were afraid you might never wake up." He did not say anything about how they had also been worried that Norway might not even survive. No one in the family liked having to be reminded of how close Norway had come to dying.
"Father said that you wouldn't care," Norway said after a few moments. His voice was still a little hoarse, but stronger than it had been when he had first woken up. "He said everyone would be glad if I didn't wake up."
That was enough to confirm what the rest of the family had suspected about what had happened—at least as far as confirming that Scandia had been behind it. They were surprised, though, that Norway had actually spoken about the dreams, as he had only done so before after being pressured into it. And even then, he had never before said anything in front of all the rest of the family. At least, nothing that they had paid attention to—there were things that had hinted at the dreams when they looked back at earlier conversations.
"We've been spending as much time with you as the staff would allow us to. If you hadn't woken up, we would have kept waiting, as long as there was some hope. And if you hadn't survived, none of us would have been able to forgive ourselves for not having been able to help you. And we all would have missed you—you are part of our family, and none of us can bear the thought of losing you. We've all been so worried about you, ever since that incident last summer."
"She said that you were waiting," Norway said. "I wasn't sure if I could believe her, though. I wanted to, but it was hard to ignore what father kept saying."
The rest of all the family wondered who Norway was referring to, but they did not want to try to force him to talk about something he might not be ready to talk about, and even though he was talking about the dream, they did not want to risk asking for details that he wasn't voluntarily giving. They were all a little afraid that if they pushed him to talk, then he might withdraw from them again.
And so, they moved the conversation to safer topics until they were forced to leave at the end of visiting hours. They all promised that they would be back the next day, as they wanted to make it clear to Norway that they weren't going to abandon him this time, the way they had been forced to back in January.
Over the next few days, nothing was said about what had happened in the dream. The other members of the family would occasionally get hints that something had, but Norway had yet to tell them any more than he had the first day after he woke up. They could tell that although he seemed to be putting some effort into acting as much like he usually did as possible, there was still something bothering him that he was refusing to talk about. At the same time, though, they somehow got the impression that he had found some kind of peace to relieve the torment he had experienced since Scandia's visit a year before. Although there were still times when he would flinch if he thought someone was going to touch his shoulder, or when a haunted looked when appear in his eyes, those times were a little less common than they had been. The only question was if that was because he was trying to suppress whatever he was feeling, or if it really was some sign of improvement.
They continued to visit him every day during visiting hours. Although they were a little worried over how slowly his condition was approving, they were relieved to see that at least there was some improvement. After the first couple of days, the feeding tube had been removed, and as far as the rest of the family knew, Norway had actually started eating enough for the first time in several months. He was still far too thin, and he was still not quite up to eating a normal amount of food—in fact, he was actually on a very restricted diet as to the kinds of foods he was allowed to eat—but he was no longer refusing to eat anything the way he had been doing at one point.
They knew that Norway was also receiving physical therapy, to help him recover from the length of them he had been bedridden—two weeks while he was unconscious, plus much of the time for a few weeks leading up to that. The therapy seemed to be progressing incredibly slowly from what they could see, though, as it was almost a week before Norway was even able to sit up for any length of time. When they had mentioned those concerns to the doctor, they had been told it was nothing to worry about—the recovery was only taking a little longer than it ordinarily would because of the condition Norway had already been in.
The doctor had also told them that Norway would probably be kept in the hospital at least until the end of July, if not the beginning of August. According to what they had been told, the team that was involved in Norway's care wanted to make sure that he was kept under close observation until he had gained back some of the weight he had lost, and they could be as sure as possible that he wouldn't stop eating again. There was also some concern about making sure that he was able to walk, at least with help, before he was sent home—and considering he was just reaching the point where he was able to get out of bed to sit in a chair for a short length of time, that might take a while.
By the end of July, Norway was able to walk short distances, as long as he had some help, and although he had not gained back enough weight to make any noticeable difference, he was no longer on a restricted diet like he had been at first. At the point, that doctor told the other Nordics that Norway would be allowed to go home in a couple days, although he would continue to need physical therapy, as well as frequent check-ups for a while, just to make sure that his recovery continued.
It was at that point, that the other members of the family, called someone to report that none of them would be at August's world meeting. Although, the situation was not as grave as it had been in a month ago, they did not want Norway to think they were abandoning him. And anyway, when they weren't at the hospital, they were busy getting the house set up for when Norway would be allowed to leave the hospital and come home with them.
Author's notes:
When I first started planning this story, before I had any idea of how long it would be, I planned for it to have two distinct story arcs. (This was before it go so long that I realized it would need to be divided into chapters instead.) The first arc was called "Setback" and has just ended. The second arc, which would have been called "Healing" will begin in the next chapter. That is why I ended this chapter where I did, because we are about to switch to the next part of the story.
If anyone's wondering, Norway does still remember all of the memories that he recovered at the end of the dream, he is just trying to keep them buried still, until there is no risk that humans will overhear anything he might say about them. (No one told him that most of the humans involved in helping him know most of the story now anyway.) When he starts feeling overwhelmed by the bad memories, he focuses on remembering the things his mother said to him. In the next chapter, he is going to start talking to the other Nordics about these memories, as well as telling them some of what happened in the dream.
(And if anyone can guess by the title of the next story arc, we have reached the turning point—or I guess you could call it the bend in the road, if you wanted to play on the story title.)
I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I was really excited when this story got it's fiftieth review (and then one more after that).
This time, the next update might not be up until closer to July. I'm working on an original novel this summer, and have a wordcount goal each day with that. However, so far, I've always had time to work on this in the evenings, so I might be able to get the next chapter up before the end of the month. I just don't want to commit to a date right now—considering that I was lucky to get this chapter out on the date I was aiming for.
Please review, I always like to know what people think.