While I Was Away(35)

Adele had always been a happy person, always smiling, always talking. Now, though, she was withdrawn and quiet. Confused, and even seemed upset a great deal of the time. She scared easily. She seemed unsure of her surroundings. She recognized where she was and everyone around her, but there was definitely something ... different about her.

The doctors assured everyone that it was totally normal. What did they expect, she'd hop out of bed and dance a jig? They should be happy she could even speak. As it was, she had to go through a lot of physical therapy – after laying down for four months, walking wasn't as easy for her as it used to be, not to mention her broken tibia was still tender.

Everyone took turns visiting her, not wanting to overwhelm her all the time by coming in a big group. That afternoon was Ocean's time, and he was hurrying to bring her a coffee. By the time he got to her new room, though, the drink was cold. He frowned as he walked through the door.

“Sorry, I did it again, I went to your old ...”

His voice trailed off when he lifted his head and saw her. She was looking out the window to her right and didn't seem to be aware of his presence. She was crying. Not sobbing, no heaving breaths or loud moans, or anything. Just silence and stoicism as tears trickled over her cheeks.

“It's raining,” she whispered.

Ocean glanced out the window. It didn't rain a lot in L.A., but it wasn't exactly unheard of. Everything outside looked gray, the buildings distorted by the water running down the glass. He took a deep breath and moved to her bed.

“How you feeling today?” he asked in a gentle voice. She laughed and started wiping at her face.

“Super. Peachy keen. Is that for me?”

He handed over the tall paper cup and she took a healthy swig from it.

“Any news from the doctors?”

“Same as always.”

“Well ... I guess no news is good news.”

They were silent for a while after that – Ocean sipped at his coffee while Adele picked at the lip of her cup. The rain finally stopped outside, and one lonely ray of sunshine broke through the clouds. He watched her as she took several deep breaths, obviously gearing up to say something.

“They're bringing a psychiatrist tomorrow.”

“Is that why you were crying?”

She finally looked up, glaring as she opened her mouth to bark at him, “No. I'm crying because I don't want to be here.”

Ah. Hence the need for the psychiatrist.

Not the dream again. Please. I can't handle it today.

“Maybe he'll be able to fix you,” Ocean suggested.

“I'm not broken, I don't need to be 'fixed',” she snapped.

“Adele,” he sighed, leaning forward. “We don't know anything right now. They just want to make sure every part of you is okay – from your toes to your brain. You can tell him about ... about your dream, and maybe he'll have some insight.”

Her coffee cup flew past his head and smacked into the wall behind him.

“It was not just a dream!” she shouted. “I remember it better than I remember anything else. Better than school, better than my job, better than -”

She cut herself off, and Ocean was glad, because if she had said “better than you”, he didn't think he would've handled it very well.

The Dream, that's what they'd all taken to calling her wild story. He didn't know what else to call it – what other word was there for something a person made up while they were sleeping?

During her first examinations after waking up, Adele had been asked repeatedly if she could remember what had happened to her, and if she knew how long she'd been asleep for; Ocean had been in the room the first time she'd been asked. For the first question, she'd told them she couldn't remember what had happened to put her in the hospital – she only knew what had been told to her. Then she'd thought about the second question for a long time before finally throwing out a guess.

“Two weeks? Maybe three? That feels about right.”

“Ms. Reins, you've been unconscious for nearly four months.”

“Huh. Four months. My second guess was gonna be 'forever', so at least I was close.”

And that's when they'd all realized something was wrong with Adele. When the doctor had asked her to clarify her statement, she'd told them a fantastical story. Explained how she'd been in another world. A place where rail car diners actually moved on train tracks, and people could change color, and the ocean never ended.

She sounds fucking insane.

But she wasn't. In fact, whenever she talked about her dream, that's when she became the most animated. Those were the times when Ocean felt like he was seeing the old Adele again. She really thought all those crazy things had happened to her while she'd been asleep, and she grew angry with her family when they didn't believe her.

“It's not that I don't believe you,” Ocean lowered his voice. She looked away from him, her stare returning to the window. “I just ... I can't understand, I guess. I believe you think you were there, I believe that you believe that, okay?”

Adele took a deep breath and closed her eyes. He hated that – he'd gone so long without seeing them open, it always scared him a little. She sat there for a moment, holding completely still, then she slowly opened her eyes again.