Ray of Hope Part 2
Sally gave a warm smile as her eyes met the intense cobalt that turned in her direction when she entered the room. The young man moved slowly to sit up in his propped bed as the braided doctor approached. "Good morning," she greeted in a friendly voice.
Licking his dry lips, the injured young man's voice rasped out, "W-where?" He winced in pain at the rawness in his throat in attempting to speak.
"Easy," Sally soothed with a gentle hand on his shoulder. As she turned to the small table beside the bed, she poured a glass of water and stated, "My name is Sally Po." Her smile grew when she turned to offer the glass. "Doctor Sally officially, but I prefer just Sally." With a grateful nod, the patient accepted the water with his good left hand to drink eagerly.
When he finished his drink, the braided doctor poured another cupful and took a seat beside the hospital bed. Taking much slower sips, the young man spoke quietly, "Thank you." He handed the cup back when he had emptied it again.
Folding her legs and placing her hands over her knee, Sally grinned, "This is Saint Peter's Hospital. You were sailing along the island, here, several miles off the Maryland coast. We're a pretty insignificant, tiny place that is not even charted." Raising an eyebrow, she ginned, "But, somehow, you managed to find us."
The confusion in the cobalt eyes watching her intently only clouded over in more confusion. Biting her lip in concern and hoping that her theory was wrong, the braided nurse asked, "Do you remember anything leading up to your crash?"
With a small, incoherent sound, the unruly-haired patient frowned deeply and breathed, "I... I don't remember anything."
* * * * * *
At the sound of the door opening, Duo's braided head lifted. Quickly rising from the seat in the hallway, he ran up to Sally as she stepped out. In finding the deep frown on her face and sagged shoulders, the lighthouse keeper faltered in his last steps and startling the young doctor when he stopped just before her unannounced. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly with a concerned frown of his own.
The braided doctor sighed, "Amnesia. It was one of the many symptoms that I had feared he would wake with. And even then, I had hoped that if it did arise, the memory loss would be minimal." Meeting her friend's widening violet eyes, she stated, "While the loss is not total, he lost every memory of himself, or where he's from."
Duo swallowed hard and lowered his head. It was imaginable to him what it would be like to suffer such a thing. But for the young man that he found, not only had he lost his memories, but he was in a place where no one knew him to try to help. "How is he holding up?" he finally found his voice to ask.
"He's closed himself off for the time being," Sally answered, closing her eyes. "It's quite common for patients to react that way upon learning that they lost all things familiar to them, waking to a blank slate." The doctor's eyes opened to turn to the closed door as she said, "But he did mention that he wanted to meet you."
At that, Duo's head shot up with shock-widened eyes. "You told him about me?" he nearly yelled. His voice echoing down the hall, the braided young man blushed, "Sorry. But, you really didn't have to say anything about what happened."
Raising an eyebrow, Sally smirked, "You saved his life and he deserves to know that. Besides when I explained the details of the accident and his injuries, I doubt that he would be naive enough to think that he somehow managed to get himself to the hospital in his condition." Years of knowing her good friend allowed her to sense the lighthouse keeper's unease for being recognized for his good deed.
Slowly, the braided doctor placed a gentle hand on the young man's shoulder and squeezed it. When worried violet looked up at her, Sally smiled sadly, "Duo, behind that door is a very frightened young man. If we're going to help him, he needs to know that he can trust us, and he needs a friend more than anything right now to get him through this."
Duo swallowed hard and breathed, "I don't know if I'm the right person for the job. You know that I've lived alone for years now. Aside from the occasional visits I make with you and the others, I'm not the most social of people."
Her smile warming, Sally replied, "You're the only person I know who could make friends with a pack of wild lions." Gesturing to the patient's room, she added, "For all we know, we may never find anyone who knows him. Where will that leave him, then?"
Again, Duo felt his throat constricting. In the end, his friend was right in there not being many options for the young man he found. Of anyone on the island, he realized that he was probably the only person who could relate to some of the things that he was facing. With determination on his face, he nodded firmly, "Alright. I'll try."
Squeezing his shoulder again, Sally sighed in relief, "Thank you. He's been through a lot, so I do not imaging him to stay awake much longer. I am going to contact Wufei to see how the search for anyone who might know our visitor from the mainland is going."
The braided lighthouse keeper nodded as his ex-girlfriend was just about to walk off. "Did you decide on a name for him?" he inquired quietly, his eyes staring at the closed door.
Sally paused in her departure to ace him and answered, "That was another thing that I was going to take care of before I returned." Her head tilted to the side a bit as she asked, "Why do you ask?"
* * * * * *
With a light rasp of his knuckles on the door, Duo peeked his braided head into the room. Heavy-lidded cobalt eyes opened fully at the sound and turned to the entrance. "Uh... Hi," the lighthouse keeper grinned nervously as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
The injured young man did his best to sit up a bit, that piercing gaze locked on his visitor. "You must be Duo," he spoke at last, his voice little more than a whisper. "Sally told me I would know you by the braid."
Laughing nervously, the American sat beside the bed, nodding, "Yea, that's me, alright. It's good to see you awake. Holding a one-sided conversation is pretty challenging after a while." His violet eyes widened in his slip. It wasn't his intention to let on to how he had paid visits during the day. Silently, he prayed that the patient hadn't caught on.
"So it was you that I kept hearing," the young man whispered, showing a flash of regret for uttering that statement. Before the lighthouse keeper could respond, he said quickly, "Thank you. Sally told me you're the one who saved my life." His frown deepened as he turned his head away, sighing, "If you can consider this a life."
Duo blinked in surprise. Forcing a reassuring smile, he replied sincerely, "Well, for whatever it's worth, you're welcome." He watched as the unruly-haired Asian fought to keep his eyes open. "You should get some rest," he urged softly. "I'll be here when you wake up."
At last, the patient's cobalt eyes drifted closed as he sunk into the bed with a deep sigh. Duo lied back in his seat, running a hand through his bangs as he frowned to himself, "What are we going to do with you?"
* * * * * *
"Heero Yuy."
Looking up, the patient's cobalt eyes betrayed a glimmer of interest. Duo tilted his head a bit and asked, "Do you like it? We could always come up with another name for you." Standing beside the American at the foot of the bed, Sally waited with her hands folded behind her back in patient observance.
It had been two days now since the stranger had woken from his coma. Enough time to give him a chance to cope with his condition before trying out a name for him, Sally and Duo had hoped. The mysterious young man had been quite detached from everything going on around him, something that the young doctor was something that could be expected in the coping process.
Over the course of those two days, the braided lighthouse keeper kept up with his daily visits, keeping up one-sided conversations. While he never responded much to what the American had to say, opting to look out the bedroom window instead, the injured sailor never ordered him to stop talking.
Finally, the patient answered, "It will do for a name."
In the acceptance, a bright smile spread on Duo's face as he cheered, "Great! So, Heero Yuy it is!" The Asian's cobalt eyes turned to the braided doctor to be silently surprised to find a hint of pain at the announcement that she quickly covered. Taking a pen in hand, she wrote down some notes in the file that she held.
Walking to the bed, Sally took one of the two chairs beside it, "Now, Heero, we need to discuss living arrangements for you. Tomorrow, I will be able to remove the stitching from your injuries and if all has healed well, then there would be no reason for me to keep you here to be monitored."
As she gestured with her head towards the braided lighthouse keeper nervously shifting his weight on his feet, the doctor announced, "Duo had offered to have you stay at his lighthouse lodge with him, if you would feel more comfortable having staying with a familiar face around."
"It's not a very large place," Duo shrugged. "But it's comfortable," he commented with a bite of his bottom lip. Heero regarded him for a moment in consideration of the offer. His expression and piercing eyes were difficult to read as he remained silent. Finally, he gave a small nod to the young woman beside him.
Relief washed over the braided doctor's face as she smiled, "Good. I'll go and update your records." With that, she rose from her seat with a glance to the lighthouse keeper before stepping out of the room.
Looking out of the window to gage where the sun was, Duo realized it was only a couple hours before sunset. Turning to face the injured young man, he grinned, "Well, I better get going. I have some things to take care of before dark." Heero's head just turned to gaze out the large window without a word.
Duo tugged uncomfortably at his black T-shirt's collar and continued, "I'll pick up some clothes for you before I stop over tomorrow." His smiled returned a bit, "I'm sure that you wouldn't want to face the world wearing a hospital gown."
There was no further response from the young man as he contented himself with staring out to the small city below the bank of hills that the hospital rested on. "Right," Duo frowned at last. With a wave, he said quietly, "See you tomorrow, then." As he turned, his braid swung from side-to-side with every step he made towards the door.
Just as the lighthouse keeper reached for the doorknob, he heard the patient spoke in little more than a whisper, "Why?"
His back straightening, Duo turned to face the young man in the bed to find that he was watching him. A deep frown fell on Heero's face as he asked, "Why are you doing all of this for me?" Swallowing hard, he turned his head away and lowered it. He peered down to his cast through his dark, unruly bangs and questioned, "Why do you care?"
Sighing deeply with concern in his violet eyes, Duo walked back towards the bed. He leaned forward, propping himself up by his hands at the edge of the mattress and answered softly, "Because... I know what it feels like to be lost."
It was evident that Heero had not expected that answer in his head turned to him with wide eyes. A small smile tugged at the American's lips and he whispered, "Get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow." He noted the patient's throat constricting in a rough swallow before he gave a small nod. With that, Duo turned and left the room.
Sinking back into his mattress, Heero stared at the closed door for a moment and whispered, "Thank you." Turning his head back, he peered back to the view from his lonely bedroom, to a world that he did not know.
TBC...
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