A Long-Awaited Reunion (Private, Ith and Xald)

Sarah slipped into the hospital room where her weapon, Jessie, was. She sat beside the bed, reaching out and cupping Jessie's hand. "Hey Jess... I'm sorry I haven't come around this week..." She said, holding her comatose partner's hand in both of her. It had been 8 months since the grey-haired woman had been struck in a hit-and-run accident and rendered comatose. Sarah had tried to visit her at least twice a week, but lately she had fallen behind, much to her chagrin. She squeezed Jessie's hand tight, giving it a gentle kiss. "Wake up soon..."

She was drifting, drifting through a dark space with no up and down, left or right, front or behind. Everything was just plain darkness. As her conciousness began returning to her she opened her eyes, surprised she could see, not that there was much to look at aside from her nude self.

"Where am I?", was the first question on her mind. Though she didn't actually say it, the words resonated throughout the darkness. But nothing happened, no answer.

"How long have I been here?", the next question, but again, no answer. She was beginning to lose hope. There was no way she could leave without knowing where she was or where she should go.

"More importantly... why am I here?". This time she got her answer. A thick fog surrounded her, blocking her sight for moments before vanishing. She was now presented with a scene from her memories, a three-dimensional snapshot of a moment frozen in time. It depicted two cars crashing into each other, metal shards, fire and smoke frozen where they were. Inside the first car, she sat, while in the second there was only a black figure, placeholding for whoever it was that was supposed to be there. "I see... An accident... Am I dead? ... No.. I don't think so. ... Who am"I" anyway?..."

Again, the fog began obstructing her view. When it lifted, she was presented with an unmoving image of herself, dressed in her usual clothes, standing battle-ready before her, wielding her weapon form, eyes fixated on a target that was not to be seen. "... That's right... I'm.. a warrior. No, a weapon. My name... is, Jessie Arling.." In that moment, the unmoving figure suddenly moved it's head to face her and began to speak. "You need to leave this place. You have stayed here for too long, Jessie. She's waiting..." Then, her mirror-image vanished and Jessie regained her clothes, and weapon.

"W-Wait! Who is "she"?... ... Why do I have to leave? I feel safe here... I don't want to go back wherever I came from... I will get hurt again..." That was, when she heard a familiar voice, telling her to wake up soon. Along with that, the image of another girl appeared for the shortest of moments, vanishing before Jessie could make out who it was. Was she the one her other herself had talked about? Where was she now? Before Jessie could wonder more, a distant light  appeared before her, waiting.

"Is that my exit? Should I leave? I'm scared.... but that voice.. I know it. It's important to me. It told me to wake up. Am I not awake? But then... ... I don't think it'll be any use to stay here then. I can't do anything from where I am. And I feel like there are still things left for me to do... Time to go, I suppose." With that conclusion reached, Jessie began nearing the light and when got close enough enough, it suddenly engulfed her entire vision...

Back in the real world, nothing of this was to be noticed until Jessie slowly began opening her eyes, needing time to adjust to them again, she hadn't used them far too long. Once she was able to see properly enough, she tried moving her head and managed to tilt her field of vision to the side. There she sat, the girl from that strange world. But it wasn't just "that girl", that was Sarah. How could she not have recognized her back then? Seeing her sit there next to her... whereever she was... made her smile. Speaking was still not a possibility, but she could move her arms. Thus, she gave the hand that was holding hers, a weak squeeze.

Sarah flinched at the sudden squeezing of her hand, then looked up at Jessie. Her eyes went wide, and though she longed to climb into the bed and hug her, she instead reached for the page button, hitting it over and over again until a nurse came in. The nurse quickly saw what was going on and paged the doctor, telling Sarah to move away as she started asking Jessie questions, asking if she knew where she was, who she was, etc.

As one might expect, Jessie wasn't up to full speed after waking from a coma and thus it took her a moment to realize how busy it suddenly got around her, but she didn't mind until the moment Sarah had to leave her side. She wanted to protest, but her voice was still failing her.
When the nurse began asking her questions, the first thing she managed to say was that she needed a glass of water, after that, she managed to answer most of the questions, except for her current location and the one about the current day. Talking, using her mind served to bring most of her bodily functions back and she waved at Sarah to came back closer. "How... How long was I...?"

"E-Eight months..." Sarah said, unable to stop tears of joy from coming to her eyes. She gently took Jessie's hand as the nurses and doctors left them alone for the time being, after having removed the feeding tube and gotten the answers they needed. Sarah wiped her eyes, and smiled wide. "I missed you so much..."

Shock, that was the sole expression on Jessie's face, while tears began to run down her cheeks. "Eight... Oh baby.. C'mere.." She lifted her arms, inviting Sarah into an embrace. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Sarah had to go through, while she was gone, but she knew that this was exactly what she, what both of them needed most right now. Each other.

Sarah pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tight. "It's alright... Y-You're back now." She said softly, loosening her grip because she didn't know how hurt she still was. The injuries from the accident were, of course, healed, but she had only just come back, and she almost had to be sore.

Jessie rested her head against Sarah's shoulder, enjoying the warmth. While it felt like she hadn't been gone for long, her body was remembering the eight months and thus it felt like she'd done this yesterday but at the same time it felt like it had been eight months. "Yeah, I am.. Though for me it.. feels as if it hadn't been so long... Well, my body feels like jelly and all but my mind seems to have skipped the last eight months. Feels surreal... and... and I missed my own sixteenth birthday... and who knows what else... " A dark growling resounded from her. But not from her mouth, but her belly. "Apparently, my stomach woke up. God, I could eat a horse. How high do you think is my chance for getting decent food?"

Sarah couldn't help but let out a shaky laugh as she wiped her own tears away. "Don't worry. I got you presents for your birthday. And hopefully pretty good. Right now, just... Just sit still." She said, giving her another squeeze and burying her head in Jessie's shoulder.

The whole thing wasn't easy, for neither of them, and turning things into the funny direction was Jessie's way of loosening the mood. The prospect of sitting around longer after eight months of bed nearly flipped her out, but she knew that there was a possibility of her muscles having degenerated. If worse came to worst she'd be stuck in here for a while longer.
She was combing through Sarah's hair, letting her know she was there. "You know, I don't remember the actual accident or what happened afterwards... and from my comatose days I only know small fragments... but it was you, you voice, that showed me the way back."

"I'm glad I could help bring you home..." She mumbled, looking at the door and then crawling into the bed, snuggling up beside Jessie. "I missed you baby." She said, leaning up and giving Jessie the smallest of kisses.

Jessie couldn't help but wrap her arm around Sarah when she snuggled up to her. "I know, sweety, and I'm here now. And I don't intend to disappear." Having said that, Jessie returned Sarah's kiss, this one lasting longer than the first.

"Do you want me to see about getting you some food? I can be very persuasive..." She said softly, reaching a hand up to cup Jessie's cheek and stroke her cheek.

"Oh, I know how persuasive you can be. And food sounds wonderful." She closed her eyes and placed her own hand on Sarah's. Then a joking smile appeared on her lips. "But don't flirt with the nurses too much, you hear~"

"You're incorrigible." Sarah said with a laugh, sliding off the bed and sashaying out the door. She couldn't help but taunt Jessie now that she was back, just wanting everything to go back to how it was.

"I might be incorrigible, but you're irresistible." With those words, she sent Sarah off, taking the moment to think about everything. But more than that, she wanted to know exactly bad her condition was. To that point, she moved her arms and upper body without problems, question was now, what would her legs do. She tried lifting them, angling them. They were a bit sloppy, but worked. Next, she tried something which would turn out to be a bad idea a moment later. Standing up. At first everything went well, but once her legs had to shoulder her entire weight, they began to give in and Jessie avoided a fall only thanks to her quick reflexes and sat back on the bed.
"Well, at least I don't have to start from zero..."

It was about 20 minutes before Sarah returned, carrying a tray with mix of different foods. Some of them were easy to eat, like mashed potatoes and a small cup of apple sauce, and then there was some mixed vegetables and a small grilled chicken breast. She pulled the tray on Jessie's bed out, and set it down. "Hey, you're sitting up... How do you feel?"

In the time Sarah had needed to organize the food, Jessie had started two more attempts at standing, but to no surprise, failed them both. As she returned, Jessie looked up at her, smiling. "Well, I'm feeling hungry and like I could use a long jog. But, I expected it since I heard it's been eight months, my legs don't quite feel up to the task yet. Guess it couldn't just that easy. Anyway, food! I spot veggies, and two hot chicks, awesome!" She moved closer to her food tray, eyes focusing on Sarah while she began eating slowly. Not that her appetite was missing, she was just being careful.

Sarah couldn't help but stick her tongue out at Jessie, a quick idea bringing a devilish glint to her eyes as she brought up her hand, made the peace sign with her fingers, and licked between the digits. "Flatterer." She said afterward, falling back into her seat beside the bed and watching Jessie with a smile on her face.

Seeing Sarah back to her usual self made Jessie smile. However seeing her response to the flirt, nearly made Jessie spit her meal out again out of laughter. She made sure to quickly swallow it all and then allowed herself to giggle. "I guess that goes for both of us. And this stuff isn't as bad as I thought.. did you bribe the cook?"

"I will neither confirm nor deny." Sarah said with a shit-eating grin, crossing her legs and humming. "Eat your food and stop making bad jokes, or I'll force feed you something." Sarah said, stretching her arms over her head.

This time, Jessie did choke on her meal for a moment. This side of Sarah was one she didn't see often. She could, however, not restrain her from delivering a retort. "*cough cough* Oh, and what would that be?" She did continue to eat, though, while keeping her eyes on Sarah.

"Wouldn't you like to know." She teased, uncrossing her legs and starting to kick her feet.

"You know exactly that I want to know even more now...". Additionally to this, Jessie tried her best to make big puppy eyes.

"Down girl. You just woke up." She teased, turning her head so that she wouldn't be influenced by her girlfriend's puppy dog eyes.