Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ For Want of a Nail ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

Sarah approached the dining room in her light blue dress, not wanting to offend anyone's senses with her riding clothes and smell of horses. She welcomed the smell of Aunt Rena's cooking which had wafted down the hall to her nose, barely able to contain an appreciative smile at the prospect of a tasty meal.

Sarah entered the dining room and smiled at the patients there. She spotted Lindsey, Brittany…and John. She had checked John's room to find him missing and the girls were gone as well so she had assumed they all went down to the dining room.

After Sarah picked up her dinner she walked over to the three and asked, "May I join you guys?"

"Of course," answered John as the two girls said, "Yes!"

John made room on the bench for Sarah and she sat as she set her tray down on the table. She sat to his left and felt dwarfed in comparison to him.

The two girls had resumed eating but caught John giving a sweet smile to Sarah when she wasn't looking. He went back to his food. Their meal was relatively quiet since the four were concentrating on eating with John and Sarah giving surreptitious glances at each other. These glances weren't missed by Aunt Rena, who was having her dinner across the room from them. She smiled to herself when the two caught each other looking and quickly looked away in embarrassment.

'They're so obvious,' Aunt Rena thought with maternal warmth.

Some patients noticed the two also and were sure to tease Sarah later.

The four soon finished their meal and returned the trays and plates to Aunt Rena's food table and thanked Aunt Rena for the tasty and filling dinner. They filed out of the dining room and the kids ran ahead of the young adults.

"Where are they going?" asked John.

"Probably outside," answered Sarah.

It was around six o'clock now. Dinner was served early since most of the patients went to bed early to recuperate from their injuries or illnesses.

"Would you like to go outside for some fresh air?" Sarah queried, looking up at John from beside him.

"Yes, I think I would."

Sarah took a hold of John's prosthetic arm and led him down the hall and stairs to the door that would lead them outside of the hospital/mansion. The whole time John watched Sarah and wished he could actually feel her hands on his arm and gave a wistful sigh.

Before opening the door Sarah looked back at John. She had heard him sigh.

"Is something wrong?" she asked very concerned. Her brows were pushed together.

He gave her a feeble smile and said, "No, I'm fine. Don't worry so much about me."

"But I have to worry. You just got out of a coma today; we're almost to a chair. I don't want you to pass out on me."

She reached up with her right hand and brushed away his hair on his forehead to feel it. He almost closed his eyes at the delicate touch of her hand on his head. He wanted more of this contact. His metal arm had seemed to mock him when Sarah held onto it to lead him.

Sarah finally removed her hand from John's forehead, satisfied that he was not fevered or clammy. She opened the front door and led him outside. She brought him to some chairs that were off to the side and motioned for him to sit down. She took a seat next to him and was silent. It was still sunny and the sky was a beautiful light blue with a few fluffy white clouds dotting it. The leaves on the trees and bushes were starting to turn color for fall and promised a brilliant display of color some day soon.

In the distance bird song could be heard. Everything was peaceful.

In the peace John's thoughts turned to Sarah again. He was slightly nervous. He hoped she didn't have a boyfriend. He liked her. That wasn't saying much since she was the only one he had spoken in length with. She was the first living being he saw when he woke up and the most familiar as she was the one taking care of him.

He wished very hard that he could remember his past, before Sarah and this place. But all that he came up with was a blank. An empty place where all his memories should have been. And in this vast darkness he felt fear. What if he never finds his past? What if he was forever John? A man with no past, no real name? He was afraid of that darkness, it was a place of hopelessness and vulnerability. He felt he was going to drown in the dark that was his mind. Then he saw a light. A very concerned light.

"John?"

Everything became a hazy gray and he finally saw a face: Sarah.

"John? Please say something!"

Sarah was standing in front of John who had either passed out or fallen asleep. She had taken a hold of his shoulder and was gently shaking him in hopes of reviving him fearful that he may have relapsed into a coma.

"Huh?" came John's fuzzy reply.

"Jeez! Don't scare me like that! I thought you went back into a coma or something. Are you all right?" a very relieved Sarah asked.

John thought of all his fears and began to ache. He snapped his head to look down at his metal arm. A stabbing pain soon replaced the ache where his right arm had been. He gasped and squeezed his eyes shut from the enormous pain.

"What's wrong? Are you in pain?" Sarah asked. She had noticed his look at his metal arm.

'Phantom pain?' she thought.

"Does your arm hurt?" She guessed.

He nodded.

With deft fingers she began to massage the flesh around his metal arm. The pain started to fade as her fingers and hands worked their magic. His tensed body relaxed as the pain faded.

After a few minutes she asked, "Do you feel better?"

"Yes, the pain is just about gone. How did you do that?"

"Well, I figured you must be experiencing Phantom pain and the treatment for that is to massage the affected area. Maybe from tomorrow I should get you to exercise. The best way to keep it at bay is by having increased blood flow to the area. Stress and weather changes can bring it on. I suppose you would be stressed since you can't remember who you are, that's understandable.

"Well," Sarah started with a cheerful expression, trying to change the serious atmosphere, "let's go back in. It's starting to get a bit chilly out here."

"I guess so."

Sarah pulled him up to his feet by his left arm and steadied him. She walked him to his room and was preparing to leave when John reached for her shoulder and said, "Um, will you please stay?"

Sarah turned and looked into his eyes. They were pleading and behind that was fear. She wasn't sure if she saw that since it seemed to disappear, hidden. She said, "Okay, I'll stay until you go to sleep."

John's features were washed in relief visibly and he dropped his hand from her shoulder. He was afraid to be alone since it seemed the dark swallowed him when he was alone. Sarah was his light.

On his bed were a pair of large pale blue drawstring pants and yet another white tank top. These were some more clothes Sarah had found for him along with sets of clothing she had placed in his closet after she came back from Kancia's. The mentioned set of clothing were to be his sleeping clothes.

Sarah turned around when John showed his intent of changing. A few moments later found her helping him into bed. She closed the curtains to his window to block the sunlight that was still coming in so he could sleep.

She sat on the chair that was beside his bed and watched him. John looked up at her and slowly reached for her hand then clasped it and brought it to his chest and held it there. She let him since he seemed to need reassurance. She felt his heart beating under her hand.

His breathing finally became slow and steady as he drifted into sleep. His hand still holding hers to his chest. Sarah reluctantly slid her hand out of his loose hold and brought the covers over his broad shoulders up to his neck and.

She slowly straightened up with her hands trailing across his chest and left the room with the door quietly closed behind her.

Sarah walked to her mother's office where she knew her to still be in. She opened the door and walked in, noting how it seemed her mother was in the exact same position as she was last. The only difference was the rearranged piles of paper.

Sarah's mother looked up from her desk and asked, "So, how's John?"

"He's alright, but he had an attack of phantom pain."

"I trust he's alright now?"

"Yes, I massaged him right after it became apparent that he was in pain."

"Good. Now aren't you glad I made you read all those text books?" Sarah's mother asked with a devilish grin.

Sarah made a face and didn't dignify that with an answer.

"So, not only does he have traumatic retrograde amnesia, but he also has phantom pain. Poor John! He just had to fall into the small percentage group!" commented Sarah's mother.

"We should probably put up posters of him to see if anyone knows him after he regains his strength a bit," suggested Sarah.

"Sounds good to me," said her mother as her gaze returned to the paper work.

"You know what?" she started suddenly, "I think I'm going to quit for the day. Do you want to come with me for the evening rounds?"

"No thanks, Mother. I'll just go find the girls and give them a bath before bedtime," Sarah replied.

"Okay. I'll see you later then."

Sarah and her mother walked out of the office and went separate ways down the hall.

Author's Notes: Hehe, I love writing that! :-P Anyways, have you guys ridden horses before? Apparently after I come back from riding I *really* smell like horses. I don't notice all that much since I'm used to the smell.

Medical terms- I tried my best in researching what exactly I was looking for and I found that there was traumatic and retrograde amnesia. What I wanted was a mixture of both so that's how I wrote it since I don't know the actual term. I looked up some sites on phantom pain as well and hopefully I wrote it correctly. If anyone spots a mistake I'd appreciate it if you would be so kind as to point it out to me.

Having dinner at 5:00 PM is early for me, although I know some families eat dinner then.

I live in Alaska and during the summer the sun seems to be always out, even when the sun has "set" it is still light outside. During the winter it is very dark and you can definitely tell that the days are shorter. It can be as little as 5 hours of daylight in my area. But the advantage to that are the beautiful sunsets.