Chapter Text
Daniel hated needles. He remembered always getting punished as a child by his father because he would cry when he was brought in for vaccinations. His father would tell him sternly that only girls cried, and threatened him with house arrest if he let a tear roll down his cheek.
And now, he felt the painful prick of it into his right forearm. There was pressure put on it and it hurt. He wanted to nudge himself away but found himself paralysed. He tried to force his eyes open but that, too, failed. Wriggle your toes, fingers, try something, he urged himself but received no response from his stubborn body.
He grew increasingly frustrated and his body responded to that, temperature rising with the heat. He heard the rapid annoying beeping of a machine. Probably a heart monitor , he thought to himself and hoped that whoever was prodding him with a needle would take notice. With all his might, he pushed hard, causing his heart rate to race even faster.
He heard a soft gasp before a door shut.
Then there was a fury of footsteps that invaded the room. He heart voices, one dictating instructions for the others to follow. “Let’s lower the dose to give him the chance to wake up,” a voice sounded. There was the ruffling of papers in the background, questions being asked and answered.
“I want you to tell me the complications of a comatose patient waking up after 6 weeks,” the same voice ordered.
He had been unconscious for 2 months? What was going on?
“Brain damage, causing possible paralysis, loss of various functions based on site of injury, muscle wasting, depression,” another voice called out, one that was seemingly familiar.
Then his eyelids were pulled open; a bright light flickered as his pupillary reflexes were checked.
Daniel itched. His fingers tingled. He needed to move something to let them know he was awake.
There was a gasp.
Daniel’s eyelids fluttered open, before cringing from the bright lights around him. His eyes slowly adapted and he turned his attention to the group of doctors surrounding his bed.
“Can you respond to my voice?” one of the doctors asked. Daniel’s eyes rolled to his left to look at him. He tried to speak before beginning to choke and gag.
“We will remove the tube from your throat, alright?” The doctor assured Daniel, before doing so. His throat burned and he was desperate for water to soothe his dry throat.
The doctor explained to Daniel that movements will be difficult for a while, but with rehabilitation, he should be able to regain mobility. It was the same with his speech and eating. “It will all come back in time,” Dr Ong assured Daniel.
Just as the whole entourage of white coats turned to leave Daniel to rest, he spotted bright worried eyes belonging to one of them. He lingered in the room, giving one last look and a soft smile before being the last one to leave.
And that same doctor, Dr Park, was the one who brought the mad woman into his hospital room. Daniel remembered the events leading up to his accident and knew that the woman before him was the cause of it all. He tried his best to convey his thoughts to Dr Park with his eyes and desperately wished his voice would cooperate. But the only sounds he could make were alike that of a walrus, and so he gave up quickly.
“Your mother would like to speak to you,” Dr Park explained, giving the lady a gentle pat on the shoulder. “I advise you to keep an open mind and just listen to what she has to say. You can’t move or talk anyway, so just listen. Please.”
How could a beautiful man with a beautiful voice give out such offensive instructions? Daniel thought and shut his eyes defiantly.
“You act like a child,” Daniel swore he heard Dr Park whisper before hearing whispers coming from the woman reassuring him that they will be alright alone.
Daniel tried his hardest to ignore all the words the woman spewed, disregarding their validity because he knew her to be crazy after all. But he couldn’t help but register what she had to say.
The room was so silent, it was impossible not to.
Her tale reaffirmed things he had already known like being the product of a one drunken one night stand. But her story, if it was to be believed, added so many more layers to his understanding of his upbringing.
When she found out she was pregnant, she was determined to raise her baby alone. She cared for him while she carried him and was excited for his birth. Growing up in an orphanage, she was adamant on being his mother, despite the difficulties.
And that was when Daniel’s father came into the picture. He was a very powerful man and had learnt about her pregnancy since he had been keeping tabs on her. After Daniel’s birth, he offered her a lump sum of money, to which she refused.
He abducted Daniel from the hospital, causing her to panic. She was hysterical, desperate to get her son back.
His father used that against her, claiming that she was mentally incapable of raising Daniel and the courts ruled in his favour. She descended deeper into madness. She dreamed of the day that she would reunite with him, and that day finally came when she heard news that his father was dead.
“I am so sorry that you had to wait so long,” her voice quivered as she sniffed. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I hope you understand where I come from. And I also hope that you let me make it up to you slowly until the day I die.”
Daniel couldn’t decide how much of her words he wanted to believe. But it made sense. His father was like the modern day tyrant, wanting everything done his way so this plot of his was not farfetched. If it was indeed true, he pitied the woman because no mother deserved to go through that. He also felt the hatred for his late father grow in his chest. All the lies he had been fed as a child about her absence made him sick to the stomach. Or was it because of the meds?
“I know you are awake,” Dr Park’s voice sounded, causing Daniel to open his eyes. “Did you listen to what she had to say? She looked pretty distraught so I am assuming you didn’t.”
Daniel mouthed his words, “ I did.”
And Dr Park smiled, something so beautiful that it made Daniel’s heart rate quicken and his cheeks to flush. Dr Park surely noticed this and immediately pulled out the thermometer to check his temperature. “Are you feeling okay? It seems like you are burning up.”
How could he explain to his doctor that he had appeared in his wet dreams?