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It came to him in flashes of memory.
He was on a ship. It was crashing, falling out of the sky. Gwen and Kevin had already exited the ship on Gwen's mana shields. Ben had been just behind them when a hidden enemy had grabbed him, intent to fight him, or destroy him, or to keep him on the ship so they could crash together. He had turned into the first alien he could without even checking the Omnitrix and came up as Echo Echo. The fight lasted only a few minutes, ending in the robot breaking apart from the soundwaves blasted at it, but the ground was close, close, too close and getting ever closer as the ship fell.
Dark, for a moment. Then, the next memory.
He was in the air, freefalling. The watch was timed out. Off to one side, the ship was crashing on the outskirts of town. Wind was whipping around him, forcing his eyes almost completely shut and flapping his jacket around him like wings. He was pawing at the watch, doing anything he could think of to get it to change him into any alien, anything at all, because at least if he was alien when he hit, he still might be alive later.
Dark again. Another memory.
The road, only a few stories away. Not enough to stop the fall, even with a flying alien. The Omnitrix flashed green. Gwen, in the corner of his eye, running at him in midair with intent to catch him, but too far away. Kevin, on the ground below, yelling something. Hand hits watch.
Dark. Memory.
Pain. Pain, pain, pain. Bursting pain, like fireworks, across his body. Alive.
Darkness.
Awake, now. Ben's eyes opened slowly, drowsily. The ceiling was white, the walls beige. The sheets on the bed were light blue. An incessant beeping drew his eye, and he looked to his side to see a heart monitor tracking his heartbeat next to a stand holding a bag of liquid pumping into his arm via an IV; he hadn't noticed the multitude of wires connecting him to various machines around the bed until then. Unbothered, tired, and not hurting because of, he assumed, the pain medicine being fed into his veins, he continued to look around before he had the chance to drift off. Kevin was there, sleeping on the chair next to the bed, his arms crossed and his head resting on his chest. Gwen was on the couch next to the wall, sleeping on her stomach and with one arm hanging over the side, her face facing him. She was covered by a blanket that one of the nurses must have given her. Ben's eyes slid over them both and to the window, where he could see the night sky beyond the partially closed blinds. The full moon shone brightly. With a slight sigh, he settled back into his pillows and let his eyes slide shut again.
Dark again.
And then light. Sunlight streamed in through the open blinds in the room. Gwen was nowhere to be found, but Kevin was still in the chair by the bed, reading some old romance novel with Fabio on the cover. Ben took a moment to study Kevin; he noted the dark circles under his eyes, darker than usual and indicating poor sleep. His hair was messy and greasy, as though he had run his hands through it recently and hadn't washed it for some time before that. His skin was pale, his lips were chapped, and his leg tapped unrhythmically. His dark eyes skimmed quickly over the page, time and time again, as though he had to reread the same passage multiple times. Finally, he glanced up quickly at Ben, then back down to the page, out of habit more than expectation. Immediately, he looked back up.
"Shit! Ben!" Kevin exclaimed suddenly, dropping the book in his haste to stand up. "Sh-should I call a nurse? I don't... fuck, dude! You're awake!" He laughed disbelievingly and looked around himself as though he were unsure what to do, before finally pulling the chair closer to the bed and sitting back down again. He leaned forward in his seat, hands clasped, and stared at Ben as though he were afraid Ben would disappear the next time he blinked. "Dude, you could've died. But- but you look great now, though!"
"Yeah?" Ben croaked, his throat dry. "You look like shit," he said with a grin. Kevin chuckled and looked away from Ben.
"Yeah, I've been keeping watch. Haven't left your side since you were admitted," he confessed, blushing.
"You haven't?" Ben asked, surprised. He felt a warmth pool in his stomach.
"Nah, I mean, a few times, to go to the bathroom or whatever, but I've been here most of the time," Kevin replied, shrugging. "Or, like, to go to the cafeteria for food when your parents were here, 'cause they're uncomfortable around me."
"My parents have been here?" Ben asked, surprised again for a different reason. "We're hours away from Bellwood. How long have I been out?"
Kevin scratched his chin thoughtfully, looking at the ceiling. "Let's see... last week was when the ship crashed. You-" Ben cut Kevin off.
"I've been out for a WEEK?" he asked incredulously.
"Pretty much, yeah," Kevin replied, looking appraisingly at Ben. "Sometimes you would talk in your sleep, but you wouldn't be, like, awake, or anything."
Ben leaned back deeper into his pillow and exhaled, wanting to run a hand through his hair but uncomfortable doing so because of all the wires around him.
"What happened that day?" he asked, finally looking back at Kevin.
"I don't know what happened on the ship," he replied immediately, shaking his head, "but you turned Humongousaur, like, seconds before you hit the ground. Oh, you, uh, you jumped out of the ship. Kevin scratched his cheek, embarrassed. "Anyway, you left this huge crater in the middle of the road. It would've taken the paramedics forever to get to you, but Gwen was able to use one of her shields to move you. You were all busted up, dude, it was nasty." He grew pale at the memory.
"One of the droids on the ship grabbed me and I had to fight it," Ben said, shaking his head at the memory. "The Omnitrix was timed out; I couldn't transform."
"The doctors don't know how you're alive," Kevin admitted. "They said anybody else would've been dead in a second. And they definitely think it's freaky how fast you've healed."
"How fast I've healed?" Ben asked, eyebrows shooting up.
"Yeah," Kevin replied, nodding. "Dude, you were in surgery that night and a full body cast the next day, but three days later you didn't have a scar and you only had a few sprains, and those have already healed." He laughed suddenly. "I heard some of the accountants wondering if they could charge you for staying here since you're healing without them doing any work."
"But how am I... The Omnitrix?" Ben asked in wonderment. Kevin nodded.
"Yup. Even brought Azmuth here to ask him. He said that the Omnitrix's failsafe turned you into Humongousaur because he would handle the hit best, and then it's been healing you ever since. Everyone was pretty much just waiting for you to wake up."
Ben blew the hair off his forehead as he looked at the ceiling. He hated waking up in hospitals. He hated nearly dying. He hated not knowing what had happened in the world while he was asleep.
But he was glad Kevin was there.
"Thanks for keeping watch, Kev," he said finally, turning to look at his best friend. He smiled.
"Yeah, whatever," Kevin replied, blushing again and refusing to meet Ben's eye. "Somebody had to do it."
"I mean it," Ben insisted, "thanks. I'm glad you're here." He hesitantly reached out to Kevin and Kevin, surprise evident in every line of his face, grabbed Ben's hand gently. "I'm glad you're the first person I got to see when I woke up."
If Kevin had been blushing before, that was nothing compared to the red that covered his face now. He brushed his thumb over Ben's knuckle slowly and, looking down, he said quietly, "I am, too."
--
A few hours later, after Ben had finally checked out of the hospital, he and Kevin sat in Kevin's car in the parking lot.
"So, what do you want to do? Doctor said that even though you're mostly healed, you should still rest for a few days," Kevin said as he started the car.
"She said I can have smoothies right? How about Mr. Smoothy and then home?" Ben said. "I'll pay."
Kevin's face fell. He put his arm on the back of Ben's seat to watch the rearview window as he reversed. " Yeah, I guess I can drop you off at your house," he said, turning forward and putting the car into drive once they were out of the parking space.
"What?" Ben said with a small laugh. "No, you can hang out with me at home too."
"But, your parents-"
"They'll come around," Ben replied, reaching over once more to grab Kevin's hand. If the car jerked suddenly, neither of them acknowledged it. "Besides, somebody needs to keep watch over me, right?" Kevin smiled.
"Well... I guess I can keep guard a little longer," he replied, glancing over at Ben. "I always do."