waiting for the results

"Only when I was young." Pan recalled the times she had been in hospital. "I haven't been in hospital since...well...." She trailed off as she remembered that awefull day. She had been sitting in the waiting room, aged around 13 - 14. She had sat in the waiting room for hours in absolute silence. Her baby sister in a clean room round the corner. Surrounded by surgeons. After another 20 minutes, a glum looking Doctor came out and told her, her 5 year old sister had died of her injuries. Her broken rib had peirced her lung, and her skull was crushed and had damaged her brain. Her father had picked her up by the feet and literally smashed her against the wall until she was nothing more than a bloody mass. Which he then forced Pan to hold and she had sprinted with all her might to the nearest hospital which wasn't far at all. Just round the corner. After finding this out, young Pan stood up, went to a payphone and phoned the police. And everything after that was nothing more than a hazy blur.

Chase was rather confused as Pandora seemed to randomly zone out, at the mention of past visits to hospitals. "Are you okay?" he asked, tone rather concerned.

"Yeah..." She murmered, miles away. She felt numb and her eyes had a glazed look about them. She shook her head roughly "Yeah, I'll be okay." She said arubtly, feeling her eyes well-up.

Chase observed her for a few seconds, mulling over what it could be about. "Bad experience in hospitals before?" he guessed, unaware of why her reaction seemed so severe.

"You could say that." She answered tragically, looking straight ahead in horror. It had been years since she had thought about her sister. She had tried her hardest not to remember. It wasn't anything nice to think about.

"Ah," Chase averted his gaze elsewhere, not saying anything, an awkward silence ensuing, leaving him feeling strangely guilty at bringing the subject up in the first place.

"Have you ever lost anyone?" She asked sadly. Before realising she was being nosey. "You don't have to answer if you dont want to." She added afterwards so as not to seem to be prying into something that didn't concern her.

Chase looked down to the ground, mind flickering briefly to his mother, images of her drinking herself to her death flashing through his mind, followed by hearing that his father had died of ling cancer, without so much as telling Chase about that when he was alive. Should he tell her about that? No, probably not. "No, never lost anyone," he said, in a rather distant voice, just about managing to keep his composure.

"Okay." She nodded, looking down also. "It's like a part of you gets ripped out and dies with them." She said bitterly, glaring into the distance. "I hope that you never do. It is a pain as such I would not wish on my worst enemy." She said in the same bitter tone.

"Maybe we should focus more on the problem at hand," Chase said, not at all wanting to linger on this topic, the memory of his father still too raw to be remembered, "So, is the fever any better, or worse?" he asked, half to himself, as he checked the monitor for her vitals, "Gone up to about 39 degrees celcius, not great. Hopefully it'll stay constant now."

Pan found the arubt change of subject extremely disorientating but went along with it none-the-less. "Hopefully..." She agreed, looking at Chase carefully. She could guess by his unwillingness to respond that he had lied about losing someone. And whoever it was he knew well.

"If it gets much higher then it could lead to brain damage," Chase said, "But as long as it stays below 42 degrees, then your pretty much okay." Pausing for a short moment, he asked, "Are you still feeling cold? Or has that passed?"

Pan paused for a moment, then realised. The memories of her past had distracted her but as she sat, she realised she wasn't really shivering anymore. "It's practically gone!" She muttered in numb disbelief