20.
Redheart might have woken up early that morning, but she didn’t actually get out of bed until it was nearly midday. The dream she had the previous night awoke painful memories within her, memories she did not want to relive so soon after what she had seen within the last week. She grabbed at the empty pillow in her bed, drawing it close and putting her nose to it. The smell – his smell – was faint but still there. For a moment, she relished it, then she kicked it off the bed in disgust.
Redheart had to force herself to get out of bed, telling herself that if she didn’t she would fall back asleep and she would see him again. She trudged over to the shower, her hoofsteps falling heavily on the floor and causing an occasional creaking noise that likely would disturb the tenants below her. She slouched into the shower and turned on the water, letting the warmth cover her and rinse her clean. This was normal, she told herself, this was routine. This was what she was supposed to do to get ready for work this evening.
She stayed in the shower until the heat fogged up the bathroom mirrors and window and the water eventually turned cold. The water was turned off and she continued her business in the bathroom, finishing by putting her mane in its usual bun. She walked out of the bathroom and over to the kitchen, still limping from the bruise on her hoof.
The first thing she did in the kitchen was tend to the bruise. She washed it gently with a fresh towel then wrapped it tightly in a white bandage that nearly blended in with the fur on her hoof. Afterwards came a small lunch, during which she contemplated which she wanted to do first: write a letter to her mother about wanting to move back to Trotsworth or pay the bills.
She did neither. As she was cleaning up the dishes from lunch, there came a knock at her door. Setting aside the clean dishes, Redheart dried her hooves and walked over to the door to see who was there.
It was Doctor Stable.
“It’s rare that the head physician makes a personal visit to my house,” Redheart said.
Doctor Stable nodded. “Yes, but we’ve had a peculiar series of events happen at the hospital lately.”
Redheart raised an eyebrow. “How so? Has someone let word out that Twilight’s in a coma? Has Caramel come in with a particularly clean record?”
“More on par with the first one, except I haven’t told anyone of it yet. You see, I was getting ready to leave the hospital last night when I stopped into Twilight’s room. I said what I considered to be a random string of words musing about things when Twilight’s heart rate climbed up by five beats per minute in response to what I was saying.”
Redheart became more attentive. “What was it that caused her to have the reaction? I’ve tried everything.”
“Almost everything,” Doctor Stable said. “Please, I can’t explain it to you very well. I need you to come with me and see what I saw then.”
Redheart considered. “Give me thirty minutes. I just need to get some things together.”
Doctor Stable nodded. “Do try and make it there quick,” he said, then closed the door and left Redheart alone.
Redheart gathered up some bits and her saddlebags and headed out. She stopped by a local deli to pick up a sandwich, fruit, and potato chips and carried the bag with her to the hospital, where she placed it in the staff fridge. Doctor Stable was waiting for her as she decontaminated herself and got her cap on.
Doctor Stable led Nurse Redheart from the staff room to Twilight’s hospital room. Her heart rate was still at a steady thirty beats per minute.
“Nothing’s changed,” Redheart said.
“It was a response to a stimulus,” Doctor Stable said. “I tested it again this morning and it happened again, even though I hardly believed it myself.” He closed the door behind them and locked it before heading over to Twilight lying down on the bed.
“Twilight,” Doctor Stable called out. “It’s Doctor Stable, head physician at Ponyville hospital.”
Twilight’s heart rate didn’t change.
“Twilight, I brought Nurse Redheart here with me.”
For a few moments, the heart rate didn’t change. Slowly, the rate climbed upwards until Redheart had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. It stayed at a steady thirty-five beats per minute.
“I’ll leave you two alone for the time being,” Doctor Stable said. “Perhaps Redheart has a few things she would like to tell you.” He walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving Redheart staring incredulously at the stallion walking away from the room.
Redheart turned back to Twilight. The expression on the sleeping face hadn’t changed and the heart rate began to climb back down again. Redheart walked over to Twilight and angled a chair so that she sat down next to the purple mare.
“Twilight,” Nurse Redheart called. “It’s Nurse Redheart. Can you hear me?”
The heart rate jumped back up.
“I’ve been the nurse presiding over your stay here. I’ve kept track of your IV bags, I’ve made sure the press didn’t catch wind, and I’ve been trying to keep correspondence with Princess Celestia about your condition.”
No response from the sleeping form, though the heart rate stayed up.
“Your friends have all been worried about you. Applejack is hoping you can wake up soon for the coming reunion and Rainbow Dash feels really bad about what she did. She’s actually paid for half your visit already.”
Twilight didn’t stir.
Why couldn’t Doctor Stable have stayed a little while longer and told me what to do? “Um… I hope your muscles haven’t atrophied too much, since you’ve been in here for nine weeks.”
There was another jump up, then it faded back.
Redheart got up from her seat and walked off. “Um… I… I have a few things I have to do, Twilight. But I’ll be right back.”
The heart rate faded a little more.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I just need to go and talk with my superior.”
Before another change in the heart rate could appear, Redheart left the room and walked off down the hall until she came to Doctor Stable’s office. She knocked on the door a few times out of courtesy before letting herself in.
Doctor Stable looked up from the paper that was on his desk. “Nurse Redheart!” he exclaimed as he saw her enter. “Is something wrong? Is there a change in Twilight’s condition?”
“Why did you just leave me in there without a clue as to what to do? I know I was supposed to talk, and I could hardly believe the level of response I was getting, but you just left me there to deal with it on my own and I hardly had even a vague idea of what I was supposed to do.”
“She seems to be enlivened by your presence,” Doctor Stable said. “You were asking me a few weeks ago what went through the heads of comatose patients when they were knocked out. I answered with some felt like they were calling out to someone. Perhaps she is reliving the day at the picnic and wondering why you hadn’t arrived yet. Perhaps she is calling to you, wanting to know if you made it there or not… or whether you even cared.”
Redheart stared at Stable for a minute or two before exploding. “I did care! I showed up at the lake where we had agreed to meet! I was the one who wanted to take over the case because of the incompetence of the other nurses! I’ve wanted her to wake up so I won’t have to deal with the worry or the stress of her anymore!”
Despite Nurse Redheart’s outburst, Doctor Stable remained calm. “Why don’t you try telling her that? At the moment, she is like a lost soul wandering in a void; she is waiting for a voice to come and show her the right way out. Right now, your voice is what’s needed.”
Redheart left Doctor Stable’s office, disbelieving though having no other options, and headed back to Twilight’s room. She helped the technician that had arrived in the meantime hook up the new IV bags and waited until she was sure he was gone before turning back to the unconscious mare.
“Twilight,” Redheart called out. “It’s me again. Nurse Redheart.”
The heart rate slowly perked back up.
“I… I’m sorry for leaving earlier. I just didn’t know what to say. Well, I suppose I should start from the beginning.”
Twilight’s heart rate remained the same.
“A little over nine weeks ago, you invited me to go to lunch with you and your friends by the lake. I told you I would think about it, but if I did I would arrive later. As a matter of fact, I went to see someone who I had been getting back together with, someone with who I am now broken up with yet again. I saw the Sonic Rainboom that knocked you out appear in the sky, but didn’t think much of it.”
“When I was done,” Redheart continued, “I did end up going to the lake. But by then you were gone, being carried off to the hospital in a carriage. Applejack told me everything that happened, and I rushed to the hospital to help take care of you.”
Twilight’s heart rate raised slowly.
“Twilight…” For a moment, Redheart remained silent, trying to figure out how she was supposed to continue. She took a deep breath and steeled herself as she continued. “I don’t know if this is what you were looking for, but I wanted you to know that I did want to go on the picnic with you and your friends. I was simply hoping that you knew that I did want to come and meet you and get to know you and the rest of your friends.”
Twilight’s heart rate continued to rise. For a moment, the room was still and quiet except for the ticking of the machines and the increasingly frequent beeping of Twilight’s heart rate. Redheart looked down at the mare and noticed there was movement coming from her. A simple motion, but her hoof was beginning to move. It stretched out in Redheart’s direction.
With one hoof Redheart reached forward and took Twilight’s in her own. It was comparatively cold, but Redheart could feel warmth beginning to flow back into her hoof with the rising heart rate. By the time Redheart had used her other hoof to press the button to call for Doctor Stable, Twilight’s heart rate had risen to and stopped at fifty-seven.
Doctor Stable came in a few minutes later, when Twilight had risen to sixty-two and given her first ear flick in nine weeks. Her eyes hadn’t opened and her breathing was still controlled by the ventilator, but there were definitely signs that Twilight’s condition had improved drastically. Doctor Stable gave a whoop and started running back to his office, likely to write a letter to Princess Celestia about Twilight’s condition being on the mend.
Redheart didn’t know what to feel. While she was happy that Twilight was now responding to her and was on the road to recovery, there was the matter of what would happen when Twilight awoke. There would be other things to do, other things to worry about, like the dislocated wings and the still broken bones. And there was the matter of what Twilight exactly had in mind for a friendship with Redheart.
For now, Redheart decided she should push those worries away. For the first time in nearly ten weeks, Twilight was waking up from her coma. It was a victory, and Redheart clung onto it for all it was worth.