The first thing I heard was that damn beeping of the magic box (I don't care if they call it an EKG, its a beeping box of magic). So I was in the hospital, and that meant that I was alive. That also meant that Redheart would be mad at me.
This thought brought a smile to my face. She was going to kick me when I woke up, but that's what friends do. Even in my home, my friends would rag on me when I would get kicked. Poke my wounds and laugh at my moaning. Maybe she will do the same.
Light hit my eyes as I opened them, stinging them and making them water. As I blinked away the pain, I saw the window open letting in the warm breeze and bright midday sun. the smell of the hospital was still there, but it was lessened by the wind.
Seeing the sight I breathed deep with the satisfaction it would stay that way for another day. That was when it hit me, it didn't hurt when I took a breath. I looked down at my chest to see it wrapped in a linen bandage, but had no blood turning it red. I lifted the linen and looked at the wound.
It was nearly healed, and I could use my right had better than before.
I was shocked. I heal fast but not this fast. I could recover from a basic combat within an hour to a day, and most wounds took, at the most, three days. The wounds I received from the fight needed a cleric to heal this fast, unless I was out longer than I thought.
As I was making my assessment, someone (well, somepony) walked in. Nurse Redheart walked in, and dropped the tray she was carrying. I razed an eyeridge at the tray she had dropped, it had dressings and bandages on it along with some food drink.
“You're awake!?” she sputtered out.
“And hungry, but you dropped the tray,” I smiled at her.
Tears started to fall out of her eyes.
“You jerk,” she sniffed. “I didn't think you would make it.”
“Hay now, no tears,” I stammered out. “You'll mess up your fur.”
She ran up to me and through her hooves around me and started to sob. She held me tight and cried into my chest, relieved as if I had come back from the brink of death. As she calmed down I held her in return, letting her get it out. That was my mistake.
My head snapped back as her hoof slammed into my snout.
“That was for running off and getting hurt,” she chided me.
She hit me again. “That was for coming back the same day you left.”
Once more, my head snapped back. “And that is for making me worried!”
Fully beaten, I rubbed my snout and looked at her. The tears had dried up and her stern look was struggling against a smile at our antics. She was a little disheveled and seemed a little more tired than before. Her mane was falling out of its bun and her whole body seemed tense.
I smiled at her, after I looked her over.
“What do you call that, punch therapy?”
That did it, all the tension left her body and she started to laugh. She had a good laugh, not a snicker or a snort, a soft at first, kind laugh. One that could spread like jam over toast. It would warm a cold heart and light the fires of friendship in anyone.
I let her have that laugh and just keep smiling.
“I'll go get you another tray and your friends,” she said. “Stay in bed, and don't get hurt again.”
As I waited, one of the doctors came in to see me. He checked over my old wounds and gave my new ones a clean bill of health. He said if I didn't have another adventure like the one I was recovering from I could leave by tomorrow. That was until I tried to stand.
Redheart walked in just as I rose from the bed. She took one look at me and frowned.
“You are not leaving, not for a good week.”
“But he said.....”
“I don't care what Dr. Stable says, you are not leaving until you are fully healed,”she chided. “And that is final.
Even the good doctor filched at her tone. She could be scary sometimes, but I could see why she wanted me to stay. As she said that my knees gave out and I crumpled onto the floor. My body just seemed to be week.
“See,” she smiled. “You can't leave until you've had some therapy for all the bed rest you've had.”
“Just how long was I out,” I snarled.
“Three weeks.”
I was stunned. How had I been out for that long? Was the chest wound that bad? Just how close was I, really, to death? I had no answers.
“Sombra came to the morning after he was captured. He escaped and found you, still unconscious, and tried to kill you in your sleep.”
As she said this she started to weep openly.
“We stopped the worst of it, but the damage was done before we could get into the room.”
“So he nearly wiped me out,” I asked quietly.
“He had pulled the power crystals in your respirator out and jammed them in the hole in your chest,” the doc explained.
“Well, I guess it was a good thing you lot were here,” I smiled at them.
I pulled myself up onto the bed and sat. That talk had taken more out of me than I thought it would. I kicked my feet up onto the bed and looked over at Redheart.
“So, now that is out of the way,” I grinned at her. “I believe you had food for me. I hope you have some fish.”