Anticipation and Promises

Now don't take this wrong but... Sir Axel wasn't at all happy to be put in the same room as Robyn. Despite the fact that he really wanted to see her, lying besides her all the time while she was in her unconcious condition was extremely hurtful. It made him feel like he'd failed as a parent, as more importantly, it was a constant reminder of his petrifying fear that she wouldn't wake up. If it'd been upto him he'd already have left on his own power, but his wounds were to severe for him to move. His wing was actually alright, it'd completely healed after a mysterious bright glow - something he'd be certain to ask about later on - but his humanoid body was still in a near-critical condition. The main issue was that he'd been shot in a big artery, quite near his heart, and any unnessecairy movement might rip his stitches to pieces.
Elisabeth was sitting by Robyn's side, at the head of her bed, stroking her hair. Chrissy was sitting on Sir Axel's bed, unable to watch Robyn without bursting out into tears, and therefore staring at the ground. Sir Axel was seated in his bed, though a great amount of pillows made sure he was still nearly horizontal nonetheless. He was rubbing Chrissy's shoulder comfortingly, though looking quite misserable himself. And I feel the urge to warn you that - if you can relate to the feelings of this hurting family, you may hate Valdez for the following piece of dialouge...

When Mercedes asked how Sir Axel was doing, Valdez' eyes (as well as his smile) grew. "I'd completely forgotten about that," he said with an indulgent, sadistic grin. He straightened his back and walked over to the door, announcing (with a great lack of credibility): "I'll just go see how they're doing. So terribly worried."

"Oh no you are not," Mercedes said in a tone that left no room for debate when Valdez said that he would check on Sir Axel. The man had been badly injured and there was no need to put him or his family through more because Valdez hadn't had enough sadistic pleasure yet. Mercedes gave Nicolas a slight shove which was enough for him to understand that she wanted him to stop his father for her. A moment later he stood in front of his father blocking the doorway.
"You just stay here with mom," he said trying to push Valdez back towards the bed a little, "and I'll go check how Sir Axel is doing."
Not wanting to give Valdez the change to get to Sir Axel's room before him Nicolas ran quickly out of the room after he was done talking. He asked a nurse where if Sir Axel was out of surgery already when he found the answer to be yes he informed to the location of his room. Following the instructions of the the nurse Nicolas soon found himself before the closed door of Sir Axel's and Robyn's room.
He knocked politely on the door before opening it a little, just enough to look into the room. He didn't knew what he had been expecting to find on the other side of the door, but it hadn't been what there was. Uncertain whether he should just take his leave without saying anything or not he remained by the slightly opened doorway, his eyes big with worry.

Valdez watched Nicolas leave with a perplexed frown. He turned back to Mercedes with an uncertain expression; "did the boy just outsmart me?" he asked, pointing over his shoulder at where Nicolas had just been. He paused for a moment, then shook his head and chuckled as he concluded; "now I'm too proud to mad at him."
He walked back to the side of Mercedes bed, where he carefully sat down. "O well," he mused with a mild grin, "it would've probably been in bad taste of me anyway." He took Mercedes' hand and placed a kiss on it.

In the mean time, Nicolas had arrived at the room where Sir Axel and Robyn were lain. Elisabeth had looked up with an irritated expression on her face, expecting it to be a docter - it was nothing personal, she was just unable not to feel anger towards the people who'd brought her so much bad news, despite the fact that she knew it wasn't their fault. When she realised it was Nicolas and not any medical staff member, her expression softened. "Hello Nicolas," she said, managing a poor smile, "come in."

Chrissy, who'd been sitting on the side of Sir Axel's bed with her head down, didn't look up until she heard her mother say Nicolas' name. Then her head shot up and she looked at him with great, blurry eyes.
She jumped off the bed, ran over and hugged him. Pressing herself against him in a hug, sobbing on his shoulder. "It's Robyn... she's... she's...!" She didn't manage to get out much more, between tears and gasps. Besides, she didn't even want to say it anyway; somehow saying it made it too real.

"She's in a coma," Sir Axel finally said, in a soft, grim voice.

Anxious Mercedes waited for Valdez' reaction to Nicolas interruption. Had it been enough to keep Valdez from gloating over the wounded Sir Axel? To her surprise it had been. She smiled happily relieved when he sat down on the bed again and placed a kiss on top of her hand. She leaned towards him and placed a peck on his lips by means of a thank you for staying.

Meanwhile Nicolas felt all the more uncertain about going inside room after having seen the irritated expression on Elisabeth's face. That didn't really change when her expression turned into a poor smile and she invited him in. He was just about to excuse himself, thinking this to be more of a family moment that he shouldn't really be interrupting. B
ut before he could Chrissy had already buried her face in his chest. He put his arms around her, rubbing her back, a little uncertain. He took a few steps more into the room and closed the door behind him with is foot.
When Sir Axel said what Chrissy couldn't his expression turned completely blank for a moment, letting the news sink in. Then the realisation started in his eyes and ended with his lips forming a small silent 'o'. He didn't knew what to say or how to act. 'I'm sorry' came to mind, but that didn't nearly covered how horrible he felt for Chrissy, Sir Axel, Elisabeth and Robyn. Instead he held Chrissy a little closer and looked a little uncertain at Robyn. She looked so much like she was just sleeping, if you ignored all the hospital stuff surrounding her.
"How...?" was all he could manage after a long silence, "I thought that she was at school...?"
The moment he had said the words, he knew that he shouldn't have said them and he very much wished he could take them back.

Admittedly, Elisabeth gave Nicolas a bit of a disgruntled look when he said he thought Robyn was at school - being incredibly upset and understanding at the same time proved itself quite hard.

Sir Axel read along with his thoughts though, and he could understand. Deciding Nicolas might be more comfertable (and useful) being somewhere else, comforting Chrissy, he thought it would be best to ask him to leave. Besides, he wanted to be alone with Elisabeth for a moment.
"Nicolas, would you mind taking Chrissy outside?" he therefor asked, with a meaningful expression, "maybe get her a glass of water?"

In the mean time, at Mercedes' hospital room, a docter walked in. It was Casper.
He smiled when he saw Mercedes was up, then glared when his eyes met Valdez.

"What are you doing here?" Valdez snorted, "because I should inform you; none of us are any more or less insane than we ever were."
Casper gave him an unpleasent smile and replied; "I'll get you your antipsychotics later. Right now I'm here for Mercedes though." He smiled friendly at Mercedes then and explained: "there was such a sudden need for medics that I was called in. I do have a medical licience after all."
He walked over to the bed; "I just have to do a quick check-up. Get your vitals and things, now that you're awake."
Valdez kept glaring at him, then sighed and decided;
"I'll just make myself scarse for the moment... Wouldn't want to have any physical interrupted by a physician suddenly being without a head." He walked over to the door, adding before he left; "Estella, keep an eye on that creep. Make sure your mother's alright?"
Estella nodded, giving Capser an apologizing look, then watched her father leave the room.

Nicolas looked at the floor after the look Elisabeth had given him. He knew better then to take it personaly, but that didn't made it any less harsh. He was grateful to Sir Axel when he gave him a way out.
"No of course not," he therefor answered rather quickly moving back towards the door, guiding Chrissy as he went, "come on Chrissy."
Before closing the door behind them he looked back at Sir Axel, Elisabeth and Robyn for a moment. He felt like he should say something rather than just walking out, but he couldn't think of anything that wouldn't sound wrong or too insignificant. So he just decided against saying anything and closed the door behind them.
He walked with Chrissy to the waiting room, sat her down in one of the chairs there. Gave her a glass of water from the watercooler there a few moments later and sat down on the chair next to hers.
"It's going to be okay," he told her putting a arm over her shoulders, "you do know that right?"

Mercedes looked at the door when it started opening, thinking that it might be Nicolas coming back from Sir Axel. She was surprised though when she saw that it was Casper who came in. She sighed at the talk between him and Valdez and nodded in an understanding way when he told her why he was here and what he was going to do.
On the one hand she was glad when Valdez said that he was just going to take his leave before he would harm Casper, but on the hand she found it somewhat suspicious. And rolled her eyes again when Valdez told Estella that she should keep an eye on Casper.
"No harrasing Sir Axel," she called after him, hoping that he would listen, "you hear me?!"

Chrissy took the glass of water from Nicolas with slightly shaking hands, and immediatly took a zip from it. Afterwards she kept holding it close to her, sitting down on the waiting room chair with a sigh.
When Nicolas told her it was going to be alright, she smiled at him faintly. She leaned her head sideways, resting it on his shoulder. "You're probably right," she said in a small voice.
She fell silent for a moment, then her head suddenly shot up, she looked at Nicolas with big eyes; "how's your mom??" she asked, suddenly remembering and feeling very guilty for not having asked him.

Meanwhile, Casper frowned at Mercedes call-out after Valdez. "Just a moment, please," he said, taking his beeper of his belt and starting to speed-typ a text on it. When he was done he put it back on his belt, looked up and started taking Mercedes' vitals, beginning with the heart monitor she was on, checking her pulse and bloodpressure. When he noticed Estella's questioning look, he smiled at her and explained; "I just texted a colleage of mine to welcome your father to Sir Axel's hospital room with friendly smiles and a lot of sedatives."

At that very same point in time, a torn Valdez was wandering through the hospital hallways. On the one hand, he (somehow) felt very obliged not to blemish Mercedes' trust - an unnatural feeling of responsibility he decided to blame on her being wounded. On the other hand, he did really, really, really want to have his gloating moment with Sir Axel. Finally, he did manage to make the right decision (it was bound to happen some time), and he walked past the room his nemesis was lain in.
Instead he approached one of the docters and demanded to know how Sir Axel was, and what had happened to him exactly.
"I can't tell you that," the docter protested, appearantly feeling quite uncomfertable saying that to Valdez, "patient-docter confidentiality."
"A good point," Valdez said with a false smile, "but I have a better point yet, namely that if you don't tell me, I'll consider myself forced to storm into that room and find out for myself, in terms of shaking Axel roughly and listening carefully for the cracking of broken bones."
Of course, this convinced the docter to - reluctantly - tell Valdez what had happened. Though, in an unfortunate slip of the tongue he let loose that Robyn was hurt as well, comatosed actually. The docter immediatly knew how wrong he'd been in that, especially when he noticed Valdez expression, being nothing short of ecstatically cheerful.

Nicolas was glad when Chrissy agreed with him that things where going to be alright. He stroked her hair gently when she rested her head on his shoulder. When she suddenly lifted it and looked at him with big eyes he got a little worried. Had he done something wrong? He calm and gentle smile curled his lips upwards though when she asked him about his mom.
"She's fine," he answered, "a little dazed because the sedatives are too strong for her, but the doctors say that she'll just need two weeks of rest."

Much like Estella Mercedes was wondering what Casper had just messaged, but knowing the hospital policy around Valdez she had a pretty good guess. When Casper told Estella what he had texted she couldn't suppress a small chuckle.
"That just might work," she replied with a smile and then continued on a more serious note, "How is Sir Axel doing?"

Chrissy couldn't help but chuckle a little when Nicolas said Mercedes' sedatives were a bit strong - she suddenly pictured Mercedes sitting in a hopsital bed, chuckled at the pink elephants she was seeing. "I'm sorry," she quickly said, "funny thought."
Then her expression softened when she said: "I'm really glad to hear she's ok though. She hessitated for a moment, then asked: "how's your dad? I saw him when he came storming in. He looked like murder - well, more than usual I mean."

Over at another room, Casper was relieved that Mercedes could appreciate the content of his text. His expression darkened though when she asked about Sir Axel.
"Uhm, his surgery went well," Casper started out, "and he should be fine." Then after a long silence he added: "Robyn was hurt though. She's... she's in a coma."
When she heard, Estella's eyes grew wide; "Robyn?" she managed to whisper, getting up out of her chair.
Casper gave her a look of sympathy and nodded. He was going to say something in reply when he was interrupted by a loud scream that a keen ear would recognize as coming from Elisabeth.
"O no," Casper sighed unhappily, then he quickly excused himself to Mercedes and Estella and hurried off to where the scream had come from.
Estella gave her mother an uncertain look, fearing she already knew what'd happened.

The short version of the story was that Valdez couldn't resist seeing Robyn in a coma, combined with the faces Sir Axel and Elisabeth would have due to it. So obviously, he'd invited himself to this very personal scene and had acted beyond cruel. And while Sir Axel had to reach into the depts of himself to keep calm (in this, being helped by the sedatives) Elisabeth had flung for Valdez; letting out an enraged cry she jumped for his throat, sinking her nails into his flesh, literrary capable of killing him for this.
Valdez hadn't seen this coming, and thus found himself tackled by the blond vampire woman, knocking his head against the hospital counter in his fall.
Elisabeth was still sitting on top of him afterwards, smacking him across the face several times and shouting at him; "you wretch! You monster! You foul, loathsome creature!"

A lot of hospital staff was standing around, watching but not really interrupting; none of them really seemed to mind Valdez getting his face bruised. They quickly came to regret this though, when Valdez regained conciousness and started getting angry; he himself had a lot of built-up rage inside of him, and this was just the thing to bring it out. He swung at Elisabeth, slapping her across the face hard enough to have her flying off of him, being caught in the arms of Casper who had just arrived at the scene. In what was probably a combination of the hard hit to her head and the fact that she'd already felt like fainting for the past hour, Elisabeth lay there KO in the vampire's arms.
Valdez sat up and looked at her for a moment with an annoyed expression, muttering under his breath; "and they say I have impuls-control problems..."
He was about to get up when Casper shouted at the standing by crowd (in a sort-off 'are you kidding me' kindof way); "people, wake up! Somebody sedate him already!"

At that point, the crowd surrounding the scene finally seemed to snap out of their bystander-role, and jumped Valdez. Valdez in turn jumped to his feet alongside them, as soon as he heard the word 'sedate'.
There was a bit of a struggle, though it didn't go far. With Valdez already being a bit dizzy from Elisabeth's blow, and having one syringe stuck into his chest before he could even get to his feet, he quickly realized this was a lost battle and didn't bother to struggle.
After he'd passed out he was put on a hospital bed, to which he was strapped (the braces weren't really strong enough, it was more of a better-safe-than-sorry thing), and attached to an infuse with a heavy sedative. Then the bed was wheeled out of sight of Sir Axel and Elisabeth, who was slowly waking up.
Incidentally they rolled Valdez through the waiting room area, where Nicolas and Chrissy were sitting. Chrissy looked up when she saw a bed coming, expecting Mercedes or Robyn - or anyone else she knew to be hurt already - to be in the bed. A confused look came to her face when she saw who it was.

After some time Casper returned to Mercedes' room. "I'm sorry," he said to Mercedes and Estella upon returning. He looked a little muffled, he then realized, from the fight with Valdez, and he quickly recomposed his hair and white coat. Afterwards he sighed, managed an unconvincing smile and said: "where were we?"

Nicolas wasn't certain about how to respond when Chrissy chuckled after he had said that his mom was on too strong sedatives. He smiled when she said that she was glad to hear his mom was fine. He pulled a little uncertain face when she asked about hid dad though.
"I hope that he's still with my mom and Estella," he answered, "he's fine, he calmed down. How are you feeling?"

Mercedes got worried when Casper's expression darkened after she had asked about Sir Axel. His condition hadn't worsened, had it? She was both relieved and confused when he told her that Sir Axel's surgery had gone fine and that he would be alright. She put a hand over her mouth when she learned that Robyn was in a coma. She put a hand on Estella's shoulder when she stood up from her chair.
"What as that?!" she asked confused when a scream echoed through the hospital and Casper disappeared after that. She looked at her youngest daughter and tried to smile reassuringly at her.

Chrissy was nowhere near as confused as Nicolas when he saw his father KO strapped to a hospital bed. He jumped up and went to the side of the bed with his father in it.
"Dad?!" he asked worried, though knowing his father could not respond, then looked over at a nearby doctor or nurse, "What happened?"

When Casper returned Mercedes wasn't sure how to response. He looked a little muffled and when he quickly restyled himself to look more decent. He tried to just went on as if nothing had happened, but she wasn't going to let that happen.
"What happened?" she asked instead, "Where did you go? Who screamed?" Then after a moment of silence she added: "Where's Valdez?"

Chrissy smiled appreciative at Nicolas when he asked how she was feeling. "Better," she replied in a soft voice. She rested her head against his chest and added: "better now that you're here."
Not all that much later was the time that Valdez' was being wheeled past them.
The nearby docter that Nicolas approached already had a tired look on his face, even before Nicolas had asked was was going on. "He was harrassing other patients," he explained in a rather avoiding manner. Especially with Chrissy right behind Nicolas, listening into the conversation, he didn't think it would be a good idea to go into too much detail on how Valdez had openly gloated at Robyn's coma, taunting the two grieving parents, and then had knocked one out cold. So, skipping over that part, he went on; "he's alright, he's just sedated."
Chrissy looked at the docter with big eyes. She already suspected who the patients Valdez had 'harrassed' were. "Are they ok?" she asked in a small voice.
"They're ok," the docter confirmed, a small reassuring smile at her, "all of them. But I'd give them a moment if I were you."
Chrissy nodded silently, looking away, to the room Valdez had just been wheeled into - a resentful look on her face.

Back at Mercedes room, Casper had some inconvienent questions to awnser. He hessitated for a moment, but when Mercedes added to the list of questions: "where's Valdez?" he got the feeling she already knew.
"He uhm- he didn't manage to keep his promise to you," he replied in a fairly neutral tone (he would've liked to sound more sympathetic, but only just managed to keep himself from sounding sarcastic, in the sense of 'what-did-you-expect'?)

Uncertain Nicolas looked after the bed his father was being wheeled away in. He had a fairly good idea what had happened, which made him ashamed. He didn't dare to look at Chrissy because of that.
"Thanks," he said to the doctor, "I'm glad everyone is okay... I'm sorry for the trouble he caused..."

Mercedes let out a deep sigh when Casper told her that Valdez hadn't been capable of keeping his promise to her.
"Are Sir Axel, Elisabeth, Robyn and Chrissy all right?" she asked and then added in a more upset-with-Valdez-tone "and where is Valdez now?"

Chrissy kept looking at the room at which Valdez had been wheeled into, obviously upset, until she noticed Nicolas. He looked quite ashamed, with all of this going on, and she sympathized with him; he couldn't help the fact that Valdez was his father, and she felt she had to make it clear she didn't blame him.
She turned to Nicolas, squeezing his hand, as she pointed out in a sweet tone; "you have nothing to apologize for."

Meanwhile, in Mercedes room, Casper sighed and lowered his clipboard and pen for a moment. "Sir Axel snd Elisabeth are ok, considering circumstances, and Chrissy wasn't in the room fortunatly. And Valdez is probably now being taken into an empty room, where he can stay put on the bed until his sedation weares off."

~THE END~