i said where you been?

[Cristie Stjerna]

{ooc: Sorry this is so wordy.}

Cristie was falling. Well, she knew she was actually falling. In fact, she was very aware that this was a dream.

A vicious wind snapped violently at her face, her hair, clothes. She was hurtling through the air helplessly. Her stomach felt like a hollow block of ice, her heart felt like it was in her mouth. It was very damp. She was in the clouds, tumbling through them. When she broke through, she tried to suck in enough air to gasp, but it was as though she was streaking too fast to be able to catch so much as a mouthful of oxygen. Far below she saw the lights of a city. In her heart, she was scared, but in her mind she knew that she couldn't die. It was only a dream. Unless... wait, what if she was dead? She didn't remember much, only that her fall had been a pretty bad one. That was nonsense, though. Dead people didn't dream, that was just silly. She knew it was only a dream, because she felt that hazy vagueness. Things weren't crystal clear, and she wasn't really sure why she was falling. It was the fuzziness that comes along with all dreams.

At long last, she hit the ground, and... rode? She was sitting up on Shimmer. She was on the mare's bare back, tucked behind the saddle. Somebody was in the saddle in front of her, controlling the reins. He was taller than her, and his body was strong. His smell was achingly familiar, and she rested her forehead against his back.

"Mr. Waters, Mr. Stevenson?" The tall, dark skinned man stood at the entrance to the emergency waiting room. It was around six pm, which would be considered late-ish for the tiny hospital in the tiny town. There were only two people in the waiting room, and in fact, the doctor recognized Mr. Waters' face from newspapers. There was no doubt that these two were here waiting for the young girl he'd just operated on.

Motioning to the two, the doctor headed back down the hall to the large, backlit square, used for displaying x-rays. "Well I've got good news. Ms. Stjerna's injuries are more serious than what we usually get in here. On their own they wouldn't cause too much trouble, maybe a month or so to heal and then a few more weeks doing physio and building up strength again, but they're rather cumulative." He pointed to one of four x-rays. "She's got five cracked ribs in total. They'll be sore for a while but they'll heal on their own. They're just fractures. I'm surprised they weren't snapped when the horse rolled. I understand it was a rather large colt." The next x-ray showed her shoulder, arm and part of her chest. "She's got a severely broken collarbone. We had to go in and stabilize it with screws. She'll have those in there for life but there were no problems with the surgery and it should heal with no problem."

He went on to explain the complications that had occured when Sky had lurched back to his feet and began bucking while her foot was still in the stirrup. Her knee had hyper-extended, or bent forwards at an unnatural angle. The tendons had been stretched but no other extensive damage was present. She would get by with just a knee brace, but she'd need to take care not to overexert the joint before it had fully healed.

The doctor flipped through a few charts. "We took a full body x-ray to see if there was any other damage and saw some internal bleeding, just a small rupture in the left kidney. It stopped on its own but she's lost a good amount of blood and is going to feel very weak for a while. We're going to need to keep her here where we can watch for about a week before she can go home. And she'll need to stay off her feet for a while. The ribs and collarbone should heal within four to six weeks and she'll need physio for her knee for probably the first month of that."

The doctor motioned again, leading them to another room down the hall, in the intensive care ward. There were three beds in the room, but only two were occupied. Cristie lay in the farthest one.

Fuck. She felt sick. All she was aware of was that everything was very, very yellow. She was in a hospital, there was no doubt about that. Her whole body hurt. Even her face hurt. She would have reached up to feel it but couldn't have mustered the energy if she'd tried. At least, from what she could feel, she didn't have any scary tubes up her nose. Out of the corner of one eye though, she was was aware of an IV drip. Fuck, she was hooked up to one of those. She heaved a deep sigh and suddenly flinched. Jesus, her chest hurt. Vaguely aware of voices down the hall, she mumbled quietly, not even sure what she was trying to say. It wasn't as though they'd be able to hear her anyway. A nurse seemed to appear out of nowhere, saying something about something. Cristie really had no idea what she said, and turned her head away, trying to make sense of her thoughts. Friggin' anesthetic.

[Pixel]

Kyler jumped to his feet like something in the chair had just bitten him when his name was spoken by the doctor. Only he and Mr. Waters were in the waiting room. He had taken to pacing for a good while, but eventually Waters had shoved him in a chair and told him to sit down before he wore a hole in their carpet. So he'd settled for jiggling his knee, bouncing it up and down.

He listened as the doctor gave them the full run down. His anatomy was lacking, and his medical knowledge was worse, so he didn't have much of a clue about what was going on. Ribs and collar bone were pretty straight forward. Holy shit he thought to himself as he listened to what seemed a ridiculously long list of injuries, seeing the wreck in his mind all over again.

He bit his lip until it bled, but he didn't notice, even when that bloody metallic taste touched his tongue. He just swallowed and continued to bite as the doctor led them into the ICU.

He paused as he caught sight of her, blanching slightly. Good geeze, she looked awful. He sucked in a breath and swallowed, then walked slowly over to her, kneeling down beside her bed. "Cris" he whispered, his voice coming out a little strangled as he gently brushed a strand of hair back from her face, his fingers trembling. He couldn't remember ever being so scared in his life. His hand gently traced down her arm to grasp her hand, ever so gently. Damn, she looked so fragile, felt so breakable. He continued to chew on his lip. He didn't know what to say. It felt awkward to say anything when she might not even hear him anyway. "Hey babe, I love you" he murmured anyway, loud enough for only her to hear...if she even could hear.

[Cristie Stjerna]

Well this just sucked. Aching all over, she made a pathetic attempt to turn her head back the way it had been facing. The voices were in the room now, hovering around her bed. One of them, in fact, was kneeling at the edge of her bed, level with her. "Cris." Vaguely she interpreted her name. The voice was familiar... Cris heaved a relieved sigh, wincing visibly as she did so. Kyler.

She felt him brush a lock of hair away from her eyes, run his fingers down her arm, and grasp her hand. Her body relaxed, and she flicked her eyes open, meeting his and managing a weak smile. "I love you." "Hey." She whispered, squeezing his fingers gently. Just that seemed to take a good deal of energy out of her. Beyond Kyler's face, that gorgeous face, she saw Mr. Waters. Her forehead creased with worry. She remembered falling, but she remembered Sky falling as well. "How's Sky?" She murmured, looking back to Kyler with concern.

Closing his eyes momentarily, heer ribcage rose and fell with shallow breaths to avoid stressing her aching ribs. "It wasn't his fault." She said softly. "A rock hit him in the face." The doctor cleared his throat. "Let's try and keep this a calm visit, she's going to get tired out very quickly."

Cristie shot him a glare. There was a lot she needed to get confirmed before she could even think about being tired. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Vimy!" She gasped, wincing as she tried to breath without moving her chest. "I left her in my apartment when I went out to ride..." She knew her pit bull wouldn't do any damage to the house, and she could probably hold in her business for a good half day or so, but it hurt her to imagine the dog all alone, confused, hungry and upset. And needing to piss. Her vivid blue eyes went right back to Kyler's. "She's gotta go out and get fed." Cris was clearly fretting.

{ooc: Sorry this was so late and sucky. =(}

[Pixel]

Mr. Waters shook his head slightly at the girl's concern. "For the most part he's fine. Just a strained tendon, but he'll be back on track in a few weeks, maybe a month." Of course that was being optimistic. With Kili's tendency to be cautious, it would probably be two months before the colt was back on the track, but neither of them was worried about it. It was part of running a training operation, and one just had to take everything in side.

Vimy! Cris exclaimed suddenly. "Shh, shh" Kyler breathed, the hand that wasn't holding hers brushing another strand of hair back from her face. The doctor was giving him a rather dirty look, and Kyler didn't have the heart to return the gaze. "She's fine, babe" he murmured, his thumb making little circlels on the back of her hand in a soothing sort of manner. "Don't stress it. I let her out before we came over and she's just going to stay with me in my apartment."

He was almost pained to look at her, she just looked so miserable. Cris was so independent and so almost unbeatable that it killed him to see her so weak and dependent on others. It was against her nature or something.

"Everything's fine" he murmured, his voice still soothing. "Don't stress. It's all taken care of. Just rest and get better" he whispered, leaning in to press a gentle kiss on her forehead, his touch like a butterfly, terrified to touch her too much and cause pain or damage or something. The doctor didn't look too impressed with the gesture either, but Kyler couldn't help himself....