(Lost) February challenge

[akonken.livejournal.com]

(Events caught up with me a bit before I got the chance to write this story, so it's not current, but that doesn't really matter.)

They'd been in the hospital for hours now. Rose was grateful for the presence of those around her - Stitches, China, Rosie - but right now she just wanted them all to shut up. Everything seemed to be too loud, too fast, and too removed from her as she pressed her forehead against the glass and stared at Sam.

He was lying on a bed among several machines, the clockwork inside him seemingly trying to join with them. His face was covered in bruises, his nose broken, and he had cuts and scrapes all over him, where he wasn't covered in casts. He looked more fragile than she'd ever seen him.

Right then she wanted to break the window and run into him, pouring all of her mind and soul into healing him. She wanted to force the doctors to stop hurting him (although they couldn't see how they were, of course; couldn't see that his body was different), to force them to let her and Rosie in so they could save his life, to save the life of the man who was sometimes brother, sometimes father, but always family.

She didn't want to lose someone else she loved.

For the first time in a long time, she wanted what she wanted to matter.

And behind her, a plan was being concocted.