a rude awakening {RHYS}

Ellie was roaming the hospital again. Dommi had told her to stay put on the Ground Floor, where she really should be, but a couple of mishaps and her curiousity led her up the elevator onto the other floors. She didn't find much so far: there were only injuries she had seen before or have heard of before, and that simply bored the young girl.

The things on the Fifth Floor, on the other hand, were a little different. They spiced the hospital up, and Ellie definitely liked that. There were scary, odd, cool (for Ellie, anyway. Not the patient) and plain disgusting effects. She couldn't help but smile at all of the patients in an attempt to brighten up their day.

On the way to the last ward, Ellie slammed into a metal door. "Owch," she whispered. She then gasped at the sight inside.

There was a body of someone she had never seen before, lying on a fluffy mattress inside. There was the usual things wired up to him, so Ellie thought it was a normal patient. She looked around. There had to be something special here, there had to be.

The last thing Rhys Edmunds had known, Lena - his Lena - was in danger. For Rhys, that was mere moments ago. In fact, for him, it was still happening.

Eyelids began to flutter, but did not open, as the man started to thrash feebly. "L..." His mouth was slow to form proper words, and his voice, suffering great disuse, had trouble creating the sounds.

Still he tried.

"Le..." he rasped. "Le..."

Ellie was sure she had been in that room for ages. There was nothing special about it. She groaned in boredom, choosing to sit down on the chair next to the man.

Soon enough, Ellie could hear the man say something. She blinked and shut her eyes tightly; she was so scared. WhatdoIsayWhatdoIsayWhatdoIsay? She was trembling.

"Le's not here," she whispered, just enough for that man to hear.

Rhys paused at the sound of the girl's voice, only to thrash with greater earnest.

"Le!" he croaked in panic. "Lena!"

Blue eyes flew open, only to squint against the blinding light of a world they hadn't viewed in sixteen years.

Rhys gazed wildly about himself. Where was he? What was going on? Where was Lena? His breathing came in panicked, painful gasps. There were rails on the side of the bed, caging him in. Gripping one, he shook it in a weak attempt to dislodge it.

"Le..na..." he panted, tears pricking at his eyes. He tried to raise his voice in a shout. "Le!"

Ellie blinked as this strange man tried to dismantle - well, at least that's what it looked like - the hospital bed. Well, there was nothing she could do. She could shriek, but considering the isolation of this place, she would rather not.

Hearing this man try to scream someone's name, Ellie gasped. This person... whoever he was... he knew a Lena. That made Ellie trust him just a little more. A tiny bit more.

"Uh... is that Lena, uh, Lena Vorstenbach?" she squeaked, still petrified.

Rhys' head shot in the direction of the girl. He immediately grabbed for his wand... which he didn't have, of course - he was wearing a hospital gown. So, instead, he thrust his hand out towards her. Wandless spells weren't his greatest strong suit, but he could do damage enough with them.

"Wh-ere is she?" he demanded, voice hoarse and cracking painfully. "Wh-at did you do w-ith her?"

"Uh, she's with Vanka at their home," Ellie replied, moving slowly away from this man's hand. Merlin knows what he could do to her. "They're drinking... tea, I think. Or teaching her how to throw daggers. Either way, they're fine, I promise."

Ellie then raised her eyebrow, and with as much calmness she could possibly put in her voice despite the situation. "Uh, a more likely question would be, who are you?"

Rhys stared at her, taking a moment to catch his breath. His outstretched hand remained steadily trained on her.

"Li-ar," he rasped. "We don't kn-ow a Vanka. Her sister died y-ears ago." The man swallowed, blue gaze hardened with resolve.

"Now, you tell me wh-ere my girl... no, wh-ere my fiancée is, or I swear to Merlin and all the W-elsh gods, I'll h-ex you."

Ellie shook her head violently. "Vanka's not her sister, you idiot," she whispered bitterly. She was beginning to get irritated now. "She's her daughter! And my best friend, I might add." Okay, Vanka wasn't technically Lena's daughter, but missing a little detail won't hurt, right?

The raven haired girl shook her head. "She's at home! I swear! I can get her here if you want! But Mum would kill me..." Ellie then raised her hands. "I swear in the name of Merlin she is!"

"No..." Rhys whispered. "I d-on't believe you. She's nineteen! H-ow could she have a k-id old enough to thr-ow daggers? She d-oesn't h-ave a kid at all. I'd be the f-irst one she'd tell.

"Who are you? And h-ow did I end up here?" He shook his own head. "Forget that - I wanna see h-er. Call her. NOW!" He winced as the effort to shout the command caused his throat to burn. It was as though his voice hadn't been used in years.

"Wait, what?" asked Ellie. "Do you have amnesia or something? Lena's thirty-five! Vanka's fifteen! And why would she tell you anything? She has never mentioned anyone like you in her entire life!

"I'm Ellie. Ellie O'Malley," spluttered Ellie, her string of words going faster than a bullet. "Daughter of Dommi O'Malley nee Cartwright. I'm fifteen years old and - " She stopped when this man asked her to call Lena. "I don't have her mobile number!" she snapped.

"No!" Rhys denied vehemently, though his voice was still hardly more than a whisper. "I'm h-er bloody fiancé - I th-ink I know h-ow old she is! We've b-een together since b-fore we even kn-ew what that meant."

Once more, the man shook his head, the action making him feel light-headed. "Y-ou're lying. We just graduated Durm-strang two... t- ... two y-ears ago.

"M-mobile?" his voice cracked in a manner that sounded particularly damaging to the vocal chords. His arm began to sway unsteadily. "Don... 't e-ven kn-ow what... is. Use th' fl-oo. An-and get... get me.. ge..." He slumped back against the pillows unconscious, arm falling to his side, already having spent himself.

"Well then, where have you been all her life, fiancé?" she shrieked. "Auntie Lena is miserable, you know that? She's fine when Vanka and I are home, but as soon as we leave home for school she gets drunk and hungover and she cries. I know, 'cause I see bottles of Edmunds Vodka in her trash can every single day."

Ellie blinked. "No, you graduated over eighteen years ago!" Her voice was becoming shrill now, and she rarely ever sounded that way. The girl nearly put up her hand to her mouth in shock, but doing that was like a death sentence.

"Water?" asked Ellie. Getting a cup from the nearest water dispenser, she filled it up with water and gently gave it to him. "Here you go."

Dommi had been paranoid for hours. Ellie was nowhere in sight since one o'clock. It was four something now, so that was definitely bad.

She was on the fifth floor, the last place on earth she thought Ellie would be. And most of the time, Ellie was right where she had expected her not to be. And of course, there was where Rhys was supposed to be, and she wanted to check on him.

Peeking through the door, Dommi then realized that not only was a red head in a coma on the bed, there was also a young dark skinned girl sitting by the bedside offering him water. "Ellie?" she whispered. "What are you doing here?"

Ellie very nearly screamed when she saw Dommi come in through that door. Her heart was thumping like a drum, and she didn't feel like moving at all.

"Oh Merlin, Dommi," she announced, immediately standing up from her chair. "I-I can explain... h-he just suddenly woke up and he kept calling Auntie Lena's name... he-he said he was her fiancé... and he thought I was lying when I said she was thirty-five... oh Dommi, who is he?"

Dommi gasped in shock. Rhys actually woke up? That in itself was a miracle. Dommi had been waiting for it to happen for sixteen very long years.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dommi panted, sounding shocked. Though it was counteracted with the grin forming on her face. "You should have told me, Ellie. That would have been the right thing to do!"

Dommi then shoved Ellie out of the way and squeezed Rhys's hand. "Come on, Rhys! This is me, Dommi! Come on... come on..."

Dommi shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, okay? I didn't know! I thought you would kill me!" She could feel herself almost crying at the thought. The grin on Dommi's face sort of comforted her, though.

Ellie raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you actually know this guy?" she asked in shock. "Is he really Auntie Lena's fiance?"

Dommi only nodded in reply as she squeezed Rhys's hand in an attempt to wake him. The charts showed no better results, but for once she threw her Healer training out of the window and went with her heart. "Of course I know him!" she sighed. "He was my year mate, and after he and Lens got engaged, I was going to be their Maid of Honour!" She shook her head. "Well, no chance of that happening, huh?"

Rhys remembered this.

They were running across the Field of Dreams. It was beautiful.

"You can't catch me!" came the challenge. Rhys picked up the pace, catching the girl about the waist.

"What was that?" he asked, grinning as he pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

Lena wriggled out of his hold, taking one of his hands in her own. "Rhys-"

The vision shimmered.

"Le?" Rhys squeezed her hand, trying to make her come back into focus. "Lena..." His brow furrowed and a moment later, his eyelids moved sluggishly open. He stared at the woman standing over his bed, squinting thoughtfully. Blue eyes flew wide and Rhys tried to pull back.

"Paper," he rasped out, breathing panicky once more. "Sh-ow me a paper."

Dommi shrieked. She was just so shocked, she couldn't help it. Panting, she muttered, "Oh my God, you're actually conscious. Don't leave me... don't leave Lena... don't leave Vanka..."

Getting a paper from her pocket, she put it on the bed where Rhys could reach and put a pen on top of it. "What is it?" she asked. "What is it?"

Rhys groaned, and even that bit of sound made his throat hurt. "Dommi, breathe," he rasped. "And I m-eant a newspaper. I..." Tears pricked at his eyes. "I wanna see the date.

"Water, t-oo. Please."

Dommi pressed her face against her palm. "Oh, right." She then summoned her newspaper from her office with a flick of her wand and gave it to Rhys as quickly as she could. She then snatched the cup of water Ellie had in her hand and gave it to the man.

The redhead nodded in thanks, part of him already convinced that this woman was, in fact, the girl he had gone to school with. He still wanted to be certain, though.

Setting the paper in his lap, he accepted the water and took a thirsty swallowing, somehow reminding himself to take it slowly. Suddenly, he felt reluctant to look at the newspaper, his stomach twisting into knots.

What if it really was sixteen years later?

Rhys finished half the cup of water and slowly handed it back to the woman - to Dommi. He lifted the newspaper, blue eyes focusing on the date. Then, burying his face in the paper, he began to cry.

Dommi sighed. She patted Rhys on the back. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Is everything alright? Should I get - "

The blonde woman had to stop at the last word. She had already told Lena he was dead. She couldn't tell her right now she was lying and he had only been comatose for the last six years. Death doesn't quite work that way.

"What's wrong?" Rhys demanded, tossing the paper aside as he looked up, blue eyes tormented and grieved. "I just woke up to find out half my life has passed me by, and...

"Where's Lena? Is she alright, at least? Did she..." He had to stop to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. Still, he found himself whispering hoarsely, again, though for a slightly different reason.

"She probably thought it was all her fault. She probably still thinks it's her fault." Rhys looked up at Dommi, expression full of hurt and sympathy for the girl he had loved since he was eleven years old. "Where is she? I wanna see her."