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Sarah keeps a bedside vigil by Layla until she wakes up. They briefly talk about what happened the day before, labels are brought up by accident, and then they both succumb to sleepiness.

TRIGGER WARNING: Some discussion of the use of Layla's powers in the recent plot briefly occurs, though not in great detail.


Even though she had been assured that Layla would be just fine, that she had overexerted herself and would wake up in due course, there was little anyone could do to keep Sarah from her bedside. She had to leave for meals and to sleep herself, of course, but other than that Sarah did whatever she could to keep vigil over the dormant blonde. This afternoon was more of the same, though worrying about the other girl was taking its toll on her, keeping her up at night even when she was in her own room, which resulted in her asleep in her bedside chair. Sarah's head was resting on the side of the medlab bed, her hand reached out to hold Layla's but having slipped slightly when she drifted off, leaving just her fingertips brushing against Layla's palm.

Waking was like swimming through the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean and trying to find sunlight with the pressure of all that water pressing down around her. Panic began to set in as Layla thought, What if I can't wake up? What if I'm stuck? Her heart rate spiked with the idea that this was what being in a coma was like. She struggled through that ocean of nothing, trying to figure out how to pull herself back up to the surface. And just when she thought she would just fight like this forever sounds started to filter into her awareness. The beeping of the heart monitor, the soft sound of someone breathing, the buzz of lights, the clinking of something far off in the distance...

Layla's eyes shot open with all the mental force of trying to get through that ocean of darkness. And she instantly regretted it. Her hand darted up to shield her eyes from the light even as she closed them and curled into a fetal position. "Ow!" Her other hand twitched and she found the touch of someone else there. Not really sure if she was willing to open her eyes again, Layla just tugged on the hand gently while reaching to pull a pillow over her head.

Stirring at the sound of someone calling out, Sarah slowly lifted her head and turned to see if Layla was ok. The blonde girl was moving a pillow out in front of her face, definitely conscious and awake, and her other hand was tugging on Sarah's. She squeezed back carefully, not wanting to startle her. "Layla, you're awake!" Which was stating the obvious but she was so relieved to see her conscious, even if she was hiding behind a pillow for some reason. Then she clued in and realized why; it was pretty bright in the room, after all, especially for someone who'd been out for such a long time. "Oh, I'll fix that, just a sec!" Squeezing Layla's hand once more quickly, Sarah jumped up, almost stubbing her toe on the edge of the bed, then went over and dimmed the lights to make it easier on her eyes. "There we go, that should be better." She walked back over and took her seat again, reaching out to hold Layla's hand once again, patiently waiting for her to emerge from behind the pillow at her own pace.

Counting to three as if it would help her eyes with the light, Layla peeked out from under the pillow, then disappeared quickly. "Ow, fuck. No, seriously. No light. Kill 'em totally," she croaked, throat obviously dry. "Kill the lights, shut the door, shut the curtains on the window to the hallway." This was, of course, all too familiar for Layla because it hadn't even been two months since she'd woken up in this exact same state. "I fucking hate this part," she muttered. Thinking past ow my head and shit, light is bright was pretty much impossible right now.

Sarah popped up and did just that, flicking the lights off, pulling the curtains closed, shutting the door, and then carefully feeling her way across the dark room back to her seat. She had to feel around to make sure she'd found the chair and bed but by the time she'd done so her own eyes were starting to adjust to the lack of light and she was able to sit down, careful not to miss the seat. "'K, all done." she said quietly, figuring that if light was having that bad of an effect on Layla then talking loud would probably be a bad idea too. Feeling around on the bed for her hand once again, she looked over in her general direction. She wanted to ask how she was feeling but that was kind of obvious. "Can I get you something, some water or something to eat?"

"Water." The word was muffled by the pillow but Layla was mostly sure it was loud enough. Mostly. She lifted the pillow away slowly, eyes cracking open with a fair bit of trepidation. She still had to squint, even in the low light, but her brain and retinae weren't doing their best impression of being on fire so that was good enough. To say Layla was slow moving was a gross understatement. Trying to push herself up was a fantastic failure. She settled for rolling onto her side, even though it felt like the hardest thing in the world. "Probably gonna be stuck on those protein shake things for like a day before they lemme eat real food. You know where the button is to move the bed up? Moving's....hard."

In anticipation of her waking up, and also for Sarah to have if she'd wanted any, there was a pitcher of ice water on one of the tables, along with several paper cups. Sarah carefully felt around to make sure she didn't knock anything over, then slowly poured up a glass of water for Layla, filling it until it was a little over 1/2 full so it wouldn't be easily spilled in the darkness. "Here you, I'm putting it in your hand." She moved the glass over to her other hand, which was still holding one of Layla's, so the blonde could take the glass with that hand. "I don't know where the button is but just say when, hon, 'k?" Once Layla had the water, Sarah touched her then empty hand to the bed frame, quietly telling the bed to slowly move up for her.

Holding a glass was a lot of effort. Layla didn't want to tell Sarah that because Sarah was trying to help. Hell, Layla couldn't even pick the damn thing up to drink. Instead of thinking about how much she wanted a really long straw, she relaxed into the bed. It rose to a decent position so Layla was upright but still sort of laying down so when she inevitably passed out again it'd be comfortable enough. "When. What time is it? What day is it?"

Telling the bed to stop, Sarah took her hand off of the bed frame and returned it to her own lap. She sat there, legs crossed, able to make out Layla's form now in the bed as her eyes continued to adjust. "It's Saturday, in the afternoon. You've been passed out since yesterday." It didn't really sound like it had been a very long time, not when she'd said it aloud, but Sarah had spent the majority of that time with her in the medlab, waiting for her to regain consciousness, and it had certainly felt like a very long time.

Layla groaned. She sort of cradled the glass of water against her stomach because the thought of trying to raise it up was exhausting enough. "Thought I was dying or somethin'," she admitted quietly, in part due to her throat and in part just because she didn't want to somehow jinx herself by saying it too loud. God, her head was pounding but she didn't want to call the doctor in because that would involve lights and shit and light was bad. But her head hurt, everything ached and she just sort wanted to sleep again. God, this month was gonna suck. Again. "'S the kid okay?"

"You're ok now though, it's going to be ok." Sarah tried to smile but that was such an entirely depressing thought, that Layla could have... yeah, no, she didn't want to linger on that. And then Layla asked something about a kid. Frowning a little, Sarah squinted in the darkness and tried to figure out what she'd meant. "Kid? What kid's that, hon?" They had been apart for a nice while when all the chaos had gone down so it was likely that she was talking about something that had happened while they were separated.

Looking at Sarah, Layla wound up squinting to verify she was really frowning. How was this even news? "The kid." Yeah, that was going to clarify so much, right? "The one I zombified. The kid that died. There was this guy...this lightning guy I didn't see when we hid and the kid got hit. And he died. But then he woke up." Layla cast a longing glance down at her glass of water. "Are there straws anywhere?"

Her eyes went a bit wide at that. A kid had died, and Layla had resurrected him? Hoooooooly crap. That certainly explained why she'd been unconscious then, much like last time with the dog in the woods, but an actual person? "Oh, Layla, I... I didn't know." That was huge news because wow. Shaking her head a little as she tried to break out of her daze from that news, Sarah continued. "I didn't hear anything, I'm guessing he must be ok then because I didn't hear anything about it." No news about a dead kid that she could recall, and she figured that would have been the kind of thing people would've talked about. She looked around for straws, wondering why she'd ask, before thinking that the last time Layla had been out she was pretty tired and weak afterward, and here she was giving her a glass of water without even thinking about that. "Oh, dammit, I'll go check. Or I can help you if you want. Gosh, I'm not being a very good girlfriend here, am I?" The word had come out without her thinking about it, thanks to her berating of herself over things.

She was definitely out of it because her reaction to all of that was to smirk and go, "So you're my girlfriend?"

Wait, what? Then Sarah realized what she'd said. "Oh, uh. Yeah, I... I guess I am." Which would have made Layla her girlfriend. It was a good thing that it was dark inside because it hid all of the blushing she was doing right about then. "And you're mine. Girlfriend, I mean." She still had to find a straw for her though, no matter what she was going to call her. "I'm sorry, I'll go get you a straw or something."

Cue Layla giggling quietly. For no real reason. She wasn't sure why it was funny. It was just...she had been avoiding that whole label thing and figuring things out and having expectations. She had been avoiding it like the plague. And then bam, one slip of the tongue and there was a whole girlfriend situation. Tongue. Layla started giggling anew. "Jean-Phillipe has promised to be my reference if I'm a douche. I need to get you another necklace."

"Whaaaaaat?" Sarah was smiling now at least, and it appeared that Layla was giggling from the sounds she was making. "You don't need to get me a new necklace, Layla. And you're not a douche, promise." Walking over to one of the tables across the room she saw some more glasses and next to them a few straws. Perfect. She scooped one up, tearing the paper off of one end of it as she walked back over to Layla and placed it in her water. "There you go, that should help."

"That's because I haven't broken up with you yet. People are douches when they do that." And wow was she out of it. It took her a few moments to figure out what she'd just said. "But I'm not planning to! But it's a backup plan. Because Jean-Phillipe says people are assholes when they break up with people and if we do and I am then he's my back up to promise I'm just stupid and don't mean to be an asshole." She looked down at her glass. Now if she could just get it to sit on her stomach or something. But it was on her thigh. Layla frowned. So faaaaaaar away, don't wanna be... she sang in her head to the tune of All By Myself. "Totally need to get you a new necklace. You need like the token girlfriend necklace. The one that makes you all schmoopy and you wear it everyday? Your movies tell me this is totally the thing I'm supposed to do. You don't get rings until I'm proposing or something. But we're chicks so, you know, could be next week." she joked. She also found herself hilarious because Layla was giggling again.

In the space of those few moments Sarah wasn't sure what to say or think at all. Of course it was obvious that Layla was just waking up from having been unconscious for an extended period of time, after having overexerted herself with her powers, so that was a big part of it, she told herself. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't relieved when the blonde girl clarified things, however. "You're not stupid or an a-hole either, promise." She smiled a little and reached down to take the water in her own hand, lifting it up so the straw was in range of Layla's mouth and holding it there so she could drink. "Uh-huh, token girlfriend necklace. Wouldn't I have to get you one too then?" She was giggling a little herself now because, well. How could she not?

"Straw! I love you straw!" Layla's exclaiming came half a second before she latched onto the little plastic tube and sucked down all of the water in the glass. She even ended with a little "Ah!" Swallowing a few times confirmed that her throat no longer felt like a bird's nest. That was awesome. "No. Did I not establish already that I'm totally the guy here? Shit...you're going to steal all my shirts now. I need more shirts! Chicks in movies are always stealing shirts."

Sarah waited until the all of the water was gone and Layla had let go of the straw before moving the glass away. There hadn't been much water in there so she went back and refilled the glass, adding more water to it this time as her eyes were fairly well adjusted to the low light levels and there was less of a chance of spillage now, especially with using the straw. "Seriously? Ooh, so that means I can steal your shirts now? Hmmmm." As much as she hated to admit it, that kind of was a cool idea, and definitely one she saw repeated tons of time in romantic movies. And Layla did have some pretty cool shirts.... "I just might have to do that, then. And it wouldn't be stealing, it'd just be borrowing." She nodded and put the refilled glass of water back within drinking distance for the blonde girl.

"Borrowing indefinitely and then I'd be all 'shit, where are all my shirts'? And I'd need to like steal one from Maddie just so I'm not walkin' around in a toga or something." She shook a finger at Sarah, unsure if it was even visible, and then sucked down the new glass of water. Just because they had her on an IV to keep her hydrated didn't mean her throat wasn't all fucked up from probably close to twenty-four hours of sleeping, essentially. Probably with her mouth open because she was totally classy that way. "I'm gonna have to convince Megan to lemme in to steal back my shirts to like replenish the ranks or something."

"Hey now, I wouldn't take, like, all of them. And you could take some of mine in return." She had her share of nerdy and geeky t-shirts, after all, it wasn't all girly stuff. The finger shaking motion was still visible in the low light, thanks to the movement, enough for Sarah to get the gist of it and roll her eyes. "You don't have to get her to let you in either, you can always come into my room. It's not like you have to break in or anything, the door's always open for you. Except if I'm asleep because then I can't open it but you know what I mean." She'd give her a key if she could have, but that probably wasn't possible.

"But you have other people who are in the suite, too. Y'know, in walks Layla and bam there's Meggan and Korvus making out or something. Awkward, dude. So awkward. Mostly for me. But at least I like everyone in your suite. Trying to harass Artie involves trying to ditch Matt and his really fucking irritating existence." She wrinkled her nose. "I don't even remember why he annoys me so much. He just does. I think it's 'cause he's in denial about things he should and should not do because, hi, safety issues." She stopped talking suddenly and looked more fully at Sarah. Then she raised a hand and made a grabby motion. "Why're you so far away? I swear I am not contagious. And only filled with needles on one hand." Which happened to be the hand reaching out, so she shook it about as if to highlight that it was her catheter hand.

Sarah wrinkled her nose up at that. "They wouldn't do that, though, not like in front of people. On purpose." She didn't think they would, anyway, at least she was pretty sure Meggan wouldn't. "Yeah, I think you're right about that." Layla and Matt definitely did not have a good relationship, that was for sure. Sarah smiled at the grabby motion and got up to go over to the bed, sitting on its side. Taking the hand she'd been reaching out with, Sarah took it and put her fingers in between it, letting both it and her hand rest on her lap. "That better?" She leaned over and kissed the blonde's forehead, then decided to stay there, leaning mostly against the back of the bed so she wouldn't knock Layla over, but slightly against her as well.

"It's an improvement," Layla returned, voice a little bit mischievous despite the exhaustion. Hell, it wasn't like she could actually get up to any trouble. She just wanted Sarah closer. Trying to convince the doctors to let her keep Sarah as a pillow probably wouldn't go over well. Maybe she should try anyway. "Are you going to take pity on me and help me convince Lorna to do food deliveries to my suite when they lemme outta here? 'Cause you can rock some puppy dog eyes that are like a whole different class from what I can pull off. And I just look pathetic either way right now anyway." She was also pale, a bit green and sickly looking. It was a very attractive look for her.

"Mmmm." Sarah murmured in agreement, raising a hand and playing with Layla's hair a little as she leaned there against her. The doctors probably wouldn't be too keen to agree with such a suggestion, sadly, even if it would have made both of them feel much better. "I can do that, sure, or I can even bring you the food myself." She'd do whatever she could to help her girlfriend - yes, she was saying it in her head now already - out while she was feeling sick. Sarah giggled at the mention of the puppy dog eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She did but she wasn't about to fess up to one of her most potent secret weapons, after all. "And you do not look pathetic, just a little tired, is all." Layla had been out cold for the better part of a day, after all, who wouldn't look a little disheveled after something like that?

"Ooooh, food delivery." Layla gave her a lopsided grin. "You're way cuter than Lorna." Okay, maybe they were medicating her or something. Or she was just really exhausted still. Layla always said the dumbest shit she didn't wanna say aloud when she was tired. "But, dude, have you looked in the mirror. Your eyes, they're like huge. And like half your face. And awesome. But it's like the most killer pair of puppy dog eyes ever. I'm using you as my secret weapon when mine fail for, like, ever. Seriously. And I totally look pathetic. And like bedraggled. I dunno if it's a word but it sounds cool."

Sarah might have blushed at that, chuckling and squeezing Layla's hand at that. "Thank you, I think." Did that mean she thought Lorna was cute? That was irrelevant though because she was cute than her, apparently. "Well, no, I mean, they're just my eyes. I don't think they're that huge, are they?" She'd be looking at herself in the mirror after she left there for sure, because, well. They were her own eyes so she probably hadn't thought about it much before. "You do not, you're just tired. End of story, zip it, lady." She mimed zipping it by moving a pretend zipper over Layla's lips for emphasis.

With the invisible zipper shutting her mouth, Layla pursed her lips and rolled them inward. Then, with some effort because wow were those muscles sore, she raised her hand. Her thumb and forefinger came up to rest just below Sarah's brown bone and just below her eye as an apparently measurement of her eye's size. Only when Layla's fingers moved to her own face for comparison she moved her finger up higher so she wound up with a frame from her eyebrow to most of the way down her cheek. "Mm miim," she mumbled, lips still sealed.

Rolling her apparently gigantic eyes, Sarah fought hard not to grin at Layla, just shaking her head. "What's that? I can't hear you. Oh, wait, hold on a second!" She reached down to the blonde's lips, unzipping them from the opposite direction in which she had previously closed them up. "I'm sorry, what was that you were saying?"

"They're huge," Layla repeated and grinned broadly. The grin was quickly followed up by a yawn. Layla rolled onto her back, but used the hand still holding Sarah's in an attempt to drag her with her. "I'm probably gonna pass out again soon. Fair warning. 'Cause, y'know, this is like the thirty minutes awake, twelve hours asleep part of the routine here."

"Hush, you. You're just being silly." Which probably made sense given her condition, so Sarah just grinned back at her. Turning with the motion of Layla's hand, she cuddled up against the other girl as best she could, almost entirely on the bed now too. "Mmm, yeah, you need your rest, dear." Sarah snuck in a little closer and kissed Layla just behind her ear, then cuddled up into her. The doctors probably wouldn't let her stay like that for long, but for now she could just lay with her until she fell asleep. "You just sleep, I'll be here waiting for you, 'k?"

"You don't gotta wait," Layla mumbled, clearly succumbing to the desire to sleep already. "I'm boring when I sleep. Totally cute but boring. Unless you wanna nap, too. You should totally stay for nappage."

"But I want to." Sarah covered her mouth to stifle a yawn at that last word, since she had been napping herself when Layla woke up and was still pretty tired. "You are totally cute, full stop. And yes, nappage would be awesome." She could definitely use the rest, and who was she to argue against napping with Layla?

A small smile grace Layla's lips a moment before she let her head roll to the side so she could press a light kiss to Sarah's forehead. "Mm...naptimes," she murmured, eyes falling shut completely.
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