The automatic doors of the hospital opened glacially.

Kaelen ran to the front desk like he had run the entire way from Northern Virginia to Maryland, barely catching his breath. "H-Hi...I'm...on the...visitor's...list..." he panted.

"What is your name?" the older, equally exhausted receptionist asked.

"Kaelen Beckett..." he practically threw his non-driver ID down on the desk.

"And who are you here to see?"

"Wynne...Wynne Augustine."

The receptionist typed a few things on her keyboard, then looked up at him. "Someone will be with you shortly, please make yourself comfortable."

Kaelen nodded, turning towards the seats full of bored and tearful visitors. Among them was Rain, whose face was still decorated with rhinestones from her shoot earlier. She waved Kaelen down.

"You've been busy," Rain said, glancing at the bag of books. "Glad I didn't leave immediately, I would have been stuck here for three hours waiting for you."

Kaelen rolled his eyes. "It's an hour and a half by train, Rain."

"And yet, it took you three hours to get here."

"The Metro was delayed."

"When is it not, Kaelen?!"

Kaelen snickered, but held it together out of respect for their situation and the people around them. "Did Godiva say anything?"

"Not much. Just that they were finally lucid and asking about their situation." Rain held up her own plastic bag. "I didn't know what to get them so I stopped and got a teddy bear on the way here."

"In the hospital gift shop?"

"No, I found a toy store out near you." Rain smiled. "A little girl asked me if I was a fairy princess, because of the makeup."

"And what did you say?"

"Obviously yes, I am a fairy princess, and you, Kaelen, owe me like thirty thousand bows. You should be bowing every time I enter a room."

Kaelen rolled his eyes. "You're such a diva."

"Oh, really?! So are you. You buy your jeans at Nordstrom."

"They're more comfortable."

Rain elbowed him in the ribs, causing him to buckle over. This did, however, cause him to laugh out loud, which brought upon the confused gazes of others.

The doctor they had met previously approached them. Kaelen finally got a good look at his name tag and realized his name was Dr. Miller. The two took the cue and got up to follow him.

"It's good to see you both again," Dr. Miller said once he had guided them partway down the hall. "Wynne is very lucky to have friends like you."

"Thank you," Rain said, speaking for both of them. "So, what happened?"

"We're honestly not sure. They had been making progress, but around 5am this morning they just...woke up. All of the tests are returning as normal - normal brain function and lung function. Beyond the speech and fuzzy vision, there is no evidence of the TBI, and in my professional opinion, I cannot definitively say those are not just residual effects of the coma."

Kaelen frowned. That was...odd. Yesterday, when they'd seen Wynne, they were still weeks away from recovery. Now they were back with no after effects? "So...none of that is normal, is it?"

"Not impossible, but very unlikely. Once again, Wynne is very lucky." The doctor stopped outside the room from yesterday. "Their mother is here too, though she stepped out for a moment."

Kaelen nodded, and walked in.

Wynne was sitting upright, staring at the window. Their silver hair glinted in the sunlight, but other than that they looked like they were finally in full color, not the muted picture of coma recovery they had been the day before. They didn't appear to hear Kaelen and Rain's entrance, the sound of the monitor obscuring their footsteps.

"Hey, stranger," Rain said, grinning ear to ear.

Wynne turned around and looked at the two of them for what felt like far too long. To Kaelen, Wynne's face had the expression of someone who knew him, but didn't know from where. For several, agonizingly long seconds, Wynne didn't say anything at all, and Kaelen wondered if they had maybe forgotten them.

Finally, tears filled their hazel eyes, and they smiled. "Rain. Kaelen." Their voice was soft, raspy from disuse, but it was unmistakably theirs.

Now it was Rain's turn to cry. She ran over to Wynne and wrapped her arms around them, holding them tightly. Wynne closed their eyes and melted into their arms.

"Don't you dare do that again, or I'll kill you myself," Rain said, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"I promise I won't." Wynne hugged her back before letting go. "So...four weeks, huh?"

"Yeah...four weeks. The others aren't awake yet, I don't think."

Wynne nodded, then turned to Kaelen. "How long were you out?"

Kaelen blinked. He hadn't really been out. "I think like...an hour. I was mostly unscathed."

"Despite getting hit with another car after the accident," Rain teased.

"Hey, you weren't there. It came out of effing nowhere."

Wynne's smile faded, and their expression turned distant. "So...you didn't see anything?"

Kaelen frowned. "I mean, all I remember is headlights, then waking up in the hospital. That's it." No sense in freaking out Wynne with talk of his dreams, especially right after they woke up.

The silver-haired college student nodded, lost in thought. "I see..." they said quietly. "Sorry for prying." They looked a long time at their hands, as though they had all of life's answers.

"Are you okay?" Rain asked, putting her hand over theirs in concern.

Wynne looked up, forcing a smile. "I'm as good as I can be," they said.

Liar, Kaelen thought. He didn't know Wynne as long as everyone else in their group, but he knew them well enough to know when they were lying. "You don't look okay," Kaelen said.

You don't look happy to be awake.

Wynne tilted their head and watched Kaelen's expression, before turning away and sighing. "It's nothing. I guess I just had crazy coma dreams."

"You and Kaelen should talk about that," Rain said. "He had weird ass dreams too."

"He did?" Wynne's demeanor changed. They suddenly became far more alert and earnest. "What did you dream about, Kaelen?"

Kaelen groaned. "It's nothing. Really."

"Kaelen," Wynne said sternly. "I need to know. What did you dream about?"

The three of them stood in silence, save for the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor. Kaelen closed his eyes and sighed loudly.

"Fine, I dreamed about a snowy hellscape, are you happy?"

Wynne blinked at him several times, parsing their own thoughts. Kaelen and Rain watched as Wynne's eyes filled with tears once again, this time overflowing, while their face was decorated with a smile. The heart monitor began to go crazy as Wynne began laughing hysterically, then hyperventilating.

"WYNNE?!" Rain asked. When Wynne was unresponsive, she ran out to get a nurse.

Kaelen stood motionless, staring at Wynne as Wynne seemed to be halfway between agony and joy. Finally, he approached them in order to keep them upright. "Wynne, follow my voice. Breathe in...breathe out..." he didn't honestly know what he was doing, but he had to do something.

Wynne stopped hyperventilating long enough to grab Kaelen by the collar and pull them closer. Their eyes were seeing both into Kaelen's soul and through him, towards something else. Somewhere else.

"It was real," they said, so clear it was startling. "It was real."

Kaelen froze again, holding Wynne up as they began laughing again - this time, the emotion was clear.

It was relief.

The doctor came back in and apologetically removed Kaelen from the room. He spun some thing about how it must have been too soon for visitors, and that don't worry, it seems Wynne just had a panic attack.

But Wynne's words were the only thing Kaelen could hear.

It was real.

Wynne had seen it too.