Waking up is hard to do (Tate)

[Tobias Vaughn]

It was about an hour later, and Toby woke up in unfamiliar territory. The walls were white, the sheets were white - hell, everything was white. Blindingly so, to the point that he opened his eyes and had to snap them shut almost immediately because the amount of light made his head ache worse than it already did (assume that was physically possible).

He slowly allowed his eyelids to flutter open, squinting against the light as he did so. He tried to take in his surroundings but there wasn't much to take in. The steady beep of electronic monitors went off, which he assumed were the sensors attached to his stomach, head, and wrists. His entire face ached, and it hurt to breath through his nose.

"What happened?" he mumbled, voice barely above a whisper. Looking around he spotted Tate, and that triggered everything that had happened in the past two days to come rushing over him in one giant wave of realization.

[Sumner Tate]

Tate sat in the chair next to Toby's bed, staring absentmindedly at his hands. There were too many thoughts going through his head, too many emotions. One moment he hated himself, then he hated Toby, then he hated himself again. Next it was the guys, Mike in particular. He kept telling himself that he wasn't the one who delivered the final blow, that it wasn't his fault -- but it was! It was his fault. Blind anger and pressure had motivated him to attack Toby without so much as letting him defend himself, explain his actions. But what was there to explain?

Blame and guilt were running amok in the boy's mind, making his hands shake, which he only noticed right before he heard Toby's low voice from beside him.

"What happened?"

Tate's breath caught in his chest. Why? Why did it -

"You don't remember?"

Tate didn't recognize the voice that came from him. It was gravelly and odd-sounding, not at all what he was used to. He cleared his throat, and forced himself to look at the guy whose nose he'd broken not an hour ago.

"Your parents are outta town, visiting your folks in Florida, s'why they're not here, if you were wondering. Said they'd be back tomorrow, since you're okay and all," Tate said, delaying recounting the recent past. What was wrong with his stupid voice?

[Tobias Vaughn]

The nurse who had been in the room, checking his vitals, turned to Sumner. "Don't worry... short-term memory loss is very common when dealing with concussions." Turning back to Toby, she added, "You'll be fine. You may have headaches, nausea, or blurred vision as well... try and keep track of your symptoms for now, I'll tell the doctors you've woken up." With that the strange lady left the two boys alone.

Toby realized that his parents, his father at least, wouldn't have been there whether they were in town or not. "My parents kicked me out," he pointed out, still squinting and blinking against the harsh white light of the room. "And she was right, my head is throbbing..." Toby brought a shaky hand up to his right temple, where the majority of the pain was centered.

"I... I can't remember a lot. I remember you, and Mike... we were in the hallway," he had been trying to sit up more, but gave up and rested his head back down on the pillow. Toby heaved a defeated sigh as he remembered. "The team..." he muttered weakly.

[Sumner Tate]

"I broke your nose," Tate said, gaze returned to his hands. His words were calm and slow. "I broke your nose, and Mike punched you in the temple, and you were out. I called 911, we came here," he looked around the room, recalling. "You were out for an hour and a half. I - I'm sorry."

Tate shook his head. He'd never felt so ashamed of himself. It seemed so surreal that he had lectured Toby about losing it, when he had just punched the boy in the face. Tate was the one losing it. But still...

"Why, though? I mean, why would you do it? You had to know the team would... I would..." he trailed off, not able to make sense of Toby's actions in his muddled brain.

[Tobias Vaughn]

Tobias's head hurt with every 'beep' of the machine next to him, but he tried to ignore it as Tate spoke. He realized that his vision wasn't just blurry but swooning in and out of focus, making him dizzy. With a pained expression he closed his eyes again, listening to Tate speak.

"You... why would you..." Toby started, but his voice trailed off again. He didn't understand the words that Tate was speaking. Why would Tate punch him?

"Why would I do what?" It was the first coherent thought that came to his head. "Quit the team?" he was sure they wouldn't have gotten into a fistfight over that, so he was just trying to understand.

[Ravi Malone]

Ravi was frantic; he'd over heard a few girls talking about how Toby had gotten beat up by some guys from the wrestling team. Ravi had to know why so he actually built of the guts to ask a wrestler. Apparently the team was under the impression that Toby had done the prank that Ravi did. FUCK! Why did everything have to back fire? Just as Ravi was beating himself up about this he got a call from his father say that his "big bulky friend who was there when Kyan got stabbed" was in the hospital with a concussion.

Or course Ravi went straight to the hospital to tell Toby he'd been the one that set the wrestling teams balls on fire. Visitation rules didn't apply to Ravi because his father was a well respected doctor in the hospital, so Ravi was able to burst into Toby's room. The first thing he saw was Toby in bed looking horribly beaten up. After gasping at this site he saw Sumner Tate, a wrestler, in the room as well.

"Toby didn't do that shit; I did!" Ravi burst out. He was sick of people getting hurt because of his actions and he didn't care what Tate did to him as long as Toby's named was cleared. "I went to the equipment room during last period and soaked the wrestling teams' shit in liquid heat, ok? It was me! Not Toby, me! I did it because you guys were homophobic cunts to Toby and I'm not sorry for it! You can kill me now if you like, so long as you leave Toby alone!" Ravi was positively steaming by the end of his explanation.

[Sumner Tate]

All Tate heard of Ravi's rant was the first sentence. After that he stood up quickly and strode toward the scrap of a boy, not knowing who he was but knowing what he wanted to do to him. As soon as he reached him (which was, coincidentally, the same time he'd stopped yelling), he put his index finger up to the boy's lips in a gesture of silence.

"Will you please stop your goddamned screaming, Toby just woke up with a concussion," he hissed. Tate had had his fair share of concussions over the years - he played varsity football, for chrissakes - and he knew what Toby was going through. Screaming was the last thing you wanted to hear, next to a jet taking off.

"We can have this conversation in the hallway-" Tate started, one hand dimming the lights in the room and the other reaching for the handle, before Toby interrupted him.

[Tobias Vaughn]

Toby could only make out bits and pieces of what Ravi was saying. Ravi was excited, and because of this his voice was a little louder than he would have liked. Every time he added an infliction to a word there was a searing flash of pain within Toby's head. Despite this, he picked up the key information. Whatever the hell it was that Tate thought he had done, Ravi had done. Something about liquid heat...

Tate silenced Ravi and suggested that they go outside, but Toby spoke up quickly.

"Wait, Tate," he said, opening his eyes a little more now that the lights were dimmed and less harsh to look at. He no longer needed to squint, and could get a good look at the troubled face of his oldest friend.

"Tate, he didn't mean..." Toby started, but knew that he didn't want to say that. "He wasn't thinking." It was obvious that Toby was talking about Ravi. "He thought it would get back at you for me... please don't hurt him," he said, being blunt. When arguments like this were 'taken in the hall' they never ended well. "For me? Just... don't hurt him." He still wasn't completely sure what the hell was going on, but he sensed the danger that Ravi was in and wanted to do his best to stop things before they got out of hand.

He knew that what Ravi had done, whatever it was, had been stupid, but he didn't want to see him get hurt over it either. In his twisted mentality he was sure that Ravi thought he was helping Toby or something like that...

[Sumner Tate]

Tate looked from this Ravi kid to Toby and back again, unsure of what to do. Obviously, he owed it to Toby to respect his wishes, but he wasn't entirely sure that either he himself or the overexcited idiot would be able to control themselves, because...

It wasn't Toby. It wasn't Toby - oh fuck - whateverthefuck emotions he was going through before were nothing compared to the here and now. How could he ever look Toby in the eye again? He should have realized, should have known Toby wouldn't be so goddamned stupid, so foolish... and Ravi! How was Tate supposed to restrain himself, to keep himself from killing this kid? Before this, he was positive that he could get Toby to come back to the team, that he and Toby might be okay again, like they had been. Now... now, he wasn't sure that Toby could physically wrestle for the rest of the season. As for them being okay again -- he wasn't sure that could happen. Ever. He wouldn't forgive his own sorry ass for what had just occurred, how could he ask that of Toby?

How was he going to deal with this?

He turned to Toby.

"What do you want me to do?"

[Tobias Vaughn]

All of this thinking was making Toby's head hurt worse, but he knew that he needed to do some seriously quick thinking to be able to answer Tate's question. It would help if he could remember everything that had happened, but the full extent of his memory had yet to return to him.

"I don't know, but... just try not to hurt him?" he repeated. They were talking quietly, so that Ravi couldn't hear them (or at least make out what they were saying) over the noise in the hallway and the loud beep of the machine next to him.

"It was stupid, but... does anyone else really need to get hurt?" Toby realized that his words were slurred slightly and he knew that his eyes kept losing focus, but he was trying his hardest to keep it together. "He probably... regrets..." he paused again, trying to remember what it was he had originally intended on saying. "Just try," he said, knowing that Tate would understand. Toby didn't want any more injuries to result in his quitting the team, not until everyone had cooled down and thought through things rationally.

[Ravi Malone]

Ravi didn't have to hear the conversation between the two to know what was going on. No doubt Toby was telling Tate not to kill Ravi. He didn't want Toby's protection, especially after what happened to him because of what Ravi had done. Quite frankly, if Tate wanted to beat the shit out of him he didn't care; at least he could say he fessed up to what he did and wasn't a pussy about it. Plus there was the fact that his father was hovering not to far away and if he sensed trouble Tate would have a problem. He also didn't think what he did was stupid either; those homophobic pricks got what they deserved.

"Are we going out in the hall to discuss this or what?" said Ravi quietly, but none the less, with annoyance. Ravi violently opened the door, went out side and waited for Tate to follow.

[Tobias Vaughn]

Tobias watched Ravi leave the room and shook his head slowly. He wasn't sure exactly why he was defending Ravi any more. He had a horrible habit of sticking his nose into other people's business, even when it had nothing to do with him. Sure, some of the guys on the team had been assholes to him, but there were still a decent amount of them Toby was still friends with. At least, he had been friends with him. Ravi may have ruined any chance Toby had of being on good terms with his former team mates again. So people were jerks, that was no reason to cause them physical bodily harm. That was just a dumbass thing to do, and it was even worse than the people who he was retaliating against.

If Toby was in his right mind, he would have told him all of that himself. Once he came to his senses there was a pretty good chance he would distance himself from his coworker. But for now, he just sat back against his pillow and sighed, just working on staying conscious.

[Kyan Walker]

((So here I go then. . .))

Kyan came into the hospital, attempting to keep his cool. He had seen the ambulance come to school to pick someone up, and after asking around a bit, he'd learned that the injured person was Toby. Apparently some of the wrestlers had gotten pissed off about a stunt that Toby'd pulled. something about fire crotches. He doubted that was true, perhaps they were just looking for an excuse to gang up on him, but either way they had knocked him unconscious.

He had half a mind to knock some sense into those cocky bastards, but that really wouldn't do anyone much good. Here he was at the hospital instead, deciding to assess the damage done to Toby.

He noticed Ravi standing in the hall, and almost groaned. He knew that he and Ravi had an understanding now and that things had gotten a little better, but he couldn't help but assume the kid had somehow played a role in this. He kept his mouth shut until he walked into the hospital room. He noticed Sumner Tate, one of the wrestler's and a friend of Toby's he was pretty sure. He didn't know where he fit into all of this. He also noticed Toby, lying just as helpless as he'd been almost a week ago.

"Hey," he said to Toby, his voice softer due largely to the atmosphere in the room. "This place is starting to feel like a second home."

He scratched at the back of his head and glanced around at the white washed walls.

"How's your head?" he asked. He was knocked unconscious, so he figured a head injury was likely.

[Tobias Vaughn]

((ooc- assuming you two went into the hallway, or are in the process. And by you two I mean Tate. lol))

Tobias watched as Tate turned his back to him, knowing that not killing Ravi was going to be difficult for him. He knew that Tate would do his best, though, if only for Toby's sake. He really didn't want to see another injury come about because of him. That just wasn't fair. It was then that he caught sight of a familiar face walking towards his room. He smiled at Kyan through the glass on the door as he entered the room.

"You didn't have to come," Toby said to Kyan, his own voice soft but more from exhaustion and medication than from conscious effort.

"My head... hurts. Like an 18-wheeler just ran over it, actually." He was surprised at how easily the simile came, but it made sense. "I'll be fine," he added quickly. "How're you healing up?" Kyan had only just come back home recently, so he was sure that the last place he had wanted to find himself was back here.

[Kyan Walker]

((Stop fucking with the time line Lessie, I cant' keep track of it anymore. . .aurgh!))

"You didn't have to come."

"Yeah I know," he said clearing his throat awkwardly. "It's boring as hell sitting at home all day though, so I figured I might drop in on you."

"My head... hurts. Like an 18-wheeler just ran over it, actually. How're you healing up?"

"Sounds painful," Kyan said, understating it succinctly. "Psh, I'm fine. I wish these damn things didn't itch so much though. . ."

He stopped about half a foot shy of Toby's bed and folded his arms across his chest to get a good look at him.

"What does the doc have to say about you?" he asked.

[Tobias Vaughn]

((ooc- I made the time reference vague. better? lol))

"Well, thanks," he said, knowing that it probably took a lot to drag Kyan back into a hospital so soon after he had escaped the white walls and beeping equipment himself. Maybe Kyan really did care about him, deep down? Why must everything be so confusing?

"My nose breaking was painful... the hit to the head knocked me out, so that wasn't a problem then so much as now," he admitted, a little shamefully. He hadn't wanted to hit any of the wrestling guys, but he would've liked more of a chance to defend himself. He obviously hadn't been able to do that while slumped unconscious against his own locker.

"The doctor said something about a concussion... memory loss, headaches... dizziness... nausea... Sounds like lots of fun. I don't know how long they'll keep me, though." He paused after each symptom, straining to remember all of the things the nurse had told him.

[Kyan Walker]

"Jesus," Kyan said at Toby's description of his injuries. "What happened to make them wail on you?"

"The doctor said something about a concussion... memory loss, headaches... dizziness... nausea... Sounds like lots of fun. I don't know how long they'll keep me, though."

"Well, you'll be having the time of your life I see," he said with a wry grin. "Well not too long I hope. Things'll get dull if I'm just left to tormenting my sister again."

Which is what he'd been doing since he'd gotten back from the hospital. When she wasn't actually home, he was devising ways to annoy and shock her.

[Tobias Vaughn]

"I'm not sure..." Toby admitted, realizing that he still wasn't really clear on everything that had happened to make the wrestlers angry. He was sure of one thing, though, and he was so frustrated by Ravi's actions that he didn't mind telling Kyan this time. "But Ravi pulled a prank on the wrestlers... to get back at them... and they thought it was me. Sumner broke my nose, Mike knocked me out, but... But Sumner stayed, and called 911. I think we might be okay."

Toby was just ranting now, probably due to the heavy medication he imagined, though it was mainly just him having a lot to rant about at the moment. He was really concerned about ruining his relationship with Tate, though... they really were good friends, and he'd hate to ruin that because of a stupid miscommunication.

"I wouldn't want to cause you to be bored. How terribly selfish of me," Toby said with a slight smile.

[Kyan Walker]

Kyan fought the urge to go out and thrash both Ravi and Tate. He wasn't a complete idiot. While he might last for a few minutes, in the end Tate was a wrestler and much more equipped to win fights. Also he had stitches to be worrying about. He'd thought things with Ravi would get better, but here he was involving himself in someone else's life and not worrying about the consequences of his actions.

"I assume Tate is dealing with Ravi then," he said, in an obviously forced calm voice.

He was distracted by Toby's little attempt at a joke, which considering his current state, was something. He smirked at him.

"It's all right, i forgive you," he said.

((What are we gonna do about poor little distraught Andy?))

[Tobias Vaughn]

Tobias nodded, glad that Kyan had decided not to follow Tate into the hallway and have a few words himself. This really wasn't Kyan's concern, and Toby was pretty sure that once he was feeling better he could handle tying up all of the lose ends on his own. It was obvious that Kyan was just as angry with Tate as he was with Ravi, though, and Toby shook his head. It was hard to make people listen to you when you were medicated and rambling, not to mention completely concussed.

"It wasn't his fault... the team thought it was me, and they looked to him to take action. But if you'd've been there... he didn't want to hit me, and afterwords he really regretted it. I can't say I blame him. I would've hit me too if I had been him."

Ever since Toby had come out he had a new group of friends... mainly Kyan, Zeke, and some other people he normally wouldn't have associated with before. He wanted to keep his old friends like Tate, though, and as such it wouldn't do to have them hating each other. It was especially important to Toby right then to make sure Kyan didn't try and start anything with Tate. The two of them had been friends since he couldn't even remember when, and Toby still held on to the hope that they could salvage their friendship despite the broken nose.

"It's all right, i forgive you,"

Toby just gave a weak smile. He knew that Kyan would appreciate what little sarcasm he could pull off. That was just his way; play it tough, make a joke or two, and try not to take things so seriously. Despite the fact that Toby was very worried about his current medical condition/state, he wasn't about to share those worries with anyone else. He figured his friends were concerned enough as it was.

((ooc- I was figuring after I make sure I know what goes down in this thread (so that we don't have too many overlying threads going on at once) I'll start a thread for Andy set the day after the fight, since wasn't Andy going to hear about this at school the next day? Unless you had another idea/plan!))

[Rivers Guiseppe]

A nurse had alerted Rivers that the boy in room 205 who had gotten in a fight a school and suffered a concussion was finally up. Good, now River could taunt him like he did all his other patients He was especially looking forward to this because he knew exactly who this kid was; the boy who'd came in with Kyan when he got stabbed. That group of people seemed to have bad luck when it came to not getting beaten up or stabbed. Rivers couldn't help but wonder who would be next, that chick that was with them or Ravi. He hoped it was the chick.

When Rivers rounded the corner the first thing he saw was Ravi having a heated discussion with a big looking guy. As stupid as Ravi might have seemed standing up to some one A LOT bigger that he was, Rivers could help but be a little proud. It was better than the Ravi that just curled up against a wall when someone yelled at him. Still, maybe he should have Susan keep an eye on the two just in case. That boy certainly would be really stupid if he touched Ravi on Rivers' turf.

Rivers entered the room and saw, heh, Kyan there with is boyfriend, Rivers looked at the chart to get the boy's name, Toby. Cute name for a big guy. "I thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend." said Rivers with a smirk as he closed the door behind him, leaving Ravi and the big kid out of his sight. He'd listen for punching sounds just in case.

Rivers sighed as he looked over Toby's chart. "You know, it would be nice to have one week where I don't have one of the gay teens on Pittsburgh in here for a stupid reason." said Rivers with annoyance. First Desmond, then Kyan, then Toby. Not that Rivers gave a shit about the second two, but the situation with his nephew, Desmond, certain had shacken him up a bit. It made the situation of this other two dumbasses pale in comparison.

"Well, congratulations, you'll live." he told Toby, "so long as the both of you stop getting in stupid fights. It's not even Halloween yet and the both of you have been in the hospital because of some stupid cock fight. At this rate I'm starting to doubt whether or not you'll both make it through your senior year." With out warning he went over to Toby and held Toby's eye lid open and shined a light in his eye to check for dilation. "Well, you eyes are working properly again." he said, tucking his mini light back into his pocket.

"Well," he said while turning to Kyan, "While you're here we'd might as well make use of it. Take of your shirt and let's see how you're looking."

[Tobias Vaughn]

Toby heard a few of the things Rivers was saying, but zoned out for most of it. He wasn't in the mood for sarcasm right then, he had enough to deal with. Weren't doctors supposed to be supportive or something?

"He's not my boyfriend," Toby heard himself mutter. Then he thought of Andy. More like remembered Andy. Shit, Andy! They had a date, and... "What time is it?" Toby looked for a clock, found it, and frowned. Shit. He was too late to even call or explain... he didn't even have Andy's number.

Toby yawned before closing his eyes again and zoning out. Rivers said something about looking at Kyan, he heard, and welcomed the distraction. Once the doctor left he could talk with Kyan... or pass out again. Either way, he'd be happy.

[Kyan Walker]

Kyan was saved the trouble of trying to explain their relationship to Doctor Rivers by Toby. Who proceeded to ask for the time.

"It's gotta be past 5 now," Kyan said, unsure of the exact time.

Rivers proceeded to make comments about how they were getting into stupid fights. Kyan had half a mind to add that being the one's in the hospital, it hardly seemed likely that they were the instigators in these fights, but resisted the urge.

"Well, while you're here we'd might as well make use of it. Take of your shirt and let's see how you're looking."

Kyan sighed, but complied with the request. He pulled up the grey stretch long sleeved tee that he had bunched up to look like a three quarter sleeved shirt over his head to show the doctor his stitches.

[jd]

JD walked into the room, humming a bit of the song Don't Stop Believing to himself as he checked his clipboard. One of the patients he was supposed to check up on throughout the evening was in this room. Along with the guy who was in for the past few days, Kyan, and Doctor Rivers. He was finishing up his 1st year as an intern, so he could see why Rivers would stop in to check on one of his patients. He noticed that Kyan was removing his shirt while Rivers watched, probably to check on his stitches.

"It's never a foxy young lady patient when I walk in," he said more to himself than anyone else.

He looked down at the clipboard and realized he still had a few things to write down. He went over to the boy in the bed: Toby and looked at the instruments around him.

"I just need to write down a few of your vitals," he informed him. "And if you need some ice water or you start to feel a surge of pain. Don't hesitate to call a nurse. . .or me I guess. The call button is next to your bed."

[Rivers Guiseppe]

((Um, it's Doctor Giuseppe, Rivers is his first name. If you call him Dr. Rivers he will be very angry))

Toby seemed a bit out of it. He was just mutter things about the time and Kyan not being his boyfriend. Rivers raised his eyebrows at the boy and made a few notes on his chart. "Okaaaay" he said slowly, "obviously you need a bit more rest." Rivers turned back to Kyan who now had his shirt off.

"Hot damn, boy!" he said, " you're very eager aren't you? I actually just wanted to see you with your shirt off and didn't think you'd actually do it, but there you go. Let's just take a gander at how you're healing anyway." Just as he was carefully pealing back the gauze to see Kyan's stitches, JD walked in looking as goofy as ever. Rivers didn't know why, but for some reason every time JD enter the same room he was in, Rivers had to fight this extreme urge to punch him in the face. Perhaps it was just JD's jolly, care free nature that got on Rivers nerves, seeing as Rivers was a narcissistic, miserably homo in his mid thirties.

"It's never a foxy young lady patient when I walk in,"

"No, just me, Molly Sue." said Rivers, "Sorry to disappoint. And I shutter to think of your idea of a 'foxy lady' as you so nicely put it." Now that the gauze was pealed off, Rivers took a look at Kyan's stitches; they were healing quite well. There was no sign of infection, but no matter what, Kyan was going to end up with a scar.

"Well, the wound is looking well, Bernardo," he said, coving the stitches back up, "I'd keep it covered for a few more days and in about two weeks I think it will be safe to take the stitches out." Now that he was done with Kyan he could focus his attention back to JD who was checking in on Toby.

"Make sure you don't screw that up, Newbie," he said tauntingly, "I'd hate for you to blown it so close to the end of your year as an intern."