Walt wakes up

"Fuck!" Walt thought, "My head is killing me!"

Thinking he was waking up on just another weekday, Walt flexed the muscles necessary to raise himself upright so he could get out of bed and get his morning routine started, only this time the muscles didn't flex much and a wave of pain in his abdomen made him instantly forget about the headache.

"OWWWWWWWW!" Walt thought he screamed, except to the world outside of his head it sounded more like a quiet, "Mmmmmmmm." Barely even audible. So inaudible that the licensed nurse in the room didn't even hear it.

Then he noticed: His eyes weren't open. Normally that's the first thing that happens when a person wakes up. It's something you take for granted: Sleep? Close eyes. Awake? Open eyes. That's how it had always worked before. But not today.

"I'm dreaming," Walt thought, "That has to be it. I've had so many bizarre dreams lately," he thought.

He thought he was willing himself awake when in fact, he was willing his eyes to open and his dominant arm slowly move his hand toward his face. It hurt, but it didn't hurt so much if he just moved it slowly.

He noticed hospital sounds. "Had he been in an accident? Was that why he couldn't move? Was he dead? Is this what **** feels like?" his mind flitted from one possibility to another.

He managed to lift his hand to his face and rub his eyelids with his index finger. Then, slowly, he opened each to a blinding light.

He felt a tube in his nostrils and could feel it in his throat.

"What the fuck is this?!" Walt thought, alarmed.

The nurse who was in the room who hadn't heard anything before now noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and dropped what she was doing to race to Walt's bedside.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed, "Oh, my God! Mr. Dee stop moving! Stop moving! Everything's okay... I explain everything in a second... stop moving, Mr. Dee!"

Instinctively, Walt complied and laid his arm back down to his side. Whomever this deafening person was, she seemed to have a handle on whatever was going on and he trusted her, although he didn't know why. He didn't even know who she was.

It wasn't Barbara's voice. It wasn't any of the girl's voices. Wa-a?!

Nurse Jennifer Simpson had pressed the alert button on the side of the gurney, and suddenly stopped talking to Walt and was now talking to someone all together. Several people. Who the fuck were these people?!

A man's hand took Walt's left hand in a sort of handshake, and began, seemingly, to talk directly to him.

"Mr. Dee, don't be alarmed. You should remember that you were put in a medically-induced coma and you're now coming out of that coma. Don't try and stand or move your arms. Squeeze my hand if you can hear me and understand?"

Dr. Damian Compa, the physician on call that evening, stood to the side of Walt's bed calmly while several nurses and an intern moved quickly into the room to assist as needed.

Walt understood what was asked of him and squeezed the doctor's hand as best he could.

"Good!" Dr. Compa responded, "Good!"

The doctor quickly turned his head and barked out an order.

"Do not call his family just yet. I'll tell you when the time comes."

"Now, Mr. Dee, my name is Dr. Compa and I'm your physician at the moment. You've been in a medically-induced coma to treat a brain tumor and now you're emerging from it. Don't attempt to move just yet, because your muscles have atrophied a bit and it'll be very painful if you attempt to use them just now."

"No shit, sherlock," Walt thought.

"We're going to be assisting you to come back to consciousness. Squeeze my hand again if you understand all I've told you."

Walt again squeezed the doctor's hand.

"Good! You're doing great. Now, what I'd like you to do..."