the way it was before-- private

kalina nikolova.

Her last image before the black spots dotting her vision opened up and swallowed all of the light, was of Samuel. His familiar green eyes, clouded with worry, burned themselves into the back of her eyelids. The rusty smell of blood strong in her nostrils, his strong arms hoisting her up, Kalina passed out at the moment her head came to rest against his chest.

She didn't know what happened, then, between that final moment on the hill and waking up over a day later in one of the private infirmary rooms. She didn't know his struggle to get her to the building, keeping her steady and holding her gently. She didn't even know he waited outside while they treated her many injuries; feeding her the allowed amount of ambrosia, to aid in healing small wounds, and stitching the others so that they would finally stop weeping blood.

She didn't even remember the few times throughout that she blinked back to semi-consciousness. Four times throughout her treatment, Kalina began to come to. Her vision remained dark and blurry, and she could make out little but flashing lights and figures -- but her hearing worked just fine. 'She's going to die. They're all going to die,' this healer's vote of confidence in those found on the hill got her kicked out of the room. She heard the door slam behind her. 'We can move her into one of the rooms,' soon after, right before she passed out yet again, she felt the bed being moved to some other area. 'She's likely going to make a full recovery,' this, she heard as if she were six foot below moving water, the sound completely muffled. Kali suspected that this was a medic talking to someone else -- Raziel, maybe?

The thought of who it might be had barely crossed her mind before she gave in to the ever present need to rest.

Waking up in the much too bright and much too clean (looking, and smelling) room, then, was a fresh experience. Without memories of the few times past, Kalina spent her first few seconds groggy and confused, hand twitching and head moving slightly on the pillow as she slowly, painfully, blinked open her eyes. Light flooded in through her pupils -- she shut them to the world once more, taking an added moment before opening them a bit more cautiously this time.

Once she had gotten a grip on her surroundings -- she was no stranger to the infirmary, and despite not having been there for over two years, it had barely changed -- Kalina's head twisted on the pillow, brown eyes searching the room and coming to rest on a figure hunched on the other side of the bed, his own gaze on the floor. This was no source of confusion, though. Every detail of his being had long since been burned into memory.

"Sam," she winched at how croaky her voice sounded even saying that one word, trying to be lowkey about the gulp she took in an effort to find a quick solution to that problem, "Hey... what're you doing here?"