Nine months Later,
Star Labs, Central City.
'Beep…beep…beep'
It was the steady rhythmical sound that woke him up. August woke up slowly, his body coming awake like an old machinery that had not been used for years. He could smell the antiseptic, a little bitter, with undertones of artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaners except more intense. That's right, it was too sharp, like someone was holding it directly beneath his nostrils. He could hear…he could hear…everything. There was soft blues music playing but someone had turned the volume up till it sounded like noise, there was a deep sound in the background; ba-dum, ba-dum. It sounded like heartbeats for some reason and he couldn't understand why someone would want to add that to the backgrounds of the song. 'What the hell kind of Hospital is this?'
There were two people hovering over him. At first, he thought he dreamed them up, but as the murkiness of his brain lifted, he started to realize that he didn't even remember going to sleep. He didn't even know what the last thing he remembered was.
He listened to the sound of the music again, as he gradually woke up, the sounds slowly reduced till it was just the soft sound of the music and whispered conversations in the room. Frowning, he realized that the presence of others in the room with him was not a dream. They were actually there, hovering over him while he slept.
And it scared the hell out of him.
"He likes this song," he heard one of them say.
He does like the song, but it reminds him of his loss. His brother used to sing it all the time till it got stuck in his head, so you could say, he was forced to like the song. Now, stuck laying here listening to it was going to be absolute torture.
He didn't recognize the voice of the guy who had spoken, whoever he was, and August was growing more on edge as he heard an unfamiliar female voice talking back to him. He didn't listen to what either of them were saying about auditory functions, though. He was too focused on trying to move – to twitch a finger, maybe open his eyes, something – but it was like his body simply wouldn't respond.
He could feel his heart racing in panic, and he tried to calm himself down.
Think, he told himself. What would cause him to lose his ability to move? Oh, God. Was he paralyzed? No. Even a quadriplegic could usually open their eyes at the very least. He remembered reading something about sleep paralysis back in College. Something about the mechanism in your brain that stops you from acting out all your dreams while you sleep, how sometimes it can fail to turn off when you wake up and leave you lying there, fully conscious but unable to move. He didn't have any history or experience with sleep paralysis, though, and he didn't know how to fix it.
He felt a tingling sensation in his fingers that seemed to pulse up his arms, and a strange ringing sound filled his ears, drowning out the sounds of the nostalgic music. August felt like he was being pulled back under some kind of invisible veil, like he was being submerged in water. He fought it with all his strength, not wanting to go back into the darkness again. He willed his muscles to move, feeling like it was taking every ounce of his strength to gain control of his body again. He continued to fight it with everything he had until…
August suddenly shot up in bed with a gasp.
"Oh, my God!" he heard the guy from earlier shout in surprise.
"Where am I?!" August asked in a panicked voice.
"He's up!" the woman said in surprise, rushing over to him.
She gently pressed her hands on his chest to make him lie back.
"It's okay," she said, "You're okay. You're safe. Just calm down."
"What happened? Where am I?" August asked again in a scared voice.
His voice sounded hoarse, and his throat was incredibly sore, but he ignored it as he waited anxiously for her answer.
"You're at STAR Labs," she told him gently, "I'm a doctor. I've been taking care of you here."
He could see her eyes darting back and forth between him and a heart monitor, watching his vitals nervously.
"What's going on?" August asked urgently, "Why am I here? What happened?"
"You've…" she said, biting her lip, "You've been in a coma."
August stared at her.
"A coma?" he asked, his voice cracking, "I've been in a…For how long?!"
She exchanged an uneasy look with the other man in the room.
"How are you feeling?" she asked him instead of answering, "Any dizziness? Do you feel nauseated?"
"For how long?!" he asked again, not answering her questions.
"Mr. Heart…" she said in a strained voice.
How long had he been out? Months? Years? Oh, God.
He reached up and shakily touched his face, wondering how much time had passed, how much he had aged. His breathing was becoming uneven, and he was on the verge of hyperventilating. This couldn't be real. It couldn't be.
"Nine months," the guy standing by the doctor finally said, "You've been out for nine months."
August felt all the blood drain from his face, and he rested his head back against his pillow, covering his mouth with his hand, panicked tears welling in his eyes.
Nine months. He had been laying in a bed for nine months. The rest of the world had been going by without him as he slept away nine months of his life. It hurt a lot. That was nine months gone, his research, his big plans, everything gone.
"I think I'm going to be sick," he mumbled through his fingers.
The doctor managed to get a basin in front of him before he threw up.
Jeff and Sheri were both at Home when they got the call.
It had been a nice, normal day. They had finally gotten to a place where they could go at least a couple hours without worrying about Gus. He was always in the back of their mind, but now they could finally focus on what they were doing for longer lengths of time. For the longest time after the doctors had declared Gus comatose, Sheri hadn't been able to focus on much else. She could hardly think about anything else, let alone work. She had been constantly knocking things over and messing up inventory as she worked with her distracted, worrying mind, but she had finally managed to get back into the rhythm of things again.
After refilling Jeff's wine glass for him, she was just thinking to herself that she would swing by STAR Labs later and sit with Gus for a while, when her phone suddenly buzzed in her pocket. She usually never kept her phone on her while at home, it was always hiding somewhere but ever since Gus's accident, it was snugly tucked in her Jean pocket.
Sheri immediately rushed to Jeff's side to take the call when she saw it was STAR Labs calling. She had a sinking feeling in her gut when she looked at the caller ID. What had happened now? Had Gus had another seizure? Did his heart stop again? For good this time? Did he have some other complication? Caitlin had mentioned to her the last time that she was there that Gus's breathing pattern had changed. What if there was some kind of problem? What if he was developing pneumonia or his lungs were starting to give out? It happened with coma patients all the time. Spontaneous respiratory failure.
A million thoughts racing through her head, Sheri answered the phone as soon as she had reached the back room.
"Hello?" she said urgently.
"Mrs. Jones," Cisco's voice answered seriously through the phone, "August just woke up."
Her heart skipped a beat.
"W-what?" Sheri stammered.
"He's awake," Cisco told her, "He just woke up a few minutes ago."
Sheri felt like she could Gusely breathe. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest. Gus was awake. He woke up from the coma. After months and months of waiting, of slowly losing hope that she would ever see him conscious again, ever hear his voice again, Her little genius was awake.
"He's…?" she whispered into the phone.
"And he's kind of freaking out right now," Cisco told her quickly, "We need you and Jeff to get here to calm him down."
"Oh, my God," she said in shock, taking in a shuttering breath, "I'll be right there!"
After hanging up the call, Sheri raced out of the house, excitedly yelling at Jeff as she got into the car and it pulled out of the parking lot.
"Jeff," she said excitedly - again as soon as he looked sideways at her, "August's awake."
"I heard darling" he smiled back at her.
"He's awake!" she cried out the window, "Our little genius just woke up!"
"Ha ha ha" Jeff laughed, his reaction similar to hers, "I'll speed up a little."
Jeff tried his best to obey traffic laws as he raced to STAR Labs, but that was kind of hard to do when his only thought was getting there. August was awake. He was awake, and he was probably scared out his mind. He needed to see him now.
August focused on calming his breathing down as the doctor looked him over. He was laid back against the pillow, but he was practically sitting upright in bed with how far up the head of it was elevated.
He stared at the ceiling, trying to wrap his head around everything as she checked all his vitals. He Gusely blinked as the doctor shined a light in his eyes, quietly muttering to herself that his pupils were equally reactive to light and approximated.
"Is he alright?" the guy standing near his bed asked her nervously.
"He's in shock," she said quietly, checking August's blood pressure again, "It's a lot to take in, finding out you've been in a coma for nine months."
August didn't say anything. He just focused on his breathing, trying to take calm, even breaths. Nine months.
He couldn't stay here. He needed to move. He needed to get up. With that thought, August suddenly leaned forward and tried to swing his legs out of bed. One of his legs caught on something, but he managed to get them both out from under the blanket and over the edge. It was then he noticed his legs were Guse, and he was wearing only a hospital gown.
"Woah, easy there, dude," the guy, Cisco, said quickly.
He and the doctor managed to force August to lay back again, pushing him back against the pillows and swinging his legs back into the bed, only half covered now.
"I can't stay here," August said urgently, "I have to get up."
"And where exactly are you planning on going, Mr. Heart?" a voice said from the doorway.
August looked over to see none other than Dr. Wells, himself, enter the room…in a wheelchair.
Before, August would have freaked out at the sight of him, would have stammered to him how excited he was to meet him, maybe tried to strike up a conversation about his thesis on his discovery of Tachyons or asked him more about his unorthodox approach to general relativity theory, but right now, none of that mattered to August.
"I need to see Jeff and Sheri," August stammered, "They…It's been nine months. I need to see them."
"They're on their way," Dr. Snow assured him, "Cisco just called them."
August relaxed slightly at that. Jeff and Sheri were coming. They were on their way there. August desperately needed to see a familiar face. Right now, he was in a room full of strangers. He didn't know any of them, even if he had read one of their autobiographies multiple times. He felt better, knowing his family would be there soon.
"Besides," Dr. Snow continued, "You've been in a bed for nine months. You shouldn't be on your feet just yet. You're still connected to an IV, a nasal cannula, and a catheter. Not to mention all the monitors that you keep pulling off of you."
Even as she said it, the doctor was reapplying a heart monitor lead to his chest that he had absently pulled off in his haste to get out of bed.
August lifted up the covers then and lifted his hospital gown to see for himself. He did, in fact, have a catheter in. That must have been what his leg had caught on when he tried to get up.
"Don't worry," she said to him as he recovered himself, "I'll take it out once you're tolerating oral fluids again. It should be out within a day or two."
"A day or two?!" he asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah," she said obviously, "You're going to have to stay here for a while. You're not going to be able to just hop out of bed and walk out of here right away. That would be insane. We have to make sure you're alright first."
August goggled at her for a moment, but he was distracted when he heard a shout from the doorway.
"Gus!" Sheri cried when she rushed into the cortex and saw him sitting up in bed, his eyes open.
It was a sight she had been starting to think she was never going to see again. August looked over at her, but before he could even react to seeing her there, she had crossed the room and had her arms wrapped tightly around him, and he hugged her back! His arms responded, and he actually hugged her back!
"Sheri," he said softly into her ear.
God, it was so good to hear his voice again, to see him sitting up and talking, not just lying there, dead to the world. Sheri had to blink back the tears in her eyes as she pulled away then to look at him. To look into his open eyes staring back at her. It didn't feel real. She had dreamt of this so many times, it was hard to believe it was real—August was really awake.
"You must be freaking out," she said understandingly to him, rubbing his arm, "Everything's okay, though, Gus. You're awake. You're awake now, and everything's okay."
"What happened?" he asked her quietly, "Was I in a car accident? Hit by a bus? Or…?"
"You were struck by lightning, Gus," she told him gently.
August blinked at her, and she could tell that that was clearly the last thing he had been expecting her to say. She could see his wheels turning behind his eyes, trying to comprehend what she was telling him, trying to remember the incident.
"Oh, my God," his foster father's voice came from the doorway.
Sheri looked over and quickly moved aside then so her husband could hug August and see him for himself.
"You're awake," her husband said to August, in shock as he stooped down to hug him, "I've missed you so much, Gus."
August just stared at both of them after Jeff had pulled away from the hug.
"Struck by lightning?" he said quietly, still trying to wrap his mind around it.
Jeff nodded.
"Eye witnesses said you were trying to get someone to safety after the Particle accelerator malfunctioned. In the process, you were struck by a bolt of lightning and collapsed. It shattered your research fluid or whatever that was. When the paramedics came, there was glass and chemicals everywhere, and you were covered in cuts and chemical burns for weeks afterwards. You fell right into concrete on the street."
"Your heart kept stopping," Sheri said shakily, remembering that night all too clearly, "We watched you die, Gus. Over and over again. You kept going into cardiac arrest."
August reached up and touched his chest over the hospital gown he was wearing.
"My heart stopped?" he asked quietly.
Jeff nodded sadly.
"And you were having seizures," he said painfully, "Violent, grand mal seizures. The doctors were baffled. They didn't know how to stop them."
"So we had you transferred here," Sheri supplied, "Dr. Wells and his team helped stabilize you."
August opened his mouth to ask another question, but they all jumped when there was a loud clatter behind them near the bed. Cisco had accidentally knocked over a wheeled surgical table, sending all its contents falling noisily to the ground.
Sheri noticed August staring wide-eyed at the surgical tray, a strange look on his face.
"Are you okay, Gus?" she asked him worriedly.
"Yeah," he said breathlessly, rubbing his eyes and looking back at her again, "I'm just a little fuzzy right now. This is a lot to take in."
She nodded and patted his arm soothingly. She couldn't even imagine what this must be like for him, to suddenly find himself waking up in a strange place, surrounded by strangers, and then being told he had been in a coma for nearly a year. It had to be overwhelming.
August tried to give himself a mental shake. He had imagined it. He had imagined the medical instruments falling to the ground in slow motion. He was still just groggy after waking up. That had to be it.
He pulled a small smile up on his face so no one would worry. Jeff and Sheri were still studying his face apprehensively, as if waiting for him to start freaking out at any moment. And he was definitely freaking out. He was just trying not to show it.
He wanted to ask them a million questions. What had happened in all the time he was out? Did Jeff shut down his lab for him? What about his research? His apartment, had his lease run out? Who had paid his medical bills? Was he going find himself in debt now with nine months' worth of medical bills to pay off? Who had been paying his other bills? Was his credit in the toilet by now, or had Jeff and Sheri taken care of all of it? Why had STAR Labs offered to treat him? Where were the rest of the STAR Labs employees? There had to be more than just the three of them here.
But his questions would have to wait. He wasn't given much of a chance to ask them amongst all of Dr. Snow's pestering.
When August reached up and felt the bandage on his throat, the doctor gently swatted his hand.
"Don't touch that," she said, "Leave it on."
"What is it?" he asked.
"You had a trach tube in your throat," the doctor told him, "A few days ago, you started fighting the intubation, trying to breath on your own, so I switched you to a less invasive oxygen source."
August nodded slowly. He couldn't say he was surprised. Anyone in a coma for that long would be required to have a tracheostomy tube put in to avoid breathing complications. It felt weird, though, having the large bandage covering his throat. He was just grateful that the tube was taken out before he woke up. As scary as all of this was, it would have been a million times worse if he had found himself waking up with a trach tube sticking out of his neck.
"Can I have some water?" he croaked, putting his hand on his throat again.
It felt incredibly dry and sore.
"Not yet," she said gently, "We have to do a swallow study before I let you eat or drink anything on your own. You've been getting tube feedings for nine months. There's a chance you might not be able to swallow well at first."
August sighed, and Jeff patted his arm soothingly.
"It's okay, Gus," he said, "Just take it slow. You've been out for a while. Give yourself time to adjust."
August nodded and then groaned as he stretched his arms above his head. His arms hurt like hell. His whole body ached.
"Your joints are going to be a bit stiff for a while," Dr. Snow told him as he stretched, "I did passive range of motion for you regularly, but you're still going to be a little stiff at first. Your muscles, even though they've grown instead of atrophying like they should have, are still probably going to feel a bit weak and sore from disuse."
"They've grown?" August asked, "What do you mean?"
He looked over his arms. He had biceps! Well, he had always had biceps of course, but they were now more streamlined.
"Your muscles should have atrophied," the doctor said, pressing her hands on his shoulders, "But instead they're in a state of chronic regeneration. I've never seen anything like it."
She was looking at him like he was some sort of interesting specimen, and August found himself getting uncomfortable under her gaze.
The doctor started running a wide range of tests and scans then, starting with a swallow study to be sure he could swallow first before giving him something to drink. He was thankful for that. He had a horrible taste in his mouth, and his throat was so dry, the water was a huge relief for him.
The shock started after the results of his brain scan came in. There were patches of red lit up and his synapses were firing at an abnormal rate. The doctor chalked it up to faulty machinery though and was instead amazed at his quick recovery. He had gone from comatose to fully alert within a day. August didn't understand what was so special about it until she explained to him that most coma patients woke up gradually over the course of a few days or even weeks. They didn't normally just shoot up in bed like they do in the movies. He was an abnormal exception to this.
"Can I get some pants, please?" August asked after a while, uncomfortable to be wearing just a hospital gown while he was in a room full of fully dressed people, all of whom were looking at him.
They helped August get a pair of sweatpants on and a STAR Labs sweatshirt. Caitlin switched his catheter bag to one that attached to his ankle. August wanted her to just take the damn thing out, but she regretfully told him that she needed to monitor his output, and when no one was paying attention, she leaned in and whispered to him so no one else could hear, not wanting to embarrass him.
"Also, I'm not sure about your bladder control yet," she whispered quietly, "I figured you wouldn't want an audience for that, in case you have trouble with it."
August blushed and then nodded gratefully. He didn't object to the catheter after that.
When August first tried to stand, he was a little wobbly on his feet. He had been laying in a bed for nine months, after all, and his legs weren't used to supporting him. Dr. Snow told him he was lucky his muscles hadn't atrophied. Most prolonged coma patients took weeks to be able to stand after waking up.
August desperately wanted to go home that night after waking up, and Jeff and Sheri wanted badly to take him home with them, but the doctor was adamant about keeping him there for observation. Jeff and Sheri stayed there with him by his bedside, despite August's insistence that they go home and get some sleep.
August didn't think he'd be able to sleep that night after everything he had had dropped on him in one day. He thought he would lay awake all night, still trying to process it and wrap his mind around all of it, but he found that he was surprisingly tired, even after spending nine months asleep. He was more than just tired. He was exhausted.
Jeff and Sheri seemed leery about letting him fall asleep, no doubt afraid he wouldn't wake up again, but Dr. Snow assured them that that was unlikely and that it was important that they let August sleep as much as possible whenever he was tired. His brain was still healing and adjusting, and sleep would be extremely important for him while he recovered.
August ended waking up in the middle of the night. He didn't know what time it was, but it had to be late, considering how Jeff and Sheri were both sound asleep in their chairs next to his bed. August was still exhausted, and he wondered what had woken him. That was when he looked down at his hand.
It was shaking. No. More than that. It was…vibrating.
It was shaking so hard it looked like it was just a blur to his eyes. August blinked through the darkness, trying to get a better look at his hand. It was tingling and spasming. He didn't understand it. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was impossible. His hand couldn't be shaking that hard. It couldn't be moving that fast.
"August?" Dr. Snow's soft voice said, and he looked up to see her approaching his bed.
He looked back down at his hand again. It had stopped.
"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, not wanting to wake Jeff or Sheri.
"Y-yeah," he said, "I…I think I'm just having some muscle spasms."
She nodded slowly.
"That's pretty common with coma patients," she told him softly, "Where are you having the spasms?"
"My hands," he said, holding them out for her to see.
They were still shaking slightly, but neither of them were vibrating like they had been a moment ago. He must have just imagined that they were moving that fast. He must have still been half asleep.
She carefully examined his hands.
"It should fade with time," she told him, "I'll prescribe you some Flexeril. It's a muscle relaxant, and it should help."
She injected some of the medication into his IV then, and August took another drink of water before going back to sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he didn't give the incident another thought. He must have just been dreaming.