Liyler | Sleeping Beauty.

[Tyler Parker]

<sup>It had been about a month since the shooting, and most of the kids who were injured had returned back to the School, or back home. There were only four kids left from Somerset still in the Hospital, and one of those four was Tyler Parker.

Tyler had been moved in to a private room two weeks ago. It was a plain room, there was the bed, with a chair beside it, a table, and then the machines. One of them was beeping steadily, matching Tyler's heart rate as he slept. The other was hooked up to the two tubes that were placed in his nose, to keep him breathing. All in all it was a pretty horrible thing to look in on. A single teen father, shot twice in the chest and then put in to a coma for his own health ... It was a dramatic ordeal to say the very least. Every so often a Nurse would bob her head around the door to check on Tyler and spot the framed photo of his little girl on the bedside table. It was enough to make even the toughest of Nurses stop for a second to compose themselves. They knew that today was the day though, Tyler would be coming out of the coma very soon, and Lina would be there to see it.

Over the past month the Hospital staff had gotten to know Lina very well, and through her they had learnt more about Tyler, about his story, and his situation. So when Lina arrived that morning a Doctor greeted her outside Tyler's room and lead her inside.

'We've checked his vitals earlier this morning, and everything is fine, so fingers crossed we can wake Tyler up nice and smoothly today', the Doctor said to Lina with a warm smile. Humming a little tune to himself the doctor pulled on some latex gloves and started fiddling around with some of the bags suspended by Tyler's bed. A moment later the Doctor was injecting some clear fluid in to one of the bags, once the vial was empty he stepped back and set his eyes on the monitor besides Tyler.</sup>

[Lina Rey Parson]

It had been a torturous month for Lina. Coming in to see Tyler was hard, because she kept wanting him to wake up. At first, she had asked a doctor every day if he could come out of the coma yet. Every time, someone would babble off something medical and she'd be told it would be another few days, another few weeks - whatever. The first time she saw Tyler was a few days after the shooting. She hadn't been in school to witness anything, but she got a call from the police after a while. They had found her name on the records from the day care center, because she would pick up Violet sometimes if Tyler had a class. They weren't very professional about it, just placed Violet in her care and told her that Tyler was in the hospital. Lina found herself a suddenly very scared teenager with an equally terrified baby on her hands.

On the first visit, she had cried a little. It scared her to see Tyler in such a state, practically dead to the world. She didn't see the wounds (thankfully) but the bandages were huge. Violet was very squirmy and confused, especially when Tyler didn't do anything when her chubby baby fingers wrapped around one of his. She looked at Lina with those big brown eyes, and made a cute little baby squawk, then spent the rest of the visit playing with his hand.

It was tough, suddenly being a "teen mom" in one sense of the word. Lina didn't really know how to take care of a baby, and she found out soon enough that she didn't have the resources. It took a few days before she realized that she couldn't keep living in her dorm and taking care of Violet. Her neighbors were getting annoyed if she cried, and as much as Lina tried to keep her occupied, Violet just seemed to really miss her dad. So, Lina started living in Tyler's house, using what he had there to keep his baby happy - toys, food, everything. Home seemed better for Violet, but she wasn't very happy, considering her dad wasn't around. She probably didn't understand it, being less than a year old, but it was like instinct to miss her primary parent. Thankfully, she had Lina to keep her, instead of being shoved into foster care for a month while Tyler was in the hospital!

When they told her that they would be waking up Tyler today, Lina practically broke every speeding law on the roads it took to get to the hospital. She was just really excited to get there and see her boyfriend wake up. She wanted his baby to be the first one in his sight, of course, but she wanted to be there with Violet, too. A happy little family reunion, plus one. She sat down at his bedside and watched as the doctor injected the fluid that would wake him up. Then, she shifted her vision straight to Tyler's face, waiting for his eyes to open and Violet struggled in her arms, attempting to grab his hand again, as she was quite used to doing so.

[Tyler Parker]

<sup>It didn't take long for the fluid to work it's magic, and little by little Tyler's heart rate sped up to a steady rhythmic beat. It took a little longer for him to open his eyes, but after a couple of moments Tyler let out a small groan and his eyes opened. Blinking a couple of times he squinted up at the brightly lit ceiling and then turned his head slightly to one side, and then the other, trying to figure out where he was. The last thing he remembered was getting lunch, he was handing over the money to the lunch lady then ... Tyler's body tensed as everything played back before his eyes. The guns ... The bullets, the blood ... So much ... Tyler reached up to his chest and felt the padding of the bandages, as he pulled his hand back in horror he got caught on one of the various wires that were attached to him.

'Wha's goin' on?', he muttered, obviously still coming around, as he'd been asleep for a month. Now he was sat up he noticed there was a doctor standing at the foot of the bed. Then there was the sound of a baby gurgling and he turned his head in her direction so fast it hurt his neck. Violet! Lina! Tyler didn't know how long he'd been in Hospital, but it must have been awhile because Violet's hair was much longer, and she looked bigger than before. Without him really realizing it his eyes had teared up.

'Hey', he gave Lina a weak smile as he held his hand out to Violet who was making cute happy noises, 'Hey Vi, hey baby girl, yeah, Daddy's back now baby', he took hold of his daughters tiny hand, he wanted nothing more than to scoop her up in to his arms and cuddle her, but what with all the wires it didn't seem like a good idea. Then he wanted to pull Lina on to the bed and hug her too, forever if possible.

'I'm going to leave you three alone for a while now, okay?', the Doctor said before leaving the room.</sup>

[Lina Rey Parson]

Lina sat up straighter when his eyes fluttered open. She couldn't keep the smile off her face, even if she tried. When he asked what was going on, she almost answered, but he looked like he was figuring it out himself for a moment. She wondered if he remembered anything, or if the shock had totally erased it from his mind. When his hand took Violet's, she let out the breath she had been holding, happy that he was feeling at least good enough to take his daughter's hand.

After a thought, Lina moved Violet out of her lap and onto the bed next to her father. She didn't want Vi to be sitting on him, because of the wires and the bandages, but she figured it would be alright to move her next to him on the bed. "Hey, how are you?" With Violet out of her lap, she scooted the chair closer to the bed, leaning her arms on the guard rails that were on the sides. She loved how tenderly he greeted Violet; it made her heart melt. She was glad that he'd be home soon and caring for her. Well, not full time at first, of course, since he probably wouldn't feel up to it. The thought dawned on her that maybe she'd need to keep living with them for a month or so... that might be fun.

[Tyler Parker]

<sup>'Oh, hey baby', Tyler smiled as Lina placed Violet down on the bed next to him. With a little effort he managed to move all his wires mostly on to the other side of him. The last thing he needed was Violet yanking wires out of him left, right and center. Especially as he had no idea where the wires actually went, and he didn't have the guts to find out.

When Lina asked how he was he took a minute to consider it. Overall he didn't feel that bad. Though when he took a breath his chest hurt, probably something to do with stitches. Other than that he felt good, great really, just happy to be awake, and alive.

'I'm good, thirsty though ... How are you? Did you have to look after Vi? How long have I been in here?', Tyler found his head filled with a lot of questions at once as his brain began to wake up fully.</sup>

[Lina Rey Parson]

Lina was, of course, at the ready. She half expected Violet to be overly curious and chew on wires or something. That was just her baby way of investigating things - if it fits in my hand, I'll pull on it, and if it fits in my mouth, then I'll try eating it! Lina was constantly getting her to stop chewing on her key chain the first few days. Now that there were wires to "play with" she was hyper aware of the danger to both father and daughter. She'd turned into a little bit of a mom over the past month.

"There's a glass of water on the table." She leaned over and took the glass from the little half-table that was next to his bed. She held it out to him, figuring he could take it himself, right? His barrage of questions was to be expected. After he took the water, she sat back. "I'm fine, I was just so worried about you." She gushed, feeling a bit of tears coming to her eyes. It was true, she was sick with fear most days. "The police called and told me I had custody of Violet while you were in the hospital, so I had her with me in my dorm for a few days. I ended up taking her back to your place and staying there, though, because I needed baby things."

When he inquired about what happened, she sighed, running a nervous hand through her wavy hair. She had spent many a night wondering that herself. What had made those two guys snap and just... lash out like that? What had Tyler even done to them? "Well, there was a - a shooting, at the school. You got hit twice, so they told me. You're very lucky to be here," she said, slowly. "I wasn't at school, though. I didn't find out until hours later, when they called and told me to take Violet." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. "Do you remember anything?" She asked, trying to be gentle about it.

[Tyler Parker]

<sup>Tyler sipped on his water, it was kind of hard to swallow, he guessed that it was something to do with the fact that he hadn't had to swallow anything for a month.

'I can't believe they didn't call my mom to come get Vi ... Not that you couldn't take care of her, you obviously have but ... You're staying at my place?', it was a lot of information to take in, but Tyler got attached to that piece of information. Lina had been living in his apartment, taking care of his little girl ... That was real couple shit right there, he couldn't help but smile.

Though his smile soon vanished when Lina mentioned the shooting, he'd been shot? Twice?! Tyler on sort of remembered being shot, but he wasn't even sure that's what had happened. If he was shot, how many others were there? He decided not to ask.

'I just remember a lot of blood, screaming ... Being really hot, like ...' Tyler gestured a circle around his chest, 'Really hot here, but really cold everywhere else', he frowned, pulling Violet closer to him, where she latched on to his arm, drooling all over it.</sup>

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[Lina Rey Parson]

Lina widened her eyes, suddenly surprised. "Oh my gosh, I never thought to call your mom. I mean - of course she knows that you're here, but I should have told her that I was taking care of Violet. It just didn't register for me to even think of that." She frowned, suddenly upset with herself over it. "I'm so sorry."

She looked down at the floor towards her feet, paling when she heard him recount what he remembered. Even from her dorm room she had heard the screams. That's when a teacher stopped by and told her to stay in her dorm and not come out, no matter what. She was there for hours before they called the all-clear and she was contacted by the police. It was definitely nerve wracking just sitting there - it had to be worse for Tyler, who had to live through it. She couldn't fathom the thought. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said softly.

[Tyler Parker]

<sup>'No, that's not what I meant ... I just thought they'd give Violet to my mom, but it doesn't matter, she's safe, you're safe, and I'm awake now, I'm back so everything's good', Tyler leaned over the bars on the bed as far as he could without squishing Violet, and took one of Lina's hands in his.

'I'm glad you're okay too', he replied, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. As he was looking at Lina something occurred to him and he drew in a sharp breath.

'Lina! Please God tell me I haven't missed Christmas!'.

ooc;
It's December 17th, I just decided :3</sup>

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[Lina Rey Parson]

Lina smiled, reassured when Tyler took her hand. She laughed when he suddenly asked about Christmas. Apparently that was very important to him. Honestly, she hadn't thought about it, but it seemed like kids at Somerset were getting over the shooting and trying to move on by planning Christmas things. "No, you didn't miss Christmas," she said with a smile, giving his hand a squeeze as she laced their fingers together. It felt like forever since she held his hand like this. She had missed it. "Why the excitement? You have plans?"