The doctor nodded, not paying much attention to the strange description. "I'd say so in the condition you two were in when you got here. You're lucky your friend there carried you here or else you might not have made it."

"Wait. The condition us two were in? Where's Karin? Is she okay?" Panic began to swell through him at the man's words. Was Karin hurt?

The doctor looked at him sympathetically but his tone was calm. "She's suffered some sever head trauma and she's got cuts and bruises all over her body. It seems you two were out in the woods somewhere from your dirty clothes and the leaves in her hair. I don't know what you two were doing but I'm surprised she could carry you all the way here before collapsing."

Slowly, the events from what happened in the woods returned to him. The beating, the fight with his dad, the retrieval of his sisters. His head began to spin. "Is she going to be okay?"

The doctor looked at him and said quietly. "She hasn't woken up yet..."

Tarvo tried to sit up and get out of the hospital bed but couldn't. The pain was too much for him. "I have to go and see her," he mumbled.

The doctor laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "You can't, we will inform you if there are any changes."

Tarvo shook his head, causing his world to spin more. "But you don't understand! I'm the reason she's in that condition. I have to..." The youngest got up from her seat and hugged him tightly.
"We love you but you have to rest. We'll check on Karin in turns. Promise." Tarvo hugged her back and struggled to lay back down. "I love you guys too. Never forget that, okay?" they all nodded in unison and he smiled.

The doctor nodded. "I'll let you rest now." He left.

Tarvo rested himself back into the bed. He was nervous and anxious and sore. He had never been in a hospital bed before. He looked towards his sisters and tried to imagine what the felt. He couldn't. He was too worried about Karin for that.

A few hours passed and Karin still didn't regain consciousness.

Tarvo woke with a start. The eldest was gone, probablly watching Karin for him. He didn't try to sit up but he felt that he could. He looked besided him to the machine that was pumping fluids into his body. He could feel it as it entered, cold and flowing.

It was late night before anything happened with Karin. The doctor walked in and said. "We have some news on your friend."

Tarvo looked toward the door as the doctor spoke to him. "Is she awake?"

The doctor shook his head sadly. "She hasn't woken up but we're seeing a lot of brain activity, like a dream but more intense... this is commonly shown in people who have entered a coma."

Tarvo tried to sit up. This was his fault. He shouldn't have let her go back with him. He should have left her where she was. Tarvo knew that sometimes people in a coma didn't wake up. Ever. "She... she..." he couldn't help it Tears fell down his cheeks.

"We could let you see her. Sometimes hearing the voices of people familiar help people like her wake up." The doctor said kindly.

Tarvo nodded. His throat was too sticky for him to reply normally. He wasn't sure how he was going to get there but he wanted more than anything to see her.

The doctor called some nurses in and they helped him move Tarvo and his equipment to Karin's room.

Karin was laying on her back, there were tubes hooked up to her along with a breathing mask, different liquids, pain killers, virus control, flowing into her arms and legs. Her head was heavily bandaged and her breathing was soft and even. There was a heart monitor and a brain wave monitor set up to the side of her bed.

The doctors rolled Tarvo's bed to the side of Karin's that didn't have all the equipment, they rolled him close enough that he could reach out and hold her hand. "We'll let you be for now." Said the doctor as he walked out.

Tarvo noted the closeness but wasn't sure what to do. It was his fault she was like this. Would she even want him to touch her after what he had done? He sighed, remembering what she had done for him in the woods. He looked at her warmly. There was nothing he could do to help her so he would just have to talk away his nerves. "I hope you can forgive me for this. It's my fault. I shouldn't have taken you back there."

Karin's eyelids moved with the flutter of dreams and remained unconscious.

Tarvo didn't know what to say. There was nothing that came to mind. He sighed and looked at the ceiling, not wanting to look at Karin's bruised face. It reminded him too much of his failure to keep her safe.

"Tarvo..." Karin whispered in her sleep and a small smile was on her cracked lips.

Tarvo's head snapped towards Karin. He was gapping, he knew it. "Karin..." he said, slightly dazzed by her smile.

Karin's soft smile stayed on her face. "Thank you..." She said softly to her dream Tarvo.