Chapter 20 The Paranoia

Evernya awakened a few hours later. She scanned the room in panic until she spotted Meira.

“How do you feel?” Asked Meira, perched on a chair to the left of Evernya’s bed.

Evernya sat up, pulling her knees to her chest while stroking her tail as she confessed, “I don’t know. Physically I feel better than ever, but I don’t know if I can take waking up in unfamiliar places anymore. Part of me still believes this is a lab, and I hate not knowing where I am every time I wake up. I can’t stand being helpless. I need to be able to stand on my own without help from others.”

With an understanding expression, Meira said. “These last few months have been stressful for you. I hope to change that in the future. I plan to spend the summer training you so you can better survive on your own. However, you have to stay in the hospital for a few more days for observation, but we are moving to a much nicer room. We were waiting until you woke up.”

“Why do we have to stay in the hospital? I feel fine.” Asked Evernya, worried. Her hands trembled, clutching her tail tightly as a panic attack loomed.

“Calm down, Evernya. You are safe. No one is trapping you here. However, the hospital wants you to stay for a few days to make sure you are fine physically and mentally. You woke up from a two-week coma less than four hours ago, so please bear with it. After you get discharged, we will go back to my house or wherever you want to go.” Meira assured before leaning in to hug the panicked cat girl.

Evernya took a deep breath to calm down, but she was still visibly trembling. Evernya glanced at the EKG machine beeping rapidly, renewing her anxiety.

“Does the EKG machine bother you, kitten?” Meira asked, catching Evernya’s glance, receiving a shaky nod.

“I don’t think you need that connected anymore. When we move, I will make sure they don’t reconnect it. Anything else bothering you? We want you as comfortable as possible during your stay here.” Meira inquired.

In response, Evernya pointed at everything attached to her that had anything to do with the hospital, causing Meira to chuckle at her kitten’s antics.

Under the glare of her kitten, Meira responded, “I don’t think they need any of those monitors anymore. I also brought you a change of clothes. The hospital ID wristband has to stay on until your discharge for identification, and the IV also has to remain in for everyone’s safety, including yourself. Aside from those, everything else can go. I’m sure you will feel much more comfortable in real clothes in your new room as they are moving you to a VIP suite.”

Evernya stroked her tail for several minutes in silence before questioning, “I understand the hospital ID wristband, but why the IV?”

Meira winced, but under her kitten’s gaze, she relented. “Please don’t worry, but in case of a panic attack, they connected to a high dosage of sedatives administered through the IV. It is for everyone’s safety that there is an effective method to subdue you if you have a panic attack. Your panic attacks are quite destructive, after all. I can easily fend them off, but they trained the medical staff taking care of you in healing, not combat, leaving them vulnerable to accidental injury.”

In a panic, Evernya’s right hand reached toward the IV, only for Meira’s hand to encircle her wrist. “I would advise against trying to remove the IV. If you do, they will probably secure it with silver. Don’t worry, they won’t sedate you as long as I’m around, and I will be with you for the rest of your hospital stay. It is just there as a precaution.”

With the vulnerability of sedation looming over her head, Evernya hyperventilated. She instinctively grabbed her tail to resume her stroking. With her eyes closed, she focused on her mana system churning mana throughout her body. The next ten minutes passed in a meditative trance, losing herself in the beauty of her mana system. The beeping of the EKG gradually slowed to a steady rhythm of 20 bpm. She reopened her eyes, refreshed and calm.

Evernya’s gaze landed on the elf, beaming at her with a proud expression. “I am proud of you! It’s okay to take time for yourself to calm down. No one who matters will blame you.”

After her compliment, Meira inquired, “Do you think you can handle the move to your new room? We wanted you to be conscious during the move, so you don’t wake up in another unfamiliar place. Currently, you are in the shifters ward, but your new room is in the Mage’s ward. The transfer will be a lengthy trip across the hospital. You may face some racism along the way, but you belong there just as much as they do. Just because you’re a shifter doesn’t mean you are inferior to them. You’re a mage, just like they are.”

“I can handle the move, but I don’t think I can walk right now.” Responded Evernya in a shaky voice, trying her best to keep herself calm.

“That’s okay. I can push you in a wheelchair. Do you want to change clothes now or after you get to the room?” Asked Meira.

Evernya sighed in relief. “I would feel better wearing normal clothes before we leave the room,” replied Evernya.

“Okay, let me fetch a nurse to disconnect everything so you can get dressed,” Meira stated before discreetly signaling for a nurse to the observation window.

A moment later, a nurse who appeared to be in her 30s arrives. “I need you to disconnect Evernya’s IV line and the other monitoring equipment so she can get dressed before we move her,” Meira instructed the nurse.

The nurse turned to her patient. “Miss, please relax and lie on your back,” ordered the nurse politely.

After the nurse disconnected everything, Evernya visibly relaxed. To give Evernya some privacy, Meira pulled a curtain around her bed. Meira handed Evernya the clothes before exiting the curtained off area.

The clothes were Evernya’s typical outfit, but with shorts instead of jeans. Evernya glanced at the plain-looking black bra on the top of the stack. Should I go braless? I’m naked under my hospital gown, and I don’t feel any discomfort from my breasts, but at the same time, my nipples may show through what I assume is a form-fitting T-shirt. After a moment of hesitation, she shrugged her shoulders. I’ll wear the bra. If it’s anything like the last one, I’ll barely feel it after it resizes, anyway.

She pulled the bra over her breasts before activating the resizing and support enchantments, causing it to mold itself around her breasts, given them proper support and removing any chance of a nipple poking through her shirt.

Satisfied with the feel, Evernya slipped on the rest of her clothes while activating the resizing enchantments on each piece. She glanced down, body clothed in a black T-shirt and short shorts, leaving a majority of her pale legs bare.

Now clothed, Evernya opened the curtain, tail slightly raised with renewed confidence. However, this confidence shattered as the nurse approached with the IV line in hand.

“Miss, please hold out your left arm for me.” Ordered the nurse holding the IV line, prompting Evernya to raise her trembling left arm for the nurse.

Upon observing the sudden change in her kitten’s demeanor, Meira turned to the observation window mouthing, ‘we need to talk’ to Elizabeth, who was watching from outside of the room.

After the IV’s re-insertion, Evernya was back to stroking her tail, trying to keep herself from a panic attack. She couldn’t stop her eyes from following the IV line to the pump nearby loaded with sedatives that could inject into her at any time. This thought made her shaking visibly worse. Her eyes then landed on the nurse who had just reconnected the IV line. The nurse noticed her patient’s sudden change in demeanor, causing her to clutch the remote nervously, primed to release a hefty dose of sedatives into her patient.

Evernya’s eyes zeroed in on the remote with predator-like focus, causing the nurse to panic, pressing the button on the remote. Evernya’s eyes widened in alarm. She instantly shifted her attention toward the pump, finding it had already injected the sedatives into her IV line. In a panic, she launched an energy blast at the pump, pulverizing it just as the full dose of sedatives reached her veins.

The hefty dose of sedatives took immediate effect, rapidly weakening her body. She focused all her will on fighting the sedatives in her body to stay conscious, but it was futile. She continued to lose strength until she fell onto her back, strength drained. Her tearful eyes drifted closed, losing her battle to stay conscious as her body went limp.

Meira rushed to her kitten, panicking immediately upon finding she wasn’t breathing, nor had a pulse. “Elizabeth, get in here now!” Screamed Meira.

Elizabeth sprinted into the room upon witnessing the sudden collapse of her patient. Elizabeth checked Evernya for a pulse and found none. As she injected her water into Evernya’s body, her eyes ran down her patient’s body, finding it much paler than normal. Her eyes widened when her water-based mana found Evernya’s body flooded with sedatives well beyond her dosage recommendation. Elizabeth closed her eyes to concentrate as she latched onto the sedatives pumping them out through Evernya’s pores. The bed dampened as the sedatives expelled from Evernya’s body.

After almost a minute of Elizabeth aggressively flushing the drugs out of Evernya’s system, her patient regained a pulse. Elizabeth sighed in relief, leaning against the shutdown monitoring equipment for support. A second later, Elizabeth pulled herself together, turning toward the pale nurse still clutching the remote.

“How much sedatives did you put in the pump!?” Barked Elizabeth to the nurse.

“You said to use triple the dose of shifters her size.” The nurse stuttered.

“Then why did I find four times what I prescribed in her system!?” Elizabeth snapped.

Caught red-handed, the nurse rambled, trying to justify her actions. “We heard the stories of how she destroyed her hospital room after lasting over ten minutes after injection. Then she fought the sedatives in the mana tank. We didn’t want her to hurt us before the sedatives took effect, so we administered a dose in the pump that should’ve sedated her within seconds. We didn’t think it would cause an overdose.”

“How dare you do that to my kitten!” Meira lifted her head, glaring at the nurse roaring while hugging her unconscious kitten.

“I will deal with you and your fellow nurses involved after I’m sure my patient is safe. You and all those involved are suspended indefinitely without pay until I personally complete my investigation. Now get out so I can tend to my patient!” Elizabeth berated before returning her attention to her patient. Elizabeth ran a few more scans on Evernya, finding her patient healthy but unconscious.

Still fuming from the failure of her staff, Elizabeth hissed through gritted teeth, “I think it would be best that we move her to her new room now. The word has spread among the shifter wards in the area of her panic attacks. From now on, I will interview all staff before assigning them to her to prevent future incidents.”

After calming herself down, Elizabeth continued, “I think this latest incident has proven we shouldn’t use any form of restraint, physical, chemical, or magical on her. She appeared calmer after the removal of her IV, negating any use for it. All of her panic attacks stem from being restrained or confined. At least at my hospital every other time she faced a stressful situation, she has kept herself under control.”

Without taking her eyes off her kitten, Meira inquired, “Will she be okay? She nearly died if you hadn’t been here. I’m not sure if she would’ve made it.”

Elizabeth placed a hand on her teary-eyed friend’s shoulder as she explained her theory. “I don’t think the overdose would have killed her. I’m not sure, but from what I have observed about her, I think she would enter a deathlike state for a while before recovering. Physically she should be fine after the sedatives wear off. Mentally I don’t know, unlike the previous times this time she was fully aware of what was happening but was helpless to stop it.”

Elizabeth scanned Evernya’s body again and finding only safe amounts of sedatives left in Evernya’s system. “I don’t think she should be in this room when she reawakens. It would be better if she awakens in an unfamiliar room then a familiar room she faced a traumatizing situation.” Advised Elizabeth.

While stroking her kitten’s hair, Meira questioned, “I agree, but who will bring her? I would carry her, but that will attract too much attention to her. If she was conscious, I could just push her in a wheelchair, but now we need a stretcher. I don’t trust any of the nurses in the shifter ward enough to bring her to her new room.”

“I will call some nurses I trust from the mages ward to help. She won’t awaken for at least a few more hours, if not longer. I cleared most of the sedatives out, but there is still around the dose I originally prescribed in her system.” Elizabeth replied before removing Evernya’s IV, then paging several nurses.