Sebastian was given a bit more morphine which helped him sleep much more easily through most of the night. That was until around 4:00 am.

Rylee was laying asleep, curled on the small sofa in the corner when she was awoken by a blood curdling scream. She jolted up to see that the source of the noise was Sebastian.

He was drenched in sweat, and his face was now filled with more pain than she'd seen him physically have yet so far during his stay. A few machines that were tethered to his body began to screech and beep incessantly, adding to the abrupt chaos.

Rylee immediately stood up and bolted to his bed side. "Baby, hey, I'm here. It's Rylee. What happened?"

Sebastian was starting to hyperventilate, causing his punctured lung to contract more than it could handle, a searing pain ripped through his chest. His good eye, wide open in fear as if he'd just seen a ghost. He couldn't get out any words, even if he tried.

"Baby, look at me. Seb. Breathe honey." Rylee tried to calm him, but to no avail.

Laura came jogging in, stethoscope bouncing around her neck. Laura looked at his various levels on the machine and then went to stand right beside Sebastian.

"Sebastian. You are safe. You are at the hospital. Whatever you just experienced was just a nightmare. You are safe. You're with Laura and Rylee. " Laura said, placing a hand on his good shoulder, rubbing her thumb there for comfort.

He held eye contact with her, wide eyed and frightened. He felt like he couldn't breathe.

Rylee watched on, stepping around the bed to give Laura room.

"Can you breathe with me Sebastian? In through your nose, out through your mouth. In..2..3..4.. Out..2..3..4..Again." She used the hand on his shoulder to mark out the tempo to their breathing with her thumb, drumming it lightly on his shoulder.

"Sebastian, can you hear me? Don't talk, just, if you can hear me, blink twice."

He did so, still breathing very heavily but in a steadier rhythm than he had been.

"Great. Amazing. You are okay. You're having a a panic attack brought on by a nightmare. As long as we just keep breathing we're going to be a-okay." She demonstrated breathing in and out on four counts and soon enough, he was starting to come back down, breaths evening out, but he still winced every time he inhaled.

"Your chest is probably going to hurt for a bit. Those big deep breaths can do a number on that puncture in your lung. Your shoulder is also going to smart for a hot minute from all the tenseness you just held up there. Does anything else hurt?"

Sebastian huffed a small sarcastic laugh, but it caused him to cough, making him flinch in pain again.

"Sorry, bad question," she smirked at the fact that he still had his sense of humor through all this, "Is there anything else that hurts more now than it did before you fell asleep?"

Sebastian nodded ever so slightly, lifting his splinted hand gently to touch his jaw.

"Ah, yeah. That makes sense too. Your jaw was dislocated, so for the next month or two, it'll be prone to doing so again much more easily because the muscle there is weak now. You may have briefly dislocated and relocated it when you yelled."

Sebastian nodded gently, expressing that he understood. Laura patted his shoulder and reached over to grab his chart, jotting down a few notes and numbers, and then putting it back.

She held up a "one minute" finger and she walked out of the room.

"Seb..." Rylee looked forlornly at him.

"Mm sorry." Sebastian said back quietly, inhaling slowly through his nose, taking in whatever oxygen the cannula would give him.

"Don't apologize. There's no need for that. I'm just glad you're okay." She smiled sadly at him.

At that, Laura came back into the room with a large cup of ice chips and a spoon. "I'm passing the torch on to you, think you can handle this crazy man and his ice chips?"

Rylee let out a laugh, taking the cup and spoon from Laura's hands, "I'll try my best."

Laura patted Sebastian's good leg and looked at him in the eyes seriously, "Are you doing better?"

"Yeah...thanks Laura..." Sebastian breathed out slowly.

"I'll be back in a bit, otherwise, feel free to page me. Michelle will also be here in a few hours." She patted Sebastian's leg one more time for good measure and then quietly left the room.

Rylee looked at Sebastian and then down to the cup in her hand. She scooped out a spoonful and held them towards Sebastian, "Ice chips Mr. Stan?"

Sebastian huffed out a small laugh, "Yes, Nurse Rylee."

——————————

Eventually Sebastian cleared out the whole cup of ice and was back to sleep within the hour, with no more nightmares or issues.

Dr. Singh arrived around 9:00 am, greeting Sebastian and Rylee as he grabbed Sebastian's chart from the bed frame.

"Little bit of trouble last night, Sebastian?" Dr. Singh seemed to read, as he skimmed over his notes.

"Yeah...I had a nightmare...and woke up having a panic attack."

"Do you remember what your nightmare was about?"

"Me falling...The very vivid details of it all. I swore I could've felt every bone break like it was actually happening then and there."

Dr. Singh tagged that information on the chart, "completely normal for something like that to happen after a traumatic event."

Dr. Singh sat down in the chair beside the bed, chart in his lap as he began to talk about what the morning would entail.

"Well we've been completing the GCS every four hours since you've woken up and you've steadily been a 13 which is good news...

Rylee was the first to ask, "What's a 13 and what's a GCS?"

"13 is the score out of 15 for the Glasgow Coma Scale. It helps rank the severity of head injuries. It focuses on your eye control, voice response, and motor response. The higher the score, the less severe. With a 13, Sebastian is in the mild category. Which is great."

"In a couple minutes, we're going to take you down for an MRI to clear that all up for sure. And then we'll be stopping on another floor on the way back up to do some blood work...but first...the hardest part of the day..."

Sebastian looked at him questioningly. Trying to decide what a doctor would consider hard.

"You're going to need to get from point A" he said, pointing to the bed, "to point B" he continued pointing but now towards the wheelchair Michelle just brought in.

Oh. Shit. Okay. Yeah. That's gonna be hard.

"Do you think you can help transfer yourself from A to B? You're allowed to say hell no." Dr. Singh joked.

"Yeah...I think so."

"I'm here to assist as well as Michelle and our good ol' friend Mark over here from down the hall. He's going to be your MRI tech today." Mark waved, smiling at everyone.

They placed the wheelchair on Sebastian's right side. Mark went to Sebastian's right, and Dr. Singh went to his left. They both gently braced a shoulder, and helped Sebastian sit up slowly.

Sebastian would be lying if he said the movement didn't make him a little dizzy. He had been laying in basically the same spot for two whole days.

"Doing okay there Sebastian?" Dr. Singh asked loud and clear.

Sebastian nodded.

"Im gonna need some words my guy." Dr. Singh commented.

"I'm good...Just need a minute." Sebastian said plainly, sucking in deep breaths through his nose.

They gave him just that, and after a minute or so, Mark asked if he was ready to keep going. Sebastian answered yes. Again, loud and clear.

"Okay, now we're going to swing your legs towards Mark, slowly so they hang off the bed."

They did so carefully and without any faults.

"Now, you'll need to scoot towards the edge of the bed. Great job. Okay, now Mark's going to wrap this around your waist, it's called a transfer belt. It'll help him help you, okay?"

Dr. Singh came around to the right side of the bed with Mark and Sebastian while he pointed all this out.

"Alright, on three buddy, one, two, three."

Sebastian tried to help but he couldn't exactly grab on to anything when one shoulders dislocated and the other wrist is sprained. He tried not to be embarrassed over it but it's hard not to be. You go from being completely independent to the exact opposite really quick in hospitals.

He could tell Mark has done this a lot though, because he had little to no problem helping guide Sebastian into the wheelchair below.

He sat there for a moment, surprised that nothing really hurt when he sat down completely.

"Let's go back to our 1-10 scale Sebastian." Dr. Singh asked.

"4."

"Excellent. Alright Mark, he's all yours." Dr. Singh gave him a pat on the back, said his goodbyes to the room and disappeared.

"Alrighty my man, you ready to go?" Mark said as he pushed the brakes up on the wheelchair.

Mark just dripped with a positive attitude and you couldn't not be happy around him.

"Sure. Let's roll." Sebastian joked.

Mark strapped Sebastian's oxygen tank to the bottom of his iv pole and then attached it to the back of the wheel chair.

"Rylee, you're welcome to join, you're allowed to sit with him in the MRI lab."

Rylee nodded and followed them out the door.

——————————

Getting back up to the MRI table wasn't all rainbows and sunshine. That one hurt a lot more. Mark did a great job helping Sebastian get where he needed. He laid down slowly wincing at the pain that shot from his shoulder to his chest and back.

"All good?" Mark asked Sebastian.

"Yeah...all good." Sebastian nodded.

"Ever had an MRI done before?"

"No."

"Okay, so this is the MRI scanner. This table your on slides inside. The insides of this machine spin around really fast and create images of your brain for us to see and examine. It helps to see if any damage occurred that we don't know about. You've got to lay very still so the images come out clear. And the whole thing will take about an hour."

"That's where Rylee comes in. So there's a microphone and speakers inside the machine so we can all talk to one another. So Rylee and Sebastian you're free to talk about whatever you'd like. Whatever helps to keep calm and relax."

"Any other questions?"

"I don't think so." Sebastian said. Rylee shook her head no as well.

"Great then we'll get started," Mark smiled as he prepared the plastic pieces that hovered around Sebastian's head.

Over the next hour, Sebastian was nervous but did well. They all chatted, and kept each other company. And soon enough the hour was over and the table Sebastian was on was being rolled out of the MRI machine. Mark helped Sebastian sit up and swing his feet over the side, taking their time. Mark wrapped the transfer belt around Sebastian's waist again and helped him sit in the wheel chair.

Rylee followed suit as Mark pushed Sebastian along down the hall to the elevators.

"So...can you settle a bet for me and a friend?"

Sebastian huffed a laugh, "depends on the bet I guess."

"This had been a long time argument. And we're both going to die on our own hills...We're trying to figure out if Bucky Barnes assassinated JFK."

Sebastian let out a loud laugh, coughing slightly afterwards. He wasn't sure what the question was going to lead to but he didn't expect that.

"Well, what do...you think?" Sebastian took in breaths more carefully now.

"I absolutely think he did. Well, I mean the Winter Soldier did it, not Bucky. But still. Yes. I think he did...so...?"

Sebastian shrugged his right shoulder with a smirk on his face.

"Oh come on mannnn! Help save an innocent soul here."

Sebastian laughed again, but easier this time. "I'll just say that I have played off that inspiration before."

"YES. Ah, man, you're the best." Mark laughed, as they arrived at the lab to start in on his bloodwork.

"Sebastian, this is Karen. She's our med lab tech. Karen, Sebastian."

They both greeted each other with a quick hello and Karen got to work preparing all the items they needed. Small plastic tubes with his name printed on the side, and two large, long needles.

"I'm...umm..."

"Not a fan of needles?"

Sebastian shook his head.

"I don't know many people that are," Karen smiled sympathetically, I'm not the most popular person in this place because of it."

Sebastian and Rylee both laughed at her comment, especially when their eyes combed down both of her arms to see two complete sleeves of tattoos poking out from her scrubs.

"Okay, listen..." Karen said, pretending to defend herself as she saw their eyes drift up her arms. They all laughed as she dove in to her work, trying to keep Sebastian distracted.

Soon enough they were all done, and Sebastian had survived. As they walked back down the hall, Mark took the long way, making small talk, allowing Sebastian more time out of bed.

After ten or so minutes, they finally made it back to Sebastian's room and had to go through the process of getting back in bed, which you'd think they'd be sort of good at by now, but not so much. Mark tried his hardest to make it painless but he knew getting into bed was a lot harder than getting out.

Once Sebastian got up, he laid back a little too fast and groaned, sucking air through his teeth when he landed.

"Are you okay?"

Sebastian nodded, though he still grimaced.

"1-10?" This must've been the usual consistent mantra the staff lived off of.

Without hesitating Sebastian said "7".

"Alrighty, I'll let Michelle know. And she can give you the hook up." Mark practically jogged out of the room and hooked a left towards the nurse's desk.

"You did a lot today, you okay?" Rylee asked quietly as she sat in the chair next to the bed.

"I'll survive." Sebastian said plainly.

"You don't have to be okay...there's still a lot going on."

"Alright. I'm not okay...everything...hurts. And this whole thing...sucks ass....and I'm so tired...so, so tired....and I just want...left alone for like...five minutes." Sebastian heaved all this out between multiple breaths, assisted by his cannula.

Rylee became really quiet, processing what he said, "Oh....okay." She slowly stood up.

"Shit. Ry. I'm sorry. I—"

"No it's fine. I'll give you some time."

"Ry that's not what I meant."

At that point, Rylee was already standing in the doorway. She patted the frame twice with her hand, trying to hold back tears, before she went out of the room.

"Fuck." Sebastian whispered to himself as he looked up at the ceiling.

Almost within that same minute, Michelle walked in with her small tube of morphine for Sebastian.

She saw the look on his face and she scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Everything alright dear? Where's Rylee?"

"She...went out for a minute."

"Ah. Well, Mark mentioned you were feeling like a 7 right now?

Sebastian nodded, trying to keep his newest frustration at bay.

Michelle attached the small tube to Sebastian's IV line and he could've swore that he could already feel the substance creeping through his body.

"There you go, deary, I'll be back in to check on you in a little bit. Call if you need anything." She patted his leg and made her way out the door.

He was surprised but also a bit upset that by the time Michelle had moved from beside the bed to the door, he was already on the edge of falling asleep.

He didn't want to sleep, he wanted to find Rylee, but the morphine was already rip-roaring through his veins and he was feeling his eyes become heavy, and soon enough he drifted off.