Muffled voices was all that filled his ears, unclear in their buzzing and prodding to disturb his attempted slumber. Whoever they were, they were determined to jostle him awake, either by shakes to his body or stinging rushing through a pressure point in his arm. They attempted to spread warmth in his veins when coolness has nestled in like the beginnings of winter, tingling his fingertips with the first frost. When he tried to breathe softer, gentler, air was involuntarily forced through the object in his throat and inflated his lungs. The dull ache that attempted to settle over his frame flashed again and again with pain, torturously struggling to cling onto what he assumed was consciousness. His head throbbed something fierce, pounding with enough strength that he was sure his skull would split in two at any given moment.<br/><br/><i>Make it stop,</i>he pleaded to the shadows still looming over him with their orbs of light and loud ringing machines.<i>It hurts. Everything hurts. Haven't I plagued this earth enough with my bad luck?</i><br/><br/>Then, as if in salvation, a touch of a different kind made contact with his skin. No sticky latex gloves, no thick padded gloves, but bare, comforting flesh. Even with the high temperature embedded in his enflamed struggling muscles, the warmth of those fingers was palpable. It was like the touch of an old friend, an adoring parent, filled with a will to ease his distress even for a minuscule moment. Cael couldn't remember ever experiencing such a kind gesture in all his life. Though it took immense amount of strength, he forced his eyes to open, blinking above at the ceiling of the ambulance. Even his vision was obstructed, as if he was beneath the waves of an icy ocean, the surface of mere ripples and general shapes of colour. Brown irises flickered weakly back and forth, wrestling with the dizziness tempting to overtake him with nausea.<br/><br/>But he persisted...he needed to see, needed to know-<br/><br/>The dark pupils dilated when a clear voice cut through his hazy world like a knife; sharp, crisp, strong, but full of kindness like their soothing hand. A second firm touch joined it, this time on his chest, not at al annoying like the pawing the EMT's were fussing with. Confident. It was as if there were no other presences at all, just Cael and this mysterious man who's face he couldn't see.<br/><br/>It was the voice that shook him down to his core, sending his already grappling heart into speeding overdrive.<br/><br/>He's heard it before. More than once, though not spoken to him directly.<br/><br/>Was it...him?<br/><br/>Had he come at last?<br/><br/>Cael moaned around the tube, the medical professionals taking that as a sign of pain, and tried to muffle soothing words to him. They were distracting, trying to steal his attention away, when all he wanted was to properly focus, so he could finally put a face to the mysterious presence he had glimpsed throughout his meagre twenty-five years. Again he tried to use his vocal chords to no avail, frustrated he couldn't reign them in to do as he wanted when he needed them most. He struggled against his bonds, afraid that if he dared blink, dared close his eyes again, his chance would be gone.<br/><br/>Like it had always been, since he was four. Since the first in a long chain of tragic events that littered his life to dub him a slurred name of black dahlia, black widow, cursed with the undead shades. He would gladly take all those libel if it meant he could hear this angelic voice serenade him one more time.<br/><br/><i>'It's...you.' </i>He could only think lamely, focusing on that face that vaguely seemed brighter than all the others. The one that no one else paid any attention to.<i> 'It is you...isn't it? All these years, it's always been you...hasn't it?'  </i>He felt a stinging at the corners of his eyes, registering that they were the hint of tears threatening to spill over the brim. Whether it was from the pain, from the strain on his body, or from a deep rooted happiness that bloomed inside his chest that this familiar figure had finally come and spoken to him this time. The ends of his fingertips twitched, wishing with all his might he could reach out and touch that face, to confirm that he was real.<i>'I've waited for you to talk to me. You never looked my way, but you were always there. No one else saw you.'</i><br/><br/>His thoughts were interrupted from the vehicle jumping over a raised bump in the road, jostling his thoughts in their concentration. Vaguely he was pulled back to his reality, his world of pain, making him whimper weakly. Just as suddenly, the ambulance stopped, doors opening behind the man sitting calmly like there was no urgency at all.<br/><br/><i>No, please! </i>Cael pleaded, wanting desperately to grab onto that hand. The stretcher was being lifted out of the vehicle, and he was scared of the nameless man vanishing in tow.<i>Don't leave now, stay with me! </i>Bang went the first set of doors. Bang went the second pair as he was pushed through to the emergency room, to be treated with sensory overload from all the noise. Machines and people shouting, crying, beeping and rustling, jingling and tapping from running feet. He'd rather take the isolation that was the ambulance over this, especially with all the new sets of hands feeling his body all over. All he wanted was the one.<br/>Why was his body struggling so hard? The voice had urged him to let go of everything, and that would lead him to his side. Why keep fighting like this? He searched around for that tall figure, hoping that he hadn't disappeared on him.