Disclaimer: This is fanfiction, done for fun and no money is being made. Daria and related characters are the property of Glenn Eichler and MTV/Viacom.

Little Green Cap – a follow on to 'One Night With Kevin'

One thing she was fairly sure of... mostly sure?... a bit sure... let's say sure of was... what?... Ohhh yeah... that was it... she was pretty sure neither heaven or hell smelled of... what is that stuff? detergent?... no... disinfectant!... yes that was it... dis... in... fec... tant. Pleased with having worked this important problem out she went back to sleep for a while.

So now that she knew it was disinfectant what did that mean?... Where am I?... Oh God no... now she was some stupid lame ass girl in a story... "Where am I"... like some pathetic LOSER!... no... she was... she was... she was... Daria. 'm Daaraa' she murmured. A woman's voice... who?... said 'She's awake, you should try and talk to her... even if she doesn't make much sense for now.'

It took a moment for Daria to realise that the empty white sky was probably a ceiling and she wasn't wearing her glasses. The sun... sun?... light... yes light was eclipsed by a head which came in from the side incredibly slowly and filled her vision... it was like the spaceship in that moviee... what was it? Straw? Star?
A hole in the godlike face opened and words came out which gradually resolved themselves in Daria's consciousness as someone calling her name.

For just a moment her mind cleared and she recognized the face and said 'Jane'... although for some reason it came out sounding more like 'Dhane.' Her tongue felt funny... no... her teeth felt... wrong... she had a memory of something being in her mouth and biting down, hard... and some man yelling... Jane was here... that was nice... she went to sleep again.

There seemed to be less light now, she could just make out the fitting in the ceiling and it was off... light was coming from somewhere else and it seemed to be quieter somehow... a sense of nothing happening. She tried to move her head and almost screamed at the stab of pain it caused in her neck, it made her aware of some sort of collar... brace? What? She took a moment to take stock. She was in bed. By the smells she was in a hospital. As an experiment she moved her arms, there seemed to be various tubes and things attached to them but they weren't in restraints... good... it wasn't that nightmare then. She tried moving her legs then and passed out from the AGONY it caused in her crotch.

... OK... let's take this reeeaaaal slow. I'm hurt... bad... how bad? BAD... So what happened?... What... no no nononononNO NO NO! DO NOT THINK ABOUT THAT!

Her breathing slowed down to normal again. She remembered something. 'Jane?' It came out as a croak but she heard a movement nearby and a head of tousled black hair came into view.

'Daria? Can you hear me? Are you awake?'

'Yes... I think so anyway... but I feel... my mouth is so dry could I get some water?'

'I'll get a nurse.'

A few minutes later a white clad figure approached the bed and leaned in so Daria could see her better. 'Hello Daria. I'm Laura, the ward sister. Do you know where you are?'

'Hospital. But I don't know which one.'

'Good. Well you're in Cedars of Lawndale. You have quite a collection of injuries and you were in surgery for a long time. Your friend said your mouth was dry?'

'Yes... very... parched.'

'Well I'm afraid I have some... bad... news about that. You're body is receiving nourishment and hydration through this IV drip in your arm. The surgeon had to remove a section of your small intestine and it will take some time to heal so I'm afraid you can have nothing orally for a few days. Now I can let you rinse out your mouth so long as you promise not to try and swallow any. Do you understand?'

Daria nodded, which hurt, so she said ''ess' which hurt a bit less. With the nurse's help she rinsed out her mouth and spat it into a dish. 'M' teeth feel funny, why' that?'

'Some of your teeth were knocked out during the... incident. The oral surgeon was able to reseat them for you.'

Daria heard Jane snicker nearby. 'Wha'?' She asked.

'You bit him... the oral surgeon... you bit him when he was checking your teeth earlier today... or I mean yesterday now... it's three-thirty A.M. Sunday morning, if you're interested.' Jane replied.

Daria adjusted her thinking to accommodate this information then she asked 'My Mom? Dad?'

'They're all here in Cedars dear.' The nurse answered 'But they're asleep now. They were with you all day yesterday sitting by your side.'

'Why is... I mean why are you here, Jane, and not my Mom.. not that I'm complaining, but why...?'

'It was her actually, she insisted that I get this spare bed in your room, technically I'm in hospital for tests. I'm having my head examined at last!'

'Did they find anything?' Daria deadpanned.

'Nada.'

'Figures. Just as I suspected.' Daria stayed silent for a while then thinking. Finally she said '****! It must be really bad, am I dying?'

'No dear, of course not.'

'You did die Amiga... twice.' There was a catch in Jane's voice now and although Daria couldn't see her very well she knew her friend was close to tears. 'Daria... issalll my fault... I shouldna left you alone... I'm sorry... I'm... I shouldn't even be here I'm not a good friend I... I... I let you down I...'

'Jane!' Daria managed to almost shout despite the pain it caused her. 'Shaddap! I don't wanna hear it! Alright? I wake up inna hospital, you're here... it's good... rest is bull****! Don't wanna hear it, right? Need my friend... please... Jane?'

Jane was staring at her, then she stood up from her bed and came over to Daria and leaned in close. She said 'I really want to hug you right now, despite you being you. But I'm afraid I'll rip out your stitches so I'll settle for this.' She kissed Daria's cheek, then her forehead. 'You look like ****, you know that, worse than usual I mean.'

Daria tried to smile and realized that hurt too. 'How bad?'

'D'you remember that film we watched "Mask"?'

'Jim Carrey one?'

'No, that was "The Mask", I mean the one where Cher played this biker chick and Eric Stoltz played her son and his face was all deformed and stuff.'

'Oh yeah, I remember that.'

'You remember the son?'

'Yeah.'

'Well you look way worse than that, some soccer players came in yesterday wanted to use your head as a football.'

'Feels like someone already did.' She smiled, or tried to, in Jane's direction to let her know that Jane had responded the way Daria needed her to, then she continued 'I feel like... is the nurse still here? Where are my glasses?'

'Yes dear, I'm still here. Your glasses were broken and your mother said your spare pair were cracked. She's ordered a new pair but because of your prescription they couldn't do them in the one-hour service but they should be ready tomorrow. Did you want to ask something else? I have to go on my rounds in a minute.'

'Yes, am I on painkillers? I feel a bit... I dunno.. spaced out or something... is that normal? Oh... and I need to pee.'

'Actually you don't. There's a catheter in place but like the mouth dryness you're going to feel like that for a while, it's an artifact of the anesthetic. Don't try to hold it or anything, nothing will happen either way but you'll just drive yourself crazy. You've just had major surgery so yes you are on painkillers, they're in your drip. Let one of us know if any major pain starts to come through and we'll adjust your dosage.'

'It really hurts if I move my neck... or my legs... is that...?'

'Hmm, hmm, pretty much what we expected. You'll just have to lie around for a while and let others fetch and carry. Pretend you're a princess.'

Daria and Jane groaned at the same time then Daria held back a chuckle and Jane laughed out loud.

Daria tried to relax then and thought maybe she could at least let Jane go back to sleep. Jane rather gratefully agreed to get back into her own bed, even in the dim light and without her glasses Daria could tell that Jane was worn out. Before she drifted off Daria said to her 'Jane. Remember that story I wrote... two stories actually... they were a bit personal... about my Mom having me committed to a mental institution because of a misunderstanding... do you remember?'

Jane was now wide awake again and scared stiff but she kept her voice tired sounding and neutral. 'Yeah, sure, I remember those... scared me they were so real... like they had happened or could happen, ya know?'

'Yep. Ehmm... two things... I hate to ask but...'

'Spit it out Amiga, whaddya need?'

'Well first please tell me... is this real? Are you here?' There was a wail in Daria's voice as she asked this. In a second Jane was by her side, she carefully examined Daria's arm for an area that had no obvious bruises or tubes attached and pinched it.

'Yow! You bitch!' Daria shouted. 'What'd you do that for?'

'I'm really here, Amiga, really, and always... unless you send me away...'

Daria caught her hand 'Never gonna happen, Freakin friends, remember, til we come to bad ends.'

Jane turned her head away to hide her tears, she said 'That's just it... it nearly was a bad end...'

'Which would you rather be: nearly drowned or nearly saved?'

Jane looked back at her. "Glad you're still here, Freakin Friend. What was the other thing?'

'What?'

'You said two things.'

'Well maybe more than two, I think I could use a visit from Aunt Amy. But other than you there was a coping mechanism I wrote about, not thinking about the very worst thing, do you remember?'

'I remember.'

'I need to do that for real now, please understand.'

'I think I get it, avoid certain subjects... or a certain subject, right?'

'Right. Could you... inform everyone else... I'll think about it when I can think about it and not scream OK?'

'OK, night Amiga.'

'Night Jane.'

The two stories I've attributed to Daria here are actually 'Diary Dearest' by Renfield, which is pretty nightmarish and is the sort of thing Daria could imagine happening to herself if her Mom became convinced she needed 'Help'.
The second is Galen Hardesty's(The Lawndale Stalker) follow up fic 'The Whole Truth' which gave a more upbeat resolution to the episode.

I can imagine Daria needing to avoid thinking about what actually happened to her and using real techniques like those described in 'The Whole Truth' to help her cope.

I am aware that the subject matter of 'One Night With Kevin' and this follow on (not really a sequel as the first one was entirely from Kevin's perspective) deal with sensitive issues and I personally would rather water down the drama a little rather than cause offense or trauma to any person. The on/off nature of the opening section is based on my own experiences of general anesthesia.
Kind regards to all who bother to read my ramblings.
Pete