3 The Smartest Flower Around

The girl opened her eyes.

The girl closed her eyes.

"I died," she said to herself, "I got hit by a car, had an out-of-body experience, met the Grim Reaper and I definitely died."

The girl opened her eyes.

"So why am I on a hospital bed?"

The door to her room chose this moment to open, and from it, entered a short, pink-haired girl in a lab coat. "Great, you're awake!" she beamed after seeing her patient conscious for the first time in three days. "How are you feeling?"

The girl opened her mouth to respond but was quickly silenced with a look from the doctor. "Just kidding," she chortled, "what sort of doctor would I be if I didn't already know?" Not getting any response from her patient, the doctor gave an awkward cough before continuing, "Well, anyway, my name is Lily Smarts, and I'll be your doctor from now on. Any questions?"

"What happened to Dr. Frost?"

"Oh, that old codger got off easy! From what I heard, he ran off to City-X to marry his mistress, can you believe it? But never mind him, I'm much better, you can tell I'm much smarter, right? It's even in my name! Lily Smarts. See? I'm the smartest flower around, hah! How clever am I?"

The girl on the bed appraised her new doctor, she watched and she stared, but no matter the angle she observed from, Lily Smarts seemed to be an especially unreliable doctor. Lily was small, even smaller than her, and her cute bob with baby bangs gave her an almost childlike innocence. Her red eyes- Wait, "Red?"

"Huh?" startled, Lily stared wide-eyed at her patient, making her red irises even more obvious, "Oh, you mean my eyes?" she tittered. "They're contacts, I thought they'd help break the ice, but I forgot about them..." she blushed, her soft voice fading into nothing by the end of her words, as she fidgeted with her hands.

Before the girl could say any more, Lily made a quick dash to the edge of the girl's bed and, like a playful kitten, snatched the chart from her bedside. "Sophie Bright, 17 years old," sending a meaningful glance towards the girl, she nodded approvingly and smiled, "Female."

"You're weird," Sophie giggled, her smile a mix of both embarrassed confusion and amusement.

"No, I'm smart! Look, aren't you more relaxed now? Feeling better?"

"Yeah, I am, thanks," she smiled in reply.

Seeing such a pretty smile, Lily's cheeks turned as red as her eyes, "T-That's because of the morphine!" she stuttered, "I imagine you'll soon be in horrible agony."

The pretty smile froze in place and only the sounds of Lily's awkward chuckles filled the room. "Right, can you tell me what happened? I remember a car and- and some other things."

"Yes! No problem, Miss Sophie."

"Just Sophie is fine."

"Understood, Mistress Sophie."

"No."

"Your slave o-"

"Absolutely not."

"Miss Bright, you appear to be suffering from some side-effects, can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"Can I get a new doctor?"

"There's a shortage, I'm afraid. Would you like to speak to the Chief of Staff?"

"Yes, please."

"Okay, speaking, what would you like to say?"

"..."

"..."

"Just tell me what happened."

Lily turned her gaze back from the wall and trained it onto Sophie's, her blood-red eyes radiating a sense of injustice and anger. She clenched her teeth and dug her nails into the palms of her balled fists. The disgust and helplessness she felt at this moment were almost palpable as her body trembled in fury. "Yes," she grunted, "you were hit by a car."

"... I know."

"And they didn't leave their insurance behind."

"Yes, it was a hit-and-run."

"..."

Sophie sighed, shook her head, and looked askance at her strange and somewhat useless doctor, "Dr. Smarts, do you know how my Mom is? Her health isn't too good and I normally take care of her."

Lily lifted her hand and turn her palm to face her patient, a smug grin and a confident expression painted her face as she spoke with closed eyes, "Say no more, I already looked up your files and have been taking care of your mother these past few days."

"Ah, that's good, how is she?"

"As they say in City-Y; a good doctor only makes one-in-three mistakes, but the best makes one-in-two!"

"Who says that?!"

"Luckily, this time, I made the one and not the two, so nothing to worry about!" she exclaimed with misplaced enthusiasm. Her ears quickly turned red, however, after she finished processing her previous words.

After another long silence, Lily lightly coughed once more and, as if the melted ice hadn't frozen over again, explained Sophie's injuries, "After you were hit, you actually went into a state of pseudo-death, or fake-death, that is - although your breathing had stopped and your heart beat no more, your brain was still working as per normal. It was lucky that I arrived as soon as I did, half a minute later and your brain would have shut down forever from a lack of oxygen, or at the very least, the result would've been permanent damage."

"Something like your situation of pseudo-death isn't well understood, our best guess is that you were, quite literally, shocked to death," she chuckled, but seeing her patient so unamused, Lily hastened to resume her explanation, "It's as if your brain found survival so impossible it just didn't bother struggling. Thankfully, though, you survived, and your biggest injury is just some bruising and a little internal bleeding. Nothing I couldn't handle, heck, you didn't even break a bone! At most, your body will be a bit sore for the next few days."

"Then how long until I can go home?"

"Now that you've woken up, we'll keep you in for the night, just to make sure everything's working properly, and send you out in the morning. Is that okay with you?"

Hearing how quickly she could leave, Sophie felt relieved, "Yes. Yes, thank you, doctor," she rushed, a toothy grin taking over her as she thought of her mother and of home, "Dr. Smarts, is it possible to call my Mom?"

"Why, certainly!"