Sinestro opened his eyes again when he felt someone take hold of his hand. Coughing softly, he turned his head towards the figure beside him, though he struggled to get a clear picture. That is, until the pain in his body started to null and his mind started to become more clear. It felt like the clouds in his mind were being brushed aside, which he imagined wasn’t a bad thing. It took a very short amount of time before he could see his daughter beside him, as well as the large machine she must have brought from Oa. He had seen it once or twice, but he had never actually needed it before. How she had managed to get it off the planet and bring it to earth without anyone making a fuss was beyond him, but he didn’t know if he could really complain about it.

After all, it was there to save his life.

“Soranik,” he mumbled, feeling a bit more coherent now that the medicine had begun to take its full effects. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me,” he chuckled faintly, “you may end up getting disciplined for this.”

His hand twitched, his fingers gripping her hands lightly as he realized she was holding it. It was certainly strange, having her there with the intent to help him. Having her feel concern for him. Was it because the things he had seen in his dreams were true? Had he really changed more than he had assumed? It was all more than he needed to think about at that moment. There was still a chance he wouldn’t pull through at all, so it seemed silly to worry about the future.

He would have to cross that bridge when he got to it.

“This thing… is it really necessary?” He sighed, aware of the answer before he had even finished the question. If he wanted to live, and do the things Arin and Abin wanted of him, then he was going to have to suck it up and let her do the things she wanted to do in order to help him.

“Well, I suppose… I’m ready. What happens now?” He liked whatever she had put in him- it certainly worked better than anything the humans had offered him. Finally the pain had lessoned. It felt like he had been in nothing but agony since the moment he had arrived in the hospital.

Sinestro frowned, observing as she removed the bandages. Maybe he had been thinking to give humans a bit too much credit- it didn’t look like they had done much good after all. No wonder all his dreams had ended in a sea of fire- he had been dealing with fever and infection the humans had allowed to happen through their lack of care. Still, he wouldn’t have made it do far on his will power alone. Even if they hadn’t done much, they had done enough. Thankfully Soranik had arrived before they could do too much to undo everything they had attempted.

It was a good thing Sinestro was not a modest man- he did not have fear, most of the time, and that generally included no fear of being seen in the nude. Even with all the new scars and marks he had acquired, he didn’t feel like he had much to be ashamed of. Though maybe there was some kind of inherent awkwardness about his company also being his daughter.

Beyond that, he didn’t seem bothered at all.

“I understand,” he grunted, “do you think I’m that stupid? I might be ill and weak, but I have not lost my sense.” He listened as she explained what was going to happen, looking down at his leg as it was mentioned again. Yes, it seemed like a very good idea to free his leg from the metal beast holding onto it. He had put enough faith in human medicine, and now it was time to trust in his much more talented daughter, no parental bias involved. He could hear the tone of her voice, and he had to make sure it didn’t fill him with any kind of excitement. She sounded optimistic, and he was always happy for that kind of thing when it centered around his well being.

His slight pleasure was quickly stomped with the presentation of options. Did he want to be unconscious for the procedure? Not having to sit there and be a good boy would have probably been the best choice, considering who he was, but… he had so much on his mind. All his dreams. His thoughts of Soranik. He couldn’t imagine what was going to happen with him conscious, though. Would it be a poor choice to distract her? She seemed confident enough that she could handle a little conversation while she worked. It wasn’t the choice he probably would have made, had things been different, but he felt it was the one that would work out the most beneficial. Funny, the only thing he didn’t consider was the varied amounts of pain he would be in.

That didn’t matter much to him.

“I don’t need any more sleep,” he muttered, “I have been resting enough over the past couple of days. Anyway… I… have some things I would like to discuss with you. Do not put me under.”

It wasn’t common that people laughed at him, and had it been anyone else he might have taken it very poorly. Considering it was Soranik, however, he didn’t boil over into a rage, instead simply growing a little indignant. All in all, he was actually rather surprised, at least, to hear her laughter. When was the last time he had heard it? When she was a child and he was still watching over her? Since then, he had only seen glares and growls from her, never anything that teetered on the joyful side of the spectrum. This was more a thing to treasure than despise, though he said nothing of it.

A non committal “Humph!” was all he offered in return.

He waited to be moved and settled on the table before he considered what he had to say, though he had been given permission to speak some time ago. He had been distracted, slightly, by the straps that had fitted themselves around him. If there was one thing Sinestro didn’t enjoy, it was being restrained. Not that he would have been able to get up or do much moving around in his weakened state, but he at least liked to entertain the option of it. With the restraints on him, he was at the mercy of his daughter all the more, something his mind was having trouble getting used to. It had been a long time since he’d depended on someone else for anything, especially something as important as his own livelihood. Now he had to be strapped to the table as well? Maybe he had picked the wrong option.

Sighing faintly, he looked up at the ceiling of the small room, not showing any of the discomfort or irritation that was shifting through his mind. It had to be done- that was what he would tell himself. No need to bitch and moan, or tell her he no longer wanted her aid. He needed it still. Even if he was feeling better, he needed it. Meds could only do so much. All the same, she would probably notice a slight increase in his heart rate, or that his body was fairly tense for someone lying on a table.

Since he was stuck and she had started her work, it seemed like there was little else he could do but explain what had been going through his mind the past couple of days. “I… have been having dreams recently,” he started slowly, “about your mother, mostly. When I was at my weakest, I dreamed of her. I asked her if I would be joining her soon, but she denied me the pleasure. She… told me I had more growing to do.” He swallowed a knot that had formed in the back of his throat, the man carefully considering his words. Did he sound crazy?

He probably sounded a little crazy.

“I know it was probably just the fever. That I hadn’t really been talking to her. But… I wonder. Have I really changed so much? I don’t feel that I have… do you?” He tried to look at her at that, but it was difficult to see much of anything while he was secured to the table.

Maybe she would tell him, in her scientific aptitude, that he didn’t need to be listening to fevered dreams, and that he was still pretty much the same asshole he had been before. That, even if they were getting along a bit better, it wasn’t because he had really changed, just that she understood him more. But would that really help him? He didn’t know which he wanted to hear: that he had changed, or that he hadn’t.

It felt like he would be confused and unhappy either way.

Ugh needles. He really should have just let her put him under for the operation. He frowned and watched the needle before it moved out of range and slid into his neck. Though the prick was nothing to him, the sensation of the drugs as they quickly set in took him a bit by surprise. He blinked a few times, his muddied mind making it difficult for him to focus on what he had been saying to his daughter. Maybe she hadn’t liked the flow of the conversation and had decided to just let him sleep without giving him any kind of response. Thankfully, though, that didn’t end up being the case, and soon enough Sinestro was starting to feel a bit more level headed again. Perhaps moreso than he had been before, as suddenly he didn’t feel so much need to be tense about any of the things he’d previously had on his mind.

He was feeling quite mellow. Still, his thoughts were there, they just didn’t seem to illicit the same kind of response from him as they had before the new medication.

What Soranik had to say was true- she didn’t really know him. Not how he would have liked her to, anyway. Which was probably a indication that he really was changing in some way. He didn’t like that she could associate old parts of his history with the person he was supposed to be now. But was that a good or bad thing? Hadn’t he believed he was doing what was best for the universe? Was he turning his back on what was right, or was he coming to see that what he had believed in so firmly was a lie? He couldn’t decide.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Sinestro did not know the answers.

“We should spend more time together,” he grunted, “somehow, I’m not sure I like you only knowing hearsay about me. My past… I never wavered. I knew I was doing what needed to be done… but now… suddenly it feels like... I never should have taken that path. Fear may have been the wrong way to go…”

Sinestro let out an empty chuckle as she continued bitterly. “You really are my daughter,” he commented. If she thought dreams couldn’t be trusted, it made them more alike than he had thought. After all, he was thinking the same thing. Still, it had been Arin. The one he had loved. The only one, for a long time, who had seen his heart. If his dreams had shown her to him, it couldn’t have been for nothing, could it? Someone he had blocked from his thoughts for so long. It was very confusing, and hearing Soranik say the things he had wanted her to say somehow hadn’t helped calm the confusion in his mind. Or the pain in his chest. The pain, which, if he was honest, was getting a little annoying. He closed his eyes and said no more, falling suddenly unconscious.

Though she was working on his leg first, it seemed his body had grown a little jealous from the lack of attention and had decided to act up. Some of the less than stellar help from the human doctors had come undone inside of him, possibly from the move or while he had spent a little bit of time far too tense, causing him to pass out from the renewed internal bleeding. He had grown pale again, magenta turning a dull pink.

There were no dreams that found him this time around. Arin did not visit him. Things were dark and black for the extent of the surgery, with Sinestro only starting to stir when he felt some mild pain in his leg. It was always the proof he needed that he wasn’t in some kind of illusion or dream world. Pain was his reminder that he still lived. Slowly, he opened his eyes, needing a moment to clear out the cobwebs before he could even begin to make any kind of sense of his situation. Sense, however, was difficult to find even with a clear mind.

“I need to stop going to sleep,” was Sinestro’s less than enthused reply, “I seem to wake up in the strangest situations.” All things considered, though, he supposed he couldn’t complain about things too much. Even if he was in some kind of liquid that he wasn’t familiar with, and wasn’t sure he wanted to find out about, he was feeling a lot better than he had been the last time he’d been conscious. And it didn’t feel like the pain had simply been dulled because of some medications running through his bloodstream. Rather, it actually felt like the pain had drastically lessened, and wouldn’t return to the degree it had even after the meds had lost their kick.

Even so, he couldn’t exactly test his theory, as he found he was still restrained, even in his strange bath. She really didn’t want him moving around. But he supposed he understood the need for it- he wasn’t exactly someone who could be trusted to lie still when it was important for him to. Even at that moment, his impulse was to get up and test just how good he was feeling.

He looked down towards his leg, indifferent towards the scene and instead focusing his attention on his daughter. She was still working where she had been before. If not for the entirely new scenario around him, he might have thought he’d only been unconscious a couple of minutes. However, he knew it must have been just a little bit longer than that.

“I feel quite good,” he replied more seriously, “though I suppose you already knew that. But what is this stuff?” He was not a medical genius. Though he knew many things, about many cultures, their medical programs were not on the front of his learning. Hell, even stuff from Korugar had probably been missed as he spent most of his time learning about battle histories and the people still living on the planet. It somewhat amazed him that she knew so much about her profession, though on the other hand he would have been sorely disappointed in her if she hadn’t been something of a prodigy.

His genes weren’t lacking, after all. She had been destined to be great from the start. Or was he being a bit smug? In any case, he was proud.

Even if he did feel a little uncomfortable.

“Excessive? Me?” Sinestro remarked with a grunt. Now when did he ever do anything excessive? Unless you included working long months on end without taking any time to relax or unwind. Then, yeah, he probably did some excessive things every now and again. But they both knew he wouldn’t listen to her advice- he had never been one to lie in bed and watch the clouds roll by through the window. It didn’t take spending every waking hour with him to understand that aspect of his personality.

He listened as she continued on, telling him about his leg. He should have known the humans would mess things up- they couldn’t blow their own noses without someone dying in the process, it seemed.

Not that he had been much better of late.

“I suppose that’ll have to be fine, then,” he said with a somewhat impassive shrug, looking down at his disaster of a leg. “I don’t do a lot of running, anyway.” Normally, he just used his ring to float everywhere. But there were times when his leg was useful to him, he had to admit. Still, there wasn’t much he could do about it, if even his daughter hadn’t been able to mend things up completely. He was going to have to live with it. Or possibly chop it off and put something mechanical there. Either way.

“You don’t need to be sorry,” he huffed, “I wouldn’t be here if not for you. One bum leg I can handle. Also: when you say bound, you’re not going to tie me to the bed too, are you? Because I have to admit: I’m getting a little tired of being restrained.” He had a humor to his tone, but he was actually more serious than not. It was a pet peeve of his, being restrained. Being imprisoned. Perhaps it came from being locked away in the power battery. One couldn’t get much more imprisoned than that.

He was probably still bitter about it.

Sighing, he watched his daughter, enjoying his bath since he really had no other choice in the matter. “I owe you a great deal,” he said thoughtfully, “I never expected you to go such great lengths for me, even after our… talk.”