NIK
WAKING UP FROM A SECOND round of anesthesia doesn’t seem to be as hard as it was the first time. It’s not the slow climb to the surface I had before–at least not for my mind. One minute I’m asleep and the next I’m not. I like this way much better. Maybe it’s because I knew I was going into surgery before I was knocked out. Whatever made it easier, I’m grateful.
Someone’s in the room with me moving around quietly. Since I’m hearing a pen scribbling on a clipboard, and then typing on a computer, it’s probably Lacey. My machines are still beeping away, too.
Before I open my eyes, I take a minute to assess my body to see what’s causing me pain, and what isn’t. It’s pretty much all the same as before–my head, upper left side, and my right leg. It’s all dull pain right now. I better let Lacey know I’m awake before she leaves. I’m thirsty as hell again.
“Hey,” I whisper, looking around to see where she is. Instead of Lacey, it’s Rachael I find. I like her though, she reminds me of mom.
“Well, hello there, handsome. I’m sure glad to see you awake again,” she says, smiling brightly. “Not so bad waking up this time, huh?”
“Hi, Rachael,” I try to say a bit louder while giving her a thumbs up, but it sounds like that dying frog is back in my throat.
“You want some ice chips?”
I wave my thumb at her again while attempting to make an excited expression. It makes her laugh as she turns around and grabs the thermos and a spoon. I’m sighing in relief a few seconds later when the ice hits my tongue.
I swear they must pour sand down your throat when they knock you out–sand from a litter box by the way my mouth tastes. It’s nasty as hell. I’d give my left nut to have some mouthwash.
She spoons in a few more, and they help relieve the thirst and horrible taste. “Thank you,” I tell her, now that I can talk normal.
“You’re welcome, hon. How’s your pain doing?”
“It’s not bad. Not great, but not bad.”
“All right, I may bump up the amount. We’ve got you on a morphine pump now. You should be good for quite a while. We need to find just the right dose for you. Not so much to keep you knocked out all the time, but enough that you’re not hurting either. So, you let me know the second it’s not enough, okay?”
“Gotcha,” I whisper, and smile up at her. I haven’t looked down at my leg yet, I’m not sure I want to. I decide to ask her what she thinks instead. “How bad does my leg look? I want to be better prepared this time before I look down there,” I say, attempting to laugh off my nerves.
She chuckles. “It’s looking much better than the last time I saw it. You might think Dr. Tamayaka was trying to turn you into a robot though. He told you he was gonna use rods and pins, right?”
“Yes, ma’am, he did.”
“Well, some of them are inside your leg, and some are on the outside, too. Four pins and a rod to be exact, and there’s quite a few staples and stitches where he closed you up from the bullet wounds, as well as the surgery itself. Then there’s some swelling and bruising. We’ve got you hanging from the ceiling again, but I’m sure you can tell that already. Even with all of that, it still looks better, I promise.” She smiles and pats my shoulder.
I grin at her, doing my best to make it believable, then suck it up and look down at the damage.
Shit. That’s…freaky.
I appear to be part cyborg now–a cyborg that’s been in a bad fight and lost. From the looks of it, my leg is being held together with stitches, staples, screws, and a rod. Which I guess, it is. It’s straight again, and not nearly as bloody, thank God. The swelling is down from before, too. There are two screws about two inches apart right below my knee, and two more above my ankle spaced the same way. The rod is stretched between them.
It’s really unsettling to see screws coming out of your leg. They didn’t cut holes for them to go into either. It looks as if they literally screwed them straight through my skin, and then into the bone. I can tell because the skin is twisted a tiny bit around each one.
Thank God, they knocked my ass out before they did that.
I resemble Frankenstein’s monster there’s so many stitches and staples holding my skin together. There has to be at least fifty in the long line of them from my knee to my ankle. Then there’s a Y-shaped cluster that goes over that one, that probably has that many, or more. I guess that’s where the bullet came out. I’m assuming there’s more where it went into my calf, too, but I’m not moving my leg to find out. I look up at Rachael. “That’s a mess, isn’t it?”
She grins. “A bit.”
“At least I don’t want to puke when I look at it now. It was a close call before,” I say, grinning back at her.
“Oh, no, we don’t want any puking. You’d open every incision you have, and wind up back in surgery,” she says, shaking her head.
“Thank you for calling him. I might have lost it if you hadn’t,” I tell her sincerely.
She pats my shoulder, smiling softly. “You’re welcome, hon. I’m just glad he made it back in time.”
“You and me both.” I smile. “Is he going to come talk to me about it and my recovery time? I don’t have a clue how to take care of that,” I grumble, waving at my leg. “How am I supposed to take a shower with it like this?”
“Both of your doctors are coming to see you tonight to go over everything with you, so don’t worry about that. If you want anyone in here with you to hear it all, too, that’s fine as long as none of them upset you. As for showers, you ain’t gonna be taking any of those any time soon, honey. It’s sponge baths for you for the next few weeks at least,” she says, grinning even bigger at me.
“Sponge baths?” I ask a little confused. All I can picture is SpongeBob. The morphine is still making it hard to think straight, apparently.
Her grin turns into a sly smile as she nods. “Yep. Someone’s gonna have to wash you with a sponge,” she says, wagging her eyebrows.
It takes a second for my brain to catch up to what’s being suggested.
She needs to hold up a minute.
I like her and all, but I don’t want her giving me a bath. That’d be too much, almost like my mom giving me one, and she quit doing that when I was five. Even Lacey would be pushing it. She’s so young, I’d feel like a perv. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have any feelings for her, she starts soaping my dick up and I’m not gonna be able to make him behave.
Nope, we’re not going there.
“Uh, is there any chance I can give those to myself?”
She laughs. “You can’t move around enough yet to reach everything, hon. You’re gonna need some help.”
With that my addled brain decides I need to make a list of viable bath givers.
There’s Leia. No way in hell is that happening. Not that she would, even if I asked her. She doesn’t do domestic. Cash? No, we’re not doing the gay thing either. Same goes for Scott. That leaves…Ellie.
I may be laid up in bed, hardly able to move, and not in my right mind, not to mention in a lot of pain, but my dick wants to twitch just thinking about her wet soapy hands rubbing all over me. Two seconds of that, and she’d have no doubt about what I was feeling. I’d have to think about dead puppies and naked grandmas or something to keep junior from scaring her off. I can’t disrespect her that way, I’d be no better than that ass wipe that shot me. I’ve only known her two days, but I can already tell she’s not a one-night stand kind of girl. I don’t want her to be either.
We don’t?
Shut up junior.
Why am I talking to my dick?
Better yet, why is my dick talking to me?
Shit, am I wasted?
I cut my eyes back over to Rachael. She’s still smiling at me. “Did you…giv mee…moor?” I ask, furrowing my brows enough to make my head hurt.
Why can’t I talk right?
She’s laughing now. “More what, hon?”
“Mora. Mor…fien,” I slur again.
“I did. Gave you too much, huh?” she asks, still laughing.
I giggle–yes giggle–and pinch my fingers together at my eye. “Lil…bit.” She laughs even harder, and I can’t help but laugh, too until my body lets me know that’s a really stupid idea. “Aaahhhhhh. No…laf…ing,” I beg her, still laughing despite the pain.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Shhhhh, calm down, and breathe slowly for me,” she says as she gently rubs my shoulder. I do my best to relax, and think about something that isn’t funny. More dead puppies do the trick. She smiles down at me. “We won’t laugh anymore, okay, but you need to quit being adorable, and I’ll be able to control myself better.”
“Sorreee. I can’t help bein’ cute.” I half wink, half grimace at her.
“You are a mess, Mr. Jensen, but remember I control your pain meds,” she says, trying to look stern. Her smirk ruins it.
“I’ll beee good,” I promise with the straightest face I can manage.
“All right, I’ll turn the pump down a notch, so you won’t be so loopy. Your docs should be here soon. You want me to go get your sister and friends?”
“Pleeease?”
“Okay, we’ll be right back. You rest a minute.” She chuckles as she heads out the door.
I don’t think I rest long at all before they all come filing in. “Hey guys.” I wave at them. I must have said it too loud, or with a goofy voice because they all laugh at me.
“You feeling good bro?” Cash asks.
“Oh, yeah. Rachael gave me too much juice. At least I can talk better now. I sounded really drunk a minute ago,” I tell him.
“You still do,” Leia deadpans.
“Thanks, sis,” I huff.
We spend the next few minutes chatting about nothing. I do find out that Scott took Ellie over to the house when he went to check on Roxie for me. She seemed to have really liked the house, and the dog by the way she was smiling. I’m not sure why talking about it made her blush, but I liked seeing it on her beautiful face. I wish I had been the one to take her there, but I can’t change that now. I would’ve loved to see her reaction to Roxie and my work, too. At least I know she liked everything she did see.
There’s a knock on my door and Dr. Tamayaka walks in quietly. He gives me a small smile and a nod. “Mr. Jensen. It is good to see you awake again. I’m here to check on you, and go over the surgery with you if that is all right?” he asks kindly.
“I’d appreciate it, thank you.”
He nods again, and walks over to the light box hanging on the wall at the end of my bed and sticks up two x-rays. Cash and Ellie have to squeeze over to stand with Leia and Scott so they can see.
My leg looks even more cyborg-ish on the x-rays. There’s more metal than bone as far as I can tell. I glance over at my cheerleaders. They’re all wincing.
Yeah, me, too.
“There was extensive damage to your tibia,” Dr. Tamayaka starts his explanation. “Close to four inches of it was completely shattered,” he says pointing to the middle of my leg on the x-ray. “These two gaps here are where I cut the bone off smoothly. I used those pieces to add in the middle along with the fragments I saved. This will give the bone two smaller spaces to fill in instead of one long one. I hope with time the bone will repair itself, filling in these gaps.”
He cut my bone. In two places. He sawed my bone off in two places.
All I can imagine is a scene from some horror movie with the high-pitched whine of the saw filling the air.
I feel like there’s a boulder on my chest as I start to sweat. Ellie is suddenly on my right side, one hand in mine, and the other running through my hair. She leans down close to my ear. “That part’s over. You don’t have to do it again, okay? Just look at me and breathe.” Her eyes are so dark and beautiful, I can’t help but stare at them. There’s no pity in them, only understanding. As I let myself breathe with her I can see her soft smile reach them. As quick as my anxiety started, it’s gone just as fast–thanks to her.
I pull her hand up to my lips and kiss her knuckles, never taking my eyes off hers. I whisper a thank you against her skin, and she squeezes my hand in return. Keeping a tight grip on hers, I nod back at the doctor to continue. He smiles and nods.
“The rod and screws I placed inside will give you the support and strength your leg will need from now on. They can be there permanently, or removed in several years if they begin to give you trouble. This one on the outside we will be able to remove after a month or two. You should be able to put small amounts of weight on it in a week or so.
“If this was your only injury I would have you walking on crutches within a few days, but your body needs to heal from your other surgeries first. So, you’ll either need to be in bed, or a wheelchair for a while. The rest of you needs to be strong, so that your leg doesn’t have to take all of your weight. I’m sure you will want to push things, and get back to normal as soon as possible, but remember, you need to give yourself time to heal first. I understand that will be difficult, but if you push too hard you will be back here and in worse shape. We don’t want you to have to recover from more surgery,” he warns me.
“No, sir, we do not,” I wholeheartedly agree with him.
“I removed all the infection I could find, which was a very small amount. There was also some muscle that needed stitching back together, but it should heal quickly. I want you to stay on antibiotics for at least a month to avoid any more infection. You will need them for your other injuries, as well.
“In a week, we will see where you are, and hopefully begin physical therapy. Slowly at first. I’m afraid there will be pain over the next several months. I will make sure you have pain medication for it, but if it is severe, I need to know straight away. The same goes for any fever, redness, or swelling anywhere on your leg,” he stresses.
“We’ll keep a very close eye on it,” Ellie assures him.
He smiles at her. “Very good. Do any of you have any questions?” he asks, looking at each of us in turn.
“You said the rod and screws inside his leg could be removed if they gave him problems later. Why would they cause problems? Why put them in if they could? Are they not inside his bone? Wouldn’t that be another painful surgery to heal from again?” Leia fires questions at him, worry and agitation clear in her voice. I can tell she’ll get worked up quick if he doesn’t have a good answer for her.
“We usually don’t have to remove them unless the patient is a very active, athletic person. They put much more weight and stress on their bones, which can cause them to move and rub against the metal. The surgery to remove them can also be as painful as this one, with a recovery almost as long. We had no choice but to place them though.
“He would have been at great risk of losing his leg at the worst, and at the least, never walk correctly or without pain again. This was the best option available for this injury. With time, care, and physical therapy I believe he can gain back almost complete use of his leg, barring any other problems,” he tells her calmly.
Leia crosses her arms over her chest as her expression grows darker. “Almost complete use? What other problems?”
Dr. Tamayaka stays composed despite her anger. “If he does not develop any more infection, compartment syndrome, or re-injure the leg he should get back ninety to ninety-five percent use with little to no pain,” he tells her, then turns to me. “You understand this was not a simple fracture, and the severity of your injury I believe. Yes?”
“Yes, sir, I do. My sister didn’t, I don’t think, and she worries about me quite a bit.” I look up at Leia with loving aggravation, then back over to the doctor. “I greatly appreciate you taking care of me and getting back here so quickly to do the surgery. I owe you a lot.”
“I am most glad I was able to help you, and I will continue to do so. We will be doing x-rays every few days to see how things are progressing, and keep a very close eye out for infection, too. I hope there will be no need to go back in for any more surgery.”
“Umm, you said something about compartment syndrome. What is that, and what do we need to look for to know if he’s getting it?” Ellie asks him.
“Compartment syndrome is where too much pressure builds up in the injured tissue from trauma. The linings around our muscles do not stretch very far, and can only handle so much pressure and bleeding. This can cause permanent damage to the leg if it’s not treated. If there is increased pain or swelling that develops suddenly, we will have to check the pressures inside his leg by inserting a needle that has a pressure monitor attached to it. If the pressures are too high, I would have to operate again and open up the affected areas with incisions which would have to stay open until his leg starts to heal. That could take a few days or a few weeks.”
Damn, that sounds painful. Is this shit never-ending? I do not want to be able to see inside my leg again.
Ellie seems to be reading my mind because she’s soothing me with her touch like before. I don’t know how she knows I need it, but I’m glad she does.
“I could have left the incision open from this surgery to help prevent any pressure from building, but I did not want to risk infection since there had already been some I had to remove. While you do have a risk for developing the syndrome, your risk of infection is greater. So, we will keep a close eye out for both, and do what we can to prevent them. Which we are already doing—”
“KNOCK, KNOCK,” a guy says before he struts in with a huge grin on his face.
“Oh horse shit, here we go,” Ellie mutters under her breath.
I look up at her, but she shakes her head and rolls her eyes. I’m not sure who this dude is, but you can sure tell she doesn’t like him. Cash and Scott are scowling, Leia has a wicked gleam in her eyes, and Dr. Tamayaka lets out a soft sigh. Whoever he is, I don’t think I’m going to like him either, if their reactions mean anything.
“Hey, Dr. T, you all finished up in here? I’m an important man, I’ve got places to be after this,” he says, roughly shaking Dr. Tamayaka by the shoulders.
Who is this dickhead?
Ignoring him completely, Dr. Tamayaka looks back at me. “I will be back to check on you tomorrow morning, Mr. Jensen. Please don’t hesitate to let the nurses know if you need me for anything.” He bows a little, smiles at all of us, then quietly leaves the room.
When I look back up, dickhead is standing way too close to Ellie as he smiles at her, and tries to rub her arm. “Miss Cochran, I hope you’re doing well today. You look lovely all cleaned up.”
He fucking purred at her. Yep, I hate this dickhead.
Ellie grits her teeth. “I’m fine. But I think it’s my fiancé you should be worried about,” she nearly spits at him, trying her best to move away from his touch. Unfortunately, there’s not really anywhere for her to go, so she stands her ground, and faces him like she did to that asshole who shot me.
And like then, I’m not going to lay here, and let him treat her that way. I’ve had enough of assholes lately–both of us have. I reach up and grab his arm and squeeze as tight as I can. “Hey, I think you need to back off, whoever the hell you are. That’s my fiancée, and I don’t appreciate the little pawing and purring act you got going on, and more importantly, neither does she.”
I know she’s not mine to claim, but she was fine claiming me. He thinks we’re a couple, even if he doesn’t respect it, so I’m going to use it to my advantage. I’m sure I’m not very threatening lying in this bed either, but he’s going to know I mean business.
He laughs as he pulls away from my grip. “My, my, I see someone is awake, and feeling his oats.”
I’d beat the ever-loving shit out of the little fucker if I could only stand up.
“You seem to know my fiancée, how about you introduce yourself to me now,” I tell him.
“I’m Dr. Peterson. I’m the one who saved your life yesterday. I must say I’m a bit put out that no one told you about me yet. I am the reason you’re alive after all.”
Okay, now he’s an arrogant fucker.
Before I have a chance to respond, Leia’s heels are clicking across the floor as she pushes Scott and Cash out of her way, and walks over to dickhead. They give each other a slow once over, and if I didn’t know how much of a lesbian my sister was, I’d think she was totally checking him out.
Peterson is most certainly checking her out, and he’s not bashful about it at all. Most brothers would be very protective right about now, but I’ve never had to worry about Leia. If anyone can handle themselves, it’s her. Everyone else in the room but Peterson knows it, too. We’re all waiting patiently for Tornado Leia to wipe the floor with him.
“Well, hello. What a pleasure this is. I’m Jake. Who might you be, you gorgeous creature?” he introduces himself with a creepy ass grin, taking her hand and kissing it.
Does that really work on women?
I give Ellie my best ‘Is he serious?’ expression, she responds with a snarl and a shiver.
Leia smiles at him, but I can easily see the fury she’s hiding behind it. “My name is Leia, I’m Nik’s sister. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” she says sweetly.
“I wish I had known, I would have been here sooner,” he says, winking at her. Before he gets his eye fully opened again, she has him by the balls–literally. He squeals like a pig.
“You listen to me you, arrogant fuck. I wouldn’t let you touch me if you were the last man on this fucking earth. If you ever come near me or Ellie again we will have you arrested for sexual harassment so fucking fast even your enormous head will spin. Do you understand?” she asks with a deathly calm.
He manages to squeak out a ‘yes’, which turns into a howl when she squeezes him even harder. Rachael comes running into the room when she hears the racket, but once she sees what’s going on she stands back, and watches with a smile. She must hate him like the rest of us.
“One more thing, asshole. You almost caused my brother to lose his leg. If it wasn’t for Rachael and Dr. Tamayaka he’d be eaten up with infection, and have his leg fucking cut off by now. If anything,” she twists to make her point, “goes wrong with him from here on out you are the only person I’m going to blame.”
“Hold on to him for a minute more, please,” Ellie asks her as she walks over to them. She gets right in his face, she can do that easily since he’s all crumpled in pain. “I was going to wait until Nik was out of here, but I can’t stand having to deal with you one more second. This is what I plan on doing. I’m going to make a rather large donation to this hospital. But I have one stipulation they must agree to first, and that’s firing your perverted, arrogant ass. I’m gonna offer them so much money there’s no way they can tell me no either,” she says with a smirk.
“I’ll double it,” Leia adds with another squeeze, making Peterson squeal again.
“Rachael, please?” he begs her, “Call security on these crazy bitches.”
“Oh, no, Mister Peacock. I’ve been waitin’ on you to get your due for a long time. I won’t be calling anybody, except the nurses you’ve thrown yourself at that is. They’ll hate they missed this,” she laughs at him.
“I’m also going to be calling up all the patients, and their families that have filed complaints about you, and we’re going to get a malpractice lawsuit started against you,” Ellie tells him. “I know the exact lawyer for it, too. So, if I were you, while you’re home icing those balls of yours, I’d be calling my lawyer. You’re gonna need one,” she sasses him with almost as much attitude as Leia has.
“There’s not much there to ice, honestly. I don’t just have his balls, I’ve got his dick in my grasp, too. What little there is of it,” Leia snarks, never letting up on her grip.
“Now we know why he tries so hard, huh?” Ellie snickers.
Oh, this is awesome! It’s absolutely the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in a long time.
It’s not the morphine talking either, Scott and Cash are both shaking with silent laughter. Even though it hurts like a bitch, I am, too. Leia finally lets him go, and he crumples to the floor, cursing them both.
Cash walks over and hauls him up. “Come on, cry baby, it’s time for you to go,” he says, dragging him to the door and pushing him out.
“Damn, that felt good,” Leia sighs with a satisfied smile on her face.
“Yeah, it did,” Ellie agrees, smiling, too, as she comes over to me. She quickly notices my pain is getting the best of me despite my amusement. “Rachael, he’s hurtin. Can you do something?” she asks her worriedly.
“It’s okay. That was awesome, and so worth it.” I grin and reach for her hand.
“Yeah, it was sure entertaining, but that’s enough excitement for you today, sir. It’s time to rest,” Rachael fusses, going over to my morphine pump, and pushing a button or two.
“You get some sleep, big brother. We’ll be here when you wake up,” Leia tells me, patting my good leg.
“I will, sis. Love you.”
“Love you,” she says, as she walks out.
Cash and Scott tell me bye, too, before heading out with Leia. I’m still holding on to Ellie.
“Get some sleep, and I’ll see you when you wake up, okay? Remember what Dr. Tamayaka said, you have to take things easy,” she reminds me gently.
“All right, I promise to rest,” I mutter.
She smiles at me. “Thank you.”
“You’re amazing. I hope you know that,” I whisper right before my eyes close and I feel her soft lips press against my cheekbone.
“So are you. So are you,” she whispers.