The fairy doctor, whose name I learned was Ivy, checked on me a couple hours later and seemed pleased with my progress. She gave me permission to get up if I wanted and walk around some, but warned me I’d probably still feel tired and easily drained if I did, so I shouldn’t over-exert myself.
I decided to take her advice and cautiously began getting a feel for how things were working now. Good news, my right legs were actually pretty much normal. Bad news, my back left leg was still a little painful from getting wrenched or dislocated or whatever happened while my front left leg was okay to move but was not okay to put weight on. Also bad news, I got very out of breath just trying to make one lap of breath around the room.
The fairy doctor observed all this, made some notes on her chart, then after I crawled back onto the bed and laid down, she checked out my left shoulder again.
“So naga poison normally works its way through the body and causes localized pain and sometimes paralysis, but it can also target the overall system depending on the target and where the bite occurred. In your case, it seems to mostly be affecting your joints and lungs. The worst of it has worn off, but it’ll probably take longer for your left shoulder since that’s where he bit you. As far as the lungs,” she tapped the chart thoughtfully, “we ran some imaging and things look okay, but I think the poison got into lining of your lungs, essentially. We’re going to put you on medications and it should slowly work its way out, but it’ll probably be a month or two before you’re completely back to normal. We’ll give you an inhaler and some pain meds as well. I’m going to try a bit more healing on your lungs, then give you until tomorrow, okay? If you can get around the room at a reasonable pace without losing your breath, we’ll talk about having you shift back. If that goes well, then we’ll talk about discharging you.”
She had me lie on my side so she could get closer to my lungs and then did some of her fairy magic. I could feel it prickling my skin as it seeped inside, but it did seem to take away some of the ache in my lungs. Not enough to breathe very deeply, but enough to be more comfortable.
As she left, she flipped on the TV for me but put it at a low volume. I’d forgotten until I saw the news people talking about it that today was New Year’s Eve. I actually felt a little cheerful about that, because that meant I’d probably see some people tonight and tomorrow morning, even if it was just the fairy doctor and the human nurse. They were fairly nice and it was better than being home alone all night.
Tommy arrived in late afternoon, holding up a carry-out bag when he saw I was already awake. “Doc gave me permission to feed you whatever. I don’t know what your food preference is, so I have options.” He began pulling out several boxes. “I have burgers, quesadillas, and sandwiches. I figured no food that required hands, so….” He motioned towards the options. “Anything strike your interest?”
The burgers looked really good, so I carefully attempted to eat them without getting the condiments everywhere while Tommy munched on one of the sandwiches.
“I have questions to ask you,” he informed me as he licked his fingers clean, “but I’m guessing you can’t answer any currently so I’ll talk to you about whatever you like or resume the book, which do you prefer?”
I wished I could ask him why he was doing this. Was it guilt for me getting hurt? I didn’t know, but I could ask after I could shift back. For now, though, I might as well enjoy the company – and his reading voice.
When I looked pointedly at the book, he chuckled a bit and retrieved it. “Not such a bad book after all, eh?” He flipped through until he found approximately where I’d passed out the night before and resumed reading, his rich voice making me relax deeply as I finished eating and then just laid there, an occasional ear flick or tail twitch the only signs I was awake – well, other than that I was lying on my belly, not on my side, so I was sitting up too much to be asleep.
Tommy was in the middle of a beautiful description of deep woods – which sounded extra attractive and mysterious in his voice – when his phone rang. My ears twitched as I felt annoyed at the interruption, but to my surprise, Tommy seemed put out, too.
He sighed as he fished out his phone and answers. “What is it? I’m not really supposed to be talking on phones in the hospital.” He paused for a while, listening to someone talk, and then rolled his eyes at me while making a face. “Colt, I’m sure you’ll survive at the party without me. You’re always the center of attention anyway.” More listening, and he sighed again. “No, I’m actually – no,” his tone turned a little heated, “it’s not like that. Just go on, have fun without me.” He hung up and rolled his eyes again. “Colt doesn’t understand the idea of not partying whenever there’s a chance. Now where were we?”
He turned his attention back to the book, but had barely opened his mouth to start again when his phone rang for a second time.
He groaned this time but still answered. “Evening, Adelaide.” A pause, but his brows furrowed. “I told him it’s not like that. No, it’s really not.” He was frowning more and more. “And my opinion just doesn’t matter?”
I was pretty sure what the picture was here. Tommy’s angel friends wanted him to hang out with them like he normally would, but he was babysitting me because he felt bad or whatever. Now I felt bad because he was spending the night away from his friends because of me. New Year’s Eve was usually more about friends, right? Partying? Not my thing, of course, but I didn’t want to deprive him of it, either.
Tommy looked frustrated when he finally hung up. “It seems I’m being summoned back to the enclave whether I like it or not. I’m sorry, Cooper. I’d planned to read longer but I guess we’ll have to try again tomorrow instead?”
I nodded my head a bit. It was enough for me that he had come at all. He didn’t need to give up his holiday partying for me, too. Plus, he was planning to come back tomorrow, so I wouldn’t be alone all day, right? This was more than enough for someone like me.
Still, when midnight hit and I could hear the fireworks outside as I laid alone in the dark hospital room, I felt like the dark lines on my face tracing down from my eyes were almost a reflection of my heart – tears falling until they literally marked my face.
It was okay, I reminded myself. I didn’t have anyone with me right now, but the doctor and nurse had been nice and Tommy had come by twice now to read to me, which was the most personal social contact I’d had in a long time. This was a lot better than I’d have expected my New Year’s Eve to be.
And yet, I couldn’t help but wish that there was someone there with me – for me. The eternal, unreachable dream.
~~~~~
The fairy doctor seemed very pleased at my progress the following day. “It looks like you’re about as healed as we can get you – no more effects from my magic, unfortunately. The rest will just take time. Thankfully your bad shoulder is for your arm, not your leg, so you should be good to walk around, but try to keep outdoor walks to a minimum for now – the cold air won’t be your friend – and take things easy, okay?” She was busy scribbling on a pad. “You can try shifting back now if you feel up to it. When you’re ready to go home, the nurse will bring you your prescriptions, but make sure you come back here for refills – naga antidotes won’t be something your local pharmacy will have.” She chuckled a little at her joke.
I honestly wasn’t entirely sure about shifting back because I still felt a lot weaker than I’d like, but it was probably for the best – I would need to go back to work in a few days and that would be kind of difficult in cheetah form, not to mention all the panic it would cause amongst my coworkers to have a cheetah show up at the bank. Plus, better to shift here with the doctor right there in case things went wrong.
Luckily, I shifted back easily, though I had to hold still a few moments to let the ringing dissipate from my head. By the time that cleared, the fairy doctor already was listening to me breathe and then made me walk around for a bit and let her examine my shoulder before she was satisfied.
“I’ll leave it up to you if you want to leave now or later, but mostly at this point what you need is rest and time, and you might be able to do that better at home – depends on the patient, really. I do want to see you back here in a week to monitor how things are going. The nurse can set you up with the appointment. She’ll be here in a bit and you can tell her how comfortable you feel going home now or later, okay? Give yourself a few first to figure out how you feel in your human form.”
I nodded but leaned against the bed, thinking as she left. Honestly, walking anywhere sounded tiring, but being at home would be good. Quieter. Lonelier, though. But that was true anywhere, so…if I could manage it, it was probably best to go home, right?
I took a few cautious steps around the room, jiggled my left arm some and tried to figure out how I really felt. My shoulder still ached and I was pretty sure I shouldn’t try to lift much with it, but honestly, I could do my job as things were now. Now that I was adjusting back to human form, I also felt a little better as far as breathing went, too – maybe the difference in lungs or even just the shifting to “other” lungs, as it were, had helped that? Not 100% normal, but at least…70%? Better than I had been. It should be enough to get home and continue with life as normal.
So when Nina returned, I informed her that I’d prefer to go home sooner rather than later. She accepted my verdict, took care of the paperwork with me, got the prescriptions, and set up my follow-up appointment. She even called a cab for me so I could get home and informed me it would be added to the nagas’ bill, so no need to worry about it.
It wasn’t until after I got in the car that I remembered that Tommy planned to return today and I had no way to contact him and let him know I’d been discharged. Ah, well…that was too bad. I’d have liked to hear him read some more, but he probably wouldn’t read to me anyway after I was in human form, right? Since I could read for myself then? Probably not, but it was kind of a shame.
When I got back to my apartment, I discovered that my order of books had indeed been left in the mailroom for me, much to my delight. Since there was no way I was up to carrying a box full of books to my place at the moment, I had to get one of the apartment staff members to lend a hand, which made me uncomfortable just having to approach them and ask. I always got nervous with stuff like that, even if I knew it was necessary, but thankfully they were nice about it and I tipped the guy extra, so he seemed pretty happy with the result.
My new books now safely inside my apartment, I collapsed on the couch and then paused for a long moment before pulling out my phone, my heart thumping in hope.
But…no. Of course not. No one had reached out to me, either responding to my Christmas wishes or concerned about how I was doing. No one knew that I’d been sick, of course, but I had four people I considered friends – or tried to, although it was clear they didn’t feel the same way – and the one friend of Dad’s, yet…no one remembered me.
Sometimes I wondered why I tortured myself with hope. Why I couldn’t just turn hope off. It made it harder when I just couldn’t ever give up hoping that someone, anyone would want me enough to care, but they never did.
I dropped my phone on the floor and laid back, staring at the ceiling. I should probably…do something other than wallow in loneliness, right? Maybe read a book, but I felt tired after getting back, so maybe watching a movie would be better. Then I could just lie here and do nothing.
I flipped on the TV and surfed movie options until I found something that sounded vaguely interesting, trying to pretend everything was okay. It had to be. Because even if it wasn’t, there was no changing it, so I might as well be okay with it. Just…try to survive. That was all I could do. Survive.
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