"Get her in that bed now!"
Loki's eyes shot up to the rush of movement in the corner of his eye. The curtain was ripped back, a male nurse cradling Luxia in his arms and two female nurses ran in behind him. As soon as her back connected with the bed, they were injecting her with needles secured to her i.v. bag hanging to her right. Her head lolled limply and someone tossed a rather large bag onto Loki's table, causing a bottle to tumble to the floor and sending Luxias glasses to the floor.
He watched them silently, listened to the nurses babble out nonsense and after awhile, everything seemed to settle down. One nurse was left and she grasped the clear bag of fluids hanging from the hook, massaging the bag to get the fluids running faster. She sighed and looked back at Loki, who was still solemn in his staring.
"She collapsed in the elevator," the nurse started walking towards the slip in the curtain. "Please press the call button when she wakes up."
Loki still said nothing as the curtain fluttered shut. He listened to the beep and hum of voices over the com. His eyes flickered to Luxia's slack form, watched her fingers twitch in her lap and noticed how dark her violet shirt was. It was damp with sweat. She had over done it. Why had she gone out by herself? Why had she done such a thing, why had no one stopped her? Knowing the way she worked – and he did by now – she must have snuck out. Again, the question came as to why she wanted to leave the hospital for the day? His eyes moved to the bag. What was inside? If he wanted to, he could open it, look inside and see why she had left.
But she was awake.
And she was staring at him with half lidded eyes and her chest was heaving deeply, her headwrap slipping up her forehead as she lifted her left arm. She nudged the bag towards him, the wires shaking against themselves and the bag was closer to him.
"It's green. . .tell me what ya think," her voice was weak and tired.
He stared at her silently, watching her lids flutter close again but she wasn't asleep, she was just weak. He was told to press the call button, but he didn't. Not yet.
He looked over at the bag and reached for it, taking it in his hands and he set it in his lap. He was hesitant, he thought it would be a secret. But then Loki peeled the bag apart, pushing apart fluorescent paper and he found a turtle. It was solid and green, a cartoonish smile on the tip of what was supposed to be his head. Loki lifted it, testing its weight and would have thought it to be heavier but it wasn't. There were others things that jingled in the bottom of the bag but he knew this was what she had wanted him to see.
He looked over at her, saw her staring at him again and nodded once. "I think it is. . .just fine."
She smiled weakly at him, letting her head loll to the side and then Loki pressed the call button.
"You need to curl it backwards."
"I am not an imbecile," he growled, lifting his leg.
Physical therapy was not something Loki deemed easy.
He had thought it would be simpler than this. It was just moving his once broken leg around, getting it used to the weight of his body again. But this was the first time in three hours that he had gotten the leg to curl. He did not have as much control over his body as he thought. His teeth grit as pain shot through his nerves, centering around his shin. He must have completely shattered the bone when he hit Midgard. Heimdal must have enjoyed watching Loki be hurdled towards this relative Hell on Earth.
"You go you," the nurse – a regular to Loki and Luxia – cheered slightly in his ear. She had a firm grip on his elbows and he couldn't say he didn't appreciate the support; he just wouldn't admit it. "We'll get this leg fixed in no time, but I have to say you are a lot heavier than I thought you would be."
That made him tense slightly and he stopped curling his leg, a sigh of relief coming from his lips as the pain began to simple feel like an ache. "You don't say," was all he could manage.
The nurse nodded, steering him towards the wheelchair he had arrived in; he hated how pathetic it was to be wheeled around this place. "You certainly are heavy, but of course you're a man. I'm used to working with women who are much smaller than you."
Of course, there was a difference between weight for men and women on Midgard. In Asgard, the difference was simply in height and age. When someone was in the prime of their life – meaning ages 14 to at least 40 (the exception being if you were a God like Loki, the Council and a few selective bodies throughout the kingdom) – they were at their heaviest, but once they were too old, which was a guessing game up there, their weight would decrease deeming them unworthy of fighting.
Down here, it was simply gender differences – in a glazed over situation.
Loki let out another small sigh as he was lowered into the chair, scowling as the nurse turned him towards the door. "You been in any pain?"
"Obviously," he grumbled.
She chuckled, unfazed by his sour attitude. "I mean before we started this morning."
He actually thought on it; he had learned quickly that an attitude only got so far around here and Loki was at their mercy because of his powers having been taken. He was simply a mortal, for the time being. That was still questionable, considering he could still control the Jotun side of him that came out a few times since he had been stranded here. When he woke up from nightmares. . .
"No," he muttered, thinking. "Where is Luxia?"
"Chemo," the nurse sighed and pushed him into the elevator, hitting the button labeled 4. She leaned against one of the walls. "She's not going to be in a very good mood when she gets back to her bed. Shouldn't have pulled that little stunt the other day."
Three days.
In just three days, Luxia had deteriorated into surgery. Her kidneys had started to fail, but she was stable now.
Human lives were a fleeting thing, a heartbeat. That was why Loki had been so angry when he found he truly enjoyed the presence of the rather fragile human.
He looked up to the nurse, something in his eyes while his face remained placid and unmoving. He didn't want to seem desperate, but he was. He was just grasping at air now. He was truly afraid to leave the hospital. Where would he go after this? Where would he go when there was nothing left for him here? When his leg was healed, they would just toss him out onto the streets.
Loki had nowhere to go.
"Here we are," the nurse pushed from the wall and gripped the handles of his wheelchair, pushing him out of the elevator. The nurse smiled over Loki's head while he stared down at the tiles of the floor, counting each one in some sort of trance. "And there is our lovely Luxia!"
His head shot up then, eyes slightly wide but his lips a straight line. She was sitting in her own wheelchair outside the double doors into their wing of the hospital. She was smiling at Loki with a full warmth. "We're getting moved," she stated.
The nurse stopped. "Excuse me?"
Luxia looked up to her, her smile widening. "He and I," she pointed between Loki and herself. "We're getting moved. To Mr. Clamptons old room. I requested it on my special tab."
"Oh. . ." the nurses enthusiasm seemed to wind down a bit. "Well, I guess we should get you guys moved, shouldn't we?"
"Beatrice is moving us," Luxia hesitated. "But if you want to, we can do it right now."
She was looking at Loki. They were both looking at Loki. He stuttered for a moment. "I suppose we can do it now."
Luxia grinned and the nurse smiled gently, leaving the both of them at the doors while she rambled about gathering Luxia's possessions. Luxia smiled at Loki for a long time, making him wonder what she was thinking before she leaned over and took his right hand in hers. He stared at that for a moment, looking up to her with a furrowed brow. She just gave his hand a squeeze and then released it, gripping the wheels on her chair.
"Wanna race?"
Everything hurt.
Loki cringed, his hands gripping the edge of the bed as he hoisted himself up. He couldn't take it. He looked over to Luxias bed and saw her fast asleep, jaw slack. He closed his eyes and shook his head, placing his feet flat on the floor. Pain shot up through the tendons, into his back and Loki hunched forward, eyes going wide and his lips parting to let out a strangled gasp of pain. His knees buckled inwards for a moment and then he caught himself, inching his way towards the window.
He leaned against the thick glass, sweaty forward staining the pane and his breath causing fog against the backdrop. He cringed as he stood straight, placing his left hand against the glass and he looked out over the city. He cringed as pain shot through his back and then his legs finally gave in, sending him to the floor. His hands smacked against the floor in an attempt to catch himself but it only made him cry out in pain.
How pathetic.
A God, crippled by his own body.
"Loki!"
He couldn't even muster the strength to look up at her gasp, he could only sigh when he felt her hands against his shoulders, trying to pull him up. He could feel how weak she was as she helped him turn over. As his back connected with the side of his bed, he took a firm hold of her right wrist and it held her still. She stared at him with wide, curious, eyes and then swallowed. But she didn't speak. She just remained silent, staring at him.
"You are in pain," he muttered.
She didn't look at him in any other way but sorry. "Kind of. . ."
"Liar," he growled, his fingers tightening around her wrist. "How much pain are you in?"
She shook her head fiercely. "Don't try to distract me," she scrambled to her feet and moved around him, leaning over his bed to press the call button. She slid back down to his side as soon as the buzz rang through the room. "You're in a lot of pain too," she pointed at him slightly. "I can see it around your eyes."
"Around my eyes?"
She nodded and looked down. "Yeah," she gestured to her own eyes. "Your eyes crinkle in the corners."
Silence again.
He wanted her to speak.
When she spoke, the pain was pushed to the back of his mind.
His eyes flickered around in front of him, his mind racing. "Do you think I will walk again," he whispered.
She looked up at him, eyes lost and worried. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "Yeah," she looked down to her lap. "Yeah I think you'll walk again."
Loki blinked a few times. "Who was the turtle for," his voice wasn't even close to a whisper now, she barely heard him when he spoke.
Her tongue twisted behind her teeth and her vision blurred, heart twisting. Before she could open her mouth to give him an excuse, the door to their room opened and a male and female nurse came in. Luxia moved so they could get Loki back into his bed and then she curled up in her own, turning her back on him. Her eyes darted around on the tiles beside her bed, closing when she heard him give out yet another strangled gasp.