Chap 4
Wow, so a few people like the story, yay!! Here's some more.. seems more than just me have experienced the same behavior(either themselves or people they know)from people waking up after surgery. Poor BeachHead.. and now he gets tormented by people too.
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Finally BeachHead managed to settle down and begin making sense more or less. Every ten minutes or so he would decide to get up, rediscover the restraints, and bitch them out roundly over it. He would wind down and lie back and sulk over it.
Lifeline was sitting in a chair on one side of the bed, while Covergirl had the opposite side. She termed it 'flanking maneuvers' which caused an entire conversation about tortoises and bananas that made her brain hurt.
Beach turned his head to look at the medic sleepily. "Lifeline.. I don't feel well at all."
The medic hummed indistinctly at him, reading the medical journal in his lap. Then he suddenly jumped up. "Whoa!! You called me Lifeline! You're awake?" He was treated to a scathing look. "Sorry.. you've taken a longer time than normal to wake up this time, bud. How are you feeling?" The sergeant shook his head. "That bad? Nauseous yet?" He nodded. "Alright.. let me go get Doc, see if he wants to try that new drug out on you." He hurried out and Beach laid his head back on the pillow, taking deep breaths.
CoverGirl shifted in her chair. "Is there anything I can get you?" He was startled badly and jumped, twisting in the bed to look over at her. "Sorry.. I thought you knew I was here..."
He blinked at her. "Umm.. hey.. no.. why.. why are you here?" He suddenly struggled against the restraints. "Geez..."
She stood and reached to lay one hand on his arm. "Shh.. it's alright. You asked me to be here. You don't remember?"
He blushed deep crimson and lay still, closing his eyes. "Noo.. wait.. yeah. Lifeline told me he'd give me pills instead of me having surgery. That bastard! He out-and-out lied to me!"
She looked away, biting her lip. "Well, no.. he didn't tell you that. I told you that. But I was being sarcastic, I didn't know you'd think it was the honest truth."
He stared at her in disbelief. "Well.. what did you expect? Dang it Cinderella! Why would you do that?" He started to sit up and cursed again as the strap stopped him. "Get this junk off me!" She shook her head. "Look! Unhook these danged straps before I puke and aspirate it!" She heard him gag slightly, even though he swallowed hard.
She hesitated but when he gagged again, she rushed to unbuckle the chest strap. She only got one wrist restraint undone before he sat up and leaned to gag harder. She grabbed up the wastebasket for him and winced as he threw up several times. Lifeline came back in with a handful of bottles and sighed. She shrugged, rubbing the poor sergeant's back as he continued to heave.
The medic looked at the bottles, setting aside two to lift the third up. "Well.. we can still try this one. It might soothe some of the nausea." By the time he pulled the dose and injected it into the i.v., BeachHead was laying back on his back. "Hey Beach.. sorry, I brought some water for you when you're ready for it."
He tried to lift his right wrist, found it still locked down and simply reached with his left instead. "Gimme.." He sipped at the water, rinsing his mouth out. Then he tucked the bottle next to his chest, closing his eyes and looking distinctly greenish. "Thanks.. I'm sorry Courtney.. thanks for the bucket."
She undid the last restraint for him. "It's okay, you can't help being sick."
He blinked at her, looking tired. "Yeah.. well. I'm sorry I asked you to stay. It's bad enough that the medics gotta put up with me. I shouldn't have asked you to also."
She sat down and reached up to squeeze his thick wrist in her hand. "Hey, it's fine, I don't mind. I hoped I could help you, but I don't know if it was any better." He shrugged and looked embarrassed. "It's okay. I think Lifeline appreciated the help."
He glanced over at the medic who was just finishing the notes in the chart. "Yeah.. well.. he gets to put up with me as part of his job. I think that deep down inside, he's gleeful at seeing me being miserable."
The medic sighed lightly. "No, I'm not gleeful. I wish you didn't have poor reactions. I'm not nearly as sadistic as you try to make me out to be." He glanced over and grabbed for the wastebasket again, getting it in place just before the man lunged upwards, spewing up the rest of the contents of his stomach. "Easy.." He put one hand on the sweaty forehead and kept it elevated while he heaved repeatedly. "Well, I guess the new drug didn't work very well."
BeachHead finished puking again and fumbled the bottle of water out to clear his mouth again. By the time he lay down again, he was holding his abdomen tightly. "Oh gaaawd.. this is unfair.. I can't be sick after surgery on my stomach.. I'm gonna tear all the stitches out.."
Lifeline tugged his hands away. "Let me see.. we did the smallest incision possible, and Doc put in enough stitches that you should be okay." He tugged the blankets out of the way, and BeachHead pulled them back up, glaring at him. "Come on.. let me look."
Glancing at CoverGirl, he shook his head. "Stop! Geez.. she's standing right here!"
She laughed suddenly. "Seriously?? Beach.. you're worried I might see your stomach? You work out in shorts for god's sake!"
He gave her a glare as well. "Dang it woman! I'm naked here, let me be!" She tried not to laugh and it must have shown on her face. "Shut it!"
She held up her hands. "How about I go get some juice for you? Maybe it'll help settle your stomach?" He closed his eyes and turned green again, and she shook her head. "Sorry.. water... I'll be back in a few minutes."
Once she left, he let Lifeline examine his surgical site, which looked fine. "You'll be fine, I think the reactions you get to the anesthesia will be more serious than the recovery from the surgery. But the i.v. antibiotics and fluids are really important right now. Doc is really mad that you just ignored the symptoms instead of getting checked."
Beach snorted, and rolled onto his side to try to find a comfortable position. "Whutever.." He closed his eyes as another wave of nausea hit. "Lifeline..." He looked at the slender medic for a second. "Thanks."
"Sure thing Beach. I'm gonna go get you some cold packs for your head. Is it starting to hurt yet?" He looked at the doorway. "Will you be okay for a while? I'll have to go down to the freezers, ours is currently barely a refrigerator until we get repairs done."
"Yeah.. I'm fine. I can throw up all by myself, I'm a big boy."
The medic walked out, passing Kamakura in the hallway. "Hey.. he's awake now, you can leave." The apprentice looked uncertain. "Thanks, but Snake Eyes always leaves once he's fully awake. I promise, it's okay. Tell him I told you to go ahead and leave."
Brightening, Kamakura nodded. "Okay, if Sensei usually leaves, then it should be fine for me to leave too. I'll go let him know. The Sergeant Major will be fine?"
Lifeline nodded at him. "He'll be okay, he'll be staying with us in Medical for a couple days." Kamakura crouched to jump up, and Lifeline cleared his throat loudly. "No.. you can walk out, using the hallways." The apprentice looked at him blankly. "Walk. On the floor. Use the hallways. And tell Snake Eyes I said hello."
Kamakura looked very disappointed but walked off down the hall anyway. Lifeline hurried down to the nurse's station to check in with Doc. He was technically off duty now, but he was determined to stick around, at least until he needed to go sleep. He knew that Doc and the other medical personnel would take care of the grumpy sergeant, and he also knew that he was the only person patient enough to put up with him without getting into screaming matches that ended up stressing their patient out worse.
Although to everyone else in the Joe team, Lifeline and BeachHead butted heads constantly, there was an uneasy truce between them. Lifeline understood why the drill sergeant rode him so hard, and BeachHead knew the medic would only force him into treatment if it was really important to his health. But on the surface, there was sniping, grumbling and arguments.
There were even times when Lifeline was convinced that BeachHead argued with him for the sheer sport of it. When he caught the sergeant out on a two mile run, after being grounded with a damaged knee, Lifeline had all but run him down in a Jeep, gotten in his face and yelled at him, and eventually gotten him loaded up in the vehicle to drive him back to the PT area. Despite his honest anger at the sergeant risking permanent damage, he had the sneaking suspicion that BeachHead was smirking to himself the entire time he was screaming back at him, and intended to fold as soon as he'd been caught. The whole fight was strictly to keep up appearances to the greenshirts he'd been running behind.
Other than a sore throat from yelling, Lifeline occasionally enjoyed the arguments, as long as he won one once in a while. Thus, he picked the arguments carefully, so he had a good chance of winning. He did the same thing with Snake Eyes, although with either of the tough Army soldiers, he could always fall back on Doc to order them, and Doc could fall back on getting Hawk involved. Both the ninja and drill instructor considered that to be cheating, in the game of dominance.
CoverGirl met him at the desk a few minutes later. "Hey.. so I'm guessing his Grumpiness is ready for me to go back?" Lifeline nodded at her. "Can he have juice, or something?"
The medic handed her a frozen cold pack. "He can have pretty much whatever he likes, as far as juice, soda, water.. but just so you know, he isn't going to keep any of it down. He'll just throw it back up."
She sighed. "So he won't drink it if I bring it to him?"
He smiled at her. "Oh no, he'll drink it, he'll just throw up afterwards. But I think he prefers throwing up to dry heaves. I know I do."
CoverGirl nodded. "Okay.. I'll go take him water and juice." Lifeline nodded, saying he was headed to get his own lunch while she was available to sit with BeachHead.
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"Hey Beach.. brought you more water, a cold pack and some juice. Make you happier about being sick." She walked in and found him curled up under his blankets.
"Shut up and get out." His voice was more hoarse than normal.
She tilted her head and dangled the cold pack. "You sure? If your head hurts, this might help some?" He poked his head out further. "I'm not here to bug you Beach, honest. I want to help."
He shifted around under the covers, and reached a hand out for his half empty bottle of water to sip at it. "Whutever. Go.. stay. I can't make ya do a danged thing right now."
She moved over to get a washrag and dampened it, wrapping it around the slushy cold pack. "Here.. you look like you're miserable." She pressed it to his forehead gently.
He grunted softly, and turned his head into the pack a little more. "Thanks. I'll try not to throw up on you."
She smiled down at him. "That's just about the sweetest thing you've ever said to me Beach." His lips quirked upwards, and he reached up to put his hand over hers, tugging the pack lower so it covered his forehead and eyes. "I'm so sorry you feel bad."
"Ain't yer fault. Jus' tha way things are." He took a shakey breath and she felt his shoulders move as he retched slightly. "Gawwd.." She'd always thought the accent was adorable, even when it showed up while he was screaming invectives at the recruits. It always got worse the more emotional he was. Whether it was anger or excitement, when he got wound up, it got more pronounced. CoverGirl had never pointed it out to him, knowing he'd just get prickley over it.
A slightly snide voice from the doorway made her turn, although BeachHead didn't react. "Well well..." Flint leaned on the doorjam. "BeachHead laid up again?"
She frowned but Beach answered before she could snap at the Warrant Officer. "Yeah, whut do you want?"
Flint sauntered to the center of the room. "Shouldn't that be phrased a bit better?" He got a snort as a reply. "Alright alright.. I'm just here to get a update for Hawk. He was going to come down himself, but he's tied up with a video conference. So I had to come down to the infirmary and check up on our drill instructor who dropped like a sack of potatoes out on the course in full view of an entire group of Joes. So... how ya feelin' there, big man?"
BeachHead lifted the cold pack to glare weakly at him. "How 'bout you come a lil' closer? Maybe I can throw up on ya again, like las' time ya came around to poke me."
Flint grinned widely. "No thanks. As long as I can go report to Hawk that you're still grumpy and vomiting up a lung, I'm fine over on this side of the room."
The sergeant put the pack back over his eyes and swallowed. "Whutever.. you can leave."
Flint smirked. "Maybe I wanna stick around... watch you throw up a few times. Might be entertaining."
The voice that came out from under the cold pack sounded bored. "Whutever.. you keep buggin' me, an' I'm gonna let Snakes know.. jus' sayin'."
CoverGirl glared at the warrant officer. "And I'll be having a chat with Lady Jaye." Suddenly Flint shifted his weight uneasily. "A long chat."
He stepped back towards the door. "Well.. Hawk will want my update.. so.. I'll be going."
BeachHead took a deep breath before he replied. "Yaa... you do that."
Flint disappeared and CoverGirl cursed under her breath. BeachHead looked at her with some confusion. "Whut's yer problem?"
She looked towards the door. "He's just being a jerk."
He glanced to the door as if he expected to see someone new. "What? Flint? Big danged deal. It's the only time he gets a chance to torment me, instead of the other way 'round. Las' time I managed to vomit applesauce all over him. Was the best part of the whole danged thing."
She laughed slightly. "I bet." He gagged slightly and reached to grab the waterbottle and chugged a third of it. "Don't go so fast! You'll.." She grabbed the trash can for him as he levered himself up to vomit. "What? Do you WANT to throw up?"
He shook his head and coughed, then gagged again, heaving. She waited it out and gave him the bottle back to rinse and spit. He settled back onto his side, and felt around the covers for his frozen pack. "No.. but if I'm gonna throw up, I want to danged well have something to throw up. If I start dry heaving, I can't stop. I hate this.. where's that danged frozen thing? Did I drop it on the floor?" She set aside the bucket and rummaged through the blankets. He pushed her hands away. "Stay away from me, Cinderella.. jus' look on the floor or summin.." She looked under the bed, and spotted it wedged between the mattress and railing.
"Here... " Plucking it free, she rewrapped it and handed it back. He sighed and flopped it over his eyes, choosing to lie on his back this time. "You should hold a pillow across
your stomach when you throw up.. it'll make it less painful."
He grunted at her. "How would you know?"
She smiled and used a finger to lift the edge of the cold pack. "I had MY appendix out when I was twelve. You wanna see?" She lifted the edge of her shirt to show off the extremely light scar on her side. "I had a really sore throat after the surgery and kept coughing. The nurse made me hold a pillow, and it hurt way less."
He looked at her scar.. and let his eyes roam the skin surrounding it just a little. "Hunh.. I'll remember that." She stroked fingers over her scar slowly, and he watched her do it before tearing his eyes away.
He closed his eyes. "You can go.. thanks fer the water and ice pack." She tilted her head, letting the edge of her shirt fall back over her side. "An' thanks.. fer being here.."
"I don't have to go." He shrugged but opened his eyes. "I mean.. Lifeline said he's was going.. umm.. to lunch. I could just wait around until he gets back. In case you need anything." She smiled at him.
"Well..." He looked away and then put the ice pack back into place, hiding his eyes. "If ya wanna stay.." She popped the top on the juice and took his water bottle. He pushed the pack up to look at her. "What are ya doin?"
She added part of the juice to the water that was left and shook it. "Here.. at least it will cut the taste out of your mouth. Sometimes the sugar settles your stomach better to. Worth a try." He shrugged and took the bottle, sipping lightly and putting it back beside him in the folds of blanket.
"Whutever floats yer boat Barbie."
She took a deeper breath and leaned on the edge of the bed. "Why do you do that? Why are you so mean to people who try to be friendly?" He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "No, really. I don't mean out during PT, or on a mission.. I mean during downtime."
He looked uncomfortable. "Look.. you don't like it, leave. I don't have to be nice to you." She pursed her lips and looked at him, waiting. "Go on.. walk out. You're gonna do it eventually, and I'm too danged tired to fight with you for ten minutes before you do it."
She thought about it. "Is that why you get so mad? Because I leave rather than keep fighting with you?"
He puffed out a breath. "No! I get mad because.. " Suddenly he deflated. "I'm too tired for this, why can't you jus' leave. It doesn't matter." She reached out to drag the chair into place. "Gawd.. you're not leavin?"
"Nope. We can just sit here and chat. It'll be fun."
He grunted. "I changed my mind, I am gonna throw up on you."
She grinned brightly. "I'm not Flint, that won't work on me. Besides, you haven't had any applesauce to eat yet. I can take water and juice."
"Great... so what are we gonna chat about? High heels and nail polish?" She tilted her head at him.
"If you want to. How about we start out with 'why Wayne Sneeden joined the Army'? After all, you know why I joined."
He shifted the cold pack over his eyes again. "Whutever. I joined the Army for adventure and fun, it's been a pure Disney ride." She poked him in his side and he jerked violently, clutching at himself. "GAWD!!! Woman, I swear! Geez that hurt!" He glared at her while she apologized. "What? If anyone is gonna torment me, just call friggin Flint back in! At least I won't feel bad when I punch him in the face!"
She sighed. "I'm SORRY! I didn't mean to hurt you!"
He just groaned and twisted onto his side again, cursing while he got shifted around. "Yer a pain in my butt, Cinderella.. "
CoverGirl sat down. "Sorry.. do you just have an issue with me, or is it women in general in the Army? I notice you pick on the women an awful lot."
He grunted but opened his eyes to look at her. "That's ridiculous. As long as you can do the work, I don't care what you are. It's the ones that want a break because they're female that rankle me so bad." He shifted himself again, struggling to get himself into a position that was comfortable. "Do you know at Fort Benning.. they put almost every female recruit in my groups? You know why? Cause I was the only drill who'd give them a fair shot. I wouldn't pass them to make some quota, but I wouldn't drum them out just cause they was female either. They got to rise or fall according to what they could do. And then I get here.. and all I hear is how I must hate women in the military." He made a irritated noise. "All I ever hear is crap about how bad I am. Makes me wonder why I don't just quit."
She frowned. She couldn't imagine GI Joe without the tough sergeant berating troops in PT sessions. "I.. I don't think you should quit. And more people care than you think."
He just grunted in reply. Sticking an arm out he hunted through the blankets again. "Where my danged water now? I keep losing stuff.."
She stood up and plucked the offending bottle from behind him. "Here.." He took it and sipped. "How's your head?"
"Hurts like there's a brigade inside it trying to dig out with dull chisels. You know whut would make it feel better?" She hummed in question. "You shutting yer yap for a while so I can rest in peace here."
"You're such a hardass."
"You're such a danged butterfly."
"Big tough Ranger Man."
He smiled slightly. "You bet." She smiled at him in reply. "Toughest you'll ever meet, that's fer sure."
She nodded, giving in gracefully for once. "Yep. Toughest sack of potatoes I ever met."
"Shut UP Barbiedoll!"
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End Chapter:
Well, there's some tension between them two.. of course, being laid up has to be utter torment for someone like BeachHead, so I'd expect him to be short-tempered and grumpy. Seems he's bearing out that theory.
Hope you're enjoying, and I love reviews. I savor them and put them aside like tiny shiney bits to look at every so often. Still working on the Vacation chapter, sorry it's taking so long!