Author's Note: If Abigail's response to a bike crash seems a little weird then... I dunno. I base how she acted on the way I act after crashing my bike spectacularly. Which I have done several times in my life and so I'm very well acquainted with how my body reacts to such stimulus.
Basically it goes like this: I don't feel anything (much) for a bit and in that time I try to hobble home. Then I start feeling the pain (and start crying usually but that's just me), and then once I'm 'safe' I get really tired and fall asleep. Muscle failure is predictable as well, once the muscle cools It gets really stiff and moving it is next to impossible.


Chapter 6: The Hospital

"Abigail," Jane shook her. "Abigail, we're at the hospital, you have to get up for a moment."
Abigail groaned as her eyes opened and focused on her, she winced.
"Don't wanna get up," she complained. "Leg's stiff, and hurts." She added, just in case they didn't realize.
"Nigel, do you think you can carry her?" Jane asked.
"Not unless she turns around, if I tried to pick her up on the right side it would aggravate the gash." He replied. Abigail groaned and started to get up, lifting her leg out of the car slowly.
"Here, let me." Nigel said once Abigail was standing up. Jane let go of Abigail's arms and moved out of the way.

Abigail yelped in surprise as Mr. Ratburn wrapped an arm around her back and lifted both of her legs into his other arm. Her arms flailed for a moment before she had enough sense to grab at his shoulders.
If she hadn't been awake before, she was now.
Being more awake made her look around to take in her surroundings. Arthur and D.W. were standing behind Mrs. Read looking bored and a little disturbed. Arthur was staring at her leg in morbid fascination. D.W. was looking anywhere but, preferring to keep her head angled down to her mother's feet. Mrs. Read herself was eying her with worry, surveying her up and down and frowning with worry.
The attention was odd, she squirmed a little under the scrutiny. This made her entire body shift a little and she ended up leaning more heavily into Mr. Ratburn's chest.
Mr. Ratburn's arms tensed a little.
"Don't squirm or I'll drop you," He warned. He gave Jane a nod and started towards the door.

The inside of the hospital was cold. Abigail hadn't been in a lot of hospitals, but she was pretty sure she didn't like them much. They were always sort of cold.
Jane was hovering around the side of the table Abigail was on. She'd sent Arthur and D.W. to the waiting room.
"We'll have this fixed up in no time. It'll probably take... oh, I dunno, 5 to 7 stitches. The knee is strained pretty bad, you should stay off of it for the next week." The doctor informed them.
Mr. Ratburn knocked politely at the door and peeked his head into the doorway.
"Jane, an orderly is watching over Arthur and D.W. now." He said. He stepped into the room. "How are you doing Gale?" He asked, looking closely at the leg.
The wound was clean now, it had had little bits of tree bark in it before, and they'd cleaned up all her scratches as well. It almost looked worse when you could see how deep it was. Her entire leg was very red and bruises were starting to develop all around her knee. Luckily they'd also numbed it in preparation of the stitches, so Abigail didn't have to think about it much.
"I'm doing okay I guess," Abigail shrugged. "It's not the most comfortable I've ever been but..." She gave a wry smile and was pleased to see Mr. Ratburn smile back.
"Well, now that you're all taken care of I really should be leaving. I've got plans for this evening that I don't want to be late for." Mr. Ratburn said. "You don't need anything else do you?" He asked Jane.
"No. Thank you again Nigel, for driving Abigail over here. Especially when you didn't have to." Jane replied.
"It was no trouble," He assured. "Goodbye Jane, Goodbye Gale." He waved a bit and then left.
"Bye!" Abigail and Jane chorused as he left.
There was silence in the room for a moment before Jane's thought apparently gathered and she turned to Abigail.
"Why didn't you correct him when he called you Gale?" She asked.
"What?" Abigail asked. "Oh... umm, I dunno. It didn't seem all that important. He seemed to really like the name Gale."
"Would you like for everyone to call you Gale?" Jane asked.
"No," Abigail said quickly. "But I don't mind if he wants to." She added quietly, after a moments pause.
Jane smiled. She looked like she was about to say something but just then Arthur peeked into the room.
"Arthur, is something wrong?" Jane asked.
"No, it's just..." Arthur paused a moment. "Can I watch them sew up the cut?" He asked hopefully.
Jane gave him a disapproving and curious look.
"I suppose if Abigail doesn't mind..." Jane hedged.
Arthur came into the room and looked at Abigail hopefully.
"Can I?" He asked. Abigail shrugged.
"I don't see why not." Abigail answered. "It's not like they're doing anything invasive." She told Jane.
A doctor came into the room carrying a tray with an impressive looking needle and thread and all the other equipment.
"Are we ready to get started?" He asked as he pulled a tray table and stool up next to the bed.
"I'm not going to feel this, right?" Abigail asked again.
"Everyone who comes in needing stitches asks that," the doctor laughed. "I promise you won't feel a thing."
"Where's D.W.?" Jane asked, realizing she wasn't with Arthur.
"I left her with Jake. He's the orderly that was watching us." Arthur said. Jane gave a worried frown.
"I should probably go get her, you'll be fine starting this without me won't you?" Jane asked Abigail.
"Yeah, go ahead." Abigail waved her off.
The doctor nodded towards Jane and she left to go get D.W.
"Alright then, lets get started shall we?" The doctor said as he sat down and put on his gloves. Abigail made a noise of agreement that ended up being more of a squeak. The doctor gave her a reassuring smile and she just leaned back onto the bed and closed her eyes, trusting that the numbing agent would make sure she couldn't feel what was going on.

Jane found D.W. sitting as quietly as she possibly could next to a bored looking orderly. She couldn't help the surprise on her face, normally D.W. would have driven that man up the wall and back before now.
"D.W., didn't you want to come in and sit with Abigail?" She asked as she sat down next to D.W. She gave the orderly consent to leave with a wave and a nod of acknowledgement.
D.W. fidgeted and frowned a little.
"She's not... still yucky is she?" D.W. sounded very uncomfortable. Jane smiled a little, understanding why D.W. was so quiet.
"Blood makes a lot of people uncomfortable." Jane replied. "I'm sure Abigail doesn't mind that you wanted to wait to see her."
"Okay," D.W. said. "But it's all gone now, right? She's not still bloody?" D.W. asked again.
"No, they cleaned her up. She's getting that big cut on her leg sewn up right now." Jane replied.
"Sewn? Like with a needle?" D.W. asked, frowning.
"Yes." Jane answered.
"Ewww," D.W. buried her face into her mother's stomach. "I don't want to see that." She whined, muffled by Jane's sweater.
"That's fine. It'll only take a few minutes. We'll go see her when it's all done." Jane rubbed D.W.'s head.
D.W. nodded, not taking her head out of her mother's sweater just yet.

~*~*~*~*That Evening*~*~*~*~

"I got it, I got it." Abigail said as she hobbled up the sidewalk to the door. She grabbed hold of Jane's shoulder as a balance as she struggled to keep the weight off of her knee.
D.W. was still rather preoccupied with the stitches on Abigail's leg. She hadn't believed Abigail when she said it hadn't hurt, and she was looking fairly convinced that that was Abigail was limping and that it had nothing to do with her knee.
"Clear the way," Jane said to D.W. and Arthur, who were being slightly underfoot. Arthur went and opened the door for them.
Abigail finally got inside the house and sat down on the couch. She propped her leg up on one of the cushions and sighed.
"You'll probably have to sleep on the couch tonight, I don't know how you'd get up to your room." Jane said.
Abigail screwed her face up in annoyance.
"It's only for tonight, I'm sure you'll be able to make it to your room just fine tomorrow." Jane replied.
Abigail slid down the couch and put the other cushion behind her head.
"I'm glad they let me come home, staying overnight in the hospital would have been such a pain." Abigail said as she stretched and closed her eyes.

She didn't notice Jane grinning at her.
And even if she had, she was too tired to have realized it was because she'd called the Read house 'home' for the first time since she got there.


Author's Note: I'll leave this one at that then I guess.