Hey guys. Here I am with another chapter.
Thanks to bamadude, SRAM and umbrella0326 for reviewing since chapter nine.
Once again, I will try to do my best to explain why Leonard wouldn't be at the hospital with Penny and then leave her for a week from the day after surgery.
"I have candy in my bag." I smiled as the nurses put the bed with me on it through the hallway. "I bought some…" Well, duh- moment! "But I bought them on like Wednesday. I can't believe I managed not to eat them until now. But now, surgery's over. And I need my bag…" They had taken me back to my room and one nurse was already unlocking the locker in the room to get out my things. "Yay, candy."
"You might feel a bit sick after the narcosis" I sighed. How many times would they need to tell me that before they knew that I knew? "So you should probably start with a sandwich before you eat candy. What would you like to have on it?"
I was so hungry I had just wanted to grab all of the chocolate cake I had brought and stuffed it into my mouth all at once. But of course, I realized the nurse was right and tried to come up with something I liked on the sandwich- but what did they even have? Or was I just really slow after the narcosis?
"Cheese and ham?"
"Yeah, yeah that would be nice." I answered the nurse and she disappeared. I pushed the bag of skittles and the Hershey's cookies and cream to the side on the table and soon the nurse was back with a tray with a plate and three glasses (Three?) which she put in front of me.
"Here's your sandwich, a glass of milk," The nurse pointed as if I couldn't have seen. "A glass of juice and a glass of water. Do you feel nauseas or anything?" I shook my head, already chewing on the sandwich. "I'll put a vomit back here anyway." She grabbed one from the hanger on the wall, put it on the table- only making me nervous about if I would feel ill. And then left the room while I shrugged and went back to eating.
I hadn't ever tasted something as great as that cheese and ham sandwich- after all of those hours of not being able to eat- and I counted them to sixteen. I was so hungry it would probably have tasted heavenly with fried snail or something.
I had promised what felt like half of all the people I knew to text once the surgery was over. But I couldn't bother stop eating so while still holding the sandwich with one hand I pulled up my phone and texted a short message.
Surgery went well. Now eating –Penny.
Quickly enough I sent the message out and returned to the last few bites of my sandwich. I could easily have eaten three more of these but I didn't bother asking for more and went out into the hallway to give the tray back before I returned to sit on my bed and watch silly series on my laptop along with eating candy. That would have been after getting my own sweatpants and Leonard's hoodie on instead of those ugly hospital gowns, which I threw into a laundry basket that was placed in the room and then threw myself back at the bed
(Well, as good as it was possible with the wounds that would be)
But soon I was eager to get moving again and even though the cuts on my stomach were aching and sore I realized I could probably go out into the hallway without much trouble. If not I could just return here and with that thought I stuffed my wallet and my phone into my pockets and threw my legs over the side of the bed to get moving.
"Are you going somewhere?"
I sighed, I should have known- I wasn't even halfway to the door out to the stairs before I heard a nurse shout after me. I sighed and tried to figure where I was going actually before I could answer. Knowing that to just get moving wasn't an answer that would let me go out into the hallway or they'd keep me here.
"I'm going back to the chapel. I feel fine."
"Okay… well as long as you feel like you can."
"Yes…" I didn't wait to hear more and continued walking down the hallway. Only to be interrupted three seconds later by another nurse shouting and wondering where I was going. "I'm only going down to the chapel. I feel fine. I'll be back in just a little bit. Now, will you let me go?"
"Well… can you wait until after dinner at least? It'll soon come. Just in case." I sighed. "It'll be here in only five minutes. I know you're hungry." With another deep sigh I turned back towards my room and steered my steps back. Not noticing I went one door too far and when I opened the door I barely had the time there was an old woman sitting on the bed there before I walked in.
"Oh, I'm sorry." At least the woman was smiling, so she couldn't really have been bothered. I had gone red as a tomato though, turned around quickly before any of the nurses had the time to see I had almost gone into the wrong room and hurried into the right room- so embarrassing!
Damn it! Why did all doors in whole freaking hospital hallways have to look all the same?
"Here we go." I barely had the time to dwell over what I had just done before the door to my room opened and a nurse came in with a tray. "Some hotdogs. Some French fries, a glass of water and a biscuit." I barely had the time to listen to her. The sandwich hadn't done much earlier and I'd sat up and started eating before she had finished talking. And was so into the meal and chewing and hungry that I didn't even notice the nurse leaving the room.
The meal was over way too soon and after the last bite of the cookie I was still hungry as a freaking wolf. I opened the Hershey's- cookies- and- cream- bar I had brought and broke off a large piece. Geez. To full this hunger I would so have to eat like three pizzas in a row. Although I was relieved when I remembered that I had only promised to stay here until after I had eaten. And once again stuffing the phone and wallet into my pockets I took the tray, found a food wagon to put it on.
"Are you sure you don't want to wait another while?"
"Yes, be right back. Bye."
The elevator from the ground floor to the fifth where the hospital church was was put right down by the main entrance. And before getting there I would have to walk down several stairs and through the main hallway. Although, even though the wounds burned and ached with every move, it felt better than I would have ever expected it to to just be out of that hospital room, in my own clothes and moving again.
Good. I'll see you later, call me when you know you can go home. XXX –Leonard.
Just as I stood waiting for the elevator that would take me to the church Leonard replied to my earlier text. I couldn't mind answering right now as the elevator reached the ground floor just as I had read it. But while walking into the small space my phone buzzed again with another text message. Although I'd have to admit he was the person I thought wouldn't answer at all.
Good to hear. Now make sure you take a few days off- I'm not letting you come back too soon anyway. –Dan
I put the phone back down just as the doors to the fifth floor opened and I could step into the hallway by the church. All I had to do was cross it so already in the elevator I could hear the slow, classical music coming through the speakers in a corner of the room. Despite so the room seemed almost all silent, and just as peaceful as nothing ever could except for churches.
I walked into the church and sat down on a chair right inside the door. I wasn't so sure why I had wanted to go here. But neither had I been this forenoon. A part of me wished that I wouldn't have been alone here, but wasn't so sure why. And during the thirty seconds I sat in that chair I only glanced around the room.
I couldn't keep still though and soon I was on my feet and walked out of the church. Even if that meant going back to my room. And this time I made certain I was on my way into the right room before I opened the door. And I must have been because on the pillow laid Froggy and waited, and I breathed out as stupidly I thought that I would be on my own for a moment.
Wrong!
"Hey." Another nurse- what felt like the millionth came into my room with a faked smile on her lips. "My name is Cara. So, I take it you want to go home. But not just yet. During the surgery they put in a Foley catheter. They need as much space as possible for the surgery so they use it to drain the bladder. They took it out before you woke up but it can later make it a bit hard to pee so before you get to go home you've had to been to the toilet. Okay?" The nurse looked over the frames of her glasses to look at me and I nodded. "Good."
I glared after her as she walked out the door and sunk back towards the pillow with Froggy in my hand. Okay? I got they were nurses and doctors and God knows what else- but when they got so far they started getting into my toilet habits and how that would be- I was just so damn tired of this!
I sighed just as the door closed behind that nurse. Why couldn't they all just leave me alone for a single moment? Be alone so I could hold Froggy so tightly it would have been embarrassing if anyone saw and just go through what had happened today? Gather my thoughts until anything new came and confused me right over again- although, of course they wouldn't. And only a short while after that nurse left in came a man.
"Hello. I'm Lamar. I was the anastheatic nurse. during the surgery." Lamar was large and had brown skin- he kind of looked like Rajesh would have if he would have been fat "First of all. Do you have any questions?" I shook my head just wanting this all to be over. "Okay… I will only stay a short bit… So… We filled your abdomen with gas to make as much space as possible." I nodded to the doctor who was signing with his hands around his stomach. "And it might get trapped, it gets trapped below the shoulder blades and that can hurt a lot. But it's not dangerous." I nodded again. "I'll get you some painkillers to take home with you." Another nod and I slumped back towards the pillow to wait for him to come back.
There was so much in the hospital that just seemed the same and what I would have expected. I was given small, beige- colored paper bags with different kind of painkillers and that narcosis nurse left. From the hallway I could hear people moving, one alarm going off after the other, someone whining and coughing. Someone else laughing along with a family member. And then a bed being pushed down the hallway. I sank back towards the pillow and took a bite from my chocolate bar. Couldn't I just go home? Just as the thought crossed my mind for about the millionth time there was a knock on the door and a woman about my age came in. Would they ever stop coming?
"Hi. My name is Dr. Ingston and I was the surgeon during the surgery." I nodded. "So, we did the surgery and we removed the cyst. The fallopian tube we removed as well. It won't hurt anything to remove it but it was so swollen and damaged, if we would have left it and you'd ever get pregnant it might have caused a miscarriage. To have it removed will only cause that if you'd ever have to remove the other one and want to get pregnant. You need to use IVF. But your tube was this big…" She showed with her fingers. "And it's only supposed to be this big." She showed again- it must have been at least four or five times bigger than it should have. "Like a straw. But it's gone now so we don't have to worry about it any longer." Dr. Ingston smiled at me. "I need to go. You should be able to go home any minute now. Good luck." Without waiting for a reply she left the room, probably about the hundredth of all of the nurses and doctors that had walked in and out today. While I sighed deeply and slumped back against the bed again.
Loads of times I had heard about people that had been stuck in hospital and hated it. Just for a day or for months, I could never figure what would be so bad. Someone bringing you food and never really having to get out of bed. But right now, with everyone keeping track of when I would have been to the toilet and not bothering to go outside of the room again, I just wanted to go home. Therefore I was very relieved when I could crawl into the bed and press the alarm button for the nurses to come. And hearing the alarm go off in the hallway I waited as one signal went by for someone to come- then another one. And then another one until I heard footsteps coming closer until a nurse came through the door.
"Yes?"
"I've been to the toilet. Now, when can I go home?"
"You know, we could let you stay overnight."
"I don't want to. I feel fine and I've been to the toilet. When can I call up my boyfriend and ask him to come and pick me up."
"You could call him now. But then you'll have to come back here if anything happens."
"I will." I had barely even listened to the last part. Only reached for my phone and quickly dialed Leonard's phone number. "And I feel fine." I put the phone to my ear and waited as the signals went by for him to pick up. "God Leonard. Pick up. I want to go home!" Just as I was on my way to hang up the phone clicked and without waiting for a reply I started talking. "Can you come and get me? Like now?"
"Well… I had to go to the grocery store for a minute…" I moaned- I just wanted to get out of this freaking hospital like yesterday! "But I can be there in forty five minutes or something. Where I dropped you off this morning?" I nodded to the phone even though I knew he couldn't see me. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel fine." My voice sounded whinier than what I had planned it to. "I just want to go home. Ugh! Nurses are driving me mad with their fussing so I'll get out of this department now. See you in a bit." Without waiting for a reply I hung up and stood up, packed my things into my bag and then waved goodbye by the staff room, not stopping- they would only have said something new. They would probably keep me here until the wounds were all healed if they could anyway.
The way down the large hallway at the ground floor to the revolving doors had never felt so long before. But for every single step I came closer and closer. I tried to fasten my pace but had to slow down again as it made the wounds burn like crazy and couldn't even bother sitting on one of the benches in the entrance- I needed to get outside like yesterday!
When I finally walked out from the hospital in the cool evening air it felt as if I had been stuck in the building behind me for years. And at the same time, despite the still burning in the surgery wounds I just suddenly felt so free and light for the first time in God knows how long while I sat down on a stone bench to wait for Leonard.
Taking yet one deep breath after the other I noticed how light and clear the air felt to breathe. And as I felt over my stomach with one hand, remembering the feeling of the lump beneath my skin but not able to press and really feel because of the sore wounds. I couldn't remember how I had ever been able to go so long without telling anyone about what I had felt- I could feel now that this was nothing to worry about anyway. I just knew it!
"Hey." I hadn't even noticed him when Leonard came walking up to the bench I sat on. "I thought I'd have to come in and get you. Car's just over there." He nodded behind him and patted my knee. "Are you okay?" I just nodded and then leaned my head back at the stone wall behind me while Leonard hesitated about something. Yeah. I was thinking… You know I and the guys are going to that comic con tomorrow. Yeah I don't really want to be away from you that long right now. So I'm going to give my ticket to Stuart and then…"
"No you aren't." I interrupted. "I want you to go. I need some space, some time on my own. Please Leonard just go. I need a minute to think and there have been running nurses and doctors in and out of my room all day long. I just need a few days to be on my own and… Please. Just go."
"Don't make me leave…"
"I'm not. I'm asking you to. Please Leonard. Give me some space."
Leonard sighed deeply, then nodded. But I couldn't help but still notice the look in his eyes- and he was going to feel so bad about himself for leaving. It didn't matter though, I wasn't letting him stay. Even if that meant me making myself feel bad for making him feel bad for leaving.
I guess sometimes life just sucks! It hadn't done so five minutes ago- but now it did!
Once again!
Random fact
I honestly didn't really like this chapter. But writing it I have been having a severe case of writer's block so… this is what you get!