While You Were Gone, Chapter 11
A/N: Thanks as always to all of you who read. I especially want to thank those who reviewed the last chapter - thank you so much for taking the time to write such kind things!
A couple people have mentioned the level of medical detail - I have a background in nursing & worked in a hospital for a few years. I haven't done burns, but there are a lot of good resources out there.
Warning: If you don't like bathroom stuff, you'll probably want to skip Tadashi's first section.
"Hey, Auntie Cass," Fred speaks into the phone. He flops across his chair, feet dangling over one armrest. "When's a good time for me to come say hi?"
"Maybe lunchtime?" Tadashi's aunt suggests. He can hear the two of them discussing it before her voice comes through again. "Yeah, lunchtime would be good. He wants to know if you can pick up a chocolate shake." There's a sudden pause and then, "Sorry: apparently it has to be a Wendy's frosty."
In the background, Fred can hear Tadashi protesting that he's not that picky, he could just really, really go for a chocolate frosty from Wendy's.
"Leave it to me," Fred replies confidently. It's 10 AM already, so he rolls out of his chair to get things moving. On his way out of the lab he saunters past GoGo. "Hey Princess."
GoGo lets out a sigh that might be irritated, but then she just looks him up and down. "Where are you going in that thing?"
"To the hospital," Fred responds, patting the belly of his mascot suit. "Got some major cheering-upping to do." He pulls on the string of Honey Lemon's balloon, making it bounce over his head. "Not sure this kitty's got it covered."
"You cannot wear a costume to that place," GoGo states flatly. "Have you ever been there? It's all sterile! You'll be lucky if they don't make you take a chemical bath before letting you go see him."
"Huh," Fred nods, processing this. He's dressed up for volunteer visits to the pediatric floor before, but maybe GoGo is right. He gives her a knowing smile. "Riiiiight. I'll scope it out first, get the down low. Civilian garb."
He's already put the suit away and headed for the main entrance when he hears GoGo call, "It won't kill you to put on a clean shirt!"
Fred figures he's pretty good at visiting sick people. Of course, he's always been inside some costume or another before, and it's kind of different visiting people you know - but Fred is bound and determined to make sure the visit goes well.
"Back from the dead!" he announces when he gets to Tadashi's room. He's ready to double-high-five his friend, but he realizes belatedly that Tadashi's got one arm in a plastic brace and the other in some fancy spandex sleeve. It's okay - he's adaptable. Single-high-five!
Nope...nope...light double-high-five, since Tadashi manages to stretch out both hands. "I wasn't dead," he states grimly, but Fred catches a smile tugging at the side of his mouth. He looks pretty alive at the moment, sitting up in a chair with lunch in front of him.
Ensure friend is not a zombie - check!
"Close enough, dude," Fred points out anyway, giving Tadashi a big grin before returning to the mission at hand. He holds up a plastic bag and fishes out a paper cup wet with condensation. "One chocolate frosty, and…" he unties Honey's gift from the strap of his backpack, "...one cat balloon, re-inflated with mysterious and possibly volatile chemicals."
"Thanks," Tadashi says, picking up the spoon on his hospital meal tray. Lunch looks...suspicious. Is that tofu with gravy, or some kind of cream cheese loaf? "Can you get the lid?"
Fred's all in favor of dessert first, so he reaches over and pulls the plastic lid off the cup easily, then drops onto Tadashi's bed. The mattress is squishier than he would have expected. Not bad, hospital, not bad at all. Fred considers leaning back for a little test drive, you know, but he's got important stuff to do instead. "So," he addresses Tadashi. "I know you're recovering and all, but I think we need to have a serious conversation."
"About what?" Tadashi asks, one-handedly working his way through the soft serve. He sounds surprised, but unconcerned. This is a good sign, Fred decides.
Fred considers warming him up to the topic: so, how you been doing? Any uncharacteristic outbursts of anger and rage? Desires for revenge on humanity? Actually, maybe it's still a little early for that - there's still a lot of stuff Tadashi doesn't know. Fred sighs. It's kind of too bad they have to tell him at all.
He should still head things off though. Plant the seed, you know.
"I just want to make sure you know that this accident does not mean you need to become a super villain," Fred says firmly, and Tadashi looks at him in total confusion. Fred continues anyway. No stopping now. "You totally have nothing on Doctor Doom or any of those guys." For sure - Tadashi's face is not that messed up. His hands seem kind of iffy, but that's less concerning...
Tadashi swallows another bite of ice cream and then shakes his head. Is he laughing? Holding back laughter? "No super villains," he agrees, right before changing the subject. "Would you mind typing an email for me?"
"At your service," Fred answers, retrieving Tadashi's laptop. He'll let the super villain thing rest for now.
The problem is, Tadashi is so far out of touch with what's going on now that he wants to email Callaghan. Okaaaaaay. Play along, Fred, he instructs himself firmly, Don't say anything! Your lips are sealed! Fred opens up a new message box and starts typing Tadashi's dictation.
Hi Prof Callaghan,
I'm sure you heard about my accident. Unfortunately I need to take this semester off to recover. Would you be willing to meet with me to talk about my options?
Thanks,
Tadashi Hamada
PS - I'm glad you're ok!
Fred thinks about adding P.S.S. You're a CRAZY DERANGED #$Q*$% !, but he hits send instead.
If Callaghan still has any shreds of humanity left, Tadashi's innocent message should cut into him just the way it is.
Fred. He should have expected something about comics or villains or something. Tadashi finishes his ice cream and debates eating any of the hospital lunch. If they want him eating four thousand calories a day, you'd think they'd make them look and smell a little more appetizing.
They've stopped the tube feeding during the daytime, which means he has something of an appetite - but unfortunately French fries and katsu curry and pizza - gosh, he could really, really go for a slice of pizza - are still off the menu.
"You can have pizza when you convince the speech therapist you won't choke on it," the physical therapist tells him when he helps him get back into bed. Ken - that's his name, right? - keeps one hand firmly under his arm. "You can order enough for the whole unit. Keep your back straight, buddy!"
Tadashi grits his teeth and focuses on staying upright. They only make him stand long enough to pivot between the hospital bed and the chair, but even though they do it multiple times a day it doesn't seem to be getting any easier. They've started having him wear compression socks instead of wrapping his legs with elastic bandages, but they don't prevent the pins and needles and horrible throbbing aches he gets every time he stands up. His sense of balance is...well...pretty much nonexistent, and it still takes his head awhile to clear. Getting up shouldn't be this difficult.
At least the catheter is out.
"You know it goes back in if you can't go," Ken warns him when he mentions it. Tadashi isn't sure if he believes him 100%, but it's a big enough threat to convince him to drink a lot of water.
"What's wrong with you?" Hiro asks when he comes to visit in the evening.
"I need to pee," Tadashi tells him, not even caring because now he's desperate - the therapist was right. Apparently having a tube in your bladder for almost three months can mess things up, and they've given him an ultimatum of eight hours. The deadline is getting a little too close for comfort. "If you can't go, we'll just do a straight cath," the nurse told him earlier, trying to be reassuring. Of course the nurse is Amy - the young one obsessed with bowel movements. "In and out, pretty quick."
It doesn't matter if it's in and out, pretty quick, he doesn't want anyone coming at him with a catheter ever again. Everyone is incredibly...nice, but the humiliations of being sick never seem to end. It's bad enough that he has to sit in bed with a urinal stuffed under the sheets.
Come on, come on, come on, he thinks.
Nothing.
Aunt Cass rubs her hands over her face. "I really should have let you guys pee in those slushie cups," she laments, reminding Tadashi of their one childhood road trip to Disney. Don't you dare pee in the car! he remembers her telling them. He even remembers the scary look she gave Hiro and him in the rearview mirror. I'll pull over at the next gas station!
"Did you go?" Amy asks hopefully when she comes back to his room.
He shakes his head.
"Maybe if you sit at the edge of the bed," she suggests, even though she knows that could be a project. She's not a very big person, but she manages to help him get his legs over the side of bed. The rush of blood to his feet hurts, but the need to avoid the straight cath dominates.
"Scoot forward," the nurse orders while he hangs onto the side-rail for support. She retrieves the plastic urinal but he stops her before she can do anything with it.
"I can't go with you in here," he tells her.
A few minutes of protesting later, Aunt Cass sits next to him on the bed, blindly holding the urinal under his hospital gown. "I'm sorry, baby," she says. She kisses the side of his forehead. "Just try to relax. Think of a...a waterfall or something. Remember Splash Mountain? That was fun, right? Oh my gosh, Hiro looked like a little drowned rat."
Apparently Aunt Cass is re-living all her memories of Disneyland tonight.
"Yeah," Tadashi grates, but Disney isn't really doing it. He's just praying that this works. Is there a god of basic bodily functions? There really, really should be.
The sound of pee unsteadily hitting plastic echoes through the room and Tadashi feels his body relax.
"Finally," he sighs in relief. Hallelujah.
Cass leaves the room after the whole peeing-post-catheter debacle, telling the boys that now she needs to go. She doesn't. She heads for the visitor restroom anyway, locking herself in a stall.
This is so hard.
She pulls out a length of toilet tissue, pressing it to her face. She's so, so, so glad to have Tadashi back, but it's difficult to watch him struggle.
She blows her nose and drops the paper into the trashcan, then checks her reflection in the mirror. No tears. They're going to get through this. They're all together again: her and Hiro and Tadashi. Maybe they'll even laugh about this later.
She heads back to the room and the boys are honed in on Tadashi's computer already. The nurse must have stopped in, because Tadashi is back in bed and there's no sign of their recent adventure.
"What were you emailing him about?" she catches Hiro asking. He sounds annoyed, and Cass can see his eyebrows furrow as he stares at the laptop's screen.
"I just wanted to talk with him about re-planning my credit schedule," Tadashi answers, managing the mouse himself. "Fred must have typed in the wrong email address." He pauses, frowning. "This one should be right though…"
Cass steps around the bed to see what they're looking at - the email message reads: Mailer-daemon : delivery status notification: failure to send to rcallaghan...
No.
If talks about school and using a hospital urinal are this upsetting, there's no way they're ready to talk about Callaghan.
"Why don't you guys put that thing away?" she encourages her nephews, trying to give them a big smile. "We should be having a nice family visit!"
Tadashi raises his eyebrows, but he presses the laptop closed before looking at Hiro. "Can you bring my phone tomorrow?" he asks. "I'll just send him a message."
Why, Tadashi? Cass thinks. Why?
Seriously, Tadashi, Hiro thinks, stomping up the stairs when he gets home. His older brother just had to go and email Callaghan, of all people.
He crosses into Tadashi's side of their bedroom. He knows where to find what he wants. Aunt Cass put the plastic bag inside a shoebox, stashing it in Tadashi's makeshift closet a long time ago.
Personal effects is what they call them, the things the hospital gave them when they thought Tadashi died. Hiro still doesn't understand how they could get this stuff, the things Tadashi had on him during the fire, and yet still get him confused with some other guy. He lets out a noisy sigh, irritated. Aunt Cass says they're fairly certain the mistake happened during Tadashi's arrival in the emergency room at San Fransokyo General Hospital - apparently the place was chaotic before the fire at SFIT even happened. There shouldn't be any kind of excuse getting people mixed up though!
Whatever. Hiro kneels on the floor and retrieves the box. The plastic bag inside is too big for the items it holds, and he has to unfold it several times to find the opening. It's surprisingly easy to go through it this time...he hasn't really had any huge desire to look at it before.
Tadashi's leather wallet is fairly intact, complete with normal and motorcycle driver's licenses and a re-issued campus ID, which has cracked in half. What a cheapskate, Tadashi...he was only carrying a grand total of about twenty bucks. The bills are pretty unaffected, but one sticks to a photograph that has partially melted from the heat.
The only other item is a badly damaged smartphone. The glass screen is shattered and separating from the rest of the components, and the protective case hardly fits around the body. Hiro wonders if the SIM card is salvageable or not - is Tadashi even still on their family phone plan, or did Aunt Cass cancel his line?
"I think you might need a new one," Hiro announces to his brother, holding the phone up in a ziplock bag the next time he visits.
Tadashi asks Hiro to find him a new phone.
By the end of the week, Tadashi gets tired of waiting for a new phone. He should probably talk to Honey Lemon instead of Hiro, since his little brother seems to have his heart set on finding a good deal on an upgrade. The unresolved issues regarding school are still nagging at him - if he can simply figure out a plan and determine his new graduation date, maybe he can rest a little easier. To do that, he needs to talk to his advisor.
Unfortunately, Professor Callaghan seems to be a touchy subject for Hiro. Tadashi takes a deep breath, glancing over at his younger brother. He and Wasabi are attempting to connect an xbox to the hospital TV. Tadashi wonders vaguely if the occupational therapist will count learning to use a video game controller as therapy.
"Hiro, has Professor Callaghan done any guest lectures in your classes?" he calls over.
"No," Hiro answers shortly.
Tadashi tries to give him a smile. "He's busy. You'll get plenty of opportunities to talk with him later on." Hiro looks up, irritable, but Tadashi cuts him off - he doesn't really want to hear how annoyed Hiro is that Callaghan gave him his acceptance letter personally and then hardly saw him afterwards. It took Tadashi more than a year to work his way high up enough to get Callaghan as an advisor. Apparently things aren't going to go very far with Hiro tonight. He turns his attention to Wasabi instead. "Could you do me a favor and ask him if he has time to come here? I'd really like to meet with him about reworking my plan."
Out of the corner of his eye he can see Hiro looking more agitated, though his younger brother is doing a good job of holding it in. Honestly, Hiro.
"Uh...he's not teaching this semester," Wasabi says uncomfortably, right before throwing a concerned look to Aunt Cass. Tadashi instantly knows something is wrong. But...Aunt Cass said that Professor Callaghan was okay. He remembers being fully alert when he asked her.
"Why isn't he teaching?" he asks, wary of the answer. Maybe he's just taking a leave of absence...he heard about an accident with his professor's daughter during break. But if it was that, why do all of them look so concerned right now?
Aunt Cass leans over so that she can place a hand on his knee. He doesn't really want her touching him at the moment, not if she's been hiding something important from him. "Remember when I told you that there were a lot of things you don't know?" she says gently, and he pulls his knee up, even though it hurts, so that she has to move her hand. Aunt Cass has never lied about anything important before. I will always tell you the truth, he remembers her saying once when he was a kid, though he can't remember what the conversation at the time was actually about.
"Yes," he answers, but to be honest he'd kind of forgotten about that. We thought you died seems to be a big enough thing without adding in something else. When he looks across the room, Wasabi is in the middle of taking a deep breath, and Hiro looks more defeated than angry.
It can't be good.
Why didn't she tell him the truth? It would have been hard, but not as hard as this. Why did she ever tell him his professor was okay?
"Please, Tadashi," Aunt Cass says, trying to rest her hand on his arm this time. "Don't make this harder than it already is." He pulls his arm away slightly, looking up to see a fair amount of hurt and an equal amount of resolve in her eyes as she presses her fingers against his forearm again. Her next words aren't what he's expecting, but they still pack a punch. "Professor Callaghan is in jail."