"I have some good news for you." Mrs. Benson turned around to look at Sam with a smile on her face.
"Really? What?" She asked curiously.
"Well, according to the results of your checkups, if everything continues to go as planned, there's a very good chance that you may be able to leave the hospital tomorrow."
"What?! Are you serious?" Sam asked, perking up.
"Yup." Mrs. Benson smiled once more. "Other than the negative reaction to the anesthesia, you seem to be recovering well from the surgery. Your fever went down and there's no post-op infection."
"So I really get to go home tomorrow?" Sam double checked.
"Well, you must understand that if any complications are found in the morning..."
"Yeah yeah yeah.." Sam waved her off. "But there's still a chance I can go home tomorrow?!"
"Yes." Mrs. Benson confirmed.
"Sweet!" Sam replied happily.
"Now let's see if you can walk." Mrs. Benson stated as she set her clipboard down on the counter.
"Huh?" Sam asked cautiously, caught off guard by this. "W-walk?" She gulped nervously.
"Yes, it's standard procedure to see if a patient can walk after this type of surgery."
"Oh..." Sam replied hesitantly. "......And what if I can't? Does that mean I won't be allowed to go home?"
"It depends on the reason why." Mrs. Benson stated softly as she walked over to the bedside. "Now let's have you sit up."
"Ok..." Sam responded as the woman helped her into an upright position. Sam grimaced as she felt the pain in her stomach come back.
"Now don't push yourself too hard." Mrs. Benson advised as she helped remove the blankets off her patient's legs.
"I won't.." Sam replied quietly. "Uh, but what about the..." She motioned towards her catheter.
"I'll hold the bag for you." Mrs. Benson stated, picking up the empty bag attached to the tube.
'How embarrassing...' Sam moaned in her head, hating her situation even more.
"Ok, now let's try to stand." Mrs. Benson stated gently as she helped Sam bring her legs over the side of the bed.
"Oh...ow.." Sam whimpered as she continued to feel pain in her stomach.
"It's alright honey, you're going to feel some discomfort there for a while."
"Great.." Sam sighed.
"Ok, now take it easy.." Mrs. Benson helped her put her feet to the floor and stand up slowly. The woman felt her patient start to shake for a moment. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, fine fine.." Sam replied weakly, holding onto the Mrs. Benson's arm for support. "Just a little dizzy, but it's starting to stop."
"Good, just take a few deep breaths." Mrs. Benson advised. Sam paused for a moment and did as she was told. "Are you alright to start walking now?"
"I think so.." Sam stated reluctantly. She was still very weak, but found enough strength to stay standing.
"I'm going to walk alongside you, ok?" Mrs. Benson stated gently.
"Ok.." Sam replied, grateful about that. She wasn't completely sure if she would fall over or not without the help of her nurse. As soon as the two started to walk around the room, Sam realized her legs were wobbling like jello, but knew how much was riding on this small task and continued to walk. After a few more steps, Sam noticed she was starting to feel sick to her stomach. Mrs. Benson looked over at her patient and saw the worry on her face.
"Like I said, don't push yourself too hard. You've been in a bed for a long time and you're going to feel pretty weak."
"I know, but I think I can still walk a bit more.." Sam replied, really wanting to go home. She managed to gather up enough strength to walk a few more steps. Mrs. Benson felt as Sam's weight lifted off her arm for those few steps, confirming her patient was using her own strength. The two remained quiet as Sam continued to walk around the room a few times.
"I'm s-sorry." She replied as she finally stopped.
"Hmm? For what?" Mrs. Benson asked.
"I don't think I can walk anymore." Sam stated, starting to feel incredibly nauseous.
"That's alright." Mrs. Benson smiled. "Let's get you back to the bed."
"Ok.." Sam replied sullenly as the woman helped her back over the mattress. Sam winced as she sat back down. Mrs. Benson gently took her legs and repositioned them over the bed before covering her up with the blankets once more. Sam sighed as she laid back into her pillow.
"Is that good?" Mrs. Benson asked, checking to make sure she was comfortable.
"Yeah.." Sam replied sadly, staring off into space with a defeated look. Her body was extremely tired from that simple task, and she felt like she had to puke again. Although, the worst feeling she felt was failure. She figured that there was no way the hospital was going to let her leave if she couldn't keep herself up for more than a few minutes.
"What's wrong?" Mrs. Benson asked softly.
"Does this mean I'm not going to be able to go home tomorrow?" Sam looked up at her. "I couldn't really walk that much..."
"Oh Samantha, you did fine." Mrs. Benson smiled.
"What?" Sam looked up at her curiously. "But--"
"I noticed that you were walking for a little bit without my help, showing me that you had enough strength to keep yourself up."
"But I could only stay up for a short amount of time." Sam stated slowly.
"Honey, you've been in bed for hours. Of course you're going to feel weak and tired, especially due to the results of the anesthesia. The fact that you were able to walk on your own at all is a very good sign. There's no need to worry." Mrs. Benson smiled.
"So that means I did alright?" Sam asked hopefully.
"Mhmm." Mrs. Benson nodded.
"Oh..ok." Sam gave her a weak smile, appreciative of the comforting words.
"Now, I'm going to go hand in these reports. Do you need anything?" Mrs. Benson stated as she walked over to the door.
"No, I'm fine." Sam smiled.
Meanwhile, Spencer, Socko, Taylor, and the kids all sat on the bench outside the hospital eating their pizza happily. The sun was starting to disappear as an inky darkness began to cover the sky.
"Mmmm this stuff is good!" Socko stated as he bit down into his slice.
"Yeah, I'll say!" Taylor replied, plucking off a pepperoni from his own and dropping it into his mouth.
"Glad you like it." Spencer responded. "The hospital food was...well.." He stopped for a moment to think of a word to describe it.
"Scary?" Freddie offered as he swallowed a gulp.
"Yeah! Scary! Thanks Freddo." Spencer replied.
"Huh? What do you guys mean by scary?" Socko asked. "I always hear about how hospital food isn't the best but it couldn't have been that bad...."
"The peas moved." Carly replied before biting down onto her pizza crust. Socko and Taylor looked over at her for a moment and shivered.
"That is scary." Taylor replied.
"Mhmm.." Socko nodded in agreement as he chomped on the last part of his slice. Everyone was starting to finish off their last few bites.
"Seems as though there's one slice left." Spencer stated as he looked into the box. "Who wants it?"
"How about you guys?" Taylor asked as he looked over towards Carly and Freddie.
"Nah, I'm good." Carly responded, wiping her mouth off with a napkin.
"Same here." Freddie responded.
"Spence?" Taylor asked.
"No, too full." Spencer smiled as he placed a hand over his stomach.
"Do you want it Socko?" Taylor looked over at his brother.
"Well, now that I've thought about it, I could go for one last.." Just as Socko reached towards the box for the slice, Taylor snatched it away at the last moment.
"Too slow." He replied, holding up the last slice triumphantly.
"What?! But you offered it to me! That's mine!" Socko responded pitifully.
"No, I offered it to the kids. I only asked you. There's a difference. I couldn't care less what your answer was." Taylor smiled as he rose the pizza to his mouth.
"GIMME THAT PIZZA!" Socko lunged over to reach for the last slice. Taylor held it out of his brother's reaching distance, and took a giant lick against the entire pizza before handing it back over.
"Ok, here you go." Taylor smiled.
"SICKEN ME! YOU SICKEN ME!" Socko exclaimed angrily pointing at his brother. Taylor just smiled happily and took a bite of his slobber covered pizza.
"Wow..." Spencer just shook his head at his immature friends.
"Yep.." Carly replied as she turned towards Freddie. "Definitely you and Sam.."
"Ok, I concede defeat! You win!" He stated throwing his hands up. Carly laughed.
"Alright I'm going to go toss out the pizza box in that garbage can over there." Spencer stood up and started to fold the cardboard box in half. "I'll be right back." He stated as he walked away.
"MMM, this pizza is soooo good." Taylor stated in over dramatized pleasure. Socko glared at him and turned around towards Freddie.
"Do you have a brother?"
"No..." Freddie replied curiously.
"You're lucky." Socko replied as he looked back at Taylor, finishing up his stolen pizza slice. The kids just laughed.
"Alrighty.." Spencer stated as he walked back up to the group. "Wanna head back to Sam now?"
"Yup, sounds good." Socko stated as they all stood up.
"I wonder how she's doing?" Freddie asked quietly as they all started to walk back into the building.
The gang made their way back over to their friend's room and lightly knocked on the door. Sam tilted her head over curiously, wondering if it was Mrs. Benson again or not. She quickly deduced that it wasn't as the woman didn't knock when she came in for a medical reason.
"Come in." Sam replied, hoping to see her friends. She smiled as she watched them all file back into the room.
"Hey Sam.." Carly greeted her best friend as she and Freddie walked over to the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Well, I've been better but I had a really nice chat with my mother."
"That's good." Carly smiled, glad to hear that.
"Yeah, it was something we definitely needed." Sam smiled back up at her. "Oh, and I even have some good news!"
"Really? What?" Spencer asked as he and his two friends walked closer.
"Well, Mrs. Benson came in and..........." Sam's sentence trailed off as her eyes widened. "Oh god!" She exclaimed, slapping her hands over her mouth and nose.
"What's wrong?!" Freddie asked quickly as everyone looked worriedly over at her. They just watched as Sam shook her head in response, not removing her hands from her face.
"You guys smell like cheese and urp..." Her muffled voice came out weak. She was still feeling pretty sick from getting up and walking around, but she had been able to keep the contents of her stomach down from it. Unfortunately her friends smelled like pizza air fresheners, and she was loosing the battle quickly.
"Whoa ok!" Freddie quickly realized the conclusion his friend was drawing to as she started to gag behind her hands. He reached over and grabbed the basin and set it down on her lap. Sam gratefully put her hands against the sides and coughed out a few mouthfuls of liquid.
"Oh man, we're so sorry!" Spencer stated as he and his friends backed up, realizing they all brought in a pizza smell with them causing her to puke.
"No..." Sam moaned weakly in between heaves. "Not...completely your fault.." She stated pathetically as Carly reached over and held her hair up for her.
"Listen, we could go and leave.." Spencer offered as Socko and Taylor nodded their heads in agreement.
"Don't go.." Sam moaned weakly, before puking out her last bit of liquid. "Ughh..." She grimaced as she sat back into her mattress.
"You ok now?" Carly asked softly, letting go of her friend's hair as Sam nodded. Freddie picked up the basin and placed it back into the sink, turning on the faucet to rinse it out.
"Sorry for the rude hello." Sam offered a small apologetic smile to the guys.
"It's alright." Taylor smiled. "Socko's used to girls puking at the sight of him." He gave off a small laugh as his brother glared at him.
"Freddie too." Sam laughed.
"Well I'll be..." Freddie turned around in surprise. "Your first insult about me since we've been here." He gave a small smile towards Sam.
"Sorry.." She replied.
"Don't worry about it." Freddie smiled. "It was way too weird having you nice to me all the time." Sam gave a small smile back to him, grateful he wasn't mad. She really hadn't planned on insulting Freddie, but Taylor just set up the perfect lead in. It came natural to her to follow through with a joke.
"So, you're alright now?" Spencer asked hesitantly as the group walked back over towards Sam.
"Yeah, I'm good. My stomach was just a bit on edge from getting up before."
"Getting up?" Freddie asked curiously.
"Huh? Oh yeah.." Sam replied, temporarily forgetting they weren't with her. "Your mom came back and made me walk around the room a bit."
"Really?!" Carly asked in surprise. "How'd you do?"
"Well, I didn't faint." Sam offered a half hearted smile. "But I still felt a bit dizzy in the beginning and overall suckish. I mean, I only walked around the room for a few minutes and I feel like I've just finished running a ten mile marathon." She let out a small yawn. "But Mrs. Benson said that's normal because of the anesthesia. Anyways....she told me some great news!" Sam beamed at her friends, remembering what she wanted to tell them before she got sick.
"What?" Freddie asked, curious as to what she had to say.
"It's possible that I might be going home tomorrow!"
So Sam's still feeling pretty cruddy, but at least all of this good news is keeping her spirits up, right? =)