By 9 a.m. the next morning, both Cappie and Casey were wide awake. They knew Lexi would be in this morning to take the rest of Cappie's bandages off. If everything went well, he could go home by that afternoon.
"You ready to go home?" Casey asked, already knowing the answer.
"What about you?" Cappie asked. "You've been here as long as I have."
"I know, I just didn't want to leave you here by yourself." Casey said. "I know how scared you were after it happened."
"Me, no I wasn't scared." Cappie said, trying to be the happy-go-lucky tough guy that he is.
"Come on Cap, I know you." Casey said. "The go-karting might have been fun, but the accident definitely wasn't."
"Alright, fine." Cappie sighed. "As soon as I felt the kart flip my mind went blank. The only thing I could think about was little KT. I didn't want him or her to grow up without a father, but I seriously thought I was going to die on contact. I don't really remember much after that. The whole experience was kind of a blur."
"Wow Cap. How much of it do you actually remember? I know you said not much but I'd kind of like to know. All Rusty said was that you flipped your go-kart." Casey said.
"After I flipped the go-kart, I remember sliding across the track. After that my body kind of went into shock and I just remember going in and out of consciousness here." Cappie continued.
"Yeah you were pretty out of it." Casey said.
"Yeah, and I vaguely remember Beaver mentioning something about bugs crawling on me." Cappie got a little grossed out. "Please tell me that didn't happen."
Casey giggled a little. "You wanted out of the hospital as soon as possible, and since you were partially coherent, it was your decision."
"So I told the doctors to put gross nasty bugs on me?" Cappie shivered from grossness. "Thank god I was knocked out for it."
"Hey, they actually helped." Casey said. "You might be going home today instead of weeks from now because of the maggots."
"I guess you're right." Cappie chuckled. "I officially have a new appreciation for baby flies."
"I think they appreciate you too for feeding them." Casey giggled.
"You think I can get one for a souvenir?" Cappie asked.
"I'm not sure why you would want one, but I'm sure if you asked Lexi they might give you one." Casey replied.
"Speaking of Lexi, I hope she gets here soon." Cappie pouted. "I want to go home."
As if by magic, Lexi appeared in the doorway as soon as Cappie spoke.
"Somebody's anxious to get out of here." Lexi giggled. "I thought we had something good going here."
"Oh but we do." Cappie said seductively. "And it'll be even better when I get out of here. You know I'm going to need some professional help."
Lexi laughed as she started taking the bandages off. This time she didn't need to give him any extra pain meds. The burns didn't bother him as much and the bandages were coming off much easier than usual. Both of these signs kept Cappie and Casey extremely hopeful.
"I think you got all the help you need." Lexi smiled. "You've got some pretty good friends, especially Miss Casey here."
"I do have some great friends." Cappie pouted. "It's still not going to be the same as seeing your cute face every day though."
"I'm sure you'll live." Lexi laughed as she cut the last bandage off him.
Cappie felt a cold rush over most of his body when the air hit his skin. It felt amazing to not have all that bloody, infection filled gauze on him anymore. His skin was still a little pink, so he didn't get his hopes up too high.
"I'm going to go get Dr. Price so we can see if you can get out of here." Lexi smiled.
After Lexi left, Casey and Cappie couldn't help but smile.
"You look so much better!" Casey exclaimed.
"This feels great!" Cappie replied.
Cappie looked down and saw he still had a cast on his right wrist and both of his lower legs. A look of disappointment came across his face.
"Hey." Casey looked up at him. "Those will come off soon enough. For now let's just focus on the fact that your burns are pretty much healed."
"True." Cappie said. "Now it looks like I just got a really bad sunburn at the beach."
Casey giggled. "You look like a lobster."
"Thanks Case." Cappie chuckled, rolling his eyes. "You think people will buy that once I get the casts off."
"No matter what you tell people they're going to think you're an idiot." Casey said. "Crashing a go-kart to prove yourself to a bunch of high schoolers is just as bad, and funny, as getting a full body sunburn."
"I thought you said the accident wasn't funny." Cappie said.
"No, what happened to you wasn't funny." Casey replied. "If you hadn't gotten hurt the crash would've been hilarious."
Cappie started laughing. "It was kind of funny. Next time though, don't let me try to prove myself to a bunch of kids. From now on I'm only proving myself to people my own age."
"I'm not stopping you from doing anything. I'm not your mother." Casey laughed along with him.
"Well aren't you two chipper this morning." Dr. Price walked in, holding Cappie's chart and smiling.
"Hey doc." Cappie said.
"Hello Mr. Cappie. It's nice to see you wide awake and talking." Dr. Price said. "And hello to you Miss Casey."
"Hi Dr. Price." Casey smiled, hoping he had good news.
"So doc," Cappie asked. "When can I bust out of this joint?"
Dr. Price's smile got even bigger. "I'm just going to examine your burns now that the bandages are off, and we'll see from there."
Dr. Price looked at every last inch of Cappie's body that still had a burn on it. It was then that he picked up Cappie's chart, wrote something down, and left the room.
"What the hell?" Cappie asked. "Where'd he go?"
"That was weird." Casey added.
"You're telling me. I was kind of hoping he'd tell me I could go home." Cappie said.
"I'm sure he's just going to double check something." Casey said, trying to come up with a rational explanation.
A few minutes later, Dr. Price still hadn't come back. Now they were starting to get worried. They decided to use the button on Cappie's bed to call one of the nurses. Maybe they could give them some answers.
"You rang." Lexi smiled, walking in holding a folder with some papers in it.
"Where did Dr. Price go?" Cappie asked.
"Is something wrong?" Casey added.
"Not at all." Lexi said, trying to hide her happiness. "We just need you to sign these couple of forms."
She handed the folder to Casey, still being as serious as possible. As soon as Casey opened the folder and saw the title of the first page, a smile became plastered on her face.
"What is it Case?" Cappie asked excitedly.
She showed him the paper and he too instantly smiled.
"I'm going home!" Cappie shouted happily.
"Not quite yet." Lexi started laughing. "We still need a signature on those papers before we can let you out of here."
Cappie looked over at Casey and laughed. "You heard the lady! Sign those papers!"
Casey signed them like her life depended on it. She wanted him to get out of there as much as he did. Once he came home their lives could begin getting back to normal.
"All set." Casey smiled, handing the folder of signed papers back to Lexi.
"I'll bring these out to the nurses' station and be back in a few minutes with a wheelchair for you." Lexi said.
"I can't believe I'm going home already." Cappie smiled once Lexi left the room.
"Well it's a good thing you're going home today so now you can say goodbye to our bother." Casey laughed.
"Yeah that's still a little strange. You're biological little brother is my frat little brother." Cappie started laughing. "And I still feel bad for those kids."
"Guaranteed Rusty's going to turn them all into little nerds that love science." Casey continued laughing. She loved her brother, but it was still fun to pick on him.
A minute later, Lexi walked back in with a wheel chair.
"Awe, no fancy chair this time." Cappie pouted.
"Sorry Cap." Lexi smiled. "But this one's all yours. You can do with it what you please."
"Sweet!" Cappie exclaimed.
"Just don't try to roll off the roof." Lexi laughed. "I don't want a second date quite that soon."
"Darn it." Cappie pouted. "Rehab raincheck?"
"We'll see." Lexi rolled her eyes. "For now let's just get you out of bed."
Lexi grabbed another nurse and the two of them pulled Cappie up off of the bed and into the wheel chair.
"How's that?" Lexi asked, putting both of Cappie's casted feet on the little foot rests.
"Wheee!" Cappie started using his one good hand to wheel himself in circles.
"I think he's good." Casey giggled, staring at Cappie. It was official; he was back to his old self.