Disclaimer: As always....
Authors note: Nothing much to say-except thank you for the reviews and have fun. Oh, and thanks for being patient with our infrequent posting! ;-)
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~6~
Ready to go.
When Logan woke up, he felt slightly dizzy. His head was aching a little and his neck muscles were killing him. At first he didn't know where he was or what had brought him here. Then, slowly, the events of the previous night began to unravel before his inner eye. The sudden attack, the confusion, the fear, the feeling of helplessness and Max, who had saved him. Again. Pushing those thoughts away, he tried to prop himself up on his elbows. But a sharp pain reminded him of another thing. His shoulder. He winced and fell back into the cushions. Instantly, he could hear Max' steps rush towards her bedroom.
"Are you okay?" he saw her blurred figure in the door-frame. He carefully reached out for his glasses that he had left lying next to him on the bed.
"I'm okay I guess, considering." he said tiredly.
"Bling called just a couple of minutes ago. He'll be here in about half an hour." Max had been up for a couple of hours and was ready to go.
"Good" Logan said, slowly propping himself up against the bed-frame. Hell, this was strenuous enough with two functioning arms but with his shoulder aching it seemed almost impossible.
"How's your shoulder?" Max asked watching him struggle to sit up. "Gonna need some help getting ready?"
Logan sighed. "Let me just wake up a little. Then we'll see...okay?"
Max nodded. If he needed to try by himself she probably had to let him do that. She pushed the chair towards the bed and set the brakes.
"I'll be in the kitchen. You look like you could need some coffee."
"Thanks Max."
Max nodded, understanding, that he wasn't thanking her only for the coffee, then she left the room.
Logan carefully moved to the side of the bed and rather pushed than actually transferred himself off the bed and into the chair. It struck him once again how much he needed good function of his arms. How much independence it gave him and how much he'd be lost without it. The conversation with Sam the day before his second surgery flickered through his mind: "A shifting of the fragment could cause further nerve damage... ..."You could end up quadriplegic, even on a respirator.."
Logan despised the feelings that were brought back with the memory of that day. He hadn't shown it in front of his doctor or anybody else, but he had been scared to death by that possibility. If something had gone wrong, he wouldn't even have been able to... . Whatever; He pushed the thoughts as far away as he could. This was not the time and place to contemplate about things that were in the past. They had to get going before they would find them.
He slowly wheeled towards the bathroom. But he couldn't help but keep worrying about his shoulder. It still hurt as much as the previous evening but it felt a lot more sore and kind of stiff. He was just preparing mentally to call Max to ask for a little help, when she heard her yell.
"Logan, Bling's here!"
Logan sighed with relief. It would be much easier to let Bling help him, than having to ask Max.
Over the last year he had come accustomed to Bling helping him out, but with Max it made him feel so stupid.
"Hey Bling!" he shouted from the bathroom . "Could you come in here for a minute?"
"Hi, how' s it going ?", the tall black man said from the door.
Logan smirked. "Not too good, I'd say. Those guys have wrecked my shoulder. I'm gonna need some help here." Without a word Bling helped Logan with what he needed to do.
"By the way," Logan finally asked when he felt at least half human again. "Did you get everything, I asked you for?"
"Sure thing." Bling smiled but his face was not as calm as usual.
He sat down on the edge of the bathtub and looked at his friend
"Logan, you sure your up to this? I mean running from a bunch of Mafia gangsters is no piece of cake. Especially in your condition..."
"Guess I have no choice.." Logan stated matter-of-factly avoiding Bling's intense gaze.
"You could at least stay in the city, and..."
"Those people are after me. I know something they need to know. They are gonna find me if I stay here." Logan interrupted.
Bling sighed. "What happened to your shoulder anyway?"
"One of those guys twisted my arm behind my back. It felt like he was tearing it out or something."
"Let me take a look."
Bling carefully examined Logan's shoulder.
"Wow man that doesn't look good at all." he said shaking his head. " Can you move your arm in all directions?"
"I guess I could but it hurts like hell."
"Try raising your arm anyway...over the front"
Warily Logan tried to do as he was told, but gave up the effort soon.
"Damn, that hurts! " cursed.
Bling sighed. "From what it looks like your shoulder is dislocated. You really ought to go to the hospital. Get an x-ray and have them fix it as soon as possible, man. You just can't afford to mess with that."
"I know, Bling, but like I told you it's too risky. I have to leave Seattle as soon as possible. I can't spend a couple of days in the hospital!
Logan could see that his friend was really worried now.
"Anyway, your shoulder can't stay like that. You could get some severe nerve or vessel damage there. I tell you this is nothing to mess with."
In that instance Max knocked on the door.
"Hey guys, what's going on? Can I come in?"
"Sure." Logan muttered.
Seeing Bling exame Logan's shoulder, Max stepped closer.
"Ouch! Doesn't look any better, does it?!" she asked. She somehow hoped for Logan to contradict her.
"I'd be surprised if it did!" Bling threw in before Logan could say anything. "The shoulder seems to be dislocated. Those guys did a pretty good job there", he added sarcastically. "It has to be fixed rather sooner than later- but it has to be done in an hospital and..."
"Come on Bling, please! Spare me the lecture." Logan interrupted him." Can't you think of something to do without having to go to the hospital?"
Bling glared at Logan. "Well, we had a course of surgery some years back, where they showed us how to reponate dislocated joints. But you gonna need some anaesthesia and..."
"No need for that...If you can do it then just do it, I can handle it."
"Well, we'll definitely need some muscle relaxant, otherwise your muscles won't let me do the job. Could be I have something left in the car, from my other patients. This stuff is normally used for muscle spasms. This will be better than nothing."
Reluctantly he stood up and turned towards Max. "You better start looking for some painkillers. The stronger, the better. " With that he left the room.
Max cast a worried look at Logan and then started to look through the bathroom cabinet.
"I've never needed anything like that. But maybe there's something left from Kendra..."
***
When Bling came back, he carried a small bag. Logan knew this bag all too well. It contained a lot of medical devices, analgesic ointment, massage oil and some rescue medication for seizures.
Max had pushed Logan into the living room and was now pacing around nervously.
"Max, please!" Logan said harshly. "Could you stop pacing around like that?!" "I'm already nervous enough as it is!" Max brushed brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear and forced herself to sit down on the couch.
Bling put the bag on the table and spread out its contents.
"Your lucky, man! There are two syringes with muscle relaxant and a good dose of diazepam. That should do as an analgesic. Its used to stop seizures normally, but it's also a good painkiller. Will make you a little drowsy though. So you shouldn't drive after that. Probably shouldn't do that anyway..." Bling looked over at Max with a questioning look.
"I got that covered! I think I can drive pretty much anything." She said quickly.
"Okay then, you ready?" Bling asked.
Logan nodded.
"Okay, we'll start with the analgesic. I'm gonna apply that directly into your muscle. That's not very common, but we want it to work fast, right?"
Logan bit his teeth while Bling slowly injected the contents of the syringe in a circle around his shoulder.
Max watched Bling do the first shot, then turned away and got up abruptly. Bling looked up in confusion.
"'You okay Max?"
"Yeah,..." Max stuttered. "I just forgot to pack something....Be right back." With that she stormed out of the room. Logan couldn't help but smile at her behaviour. A genetically enhanced super-soldier who couldn't see blood????
Max stormed out of the living room and went into the bathroom. She sat down on the toilet and drew a deep breath. Come on Max! Pull yourself together! You've seen worse than that. Honestly! People had been killed in front of her eyes. Her own siblings! She had seen bullet-wrecked bodies and blood -baths all her life. And now she couldn't watch a simple medical procedure???? Maybe that was because Logan wasn't one of them. He wasn't designed to endure pain without even drawing a face and then carry on with his task. Still, he had to put up with so much. She couldn't stay in there watching this. She didn't want to see him in pain. But then, maybe he'd like her to be with him?
She slowly stood up again and turned on the water. Watching her pale features in the mirror, she splashed some water into her face and took a sip of the cold water.
Then she braced herself for what she was going to see and went back to the living room.
***
Bling was just putting away all the needles and clearing away all the stuff.
"You're done already?" she asked surprised but partly relieved.
"No" Bling answered, "Just waiting for the stuff to set in. The actual work is well, a little less ...elegant. Could you get a chair please and help Logan sit on it.?...Sideways, that is."
Max threw him a puzzled look.
A smile crept to Bling's face.
"Oh sorry, I should have explained that earlier: I'm gonna need a so called hypomochlion in order to relocate the shoulder. As soon as the medicine kicks in, I'm gonna have you hang Logan's arm over the backrest of the chair and then I'm gonna pull on his arm hoping it will snap back into place."
Logan stared at Bling in disbelief. "You're kidding!"
"No, sorry I'm not. I would have liked to tell you something else, but this is the way it works."
Max turned around on the spot and went to get a chair from the kitchen area. The she helped Logan to transfer to it.
"So, how do you feel? The analgesic kicking in?" Bling touched Logan's shoulder. "Do you feel that?"
"Feels numb, somehow." Logan mumbled.
"Good, try and raise your arm, then." Logan tried but his arm didn't move an inch.
"That's scary. "
"Yeah, but that's the way we need it. Okay, so let's get it over with."
Bling kneeled down next to the chair and waved his head at Max. "You should stabilise his upper body, so he doesn't move, while I'm doing this.
Without a word Max stepped behind Logan and put her arms around him, one under his left shoulder, the other around his waist.
"Okay, Logan here we go. It'll be over in a second " Bling said reassuringly. Without waiting for an answer he grabbed Logan's arm real tight and pulled it towards the floor. With an awkward snatching sound the joint flipped back to where it belonged.
Max heard Logan wince at the impact, then she felt him tense notably.
"Well, that's it already" she heard Bling's voice in the distance.
She felt Logan breathe rapidly.
Instinctively she tightened her embrace around him. "Shhhh!" she whispered in his ear. "You did it. Bling did a good job." She could feel his stubble against her cheek now, and smell his scent.
They stayed like that for another few seconds, both of them feeling save in the other's close presence. After some time Max could feel Logan relax in her arms.
***
"Logan! Are you okay?" Bling was patting his face lightly.
Logan opened his eyes and squinted into the light. He felt a little drowsy and dizzy and his shoulder was puckering like it was going to explode any minute.
"Yeah, I guess so" he mumbled.
"You were out for a second. You really okay? "
Logan nodded.
"We need to make a bandage for your arm," Bling continued. "Make sure you don't move it too much for the next two or three weeks-you hear me?!"
Logan gazed up at him. "Two or three weeks?"
"Yes. That's the normal procedure. You'll have to take it slow, buddy. Unless you'd like to end up with one arm functioning only!"
Logan frowned. He was too tired to start a discussion. He'd probably have to get used to letting Max help him out. Without her he wouldn't have been able to run in the first place, so much for sure.
He was getting real sleepy now. He could hear Bling explaining something to Max and then he felt Bling tie a bandage around his arm and shoulders, fastening around his chest. Before he knew he was back in his chair and down by the car ready to go.
Bling helped him get into the passenger seat, while Max stored away their bags.
"Thanks Bling, I really appreciate your help." Logan said drowsily, sticking out his left hand to his friend.
The tall black man bent down and embraced Logan.
"You take care of yourself. ...And Max." he added with a smile.
"Let me know when you're safe or if you need anything."
Logan only managed to nod before he drifted back into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Authors note: Nothing much to say-except thank you for the reviews and have fun. Oh, and thanks for being patient with our infrequent posting! ;-)
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~6~
Ready to go.
When Logan woke up, he felt slightly dizzy. His head was aching a little and his neck muscles were killing him. At first he didn't know where he was or what had brought him here. Then, slowly, the events of the previous night began to unravel before his inner eye. The sudden attack, the confusion, the fear, the feeling of helplessness and Max, who had saved him. Again. Pushing those thoughts away, he tried to prop himself up on his elbows. But a sharp pain reminded him of another thing. His shoulder. He winced and fell back into the cushions. Instantly, he could hear Max' steps rush towards her bedroom.
"Are you okay?" he saw her blurred figure in the door-frame. He carefully reached out for his glasses that he had left lying next to him on the bed.
"I'm okay I guess, considering." he said tiredly.
"Bling called just a couple of minutes ago. He'll be here in about half an hour." Max had been up for a couple of hours and was ready to go.
"Good" Logan said, slowly propping himself up against the bed-frame. Hell, this was strenuous enough with two functioning arms but with his shoulder aching it seemed almost impossible.
"How's your shoulder?" Max asked watching him struggle to sit up. "Gonna need some help getting ready?"
Logan sighed. "Let me just wake up a little. Then we'll see...okay?"
Max nodded. If he needed to try by himself she probably had to let him do that. She pushed the chair towards the bed and set the brakes.
"I'll be in the kitchen. You look like you could need some coffee."
"Thanks Max."
Max nodded, understanding, that he wasn't thanking her only for the coffee, then she left the room.
Logan carefully moved to the side of the bed and rather pushed than actually transferred himself off the bed and into the chair. It struck him once again how much he needed good function of his arms. How much independence it gave him and how much he'd be lost without it. The conversation with Sam the day before his second surgery flickered through his mind: "A shifting of the fragment could cause further nerve damage... ..."You could end up quadriplegic, even on a respirator.."
Logan despised the feelings that were brought back with the memory of that day. He hadn't shown it in front of his doctor or anybody else, but he had been scared to death by that possibility. If something had gone wrong, he wouldn't even have been able to... . Whatever; He pushed the thoughts as far away as he could. This was not the time and place to contemplate about things that were in the past. They had to get going before they would find them.
He slowly wheeled towards the bathroom. But he couldn't help but keep worrying about his shoulder. It still hurt as much as the previous evening but it felt a lot more sore and kind of stiff. He was just preparing mentally to call Max to ask for a little help, when she heard her yell.
"Logan, Bling's here!"
Logan sighed with relief. It would be much easier to let Bling help him, than having to ask Max.
Over the last year he had come accustomed to Bling helping him out, but with Max it made him feel so stupid.
"Hey Bling!" he shouted from the bathroom . "Could you come in here for a minute?"
"Hi, how' s it going ?", the tall black man said from the door.
Logan smirked. "Not too good, I'd say. Those guys have wrecked my shoulder. I'm gonna need some help here." Without a word Bling helped Logan with what he needed to do.
"By the way," Logan finally asked when he felt at least half human again. "Did you get everything, I asked you for?"
"Sure thing." Bling smiled but his face was not as calm as usual.
He sat down on the edge of the bathtub and looked at his friend
"Logan, you sure your up to this? I mean running from a bunch of Mafia gangsters is no piece of cake. Especially in your condition..."
"Guess I have no choice.." Logan stated matter-of-factly avoiding Bling's intense gaze.
"You could at least stay in the city, and..."
"Those people are after me. I know something they need to know. They are gonna find me if I stay here." Logan interrupted.
Bling sighed. "What happened to your shoulder anyway?"
"One of those guys twisted my arm behind my back. It felt like he was tearing it out or something."
"Let me take a look."
Bling carefully examined Logan's shoulder.
"Wow man that doesn't look good at all." he said shaking his head. " Can you move your arm in all directions?"
"I guess I could but it hurts like hell."
"Try raising your arm anyway...over the front"
Warily Logan tried to do as he was told, but gave up the effort soon.
"Damn, that hurts! " cursed.
Bling sighed. "From what it looks like your shoulder is dislocated. You really ought to go to the hospital. Get an x-ray and have them fix it as soon as possible, man. You just can't afford to mess with that."
"I know, Bling, but like I told you it's too risky. I have to leave Seattle as soon as possible. I can't spend a couple of days in the hospital!
Logan could see that his friend was really worried now.
"Anyway, your shoulder can't stay like that. You could get some severe nerve or vessel damage there. I tell you this is nothing to mess with."
In that instance Max knocked on the door.
"Hey guys, what's going on? Can I come in?"
"Sure." Logan muttered.
Seeing Bling exame Logan's shoulder, Max stepped closer.
"Ouch! Doesn't look any better, does it?!" she asked. She somehow hoped for Logan to contradict her.
"I'd be surprised if it did!" Bling threw in before Logan could say anything. "The shoulder seems to be dislocated. Those guys did a pretty good job there", he added sarcastically. "It has to be fixed rather sooner than later- but it has to be done in an hospital and..."
"Come on Bling, please! Spare me the lecture." Logan interrupted him." Can't you think of something to do without having to go to the hospital?"
Bling glared at Logan. "Well, we had a course of surgery some years back, where they showed us how to reponate dislocated joints. But you gonna need some anaesthesia and..."
"No need for that...If you can do it then just do it, I can handle it."
"Well, we'll definitely need some muscle relaxant, otherwise your muscles won't let me do the job. Could be I have something left in the car, from my other patients. This stuff is normally used for muscle spasms. This will be better than nothing."
Reluctantly he stood up and turned towards Max. "You better start looking for some painkillers. The stronger, the better. " With that he left the room.
Max cast a worried look at Logan and then started to look through the bathroom cabinet.
"I've never needed anything like that. But maybe there's something left from Kendra..."
***
When Bling came back, he carried a small bag. Logan knew this bag all too well. It contained a lot of medical devices, analgesic ointment, massage oil and some rescue medication for seizures.
Max had pushed Logan into the living room and was now pacing around nervously.
"Max, please!" Logan said harshly. "Could you stop pacing around like that?!" "I'm already nervous enough as it is!" Max brushed brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear and forced herself to sit down on the couch.
Bling put the bag on the table and spread out its contents.
"Your lucky, man! There are two syringes with muscle relaxant and a good dose of diazepam. That should do as an analgesic. Its used to stop seizures normally, but it's also a good painkiller. Will make you a little drowsy though. So you shouldn't drive after that. Probably shouldn't do that anyway..." Bling looked over at Max with a questioning look.
"I got that covered! I think I can drive pretty much anything." She said quickly.
"Okay then, you ready?" Bling asked.
Logan nodded.
"Okay, we'll start with the analgesic. I'm gonna apply that directly into your muscle. That's not very common, but we want it to work fast, right?"
Logan bit his teeth while Bling slowly injected the contents of the syringe in a circle around his shoulder.
Max watched Bling do the first shot, then turned away and got up abruptly. Bling looked up in confusion.
"'You okay Max?"
"Yeah,..." Max stuttered. "I just forgot to pack something....Be right back." With that she stormed out of the room. Logan couldn't help but smile at her behaviour. A genetically enhanced super-soldier who couldn't see blood????
Max stormed out of the living room and went into the bathroom. She sat down on the toilet and drew a deep breath. Come on Max! Pull yourself together! You've seen worse than that. Honestly! People had been killed in front of her eyes. Her own siblings! She had seen bullet-wrecked bodies and blood -baths all her life. And now she couldn't watch a simple medical procedure???? Maybe that was because Logan wasn't one of them. He wasn't designed to endure pain without even drawing a face and then carry on with his task. Still, he had to put up with so much. She couldn't stay in there watching this. She didn't want to see him in pain. But then, maybe he'd like her to be with him?
She slowly stood up again and turned on the water. Watching her pale features in the mirror, she splashed some water into her face and took a sip of the cold water.
Then she braced herself for what she was going to see and went back to the living room.
***
Bling was just putting away all the needles and clearing away all the stuff.
"You're done already?" she asked surprised but partly relieved.
"No" Bling answered, "Just waiting for the stuff to set in. The actual work is well, a little less ...elegant. Could you get a chair please and help Logan sit on it.?...Sideways, that is."
Max threw him a puzzled look.
A smile crept to Bling's face.
"Oh sorry, I should have explained that earlier: I'm gonna need a so called hypomochlion in order to relocate the shoulder. As soon as the medicine kicks in, I'm gonna have you hang Logan's arm over the backrest of the chair and then I'm gonna pull on his arm hoping it will snap back into place."
Logan stared at Bling in disbelief. "You're kidding!"
"No, sorry I'm not. I would have liked to tell you something else, but this is the way it works."
Max turned around on the spot and went to get a chair from the kitchen area. The she helped Logan to transfer to it.
"So, how do you feel? The analgesic kicking in?" Bling touched Logan's shoulder. "Do you feel that?"
"Feels numb, somehow." Logan mumbled.
"Good, try and raise your arm, then." Logan tried but his arm didn't move an inch.
"That's scary. "
"Yeah, but that's the way we need it. Okay, so let's get it over with."
Bling kneeled down next to the chair and waved his head at Max. "You should stabilise his upper body, so he doesn't move, while I'm doing this.
Without a word Max stepped behind Logan and put her arms around him, one under his left shoulder, the other around his waist.
"Okay, Logan here we go. It'll be over in a second " Bling said reassuringly. Without waiting for an answer he grabbed Logan's arm real tight and pulled it towards the floor. With an awkward snatching sound the joint flipped back to where it belonged.
Max heard Logan wince at the impact, then she felt him tense notably.
"Well, that's it already" she heard Bling's voice in the distance.
She felt Logan breathe rapidly.
Instinctively she tightened her embrace around him. "Shhhh!" she whispered in his ear. "You did it. Bling did a good job." She could feel his stubble against her cheek now, and smell his scent.
They stayed like that for another few seconds, both of them feeling save in the other's close presence. After some time Max could feel Logan relax in her arms.
***
"Logan! Are you okay?" Bling was patting his face lightly.
Logan opened his eyes and squinted into the light. He felt a little drowsy and dizzy and his shoulder was puckering like it was going to explode any minute.
"Yeah, I guess so" he mumbled.
"You were out for a second. You really okay? "
Logan nodded.
"We need to make a bandage for your arm," Bling continued. "Make sure you don't move it too much for the next two or three weeks-you hear me?!"
Logan gazed up at him. "Two or three weeks?"
"Yes. That's the normal procedure. You'll have to take it slow, buddy. Unless you'd like to end up with one arm functioning only!"
Logan frowned. He was too tired to start a discussion. He'd probably have to get used to letting Max help him out. Without her he wouldn't have been able to run in the first place, so much for sure.
He was getting real sleepy now. He could hear Bling explaining something to Max and then he felt Bling tie a bandage around his arm and shoulders, fastening around his chest. Before he knew he was back in his chair and down by the car ready to go.
Bling helped him get into the passenger seat, while Max stored away their bags.
"Thanks Bling, I really appreciate your help." Logan said drowsily, sticking out his left hand to his friend.
The tall black man bent down and embraced Logan.
"You take care of yourself. ...And Max." he added with a smile.
"Let me know when you're safe or if you need anything."
Logan only managed to nod before he drifted back into a deep and dreamless sleep.