"Come on! Put me down. I can walk just fine."
Lantern sighed. He hadn't listened to him so far when he made the same argument in the hanger or in the corridor (several times).
"Besides," he added, "I'm in the infirmary, now. What could happen?"
Lantern pursed his lips together and, against his better judgment, complied.
Flash was able to take one step before he fell hard into some heavy wooden shelving. He bashed his head against one of the shelves and landed on the floor with his legs stretched out before him. He blinked to make the stars go away.
The shelving teetered.
Flash shook his head with a twitch.
The shelving tottered.
Shaking his head turned out to be a bad idea. He pulled up his knees and clutched his head against them.
The shelving teetered.
Flash grabbed his ribs as they decided to crash the party and remind him who was boss.
Lantern saw the hard oak shelf beginning to topple over onto Flash who had yet to notice anything. He reached out a hand, aided by a few green ones, and stopped its falling before it squished his friend. He didn't, however, stop the canisters from beating all around Flash's head, back, and shoulders.
"Hey!" Flash glared at Lantern when the barrage was over. He knew full well Lantern could have stopped the canisters, but chose not to. He rubbed one of the growing welts on his shoulder. "What was that for?"
"I've see a lot of things happen to you today that weren't your fault," Green Lantern said, "but that was just stupid."
As Flash was put onto the uncomfortable hospital bed, Superman and Batman came strolling near to the infirmary.
"We should have asked where Luthor is," Superman complained for the nth time.
"Luthor wouldn't have told Clayface," Batman argued back. Again.
"What if he makes another attempt on Flash's life?"
"We don't even know it wasn't coincidence that Flash happened to die in a fight with one of Luthor's hired hands." This conversation was old hat to Batman now.
"But what if it wasn't coincidence?"
"Then Luthor will show up again."
"And what if he kills Flash?"
"Then we'll burn that bridge when we come to it."
Superman stopped. "That's not a very good attitude."
"I'm known for not having a very good attitude."
Superman shrugged in agreement.
Batman caught Flash's stifled breathing. Flash gasped and his face contorted in a wince. "Something more is wrong with him," he told J'onn.
J'onn looked at Batman with a look that made it unnecessary for him to say, "Duh."
"Watch this," Superman said to Batman, then stared at Flash's chest. "Did you know he had three broken ribs, J'onn?" Superman asked as he turned off his x-ray vision.
"I could have told you that with a little palpating," Batman grumbled.
"Oh. I used my eyes."
"No. He wasn't even complaining of pain in his torso," J'onn said, looking hard at Flash for not telling him.
"Super x-ray vision - check." Superman walked out of the infirmary.
"I'll get him," Batman swore, then followed.
J'onn hadn't taken his eyes from Flash. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Flash shrugged, then regretted it.
"There's not much we can do about broken ribs except to ease the pain."
"Aren't you supposed to wrap them or something?" Green Lantern asked.
"Some people swear to that, but in the end it doesn't make much of a difference. Do you think you're going to be moving a lot?" J'onn asked Flash before he realized he knew the answer. "You're going to be moving a lot. They will be wrapped. First we must deal with this foot."
Wonder Woman appeared at the doorway. "Hey, Flash, how . . . are . . . " She started to slow down as she saw what kind of state he was in. A little gossip could cheer him up, but she only had one extra-juicy slice of gossip on her mind, and she wasn't allowed to say anything. Wonder Woman burst into tears and went wailing down the hallway.
"She's been doing stuff like that all day," Flash said, scratching his head. "What's that about?"
J'onn grabbed a batch of specially prepared Tetanus Bacillus and came toward Flash wielding the syringe.
"Whoa, hey! What do you think you're doing!"
"I'm giving you the Tetanus vaccine. Unless you want Tetanus instead."
"It's a shot? No, I don't like shots. Super heroes don't get shots."
He had expected this reaction. J'onn nodded to Green Lantern. Lantern showed Flash a photo of a man dying from Tetanus.
"What?" Flash asked dubiously. "He looks happy."
Lantern continued to show picture after picture until Flash conceded. Flash turned his face away and winced as J'onn inserted the needle, gave him the shot, extracted the needle, and for some time afterward.
Flash opened one eye and looked back. "Aren't you gonna do it?"
J'onn opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Hawkgirl's head peeking around the doorway. Flash cradled his hand and glanced at Lantern. "Keep her away from me," he said quietly with an immobile smile plastered on his face.
"What's going on, Shayera?" Lantern asked.
"Oh, nothing. I just came by to check on Flash."
"Could you maybe look for Wonder Woman?" Lantern asked. Shayera's pleasant face fell into a scowl.
"Why do you want her?"
"We don't want her," he said, and Shayera lit up again, "but when she came by earlier-"
Hawkgirl stopped him right there. "She's already been by?" She let out a harrumph and stormed off.
J'onn continued to apply a local anesthetic around the wound on his ankle and stitched it together. "He has lost sufficient blood to be a problem, but not enough to warrant a transfusion," he told Green Lantern.
"So what are you gonna do?" Flash asked.
"I am going to pump you full of saline."
"What about my foot? I can't feel the left side of it."
"You have severed the nervous fibres. You will never be able to feel the left side of it. Nor will you be able to move it."
Flash opened his mouth to speak several times, but was speechless.
"This is new," Green Lantern said. "Isn't there some kind of wonderful Martian magic you could do? Throw some glitter on him or spew some gibberish you think is an incantation."
"I am not a witch doctor," J'onn bristled, not that you could tell. "Even if I was, I wouldn't help after that offensive request. Besides, I heard they deal mostly in chicken."
"What about running?" Flash finally asked with half a voice.
"It will take practice, but it is not impossible. No fine motor skills require the left side of one foot, and balance can be recalibrated."
Green Lantern smirked. "And anyway, with that ankle, you're not likely to be walking anywhere, much less running." Green Lantern motioned to a set of crutches.
"Freakin' kidding me."
As J'onn stuck Flash with an IV, Flash stared at the crutches. His brow was low and furrowed. After a few minutes, boredom set in. He just had to touch them. Just . . . a . . . tap.
Both crutches fell, catching the IV line. The needle was ripped out of his vein, and the pole and bag landed sharply right on Flash's head. As they bounced off, one hand grabbed the spot where they hit and the other hand was used for leverage, mostly forgotten. That is, until the metal pole landed on the remote for the bed.
The top of the bed moved upward. Flash's finger was squished as two metal bars that formed the undercarriage came together. He tried to yank it out, but it was too tight. So he yelled.
Green Lantern was able to stop the bed's movement before Flash's finger was completely severed. Lantern raised an eyebrow. "Okay, that was just stupid," he corrected his previous assessment.
"Perhaps you should get him something to eat," J'onn suggested. "I don't think he has eaten since this morning, but I do think he might have better luck outside the infirmary."
Flash sat up and Green Lantern leaned the crutches against the bed. Flash made a point of heaving his entire body in a sigh to make sure everyone knew he was displeased.
"Let's go," Lantern said flatly. Flash stared at Lantern with a shallow anger as he grabbed the crutches and started for the door.
"Do you know how to maneuver with crutches?" J'onn asked, although he probably should have asked before Flash started using them.
"Um, I think I know how to use crutches," Flash said snottily, and then stuck the rubber foot of the crutch in a mysterious wet spot about as quickly as he stuck his own foot in his mouth. "Whoooooooah!" he yelled as his crutches went one way and he went the other.
First, he landed on his wrist and bounced, then landed on his knee and bounced. Right before he landed on his neck and very nearly broke it (and probably not bounced), a glowing green hammock caught him.
"Do you know how to maneuver with crutches?" J'onn asked again.
"I think I have an idea now. Ow." Flash clutched his wrist close to him.
"Sprained it, didn't you?" Lantern asked.
"Nuthin'." Flash was dour, so he hobbled toward the kitchen.
Before Lantern could follow, J'onn grabbed his arm. "Don't let him out of your sight," he warned.
Lantern silently agreed and followed his friend.
· ¤§¤ ·
No footnotes for him. I'll tell you what I'll do. Here's a preview of the next installment. It has been edited for time or whatever my excuse is.
· ¤§¤ ·
"Get ... the ... e ... to ... an ... u ... n ... n ... e ... r ... y ... !"
Superman ... half-freezed ... .
" ... Christmas ... would ... help ... the blisters ... ." muttered Lantern ... .
Flash ... was reminded of ... watching ... the ... horse ... flying.
(P)arallel ... middle, ... landing ... heroic ... ly ... , ... replied ... , ... "(I)nspecting ... titanium ... hit ... s ... the wall ... . ... "
(O)bvious ... puncture ... nonchalantly ... cause ... ed ... something ... to ... (h)mm ... voodoo. ...
Sarcastic ... comerades ... shrugged ... .
(O) ... ne really ... w ... on ... .
(N)ow ... he did.