Chapter 22: The Greatest Pain Doesn't Hurt at All
Elli woke up to a lovely new morning. She always get up early so that she could get some work done before the doctor awoke. Especially now that they had Carter to take care of, she couldn't very well just leave him there unattended. It really was a bit annoying to have to keep checking up on him during the night. But she loved doing it anyway. Helping patients was why she became a nurse in the first place.
Before going downstairs, she gathered up some supplies. Some bandages, some medicine, the basic stuff she needed to take care of Carter. She peeked into the Doctor's bedroom and smiled at his sleeping form. Secretly she like him, but she'd never tell anyone. She glanced out a window as she headed down the stairs and saw Jack patrolling the city. Elli waved at him, but Jack didn't notice.
Absorbed in her thoughts, Elli was not watching were she was going. A few steps across from the bottom of the staircase, she tripped over something. Elli went sprawling across the floor. She looked back to see what she had caused her to stumble. Her mouth opened and let out a scream...
The doctor woke up with a jolt. He heard somebody scream from downstairs, and it sounded like Elli. He leaped out of bed, grabbed his doctors coat from off of a chair, and dashed downstairs while putting the coat on. He came to see Carter lying out on the floor with one arm stretched out in front of him with Elli freaking out at the sight of him. He did his best to calm down Elli, "Elli, please. Carter has obviously awoken from his coma briefly and crawled out to here before he collapsed again. We have not been able to make him eat, he's been living off of injected nutrients. It makes sense that he would not be strong enough to do much even in a fully conscious state, which I doubt he was in."
Elli took a deep breath and relaxed herself. It was a good thing then in a way. While it had scared her, this means that Carter was beginning to recover. "Doctor, will you please help me move Carter back into his bed?"
"Gladly I will." Together, they managed to gently lift Carter off the ground and carry him back into his room of the hospital. Elli wrapped his head in new bandages while the Doctor reset up the medical equipment such as the IV that Carter had pulled loose.
That being done, Elli placed a hot water bottle under Carter's head. He let out a long moan. Elli and the Doctor gasped as his eyes opened slightly, squinting from the light. Carter moaned again, "Where am I? I thought..." He paused for a moment, "I can't remember what I thought."
The doctor and Elli looked at each other. Elli nodded at the doctor, and he began to try and explain, "Your name is Carter. You are a priest in Mineral Town. You—"
Carter quickly interrupted him, "I don't have amnesia. I'm in the hospital, I recognize it now. I was just dazed. What happened to me?"
Elli stepped in this time, "You were attacked by the murderer, but this time he failed. Be glad you are still alive. You were in a pretty bad condition."
The doctor tapped Elli on the shoulder and she let him continue, "But what is important right now is not what your condition was, but what it is now. So I must ask you, how do you feel?"
Carter groaned, "My head feels like it is killing me. And I hurt all over. I feel so sore. I feel such pressure all over my body," he paused again to think about it for a moment, "No, that isn't exactly correct. My legs don't hurt at all. None of my lower body hurts at all. I can't feel anything at all down there." A note of panic started to work it's way into Carter's voice.
Elli looked at the doctor and they shared a worried expression...