Chapter 20: Inujry

"What happened? Can someone tell me please?" Trish tried to catch up to the paramedic carrying the stretcher with 4 others. The paramedic didn't answer. Instead just whizzed past her and stuck the strecther with a wrestler attached onto it. "I'm authorized! I need to know here!"

One of the paramedics sighed and replied in annoyance, "Get in the ambulance, you can come if you want."

Trish quickly hopped into the ambulance and thanked the paramedic. The paramedic smiled slyly. She then walked up to the stretcher. "Hey... Are you OK? You took a really tough beating out there."

The wrestler moaned and replied weakly, "I'm OK. What happened?"

Trish hushed him up. She wanted him to rest. He took a really hard beating from his last match, he was covered in blood from head to toe. He had deep scratches on his back, and his eyes were red. She didn't like the sight, but she didn't want him hurt bad.

"What happened really? Did I win? Did I get the pride and bragging rights?" the wrestler asked in a hush tone.

"Yes... You won his pride and received your bragging rights." Trish replied.

The paramedics pulled the stretcher out of the ambulance and rushed it in to the emergency room. Trish was lead to the waiting room by a nurse to wait there, and the first thing she did was call Nikki.

"Yeah Trish? What's happening?" Nikki answered.

"What? Weren't you watching the event?" Trish asked angrily. "Anyway, where are you?"

"Damn girl calm down! I'm at home." Nikki snapped.

"Why didn;t you watch the pay per view?" Trish asked.

"I don't have time! And it's a waste of money right now, I know what's going to happen anyway." Nikki replied.

"OK... He got hurt. BAD." Trish announced.

"Oh my gosh... Really bad?" Nikki sounded concerned.

"Yes, super bad. He's in the ER, and I think they're examining him right now. This is bad." Trish said.

"He won right?" Nikki asked.

"Oh yeah girlfriend. Opened the can of whoop ass." Trish laughed.

Nikki chuckled a bit.

Trish spotted a doctor walking up to her. "Hold up girl, I'll call you back, somethin's 'bout to happen."

"Like what?" Nikki waited for an answer. "hello? Hello?" Nikki realized she had dropped the call.

The doctor walked up to Trish and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Doctor Shephard." Dr. Shephard shook hands with Trish.

"I'm Trish Stratus. Nice to meet you. Now can I please find out what's happening with him?" Trish asked.

"Well... Seems Mr. Randy Orton here is in critical condition. The good news is, there is no brain damage, everything seems to be in order, his skin needs to be treated though, but everything is fine. Except for one thing." Dr. Shephard paused to leave Trish suspecting.

Trish waited for the bad news. She hoped it was nothing serious, but the way the doctor talked, it seemed pretty bad.

"His right shoulder is badly hurt and the bone seems to be fractured in a terrible way." Doctor Shephard dropped the bad news.

Trish bit her lip. "Is there any way to fix it?"

Doctor Shephard looked over his clipboard. "Surgery. He's going to be out of action for quite a while, 6 months at the most, for rehabilitation."

Trish thought about his career, then his health. "Is there anyway I can talk to him about it? He should be the one considering this, not me."

"Sure, he's just coming out from the x-ray room. We wanted to see how bad this fracture was." Doctor Shephard led her to the ER entrance. "By the way, who is this Nikki woman he keeps blabbering about? He keeps saying can you please make sure she knows I'm here blah blah blah. She the girlfriend?" Doctor Shephard asked.

"Trust me, she knows. And he is nowhere close to being called the boyfriend." Trish answered.

"Fiance?" Doctor Shephard asked.

Trish ignored him and rushed over to Randy. "Hey, you OK?"

"Where's Nikki?" Randy asked weakly.

"She's home." Trish replied snobbishly. Gosh... He regains consciousness and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is "Where's Nikki? Nyah nyah nyah!". Trish snapped out f her thoughts. "Anyway, you need surgery hon."

"What?" Randy whispered out.

"Surgery. Your shoulder is hurt pretty bad, but they don't know how bad it really is." Trish grabbed a towel and wiped off the blood on Randy's face. She could barely see his mouth.

Randy closed his eyes to think. "Did I win the match?"

Trish sighed. "Yes, you won it straight up."

Randy smiled. "Where is Nikki?"

Trish snapped, "She's home, gosh, you should be more concerned about your hurt shoulder other than Nikki. She's nice and safe up in New York so damn it, chill."

Randy closed his eyes. "Aww man..."

1 Week Later...

"I can't do this!" Randy screamed outside as he walked to the hospital with Nikki.

"Yes you can. You wrestle your ass out in the ring, you injure yourself almost every week, you can do this." Nikki carried a bad with Randy's belongings.

"Are you coming to stay with me?" Randy asked Nikki, desperately.

Nikki sighed. "No, a few days after the surgery your mom or dad is gonna come to pick you up."

"Can't I --" Randy stopped to figure out what he was saying. He didn't want to be a burden to the other 3 by staying over at New York with them for the meantime.

"OK, I'm going to check you in, then I need to go, OK?" Nikki told Randy and walked off to consult with the receptionist.

Randy sat down in a chair and stared lustlessly at his shoulder. Nikki came back and sat next to him.

"Look, you'll be OK. I know this is the first time you'll have surgery, but you need to calm down. If you don't think about it, you'll be fine."

A nurse walked up to Randy telling him that he's next. Randy waved by to Nikki and walked to the room.

"Hey Orton," Nikki called.

Randy turned around.

"When I'm worried about something, I stare at my happy place." Nikki added and waved bye.

As she turned to walk, Randy stared at her upper body. Oooh yeah… That is totally me happy place.

His surgery went well, and he began to rehabilitate, and a few days later he went back home to St. Louis to spend the next 6 months resting up. But not everything went smoothly while being back home, and Randy wanted to leave.