Luca woke up a few hours later when someone knocked at the door, and Deacon walked in.

"Hey man, how are you?"

Luca blinked awake. Then looked at his colleague. "Heeeey, Deac!"

Deacon chuckled, "I see they hooked you up with the good drugs…"

Luca chuckled, "Nah… They hooked me up with some good drugs, but not THAT good."

Deacon chuckled, "So, how are you?"

"I'm looking forward to being back on the squad." Luca shrugged, "And walking."

Deacon nodded.

"How's the rest of the team?"

"Worried about you." Deacon shrugged, "The others really wanted to come, but we didn't know if you were in surgery or available. So we figured we rather should meet up here tomorrow."

Luca nodded, smiled. "And you stopped by on your way home?"

Deacon nodded, "Had to make sure you were alright."

"Thanks." Luca grinned.

"Are they going to fix your leg today or tomorrow?"

"Today, unless there's a major accident somewhere with many people who needs emergency surgery…"

"That's good." Deacon nodded, then he unshouldered his bag, before he pulled out a few sweets and treats, "I brought you some snacks, but I guess you'll have to wait until after the surgery."

"Aw, SWEET!" Luca grinned.

Deacon nodded, "I'm just going to place them here on the table, out of your reach, just to be safe."

Luca nodded, "Smart move."

Then someone knocked on the door, and the nurse came back in. "Hi there, you must be…"

"Deacon, coworker." Deacon answered, hand greeting her.

"Is it surgery time soon?" Luca asked.

The nurse looked from Luca to Deacon, and back to Luca again. Not really sure if she could answer.

"Deac's pretty much my brother, I don't mind him hearing."

"Alright, then yeah. In about an hour. I'm here to give you your premedication."

Luca nodded.

"Alright, I guess that's my cue to go…" Deacon winked, "Good luck buddy, see you tomorrow."

"Thanks."

"No butterflies, alright?"

Luca chuckled, "Sorry Deacon, don't have control over those bastards…"

"You'll be fine." Deacon nodded, "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Say hi to Annie from me…"

Deacon nodded, then he headed out the door. "Bye!"

"Bye!"

SWATSWATSWAT

Some hours later, Luca was waking up from surgery

He woke up in a room with six or seven other hospital beds and about as many nurses. He was hooked up to a monitor which tracked his heartrate, blood pressure, and a number of other things.

He wasn't entirely lucid yet, he was pretty sure he zoned out a bunch of times.

SWATSWATSWAT

All of the sudden, the next time he woke up he was back in a similar room as earlier, except for it being a two-bed room. Which he was the lone resident of so far.

He lifted the covers to check his legs. He had a 4x10 dressing near his hip, and a 4x4 dressing sitting with one corner as a peak towards his thigh, and the opposite corner pointing towards his foot, in order to make use of Pythagoras theorem to make the smaller dressing stretch further vertically.

The dressings had a honeycomb pattern. The one at his hip had a three inch blood rose, but the one at his knee seemed all dry. He also had a brace around his leg, locked straight.

His leg was swollen, both his hip and his knee. But that came with the territory of a broken hip and a dislocated kneecap, and following surgery. He didn't really feel anything yet, which he guessed was a blessing.

He moved his feet a little, and was fascinated when they moved, yet didn't hurt.

Satisfied with the condition of his leg, he remembered how hungry and thirsty he was and found the call button. It didn't take long before a nurse entered his room.

"Good evening…" she smiled, "How are you feeling?"

Luca shrugged, "I feel fine. A bit hungry."

"Yeah?"

Luca nodded.

"What would you like to eat? We've got slices of bread, cheese, ham, boiled eggs, strawberry jam, grape jelly, some smoothie the kitchen sent up to us… Yogurt. Granola. Probably forgot something…" she admitted with a slight blush, "And we've got coffee, tea, milk, apple- and orange juice… Water…"

Luca grinned, "Well, a good cup of coffee would be awesome. And two slices of bread, an egg, some cheese and ham, -and apple juice please…"

The nurse nodded, "I'll be back in a few then. -Are you in any pain right now?"

"None." Luca shook his head, "Don't even feel banged up."

The nurse nodded, "Well, that's the epidural doing it's magic I guess."

Luca blinked almost dumbfounded for a second, then he looked around and saw a plastic box with buttons and a screen reading 6ml/hour, and a 60ml syringe. Then he followed the plastic tube running from the box and down to a weird connector thing taped near his clavicle.

"That's the pump which makes sure you don't run out of epidural pain relief." The nurse nodded.

"-But… -I could move my feet…"

The nurse nodded, "Yeah. You have an epidural catheter which only gives a sensory blockade. Fun fact, you wouldn't notice if I held an ice cube against the skin on your legs."

"Really?"

The nurse nodded, "That's often how they check if it works pre-op, if it's an elective surgery without pain prior to the start of the surgery."

"Cool!" Luca grinned, "Got any more fun facts?"

The nurse nodded, "I'll go find you some food first, -I'll try to think of another medial fun fact."

"Thanks…"

SWATSWATSWAT

"Adults have fewer bones than babies…" she said as she stepped back into Luca's room with a tray of food, coffee and juice.

"That's cause they fuse together, right?" Luca asked.

"Correct." She nodded. "Here's another one for you… The reason your nose starts running when you're crying, is because there's a little duct running from the corner of your eye and into your nose."

"That one I didn't know…" Luca grinned.

"I've got one pretty morbid one as well."

"Yeah? Do tell!"

"There goes 34 eyeballs in a kilo."

"That's oddly specific…" Luca frowned, but his curiosity piqued, "How many in a pound?"

"Heck if I know…" the nurse chuckled and placed the tray down at Luca's nightstand, "It was a question in a game called 'Idiot knowledge', if you translate it, or something like that. We played that game a lot last time I visited my extended family in Norway."

"So you're Norwegian?"

"Part Norwegian…" the nurse nodded, "About ¼…"

Luca nodded.

"So, are you looking forward to test how it'll be to stand and walk a bit tomorrow?"

Luca downed a gulp of coffee before he answered, "Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. This was really good coffee!"

The nurse nodded, "Figured you had earned yourself some of our breakroom coffee, instead of the unbearable crap in the instant machine…"

"Thank you!"

"Alright, I'll let you eat in peace, if you need anything, you know where the call button is."

Luca nodded, and nodded.