Hi, all, I'm back with another chapter for you. I hope you enjoy reading.
Disclaimer: "Bob's Burgers and its characters belong to Loren Bouchard.
A Cry in the Park
Chapter 9
Bob, Gene, and Tina arrived at the hospital the next morning just as as the doctor was finishing up with Louise, who was sat up in bed, looking furious as Linda was standing next to her.
"Hey, Louise," Bob grinned, trying to be cheerful, but Louise was obviously still in a mood, as she only scowled in response. She had a see-through, sticker-type piece of material on the back of her left hand, which was placed over the numbing cream she had received prior.
Before he could say anything else, Dr. Cabell, and another man approached him, and Linda came over.
"Good morning, Mr and Mrs. Belcher," smiled the man. "My name is Dr. Brooks, and I'm an anaesthesiologist; I'll be supervising the surgery today, and I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what's going to happen. I've already informed Louise, and so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
"Now, we will taking Louise down to the operating room shortly, where she will be put under general anaesthetic. The surgery is expected to last for a little over two hours, and when we're done, Louise will be taken to the recovery room, and when she's stable, you will be able to see her." He paused. "Now, there are risks involved, as with any type of surgery. She may bleed more than usual; the blood could collect under the skin and form haematoma. There is also the risk of infection, and the risk of blood clots, but rest assured, we will do our best to prevent these from happening." Bob and Linda naturally looked quite worried now, so he continued. "About two or three days after the operation, your physical therapist will come by and begin teaching Louise things like how to sit up, how to move into a chair, those kinds of things. Do you have any questions?" Bob and Linda only stared at him. "Right," Brooks nodded, "well, if there's no questions, then we'll take Louise down to theatre now."
The family stood back as a scowling Louise was taken off her bed, and placed onto a gurney, and wheeled out of the room. Then, they followed the bed as it was wheeled through the hallways, not unlike when she was first admitted.
When they reached the operating room, however, they had to separate and go and wait in the waiting room.
Louise remained silent as she was brought into the operating room. Her demeanour soon changed; the room was bright and cold and, much as she didn't want to admit it, frightening. The doctors, nurses and other hospital workers were all talking to her, but she wasn't listening.
Her breath quickened as surgeons dressed in scrubs leaned over her, and she struggled to sit up. She had to get away.
"It's okay, sweetheart," came a disembodied voice, "you'll be fine." Louise could not place who was speaking and she looked around, sweat beading on her forehead.
Her hospital gown was lowered at the neckline, and she felt something cold and sticky being placed on her chest. The light above her was bright, and was only dimmed when a surgeon would stand in front of it. The light coming from behind them meant that she could only see black shapes. Just several different black shapes moving around her, talking. Their masks meant that she couldn't place who was talking; the voices sounded like they were coming from all around her.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she forced them open when she heard the squeaking of wheels, and she looked over to her left, seeing a table full of medical equipment.
The surgeons appeared to be closing in around her, just a mass of shadows and shapes, and Louise felt her left arm being lifted. Someone was talking to her, but she didn't know who it was, or what they were saying. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flash of a needle, and batted it away out of instinct, with surprisingly quick reflexes.
"All right, calm down," came a voice from somewhere above her, as one of the shapes left the room. Someone was still holding her left arm, gently but firmly, and there was another hand on her right shoulder. She tried to wriggle away, but they maintained their hold on her. The voices and shapes were still talking to her when the shape returned, followed by two more of them.
"Louise?" she stopped fidgeting. That was her father's voice. "Louise, it's okay," he said, barely able to look at her; she looked so helpless and afraid. Her eyes were wide, her hands were clenched into fists, and she was sweating. He took one of her hands, as Linda took the other, and a surgeon approached her holding a mask.
He was just about to place it over her mouth and nose when Louise jerked her head to the side. Someone moved it back and gently held it whilst the mask was put into place. She didn't feel the new needle be pressed into her hand.
"Louise, I'm gonna need you to start counting backwards from 100. Can you do that for me?" Despite her best efforts, Louise couldn't get the mask off of her, and she was starting to feel tired.
"Please don't cut my toes off," Louise begged before everything went black.
As soon as Louise had been put under, Bob and Linda had to leave. They returned to the waiting room, looking rather ill.
"What happened?" asked Gene, sitting with Tina, both of them looking worried.
"She knocked the needle out of their hand," said Bob. He felt a strange mixture of pride and worry.
"Wow," said Tina, looking slightly impressed.
"She was really freaked out," Bob looked upset now. "But she'll be okay now." He and Linda sat down next to their children.
Just as before, they had nothing to do but wait. And as before, there were magazines and the television, but they soon lost their appeal for Gene and Tina. They had already read the magazines twice, and there was only a choice of the news or soap operas on the television.
"I don't feel like sitting around and waiting," said Gene.
"Yeah, can we go and look around?" Tina asked, figuring that it would make the waiting easier.
"Can we, Mom, can we?" Gene had risen to his feet.
"No," Linda said. "I don't think that's good idea."
"But, Mom, we only wanna look around; we're not gonna go anywhere," Tina argued.
"Please, Mom?"
"Oh, alright," Linda softened. "But don't leave the hospital, okay?"
Eager for the chance to stretch their legs and do a bit of exploring, the children left.
Although Gene and Tina had been forbidden to leave the premises, they still managed to enjoy themselves while wandering around a hospital.
First, they went to the cafeteria, where they wrote down all kinds of crazy food and drink inventions for the suggestion box; Gene filled out several sheets of his personal preference of chocolate chip cookie pizza, and Tina wrote that ice cream dispensers and soda fountains were needed. They helped themselves to sugar and salt packets and mixed them into whatever liquids they could find to see what the results were. Naturally, the pastes that were formed were placed strategically on chairs and tables.
As they walked down a hallway, Tina was too busy ogling all of the doctor's butts to notice that Gene had found an abandoned wheelchair.
"Get in!" he cried, and Tina did so. Gene began sprinting as fast as he could, jumping onto the back and they zoomed down the hall. They almost crashed into a trolley filled with medication, but they didn't let that deter them. They got right back up and did it again, this time with Tina pushing Gene. She found it difficult, with her lack of arm strength, but her brother didn't seem to mind.
The children appeared to have gone wild; they acted in ways they had never done before.
They would 'accidentally' hit the buttons on the elevators as they walked past; Tina attempted to flirt with several nurses and doctors', much to Gene's embarrassment. It was soon Tina's turn to be embarrassed when Gene found a hospital gown and stripped down to his underwear to model it. Gene flounced down the hallway as if it were a catwalk, stopping every so often to strike a pose. Many patients and visitors were watching with amusement, and Tina groaned.
They could honestly say they had never had so much fun in a hospital; they hid in the waiting room and acted as the "Voice of Doom," whenever a patient's name was announced; Gene chewed on seemingly every single pen in the place; they randomly removed items from trolleys, and they rolled up old magazines and had sword fights with them instead.
All of these childish silly pranks were just what the siblings needed to get their minds off Louise, and it worked tremendously.
The kids' arrived back at the waiting room at the same time as Dr. Cabell; Bob and Linda were slightly confused, because the surgery wasn't supposed to be this quick.
"Mr and Mrs. Belcher, I'm just informing you that the surgery is going to take a little longer than usual," he told them.
"Why?"
"We have to be very careful with Louise's ankle; it's still broken, and we don't want to impede the healing process, so we have to work slowly." With that, the doctor turned and left, and the children sat down.
"So, what did you do?" asked Bob.
"Oh, nothing much," said Gene casually, "just wandered around, got some water. Oh," he presented Bob and Linda with two bottles of cold water, which they accepted. "And, you know, just explored the place."
"Hm," Bob knew that his son wasn't being truthful, but he decided to let it go this one time.
In the end, what should have been a two hour procedure ended up lasting for more than three, and when Cabell returned, he took Bob and Linda to the recovery room, while Gene and Tina, again, had to remain in the waiting room.
Just as before, the parents followed the doctor down the halls to the recovery room.
"The surgery went well," he told them. "There were no complications." He stood aside, and allowed Bob and Linda to enter the room first.
This time, Louise was in a bed down at the very end of the ward, and they approached her silently. Linda covered her mouth and tears filled her eyes when she saw her daughter. Her nose and mouth were covered by an oxygen mask, and she was again hooked up to various machines.
Linda slowly lifted the bottom of the blanket and looked at her daughter's elevated legs. She almost cried.
Louise's stumps were wrapped up, and there were thin tubes in them to drain excess fluid. Her legs were in braces to prevent her from bending them. A tear slid down the mother's cheek, and she felt horrible for crying. Because this was going to save her child's life, so why was she upset?
"Louise should be able to go back to her room when she's awake and stable," said Cabell quietly. "We'll be keeping her under observation for a few days, to make sure the gangrene hasn't spread. If it has, she'll have to come back to surgery. But, she's doing well. She'll need to remain in hospital for at least two weeks, as we'll need to make a start on physical therapy, and also fit her for some inserts." He stepped back and allowed them to tend to their child.
Linda approached one side of the bed, while Bob came up to the other, and they both took their daughter's hands. Bob had to be careful to not knock the pulse oximeter on the middle finger of her right hand. She looked so small, lying there on the bed, an IV in one arm, a blood pressure cuff wrapped around her other arm, surrounded by machines.
"My poor baby," Linda whispered, leaning over to kiss her daughter's forehead.
Eventually, they had to leave her, and they returned to the waiting room, where Gene and Tina practically pounced on them.
"How is she? Is she okay?" asked Gene, bouncing on his feet.
"She's okay; the surgery went well," said Linda, sweeping him up in a tight hug.
"She doesn't have any toes?" asked Tina, and Linda shook her head.
"No, but she'll be fine. She'll be able to walk normally, but she's gonna have to stay here for two more weeks, and she'll need physical therapy."
"We can help her with that," said Tina, nodding, as they sat down.
"Yeah, we can. We will," said Bob.
After a few more hours, the Belchers' were then escorted back to Louise's room, where she was sleeping in her bed.
"She's already woken up, back on the ward," Cabell told them, as they gathered around the bed. "The anaesthesia is wearing off, and she'll wake up properly in a few more hours."
"Will you need to amputate any more?" asked Gene, looking up at the doctor.
"Hopefully not. Within the next couple of days, we should be able to tell whether or not the gangrene has spread. If everything's fine, she'll be able to go home soon."
"Yay," said Tina. Cabell smiled at her, before turning to Bob and Linda.
"I just want to let you know, Louise may suffer from something known as ICU psychosis. It's quite common."
"ICU psychosis, what's that?" Linda had never heard of it before, nor had Bob.
"It's known as delirium; a combination of the medication, the pain, sleep deprivation, stress, and it can cause aggression, anxiety, paranoia, even hallucinations."
"You think Louise is going to get that?" asked Bob.
"It's very likely; most intensive care patients experience it; more so after a major surgery."
"Well, how come she didn't have it before?" asked Linda.
"We believe that it was because she spent most of her time asleep. She wasn't aware of where she was. If she does experience the psychosis, then we can treat her for that."
"How?"
"We can give her some medication to help her sleep, keep her on a schedule, just keep her oriented. It can look pretty frightening, but it's nothing to be alarmed at."
Louise did not awaken until the evening. Bob and Linda were sitting at her bedside when they saw her stirring.
"Hi, sweetie," Linda whispered, taking her hand as Louise's eyes slowly opened. "How are you feeling?" Louise didn't answer her, and looked up at the ceiling.
"Hey, Louise," said Gene, from her other side, and Louise slowly turned her head to look over at him. Tina waved at her, but Louise didn't seem to see any of them.
"Louise?" said Bob quietly, and his daughter looked back up at the ceiling.
"Dad?" came her hoarse voice.
"Yeah, it's me," he said. Louise made to look over at him, but she paused. "Louise?" Bob noticed that she was staring straight ahead, at the foot of her bed. He followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at; her stumps. Her face crumpled briefly, before her expression hardened. "Louise?"
"Why did you let them do it?" she asked, the fog in her mind beginning to clear. Now she knew where she was, and what had been done.
"They had to do it, baby," said Linda.
"They didn't."
"It's for the best," said Bob. "If there was any other option, we would have taken it, but this had to be done."
"You didn't have to do this," she still wasn't looking at them, and Linda saw tears in her eyes. She gently squeezed her daughter's hand; she knew that Louise wasn't ready to listen to what they had to say. She was upset, and that was fine; anybody would be.
Louise remained silent as she continued staring at her stumps, and so did her family. None of them could think of what to say that would make her feel better.
Dr. Cabell came back in, and stood next to Bob and Linda.
"Hello, Louise, how are you feeling?" Louise turned her head away and resolutely stared at the ceiling. "Are you in any pain?" he continued, and the child still ignored him. "If you are, be sure to let us know so that we can give you some painkillers. So, in a few days, Dr. Anderson will come by and start a little bit of physical therapy with you, so we can start you walking again. And in about two weeks' time, we'll be able to start fitting you for either prosthetics or inserts. Can you hear me, Louise?"
Louise could hear, but she didn't want to speak. She didn't like the sound of prosthetics. She had a vision of ugly, wooden toes glued on to the ends of her feet, and it made her want to lash out.
"No," she muttered, still not looking at him.
"No what? Prosthetics?" he asked, and she nodded curtly after a moment. "I can promise you that there's nothing to worry about. Prosthetics are really high-tech; they got some really great ones now. But we don't need to worry about that just yet; we'll just focus on getting you better." Louise continued to stare at the ceiling.
"When can I go home?"
"In about two weeks," he told her. "You're improving well, and once you're able to walk, then you'll be able to go home."
Louise barely spoke for the rest of the evening, even though her family kept talking to her. When her dinner arrived, she pushed it away, staring at the ceiling, refusing to acknowledge anyone.
"Louise, sweetie, you need to eat," said Linda, pushing the tray back towards her daughter, who ignored it. "You gotta build up your strength, baby."
"Yeah, Louise," said Bob. "We want you to come home as soon as possible, but you can't do that if you don't eat." She muttered something unintelligible. "What's that?"
"I hate you," she said quietly. Bob felt like he had been hit by a train.
"What did you say?"
"I said I hate you!" she finally looked at him, blinking rapidly, her hands balled into fists. "You didn't have to let them do this! You could have done something but you didn't! You let them do this to me! I hate you; I hate you all!"
"Okay," Robin quickly bustled over and gestured for them to stand. "I think it might be best if we let Louise get some rest. Come back later tonight, yes?"
Before the family left the room, they looked back at Louise.
"We love you, baby," said Linda, looking close to tears, as Bob, Gene and Tina chimed in with affirmations. Louise didn't answer them, nor did she even glance in their direction, and so they left.
"Louise," Robin took a seat. "I know you're upset, but that wasn't very nice, was it?"
"This is not very nice!" Louise snapped, gesturing to her stumps.
"I understand how you must be feeling," Robin said calmly, "but this wasn't a rash decision; this was something we all had to think about. Ever since you came here, we've all been working very hard to try and get rid of the gangrene, but we couldn't do it, so this was our only option."
"Well, this – this was... You could have done something else!"
"We really couldn't have. Come on, try and eat something, and then you can have a little rest. I know this is all really sudden for you, and it'll take some time to adjust, but your family love you, and they'll be there for you every step of the way." That didn't make Louise feel any better at all; she was still angry at her parents; they could have told the doctor no. "You need to eat," Robin gently prompted when Louise resumed picking at her food.
"I'm not hungry," she muttered, pushing the tray away once more, and lying back against her pillows.
Both Bob and Linda were fighting back tears as they made their way out of the hospital.
"She didn't mean it," Bob choked, holding his wife's hand tightly. Louise had only ever said she hated them once, and that was when her cavity was causing her pain. This time was no different.
"I know," said Linda. "She's afraid, and upset. I can't imagine how hard this must be for her."
"She'll get through this, Lin."
"Does Louise hate us now?" asked Gene as they left the hospital.
"No, she doesn't, Gene," said Bob. "She's just angry right now; she'll calm down soon." At least, he hoped she would.
That night, when their kids were in bed, Bob and Linda sat in the living room, talking before Bob was due to go back to the hospital.
"I hope she'll be okay tonight," Linda was saying.
"She will be," said Bob. "I bet she'll be asleep by the time I get there."
"But, Bobby, what if she gets that psychosis thing?"
"Well, you heard the doctor, Lin; they can give her stuff to manage it. I mean, she might not even get it."
"But if she does? Oh, Bobby, I don't think I can bear my baby going through that." Linda looked close to tears, and so Bob placed his arm around her.
"Listen, Lin," he began, "this psychosis thing isn't dangerous. The doctor said that we just gotta let her sleep. That's the most important thing. Louise has already been through so much; she can manage this, as well."
"You're right, Bobby," Linda looked up at her husband. "It'll take more than that to bring down our baby! Give her a kiss from me," she said as Bob stood up and grabbed his jacket. He kissed her on the cheek, before leaving the apartment.
Louise was, again, having difficulty sleeping. This time, it was because she was in quite a lot of pain. A lot lot of pain. She had expected her feet to hurt, but not her stomach. It was weird; they had done surgery on her feet, so why was her stomach hurting? Unless... her eyes widened slightly. Unless they had performed a sneaky surgery on her stomach for some strange reason. Louise couldn't think why they would do that, though. It was driving her crazy, and Louise lifted the blanket to see what they had done to her. Before she checked, it dawned on her; they had obviously removed her liver! Of course! She would have been unaware and unable to do anything due to the anaesthetic; it was the perfect crime!
But when she lifted the blanket, and her nightgown, she found only a small patch of dressing, with a thin tube protruding from it, and she frowned in confusion. Curious, she pressed down on her stomach next to the dressing, and immediately regretted it. Pain coursed through her body, and she cringed, screwing up her face and clenching her fists.
"Hey, what is this?" she called to the nearby nurse, when the pain had subsided.
"What?" asked Lucy, and Louise pointed to the tube. "It's called a catheter."
"Well, I don't like it. What's it for?" Louise tried to be her usual self; she couldn't let the nurses know that she was onto them.
"It's so you can go to the bathroom without getting up."
"What?!" Louise hadn't expected that. "Why do I need it?"
"Well, you've just had major surgery, plus you have a broken ankle. It's going to be difficult for you to get up and move about. We put this in last week, when you couldn't wake up. When you're able to stand, we'll take it out."
Louise wasn't sure if she believed the nurse; it was too easy. She was sure they had taken out her liver. She knew that the patch of dressing was covering up stitches, and she reached down, and tried to peel one corner back.
"Oh, no," came Lucy's voice, her hand gently closing over Louise's. "You mustn't do that."
"I just wanna see."
"No, Louise. It's fine." Louise replaced the blanket, and huffed. She heard Lucy telling her to try and sleep, but she didn't want to. For one, she was in too much pain, and, two, if she fell asleep, what if they did more surgery on her? What else would they take? Her kidneys? Her lungs? Besides, she kind of wanted her parents to see her in pain; then they would realise that the surgery was a bad idea, and it should never have been done. That would show them.
She was still awake when Bob arrived, a little after 9pm.
"Louise, what are you still doing up?" he asked, sitting down next to her bed. She was tired, he could tell by the bags under her eyes.
"I'm not tired," she lied. Bob knew she was lying, but he decided not to mention this.
"Are you in any pain?" he asked, and she shook her head, again lying. "You're not? That's great. You should try and get some sleep, then." He paused, noticing the look she was giving him, like she didn't trust him. "What?"
"Oh, nothing. Why do you all want me to sleep so badly?"
"Because you're a little girl, you've had surgery, and you're tired," Bob pointed out.
"I'm not tired! It's just..." Louise paused, wondering if she could trust him. She felt like he knew about the plan to take her kidneys, but he was her dad; he should put a stop to it. But he had already let them take her liver. Well, maybe she could get him to stop them from taking her kidneys.
"What is it?" he asked, and Louise leaned toward him.
"They took my liver," she whispered, her eyes wide.
"What?" Bob knew from the look on her face that she was completely serious, and he had no idea how she had come to that conclusion. "Your liver? Who took it?"
"You know; the doctor. When they did the surgery, they took it out."
"And how do you know this?"
"Because there's a tube in my tummy."
"Well, yeah; you can't walk, so this is so you can pee. I promise you, your liver is still there." It was at that moment, that Louise knew her dad was in on it, too, and she laid back against her pillows. She couldn't believe he would allow them to do this to her. But then, she thought; he had allowed them to cut her toes off, so what else would he agree to?
She couldn't allow herself to fall asleep, nor could she let anyone else know that she knew. The only thing that she could do was stay awake.
"That makes sense; I guess I was just being silly," she lied, giving a little, reassuring smile to her dad. "I guess I'll go to sleep now; goodnight."
"Goodnight," said Bob, pressing the button next to the bed so that it reclined. Louise turned her head away from him, and closed her eyes, pretending to sleep.
Once again, the lights were dimmed, making it difficult for the little girl to stay awake. She was sure to keep her eyes slightly open for as long as she could, fighting against the sleep that threatened to take over.
When Bob thought she was asleep, he gestured to the nurse, and jerked his head towards the door. Robin followed him outside, while Lucy remained in the room.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Louise seems to think you took out her liver." Bob couldn't believe what he was saying. "Why would she think that?" He was genuinely confused.
"It's more than likely the medication making her a little bit loopy," Robin told him. "And sleep deprivation is a possibility, as well."
"So, she doesn't have that psycho thingy?"
"Well, sir; it's quite possible that she is experiencing a little bit of delirium. I think sleep will help her. We'll see how she is tomorrow; if she's not improved, then we can start treating her for it."
Bob nodded, and they both headed back into the room. Louise was still pretending to be asleep, and Bob approached her quietly. Louise quickly closed her eyes, and tried to act natural. He stroked the lock of hair that peeked out from her hat.
"Love you, baby," he whispered, before leaning down and giving her a kiss on the temple. "That's from your mother," he said, before moving away and lying down on the camp bed.
When Louise was sure that he was asleep, when her dad started snoring, she opened her eyes. She kept still, her eyes focused on her blanket, as she did not want the nurses to see that she was awake. She didn't really have a plan; just to stay awake all night so the nurses couldn't take any more of her organs.
She didn't believe that it would be that difficult; even though she was quite tired, the pain was doing an excellent job of keeping her awake. The leg braces were very uncomfortable, not to mention the tube in her stomach. Oh, and the fact that they stole her liver.
Despite her best attempts, Louise fell asleep in the very early hours of the morning.
She awoke at 6:30, after less than three hours of sleep, when the nurses were moving her onto a gurney. She looked around, confused, as they began to wheel her out of the room.
"Wh-where are you taking me?" she asked groggily.
"Just for your oxygen therapy treatment," smiled one of the nurses, but Louise didn't believe her.
Even when she was taken to the hyperbaric chamber, she still didn't believe her. "Would you like to pick a DVD to watch?" asked Robin, after they had placed Louise on the bed, and the little girl shook her head. They wanted to keep her distracted, she knew, and she wasn't going to fall for it.
Lying in the clear tube for ninety minutes with nothing do to except stare at the ceiling was irritating, but Louise couldn't allow her attention to wander, even for a minute. Because if she did, then she would wake up with no kidneys.
When the treatment was over, and she was taken back to her room, the rest of her family were there, and Louise tried again to get someone to listen to her.
"Mom, they took my liver!" she cried as soon as she saw her mother. "They took it out when I was sleeping! Look at my tummy, there's a tube! They took my liver out!"
"What?" Linda approached her daughter, looking confused. "What are you talking about, sweetie?"
"They took my liver out; they stole it," Louise explained, trying to sit up.
"Okay," said Linda slowly. "I'm sure you just had a bad dream, honey. There's nothing to worry about."
"Yes, there is something to worry about, Mom! They stole my liver!" Linda looked up at her husband.
"What's she talking about, Bobby?"
"Uh, she seems to think that the nurses took her liver," said Bob, as the nurse approached them.
"So, Louise appears to be suffering from ICU psychosis," she said, somewhat needlessly. "We're just going to check her stumps for signs of infection, and if there's none, then we can try to treat her."
"Okay," was all Linda could say.
Louise again tried to sit up as the nurses, along with Cabell, approached her.
"What are you going to do now?" she demanded.
"We just need to check your stitches," Cabell told her. "Just to make sure they're healing okay."
"Well, they are, so you can back off!"
"Louise, we're not going to hurt you," said Robin calmly, but Louise was not listening.
"You already took my liver! What else do you want?"
"We didn't take your liver; I can promise you it's still there," Robin told her. "We're just going to unwrap the bandages, and check your stitches."
"You aren't coming anywhere near me!" Louise insisted.
"Louise, what if we could show you your liver is still inside you?" said Lucy, and Louise hesitated. Was this some kind of joke? Lucy took up a nearby portable ultraviolet light, which was used for disinfecting surfaces. "This is a mini body scanner," she told the little girl. "I'll just quickly run it over your body, and then we'll get a photo up, like an X-ray, and you'll be able to see inside you." Louise remained still, staring at the device. Robin saw where her fellow nurse was going with this, and quickly slipped out of the room.
"No, it's not," she said eventually.
"Oh, it is," said Lucy, "now, keep still while I quickly scan you." To everyone's surprise, Louise lay still, and her eyes followed the light as Lucy passed it over her body. "There! All done, and I'll just go to the printer and get the results," she said, before leaving the room.
"That can't be real," said Louise, managing to prop herself up on her elbow.
"She knows what she's doing; she's a nurse," said Linda, unsure of what had just happened.
The two nurses came back into the room, a large scan in Robin's hand. It was a generic print of an X-ray, which they used to reassure frightened children going into surgery.
"So, Louise, this is the scan of your body," said Robin, holding it up so Louise could see it. "Everything's here; see, your heart, your lungs, these are your kidneys," she pointed them all out, "and this is your liver. It's right there, still inside you."
Confronted with the truth, Louise had no choice but to accept that the nurses' didn't steal her liver. She suddenly felt rather silly.
"Wow," she said. "I guess I was pretty stupid, huh?"
"It's okay," said Linda, as Louise was placed back onto her bed.
"It made so much sense," Louise said, wondering how she could have ever thought that, as Robin and Lucy approached her.
"Right, now we're going to check your stitches," said Lucy, as she and Robin began to unwrap the bandages on Louise's feet. "It might feel a little tender and sensitive, but that's perfectly normal." Louise, who had been looking relieved upon learning that she still had her liver, now had a look of uncertainty as she watched them work. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see what she was going to look like. She focused her eyes on her blanket, being careful to not look anywhere else, as the bandages came off. Her family didn't make a sound, and against her better judgement, Louise slowly looked up at her feet. Her jaw dropped slightly. They were slightly swollen, and a little bit bruised. Her toes were gone. The ends of her feet were slightly rounded, like a cartoon character, with stitches running from end to end. The thin drainage tubes remained inserted into the ends of both feet.
She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. They looked disgusting. She couldn't bear to look as the nurses carefully examined them.
"Good news," smiled Robin, "there's no sign of infection, and the wounds appear to be healing well. The swelling should go down in about a week."
"That's good," said Linda. "So, she'll be okay?"
"We will need to check to see if the gangrene has spread or not, and we will give Louise another MRI scan in about two days. If everything's good, then she can make a start on physical therapy."
"And then she'll be able to come home soon?" asked Bob.
"Well," Cabell stepped in, "of course, it does depend on whether or not the gangrene has spread. If it has, then she'll have to go for further amputations, but so far, everything is looking good. We would really like for her to be moving about before she goes home. She will be able to use a wheelchair, but she needs to learn how to sit up and move into one, so I still think there's two weeks before she can go home. She's improving steadily, and so, in a couple of days, she'll be stable enough to be moved to the HDU."
"What's HDU?" asked Bob.
"The high dependency unit," explained Cabell. "It's like the next step down from intensive care."
"Is that a good thing?"
"Yes; it means that she's improving."
Throughout this conversation, Louise was staring silently at her stumps, watching as Lucy and Robin re-bandaged them, and removing the leg braces. She couldn't believe that they had really done it. Now she was destined to go through life looking like this. Louise wasn't vain; she couldn't care less about the way she looked. It was only natural; she was nine. She only brushed the ends of her pigtails because she had to, and it was a weekly battle to get her to wash her hair. She just had far more important things to do than worry about silly things like that.
But this was different. People were going to see her stumps, and they were going to stare, and she didn't think she could handle going through that again. People giving her looks of pity and sympathy, just like when the accident happened.
Her jaw jutted out at the thought; a load of random strangers forever approaching her, telling her how brave she was, cooing over her. She made up her mind right then and there that no one would ever know about this.
Cabell approached her, holding a small, clear device with a plastic tube attached to it. It resembled a tube with measurements printed on it, with some dark blue liquid at the bottom.
"Louise," he began, "this is called an incentive spirometer; it'll keep your lungs clear."
"I don't need that," said Louise, as her bed was adjusted so she was sitting up.
"It'll keep your lungs active. You've had surgery, and this'll help get them back into shape." He was starting to understand Louise's personality a little bit now, and so he did not mention that the spirometer was also used to avoid the build-up of fluid in the lungs.
"Fine, whatever," Louise grabbed the device, looking irritated.
"Just put the end of the tube in your mouth, and breathe out deeply," instructed Cabell. There was a yellow clip on the handle, next to the number that read '500'. The numbers went up to 2500. "When you breathe, the liquid is gonna go up, and we wanna get it to at least 500."
Looking extremely annoyed, Louise did so. The liquid barely went past 200. She had to repeat the action ten times, before she was instructed to cough. "Great," said Cabell. "I'm gonna need you to do that every hour, okay?" Louise pulled a face in response, and he left the room, leaving the device with her.
Louise perked up slightly when lunch time rolled around. Being waited on hand and foot sure made her hungry. She couldn't keep from pulling a face when she was handed a strawberry ice lolly.
"What is this, an appetiser?" she asked, taking it.
"It's lunch," Robin had told her, holding another ice lolly.
"Where's the food? Can't I order something?"
"You're getting food through this tube here," she'd pointed to the tube in Louise's vein. "So you don't actually need to eat. It'll only be for a few days."
"Well, can't I have something anyway?"
"You don't need it," Robin assured her. "You're getting everything you need through the tube."
"I don't want the tube; take it out so I can eat."
"I'm afraid we can't do that, Louise."
"Why not?"
"We can't take the tubes out until you're a little bit better."
"I'm fine, and I want proper food!" she insisted.
"You'll be able to eat proper food soon, but until then, you'll have to make do with these," Robin told her.
"But -" Louise began, but Linda cut her off.
"It'll be fine, sweetie; it's just for a few days. And when the tube's out, you can have whatever you want. I mean it; anything you want."
"..Pizza with chocolate chip cookies?" Louise asked.
"Yep," Linda didn't even hesitate. "We'll make you a chocolate chip cookie pizza, alright?"
"Fine," Louise frowned, and had sullenly eaten her lollies in silence. She tried to not be paranoid; they weren't starving her, they wouldn't. They were giving her food, weren't they? Just not proper food.
After "lunch", physical therapist Bradley Anderson arrived, by this time well known to all the Belchers'.
"Hi, Louise," he smiled, and she ignored him. She knew what he was here for. "How you doing today?" Again, he got no answer, but he persevered. "So, today, I'm going to start you off with a few gentle exercises to help stretch out your legs. This'll prevent the muscles from tightening. First, I just want you to lift up your left leg. Can you do that for me?" Louise was staring at the ceiling, completely refusing to acknowledge him. She had been cooperative in her previous physical therapy sessions, out of necessity, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. Because speaking and participating would mean that her toes really were amputated. "Louise? I'm gonna need you to pay attention. Can you lift your left leg for me?"
"No," she replied, her gaze still focused on the ceiling.
"You can't move your legs?" Anderson was confused, and Robin began to approach.
"Don't want to," she muttered.
"I'm afraid you're gonna have to do this," he said, and Louise shook her head.
"I'm not gonna." She folded her arms, not looking at any of them.
"Well, you know," he began gently, "if you don't do this, then you'll have to stay here for even longer. You want to go home, don't you?" She frowned, refusing to answer.
"Louise, sweetie," Linda stepped in, sitting on the edge of the bed, "you've got to try. We want you to come home."
"That's right," said Tina from her spot near the window. "We miss you."
"Well, I'm not doing this stupid stuff!" she snapped.
"Come on, Louise," said Anderson. "The sooner you get started, the easier it will be for you. I know it can be upsetting, but -"
"You don't know anything!" her gaze was fixed on the wall ahead of her.
"Louise," he said, trying to get her to understand. "This is very important; you need to do this. This will help you to be able to walk again. If you don't, then you'll be in a wheelchair forever. You don't want that, right?"
Louise looked down at her blanket. The scowl dropped from her face, but she shook her head again. "Even if there were no amputations, you'd need to do physical therapy anyway, for your broken ankle. This is no different. We want to help you get better, so you can go back home, and be with your family."
"I don't want to do it!" she said sharply, throwing herself back against the pillows.
"It will be really good for you," said Anderson, "but you do need to do this, and I'm afraid you can't go home until you make a start on this."
Louise threw her head back, a look of great frustration on her face.
"Louise, please do this," said Bob, coming a bit closer. "I know you're probably really upset, but -"
"I am not doing this!" she shouted, clenching her fists, and blinking back tears.
"Louise," began Anderson, but he was again cut off.
"No."
"Now, come on, Louise."
"No!" It was plain to see that she was getting agitated.
"It'll be okay; we'll start small. Just simple stretching exercises."
"No, no, no! Stop talking to me! I won't do it, and you can't make me! Just leave me alone!" And with that, Louise covered her face with the pillow.
For a moment, the occupants in the room just stared at her. Then, they saw the shaking of her shoulders, and they realised she was crying.
Anderson tactfully retreated; he would try again tomorrow, while Louise's family gathered around her.
"Louise?" said Linda softly, as she placed a hand on her daughter's arm. Louise jerked it away, and scrunched her hands into the pillow.
Bob sat on her other side, looking heartbroken. Gene and Tina were standing at the foot of the bed.
They all remained silent, as they knew there was nothing they could say to her. All they could do was be there for her.