A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews! I'm getting some very strong reactions but I love it! Keep reading and I'll keep writing!
"Hey man, you look like hell," Ryan had been falling in and out of a drug- induced stupor that vaguely resembled sleep. The nurse had to pump him full of morphine in order to get the splint on him, he cried out in pain every time they had tried to move his leg even slightly even slightly. Now that it was in the thick splint it felt a lot better. For a moment he thought he was imagining hearing and seeing Seth standing there next to his bedside. How had he gotten there?
"Hey," Ryan managed a tired smiled, and tried to sit up.
"Why so much effort? You have a button right here to do that for you," Seth said, pressing the button on his bedside that obliged by lifting Ryan into a sitting position.
"What are you doing here?" Ryan asked, slightly confused. How long had Seth been standing there?
"What? Not glad to see me?"
"No I am… I'm just… Am I dreaming? Seth, are you in my head?"
Seth laughed, "Wow, what drugs do they have you on? That stuff must have a street name…" Ryan chuckled slightly, he was glad to have his step- brother there beside him, and he seemed real enough, or he was having one heck of a hallucination. "So your knee, huh?"
"Yeah," Ryan sighed. "When did you get here?"
"Not long ago, Summer apparently got a bunch of texts from Marissa about the car accident and she called Luke who told her that he had managed to somehow wrangle you into actually seeing a doctor who had already called Mom and Dad, and anyway we all decided to show up. Oh, by the way, Mom and Dad are headed up here,"
"What?" Ryan started, staring at Seth. "Why?" His brain was kind of slow to process but he was pretty sure Seth had just said Sandy and Kirsten were on their way- and apparently there was a crowd in the waiting room.
"They want to fly you home, they think the ride home in the car will be too painful for you." Ryan groaned and sank into the bed. He hated when the Cohen's fussed over him. "I told them you probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture, but they were practically on board a plane already."
"No, it's not that… I just, I don't need them to worry about me. They do enough for me as it is… they don't need to do this…"
"They know they didn't need to Ryan, they just want to."
"Hey Ryan, ready to go?" Ryan's doctor poked his head into their room.
"Yeah," Ryan nodded. He was tired, like really tired. He realized with a jolt that he hadn't really slept at all that night, and it was almost five am.
"Alright, well, I just wanted to give you these. It's pretty late, I figured you'd have trouble finding a pharmacy that was open, so I went ahead and filled a prescription for you." He handed Ryan a small amber bottle. "Just be careful, no more than two every four hours, and drink plenty of water with them, alright? Those are pretty strong, so no operating of any heavy machinery, got it?"
"Sure doc," Ryan reached out to take the pills gratefully, he had been dreading the pain that would come when they stopped pumping that magical serum into his arm. The doctor hesitated mid- reach and glanced at Seth.
"Can you give us a minute?" He asked.
"Okay…" Seth was reluctant, but he wasn't going to argue with the tall man in the white coat, and he shuffled to the door. The doctor waited until he heard it click shut to speak.
"Look Ryan, those are your friends out there in the waiting room, right?"
"Yeah, sorry so many of them showed up… I'll tell them to get out of here."
"No, they're not disturbing anybody and it's good to see young people be so… supportive. No Ryan, what I wanted to say to you…" He hesitated, "This conversation is strictly confidential, do you understand me? I could lose my job, but, I wouldn't feel comfortable…" Ryan began to fidget uncomfortably, wondering what the doctor was going to say. "Look, your friend who came in a few hours before you- the one who was in the car accident?"
"Oliver- yeah?"
"I'm not naming names, but when a patient arrives complaining of extreme pain but no exact location and no detectable injuries, it's just that, well, kids and adults really, who are looking for pain killers, often they will complain of extreme pain of indeterminate cause. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Ryan started to shake his head then stopped, looking closely at the doctor. prescription for pain, especially to someone under the age of 18. "
"You're saying I shouldn't tell Oliver you gave me this,"
"I'm saying keep a close eye on those pills, and maybe don't spread it around that you have them, alright? I don't want to not give you medicine you need because there's a chance that it could end up in the wrong hands, so I'm trusting you, alright?"
"Thanks," Ryan mumbled. Was this doctor really saying what he thought he was saying? Oliver was just looking for pain meds and wasn't actually injured? Then Seth was back, holding a pair of crutches.
"Come on buddy, let's get you out of here. Unless you wanna stay here until Mom and Dad arrive."
"Nah, let's go back to the lodge, I could use some sleep." Ryan said, getting up from the bed with Seth's help and getting a crutch under each arm. He didn't want to use the crutches anymore now than he wanted to earlier, but he really didn't want to make his leg worse. The prospect of surgery was a little too frightening.