Imperfect, Chapter Three:

Sometimes Signals Get Crossed

By Sylvia M Bartlett

Aka Hemel Lass(ie) aka Lady Lochinvar aka HornetladySBM, now HornetladySMB!

Chapter Three which was previously posted was just a little taste. Here's the full version. Sylvia Bartlett 5-23-2007

Charlie woke up to sunlight glaring across his pillow. "Please," he moaned,"close the curtain."

"Have you taken to vampirism, young Charles?" Charlie opened one eye and regarded Larry Fleinhardt, dourly.

"Been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, haven't we?"

"Indeed, it is actually a quite amusing little series, you know."

"Well, I have not had any love bites from Drusilla or Darla, Larry. I am just light sensitive from these damned headaches."

Frowning, Larry moved quickly to close the curtains. 'I'm sorry. I assumed the medication they had you on, had relieved that."

"Yeah." Charlie mustered more of a grin as the level of light went down. "No offense, Rocket Man, but you know what they say about assuming anything?"

"Ah, yes. I assume you are referring to the expression along the lines of: "It makes an ass out of you and me?" "

"Again, with the pop culture references? The universe is surely unwinding, when my favorite cosmologist uses so many of them in one conversation. It's good to see you, Larry."

"It is good to be seen by you, Charlie. Even if it is only through one eye, which keeps putting me in mind of Popeye."

"Well, I wouldn't object to a nice serving of spinach salad right about now." The younger Eppes responded. "I think hospital food is intended to make sure no one ever has an appetite again! All I have to do is look at what they call breakfast around here? And I lose my previous evening's dinner. Usually all over some poor nursing student's brand new white shoes!" Charlie gave his mentor and friend an impish grin.

"Those shoes are designed to be highly cleanable, you know, so no worries there." Larry responding rocking forward on his toes.

"I still feel bad. The poor kids have to wear the darn things the rest of the day!"

"Colorfully decorated by Charles Edward Eppes?" Larry shook his head, placing one hand alongside his face with a thoughtful expression. "Well, some might consider wearing those a privilege, Charles."

Charlie groaned. "Enough, Larry. That's just….weird! Art by Barf?"

Larry shook his head. "Okay, I wasn't going to go quite that far, Charles. However, art and beauty are in the eyes of the beholder."

"Somehow, I can not picture any one considering barf on shoes to be art, Larry." Alan said, from the doorway. "I don't know. I expect this kind of sick humor from these two, but I would have thought…"

Don interrupted his father. "Gee, Dad, you took credit for our sense of humor just yesterday. He isn't allowed to retract that this soon, is he, Charlie?"

"No way. He is stuck with the fact he's responsible for our quirky humor!" The youngest Eppes replied. "So you guys come to spring me from this pop stand."

"Charles, are you sure about this?" Was Alan's response. "Your doctor said he was 'reluctantly signing discharge papers, but you were to return immediately, if the nausea and vomiting recur.' "

Charlie patted the bag he had on the bed next to him. 'I have my auto-injectors of anti-nausea meds and pain control meds and the stuff they prescribed to relieve the amount of pressure inside my head. I am not real thrilled to be on steroids, but they assure me this is a short burst and only a temporary measure."

Don opened the bag and pulled out the small bottle of white pills, reading the label quickly. "It is just a short burst, Charlie, but Dad…you might want to clear out a room or something because the starting level is high enough, that Charlie is probably not going to sleep for the first three days and you want to make sure he doesn't achieve orbit without benefit of a rocket ship to get there. No offense, Larry."

"What do they think the nature of these headaches is that they have ascertained steroids are necessary?" Professor Fleinhardt looked more than a little worried.

"They have to do more tests to be sure. Seems that there are a couple of different camps debating which tests are the correct ones to be run. So it looks like I have about 3 or 4 days before I will even know what they are recommending. "Charlie rolled his eyes. "One of the things I hate about medical doctors…especially when they are specialists. I swear, you could put four of them in the same room, looking at the same clock and they would all come up with a different way of expressing the time! And none would agree with any of the others! I really hate hospitals. Dad, you brought the clothes I ask for, right." When Alan held out the gym sack, he snatched, unzipped the closure and looked in. "Thank God! Comfortable clothes."

"I hope you are doing the right thing coming home, little one. You are still so pale."

"Yeah, well, keep me in here with what a hospital suggests to be food and I will never get any color back. I can't seem to keep a meal from this place on board. It makes a return visit in relatively short order if you catch my drift."

Don was frowning now. "Charlie, if you are not even keeping food down, how can they think of letting you go home?"

"I am 'well hydrated and am keeping my nutritional supplementation in'." Charlie quoted a bit facetiously. "In other words, the liquid crap they give me every couple of hours does stay in and so does water. It is just what they call food I can't hang on to. When you brought me the roast beef sandwich from Krumholtz's yesterday? I didn't have any trouble keeping that it at all."

"Well, it would be a damn shame to waste one of those." Don grinned. "So, hospital food sucks that bad here, huh?"

"I would not put this on the list of places to eat a meal. That is for certain sure. They seem to manage to cook spinach until it is yellow green, which is pretty disgusting if you think about it! Larry, visit with Dad and Don for a minute. I am just going to go change." Charlie started to stand a bit too fast and immediately swayed causing 3 pairs of hands to extend to catch him, but he steadied himself by grabbing the rail on the bed. "Have to quit moving too fast. Makes the world spin every time." His eyes were closed as he said that, but he opened them and saw the worried exchanges of his father, brother and friend. "Oh, good grief, relax. They said that is perfectly normal. My BP is running low, which is actually not a bad thing…but if I move too fast, I get dizzy. That's all. They wouldn't be letting me go home if they were worried about it." He headed for the bathroom. "I'll be out in just a few minutes."

Larry looked at the remaining Eppes. "What exactly brought Charles here? When Amita called me and said he was hospitalized, I cut short my little post space sabbatical and came at once. She told me where he was, so I came here first thing this morning. How did this all start?"

Don sat on the edge of Charlie's bed and began to explain, while Alan took a seat in the chair in the room.

Fleinhardt listened to the entire tale with a thoughtful expression. When all was told, he spoke slowly. "As I recall, headaches seem to run in your family, don't they?"

"Actually, that is true. We all have them. Oddly enough, the causes seem to vary with every headache. We all have some allergies, Charlie, Don and I tend to get sinus infections fairly frequently."

"And Charlie has had headaches since he was little, but no one ever suggested they were migraines. In fact, they said specifically they were NOT true migraines. There almost always seems to be a medical cause – sinus infection, ear infection, that eye problem – what was it called, Dad?"

"I don't know. It wasn't pink eye, conjuvitis…it was something else. He's had it several times. The eye does get red, but the ophthalmologist always has certified it is not pink eye and is not contagious. Wonder if the hospital checked with him."

Charlie came out of the bathroom, clothed and ready to go. "It is called uveitis, Dad. I did have it this time, but they think this set of headaches is from more than just the uveitis. That is part of why they want the additional tests."

"So, we ready to make the great escape." Don queried.

"Just waiting for my shades." Charlie replied. "Wonder how much longer…"

The door swung open and a pretty nurse bustled in. "Well, Professor, I hear you are leaving us. Here are your new sunglasses. Remember, you don't have to take these off. They will adjust very quickly to changes in lighting. You should even wear them inside and especially when you are working on your computer. They will control the amount of light entering your eyes and you may find they reduce your headache pain considerably."

"Guess the kids in my class will start calling me a 'four-eyed geek' now." Charlie tried to make light the new addition to his wardrobe. He took the glasses out of their case and slipped them on. "Do I look totally nerdish?"

"Actually, Charlie…you look pretty cool. Those things almost have a Top Gun or MIB feel to them."

Charlie grinned. "Well, they are Raybans!"

"If you will wait just a few moments, the transportation department is on the way with your chariot."

Charlie frowned. "Oh, man. I have to go out in a wheel chair. That is so NOT cool."

"Deal, Charlie." Don retorted. "You know the routine. It's the rule!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever!"

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