Thanks for the many great comments so far! I can't tell you how much it means to me!
Here's another chapter for you guys!
"Today, you get to try out your new crutches!" Jonas cheered as he walked through the door to the room Oliver was placed in. It was the day after the surgery and he was officially out of the worst danger. "What do you think about that?"
Oliver whom had laid awake most of the night, since his leg felt like it was about to explode, wasn't quite as cheerful as Jonas. But he had to admit, getting out of this damn hospital bed would be a change for the better.
"Great… uhm… Can I get some more painkillers, my leg is killing me!" the throbbing he had felt the day before was down right pounding by now. He felt like he was about to turn crazy at any moment!
"You're already at a high level of medication, but I can see what I can do…" Jonas said, looking a bit confused. "By the way… Do you know if you have any deficiencies when it comes to taking up drugs? Because you should be next to knocked out right now…"
Oliver looked at Jonas as if he didn't understand what the man was saying. How should he know?
"On a scale, 1-10, how much of the surgery did you feel?"
"6, maybe 7…" Oliver looked up with a blank expression, why was he asked about this?
"Okay… And do you remember the last time you were being put under, by narcosis…?"
Oliver nodded.
"Other than the 'massive hangover', any other complications?"
"Yeah, I could feel just about every cut and stitch they made. I tried screaming, tried moving, but I was paralyzed! I couldn't move, couldn't let them know that I was in utter pain! How so?"
While Oliver had explained, Jonas had been standing by his bed nodding.
"I think you might be immune to many anesthetic drugs… Well, at least the effect of them…" Jonas answered, "It's not common, but it happens…"
Jonas walked over to the chart hanging by the edge of Oliver's bed, "One more question; Does it work at all? The pain medication?"
Oliver thought it over before he answered, "Yeah… It does take the edge off of it!"
"Well… At least that's a good sign…"
"Yeah…" Oliver nodded as he grimaced at the last shock of pain seared through his leg.
"I'll see what I can do about it, but no promises…" Jonas said before he exited the patient room and headed towards the office area.
A couple of hours later, when Oliver had been given another brand of painkillers that worked a bit better, he was helped out of the bed.
"I bet you've used crutches before…" Jonas said handing him a pair.
"Yeah… A couple of times…" Oliver answered. Truth was he had lost count… He had been injured a couple of times before he got stranded on Lian Yu. His injuries had used to be from either playing football, or partying…
"Great, then I won't have to guide you through it!" Jonas smiled as he watched the young man in front of him place the crutches under his arms and lean on to them. He saw the strained and painful look on Oliver's face as he moved, slowly, but determined…
"Since we're alone right now, I've got to ask you one question!"
Oliver looked up, a tiny bit confused. What could Jonas want to ask him. He nodded as a signal for him to go ahead and ask.
"Your cover story; It was awful! I mean, come on! Football at night!"
"Yeah, I know… But we couldn't use drinking, since I didn't smell of booze. Climbing sounded even more stupid, and Motor Cross was also not a valid story…" Oliver shifted his weight from his right, to his left shoulder, "Besides, we needed a story that involved a pretty bad impact… Hence the tackle… And I thought Dig said they had used a great amount of time helping me from the field over to the car…"
"As you mention it, he did say something like that… But what about falling down the stairs at home?"
"Yeah… I thought he said so… We talked about some kind of stair story, but for the first; I would probably had many other injuries too then. And second; we still have a house phone… We needed a reason why we hadn't called after an ambulance… " Oliver commented before he centered his weight over the crutches and started to take a step. His leg, which at the moment hadn't been too bad due to the new painkiller brand, lit up like a firework. He leaned back on the side of his bed and grabbed hold of the metal frame surrounding his right leg, as if to steady it.
He had barely moved the injured limb, but still in some way he had jostled it enough to cause severe pain.
"Fuck!" he hissed under his breath as his leg cramped up, and his vision threatened to go black.
Before he knew it, Jonas was at his side supporting him. "Do you need anything? We could put you back to bed again…"
Jonas' voice was caring and kind. As he was steadying Oliver, he tried to make eye-contact.
Oliver shook his head, "No, I just wasn't prepared for it… I'm good…"
Good was an extreme exaggeration, he felt like he was about to throw up and his vision kept altering between normal and going black. He could feel how unstable his knee-joint was, it felt like it was free floating inside his skin. The only thing holding it aligned was the monster brace cutting into his leg at every third inch or so…
A few hours later Oliver was discharged and could go home. Diggle, whom had spent the night at the hospital with him helped him maneuver through the corridors towards the parking-lot where the car was. Roy on the other hand had gone back to the factory to see if he could figure out what was blocking the power…
Of course, stubborn as Oliver was, he had refused to be escorted out in a wheelchair… Which would have been a huge improvement.
Oliver's grimace grew deeper and deeper for each step he took, but Diggle knew better than to mention it. He knew Oliver hated to admit having weaknesses, but he couldn't grasp why he had so much against admitting that he was in pain… At least when the pain was as bad as it must be at the moment.
When they finally reached the car, deep pain-lines was etched into Oliver's features. His forehead was dripping with sweat, even though it was only a 50 yard walk…
Oliver ached all the way home. He tried hiding it, but he couldn't find one position that didn't suck… Once again he had been placed in the backseat of Dig's car. It was pretty much the only place where he could even manage to sit.
Even though Diggle drove as slow as he ever had, the small bumps in the road made Oliver cuss out loud. He couldn't remember the last time something had hurt so much and so bad. He remembered the first time he had dislocated his kneecap on Lian Yu… That was bad, but in comparison to this… It was nothing! Or the second time he had pulled his shoulder out of joint… Painful, tear-making, cuss-worthy painful, but against this… Still nothing to really mention…
Hope you enjoyed!