Puck got back home at 10AM and cautiously walked in the front door. He didn't see his father's car out front, so he hoped for the best. Luckily, he only found himself face to face with his mother and baby sister. He was glad she was home, even if it meant her skipping school.
As soon as he was in the door, his mother embraced him in a tight hug, ignoring the cast on his arm, until he muttered something about not being able to breathe. Then Sarah ran up and hugged him, smiling bigger than ever. "Did you beat the monster? Did we do it?" She asked excitedly.
Puck looked up at his mother and saw a solemn nod. He then picked Sarah up with one arm, ignoring the pain and hugging her tighter. "Yeah. We did it. You and I babe, we took him down." He smiled. The expression felt foreign on his face, but he was glad he could still smile at her.
He walked back over to the couch with her and sat down.
"Sarah," his mother said gently, "Can you go play upstairs for a little bit. I have to talk to Noah for a little while."
Sarah nodded and gave Puck a kiss on the check before running upstairs.
"Noah… I am so… sorry. I wanted to look for you… even with the first note… but he wouldn't let me…" His mother began to cry and Puck hated seeing her cry.
"Ma it's okay, it's not your fault." Puck then proceeded to tell her the entire story. He left out the parts about living on the streets and in his car and doing drugs, but he otherwise told the truth.
"I know it wasn't the best way to do things… but I didn't know what else to do. He only gave me a few minutes to get my things and write a note, so I wrote the fake one that I knew he'd read and left the real one where I knew Sarah would find it eventually… I couldn't go to anyone. He said he'd kill you both before anyone would actually be able to help me… I probably shouldn't have believed him on that… but I mean…he had followed through on a lot of other threats last time he was here…"
Puck's mom nodded and ran her hand through her son's hair. "It's okay baby. It's going to be fine now. He's gone for good this time… Sarah found the note last night but kept it until she knew your father was leaving this morning for his 'job' that he apparently found. I contacted the police and apparently he was wanted on other charges anyway…" She paused, wiping tears from her son's cheeks before taking care of the ones of her own that had been falling.
"Now, let me see what he's done."
Puck nodded and with his mother's help, slipped his shirt off again. She let out a small gasp as she saw the still deep purple bruising covering Puck's entire front side and several across his back.
"Baby… I don't think this is healing properly…" She gently ran her fingers over his ribcage and frowned. "Come on, we're getting you to the hospital." Puck nodded again and his mom helped him stand up. He walked out to the car as his mother called Sarah down and got her ready to spend so time in the hospital waiting room. She probably should have had her daughter attend school that day, but after everything, she just wanted to be with her children.
At the hospital, Puck sat in the doctor's room with his shirt off again, glad Dr. Prong was on duty again tonight. He'd asked his mother to take Sarah to get some lunch, knowing this might take a while, but also knowing he had some other questions to ask the doctor. Once they had left the room, Puck looked over to his doctor and said everything on his mind.
"So, I know I said last week that these were from a car accident, but they're not. They're from my dad." He then proceeded to tell his doctor the entire story, including the drugs and the random sex.
"I just… I never wanted to do meth. I'm… I'm scared of what is gonna happen now that it has been in my system… and I was hoping for an STD test or something. I don't think we… were safe." It was hard to admit, but he was scared. He'd never been so scared in his life than he had been over the past week, really ever since his dad walked back into their house.
Dr. Prong nodded and made several notes in his chart. "I am so sorry for all of this Noah… here's what we're going to do… if it's okay with you. We're going to document all your injuries officially and call social services about your father. I'm also going to run the full STD tests on you and I'll page the drug and alcohol counselor who's on duty right now. She can talk to you about your concerns. I take it your mother doesn't know about the things from this past week."
The entire ordeal took until 4PM that night. The hospital fed him some crappy hospital food and he colored with Sarah as they curled up in the hospital bed waiting for various people, be it social services, test results, or other doctors. They x-rayed his ribs and found that his mother was right, the fractured rib was getting worse.
"Noah, Ms. Puckerman, we did discover some complications in your condition," his doctor stated calmly. His mother gripped Noah's hand tightly and tensed up, but he continued.
"It will be okay. But you need to stay here tonight. It's called Haemothorax. It just means that there is blood trapped in the bottom of your lung. We need to drain it and make sure it's not going to happen again before we let you go."
Puck nodded and his mother's grip loosened slightly. So at 4PM, Puck was checked in and moved from the ER to an overnight room. Once his mother and Sarah had left for the evening Puck's doctor returned with more test results and a tall blonde woman behind him.
"Good news at last Noah!" His doctor exclaimed gently. "Your tests came back clear. You're negative for all STDs, but you do need to come back in 6 months for the AIDs/HIV test. That's the only one we can't do now."
Puck smiled and gave a sigh of relief. He really dodged a bullet on that one.
"Well…" his doctor continued. "This is Vera Loane. She is our resident drug counselor and is happy to help you out tonight. I'll be back tomorrow. Do you have any questions for me?"
Puck shook his head gently. "No. But thank you so much man."
"Don't worry about it Noah. Get some rest." With that, Dr. Prong left the room.
Puck turned to Vera Loane and gave a small smile.
She figured she should start off somewhere. "So, can you talk to me about what happened?"
Puck closed his eyes for a minute before he began to tell his story. "I mean, I've always done weed, I've never had a problem with it. And I drink sometimes, but none of that is what I'm worried about. I mean, I come off as a bad boy and all, but I never ever wanted to do anything more than weed. I know it can fuck up lives real bad. But then, this guy… on Sunday… we were drunk and I thought he'd bought weed, but… it turned out to be meth. I just, I don't know, I just don't want to be like accidentally addicted or something."
Ms. Loane nodded and listened to Puck's worries.
"Well I don't think you have anything to worry about Noah. I think you really need to lay off of the weed though, I don't think it's helping. Have you had any urge to do meth since Sunday?"
Puck thought but then shook his head. "No. I mean, I felt good for like a minute, but I hated everything about that night. I really never want to feel that way again."
"Good. That's a good place to be. The meth, mixed with the alcohol, mixed with all the pain you were already in, was not a good combination. The tests on your lungs will come back tomorrow after they finish draining the blood. They can then test and make sure there's been no damage due to the smoking."
Puck smiled, finally thinking that maybe this wasn't going to be such a big issue after all.
She continued, pulling a card out of her folder and handing it to him. "Here is my cell number. If you are ever even thinking about any sort of drugs, you call me, okay?"
He nodded. Normally he would have made a comment about getting a girl's number or hospital booty calls, but he was too thankful for her.
"Noah, I know you're going to be okay. Everything will work itself out."
Puck hugged her and she left, really hoping that he would be okay.