Ch. 6 Dr. Feelgood
"Noah Puckerman, you can come on back now." A cheery older nurse wearing care bear smocks said while looking down at her clipboard. For some reason she reminded Puck of his grandmother.
Puck looked up at the nurse then looked back to his friends siting in the crowded emergency room. All three stared back at him confidently. Puck wondered how good his chances were if he tried to make a run for it. He was fairly positive he might be able to out run Mike even with his injuries. He might also be able to outsmart the other two and actually be able to leave, but he knew with all three working together he wouldn't stand a chance.
Puck took a deep gulp of breath before resigning himself that running away was not an option. He saw the nurse clicking her heels impatiently at him. He unwillingly got up and started following her back into one of the private rooms.
The nurse led him into a pristine white room with one of those elevated bed things. Puck wasn't exactly sure what you called those things, but to him they always seemed to be up higher than necessary.
"You can take a seat. I just need to ask you a few standard questions before the doctor comes in."
Puck went over to the elevated bed and struggled to hop up on to it. The sides of his chest and abdomen seemed to protest this movement. More pain raked trough his body, which caused him to release a small whimper.
The nurse seeing the action went over to Puck and helped ease him onto the bed further.
"Oh you poor dear, you're in more pain then you were letting on out there. Trying to keep up the tough guy act in front of your friends huh? Well you don't got do that in front of me, now from a scale from one to ten how bad is the pain. One being the least amount of pain ten being the highest." The nurse said soothingly to Puck.
"Umm I guess I'd go with an eight. I've felt worse so yeah, I guess eight." Puck mumbled to the nurse.
"Okay sweetie, need you to tell me where it exactly hurts, and how long have you been experiencing the pain." The nurse cooed to Puck.
Line…
After fifteen minutes of questions and the nurse checking Pucks blood pressure the nurse finally was done. With the promise that Dr. Chang would be right with him in a few minutes the nurse left the room. Puck was alone at last, away from prying eyes. Puck wrapped his arms around his torso and started rocking back and forth on the bed. Puck looked over the garment the nurse had left for him to put on. Puck was trembling at the sight of the offending garment now. He knew he had to put it on to be checked over by the doctor properly, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He just felt so exposed at just looking at the garment. He began to tremble harder as images of being so exposed to people flashed through his eyes. His chest started pounding, it became hard to breath. Puck felt like he was dying.
Dr. Chang entered the room and looked over at the young man who was shaking on his table. He walked over to the Puck and placed a hand on his shoulder. Puck jumped at the touch, but then began to rock harder.
"Umm, Noah. Noah Puckerman" the doctor called, he received no response from Puck. Dr. Chang got out a little flash light and started to shine it into Puck's eyes.
"Noah I need you to relax, you're okay. Just calm down, you're in the hospital. I want you to take deep breath in then let it out okay." Dr. Chang said while continuing to shine the light in Puck's eyes.
The words slowly started to sink into Puck. He took a deep breath in then let it out as commanded. He did it again and again until he was finally able to stop trembling. His chest stopped pounding and he no longer felt as if he was going to die. He looked up to see Dr. Chang staring at him.
"There, there you're okay now. Noah you just experienced a panic attack and judging by the look on your face you've never had one before. It's going to be okay you're probably just really stressed with what's happened to you." Dr. Chang said to Puck.
Wave of fear washed over Puck at Dr. Chang's words. "Oh god he knows everything. I'm so dead. Dead. D-E-A-D!" Puck's thoughts screamed at him.
Dr. Chang saw the rush of fear through Puck's eyes.
"Noah it's perfectly okay to be scared after having been mugged. The panic attacks most likely won't happen again once you don't feel as stressed. My son's told me everything that happened will take this nice and slow okay. Just want to help you. Can you take off your shirt for me?" Dr. Chang asked.
Puck stared wide eyed for a minute. He didn't know what had really happened; he just wanted to look over Puck's wounds. Puck shook his before hesitantly taking off his shirt for the doctor.
Line…
Puck stepped out of the hospital and into the parking lot sporting a bright lime green cast on his right arm in a sling. Mike's father had said Puck had been lucky to even walk away from the mugging that he had known plenty of people who hadn't.
All in all Puck's injuries weren't so bad, well at least to him. Three stiches to his lip, a broken wrist, five bruised ribs that were now wrapped and a now popped back in place shoulder. The shoulder and wrist had been the worst part about this hospital experience. Mike's father had to physically rebrake Puck's wrist a bit because the bones had already stared healing in the wrong position. He had wanted Puck to be under for both his wrist and popping the shoulder back in place, but had Puck out right refused. So the doctor had done while he was awake. It had hurt like a bitch, but Puck remembered receiving worse pain from his father.
Anyway it was all over now, and he got the best thing ever after it. Pain killers, oh wonderful pain killers! He popped to pills in his mouth before leaving the emergency room. Puck had been on pain killers before; they made everything just so, well, awesome! He knew he'd be on a high in a matter of minutes. In addition to the pain pills Dr. Chang had prescribed him he was also given something to help with the panic attacks. Some type of pill which he couldn't even begin to pronounce the name of correctly. Puck would have to experiment with that pill a bit, but if it made him less jumpy he'd be okay with taking that too.
Puck walked straight past the guys without saying a word and hoped into his truck. He just sat in the driver's seat trying to figure out why he wasn't moving yet with a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Umm what does he think he's doing?" Finn questioned looking at Puck in concern.
"Oh he'll be fine eventually dad said the pain killers might make him act a little goofy for a while." Mike said looking into Puck's truck.
Puck was now staring down at his lime green cast. The cast started to remind Puck of a snake he once saw at the zoo.
"Hiss hiss." Puck said while wiggling his fingers in his cast.
"Well I think I'll take Puck home, think he could use some sleep. You don't have to follow I can just walk home it's not too far." Sam said while raising his eyebrows at Puck who was now giving a queen wave to guys.
Sam took Puck's truck keys from Mike and headed over to the truck. He opened the trucks door and watched how Puck stared at him.
"You okay buddy?" Sam asked as Puck continued to stare at him.
Puck let out a small gasp and looked terrified for a moment.
"I can't find my keys and I'm turning into the hulk." Puck said with a pouting lip as a tear rolled down his cheek.
Sam couldn't help but laugh at how hilarious Puck was acting. Puck just continued to look hurt and confused though. Sam finally stopped laughing and motioned for Puck to scoot over to the passenger seat.
"You didn't lose your keys. I have them, and I'm going to drive you home okay. Oh and you're not turning into the hulk you just have a cast on remember." Sam said while tussling with Puck hair a bit before putting the keys in the ignition.
"Oh, yeah I knew that." Puck said eyeing his cast more closely.
Sam smiled at Puck, and then turned on the radio as they turned out of the hospital. Sam couldn't help but smile again as Puck began to sing along with the Mötley Crüe song Dr. Feelgood.