Chapter 6
It had been a week since Nate's heart nearly stopped.
A week since he watched his friend collapse.
A week since the doctor pushed him out of the room without a word.
He'd had to wait for twenty minutes before he heard anything about what had happened. Twenty minutes spent pacing up and down the corridor. As soon as the doctor came out to him, Nate charged at him, loaded with questions. It turned out that Eliot had had a seizure, and it may not be his last. They restarted him on the anti-seizure drugs temporarily, with the hopes to stop them once his body had healed some more.
"Mr Krane, we need to keep your brother on the anti-seizure medication while the larger fractures heal. If he continues to have fits before that happens, the damage to his body may take longer to mend and it could complicate things. Once he's in a better place, we will try to take him off the meds again to see how he copes. This recent episode could have just been a one-off due to stress, but it also could be a sign of epilepsy. If your brother is suffering from epilepsy then we'll have to keep him on the medication permanently."
The next day, Eliot woke up to Nate already in his room. He tried to ask what had happened, but his face felt numb and he struggled to speak clearly. That's when the mastermind decided to explain things to him.
To say he was angry was an understatement. He'd tried to argue with Nate but it took him so long to talk that he kept losing track of his thoughts. It was bad enough being immobile, but now he couldn't speak to vent his frustrations. He wanted to throw something or punch a wall, but that required a working arm. All he could do was scream... scream and yell, it didn't matter that he wasn't using actual words because the emotion was clear. He was pissed and he wanted people to know it.
A nurse had come in to help calm the patient down. Through all the screaming, pleading, soothing, and crying, Eliot had managed to get just two words out. "Nate, leave." He didn't want to go, but the medic suggested that it might be for the best, just for now while his brother was so upset.
Nate told the others to stay home for the day, that he'll try again tomorrow. Which he did, to no avail. The hitter had somehow managed to get Nate and the others blocked from seeing him. The doctor still informed him (as next of kin) of Eliot's current medical state, but he couldn't overrule his patient's wishes over visitation. All he could suggest was to leave it for a few days till he calmed down.
Now, a week later, he was finally allowed back into the room.
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"Hey, El. How're you feeling?" The mastermind spoke softly from the doorway. He was anxious to walk in, he was still fearful that the hitter would just toss him back out again. Eliot didn't say a word so he continued to speak. "The others are in the waiting room. We didn't want to overwhelm you, but they would really like to see you... see that you're ok." The hitter scoffed and rolled his head in the opposite direction.
The room then fell into an awkward silence for ten minutes.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted." The words were quiet and sounded like they came from the man in the bed. "It was childish of me, I shouldn't have yelled like that, it's just that... I got so frustrated with myself for not being able to do anything. It had been awful having to just lie here all day, and then to find myself unable to talk... I just lost it."
Nate leaned forward in his chair. "You don't have to apologise. You were going through something I couldn't even imagine and found the only way you could deal with it at that moment. Would you like me to call the others up?"
He shook his head, the only part of him he could move at the moment. "I don't like them seeing me like this."
"I'm pretty sure this, is much better than what they're imagining. They haven't seen you since you had that fit."
The hitter sighed, "how much do they know about all that?"
"As much as we know. That the seizures may be permeant, but there are ways to manage if they are." He got up, stepping closer to the bed. "We will get through this."
"Yeah," Eliot turned his head. Icy blue eyes fixed on Nate as he spat some harsh truths. "How are we gonna manage. We gonna ask the marks muscle to just avoid hittin' me in the head, or ask them to wait while I finish fittin' on the floor."
"We don't know if it is epilepsy yet..."
"No, we also don't know if I'll get feeling back in my right side, and I still have to wait to have my organs tested for functionality. I can do months of physio, trying to get back into shape just to find out that my heart was damaged... or my lungs, or pretty much any organ I have left." He fell back into his pillow, closing his eyes. "Face it, Nate, I'm done as a hitter, retrieval specialist, soldier... heck, can't even play the guitar no more. You guys need to just leave me behind."
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"Knock, knock." The strong British accent enunciated every syllable. "I'm not leaving until you invite me in."
Eliot rolled his eyes before sighing and giving in. "Fine." He waited as the very polished grifter strolled into the room. She placed herself in the chair next to his bed. "I told the nurses I didn't want to see any of you, how did you get past them?"
She feigned a shocked expression, clutching a pretend set of pearls. "I am a very talented grifter, you actually think it would be difficult for me to get in here?"
"No, I just wondered how."
She smiled and nudged him gently. "Waited until a shift change that didn't recognize me. Then a pretended to be the wife of a travelling preacher from Austen." She switched to a not quite right Texan accent. "I'd come to the hospital today to prey with some of the kids on the paediatric ward when I heard there was a poor soul from Oklahoma that was not doing so well. I just thought I'd pop in and see if he wanted some extra prayers to help him through."
It was not a bad cover, even if she did forget the rule about not faking country.
Eliot leaned back into his pillow. It seemed that simple things like breathing took up too much energy at the moment. "If you don't mind, Soph, can you just say your piece so I can go back to sleep. Don't know if it's the meds or if it's just how I am now, but I'm finding it hard to stay awake."
She shrunk back into her chair, all the joy and confidence from pulling off a con seeped out of her. "Nate says you want us to leave you behind."
"Correct."
"And you actually expect us to do that?" Her brow crinkled.
"Correct again."
"Then you really don't know us." Her tone turned harsher. "We're family, Eliot. You walked me down the aisle on my wedding day. You made Nate cry with your best man speech. You wouldn't leave us behind and we certainly won't leave you. No matter how many tantrums you throw..."
"Sophie it's..."
"No, I know exactly what you're doing. You're trying to push us away because you don't want to be a burden on us." The hitter shrugged and nodded his agreement. "But don't you see? We would never think of you as a burden. You're our best friend... scratch that, you're our brother. Our grumpy, overprotective brother, who will do just about anything for us. Let us return the favour."
Eliot looked up at her, tears filling his eyes but not falling. "It's not the same thing, Sophie. The stuff I did for you was tiny compared to what I might need. You and Nate just started your life together, do you really want a grown man that can't even look after himself hanging around? And what about Parker and Hardison? They will never give up the con. It's better if I just use my retirement plan and get away." Sophie threw him a questioning look. "It's standard practice for hitters in case they get injured on a job that will take them out of work permanently." She wanted further elaboration but was clearly not gonna get it.
"You listen here, Eliot Spencer. We don't care what those doctors say. You are stuck with us forever, even if you can't be our hitter anymore, that was never what we loved about you. When this has settled down a bit and we know where we are at, if you want to work, we can find something, if you don't... well you're rich, you have no end of options for retirement. Just make sure it's one we can all be a part of."
She pulled herself onto the bed letting the hitter rest his head on her shoulder. They had a long road ahead of them and they will probably be more bumps along the way.
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2 Week Later
The entire team was crowded around Eliot's hospital room. Hardison had managed to connect his laptop up to the tv and they were now watching the latest superhero movie despite the fact it had only just been released in cinema. The hitter was trying to keep up with it, but the pain in his stiffening joints was causing him no end of grief. He tried to shift himself into a better position but the motion just made him wince. He looked at the clock, it was getting near to his physio session.
"El, are you ok sweetheart?"
"Yeah, Soph, just a bit stiff is all."
Nate jumped in, "they said you might feel some aching in your joints if they stiffened up too much, is that what's happening now?"
God, he wished it was just aching, instead of the sharp stabs he was feeling all over his body. Even the usually dormant right side had started sending pain signals anytime something came close to touching it.
"Yeah, that's why they started me on physio yesterday despite me being in the casts still."
"How does that work?" Parker hopped down from the window; hands held firmly behind her back where they couldn't poke people.
"A nurse from the physio centre comes once a day to move me about. Some parts I can move by myself and he just watches and makes notes, whilst other parts he has to move for me." He gave a demonstration by lifting his left arm, but he had to drop it again when the pain shot through his elbow and into his shoulder. "Fuck!"
"Hey man, when's your next session?" The hacker called out forgetting the movie completely.
"In about ten minutes."
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There had been a delay that morning so the nurse actually showed up about twenty-five minutes later.
"How's my favourite Texan heartthrob this morning?" A male nurse wearing sea-green scrubs bounced into the room.
"Hey, Jackson," Eliot called back and signalled to the other members in the room.
"Ooh, someone is popular. Still not seeing a ring on that finger so there's still hope." The hitter smiled, he liked Jackson even though the first session was really painful and this second was looking to be the same, possibly worse. Before they continued, the team was asked to leave. "How's the pain today darling, on a scale of one to ten?"
"Umm, eight."
The nurse frowned slightly. "That's worse than yesterday, what's been happening?"
"Every time something touches my right arm or leg, it feels like that spot is on fire. I had to call a nurse in to pull off my blanket last night."
Jackson picked up the patient's chart. "I'll have a talk with Dr Davis about that. He did mention possible nerve damage... Can you move those areas at all?" The hitter answered with a firm shake of his head. "Ok, well let's get started then."
The next half hour was filled with cursing, crying, shouting, and sweating as the nurse went around each and every joint and moved it in slow circles trying to bring back some flexibility. Sometimes they'd come across an area that had completely seized up and it would take some extra force to get it to move again. The hitter tried to control his reactions, but he was too tired to concentrate. They left the right side until last because Dr Davis had asked to join them.
"Right then, Eliot. We're going to move onto your right arm now." Jackson travelled around the bed, shortly followed by Eliot's doctor. "Can you try lifting your fingers for me?" Nothing. "Ok, try your hand?" Nothing. "How about your arm?" Nothing.
"Ok, Eliot." Dr Davis stepped in. "We're going to manipulate the area for you, you just tell us what you feel."
The nurse's hand barely brushed Eliot's arm when he started to scream out in pain.
"Ahh-Bad-Pain-Burning-Hurts!"
"Just from that little bit of contact?" The hitter nodded quickly. "Ok, we're going to bring you something to help deal with the pain while we work on this area. I won't lie, it will still hurt but we need to get this done." A machine was rolled into the room. "Put this in your mouth and suck on it when the pain gets to be too much."
The doctor didn't lie, it hurt a lot, and his leg was just as bad. By the end of it, Eliot had given up on the gas and air, in favour of sticking his head in a bowl that Jackson held up for him. There go his chances with the hot nurse.
Once he finished losing his entire breakfast, Eliot was given a minute before the doctor started to explain what just happened.
"Eliot, I believe the original numbness, the continued weakness and the pain you just felt is all due to peripheral neuropathy."
"That's nerve damage, right?" The hitter asked and his doctor confirmed. "What can be done about it?"
"Well, in your case were already doing it. You're on pain medication already, and the anti-seizure drugs are actually known to help people with nerve damage as well. To deal with the weakness we would prescribe physiotherapy which you have already started. The thing with this type of injury is that it's up to the body to decide how much it heals. But you are already showing progress which is a good sign."
Eliot blew out a huge breath, he was still feeling a little queasy. "Is there nothing else you can do for the pain? Tryin' to get to sleep last night was Hell."
"I'll put you down for use of a TENS machine. Thirty minutes a day should help relieve some of that."