One second she was driving down the road, the next she was weightless. Then the pain. It was an explosion of it. It screamed through her veins and rippled across her skin. She shifted, writhing, and then it was gone. A hollow numbness echoed ominously in it's wake.
She lay there, at an awkward angle in her car trying to wrap her brain around what the fuck just happened. She tried to breath, remain calm, and focus. Fat lot of good that did her, she was panicking. She hadn't even seen another car.
She wracked her brain, trying to think of anything she could have seen but all she saw was a flash of light. It wasn't that unusual. It reminded her of a reflection off a car window.
When her senses slowly started trickling back, the numbness became a glaring problem. She could see blood and feel it slowly trickling down her body but she sure as shit couldn't feel the injuries. Shock, her mind replied with enthusiasm. Lovely.
The other problem was the racket. There was so much damn noise, it sounded like a war zone. There were screams and yelling and she was just stuck, suspended in her car at an odd angle.
She wanted EMS to hurry the fuck up and get her out. She was done with the yelling. There must have been another car seriously damaged because why else was she being helped last.
She twitched her hand and while her left moved fine, trying to move her right caused a searing pain to shoot up it. So she decided to just not do that.
As the shock wore off, the pain and irritations started showing up. There was blood on her forehead getting crispy and it itched. Her arm was definitely broken. Her legs were becoming an increasing concern as there was just no sensation returning there. Probably would be fine.
Finally a voice was outside the car saying words that sounded like help her and get her out, of which she was definitely a fan.
The next few minutes (hours? days?) was a blur. She was dragged out of the car, screaming wildly as the car tugged on her, yep, definitely broken arm. Little spots danced in her vision and there was a guy in army clothes.
Then she blinked and blinked again. There was no way there was a giant robot peering down at her. She must have hit her head.
The sun was out of her eyes and she was suddenly being lifted and carted away. She didn't have a chance to ask about the giant robot thing before she was in the back of an ambulance FINALLY.
"Do you know your name?" the terrified looking ambulance dude asked her. She was coming out of her daze enough to process questions.
"Katie Pinion," she said softly, eyes wide on the guy.
"When were you born, Katie?" the ambulance guy looked far more relaxed when she answered.
"March 6, 1987," she said glad her arm was in a position that it wasn't screaming at her.
"And who's president?"
She huffed, closing her eyes to get some relief from the blinding lights they were shining at her.
"Bush," she said quietly.
"Can you tell me what hurts?" the ambulance man asked. She didn't mean to glare at him exactly but she knew she was glaring from his flinch.
"Well I'm pretty sure my fucking arm is broken for starters. And I can't feel my fucking legs so you tell me," she said, trying not to be short but she was so damn uncomfortable.
The paling of his face did not boost her confidence whatsoever.
"We'll get you some pain meds," he mumbled before fucking stabbing her with a goddamn needle. She hated needles.
Everything after that became deliciously hazy. The lights all blended together and everything felt warm.
Then there were doctors and yelling and concerned looks right up in her face and then blessed bliss. Darkness. She finally got to fucking sleep.
Waking up was like coming up from water. She was confused, turned around, and her ears couldn't hear quite right. She could barely process she was in a hospital room before she was out again.
The next time she woke up she had a total of what felt like a minute of processing that she was in a hospital room, there was an accident, and then she was asleep again.
It continued this way for what felt like an eternity. Her right arm grew uncomfortably heavy at some point during the process. Everything else was just numb.
Waking up sucked. She was groggy and felt like she hadn't had water in 20 years. She groaned, hoping that would signal to someone to get her some water because she was fucking parched.
No dice. She was left feeling like the Sahara for what felt like an entirely too long of an eternity. Then someone showed up, she could hear shuffling. So she groaned as loud as she could. She knew she sounded ridiculous but words were hard when she was this thirsty.
There was a straw and then she had sweet sweet relief of water. It encouraged her to actually try seeing instead of just hearing.
The nurse standing over her was a nice looking lady. She had a soft smile on her face and was holding the cup with the straw up encouragingly.
She sucked as much down as the nurse let her. She took away the cup after what felt like it was far too soon but she was ok. She had to be ok with it.
"What's the damage?" she asked hoarsely. She would kill for a swimming pool full of drinkable water right then. She felt like she couldn't get enough.
The nursed tutted around, fixing her blanket and pillow and very obviously ignoring the question.
"Do you need anything?" the nurse asked, one foot turned towards the door.
"To know what happened to me," she muttered crossly. She was finally awake and just wanted to know what the fuck happened.
"A doctor will be with you shortly," the nurse said and then was gone.
She was alone with her own thoughts. Marvelous.
She could only imagine the worst. There wasn't much else to do. She tried to take stock of her body but she was clearly on some kick ass painkillers so she couldn't feel much of anything.
It was a boring period of time waiting for the doctor. She even debated sleeping even though she felt like she'd done enough of that for a lifetime.
Then a doctor and his posse breezed in. Thank the good lord above.
"Good morning, Katherine," he said quickly, picking up her chart and rifling through it.
"It's Katie," she said flatly. She hated being called Katherine. It reminded her of being in trouble. She wasn't a fan.
"Alright Katie. So do you remember the accident?"
Katie snorted, amused.
"I mean if I didn't I'd probably be freaking out more than I am," she said, eying the strangely distracted doctor.
"Yes well just had to make sure," he said, still flipping through the pages of her chart.
"Do you know how you're injured?" he asked, peering over at her.
"Not really," she said, trying to shrug and wincing when it pulled funny on her arm.
"You've had many scrapes and lacerations as well as a pretty decent concussion. Your right arm was shattered. We are currently doing active work on restructuring the bone. If the implants don't take, you'll need a titanium rod. As for your spine," here he hesitated.
Didn't bode well whatsoever. She was not thrilled with the prospect of bad news on her spine. It was important for shit.
"Your spine was severed on impact. I'm sorry to say that we do not believe you will ever walk again," he said softly.
Katie did her best to not immediately freak out but inside she was panicking. Not walk again? What the fuck? They couldn't put a goddamn rod in her back and make it magically work?
The doctor left at some point which was awesome because she had questions. So she was left alone to process not being able to fucking walk. Her mind cycled rapidly through all the things that were suddenly out of her reach. Driving. Biking. Running. Jogging. All of it, just gone. Not like she'd done much running or jogging before but now she couldn't.
A nurse came back before she managed to fall back asleep.
"So they can't fix it?" she asked, panic making her voice high.
"I'm sorry sweetie," the nurse said, gently rubbing at her brow. Great so she was getting loved on by a nurse. That really didn't bode well.
The nurse left with promises of a juice box and she decided it would be best to just simply pass out. Or pass away. Passing out was the next order of business and it was far simpler than she thought it would be. She just closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and blackness was there.
Her dreams were weird and didn't make any sense to her. There were giant robots and strange symbols.
Waking up was significantly different than the time before.
"Time for juice!" the nurse was saying before shoving a straw into her mouth. She choked, barely expecting it.
"Need to keep your sugar up, sweetie," she said before squeezing the juice pack a little to make some come out.
It was almost too sweet. She'd rather just have a gallon of water. It was also incredibly disorienting waking up to a straw being shoved in her face.
"When is the doctor coming back?" she asked as soon as she was freed from the devil's straw.
"Probably tomorrow, sweetie," the nurse said and then was gone. She grumbled to herself for a while, feeling like grumpy was a good mood for her.
Sleep was the only other thing she had to pass the time anyway.
So she settled down and let sleep take her.
She had more of those weird dreams that just didn't make any sense. They were in a language she'd never heard and there were things she was supposed to know but didn't. It sucked honestly. It was like watching a movie without subtitles. She had no idea what was going on in her own head.
The language was also really fucking weird. It was almost like chirps and whistles. Things that didn't feel normal. They felt alien to her and she was sent into a state of even more uncomfortable anxiety about what it meant.
She woke up deciding that the hospital room she was in must be haunted and she should be somewhere else. There was no other explanation for the weird ass dreams.
She was lucky to time it that the doctor came in right when she was waking up. Small mercies.
"Doc! I have questions," she said quickly, hoping he wouldn't flee like he did last time.
"What can I do for you?" he asked tiredly.
"So I can't walk again? Like there's no exploratory or new surgery I can do?" she asked, leaning towards him as much as she was able.
"No, I'm sorry," he said with a sigh and a shake of his head.
"We have done all the research and exploration we could while you were unconscious. Unfortunately there's nothing that can be done."
Not the news she was hoping for. Not in the slightest. She sighed, resisting banging her head on the pillow behind her. She was going to have to digest this at some point, but for now it didn't feel real.
"And my arm?" she asked weakly.
"We'll be checking on the grafts next week to see if they held. If not, we'll begin prepping you for a titanium rod," he said with a nod.
Great so she had potential to become a cyborg. Exactly what she needed.
"Ok Doc. So I'll live?" she asked. She knew there were more questions but of course she couldn't think of any of them in that exact moment.
"You'll live," he said with a dry chuckle.
As he turned to leave, a suit walked in.
Hello and welcome to me panicking because AO3 is down!