*A/N: Welcome back, everyone! This chapter begins the big conflict. As you continue reading, please remember, whatever gets broken will get fixed. Also, if medical content is hard for you to read, consider this your trigger warning…
XXII - Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? (Chloe's POV)
Today was the very last first-tournament I'd compete in in high school. I hadn't lost a match yet, and I intend to keep it that way. Being undefeated in the one sport I cared about felt even better than winning individual matches. This match started at eight in the morning, which meant I had to be at the field by seven, which meant waking up at six…on a Saturday.
Normally Saturdays were reserved for me and Red, nothing and no one else. When I asked her if she would be okay with going against routine just this once she said yes, but I didn't buy it. When Red had a routine she liked to keep it, especially if it involved our time together. I told her if she didn't like it I'd just miss the match, but she nearly blew a fuse at that statement. "You're going to that match, whether you want to or not. We'll just have our time together afterwards," she had told me.
My alarm went off at six, but I laid in bed snuggling my girlfriend for an extra fifteen minutes. Before I got up I left a soft kiss on her cheek. She stirred in her sleep when I got up, but she never woke.
This morning didn't take me long to get ready, especially considering I had already set out everything I'd needed the night before. After a quick shower I got dressed and braided my hair into a single plait down my back. Despite me making noise, Red still slept peacefully until it was almost six-forty-five when I woke her up.
"Red, it's almost seven, are you coming with me to the field early or staying in bed a little bit longer?" I asked as I gently shook her awake.
"Bed," she grumbled. I sighed, even though I figured that would've been her answer anyway.
"Okay, love," I said, kissing her cheek again. "I'm leaving for the field now. My extra jersey's on the desk if you want to wear it. I love you."
"Okay," she said, her voice muffled by the covers. "I love you, more."
Before I left I made sure to set out my extra jersey. Ever since we made it official she loved to steal my clothes, especially if it was something that was obviously mine. My jersey had my name and number—18—on it, and everyone knew it was mine, so that was one piece of clothing that definitely made its way into Red's side of the closet. I quietly close the door behind me, locking it before making my way to the field.
The September morning was cool, but I knew as they day drew on the heat would soon become blistering. When I reach the field, I go through my typical schedule of pre-tournament duties. Make sure both the home and visitor side have extra swords and protective equipment. Set up chairs for the team members and coaches. It was always the same, but the monotony of my actions soothed my anxious nerves. I finish these jobs early, and when I check my phone it's nearly seven-thirty, and I see a text from Red.
Heading your way
I let out a quiet laugh, smiling at the message, and when I look up, she's making her way down to me. Just as I'd thought, she stole my jersey, and she was completely covered in blue. From her stolen top to a pair of ripped jean shorts and white converse. She looked like she raided my closet. Her hair was tied into pigtails, and as she got closer I noticed blue and white paint-handprints were scattered over both her legs.
"Blue looks good on you," I said as I grabbed her hips, pulling her close to me for a kiss.
"I guess it does," she said nonchalantly when we broke apart. "It's not really something I'm used to but I figured I should go all out for your big day today." I slid my hand into the back pocket of the jean shorts. I didn't want her to leave yet.
"It's not even really special to be honest," I said, feeling a little guilty that I was taking away our quality time together. Other figures began to approach the bleachers, the other team would be arriving soon, and my teammates were almost here. I lowered my voice so that only she could hear, "You know, if you wanted help putting those handprints on your legs I would've volunteered." Her face flushes bright red as she playfully smacks my chest.
"Always so territorial. It's your last-first high school game, of course it's special," Red said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Thank you, baby," I said, fighting the urge I had to show her just how much I appreciated this. "Now go get your spot, yeah? My jacket's there waiting for you." When she wasn't wearing my varsity jacket, I used it to mark her favorite spot in the bleachers so no one would take it. It didn't matter whether it was practice or a tournament, everyone in the school knew what that jacket meant, and nobody ever messed with it.
She rolls her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, hint taken. Can't have your girlfriend doting on you in front of your teammates or you'll look soft."
"That's not what I meant!" I argue.
"I know," she said. "I just like teasing you about it." I move to turn away, but her arm catches me instead. "One more thing." Red pulls me into her, capturing my lips in a hungry kiss.
"I'll see you later, yeah?" I said when we broke apart.
"Yes, love," she replied as she walked away toward the bleachers. She'd already found her friend Zoey and soon enough the two sat there talking while they waited for the match to start.
I scanned the crowd for any more familiar faces. My parents and Chad were coming—like Red they also thought this was a very big event. Another face caught my attention, Henry. He sat high up in the bleachers, looking smugly down at me. At the beginning of the year he tried out for the team, but he didn't make it. We could only have nine players total, including the captain, and there were just other people who were better than him. If I had to guess, he didn't take lightly to being told no.
Soon enough, both teams and coaches were here and they flipped a coin deciding who would go first. Some matches I didn't compete in, but since this was my last one, Coach would definitely be putting me up against someone.
"Chloe, are you ready for this season?" Coach Jenkins asked as the match was about to start. Li was starting this time, and it was always either him or me. He was the only one who had ever won against me in practice. "I'm so proud of you for getting that scholarship at AU."
"Thanks, Coach," I said, smiling. "I can't wait for my first professional season."
Li's opponent was a little bit bigger than he was, and around the same height. The skill level was nearly the same, so it was a close fight. The two were practically dancing around each other. It reminded me of how Red and I tried to kill each other when we first met.
Li's opponent draws a hit, causing him to drop his sword, and he loses. Now our opponent gets to fight another one of my teammates.
"It's gotta be Chloe," Li says to Coach Jenkins. "She's the only one who's won against me on our team. If anyone can win against him, it'll be her."
Coach Jenkins seems to ponder over his words. "Do you want to do this, Chloe?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'll do it," I said.
"Okay," he said, almost reluctantly. "Gear up and get out there then, captain." I scan the crowd as I gather my sword and face shield. I find Red, winking at her before going out on the field. That's my pre-match tradition, and I've kept it up ever since the start.
I line up with my opponent, and the ref blows his whistle and it's game on. He's got at least a hundred pounds on me and towers over me by a foot, but that doesn't mean I can't beat him at his own game. I'm smaller and lighter, so I can dodge him easier than he can me. In a way it reminds me of dancing. He nearly corners me, and I sidestep out from beneath him, and that's when I feel it.
His large, steel-toed boot comes crashing down on my right ankle just as I'm turning away from him. Sharp, searing pain combines with popping and tearing sounds. I fall to the ground, clutching my ankle. My impact nearly takes the breath out of me. "Ow!" I scream out, feeling stinging tears fill my eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment as a wave of nausea makes me wanna throw up right there on the perfectly pristine grass.
"Chloe!" I hear someone scream out in the bleachers, and when I look over I see Red rushing down to me, a horrified expression etched on her face. She's the first one down at my side, and soon my coach and the school nurse are at my side. Red's facial expression changes once she's by my side, it turns from horrified to scanning over my body, looking for any signs of injury.
"Where do you hurt, Chloe?" The nurse asked.
"You can't be down here," Coach said to Red, but she doesn't care.
"I don't care, I'm not leaving her," Red said, anxiety potent in her voice.
"You need to give her space," Coach said.
"She's fine," I bite out, the throbbing pain in my ankle seeming to get worse and worse. "It's my ankle."
"Call for an ambulance," the nurse said to Coach Jenkins. "Chloe, I need to take off your shoe, okay? It's probably gonna hurt. I think you might have broken a bone."
"Yeah, it's fine. Just do it," I said, trying to breathe through the searing pain. She takes the laces of my shoe and unties them, slowly, gently sliding the shoe from my foot. I throw my head back, wincing in pain. I suck in a sharp breath, and the tears spill from my eyes.
"Hey," Red says gently, drawing my attention to her instead of my crushed ankle. She wipes away the tears on my cheeks with her thumb. "Breathe with me, okay?" I try to match my breathing to hers, taking slow deep breaths, in and out at the same time she does.
When I calm down, I finally get the chance to look around. The field is so quiet, people watching down at me in horror. The girl who was undefeated is now laying on her own turf, with what could be a career-ending injury. I didn't want to think of that, I couldn't think that way. It wasn't broken, I just needed a week or two off from practice and everything would be fine. Coach Jenkins is on the phone, and my parents and brother are standing with him, watching me meticulously.
I swallow down my feelings, finally feeling brave enough to look at my leg. When I do, I nearly vomit at the sight. My foot looks like it's not really connected to my body anymore, even though I know it is. A piece of my bone protrudes through my skin and bruises are beginning to bloom around my ankle.
Okay, so it was definitely broken. I shouldn't be seeing my bones on the outside of my body. But it was fixable, it had to be. I couldn't just give up on Swords and Shields, not now. My dad comes over to me now, and I can't feel anything but disappointment. Somehow I feel like I've let down my family, like I've ruined our legacy. When I bring myself to look at his face, the tears start falling from my eyes again.
"I'm sorry, Daddy," I said between sobs. As much as I love Red and how much she comforts me, feeling my Dad still loves me even after this huge mess up brings me a different type of comfort.
"Oh, honey, you did nothing wrong," he said empathetically, scooping me up into his arms. The ambulance arrives then, and he sets me on the stretcher as the medics start to take me into the ambulance. One of the medics props my ankle up on a pillow and tries to wheel the stretcher away.
"Wait!" I exclaim. "Red." She rushes over to me, taking my hands in hers.
"Yes, love?" she asked, her face twisted into an expression of anxiety.
"Will you meet me at the hospital with my parents?" I asked, biting my lip.
"Yes, of course. I'll be there," she answered, leaving a parting kiss on my lips.
"Okay, we're headed to the Auradon University Hospital," one of the medics tells Red and my family while the other one hops into the driver's seat.
"I'm Peter, and I'll be the medic riding with you to the hospital, can you kinda give me a run down of what happened to bring us here?" he asked.
"I was in a Swords and Shields tournament, and I guess I wasn't looking and my opponent stepped on my ankle as I was turning away from him," I answered.
"Okay, it definitely looks like he did more than just step on it. How would you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten right now?" Peter asked.
"Uh…about a nine," I said, biting my lip.
"That's pretty intense," he said. "I'm gonna start an IV in your arm so I can give you some pain medication. It'll be a quick poke but the needle won't stay in your arm, all that's left behind is a thin tube so we can give you medication and fluid, okay?"
"Okay," I swallowed. "That's fine." In less than thirty seconds later I feel the tight squeeze of a tourniquet around my upper arm, and the needle pierces my skin in the bend of my elbow. I taste metallic in my mouth when he flushes the tube in my arm with saline.
"I'm gonna give you some pain medication now, okay? It might make you feel a little sleepy but that's normal. Are you feeling nauseous right now?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, a little," I said.
"Alright, I'll give you some Zofran along with the morphine for the pain." I watch as he draws up the medications in syringes. I didn't know much about medications, but I knew morphine was strong when it came to pain meds.
"Morphine?" I croak out. "Isn't that like super strong?"
"Yeah, it's a pretty strong opioid, but since you're in so much pain I want to treat it now before it gets worse. You're in a controlled environment, so the risk of you experiencing negative effects or an overdose is very unlikely."
"Oh, okay…" I said. Peter adds one of the syringes to the IV, slowly pushing the medication through it. Once one syringe is empty he flushes it again before doing the same with the second medication. It doesn't take long for the medication to take effect, my pain and nausea soon go away, and I teeter between sleep and wakefulness for the rest of the ride to the hospital.
When we arrive at the hospital I'm taken to the emergency department where a nurse greets me in a private room. I hear the medic—I already forgot his name— give her a brief synopsis of my injury and what brought us here. I'm still semiconscious until I see a flash of flame red hair out of the corner of my eye.
"Red," I grumble, trying to stay awake from the pain medication. "You made it."
"Of course I made it," she said, grabbing my hand and squeezing. I wake up a little bit more and my family is there, too, but Red sits directly at my side, her thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand. She stares down at the ground, blinking back her own tears.
"Hey, it's okay," I said, drowsiness still in my voice.
"No, Chloe, it's not okay. He did this on purpose. He cheated and because of his own selfishness you're hurt. That's not okay."
"You don't know that," I said. The nurse was unwrapping the temporary dressing that Peter put on in the back of the ambulance once I fell asleep.
"Yes, I do," she shakes her head. "I watched it happen—shit, everyone watched it happen—he stomped on you so he could win."
"I'm sorry, but we need to get an x-ray, so everyone needs to step out for a minute. It won't take very long," the nurse said. Everyone leaves the room and a tech walks in with a large, portable x-ray machine. She places a hard board beneath my ankle and the entire thing is over in less than five minutes. Red takes her place by my side again, my parents and Chad sitting behind her. The nurse is typing on the computer, talking to my parents about my medical history, which is simple because there is none.
"The doctor should be in to talk with you soon," the nurse said before turning and leaving the room. A couple minutes later a middle-aged woman enters the room.
"Hello, I'm Vanessa, the doctor who'll be taking care of you today. What brought you into the ER?" she said.
"I probably broke my ankle in a Swords and Shields tournament," I said, the drowsiness making me more blunt with my word choice.
"Okay, well I know we did an x-ray, but can I take a look at it?" I nod my head in response. I feel her gentle fingers graze my skin around the area where the bone punctured the skin. "Is it okay for me to talk about this with everyone here?"
"Yeah, it's fine," I said. Everyone in this room was important to me, I didn't care if they knew what was wrong with me.
"It's a pretty serious fracture. The way the bone broke through the skin will require surgery to fix. I'll need to put in a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, and they'll evaluate the injury further and go into more detail about what will happen during surgery but they'll most likely use metal pins, rods, and plates to fix the break. I'd like to start her on some IV antibiotics to reduce the risk of infection since the bone punctured skin, and she'll likely receive another dose immediately after surgery."
"Okay," I hear my mom say. "Whatever you think is necessary. When will the surgery be?"
"That all depends on when she ate last. The injury is urgent but it doesn't require immediate surgery. Chloe, have you eaten anything today?"
"No," Red piped up. "She never eats on big days like this."
"Okay, well I'll see how soon the orthopedic surgeon can be down to consult and we'll go from there," she said. New conversations eventually fade away as I fall back into a deep sleep.
The next thing that wakes me up is the beeping from my IV pump. I rub the sleep from my eyes and I find Red sitting beside me still, the top half of her body slumped on top of mine. My parents aren't here anymore, and I can read from the clock on the wall it's nearly three-thirty in the morning. I try to change my position, but my body feels too heavy. A nurse slides open the glass door, pressing a button on the IV pump to make it quiet.
"Oh, good, you're awake," the nurse said calmly. "How's your pain on a scale of one to ten right now?"
"A seven," I groan, shifting my weight to the other side of my body.
"Okay, you had your last dose of pain medication over eight hours ago, so if you'd like something for the pain, just let me know," the nurse said, and I taste metallic again when she flushes the IV that was still in my arm.
"Yeah, that would be good," I said, realizing the pain in my ankle wouldn't go away. The only time it went away was when I slept, and the pain medication seemed to do just that. "What's that?" I asked as I watched her take down an empty bag of fluid and dangling tubes.
"This is just a medication called Ancef, it's an antibiotic that the surgeon ordered to decrease your chance of infection because of the way your bone broke. You'll get another dose after surgery this morning."
"I'm having surgery?" I asked, confused.
"Yes, the way your bones are right now can't be fixed without it. You'll be going down to the operating room in about two hours," the nurse said, taking off her gloves and leaving the room. A few minutes later she returns with another bag of fluid, new tubing, and a syringe filled with clear liquid.
"This is just some more morphine for the pain and some fluid with electrolytes in it so you don't get dehydrated okay?" she said as she attached the syringe of morphine to the IV, slowly pushing the medication before flushing it and attaching me to the large bag of fluid. Not much sooner I fall back asleep.
A bright light above me wakes me up, and a horde of people enter the room. They all wear the same hospital-issued light-blue scrubs, the only difference between them is the scrub caps holding back their hair. Beside me Red wakes up, too, blinking as she realizes who these people are and what they're here for. Her grip on my hand tightens, becoming almost painful. My parents are here, too, signing the papers that allow them to operate on me. I read their name tags, one of them works in anesthesia and the other is another nurse.
"Hi, Chloe, I'm Becca, I'll be the anesthesiologist taking care of you while you're in surgery. This is Jessica, she's gonna be your nurse, okay? Can you tell me your name and your birthday?" the taller one said.
"Chloe Grace Charming. December 18, 2006," I mumble.
"Great. Do you have any metal on you or in your body anywhere?" Becca asked.
"Uh, yeah, just a ring," I said, taking it off my finger and handing it to Red. It pained me to take it off, but I knew I had to. "Will you hold onto it for me?" I asked Red. I can see she's blinking back tears, but she takes the ring from my hands, sliding it on top of the one already on her own finger.
"Of course," she said, kissing the back of my hand.
"Okay everyone, say your parting words because it's time to go back to the O.R.," Becca said. "I'm gonna give you this cool hat to wear so you can be just like us," she puts a blue hair net on my head, attempting to hold back my blue curls.
"I love you," Red said, gently kissing me.
"I love you, more," I told her. I wave to my parents, and my mom looks hurt. She looks like she hates seeing me like this, like it brings her as much pain as I'm in right now.
"You're gonna be okay," Mom said, squeezing my hand. "You're in good hands."
The two women wheel my bed down to a freezing cold room, and I'm moved over onto an even colder metal table. The nurse gives me a nice warm blanket while Becca places an oxygen mask on my face.
"This is just regular oxygen, no sleepy meds, yet. Can you take lots of deep breaths for me?" I breathe in the air and it feels too cold, too sterile. A few minutes later I watch as she takes a larger syringe, this time filled with white liquid, and attaches it to my IV. "Okay, Chloe, pick out a nice dream, okay. Go ahead and count backward from ten for me."
Ten, nine, eight…
My entire world empties into darkness.