(Nurse): Look who’s awake there young man. You’ve been pretty out of it.
He tries to talk but suddenly realizes he can’t, his hand instinctively moving up to his throat and his eyes going wide with confusion.
(Nurse): Don’t try and talk sweetheart, let me go get the doctor.
She pats him on the leg with a smile which he oddly barely feels. Just a few minutes later the doctor comes in, with the nurse beside him.
(Doctor): Hello there Mr. Branson, I’m Dr. Fielding your ER doctor here at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Now I want you to relax, and don’t try to talk while I go over your chart with you.
Jeremy gives what he thinks is a nod although his head hardly seems to move.
(Doctor): You were checked in last night via emergency transport at 9:17 p.m. A representative from your employer gave us an account of circumstances surrounding your injuries and provided your emergency records and contact information. Your vitals were strong, we issued a standard intravenous line, we took bloodwork, started you on fluids and a morphine drip. You absorbed quite an assault. The bruising on your back and legs is quite severe but, luckily you’re a pretty fit young man. You have a mild hairline fracture on you left Tibia, you’ll be leaving here with a brace to help stabilize your leg as it recovers. Your mobility will increase and be fairly normal in a few days once the swelling subsides. CAT scan is all clear, no concussion.
Jeremy looks anxious and the doctor can see it on his face.
(Doctor): I can see you’re obviously eager, but I wanted to give you the brief summary and most of the good news first. The bad news, if that’s what you want to call it, is that you have a laryngeal fracture…a crushed larynx is what its commonly called. I’ve classified you as a Group II patience, which means that your CAT scan presents with some notable hematoma. We’re going to perform an endoscopy to get an idea of the severity, but my best guess right now is that you’ll largely avoid surgery. However, the swelling has compromised your airway. You may have trouble breathing, you’re certainly going to experience trouble swallowing and as you’ve already noticed trouble with phonation, your speech. We’ve started you on a course of some anti-inflammatory meds and you’ll leave with a prescription and instructions on self-care for the course of the next few weeks. You’re well dosed for pain now, but within 4 to 6 hours after you leave the pain is going to be pretty intense. I’m prescribing Toradol which you can pick up in the pharmacy downstairs, and I strongly recommend you do. Right now, we’re going to get you upstairs for that endoscopy, it’s brief but you will be sedated for it, and after recovery we’ll get you set for discharge and have you up and out in a couple more hours. Alright?
The doctor smiles at him, gives him a nod and heads out the door. The nurse remains as Jeremy leans his head back on the pillow.
(Nurse): Now, Dr. Feilding has here that list of meds he’s sending over to the pharmacy. He wants you to refrain from talking as much as you can until the swelling subsides, but it could be a number of days. Orthopedics is going to be in hopefully before you go upstairs to get you fitted for that brace. I’m going to print all of your outpatient instructions from Dr. Fielding and he’s written you a note for your PCP who will need to refer you to a Otorhinolaryngologist for follow-up. Your employer has sent your personal effects and has arranged transportation so you don’t have to worry about that. You sit tight, we’ll finish these last few things and hopefully have you out of here in no time.
The nurse leaves with a smile and Jeremy lays back, the anxiety building up in him. He pulls the cover back taking note of the defensive bruises on his arms, and sees his knee swollen pretty badly bruised. He swallows but it feels like he’s trying to push a balloon down his throat. A few moments later one of the nurse assistants bring in a bag with his personal belongings sent from the arena. He reaches in for his phone which is at 48% and sees dozens of missed messages from family and friends. He texts his mom first, it seems someone from HQ had been in touch with both her and his dad and updated them on his condition. His mom’s first text was that she was trying to get a flight out, but it looks like HWA folks had kept her well updated and suggested that she wait. By the time she got there he might be leaving the hospital anyway. He glances through a few other texts, some from his sister, his roommate, he was looking for one from Sean and saw it, then saw multiple from Wisdom and Red Dragon. Where were Matt and the others he wondered.
He goes to the HWA app on his phone and pulls up the replay of Havoc. He hadn’t actually seen Matt attack Maniac when he got to the arena but watching it now was truly unreal. He’d never seen Matt like this before. In the arena he just knew there had been an incident and they were all handling it in the moment, but this was off the charts. He forwards through some of the other bits he was familiar with already, but there was a lot that he naturally didn’t catch being busy backstage with things. The comments Fallen and Legion made certainly upset him, and to see them attack Sean and make him loose his match really pissed him off. There was so much going on, that he didn’t realize. He was hoping that Sarah and Michelle had managed to catch Matt before he came back, but it was clear nothing was going to stop him and his second altercation with him was more terrifying than the first. He nearly jumped out of the hospital bed seeing the bus roll over Matt. His heart had leapt up into his swollen throat, his chest was pounding and he finally saw Matt spring up from the ground and a wave of relief came over him. He was getting teary-eyed, even having to consider what could have happened, then to see Sarah and her bad-ass take it to Maniac filled him with pride despite the outcome of him assaulting her as well. He fast-forwarded his own match, he’d have to evaluate that loss later, right now he wanted to get to the end and there it was….
He watched himself get brutalized, and then sees Bryan Deas reveal himself. His eyes widen, his chest heaves and heart pounds hard again. Jeremy is enraged and about to send the gang a message when the nurse walks back in with a transport team. She looks up at the beeping monitor and sees his blood pressure has spiked.
(Nurse): Nervous? Don’t be, it’s a very simple procedure, takes about ten minutes.
No he wasn’t nervous, he was pissed. He didn’t care about the goddamn procedure he wanted to get out of here and sort out what the hell happened at Havoc. Where was Matt? Was Sarah ok? How was Michelle and Sean? What was Butch going to do about Maniac?
(Nurse): Just relax now, lay back and they’ll get you sorted. I’ll see you in recovery shortly.
Jeremy manages to look at the clock again, it was just 4:09 a.m. as he’s wheeled out of the room headed to the surgery and medical procedures floor. It had been one hell of a night and the morning wasn’t kicking off too much better. In a few hours he’d be out of here, he wanted to connect with his friends, wanted to get back to Los Angeles, and couldn’t wait to get his hands on Bryan Deas!
The scene fades to black!
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