6 Midnight Excursion

Niki woke up to an excruciating pain in her legs. She'd hoped wearing flight compression socks and getting up to walk now and then would be enough to deter her tendency for thrombosis, but they didn't let her walk around much - or get up at all for that matter. Even boarding and exiting was a nightmare! Niki had to nearly throw a fit to avoid being forced into a wheelchair - that she certainly did not need.

The pain became too much for Nicki, it throbs all through her legs and shoots up her sides as if her blood is filled with glowing-hot glass shards that bombards every blood vessel. After what Niki guesses must be forty excruciating minutes of suppressed tears in a strange room, she cannot hold it in anymore.

"Lisa!!!"

****

Damian woke up first - to the sound of something falling on the floor. He assumed it was just the girls doing something silly, like when Zuri or Tracy comes over. Then he hears Niki yelling and it has him throwing his covers off and fumbling for a shirt, which he ends up pulling down in front of Lisa's door.

"Are you alright in there, Niki?" Damian asks above his own rapid knocking. He stops for a second to listen for an answer, but all he gets in return is a sort of sobbing gasp for air. "Niki, I'm coming in, ok?!" He warns, hesitating only for a second to make sure he's not overreacting to the situation.

By the time the door is open and the light switch is flipped, Lisa is by his side and surveilling the scene. Niki is in bad shape - her eyes and cheeks are a deep shade of pink and she looks like she's ready to start a fight from her spot on the floor.

In a flash Lisa is crouched next to her friend. Putting her training as a nurse to good use, she notices the warm red spot on her friend's calf.

"Let me guess," Niki murmurs, "Thrombosis due to high altitude travel." And the wonderful flight attendants not letting me stretch my legs...

Lisa nods, trying to decide if she should take her friend to an Emergency Clinic at this hour, or if Niki's condition is stable enough to wait until morning.

"Lisa," Niki interrupts her examination, "I was hoping to ignore it and, you know, walk it off. But..." she rolls her eyes, "I can't really get up..."

For some reason, Damian notes, she looks like she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, rather than someone asking for help.

"Sorry" Niki smile-winces as Damian picks her up bridal-style and carries her to his ute. He wonders if she'd try walking off a stab wound too?