Worse Than Imagined
"Aika, there's a bruise.. It doesn't look ok. Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?" He's now more worried.
"Don't know. If it gets worse tomorrow I'll go, I think if it were serious I wouldn't even move my arm."
"It doesn't mean it's not something to worry about. Don't let it get worse."
She sighs, angry with herself that she didn't think of healing herself in the bathroom, and now that he saw the bruise she can't simply heal and hope he doesn't notice.
"Yeah. You're right." She answers, almost sure it's not something serious.
If the doctor proves Odir it's nothing to worry too much, she can heal herself.
"I can take you. It's still early, we will come back soon if we go now."
"I'll call the restaurant to ask them to hold up the pizzas then." She says, taking her phone to call the restaurant.
Odir goes to her bedroom to take his shoes. Aidan leaves his bedroom and sees Aika holding the compress on her shoulder. After she hangs off her phone, he sits on her side.
"Are you all right, sis?" He asks, worried.
"Yeah. I think I injured my shoulder at work. I'll go check it out at the hospital. Want to come?"
"Yes! I'll go change." He stands up quickly and rushes to his bedroom to change clothes, while Odir gets closer to Aika and sits on her side.
"Ian could stay here with him." Odir whispers to Aika.
"He wouldn't stay here knowing I'm going to the doctor, even more, a hospital. He's afraid of me never coming back." She whispers back.
Odir smiles and nods, not judging Aidan since he's so young and already lost so much in life. Ian comes out of the bathroom, Odir tells him that he will be taking Aika to the hospital to check her shoulders, and he wears his shoes to go too, feeling the need of going and giving support.
Ian calls a cab to take them to a very expensive hospital in Cankyoto, which scares Aika to imagine how much it will cost.
"Don't worry about anything." Odir says to Aika while they're waiting for the doctor inside the hospital room.
He noticed she wasn't comfortable, looking around like she was afraid to even touch things.
"This place looks extremely expensive.." She admits in a low voice.
"Don't worry. I told you I would be a spoiling boyfriend. And I worry about you, I want the best doctors to affirm you're going to be fine." He rubs her hands to reassure her.
She's sitting on the bed and he's standing in front of her.
"Thanks. If I had to pay I would be on the red for quite some time." She smiles, admitting to him that she can't afford any of that.
"I wouldn't let that happen."
They hear the door opening and the doctor comes inside.
"Good evening, Miss Aika. I'm Dr. Daniel. What brought you here?" The doctor speaks with a tender smile.
Good evening, doctor. At work, I carried many bags and hand luggage at the same time and I injured my shoulder. There's a bruise on it too." She answers.
"Let me see, please." He says, getting closer.
She pulls down the shirt on the shoulder. He checks the bruise.
"Hum… Can you take off your shirt, please?" She takes it off and feels a sharp pain. "It hurts to take off your shirt, right? I could notice."
Odir missed seeing her body, he's trying to not get jealous of the doctor. The doctor examines her shoulder, touches it to check if it's sensitive to the touch.
"We have to check it internally. This bruise looks like an internal problem and the body is showing through the bruise. We can make an x-ray or a kind of ultrasound. The ultrasound is here and we can see if it's muscular or if there are problems with the bones or other issues. The x-ray we can see only if it's a broken bone, maybe an infection. Which one do you prefer?" Daniel explains.
"The ultrasound. She carried items of luggage with both arms, can you check if the one is ok?" Odir answers in her place, knowing she would only ask his opinion and not examine further.
"Sure." Daniel nods.
He prepares the machine and asks Aika to lie down, then examines her shoulders taking some pictures and the pictures go directly to a printer and to a TV screen above the bed.
"All done. Let me help you clean up." The doctor says, and starts to wipe off the gel on her shoulders. "Well, miss Aika. Your left shoulder is a bit tense, and the muscle is a bit injured but in two days it will be alright as long as you don't overwork. However, for the right one, you'll have to stabilize it and avoid movements for at least a week. You have distention of the muscle and the bone is fissured. What probably happened is that you carried too much weight and the shoulder dislocated, but it came back by itself, however, it must have hit with the other bone or with the luggage itself and injured this part of the bone." He explains pointing things on the screen.
"A week?" She asks, shocked that the thing was actually serious.
"Yes. Avoid even changing clothes to not move. If it gets infected, you might even have to have surgery in case the bone starts to push the other. So, for now, you have to stay down the most you can and keep the arm stabilized. If your work has a lot of movements, you better not even go to work. Working only with the left arm, if you force anything more of your left shoulder it will be a worse and longer treatment." Daniel explains, being very sincere.
"Sh*t… Sorry. Ok, then."
Odir is more than shocked, inside him he's almost in a panic, his beloved Queen got injured at work on a normal day at work. If he didn't insist on bringing her, the injury would be worse.
"Look at the bright side. You will not take heavy medicines and you will only stay down, passing only topic medicines on your shoulder. Seven days are the limit that a company lets you in medical distance, if you get worse, they can't fire you but they will order you to stay away for 30 days or more without salary. Seven days and keeping the salary is good, right?" Daniel says.
"Yeah. Sure. Is there a possibility that it will take longer than seven days?" She asks.
"You will come back here after seven days and I'll evaluate. I can't guarantee you'll be brand new because shoulder injuries are slow to heal, but your case is not as bad as it sounds. I believe it will be fine in seven days if you stay down. I'll prescribe the medicines and take an orthopedic sling. Be right back."
The doctor excuses himself and leaves Aika and Odir alone again.
"Damn… This doesn't even feel that serious." She says, sitting down. Odir rushes to help her sit down.
"I'm glad I insisted on coming here. You need to stay down for the next seven days, babe."
"Yeah. I'll have to call Greg." She softly says and sighs sadly. "I was planning to cook for you tomorrow."
He smiles and kisses her forehead.
"You will have plenty of opportunities to spoil me. Let me take care of you." He can't deny he's crazy to try anything that makes, but he doesn't mind having to wait centuries for that as long as she's fine and healthy.
She only smiles as he rubs his thumb on her cheek.
"You will have to stop doing what you did today at work." He affirms, making her giggle.
"It's part of the job. Maybe I had back luck today."
"No. You were lucky something worse didn't happen. You can't work sick or injured. So you can't risk yourself."
"Yeah. You're right. Sometimes I just don't think."
"That's why I'm here. If you don't care about yourself, someone has to, right?"
"True. Thanks." She says, chuckling. "Really. First of all, even if it got worse I wouldn't come see a doctor because I can't afford it right now. All my savings went to Aidan's school."
"I know. I'm happy to see you accepting my help. It makes me happy to help the girl I care about." Touching his forehead on hers he says softly, but wanting to say more. They kiss, and the doctor opens the door.
"Sorry to interrupt." Dr. Daniel says.
The doctor teaches them how to put the medicine and a kind of tape with a funny smell on her shoulders, and how to dress without moving too much. Then teaches how to use the orthopedic sling. Odir takes the prescriptions and they leave to meet Ian and Aidan outside. They get shocked to see wearing that sling.
"Sis... What's happening?" Aidan asks worriedly.
"It's alright, brother. At work, I didn't think of my health and ended up carrying too many items of luggage at the same time. The result was a flight on time, but a distended shoulder. I'll have to wear this for seven days, but besides that, I'm really fine, bro. You know I don't hide anything from you." She explains, making him calmer.
"Then you'll have to stay home for seven days?" He asks, and she nods an answer. "I'm actually happy now. Finally, a way to make you stop a little bit."
Odir and Ian chuckle softly.
"Yeah. Looking on the bright side." Ian softly says.
"Wait here. I'll be checking out." Odir tells Aika, holding her hand and walking her to the chair.
Odir and Ian go to the receptionist to pay the hospital bill.
"Call Bo. I told him where we were and he was very worried." Aidan speaks.
Aika pulls out her phone to see many messages from Bones indeed, so she calls him and explains everything.
"Ian... She got this injured while we were watching. What else can happen while we're not here? What else already happened and we don't know?" Odir whispers to Ian as they wait for the lady to calculate the total.
"I thought the same thing... You have to tell her. She must stay with you, where she'll always be safe." Ian whispers back, and Odir sighs more anxious.
"What if she hates me? What if she thinks I lied to her all along? What if she thinks I'm only using her? Would you live knowing she hates you?"
"No.." Ian answers, biting his lips after.
"That's what is holding me up." Odir affirms, then gives his credit card to the lady." She's planning on moving to Zealand Island with Aidan and Bones. She'll probably go in the next six months. I'm thinking of moving there too and living with them. In six months our relationship will be stronger."
"You pretend to tell her in six months?!" Ian asks, almost screaming as he whispers.
"No... But if she ends up getting angry, I want to show I thought of her dreams. We must discover her dreams, her dream home, and the things she loves, so we start building it now in Zealand."
"That's great… I'll find the perfect place in Zealand." Ian says calmer, understanding his brother's plan.