Hospitalized

A young man lay in a hospital bed. Silent and calm he faced the figure in front of him solemnly.

"After all we've done, you still tried to kill yourself…I don't want to see you coming home." His father looked him in the eye one last time.

Disappointment and anger was plastered all over his face. Nathan watched his father walk out of his hospital room after moments of silence.

He wanted to tell his father that it was a misunderstanding. But he couldn't bring himself to speak up, he never could. A little while later a girl walked in. Brown hair trailed behind her steps, she was short about 4' 10" her eyes were cast down to the floor.

"Uhh Nathan. I tried…to… to tell him" stuttering she looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

"You couldn't, am I right?" Nathan blatantly asked.

She could only nod helplessly. Nathan sighed in his heart, he expected this but he hoped there was still a chance she could fix things. After all this girl was the reason why he was in the hospital anyway.

"Leave."

"Nathan wait! I…"

"Maddy…I said leave, or I'll have the nurse make you" He interrupted.

Afraid, Maddy finally looked at Nathan face to face. His face held a gentle smile but all she felt was the ice cold bitterness behind that mask. Crushed, she left the room holding back her tears.

Nathan then turned to the window gazing out while laying in his bed.

It had been two weeks since the incident when Nathan finally regained conciousness. Not only was his first visitor his father, he basically disowned him on the spot. His next visitor was the girl who he had saved. A friend who had happened to be visiting town. 

Maddy had tried to cross the intersection when a truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. Noticing the unchanging speed, Nathan shoved Maddy out of the way before it collided with him, his vision going into disarray before he blacked out.

When Nathan woke up he found he couldn't feel his legs. He asked the doctor, and the news wasn't optimistic. After awhile he gave up on regaining his legs, and had told the doctor and nurses to hide it from his family and friends. When they came to visit, he'd be lying in bed either reading or eating.

He knew he was a disappointment, he felt that way for a long time now. He knew he could never make his parents proud living under the shadow of his older brother and sister. When he did well, it was to be expected, after many a times of this occurring, Nathan lost his motivation. 

He had given up on himself.

Back to the present Nathan was in the gym, playing with other wheelchair bound patients.

His friends and family still didn't know about it, as it had already been a month after the accident.

Nathan had gotten along with the nurses pretty well and even created a system.

If a "1" was attach to his wheelchair, company was allowed. If "2" was attached, only one nurse was allowed to be near him, if not he wouldn't speak to anyone. For "3" he wanted time alone. If anyone violated this system it would automatically go to three, and Nathan had put it to work ever since he thought of it.

At first the staff wouldn't care, but seeing how adamant he was about it they were helpless. And after seeing how cooperative Nathan was and how he followed his own system properly, the staff grew accustomed and even designated a nurse or two as his priority nurses.

The staff would normally not abide by such rules, as they would have their own follow, but Nathan was an exception. As they spent more time, they realized that this was one of his ways to cope. Nathan would think a lot, but could be quite an interesting person talk to. His cooperative behavior was reciprocated and both sides were content with the status quo.

At the moment Nathan along with other wheelchair bound patients were in the gym for recreation. After recreation time was over Nathan exited the gym with the nurse, Carmen. She was pushing his wheelchair for him while his head was looking up as it was covered in sweat, eyes closed steadying his breathing.

Across the hall Maddy and her sister were approaching unknowingly, following behind another nurse.

When they passed, Maddy didn't notice as she was turned away from him speaking to her sister. Her sister caught a quick glance before listening to Maddy again before stopping quickly and looking back.

Seeing her sister stop abruptly Maddy turned and stopped as well looking at what she was looking at. 

"Nathan?" Maddy said puzzled.

Nathan had his eyes closed, opened them to look over and saw two girls staring at him. One had her hand over her mouth while the other stood there stiff.

He quickly looked upright, and saw who exactly was looking at him. 

Realizing it was Maddy and her sister Nathan suddenly had a strange expression and froze. For a moment silence, before he looked towards his nurse.

"Carmen, let everyone know I'll be on a three for a week" he said calmly. "Also for food keep it simple." As he said so he put a laminated paper with the number "3" onto the back of his wheelchair and rolled himself away.

Carmen froze in place, but realized what Nathan had said and quickly nodded letting Nathan leave.

Maddy was shocked at seeing Nathan in a wheelchair. Every time she had visited before, they met in his room and he'd just sit their and speak to her. He told her he was fine. That he was recovering just fine. So why was he still in a wheelchair? She wanted to chase after him but someone grabbed her arm.

It was the nurse pushing his chair earlier.

"Don't, if you break the rules he'll only suffer more" she said sternly.

"What do you mean rules, he's your patient. Shouldn't you be chasing after him?" Accused Maddy.

"Listen missie I don't know what he means to you but since you don't know his system, you obviously haven't been around long enough to be told. When that '3' is up he wants to be alone. Zero contact understood?"

Maddy looked like she was going to burst out crying. She couldn't help but blurt out "But it's your job!"

"Yeah to care for his well being, and his system surprisingly works, and when it is a '1' he chats with us like buddies. Honestly he's such a strange kid. It's unfortunate he can't walk anymo-" Carmen stopped herself quickly as she looked away from the two girls.