There's a Chinese curse that goes "May you live in interesting times." That phrase gets a whole new context after a major injury. I'd honestly be lying if I thought it an interesting enough story to go over the long and arduous details of rehabilitation. I did a lot of exercises doing tasks that any barely-walking toddler could do. They hurt, a lot, in places I've never hurt before. I have a surgical scar that runs along the length of my leg, oddly thin despite the length. And I still don't feel like I can do anything like I used to anymore, but the x-rays say I'm fully healed.
Injuries suck.
By some miracle of fate, the only thing I could rely on was a really good health insurance policy. It had the backing of all the right people, and was paid in full the day I signed out of the hospital. My personal premiums are going to be horrifically nasty with any insurance company I could ever take up in my lifetime, but I don't have the debt of the healthcare system breathing down my scarred neck, which I took as a gift from God. Or maybe oil companies. It was becoming harder to tell the difference in recent years.
When I got back to my apartment, I had two important notices on my coffee table. One of them was a note from Aeryn, which conveyed how much she hated me in neither uncertain nor polite terms. I frowned, and crumpled the note up. A 'Get Well Soon' card would've been better. The other note was much more polite in the language, but it was also a bill. Bills aren't impolite, but they also aren't 'Get Well Soon' cards.
Bills suck too.
I went to the back, checked my account online, grabbed my checkbook, and wrote out a check to the utilities company for the apartment. After I got that pieced together, stormed the apartment for an envelope and stamp, and left it by my end table near the door. At least that bit was done. I made myself busy cleaning the apartment, keeping my mind occupied. Anything was better than pondering the implications of the first note. After the apartment's living room was clear and arranged, and my clothing drawer had been resorted by color, and my closet tidied, I realized I was stalling.
I decided that was a bad course of action, and proceeded to stall by going to the coffee shop. I hadn't seen the place in months, and that thought alone made me pretty unhappy. I hit the stairwell, and got halfway down a flight before realizing my ankle hurt a lot. So I kept going, ignoring it. It kept hurting, obviously as stubborn as me. At the next floor, the fifth, I opened the door and walked to the elevator. The doc told me I'd have trouble with it, but I wasn't expecting it to be this bad. Especially not this fast.
I rode the elevator to the lobby, nodded at the front desk, and started walking to the coffee shop. My ankle made me uncomfortable, but I could do things with it when I told it to move. Nothing else felt too bad, so the physical therapy must've worked well. I tossed the bill into a passing mailbox, and walked into the coffee shop.
The first thing I noticed was the redesign. The walls were now lighter colors, paint on the walls somewhere between eggshell and yellow. The counter tops were refinished with marble, a very sandy color of stone, polished beautifully, and all the furniture was new, modern, and clean. If anything, the whole place seemed a little more expensive, and quite a bit more... energetic. A fact that was reflected handily in Erana, who seemed genuinely happy to see me again. "Hey Nuke, it's been a long time."
"My ex once told me that before she slapped me," I answered, grinning easily. "How're things?"
"Different," she said, looking around the room. "It took me a while to get used to the new look."
I looked around. "I'd call it a hospital with a bad dye job, but it's nicer than that. Maybe like a nice bookstore or something."
"Something like that," she answered, gesturing at the wall. "One of my paintings is even here now. Right there."
"Nice. Very Bob Ross."
"It's a portrait."
"Right," I answered, noting it was a portrait of Erana herself. "Looks like Bob Ross."
"Jerk," she said, without heat. "Why're you so mean?"
"It's the hair. Always makes me seem taller."
She gave me an oblique look, as if she had trouble making sense of me. I would too, probably, but she was above humoring my weird mannerisms, we let it go. "Is Puppy in?"
She answered, "He is, in the back. Inventory, I think."
"You're always doing inventory," I said by way of greeting through the employee door, "at least the last three times I've been in here."
"Nuke!" He answered, getting up from the desk and crashing into me. I tried not to think about him in the 'doctor' outfit.
"Heya Puppy, how're you?"
"I'm good, but what about you? You were hit by a truck."
"It was only a small truck," I said, gesturing vaguely out of the window. "It couldn't have weighed more than five tons."
He glowered at me, tone reproachful. His was still hugging me. "It was a truck, and you're alive. You can walk!"
"Not well," I said, crestfallen. "My legs hurt."
"Well," he said, as if speaking to a child. "You were hit by a truck."
I laughed at him. "Is that why I was in the hospital? I figured it was a field trip with mandatory bed rest."
"Don't be a smartass, hun, I'm just glad you're okay."
"Yeah," I said honestly, "me too."
We chatted aimlessly about nothing for a few minutes, before I managed to get things back on track. We got my work schedule hammered out for the week, and settled in for a little more discussion. I asked after a dinner party of some sort, seeing as I was just out of the hospital. He said he'd have to ask Kari, so we left it at that. We both went to the counter, I got myself a drink, and waved goodbye to Puppy and Erana on my way out.
The sun was too bright out, and I immediately missed the warm glow of the coffee shop. I leaned on the door, and waited for my eyes to adjust. It had been a weird few weeks, and I was trying to sort things out in my head. Aeryn was... Uh... Something. I hadn't heard from LaCoil since our little chase months ago. Beyond that, I hadn't heard a peep out of Neese, or anyone really. Only two persons came to visit me in the hospital. One of them was asking for rent. Higs was ruthless. Then I remembered a card that I had sitting on the bedside table. It was a cute little card, an affectionate one, written by Empireth.
Ah, Empireth. That's where I could go.
I immediately headed to the park. Better there than anywhere else, that I could think of. Partly because I had never seen her anywhere else (excepting my little, ah, accident), and partly because it just felt right. My gut was usually good about these kinds of things.
One thing my gut hadn't warned me for is the fact that she would be with someone. With with someone. What the hell, I'd've never pieced that together on my own. She didn't strike me as the type. Not at all, not even a bit. Well... Crap. I didn't bother trying to see who it was, it would be a waste of time. No point in handing myself jealousy fuel. No telling what I'd do with it.
I started back toward my apartment, deep in thought. What had happened with Aeryn anyway? I had no idea. I fished out my phone, and called her. The nice lady on the pre-recorded message told me that her number was disconnected. "Lovely," I told the crowded street corner. An old lady looked at me with an expression most people reserve for backed-up toilets. I frowned, and continued walking, scurrying quickly across the crosswalk, and mounting the curb on my left foot until I miss stepped, and hit an uneven jaunt on the concrete, and my world went neon with pain.
I was spewing hate out of my mouth, curled up on the sidewalk, ankle screaming. Passers-by were stepping over and around me, but it didn't matter, my ankle hurt. I'm not sure how long I was just laying there, trying to curb the excessive pain digging into my ankle. The joint felt like it was on fire. I could no more try to move it than I could lift an anvil. After a few minutes of blinding pain, I got to my feet. It wasn't comfortable, but it all worked.
I got back to my apartment, and found the elevator out of order. Ye Gods, what I wouldn't do for a day off. I turned for the stairs, grudgingly making my way up. I agonized over every step, but eventually got to my floor, and by extension, my apartment. Caime was home, and we spoke on the topic of nothing for a few hours.
When I went to bed, I found it oddly quiet. And empty. Definitely empty. Before I feel asleep, I felt something warm rustle under my hand. I looked up, and saw Veru nuzzling it, and another cat at the foot of the bed. Kitten, then. "Where've you two been?"
The meowed, more or less in unison, and curled up. No complaints here, I feel asleep with them.
