Plans Changed, A Story 2

I was still on my knees when the officer came to cuff me, thankfully a paramedic told him not to.  Making use of the patrol car I stood my self up and walked over to the ambulance and climbed in on my own accord.  One of the less inebriated women had apparently had heard the exchange and came over to ask why I was under arrest. The detective said it was her job to keep the peace and it was someone else's to work out who was at fault, and she doubted the DA would actually choose to keep her knight in shining armor incarcerated and for my case since I was also a material witness in another case who would probably not hang around she was hoping that someone would get a clue before they just let me drive off back to wherever I came from.  I was not able to hear the rest of the conversation as the doors were closed after I was joined by the young officer and the paramedic who would not allow to touch me.  At the hospital on my own two feet I walked in, ignoring the waiting wheel chair.  Once shown the bed I would be using I kicked off my boots and as a nurse pulled out some scissors I pointed out there were buttons on my shirt, but if she absolutely had to use it for bandages she should feel free to cut it up.

Immediately I was pegged for a smart ass, I told her no since the hospital would not reimburse me for a shirt, I just did not see the purpose in ruining the only clothes I immediately had available.  When the doctor came in she reminded me of my second oldest daughter now in her residency in another state. Asked if I needed help with my pants and I told her the problem I was having was not below the waist.  Without as much as a glance from looking at the paperwork she asked if I was a doctor; I was going to answer but decided in my current state the two orderlies standing outside the curtain not to mention the uniformed lawman would not take it for what it was, me simply answering a question.  When she looked up and saw me standing bare chested she stopped and said I should not be standing on my knee and I shook my head and told her I think she might have the wrong chart as my issue was with my ribs and I took a good kidney shot.  Catching her breath she looked back down at her charts and then told me to hold that thought and walked out.  This was one reason I would have like to pass on the Emergency Room the lack of personal interactions.  I know in many places they are so busy but this night besides myself and the other two boys also in the custody of authorities or rather they were soon to be and of course as I was still standing leaning against the wall when I heard the woman and one of her friends who just happened to be a doctor come in.  The cold of the wall actually helped with the pain and when the tallest of the seven poked her head in gone was the little girls attitude from earlier that evening, though she too took a deep breath before asking if I was okay.

I shrugged and said that I was hopefully about to find out, her friend was right next to me and yanked open the dividing curtain to show her taller friend the bruising and then she saw me and after taking a deep breath realized she was showing me again her breasts and this time as she had also held up her hospital gown I had to look away but not before seeing her nether regions without that slinky thing she had been wearing.  I had immediately thought about my wife but that did not help as all I was seeing in mind was the image of her the morning I had left on my journey this time which she was still wearing what she had been wearing all that previous night as we had been making up and saying goodbye.  It was only the ER doctor walking in with a colleague that kept me from embarrassment.  Her colleague a man closer to my age though probably still a few years my junior asked me to tell him what happened.  I told him briefly as the younger doctor went to the next cubicle to check on the sobering woman my take on the incident.  His practiced hands found the center of my pain and when I took a seat he nodded and said he would like to get some ex-rays but would need some information beyond what the detective already gave him.  I told him if I could answer his questions I would. Nodding he said that was fair but since I did not appear to be dying he would leave me for a moment as he had a fellow with a busted up face who needed some attention.  I asked how bad was it.  The doctor looked at me for a moment and told me it was not as bad as it looks, a couple of knocked out teeth which probably should have been pulled long before and a hairline fracture to the jaw.  I asked about the fellow with the knee.  The doctor said he would be needing surgery if he hoped to walk again, and then told me to keep that to myself.  I sat on the examining table and listened to the pictures being taken and the woman recount her story.  It became evident she had some legal training.

It was another two hours before I was taken down to get an MRI but that was only after changing into one of those silly little gowns which in no way covered my backside.  The older doctor had been good natured about the little event which more or less had me in my little fabric enclosed cubicle with an audience as now an assistant DA the detective and an eternal affairs detective along with no less than three of those women were there to watch me change. More than once I had offers to help.  A nurse did have to help me tie up the gown in the back which I had put on before losing the pants.  It was after the imaging component to my check up I was informed there were bones completely unattached.  I ignored the rest and asked the doctor if that meant surgery and smiling he said he would not presume to tell me what to do but he highly recommended it and as soon as possible, as in that morning.  I nodded and told him I had to talk to my wife, he wrongfully assumed it was the taller of the two medical doctors among the group of seven friends.  Apparently the detective who still in charge of my personal items pulled my phone and called my wife who knew the detective now by first name and told her she was on speaker and she was in the emergency room with the doctor, her husband and a few others.  Calling me honey a word she had not used in talking to me in years asked if I was all right.

I did not try as I had done so in the past to try to break it gently; I told her it appears I would need surgery for not keeping my opinions to myself as there were parts of bones now loose in my abdomen.  She asked what about the work.  I sighed and said I had had two offers in Vegas but to be honest now that I was under arrest I did not know if they would keep those offers open.  She asked how we would pay for this operation and I told her to be honest I was not planning on paying for anything as that was not in my budget.  She dropped a bomb and told me that before making a decision she wanted me to know she put the house on the market three days ago and had six offers.  Hanging my head i told her she loved that house and I could tell she had been crying when she told me she loved it because it had been our home or so she thought.  The doctor interrupted, after apologizing he told her I should really be getting ready to go into surgery, her only question of him was could he wait until she got there as she was almost to the airport and would be on the first flight available my turning to look at the phone shot pain through me and I heard the doctor start giving quiet yet firm orders..

My next thoughts were what was my wife doing in the room, and then when I tried to reach out and touch her why I could not move my arm.  Someone noticed my struggling and an unknown women tried to tell me to calm down.  Even I was realizing was a drug induced haze I was able to manipulate the strap holding my left hand down enough to slip it free.  My wife grabbed it and held on and told me I was safe and I needed to relax before I opened the sutures. For a moment I was confused as I knew this was not right as my wife had not known what I really did for a living.  Slowly it came back as she learned though I truly did work as a freelance field engineer my real job was for the government and had more than once almost made her a widow.  It was when she thought me not telling her what I did meant I was having an affair and her reaction of going out and having one that changed our relationship which also brought about the birth of a boy who was not of my DNA and of course left her with another little surprise in the form of a sexually transmitted disease.  That was many years ago and that boy was now almost grown.  Because my wife was also a doctor I presumed they were allowing her into this room where I now was laying as I slowly remembered that I had undergone surgery.  Remembering the pain I forced myself to relax and went back to sleep.  When I woke up again I was in a private room alone.  I needed to use the facilities so as I stood up I removed all of the monitoring devices and ignored the alarm sounds.

A nurse ran in and seeing the bed empty yelled I was gone.  In walked the detective who happened to notice the bathroom and told the nurse it was okay her patient had to make a pit stop, I walked out of the restroom as my wife walked in with the doctor.  My wife asked what I was doing and I started to point and she pushed my hand back down and told me try to keep from overusing my torso.  I told her okay I had to go to the bathroom; Leading me to the bed she helped me climb back in and told me I was a very poor patient. Looking down I nodded and said she was right but my guess I would not have to pay the bill because as far as I knew I was still under arrest.  The detective chimed in when I went before the judge that would most likely change.  She then asked if I would like to tell her who I really was.  I told her she had my information. She nodded and said she did have my information and now my wife had my personal items including her jeep. My wife smiled and said in any case she could post bail.  I shook my head and said thanks but I could not ask her to do that.  Smiling she told me I did not have to ask.   I looked up and quietly said thank you.  She put a finger to my mouth and told me to get some sleep and if he needed anything there would be a nurse on call and an officer in the hall. After giving me a kiss she said goodnight and left.  The detective smiled as she shook her head while leaving.  I was alone with the doctor and the nurse.  I looked around and said this was not an ordinary hospital room.  The doctor said no it was not a normal hospital room and I was not in a normal hospital as with all of the media the authorities asked if there was somewhere they could take the guardian angel of the ex wife of a state representative to recuperate in private.  As the doctor looked around he said he supposed that angel had seen his share of hospitals.  I told him not as many as one might think but I have known what it meant to recuperate.

Glancing around and then checking his chart on the electronic tablet he told the nurse if there was any more issues he would be on pager.  He had not been gone long when I started to feel hungry, Wrapping myself in a sheet as I did not see any clothes I went to the door; opening it to a startled officer who was flirting with the nurse.  She told me i should be in bed and smiling I told her if she would be so kind as to get me something to eat I would get back into bed and while she was at it she should call the officer's fiance and tell him he was making a move on her.  The officer stood taller and I gave a wave of my hand and told him yes he could shoot me but the authorities already knew I would not run and he needed to let the woman do her job.  When the late twenty something said he was not going to shoot me, i nodded and said probably not but he wanted to as I just ruined that fantasy running through his head which he hoped in some manner might become real.  The officer not knowing what to say told me I had to get back into bed.  Never being one to take orders well I said as I followed the nurse that I preferred to eat sitting up at a table.  Before I could get my meal, his friends showed up as did the detective and then the doctor and finally my wife along with two of the seven women all of whom looked like they were ready to go out for the evening.  I just sat at the table an waited for whatever was coming next as discussions ensued.  The detective who looked tired though very amused at the interactions leaned against the wall and finally whistled.

Everyone stopped, she said thank you and then asked what the problem was.  She pointed to the officer on duty and he told her I got up to get something to eat and when he told me to go back into the room I refused and followed the nurse.  When she looked at the nurse she told her that was true but only after he told her the officer who had been flirting with her was engaged and that she should call his fiance and tell her he was trying to hook up.  When the detective looked at the officer he said he was only having a friendly conversation, the detective told him and keeping her from her job.  She then looked at me and I said that pretty much summed it up.  She looked at my wife and asked if I was always this much trouble and she smiled and said she would not know as I was rarely home, but yes when I was home I had my moments.  One of the women asked if I had been allowed to eat and I said not unless you called that bag of clear liquid dripping drop by drop into my arm a meal the answer would be no.  She started in that as my lawyer and I called time out and apologized and told her I thought she said she was my lawyer and when she said yes I told her that I did not remember asking for one and definitely would have remembered if I asked for her to be my lawyer.  My wife spoke up and told me she hired her.  I apologized for ruining their evening, the woman said no apology was needed.  The detective must have understood their was something that needed to be said between my wife and I and told the officers it was time to for them to go out and catch real bad guys.  One officer made a lude comment about my wife under his breath as he passed by me.

I begged my pardon and asked for him to repeat what he said.  The man said he did not say anything, I nodded and told him I must have been mistaken but doubted it and if he was planning on making good on what he just said before he did anything he should call a number I wanted to give him, give whoever answered my name and ask what would happen if he did what he had implied.  Asking for a pen and paper it was placed before me quickly.  As I penned my wife asked if this is how I wanted to play this and I smiled and said they already knew where I was but this poor misguided man who had insinuated of making a visit to her later needed to understand what he was getting himself into.  The man who I guessed had almost sixteen years as an officer went pale as he read the numbers.  His demeanor changed and apologized for what I may have thought I heard; I nodded and told him for what it was worth I accepted his apology but if he might I would like to give him a piece of advice, when he nodded I told him just because you have worked with a man for all of your adult life does not qualify him as a friend.  Another man asked what would I call it and I told him a coworker and in their line of work from what I could see someone who in the end would throw them under the bus.  My wife told me to behave for the rest of the night and she would see me in the morning.  She left with the two women and the detective who told the uniformed officers since they could not behave she wanted them to station themselves outside.  When she left an officer asked who I was and I told him that all depended on ones perspective but he should feel free to call that number and he should be warned it was long distance as it was in Virginia.

I was alone again with the nurse who shook her head and told me she was behind in her work and needed to check on the other patients and I should really get back to bed.  I went quietly and climbed back into bed and lay there for what seemed like hours.  It was early when the internal affairs detective and the assistant DA showed up just before the doctor.  He was thorough and brought me into a room so he could get an image of my insides.  The doctor told me that the bone fuse has held and as of that moment he could not see any reason to keep him but concluded that I needed to take it easy and I should come back for a checkup in another week so they could plan my rehabilitation or I should at least sit down and talk to my wife.  I told the doc thanks for the marital advice and asked how far at that moment was I allowed to stretch my arms. Seizing the opportunity he told me if someone told me to freeze and put my hands in the air don't, and take the stretching slowly and for the first couple of weeks he would prefer I did not do any physical activity and definitely no carrying any weight and if I was in discomfort of felt any serious pain to call him or tell my wife. When he left a dufel bag was brought in by a nurse who told me I could get the sutures wet but if there was any bleeding I needed to speak up.  She told me there was a towel in the bathroom and if I needed help to holler.  By the time my wife showed up I was already dressed; I could tell she had been out rather late with her new friends but she was still bummed out that she had not gotten up early enough to help me.  Over a light breakfast of oatmeal and soft fruits, I asked the Assistant DA what was our schedule for the day.