Recovery Period

Chapter 6

Within a few minutes, Nico's injured foot was free of it's bandages, re-cleaned, treated with ointment, and Raina had her back turned and brow furrowed as she drew up the local anesthetic into the syringe. Nico had been relatively still throughout the cleaning, although it needed very little attention after the flush it got upon her arrival, but she was anxious to see her reaction to the introduction of more needles and, inevitably, pain.

"Nico, we're ready to give you the anesthetic so that we can get your stitches done. Are you ready?" Raina asked.

Nico looked over at the doctor and her eyes locked onto the needle in her right hand. "Uh..." she hesitated, chewing the same spot on her lower lip that was already nearly bleeding. "I guess I don't have a choice," she finally said through the thickness in her throat. She couldn't tell if it was bile or tears, but she certainly felt like she was trying to swallow a golf ball.

"Not really," Dr. Casey said, a little coldly. She cursed in her head, over-shooting her mark of "neutral" and landing on "mean" instead. She watched Nico flinch, but clearly put the cool mask back on before she thought anyone saw. The guilt began anew, long before she'd given the anesthetic and Nico yelped like a hurt puppy, gritting her teeth with the effort of keeping her leg still. Raina withdrew the needle and felt the purr begin in her mind,  good girl, but she caught herself before the words made it past her tongue. 

Why in the world was this girl, er, woman seeping so deep into her mind. She was bypassing all of the filters and somehow causing Raina to 

"How does your foot feel now?" Auggie asked after a few minutes had passed in silence, both Nico and Raina internally freaking out for wholly separate, but overlapping reasons.

"It feels a lot better, actually," Nico admitted, sitting up to take a look at it.

"Woah! You don't want to look," Auggie laughed, taking a quick step forward to put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, it hurts way less if you don't know what it looks like. It's a really clean cut, easy to fix and it'll heal great, but still...no one likes to see their body open like that," he said, lifting his hand when her upper body relaxed and she relented. What he said did make sense and her curiosity wasn't worth the mental image.

"Alright, Nico, I think that's about as numb as it's going to get, so we should probably start this. I don't want to be putting in stitches while the meds start wearing off," Dr. Casey said, much more kindly than she had spoken earlier. She smiled as Nico relaxed further into the bed at her tone and she felt herself relax her shoulders when Nico returned a timid half-smile.

Nico held her breath and closed her eyes as she saw Raina take the sterile needle and thread from Auggie's hand. She felt a slight pinch, but nothing like the anesthetic. Her entire body relaxed and when she opened her eyes, she saw that one of them had moved the tablet to block her view of the procedure. They knew she'd be tempted to watch, especially if no one was there to stop her. She didn't object to the distraction and sat back, idly picking at her fingers as she tried to ignore the pinching and just watch the show.

Auggie noticed the behavior and frowned at the small cut she'd already opened near the tip of one of her fingers. He glanced at Raina, who was struggling to stay focused on the injury and not the injured internally. She looked focused, so he decided not to disturb her and reached out to grab Mol himself. Without comment and without breaching Nico's line of sight, he placed the bunny between her hands. He nodded in satisfaction when Nico took hold of Mol and began rubbing his fur to soothe her nerves.

15 minutes and 8 stitches later, Auggie was applying a thick layer of medicated ointment while Dr. Casey was typing away at the computer, updating Nico's patient notes. Raina was glancing frequently at Nico, whose eyes had glazed over now that the actual needle part was done. She looked exhausted and Raina started to worry about her ability to get home on her own. She turned back to the computer and finished the notes, realizing as she looked at the time stamp that her shift ended in less than an hour.