Sweets - 𝘈 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺

97 - For Her - Chris POV

Chris stirred slowly, feeling fingers comb through his hair lightly. He started to sit up, his back aching from his previously slumped position. He opened his eyes, forgetting where he was for a moment before he sat up completely and turned his complete attention to Alexa.

"Hey there," Alexa said quietly, a gravelly shake still in her tone.

"Hey, baby. How yah feeling?" Chris asked, much more awake now that he fully remembered why they were here.

God. There was so much blood.

"Okay," Alexa answered.

Chris tried to stretch out his aching limbs, "What time is it?"

"Mm. Almost nine."

Chris had only drifted off for an hour or so then. And he knew Alexa had fallen asleep far before he had. So at least she got some rest. But Jesus. How was this awful day not already over?

"Are you finally all settled? No more pokes and prods?"

Alexa nodded carefully, her body looking stiff and achey from the movement.

A small knock echoed from the doorway.

"Hey there!" A woman in a white coat said, holding a clipboard, quickly reviewing whatever was written on it.

"Hi," both Chris and Alexa said together.

"I'm Dr. Erin Gamble, Thank you for being patient with me. I've been getting called left and right tonight."

"That's okay, I mean...not seeing you is sort of...a good thing, right?" Alexa said breathy and light as if it pained her to speak for too long.

Dr. Gamble laughed, "That's true. That's true. Which I guess that takes us right to this." She held her clipboard up for them to see before she brought it back down to look at it again.

"You already talked about the 14 stitches in your forearm earlier with Dr. Greece," Dr. Gamble said, gesturing to her freshly stitched arm.

Dr. Greece had been the doctor on call when Alexa came in, but his shift had ended a few hours into her time there. They had liked Dr. Greece, very informative and patient. So far they liked Dr. Gamble as well.

"So...you do have four broken ribs on your left side. Obviously because that was the side of impact. Those will, in most cases heal on their own. We also found that the impact bruised your left lung. That's what is currently causing the pain when you're speaking, or you breathe too deeply. You just have to take it easy for a while. You mentioned your current job was being a class instructor at a gym?"

"Yes," Alexa said simply, Chris assumed to avoid the tenderness in her neck and chest again.

"Well, we'll get something written up for you for them. Because you will have to avoid heavy exercise and movement for around six weeks to allow those to heal."

Chris looked at Alexa, trying to gauge her reaction to this news, but she kept her face stoic and serene. Listening carefully to the doctor as she continued.

"The main concern we had," Dr. Gamble continued, "was your ankle. We weren't able to tell right away if it was sprained or broken. After consulting about your X-rays, we noticed that you didn't break your ankle per se, but you did chip a piece of the bone off."

Dr. Gamble held the X-ray up to the light for Alexa and Chris to see, pointing to the area that looked uneven, not smooth like the rest of the bone around it.

"You'll have to stay completely off of it for a few days. Short bathroom trips won't do any harm, but everything else is a no-go. And heck, you might not even feel like doing that unassisted, and that's okay. But you'll come back to see me in three days, to take off this cast, and if it's still doing okay, we will get you a walking boot for the next six weeks as it heals. If it doesn't look like it's progressing when we meet, then we may have to discuss the idea of surgery."