ALPHABET SEX *CHARDRE* **Discontinued**

6: Hospital

I climb into the back of the ambulance with Charlie and the paramedic, Keith. Charlie is still out and it begins to make me very anxious. I hope he's okay. I want him to be okay. But I get a horrible feeling that something bad has happened. I don't want to dismiss the feeling but I deny it, thinking that surely he'll be okay now he's in safe hands.

At the hospital, I'm told to wait in the relative's room, even though I'm not related to him in anyway. People could mistake us as brothers, of course, but why would they? Charlie and I look very different, they'd be suspicious if I had told them that we were. But they're choosing to believe that we are related if they're sending me to the relative's room. 

A few hours later, a doctor comes through asking for me. "Yes, I'm him. I'm Leo."

"Hi, Leo, I'm Charlie's doctor. Do you know if there's anyone that a nurse can call for him?" 

I shake my head. "No, sorry."

"I'm Doctor Finn O'Conner, feel free to just call me Finn," he smiles but then it drops. "Leo, I'm afraid that there's bad news." He sits down next to me. "The way Charlie fell, he broke a few ribs and, along with that, he's also chipped parts of his cheekbone as well. He's going to be taken up to theatre to get the chipped bone removed which means that he's going to need a lot of time to heal. We're going to let the bone grow back itself which takes a long time, about 6 to 12 weeks. And the same with his ribs. But we're going to prescribe some strong pain relief as he's going to be really thankful for that. I've spoken to his mum over the phone and told her that I'm going to prescribing co-codamol. How often do you and Charlie see each other?"

"About once or twice a week," I reply. "Do I need to keep an eye on him?"

"Well, the thing is, Leo, co-codamol, if taken too much, can be addictive to take, we don't want to take that risk," Finn informs me. "I'd like it if you were to just keep an eye on him. He needs to be taking one tablet both Monday morning and Thursday night every week for 8 weeks. He should only need 16 tablets and there are 30 in a pack, so if there are less than 14 or less than there should be, he needs to come straight back into the hospital."

"Thank you, doctor," I smile. "But I should get going now. Can you let Charlie know that I hope he gets better?" he nods his head and, with that, I head home in the back of a taxi.