Flesh and Blood (Sequel to Poison'd Crüe)

Six

When they arrived in Los Angeles three Days later following the younger bassist's discharge from that Finnish hospital, Nikki got him out to the truck he'd left parked in the airport's VIP lot. He was taking him straight to see Stonie since he was still in a shit-ton of pain, almost to the point of crying constantly and barely being able to sleep, even with his neck brace on. And said neck brace was a pain in the assta sleep in, even without all the pain, something he knew all too well from his own Time with one two decades ago.

One of the first things the doctor did once he got them back to the exam room it seemed they knew like the backs of their hands was introduce them to one of his neurosurgical contacts. Sure, Stonie knew a lot about that particular system, but as he told Bobby while reassuring him, a second opinion from someone who knew even more couldn't ever hurt. They weren't surprised he was wary about that and only consented on the grounds that at least his mate stay in the room with him-that was normal for the younger bassist. Granted, the other doctor-who was introduced as MajGen. Harley Rocket West-thought was a bit weird, but said nothing as he moved to start examining their patient.

"Seemsta me that Finnish doctor was right," Rocket said after his exam and grabbing some fresh X-rays. Of course, the latter was done with the proper safety precautions due more so to his pregnancy than not.

"So basically, he's relegated to a Lifetime of pain now." Nikki's words sounded dry and unamused, but held a note that said he saw this coming.

"Unfortunately-he can have the surgery on his neck at any point, but I'd suggest holding off till there we absolutely can't anymore," he answered, nodding. "It's not an easy surgery, and the recovery Time could be up to six months, maybe longer."

The younger bassist couldn't help a wince, although it wasn't due to his pain this Time.

"I'd also strongly recommend against any surgery during pregnancy that he can technically live without," the neurosurgeon continued. "We don't want the fetus under general anesthesia any longer than it hasta be, and it'd be put under right alongside Mom, if he were to have it done now."

"We definitely don't want that," the older bassist agreed, squeezing his mate's hand. "If it comes down to have it done and he lives with relatively the same motor function as now, fine-even I'm not stupid enough to deny such a surgery during pregnancy. But if we can wait-well, while I don't wanna see him in pain, I also don't wanna jeopardize our kit's Health."

"Good thing we're on the same page there," Bobby agreed, unconsciously rubbing his belly.

"The other thing's that, like the Finnish doctor told Nikki, Time might be the only thing ya really need," Stonie said. "As long as ya don't do anything too stupid onstage once you're cleared to tour again, get plenty of rest in the meantime, and don't get in any Future accidents, ya could easily wait a decade or more, maybe even never need surgery at all."

"So, it's just a waiting game?" the younger bassist sighed.

"Sadly, pretty much," both doctors answered, nodding in agreement.

Now knowing that the younger bassist's prognosis was decent-if painful-as long as he took it easy in the coming weeks, they turned their focus onto their kit's Health. Said kit was deteremined to be perfectly fine, judging by the ultrasound he was given, where they were actually able to find out they were expecting a son. Both bassists were ecstatic to find out that not only was their kit healthy, but that they were getting a son from this particular pregnancy.

Since there was nothing more they could do besides just let Bobby rest as much as possible, it was Time to head home for just that. Poison didn't have any other shows for nearly two months, and Nikki'd already decided to skip out on the rest of his tour. Rikki'd agreed to fill in for him, after all, and he needed the break before he killed somebody, even if he was about to get saddled with other work there at home.

Once they were back at their home, the younger bassist just wanted to go to bed and try to get some sleep since he hadn't gotten much the past few Days. His mate gladly helped him upstairs, letting him take a quick bathroom trip since he'd proven to be able to do that on his own while he was getting their stuff outta the truck. Things might be fairly grim right now in some ways, but at least they weren't as bad as they coulda been-and they knew they could always get worse with lil-to-no warning, too. Therefore, still being somewhat functional was a small Mercy, and while he wanted to be more or less back to normal, the younger bassist could take his current condition well enough.