Detective

14

"...ost a lot of blood. The bullet wound on his side pierced through a part of his intestines which we had to repair. Also the wound on his shoulder fractured his clavicle bone. It's going to take a while to heal. As for the gunshot to his leg, luckily the bullet missed any bones, but it did however tear a muscle. Recovery will take some time, but with the right rehabilitation, he should he alright. No longterm injuries."

"Thank you, Doctor. Oh, one more thing, Miss."

"Yes, Sir?"

"When do you think he'll wake up?"

"We have him under heavy medication, it might take him some time before he--"

"Wakes up?" I hoarsely groaned. My tongue felt like burlap. "Yeah, I've dealt with harder drugs."

"Russ!" Leon walked up to my hospital bed, as did the doctor, both looking stunned. "You goddamn fool. Why don't you ever do as you're told?"

"By now you should know why."

"Yeah? Well maybe getting shot is what you needed then," He scoffed, crossing his arms while the doc checked up on my vitals.

My body felt like tender meat. Maybe I now finally knew how fish felt when they got a hook through their mouth - only the hook was I don't know how many bullets and the mouth was my whole body.

- If that was the case, I just became a vegetarian.

But surprisingly enough, what hurt the most was my head. And damn it if I knew why. "Hey, doc? Mind pulling out that morphine drip? It's not good for an ex-addict to get high."

"I'm sorry Sir, but if we turn of the drip--"

"I'll be in a shitload of pain, but I'd rather be that than go to one more stupid AA meeting. Turn it off."

"Just do as he says," Leon sighed apologetically to the doctor. She gave me a prudent look, but then turned off the morphine drip. Thank the fucking God. There were better things than morphine to get high on. Morphine just made me nauseous.

"So, Russ--"

"I'm sorry about Michelle."

"What?"

"I'm sorry I brought up Vegas to Michelle," I elaborated and tried to wet my dry lips. Didn't work, my tongue still felt like a starfish's arm, all thick and raw.

"I wasn't questioning the Michelle part, I was questioning the sorry bit," Leon replied with a flat look. "I don't think I've ever heard those words come out of your mouth before."

"Well I--"

"Open wide please for a moment." The doctor opened my mouth for me and stuffed a popsicle stick down my throat. I coughed and jerked away from her.

"Jesus woman, do you mind? My tonsils are fine, my pupils respond properly, my only problem is you," I snapped, ignoring the offended glare she gave me. "Go help someone else, I'm sure there are plenty of people in this hospital who needs your popsicles more than me."

"Thank God, I thought for a minute there the Russ I knew had been brain damaged," Leon scoffed while the doctor took my chart and then left, looking like I cursed her children to Hell. "But now you sound like yourself again."

I snorted, which turned out to be a painful act. "You know I don't change, Leon."

"No, you never do, do you?"

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. "How is Michelle? Is she--"

"She already knew you dipshit."