How to Save a Hero [ManxMan]

Chapter One: Recovering

~Chapter One: Recovering~

The bullet somehow missed all my organs.

It tore a great deal of muscle and snapped one of my ribs, but the damage was minimal, considering what could have happened. In fact, the doctors claimed it was a miracle, since the bullet likely would have ricocheted up to my lung had it not stopped when it did. However, it certainly does not feel like a miracle. Any action that causes my abdominal muscles to move or clench – which is basically everything – hurts. It is like someone is slowly pouring molten lava onto that one spot, over and over again.

Despite the pain, which they quickly dulled with a higher dose of pain killers, my discharge from the hospital came only a day after my admittance. They would have preferred to keep me there for at least one more night, but hospitals make me cranky and I was not feeling very agreeable with all the needles they kept sticking in my arms. It left me feeling like an unlucky pincushion.

I will still need to return in a little over a week to have the stitches removed, and they gave me a long list of instructions on what I can and cannot do, but I was allowed to go home not long after filing the correct paperwork. My doctor also made me promise to come back should it feel like the stitches are pulling or if it starts to feel increasingly worse. That promise was not really necessary, though, as there is no way I would try to ignore the warning signs...okay, no, I would do that; my doctor was wise.

Shortly before I was discharged, David 'Dave' Lee, my partner, stopped by to let me know that I am now on injured-on-duty leave until the department's physician and mental health counselor give me a clean bill of health. The latter should be easy, as I am experiencing none of the obvious signs of trauma following being shot, but the former makes me feel even grumpier.

The physician makes things complicated because they will likely keep me off duty until the wound is one hundred percent healed or the boss might assign me to desk duty for a while instead of field work. I like neither option, which means I will have to be careful not to push my body too hard while recovering. Unfortunately, that also means I cannot workout or keep up with any of my normal routines.

Grateful to be alive, but not excited for the foreseeable future.

Dave was not the only person to visit me, though, thankfully. While I love my partner, there should be a time limit to how long someone can apologize. I blame the bad guy for shooting me, but Dave seems to want to take all the blame on himself. Unfortunately for him, my grumpiness ended in me sending him away with some not-too-nice words, which will hopefully be forgotten by the next time I see him.

As I was leaving, the woman we saved, Heather, had showed up with a small entourage of strange people. Despite their casual clothing, they acted less like friends and more like bodyguards, which I am guessing they were. And just from looking at them, I could tell they were not human. One of them even looked vaguely familiar, but the pain killers kind of made it hard to focus on why, so I let it go.

Heather had come to thank me again for saving her, though Dave was actually the one who tackled the criminal. When I pointed this out, she said that the one who gets injured is the one who deserves the 'thank you' more, though she then said that she had planned to visit my partner a little later to thank him properly, too. Still, she brought me chocolates – which I am not yet allowed to eat because of the dangers of having a sugar crash while still suffering from blood loss, though I kept this to myself since I can still eat them later. After offering to buy me a coffee – which I refused – she left with her possibly-bodyguards in tow, leaving me to wonder who I saved.

An actress, maybe?

It is now Sunday, one day after my release, and I almost regret having left at all. While the hospital food is utterly horrible, the pain medication they used was potent. The pills they sent me home with are practically useless. There is a constant ache in my side and moving only makes it more noticeable. I almost chose to stay in bed rather than make breakfast this morning, just to decrease the unpleasantness of existing.