Dark Fall

Chapter 25 - Recovery

Zoe helped Terra walk laps around the room, assisted with the breathing treatments, and to Terra's relief, removed the catheter. Still, a lethargic drowsiness and throbbing pain dulled her mind, and she found it difficult to sleep because of the head injury. But the painkiller, or happy juice as Zoe called it, did its job, allowing her to take a long refreshing nap. Will spent most of the day with her while awake, brightening Terra's mood.

Feeling better, Terra attempted psi-surgery on herself. Since this carried additional risks, Terra requested that Zoe and Liz be at her side.

For reasons Will understood, she asked that he stay away, since his close prescience interfered with the aura and made psi-surgery that much more difficult. It was why they easily passed a checkpoint outside of Stronghold and, somehow to a greater extent, how he disabled Necros.

She resolved to question Will later. His secrecy needs to end.

"Ready?" Terra asked.

With nods from her companions, she closed her eyes and shifted into the aura. Focusing inward, Terra's body appeared to her like a glowing 3D model in stark detail. A quick sweep revealed what she already knew.

Yeah, definitely roughed up.

She treated the chest injuries first, hoping the irritating chest tube and nasal oxygen cannula could then be taken away. Focusing, Terra located a jagged tear in her lower right lung. With gentle pressure, she pressured excess fluid from the lung into the body cavity and cauterized the breach.

Done.

Next came ribs. Three were broken, one of which needed to be repositioned.

With her eyes remaining closed, Terra muttered, "Zoe, hold on to me. I need to move a rib, and it's going to hurt like hell."

Zoe wrapped one arm under Terra and braced her shoulders. With as deep a breath as she could muster, Terra telekinetically pushed the rib back into place. She stiffened and cried out from the agonizing pain that pulsed through her chest, as if breaking the rib again.

"Fuck!" Terra blurted while her heart pounded. After a few breaths to relax, she said, "Damn, that hurt. Zoe, how am I doing?"

"The patient's vitals are good. Heart rate and blood pressure spiked, but is coming back down. Although she is getting a little cranky."

Terra stifled a chuckle as she cradled her ribs. "Oh, please. Don't make me laugh. And I really mean that."

Terra drained other areas of inflammation and pushed the excess fluid down the chest tube. Coming out of the aura, she took a deep breath and noted the lessened pain. "Enough for today. I am exhausted."

Liz asked, "So how did it go?"

Terra glared at Zoe. "The patient will live, but I think the nurse needs to work on her bedside manner."

*****

Terra woke up just before dawn the next morning to find Will reclining in a chair beside her, his legs splayed out. She smiled. "Hi again."

He straightened up and returned her smile. "Hi yourself. I thought you weren't a morning person?"

"Hmm, must be brain damage. That's the only reason a person would get up this early."

Will stood up and took her hand. "Well then, I have something to show you — something new for you. It's called a sunrise."

Terra laughed out loud, then grabbed her chest. "Oh, that one hurt. Literally."

Will guided her outside to a bench on the east-facing porch, then draped a blanket around her against the coolness of the morning. Going back inside, he returned with two mugs of hot tea. They sat silently, arm against arm, sipping tea as the sun made its appearance with a dazzling display of reds and oranges against an indigo sky.

Terra leaned her head against Will's shoulder and whispered, "This is nice."

Later that morning, after a short nap, Terra performed another psi-surgical procedure on herself with Zoe and Liz again at her side. Will excused himself before she started.

Terra slipped into the aura. Her lung and ribs continued to heal well, and she drained away some persistent pockets of inflammation. Next came the head injuries. She made a diagnostic pass and breathed a sigh of relief. Although there were signs of concussion, but it should heal on its own. Doing psi-surgery on her own brain was difficult and dangerous.

However, the epidural hematoma needed to be addressed since it put pressure on her brain and probably was the source of her headaches. Fortunately, the swelling occurred outside of the dural lining and not in the brain itself. She formulated a treatment plan.

"Zoe, I am going to open my head gash and push fluid from the hematoma out through it. There will be a mess."

Terra opened a small pathway through small skull cracks at the point of impact. With slow precision, she directed the bloody fluid out through the path while Zoe wiped it away with gauze pads. The headache pain abated noticeably as the size of the hematoma decreased. After draining as much as she could, Terra sealed a few small blood vessels that still leaked.

Terra opened her eyes. "That's all I can do for now. I feel much better."

Zoe piled the crimson-stained gauze pads on a metal tray. "You weren't kidding about the mess."

Just then, Will stepped into the room. "How did it go?"

As he spied the bloody mess, color drained from his face and he staggered back against the door frame. Liz caught him before he collapsed and led him outside of the room.

Zoe giggled at the questioning look on Terra's face. "There is a reason we never let Will help in triage."

Terra grinned, but it faded as she changed subjects. "Zoe, if you don't mind me asking, what was Will's wife like?"

"Ell? She was a breath of fresh air. Everyone liked her, I think you would have too. I never believed in love at first sight, but it was for her and Will. They were inseparable." Zoe's expression turned grim. "It tore him up when she died, and I've never seen a man more devastated. We all feared he would do something terrible to himself, but I think Pastor Joseph helped him pull through." A sly grin rose on Zoe's face. "He seems to be smitten with you, though."

Conflicting emotions, elation and gloom, stirred within Terra's mind, and she looked away. "I may not be good for him. I have, well, a past..." Her voice trailed off.

"Yeah, we gathered that, seeing as how the Emperor's Chief Enforcer came all the way up here just for you. But, Terra, we have seen how you care for others and Will has, too. Don't sell yourself short."

*****

Later that afternoon, Ginny delivered the news that everyone feared would come. "One of Necros' minions showed up today, and he was hopping mad learning his master bit the dust. I explained that somehow the town communications array was down." A half-grin crossed her face. "Strange how that happens at the most inopportune times."

Terra tightened her expression. "By tomorrow, this town will crawl with Dynasty police and Enforcers. They will search everywhere, despite your deception about us leaving town. One of the first things they will do is set up roadblocks on every road out of town." She turned toward Will. "I have to leave. Tonight."

Ginny looked knowingly at Will. "You know where to go?"

"I do."