The Accident

Chapter one

"Hi, my name is Harry Styles and I'm your new physiotherapist. We're gonna get you out of that bed in no time!" A curly-haired boy with a goofy smile said as he came walking into his room at the fancy rehab center his family had put him in after he woke up from his coma. It was his second day there.

Louis snorted. Yeah right. What was the point? He reached for the notepad and scribbled something down. He turned the pad for Harry to read.
GO AWAY!

Harry looked at him like he felt sorry for him and he didn't want his pity. He scrambled down some more angry letters.
FUCK OFF!

Harry didn't go away. Instead, he took a seat next to the hospital bed.
"Look Louis, can I call you Louis?"

Louis shook his head.
"I'm gonna do that anyway." Harry smiled and Louis rolled his eyes at him.

"I read your file and you were in a terrible accident. But as awful as that car crash was you survived it, Louis! You're alive and I'm gonna do my absolute best to help you. You're not paralyzed so I'm gonna make you walk again. I know you can't talk right now. Your brain needs healing but I bet you will do that too one day. I'm optimistic. You just have to fight. Okay?" Harry said.

Louis just stared at him. Fight? He wished he had died in that car crash. It was the only thing he saw when he closed his eyes and as soon as he fell asleep he had nightmares about it. A drunk driver had crashed into him on the highway. His whole life was destroyed and he hadn't even turned 30 yet and here a fucking physiotherapist came and was all cheerful and clearly delusional. He hated him! Couldn't he just leave him alone?

"So, we're gonna start slow. I'm gonna do some light gymnastics on your legs in bed to keep the blood flow going." Harry said and stood up.

Louis was eyeing him suspiciously as he walked down to the end of the bed. He flinched when Harry removed the blanket from his legs and huffed in annoyance.
"You could use a pedicure. I can fix that too." Harry giggled.

Was he stupid? A pedicure? That was the least of his problems.
"I'm gonna touch your leg now. Okay?" Harry asked.

Louis wrote NO!!! and showed it to Harry.

Harry sighed and put the blanket over his legs again.
"Louis, the faster we start the faster we have a chance to get you back on your feet. If you wait too long your legs will wither and die and then you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life for sure. Do you want that? I'm telling you that you have a shot here. Why wouldn't you take it? What's going in?"

Louis just turned his head away and refused to look at him. He was close to tears but he wasn't gonna show his vulnerability in front of this moron.
"I'm sending in our therapist Dr. Payne in half an hour. Then you have some time to collect yourself. It's okay to cry Louis but it's not okay to give up. I'll be here at the same time tomorrow. Bye, Louis."

He didn't need some shrink telling him to breathe and think happy thoughts. Fuck that! The tears tipped over and he wiped them away in frustration. He had cried enough over his situation.

Dr. Payne arrived a half-hour later as promised.
"Hi Louis, welcome to our rehab center. I know you can't talk. Our speech therapist Mr. Horan will work with you on that. I have these paddles with yes and no. I thought we could start there."

Louis sighed but he took the paddles anyway.
"How are you feeling today, Louis?" Dr. Payne asked and Louis rolled his eyes at him. That wasn't a yes or no question.

He flipped him the finger and Dr. Payne laughed.
"I'm sorry. Are you tired?"

Louis held up the paddle that said yes.
"You'll get to rest soon. Are you experiencing memory loss?"

Louis thought about it for a second before he lifted the no paddle. He had been confused and totally blank when he woke up from his coma but his memory had returned, both his long-term and short-term memory.
"That's fantastic, Louis. You're very lucky. Amnesia is a common condition after a brain bleed."

He didn't feel lucky. He remembered every horrible second of the crash.
"Do you have nightmares?" Dr. Payne asked.

Louis hesitated but decided to be honest and waved the yes paddle.
"About the crash?" Dr. Payne asked softly.

Another yes.
"Do you get any sleep?"

Louis showed both the yes and the no paddle.
"Some sleep but not enough?" Dr. Payne asked.

Louis raised the yes paddle. He had a hard time sleeping. His brain was working overtime. When he finally fell asleep from exhaustion he woke up ten minutes later from a nightmare.

"We can help you with that. I'll give you a light sleeping pill." Dr. Payne said.

"Do you remember most of the accident?" Dr. Payne asked.

Louis twisted uncomfortably and sighed but he raised the yes paddle.
"Do you experience flashbacks?"

That had to be another yes.
"Thank you for being honest with me, Louis. When you're in a traumatic accident you often get an acute stress reaction. If you don't treat that you can develop PTSD. Considering you were at the hospital for a month after you woke up and the fact that you, for now, are unable to speak I'm guessing you didn't get counseling?"

Louis shook his head and held up the no paddle.
"Okay, I'm gonna give you some symptoms of PTSD. Please show yes or no if you think that they apply to you or not. We have already established that you suffer from flashbacks and nightmares, is that correct?" Dr. Payne asked and Louis held up the yes paddle.

Dr. Payne took notes. Louis' arms were starting to ache and he put the paddles away.
"Can you continue?" Dr. Payne asked and he nodded his head.

"We can't talk about avoidance just yet, considering you can't leave the hospital bed for now. Harry will make wonders. He's an excellent physiotherapist. Emotional avoidance is also too early to discuss. Do you experience anxiety?" Dr. Payne asked and Louis nodded his head.

"Would you say that you are depressed?" Dr. Payne continued and Louis nodded his head again.

"Okay, that's a start. Thank you for being so cooperative. I'm gonna let you rest now and I'll make sure you'll get something to sleep on later tonight." Dr. Payne said with a smile.

Louis sighed and closed his eyes. He was exhausted.