A Cry in the Park - A Bob's Burgers fanfic - by BobsBurgersStories1

A Cry in the Park - Part 16

(Just in case you missed it, I'm going to upload chapters on Tuesdays and Saturdays from now on.)

After eight days in the hospital, Louise was beginning to perk up. She had been too exhausted to do anything but sleep, now she was able to sit up and make conversation.

The doctors and nurses, and her parents, had been okay with Louise constantly sleeping, for it made it easier for them to treat her. Bob knew Louise, he knew she was stubborn, and afraid of hospitals – if Louise didn't want to have blood taken, she wasn't going to have blood taken. But the state the girl was in made her hyperbaric treatments and trips to the operating room much easier. Plus, as Cabell had said, sleep was one of the best things for her. They had even tried to wake her a few times, but Louise could not physically stay awake, so it was decided to let the girl wake up by herself.

For that first week, Louise slept while she was taken to the hyperbaric chamber three times a day; she slept while her fasciotomy dressings were changed every other day; she slept as she was taken off the dialysis; she slept while she had debridement surgery on her arms, legs and back thrice that week; she slept while tissue was taken from her hips and buttocks for skin grafts on her arms and legs, hands and feet; she slept during her daily bed-baths, she slept while her hair was washed and brushed, she slept while her teeth were cleaned twice a day, she slept while more skin grafts were placed on her back, and she slept while her pressure wounds were cleaned daily.

Because Louise slept so much, the family's visits consisted of sitting around and talking in whispers. On the occasions the girl did wake up, she was unaware of her surroundings, and she didn't have the energy to do anything except lie there.

She was able to eat, and every morning, Louise was given either porridge or cereal, which she would sleepily eat a few mouthfuls of, and she would do the same with lunch and dinner, which usually consisted of soup or chicken broth. She was given food and nutrients through an IV line.

Throughout the day, she was given cups of Oral Rehydrating Solution, along with ice chips and ice lollies, all of which she gladly accepted.

For the rest of the week, the restaurant had been closed; Bob had reopened it the following Monday, five days after the rescue, and it had been shockingly busy. He knew why; every customer that came in asked him about Louise.

The Belcher family had now gotten themselves into a routine; Bob and Linda would wake Gene and Tina, give them breakfast and see them off to school, and then one parent would open the restaurant, and the other parent would go to the hospital. The working parent would close the diner at three p.m., pick up the kids from school, and they would all go to the hospital. After a few hours, the working parent would take the kids home, give them dinner and put them to bed. They would then go back to the hospital, and the other parent would go home to sleep. The next day, they would switch over.

It had been a struggle for the first few days, but they had soon gotten into the swing of it. Running a busy restaurant on their own wasn't easy, but it needed to be done; unfortunately, money was something they had to have.

While all of this was going on, several local and major newspapers in New Jersey were keeping their readers updated with Louise's recovery and progress. Different reporters and journalists interviewed as many people involved in the rescue as they could, so as to have something new to print. Many people were still very invested in the story, and they wanted to see how Louise was doing. Due to social media, and the fact that Louise was pushed into the well, the story was able to get international attention, reaching many major countries.

Most of the volunteers were happy to talk about their experiences, and how glad they were that Louise was out, and that everything was going back to normal.