Falling - Tom Holland imagine

Chapter 2

The first thing I noticed was a faint antiseptic smell, which gradually began to grow stronger  as I became more aware. The second was that I couldn't move my left arm, and with that my eyes flew open and I tried to bolt upright only to be caught by a pair of arms around my shoulders and gentle words meant to calm. Everything was blurry as I tried to blink my eyes clear and beeping noises and the sound of hustle and bustle became louder and louder as consciousness took hold.

"Do you know where you are?" a voice came from next to my head. I turned to see a blonde lady in scrubs who was still gently holding onto my shoulders as she tried to lay me back down.

"I'm guessing a hospital" I rasped out from a dry throat, as this sadly wasn't the first time I'd regained consciousness in a hospital bed, at least this time I was relatively uninjured and quite pain free.

"Bingo"  she replied with a faint smile "and do you know what the date is"

"28th October"

"Oriented to place and time, thats great - do you know what happened to you?"

I looked down at my bandaged arm and the unflattering gown which was tucked around my upper body.

"um, yeah I was in the park and there was this dog stuck in a bush on their collar," as I motioned with my free hand "and I went to free it and the branch snapped and I fell onto it and my arm.." as I gestured towards the bandage. "Then it all went kind of blurry and yeah, now I'm here."

"That sounds about right from what the family who brought you in said"

"Who brought me in? "I questioned

"A family, the dad and his son; they're waiting outside. They wanted to make sure you're okay...."

A door to my left opened suddenly and a tall man in scrubs with a stethoscope and a tablet walked over to me.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Stephens I'm the emergency consultant, can you tell us your name?"

"I'm Y/N, Y/N L/N" and he began typing into the tablet.

"Hi Y/N. You're in Kingston Hospital" he said distractedly as he began scrolling through the screens on the tablet "you injured your arm quite badly and we need to run some tests including some xrays, but its likely you're going to need a small operation to clean and debride the area and stitch it up as its such a large gash."

He reached over to my bandaged arm and released the restraints on it

"We needed to immobilise it to prevent you catching it again. Now can you open your hand and spread your fingers for me. Slowly please."

I unclenched my fist feeling a tightness in the muscles of my arm and the first sting of pain. With a grimace and a hiss of pain I managed to place my hand flat with my fingers extended.

"Ok, good" Dr. Stephens remarked. " Now can you bend each finger individually for me - not too fast, just show me that there is a range of movement  in each of them."

I began to slowly bend each finger in turn. Every time the muscles and tendons pulled there was a bolt of pain up my arm.

"I'm sorry this is hurting, but we can't give you any more pain relief until we know the extent of the damage, we don't want to mask any issues."

Trying to keep the tears of pain back I continued until coming to my little finger. It twitched but nothing more. I tried again but still just a twitch.

"I can't, I can't make it move" I whispered as the tears started to flow down my cheeks, mostly in response to the shock and fear for the future.

"Okay, stop, thats fine" Dr Stephens said. " It looks like there could be some minor nerve and, or tendon damage, so we'll put you down for an exploratory surgery from the plastics dept to check whilst they are stitching the wound. It could be nothing,  just shock to the system or maybe a twinge to the tendons that could resolve over time. But we shall check and see."

He looked over to the blonde nurse who had remained at my shoulder " AJ I've put in a referal to plastics who should be down shortly to collect Y/N for transfer to the ward, in the meantime can you run a full panel of bloods and put in a cannula with X dose of painkiller please, and arrange an xray?"

He rested his hand on my shoulder " You'll be fine. We'll get you transferred and operated on as soon as we can."

Suddenly there was a crash of doors and shouting and his head shot up and he nodded before darting off round the curtains at a run, needed elsewhere.

"Ok then lovey, lets get these bloods and things done. I just need to put a drip into your arm so we can give you the medicine you need and maybe some fluids too, as you're looking  a little pale. Is there anyone you want us to call for you?"

I laid my head back against the pillows and closed my eyes, feeling her wipe off the back of my hands with a cool wipe before warning me of a "sharp scratch" then the intrusion of a needle  into my veins and pressure. My head was spinning.

"No, no-one to contact. Thank you." I murmured.

No-one to contact. No-one to care. Just me. Alone. Always alone now. And I was relieved at that.