Escape from Remnant

Chapter 38: The Hospital

"Bed...comfy..." Texas groaned, snuggling comfortably into his hospital bed mattress, enjoying the soft comfort and getting all the rest he needed. Everything was fine now. He was comfortable. The climate was nice with the chill of the air conditioner. He was clean, having long gotten all that soot and dirt off him from the mission. Best of all, the nurses helped him with menial tasks like shaving his head and facial hair since well his arm was gone now. The doctors had to amputate the crushed remnants of it, and he's been learning how to live like these last few days.

It had been a few days since the battle. Every now and then, his buddies would come visit him, bringing alcohol usually to the dismay of the medical staff, but for the most part, he spent his days just resting. Sometimes, he'd watch the television, Vale's mass media not being all too different from American mass media. There was even a version of Dexter Vale had all with the same premise of sociopath in the police force going all vigilante justice on killers. Texas also conversed with the patients to his right and left sometimes. On his right was a dust miner who had broken his leg in a mine collapse, and on his right, an old man suffering from an issue with his lungs.

There was one thing that wasn't fine, though. The doubt that he would get an arm back lingered in his mind. Ozpin had stopped by for 5 minutes after the whole hospital staff stabilising his body thing happened on the day of the battle. He had promised he would work something out with both Beacon's staff and huntsman insurance. He didn't even know about the existence of huntsmen insurance, but hey extra funds to cover whatever the hospital may throw at him. There was a chance that Vale's medical system was either subsidised or 2,000 lien just for the ambulance kind of deal.

But what if something happened...what if he would forever be an amputee...the many scenarios ran wild in his mind sometimes, but Texas did his best not to catastrophize for the sake of his mental state.

"Here he is headmaster, he's doing better now." A nurse said as she led someone into the room currently housing Texas and other patients. She stopped at the door and extended her arm as a form of invitation to Ozpin, who entered the ward right after.

"Thank you." He said with gratitude to the nurse before turning his attention to Texas standing on the right of his bed.

"So uh...how long until my insurance comes it to help?"

"That's what I'm here for." He pulls a wooden chair over from the bed to the right of Texas to sit on.

"Good news Texas, your huntsman insurance will pay for all medical bills. Glynda wasn't able to get it subsidised by the government though...but that's beyond the point." Texas felt the uncertainty about the medical bills clouding his mind clear out.

"What about my replacement arm?"

"That's the tricky part...Beacon's insurance company has put a limit to the price of your new arm. There's a 3,000 lien limit cutting any Atlesian models out of the question..."

"So uh, what can 3,000 lien get me exactly...?" He leaned into Ozpin's ear, not wanting the next words to be heard by any third parties.

"I'm not exactly from this world, so I don't know the costs of such things yet..." After those words, he laid back onto the bed.

"Well, we can get you a local one. They're usually not as impressive as the Atlesian ones, but they will do you just fine."

"I'll be straight with you, I don't know what the fuck the different options are and I just wanna get out of this hospital quickly and go back to my normal life..." Texas mumbled on about.

"Indeed...prosthetic limbs are...not easy to find catalogues of. Luckily, I usually keep in the event a Beacon staff member loses a limb." From the inside of a coast, Ozpin procured a simple thin brown paper booklet resembling a school exam paper booklet. He handed it to Texas, and he read the front print, which was in simple black words.

"Elcano Prosthetics Company..." He flipped the booklet, the pages all flying past until he stopped randomly at a page. The way the company made its brochures was rather simple. There were no fancy colours, no catching large words like 'sale', or even stylised anything. Just the model name, price, and a black outline of what the arm looked like. As Texas flipped through more, he could see they were grouped into categories of the different types of arms. General purpose, construction, budget, even combat and cooking. A good majority of arm models were also within his price range.

"I think I've heard the name Elcano before...but I can't remember from where...are all these custom-made or standardised size?"

Ozpin thought for a moment, himself unfamiliar with the process, for he had only used it during his last incarnation when the company had only just started out of a rented industrial zone apartment turned workshop mainly making simple prosthetics for the poor. Who could've known such a company could grow to such magnitudes it reache today. One of the largest prosthetic manufacturers of Vale in the modern century.

"I believe a mixture of both, every arm has a skeletal interior made of well depends on the arm but usually light weight metals and carbon fibres. Usually, you can have one just like that fitted, but usually, people get arms customised to look like their old ones." He explained.

"So then can you tell?" Texas questioned the craftsmanship, trying to gauge if it was worth the extra cost of getting the skin mimicry.

"Yeah." Texas didn't know what to choose even, so he just handed the booklet to Ozpin when he gave the answer seeing how he was more knowledgeable on the subject in this world than he was.

"I will be real Ozpin. I don't have a fucking clue on what to choose and what's good. I leave the option to you." Ozpin was stunned at his ask. He'd figure Texas would be definite in his choice after looking everything over, but instead, a man as independent as him is handing such a decision over to him. Maybe he wasn't what he had thought him to be.

"I...I'll try not to take too long." But despite this answer, Texas leaned in closer to Ozpin.

"Just don't fuck me over with a shitty arm or let the insurance company fuck me over." If there was one thing universal in capitalistic societies, it was that people would try to lessen costs as much as possible so as to pocket the balance for their greedy selves. Ozpin could see that dark determination to regain control over his own life again in his eyes, this was a man that he wasn't going to fuck with easily. It's not like he was going to anyway.

"Rest assured, I will see that you will regain your arm." He confirms.

Texas laid back down on the bed, remembering he had a few more questions to ask.

"Oz, do you know how's everyone else is doing? Moron, Floridaman, Akula." It had been a few days since they visited. The last one was Moron who brought him a small bit of alcohol as anymore than a shot would land him in hot shit with the nurses. A one-way ticket to getting kicked out of the hospital entrance.

"They're doing fine. It's just been business as usual at Beacon other than the Vytal Festival on the horizon."

"What about Katya? Has she integrated into this place well? She's been accommodated, right? She saved Ruby." He hadn't forgotten about the great help Katya had been during the battle up the train, having proven herself to be a skilled mercernary worthy of that BEAR title.

"Currently, she's helping substitute for you in your classes, but once you're back, she will be filling in as Glynda's new assistant."

"I guess then everyone will be busy working."

"Certainly." Ozpin gets up seeing he has achieved what he had set out to do visiting Texas in the hospital and moves the chair he was on back to its original location. He had to go back to Beacon Academy having a multitude of different tasks he has to attend to there as it leader. Before he left the ward, he turned his head the most it could go to look at Texas so as to give his final parting words.

"I assure you again, you need not stay long in this hospital. I will do my best to expedite the process of getting a prosthetic for you." Once done, he walks off out of view not to be seen again.

"Back to watching bootleg Dexter...oh lonesome me...at least the bed'scomfy." Texas muttered to himself, seeing Ozpin walk off into the great out of sight.