Fire (From Crutchie to Wheels Sequel)

Dislocated

I finally finished all of my auditions and made every one I auditioned for! I'm going to be in a musical outside of school, and musical theatre, advanced acting, and stage tech at my school. I also made one of the choirs at my school. I can't wait!

The rest of the guys had given up searching long before Jack arrived back at the Brooklyn Lodge. When he walked in, everyone exploded. They all tried to help the boys in and onto the couch.

"Where did you find them?"

"What happened?"

"What's on Timmy's wrists?"

"Are you guys ok?"

All these questions bombarded Jack all at once.

"Can I have a minute to explain?!" Screamed Jack.

Everyone went silent.

"I went out to look for Timmy and saw Crutchie starting to twitch near the edge of the bridge. I ran over to him but his crutch fell off the bridge right where Timmy's did so I went to go get them. I came back up and Crutchie was gone and I saw his shoe floating in the water so I ran back down to get it before it floated away. I thought he jumped like Timmy."

Jack began to tear up.

"Then I ran to the nearest empty building so I could compose myself. I heard his voice so I ran up the stairs and saw them."

Jack was trying to stay strong, but his weakness was showing through. He loved Crutchie too much. He couldn't stand the sight of him sitting on the edge of that window. What if he had jumped?

Crutchie broke down along with Jack. They hugged on the couch and sobbed into each other. Everyone else excused themselves from the room. Specs grabbed Timmy and brought him to the bunks so they could figure out what happened and clean him up a bit.

"D-delanceys," muttered Crutchie after everyone left.

"What?"

"The D-delanceys got m-me when you went d-down in the w-water. M-morris tried to d-drag me off s-so he grabbed m-my leg but he t-twisted it and it hurts r-really b-bad."

"How bad on a scale from 1 to 10?"

"Eleven."

"Which leg?"

"B-bad one."

"How bad is a normal day?"

"About a f-five."

"Let me see."

Jack rolled up Crutchie's pants leg to reveal severe swelling around his ankle and shin. His ankle was still in the floppy state, but a little more flopped over than normal. 'How had I not noticed this earlier.'

"Crutchie..."

"I k-know. It looks d-disgusting, right? With it j-just flopping t-to one s-side or the other. I w-wish it d-didn't do that. It looks g-gross."

"No, Crutchie. It's really swollen. I'm going to go find something I can use to help but try to keep it still while I'm gone, ok? It'll just be a minute."

"Ok."

Jack walked into the bunk room where the rest of the guys were tending to Timmy. Brit was finally better and he was calming Timmy. He had woken up and was really confused.

"I don't know!" Was his answer to every question so far.

"We just wanna know what happened to your wrists," Brit asked calmly.

"I don't know!" Timmy screamed.

Jack walked over to Specs.

"Hey I need you to check out Crutchie's foot. I think it may be broken," Jack told Specs.

"Ok. Do we have ice anywhere?"

"No, but I'll go get a cold washcloth. You go check out his foot. I'll be there in a minute."

Jack went to the bathroom and got a towel and soaked it in freezing cold water. He splashed some water on his face and walked back out to Crutchie. Specs was trying not to hurt him more than he had to, but Crutchie was sobbing again.

"Jack, I think it's dislocated. I can pop it back in if you want but I need you to calm him first. It's going to hurt really bad."

"Hey, Crutch. So Specs thinks that your ankle may be dislocated so he's gonna just pop it back in for you, ok?"

"Ok. J-just do it."

Specs walked over to where Crutchie was sitting and stratigically placed his hands around Crutchie's ankle. Specs was usually the guy who had to fix broken and dislocated bones before Dr. Prandin came along, but ever since Dr. Prandin got married and moved away with his husband, Specs was the go-to-guy again.

Jack went over and held Crutchie's hand, while Specs proceeded to set his ankle. Right as it was being popped back, Crutchie let out a loud, highpitched wail. It sounded exactly like the cry he made the night that the Delanceys broke his arm. Jack stifled a cry and instead, hugged Crutchie very tight. This reminded him of the time in the hospital after the second attack. Specs placed the damp towel on his foot.

Jack's hatred for the Delanceys deepened in this moment. They had attacked Crutchie countless times, leaving him with permanent physical and mental wounds. He would never be able to speak without stuttering, think without feeling self-conscious, or even go a day without twitching even the slightest bit. Jack did not care that they had hurt himself countless times, but just the thought of the Delanceys pushing Crutchie over or Crutchie not being able to remember Jack really set him on fire.