The One

Chapter 4

"How the hell is there a complication with the surgery?!" She yelled at the nearest surgeon.

The surgeon swallowed, about to be faced with a very unhappy Carrie. "I uh... was working on repairing the acl and I hit the peroneal nerve with one of the inserters."

"So in other words, you weren't being careful? Huh?" Carrie demanded.

"I'm sorry Dr. Fisher."

"Get the f**k out of my way," she muttered, crossing the operation room to grab another pair of gloves.

Carrie came back, taking control of the operation. Along with being a specialist for ligaments in the knee, she also was certified to perform surgeries, although she rarely did. First, she started on repairing the damaged nerve. The surgeon hit his peroneal nerve with the forceps, possibly leaving a small cut in the nerve.

"Hand me the reamer," she said to the nearest surgeon.

Carrie used that to stabilize his knee as she took a better look at the nerve. With another probe acting as a camera, she saw on the monitor that the nerve wasn't cut, but twisted out of place. "Forceps."

The forceps were immediately placed in her hands. She used them to carefully straighten out the nerve and move it back in place. After a positive check on the nerve, Carrie let out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding in. Crisis avoided.

Next she checked the acl repair. It remained almost finished, due to the mini crisis. The graft was in place, almost repaired. "Screws. Thank you."

Carrie gently inserted the screws to stabilize the graft before checking it once more for issues. Then she handed it off to another surgeon to finish with the stitches.

Watching he procedure come to a conclusion, Carrie didn't realize how close that surgeon came to screwing things up, and how much worse this could've ended. If she wasn't here, they might not of caught the damaged nerve and he'd be left in more pain than before the surgery started.

•••

He jumped mid stride as the ball was a bit under thrown. Twisting in mid air, he somehow caught the pass as the tight end tried to bring him down.

Harrison landed on his feet, escaping the tackle. He ran downfield, along the sidelines as the Chiefs quarterback and running back chased after him.

Then, all of a sudden, he felt a helmet smash into the side of his knee, just as he took another step. Harrison blacked out for a few seconds from the intense pain. He didn't remember falling to the turf in a heap.

He woke up on the turf with his knee clutched into his chest. "Damn it!" He yelled, slapping the turf as he rolled over.

Harrison knew right away it was his acl. Turning to his side, he saw the receiver that hit him laying on the turf as well. Looking at the man that looked half conscious, he muttered, "f**k you."

As soon as the hit happened, he, and the Cowboys players knew it was intentional. Instead of tackling him at the waist, like defenders were trained to do, that man decided it was a good idea to take a cheap shot.

The Cowboys tight end Jason Witten ran out with the coach and trainers as Harrison tried to get to his feet. He was unsuccessful, falling to the turf again. The trainers helped him slowly walk off the field on one leg. They then immediately took him in the locker room for further evaluation.

It turned out that the Chiefs player did end up getting fined for the hit. And the NFL made it a pretty hefty amount. As well as getting a fine, he was suspended for the next game.

But after the hit, Harrison was very upset that he would likely miss the rest of the season. The Cowboys were doing very good this year, and analysts expected them to make a deep playoff run. The worst part was that he was in the running for MVP. After this he wouldn't have enough games in to be eligible for MVP.

•••

He could hear her talking to someone outside his room. But he couldn't see yet.

"I'm telling you that you need to be more careful," she scolded.

The other person answered with something he couldn't hear. "My patients put their trust in me and you during these times," Carrie sighed. "They expect us to do our jobs."

"I did mine-"

"I had to step in and save my patient!"

Save my patient? What the hell did that mean? And what went wrong?

"You did not do your job!"

"Whatever-"

Harrison heard Carrie sigh again, this time very loudly. "This isn't going to happen again. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

He heard the door open. The blackness turned into blurriness, and he could almost see her standing by his bedside, holding what looked like water.

"Hey. How you doing?"

"Good I guess," Harrison answered, his vision retuning to normal.

Carrie was now sitting on his bedside, looking beautiful as always. She was wearing a white lab coat with her braid hanging down her shoulder. "You look stressed."

She smiled. "Yeah." But before he could ask why, she offered him water. "I bought you water. Let me know if you want anything else."

"I will," he answered, looking down at his leg. His left knee was bandaged about three times and was propped up on a blanket.

"How's your knee feel?"

"A lot better."

"That's good." At his answer, it looked like she let go of a deep breath.

"What happened?"

Carrie swallowed. "During your surgery, one of my surgeons hit your peroneal nerve with an inserter. I had to fix it myself and finish your surgery to keep you from being in more pain after the fact."

"You can do that?"

"Yeah. I'm certified to preform surgeries, but I don't normally do them."

"So you fixed me?"

"Yes."

"Thank you. A lot."

Carrie nodded. "Do you want more water?" She asked, reaching over to the table next to him for the glass.

"Please."

He handed the empty glass back. Carrie went and filled it up again before coming back and sitting on his bedside. "What time is it?"

"Noon. I'm hoping to have you released later this evening."

Her hand didn't rest to far from his. Deciding to go for it, Harrison knew he could always blame it on the anesthesia if she resisted, he slipped his hand under hers, curling his fingers around hers.

To his surprise, she didn't pull her hand away. Instead, she squeezed his hand back. He continued the gesture, kissing the back of her hand gently.

"This might sound weird, because you know, I'm still high on this anesthesia, but I'm really in love with you."

Carrie blushed. He didn't say that? Did he really? She covered her mouth with her other hand. Hearing him say that, she knew she loved him back. That's why she got so worked up when the surgeon messed up. That's why she continued to think about him outside of work. And that's why she had a longing for a father for her daughter. Because he could be the one.

Lacing her fingers with his, she looked into his hazel eyes and said, "I'm in love with you too."