By Her Side

Chapter 21: Pain of Crutching

~ Claire's POV ~

I sat in Amelia's room, she was sleeping and I gently placed my hand on hers, rubbing her skin lightly with my thumb. "Hey, you're awake." I whispered.

"Yeah."

"How do you feel?"

"Pain." She said, "Is my mom here?"

"Yeah, she's talking with the doctor and went to go grab another cup of coffee."

"I was so scared, Claire. One minute ago, I was at a red light, the next minute I was suddenly spinning rapidly in the intersection."

Yeah, baby. I know. Your mom and I came sprinting into the entrance after we heard the news. It was actually on the news, since it was a semi-truck that crashed into your side of the car, we were surprised you weren't as badly damaged. Traffic was stuck for about an hour because it mainly blocked traffic, you were lucky the truck was trying to break and wasn't zooming through to beat the light." I said as I looked at her, sighing. "The doctor said that there wasn't a lot of muscle damage but there was quite a bit of tissue damage so that's better than it could have been, and you have a few bruises and cuts that they cleaned up. Dr. Grace said you should only need crutches for a few weeks before it can bear weight again without causing any more damage."

Amelia nodded in acceptance and I watched as her eyes grew heavy and I felt her grip on my hand tighter. I looked into her tired green eyes and she pulled my hand gently. I would refuse because I didn't want to cause any other problem but she gave me the puppy-dog eyes and I got up from my chair to gently lay beside her.

She snuggled against me and smiled, "I love you Claire. Thank you for being here."

"I love you too, Amelia. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now."

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~ Amelia's POV ~

I woke up to bright light the next morning. I cringed at the sunrise and slowly turned my head, and noticed Claire still holding me in an embrace. I saw my mom sitting on the chair, her arms crossed as she slept. I closed my eyes again and just when I was about to drift back off, the door lightly opened. We all slowly opened our eyes and I noticed a female doctor with black brown hair walking in.

"Morning you guys, sorry to wake you all." She smiled and looked at me, "Hi, I'm Dr. Wendy Grace. How are you feeling Amelia?" She asked as we shook hands.

"Good, besides being tired."

"Yes." She chuckled. "Well, since everything looks good on your charts, we decided we could discharge you later today, I'll have a nurse come in to check your monitor a few more times today, just to make sure you're stable."

"Okay, thank you." I said and she nodded walking out of the room.

I sighed and snuggled into Claire, "How are you doing honey?" My mom asked.

"I'm fine, just extremely tired."

"Yes, you've clearly expressed that a few times." Claire chuckled. "It's the meds they gave you for pain relief." I nodded and let her stroke my hair.

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"Okay, you ready to go home?" Dr. Grace asked as she came into the room, later at about 3:00pm.

"Yeah, haven't been in here for a day and I already want to leave."

She nodded, "Okay, here are the crutches." The nurse said as she helped me up and on them.