The Perfect Illusion

Fool

Narrator's POV

Stephen flipped through X-rays on his hands on a tablet.

Christine was helping him shave.

It had been some weeks since the accident, and Stephen's hands were on their way to healing. It was only a few more weeks until the bandages that were wrapped around his hands were removed.

He studied the X-rays carefully to see what they had done to him and how bad his hands had turned out. He was hoping they weren't worse than they already were.

///0///0

The days had finally come.

The big reveal.

It had all come down to this day, and the previous days had been painfully long and slow.

Christine carefully removed the bandages from Stephen's hands. Once she was done, she walked over to Nic's side and watched for Stephen's reaction.

Stephen picked up his right hand, looking at it.

It was hideous. His hand were horrifying.

It shook more.

He tried to open his hand, but he felt immense pain and his hands shook more than they ever had. "Ch..." He scoffed. "No." He let his hand fall on the bedside.

"Give your body time it heal." Nic said.

"You've...ruined me." Stephen said.

With his hands in this worse condition, he couldn't possibly even pick up a pencil. Just imagine having to pick up a glass of water only to have it spill all over the place. How was he ever gonna practice magic again like this? He couldn't go back to Kamar-Taj like this.

There had to be another way. They had to.

///0///0

"How long until I can take-"

"Dr. Strange. Those tissues are still healing." Said a doctor that sat across Stephen.

He had consulted a meeting with several doctor who were specialists in nerve damage. He was doing everything he could to reverse the damage his hands had been throughout this was the only way.

"So speed it up." Stephen said. "Pass a stent down the brachial artery into the racial artery."

One of the doctors looked over to another. "It's possible." She said. "Experimental and expensive, but possible."

"All I need is possible." Stephen said.

///0///0

Christine watched as Stephen was being carried away on a gurney into his now sixth surgery.

They wouldn't allow her in the operating room.

She sighed, shaking her hand as she watched. She knew this wasn't good for Stephen, but Stephen was too stubborn to listen to her.

He thought this was the only way to make this better.

///0///0

"Up."

"Up. Show me your strength."

"Argh!" Stephen groaned as he stretched his fingers out with a resisting device around them. He was now in physical therapy after his surgery. He was growing desperate. He hadn't been back to Kamar-Taj in months now.

There was no way he could come back like this.

Destroyed and broken.

He was so desperate to get back to where he was, he stopped practicing magic. His hands took up all his time.