"Nothing was broken?" Lex gingerly touched his swollen cheekbone. "He hit me in the face pretty hard several times."
"There's a lot of swelling and bruising, but nothing was broken."
Lex sighed as he settled a little easier.
"You mentioned that you were unconscious at one point…"
Lex nodded. "When I first got home, he hit me over the head with something. I woke up in my bedroom."
"Well, I wanted to assure you that there are no signs of rape."
Lex swallowed hard. "No, I think that was his plan for when he got back from wherever he went." Lex still had no idea where that was, and he really didn't want to know. That guy had been insane.
"You will heal from this, Mr. Mathis. The nurse is going to bring you some pamphlets of where you can get some help if you need to talk to someone, and you need to think about it. You might not have been raped, but you were still attacked and violated. You need to talk to someone about that."
"I will." At some point. "Right now, I just want to go home."
"We're going to keep you here for a couple of days, give you time to rest. With that concussion, I want someone looking after you for the next forty-eight hours." The man stood and started for the door. "A nurse will be in soon to take you to a room. I'll be by in the morning to check on you."
"Thank you, Doctor."
"Try and get some rest."
Lex watched the doctor walk out of the room. He breathed a little easier once the door was closed and he was alone. He wasn't thrilled with being alone, but he didn't want to be around a bunch of strangers either.
He glanced around, trying to locate a phone. He wanted to hear a friendly voice, and Tony's would do just fine. Tears flooded his eyes when he couldn't spot a phone. He really needed to make contact with someone who knew him, someone who cared about what happened to him.
He was all alone in a big city. Sure, he had friends he hung out with, but no one he was really close with. He was pretty sure Tony was going to be someone he was close to, but Tony wasn't here right now.
Fuck! Lex didn't even know where Tony lived. It had just never come up in conversation. He knew Tony had to get on a plane to visit, but he had no idea where he flew in from. He could live on the moon for all Lex knew. Maybe they should have done more talking about stuff like that and less flirting.
Lex tensed when the door open until he saw the nurse walking into the room. He didn't realize he was that jumpy, but it made sense. He'd been attacked, beaten black and blue. He'd probably be jumpy for a while.
"Hello, Mr. Mathis. I'm Nurse Betty. I'm here to get you transferred to a room upstairs." As she talked, she began unplugging things, taking the IV bag off the stand and placing it on the exam bed next to Lex, then pulling up the sides of the bed. She was very efficient.
An orderly came in, and together with the nurse, they wheeled Lex out of the emergency room cubicle and down a short hallway to an elevator. Lex had no idea what floor they ended up on or even what room he was taken to. Each little movement of the portable bed sent shards of pain blasting through every part of his body.
"Just a little bit longer, Mr. Mathis," the nurse said. "Once we get you settled, your new nurse is going to give you some really nice drugs that will take away all your pain."
"That would be good," Lex whispered through gritted teeth.
That would be really good.
He was transferred from one bed to another once they reached his room. Another nurse was waiting for them. By the time she was hanging his IV back up, sweat trickled down Lex's temples, into his hairline.
The new nurse smiled as she used a syringe to put some drugs into the IV line. "This should take effect in just a couple of minutes, Mr. Mathis. You'll be feeling better in no time."
"Thank you." Lex was all for feeling better.
He slowly let out a breath as the pain punching him in the gut began to abate.
The nurse patted his arm. "Now, see, doesn't that feel better?"
It felt freaking fantastic.
Lex knew he had a goofy grin on his face, but he couldn't help it. "If I was into women, I'd kiss you right now."
The nurse laughed. "And if I was into men, I'd let you."
