I gestured at my face, then waved my hand as if to ask,what can you do?
Bower nodded, gently squeezed my shoulder, and sat down.
The next few hours were a little blurry. I was lucid, but it was hard to concentrate on anything besides how fucking much my face hurt. At some point, they made some noise about twilightanesthesia, and they told me exactly what that was and what they were going to do, but… my face hurt. So… not much else registered.
Then I was blacking out, and a second later, I opened my eyes to a different room, a different nurse, and a different kind of pain. Everything from my nose to my chin felt weird—sore, but also like it was encased in ice. Or something? I couldn’t quite describe it.
It all made sense when the nurse showed me a mirror. My face was swollen all to shit, especially my jaw. When I parted my lips a little, it was like I had on some industrial grade braces.
“It’ll be wired shut for the next eight to twelve weeks,” the nurse explained. “And you’ll need to keep these with you at all times.” She handed me a pair of wire cutters, and my head swam as I listened to her explain all the situations when I might need them. I could only imagine being sick to my stomach and racing the clock to cut all the wires before I threw up, but I just hoped that was a bridge I wouldn’t need to cross.
At least I hadn’t required surgery. She explained that they’d put me under long enough to stabilize my jaw, and then immobilize it, and apparently there were only so many ways to immobilize a jaw. Hooray.
Then she put something into my IV, and all I caught was “steroids and something for the pain.” Fine by me—load me the fuck up.
I was hazy for a while after that for obvious reasons. My head was starting to clear when, at around three or four in the morning, Ryan came in. “Hey, kid. How are you doing?”
I gestured at my face and managed, “One step closer to being a cyborg.”
He chuckled. “Still have your sense of humor.”
I grunted and shrugged. “What about Vas…” I paused. “Vasily?” His wasn’t easy to say with my damn mouth wired shut.
Ryan frowned. “Well, I think his return to the Rainiers is going to be delayed again. But… longer this time.”
I tensed as a ball of lead formed in my stomach. “How bad?”
The frown became a grimace. “He’s going to need surgery after we get back to Seattle.”
“Are they going to do anything to the asshole who slew-footed him?” I growled. “Because I think I didn’t beat him down hard enough.”
Ryan gave a dry chuckle. “Oh, I think you beat him plenty. He didn’t have to come to the hospital, but he’s down a couple of teeth.”
“Good.”
“He’s also got a hearing with Player Safety tomorrow. It sounds like this isn’t his first intent-to-injure offense, and I don’t think they’re going to let him off this time.”
Well, there was that. It wouldn’t help Vasily, but it would take a reckless thug off the ice, at least temporarily.
“Can I see Vasily?”
Ryan blinked. “What?”
I glared at him and, despite the wiring and pain, carefully enunciated, “Can. I. See. Him?”
He stared at me, but then shook his head. “Probably won’t be until later this morning. They’re discharging him now, and I’m taking him back to the hotel to get some sleep. You’ll be coming back too once they let you out.”
I wanted to argue. I really, really did. But my face felt like someone had slammed it into the ice a few dozen times, and even with my jaw immobilized, it hurt to talk.
“Listen, kid,” Ryan said. “We’re going to hunker down in a hotel for a couple of nights. Let the two of you recover a little and rest. Then we’ll head back to Seattle.”
I nodded slowly. Wasn’t much I could say. I didn’t even know if I wanted to argue or protest, or why I would have, only that I was in too much pain and on too many drugs to say anything. So, I didn’t.
Ryan came and went. So did Bower. Nurses and doctors wandered in and out. People poked and prodded my face, and some very, very nice people gave me drugs. How long I was there, I had no idea. I slept a little, but the pain kept waking me up, not to mention the lights and the constant stream of people moving in and out of my room.
I wanted to sleep for real. Like, pass the hell out and wake up wondering what day it was. It had been a long day and a longer night, and I was weighed down by drugs, anesthesia, and probably a hell of an adrenaline crash.
At some point, the door opened yet again, and I blinked my eyes into focus in the same moment I sent up a quick prayer that I was finally being discharged.
