Chapter 18
Eighteen
Caleb hated the smell of hospitals.
The antiseptic and bleach and sort of industrial awfulness of it wigged him right out. And any time he had to stay for longer than a trip to the ER, he got no sleep and he was bored out of his mind.
The surgery had gone well. His lisfranc injury, which was a mid-foot shattering of bone, was now wired and screwed and bonded together. He had also gotten some new cartilage put in from a donor, which he was incredibly grateful for. But he wanted to get out of here.
He was tired of them waking him up at three a.m. to take blood tests to make sure he didn’t have elevated white counts and to test his inflammation numbers.
He was tired of really safe, yucky food, even though Hawk brought him yummy stuff on occasion.
And he was tired of the uncomfortable hospital bed that was threatening to give him a chapped ass, if nothing else. Possibly bed sores.
Okay so that was probably an exaggeration. He was only going to have to stay for another day, which meant three days in the hospital but, fuck, he was sick of Food Network marathons and reruns of Law and Order.
The door opened and he glanced up, hoping to see Hawk, but it was a nurse bustling in to check his vitals. “How are we doing today, Caleb?” She smiled, moving around the side of his bed to reach the monitor that would take his blood pressure.
“Bored. Bo-o-ored.” He grinned at her because it wasn’t her fault, and he liked flirting a little bit. “Are you going to let me go today?”
“Physical therapy still has to come and sign off on your mobility with your knee scooter and your walker and/or crutches and then the doc will be in to talk to you about the recovery process, but I think you’ll probably be discharged this evening.
” She unhooked the blood pressure cuff from the side of his bed, where it was hanging through one of the little handle holes, and then put it around his arm.
When he drew breath to say something else, she stuck a guard on the thermometer and then popped it into his mouth.
Caleb rolled his eyes, but he got it. She’d been his day nurse now ever since he’d been there. She had to be tired of his bitching. He knew her name was Darla, that she was in her mid-thirties, that she had two kids, and that she’d been a nurse ever since she’d gotten out of college.
Hell, he knew her kids’ names; he’d seen pictures of them. And he knew how she liked her coffee because Hawk had started bringing her one too. He thought Darla had kind of a heavy-duty crush on Hawk.
Once she pulled the thermometer out, he raised his eyebrows at her. “What time this evening?”
She snorted, shaking her head. “You know better than that, Caleb. We can’t do that in hospitals. Everything takes forever. I would imagine it’ll either be right before shift change or right after, though.”
Ugh, he flopped back against the bed, which was set so he could sit up. “That sucks. Hopefully they get to it before shift change.”
“I hope so too because if they don’t it’ll be eight or nine o’clock before you get out of here.
” She entered all the information from his pulse oximeter.
“Your blood pressure is good. The temperature is fine. Your oxygen level is great. You’ve got those high-altitude athlete’s lungs. Will Hawk be coming to pick you up?”
“He’s actually supposed to bring me lunch today.
” Hawk had been there every day, for most of the day.
This morning he’d had some sort of meeting he had to go to, but really he had the better part of two weeks off, and whatever work he was doing was remote.
He had a feeling Hawk would just hang out until he was released if that happened today.
“Such a nice man.” She winked at him. “And he is smoking hot. He’s a total snack.”
“Yeah, you should see him without his shirt on. You wanna talk about a thirst trap.”
She smacked her lips and rolled her eyes. “I’m so jealous. Don’t get me wrong, I love my hubby, but he’s just a dude, you know? Physically, I mean.”
“Yeah, Hawk looks like he’s still playing hockey, huh?” Caleb was into it. He loved climbing Hawk like the mountain he was named for. It was just that good.
“You’re a lucky guy.” She patted his arm, the move affectionate. “You hang in there, and I’ll let you know as soon as we hear something. The doc should be by in not too long to do his rounds, and then you’ll probably see the hospitalist too.”
“Cool, cool, cool. You think maybe I could have a shower this morning?” He knew they could bag up his foot and tape it to keep it dry and let him get into the bathroom.
“Let me see what my tech has going on, and I’ll get you set up.”
“Thanks lady. I appreciate it.” He really did too. He was going to have to write a note to her supervisor or something praising her.
Darla closed up the little computer that she used to take notes and flipped him a wave. “I’ll be back in a bit to check you again. Be good, okay.”
“And if I can’t be good, I won’t get caught.” They both laughed about the stupid joke, and then she left him by himself.
Thankfully he didn’t have to wait too long for the doc to come in.
Basically he had to stay off his foot for at least six weeks, and he had to come in twice for checkups in the interim.
In that time he wasn’t going to get a cast; he was going to wear a boot, but he had to really keep it from being weight-bearing and leave the boot on twenty-four/seven.
For sure, Caleb figured it could have been way worse. He knew he was going to have to be super careful because inflammation could be a problem. But honestly he was pretty pumped.
By the time Hawk showed up with a black pepper steak bowl from Panda Express, he’d also seen the physio guy, who’d cleared him to use crutches, a hard metal walker around the house, and a knee scooter.
The guy said it was nice to work with an athlete like Caleb because he had a lot of choices that way.
He was also exhausted.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Hawk waggled the bag with their lunch. “Got you that beef you like.”
“Thanks, babe. I’m worn out. The PT guy came by and tested me on all the devices he wants me to use, and the doc was in.
The orthopedist, I mean. We talked about how many times we were gonna have to get together and what kind of progress I need to be making, and then the hospitalist is supposed to come in and sign off on my release.
” Caleb finished the rest of it off in a rush, kind of breathless because he was excited to be going home.
Well, going home with Hawk.
“Cool. So that means you’re going to get sprung today.” Hawk gave him a wild sort of grin. “I’m excited.”
“Yeah, they said probably closer to shift change so we’ve got a bunch of time to kill but I’m pretty tickled.”
Hawk nodded, pulling containers out of the bag and setting them on the little tray table thing that Caleb could pull up across his lap. “That’s cool. Hopefully we’ll get home in time to have supper, and that way you won’t have to have another hospital meal, and I won’t have to go to the cafeteria.”
“If I have to miss supper and then eat with you late when we get home, I will. I’m not going to order another meal.”
Thankfully he didn’t have any massive restrictions on what he could eat, because some of the stuff that was marked for the diabetic diet or the renal diet on the menu sounded horrifying, but still he’d eaten more tuna salad sandwiches and tasteless eggs and bacon than he really wanted to deal with.
“Cool. Well I got the condo set up a little bit better for you, for like a knee scooter or crutches or whatever. I moved some of the furniture around in the front room so there was more space in between. Other than that, I think we’re good to go.”
Caleb dug into his black pepper beef, the spicy umami flavor bursting on his tongue. So much better than low-salt powdered eggs and cardboard bread. “I appreciate it, babe. I really do.”
“Hey, it’s no trouble. Seriously. I’m kind of excited for you to come stay with me.”
“‘Kind of’?” He licked his chopsticks, which was probably rude, but it didn’t matter. That sauce was tasty.
“Okay, so I’m seriously excited about it.
You know that. You don’t have to fish for compliments.
” Hawk munched a piece of broccoli. He’d gotten some kind of chicken thing with vegetables.
He still ate like he was an active hockey player.
Not that Caleb was going to complain because it made his body fucking bomb.
“Well I’m ready.” Caleb finished off his food in record time, setting the container aside. He yawned again, his whole body feeling it. Every time he tried to stretch, his foot hurt really bad because everything was still going to be reattaching for quite a while.
“We’re just waiting on the hospitalist, right?
” Hawk gathered up the trash and put it all back in the bag.
He would take it out to the trash can in the lobby because he hated stinking up the whole hospital, he said.
Hawk had spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals with his knee and knew the ins and outs of protocol pretty well.
“That’s what they tell me.” Caleb flexed his fingers on both hands. Just trying to keep the blood flow going.
“Why don’t you grab a nap then? I can tell you’re tired.
All that running around on a knee scooter or crutches or whatever makes you exhausted; I know it.
” Hawk held up the bag with the trash in it.
“I’m going to run this out so it doesn’t stink up the place, and then I’ll come back and sit with you. I got a book to read.”
“Okay.” He yawned again and then got himself scrunched back on the bed, letting the head down a little bit so he’d be more comfortable. “You won’t run off though, right?”
“Only if I need another drink or something, but then I’d be right back.”
“Cool.” He closed his eyes and he dropped off to sleep so fast he didn’t even hear Hawk leave the room. What he did hear was Hawk’s low voice conversation with the hospitalist, and that had him opening his eyes and reaching for the control on the bed.
“Ah, Caleb, I was just talking to Mr. Montaineau here about releasing you this afternoon.” The hospitalist, who was a nondescript guy with glasses, Caleb couldn’t remember a name to save him, gave him a big grin.
“Yeah? That’s great news, doc.” Caleb pushed the head of the bed up so he was sitting, even if it made his head swim for a minute because he wasn’t quite awake.
“Yes, I’m going to put your release papers in as soon as I get out of here. I’ve talked to Mr. Montaineau about your follow-ups and everything, but really I think you went over that with your orthopedist this afternoon, correct?”
“I did, yeah. He told me what to look for as far as complications and when to come to the ER if things were not going well. I have a couple of follow-up appointments pretty much already scheduled with him.” Caleb knew he had to take this seriously because he didn’t want to have to come back for more surgery or end up with an infection or anything weird.
He just wanted to heal this up and then decide what he was going to do with the rest of his life.
“Perfect.” The doctor pulled out a business card and handed it to him.
Turned out his name was Kincaid. “Now if you need anything, you can always give me a call too. I think as long as you keep your foot elevated to begin with, make sure you maintain the non-weight-bearing and take it easy before you start physio, then you’ll do great. ”
“Thanks doc. I really appreciate everything.” Honestly the hospitalist didn’t have a whole lot to do with his case, but it didn’t matter. He wanted to thank everybody who had given him such good care while he was here.
“Well you just hang tight. As soon as she can, your nurse will be in to do your discharge, okay?”
“You got it. Thanks again.”
Dr. Kincaid left, and Caleb and Hawk grinned at each other. He was so fucking ready to get out of here.
“You excited?” Hawk asked.
“Hell, yes. Now I can bag my foot up and shower with you instead of doing it here.”
“I am the king of taping a trash bag so it’s waterproof. Never fear.” Hawk patted his knee as if to prove his point.
“I’m here for it. Can we get me dressed?
I know it will probably be an hour or two before they get me out of here, but I’d really like to get ready.
” He ever so carefully swung his good leg around and put it on the floor so he could leverage his other leg out straight on the bed and let Hawk hand him a shirt.
“Stick with me, I’ll get you there.” Hawk helped him put his shirt on and then bent to kiss him before teasing him. “You really do need a shower.”