Saffron and Sam Ch. 10

"We'll explain everything to you later Sammy, both your eyes are patched, so you can't see anything. But don't worry; you're going to be okay now."

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one lying here unable to see," I noticed as I barely heard her, it was like hearing her through a wall or like she was in another room. I noticed she was holding my left hand, but I could barely hear her at all through my left ear.

"At least you're alive Sammy; it was touch and go for a while. Saffron, your brothers finally awake," I felt someone grab my right hand and squeezed so hard I thought it was going to break my fingers. I felt Saffron start kissing my hand and crying. I literally felt her tears as they soaked by hand.

"It's okay Saffron, he's going to be okay, stop crying," That sure wasn't working and started the waterworks really flowing then."Go home now Saffron and get some rest. Sammy, she hasn't let your side unless we were here. She was so worried about you, as were we all. Barb's been here so many times, it's ludicrous."

"To hell with her; tell her to stay away."

"Mom I told you not to bring her up, it's a bad idea."

"I'm sorry Saffron; I thought he'd want to know."

"Well I don't mother, if you don't mind."

"Well son, try to calm down, we'll let you rest. We're going to leave you now."

"No no, don't leave, I feel that's all I've been doing is resting. I really want to know what's going on."

"Later dear, later; all will be revealed soon, I promise. Go back to sleep."

*************

I woke up intermittently over the next 24 hours to a lot of hustling and bustling in my room. I didn't really wake up so I wasn't fully aware until the next morning when a doctor came in and introduced himself to me as Dr. Simmons. He looked at me quizzically when I told him he needed to stand on my right side because I couldn't hear him. He then looked at my ear and said," Let's check this out a little more closely, now that the life-threatening stuff is out of the way."

"What you mean Dr., how long was I out?"

He inserted a very cold odoscope into my ear and said," Humph, looks like we missed a ruptured eardrum, Sammy, I'm sorry. I assumed the bleeding from that ear was due to your other injuries. And you've been out a week now."

"Why so long, what's wrong with me?"

"I'll explain all that when your parents get here, Sam. I've never seen such a devoted sister as you have; she never left your side unless your parents were here."

When the parents finally got there, the doctor came back in to explain things to everyone. Luckily, he stood on my right side so I could hear him much better. He also had another physician with him, who introduced himself to me and my parents.

He must've grabbed a pair of scissors, because I felt something cold over my nose and felt some cutting motion, until the light brightened into my right eye. He removed the bandage from my left eye, while shining a bright light into it, with one of those things that they look in your eye with.

"Can you see anything Sam?"as he held his hand over my right eye.

"Everything seems to be blurred Dr., but I can make out some shapes and movement. I just can't seem to focus."

"Sam, I'm going to be honest with you, is that all right with you? Can I talk in front of your parents and sister?"

"Dr. they are my family and my support and all I would expect from you is to be honest. I don't want any sugar coating."

"Okay Sam, here it is, we were able to save your eye and that's a miracle in itself. You went through what we call a traumatic enucleation. That's where the eye itself gets dislodged from the eye socket. When that man hit you, he fractured your eye socket, called your orbit, and your eyeball was hanging down onto your cheek by its nerves and vessels. Normally we can fix the orbit and re-implant the eye, which was done in your case. We just don't know what kind of damage was done to the eye until after it heals. I think we're going to be able to correct the blurring with glasses, but you're only gonna see about 50% as well as you did before. That's straight up, I'm sorry we couldn't do better; the damage was just too bad.

The other doctor came over and said," Are you ready for me now, Sam?"

"I guess this is a tag team, huh? You may as well keep the bad news coming."

"Sam, the night you were injured, the kicking you withstood broke three of your left ribs and ruptured your spleen, you were in shock, and we had to remove it. Your assailant, emphasis on ass, fractured your nose and shoved the cartilage through your Cribiform plate at the base of your brain. We noticed your nose was leaking cerebrospinal fluid from your nose. Infections can cross that plate, which is what happened to you. You developed a brain abscess that had to be fought with some pretty powerful IV antibiotics. This may have done a little bit of damage to your brain, we'll know after some more extensive tests. The problem is this left ear. When I just looked at it yesterday, there looks like there is some pretty extensive fungal infection going on there, an unfortunate side effect of some of those powerful antibiotics. Along with that, your stirrup and anvil are damaged very badly and the infection only made it worse That guy really worked your over.

"In the interest of fair disclosure Dr., I got my ear boxed before the incident with Billings. I thought my eardrum was ruptured then.

"Who boxed your ear, Sammy?"Asked my mother rather surprisingly.

"CC."

"Why in God's name did she do that? She's such a sweet little thing"

"it was just a minor misunderstanding mother; just a misunderstanding. And she's not always sweet."

"It just suffices to say, his ear is really messed up."

"I'm going to get you a consult with an ear, nose and throat doctor; a specialist we have here on staff. I'm not sure what he can do, but I think I'll be safe in saying, that you're lucky you can hear out of that ear at all, you're going to need a hearing aid. It also may cause problems with your equilibrium. As a neurologist, I'm going to tell you that you need to stay away from drugs and alcohol for the rest of your life. I'm going to have to put you on some medication that should help keep you from having seizures in the future. That monster also gave you a Laforte II fracture, which just means he broke your entire face. That's going to take a while to heal and for the swelling to go down. I'm not trying to make this sound melodramatic son, but you don't know how close you came to dying."

I heard my dad saying under his breath, "That son of a bitch. I hope they throw the book at him."

"Now Papa," was all my mom said to him as she held his hand tightly.

In other words, I wasn't the indestructible man. I watched my mom, through my right eye, as she teared up and she spoke," The nice thing to know Sam, is that bastard is in some deep trouble. The police are probably going to talk to you about the incident. I think they were waiting to see if you were going to live before they formally charged him. The prosecutor is a friend of mine and has told me he's going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Would you believe, I've already heard from his attorney to try for some kind of a settlement; Attorneys."

"That reminds me of the joke mom, why do sharks never bite attorneys when they're in the ocean? Professional courtesy."

My dad just busted out laughing yet that one. My mother just retorted," that's enough out of you young man, remember you're supposed to be getting well here. You don't want mother to slap you around when you're like this; it might make me feel bad."

Dad just kept laughing hysterically. Even Saffron was laughing until she was almost crying. I don't know, but I think that simple little joke broke the tension that had been built up over the last week of them going through not knowing what was going to happen with me. I was personally glad I could help.

My dad just looked at me very seriously before he started to leave and said with a slight sob in his voice," Son, I've been proud of you over the years with what you've accomplished, but I've never been prouder of you than I am right now. You're the man I hoped you would grow up to be. What you did, was a great act."

"What I did dad, was to get beaten to within an inch of my life."

"But son, what you did for CC saved her from a traumatic experience that she wouldn't have forgotten for the rest of her life."

"So in other words, I went through a traumatic experience that I'm not going to forget for the rest of my life, so she wouldn't have to."

"Feeling sorry for yourself, son? Wish you could go back and change it?"

"No dad, I'm glad I could help her, I guess I'm just being pragmatic."

"Your mother and I are still very proud of you, Sam. I guess I'll never be able to call you Sammy again. You're definitely a man now."

*************

Saffron came back in later in the day to see me, immediately crying when she saw me.

"Oh Sammy, what that big bastard did you. I was so worried about you, after seeing what you looked like that night; I really thought you were going to die. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm sorry I disappointed you. The doctors tell me that I'll live. After a new face, a new eye, a new ear and a new spleen, I'll be as good as new."

"Well at least you haven't lost your sense of humor, little brother; it's still as sick as usual."

I started laughing, which was a mistake. The pain in my face and head was excruciating."Oh, don't make me laugh Saffron, it kills me. And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

"No we wouldn't, especially not me. I can't believe you took that guy on, although I understand why you did. CC owes you big time, little brother. I love you so much, I don't know what I would've done if you died."

"I love you too, sis, and it wouldn't have done much for me if I had died, either. As far as CC goes, she doesn't owe me a thing, I would never let that happen to any woman."

"Aren't you the chivalrous one, Sammy, the protector of women and small dogs."

"Nah, I like big dogs too."

She tapped me on the shoulder playfully and hugged me, which elicited a grunt of pain from me. She jumped back and said," Oh my God Sammy, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay Saffron, you didn't know, I think my whole body is just one big ache."

"I'll be careful Sammy; I sure don't want to be the one to cause you any more pain. Speaking of which, what about Barb? She's been bugging me to death, wanting to know how you are. I told her what I could, but what else can I say?"

"Nothing, Saffron, her and I are done. I'm still hurt deeply and she doesn't need to know anything. I'm no longer her concern. I'm not being a hard ass, but she made her decision. Now can you leave me, for a little bit, I need to get some rest? I've had a tiring day so far."

"Of course baby, you get some rest; I'll be back in a couple of hours."

I dozed off and on for the next couple of hours, while having some strange dreams. All of a sudden, I felt a presence in the room and heard someone sobbing. As I opened my eyes and could focus, I saw Gerald and Melanie standing at the foot of my bed. Melanie was openly crying as she looked me over.

"I'm sorry Melanie; I don't mean to make you cry. I must be a horrid sight."

"I'm sorry Sammy; I just can't believe what that monster did you. You really look like you're in a lot of pain.

"No one will tell me; does my face look that bad?"

Gerald, with his usual tact, just said, "I wouldn't want it. It's just really swollen so badly that you're hardly recognizable. I don't mean to be insulting, bro."

"I know you mean no malice, buddy. After all you're my best friend and frankly I appreciate the candor. Okay Melanie, you can stop the crying, I'm going to survive."

"You're truly a hero Sam, saving CC like that."

"I'll tell you exactly what I told my father Gerald, all I did was managed to get the living shit kicked out of me nine different ways."

"Anyway, you're my hero, and someone to admire. I'm just glad you're okay. I don't know if I could've handled losing my best friend. Who would I have to pick on?"

"I don't know, I think you could do pretty well with that pretty sidekick you have there," Melanie blushing blood red when I said that. She came over and kissed me on the forehead. This action served to reinforce my opinion of her as a fantastic lady.

I was trying to talk to them, but intermittently falling asleep from the pain medication I got earlier. Finally, when my voice became more garbled and slurred and I was making less sense than normal, Gerald and Melanie said they were leaving and that they would be back to see me tomorrow.

*************

I kept dozing off and on, until I felt another presence in the room. I opened my eyes to the sweet, angelic face of CC, standing at the foot of my bed. She looked at me with a look of horror on her face before she began to speak.

"Sammy, are you awake?"

I just stretched, like you do when you're waking up, and said," I think so, how are you."

"I'm fine, listen to you, the guy who looks like he's been hit by a truck, asking me how I am."

"Don't worry, I feel much worse than I look."

"I just wanted to thank you Sammy, for what you did for me. You're really special."

"That's okay CC; I'd have done the same for any woman in that situation."

The look on her face changed to one of frustration or anger and she said, "So I'm any woman now, nothing special, just another one of your bimbos. Well you can go to hell Sammy. I'm sorry I made the effort to come here."

She stomped out the door, leaving me more stupefied then when she slapped me that night at the party. I heard Saffron brace her outside the door. I don't think they knew I could hear them.

"CC, how dare you come in here and talk to my brother that way; what in the world is wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry, Saffron, he just brings out the worst in me sometimes."

"Do you realize, you little bitch, that he's never going to see the same as he did, YOU ruptured his eardrum the night of the party, and he almost died protecting your precious virtue from a position that You put yourself into?"

"I didn't realize all that, Saffron. I wished I knew all that before I went in there."

"Well you know now. Don't you ever talk to him that way again, or I swear to God I'll kick your ass myself; friend or no friend."

I thought I heard CC crying in the hallway as Saffron came into the room.

*************

Saffron stayed with me until my parents came in. We all three talked about things in general and what was going on in their lives. Saffron was trying to get caught up with her schoolwork, since she stayed there with me most of the time I was out. I realized just how much my sister loved me, which really increased my love for her. Not quite to the point where she wanted it, but it was intensified, none the least. My parents left to go home when they brought my evening food tray. It didn't look all that edible to me, so Saffron offered to get me something from the hospital's snack bar for both her and me.

I did pick at my tray little bit while was waiting on Saffron to get back. The roast beef was like shoe leather and the mashed potatoes were as lumpy as an old mattress; so much for me disputing the cliché about bad hospital food. I managed to doze off again while was waiting for her. I awoke to the presence of somebody my room again and woke up to see Barb standing there sobbing.

"I'm surprised to see you here; I thought you would've been back with the parents by now, since you got rid of your excess baggage."

She looked at me with a look of horror on her face, "What do you mean by that, what excess baggage?"

"Me, you heartless skank; who do you think I meant?"

"You were never excess baggage, Sam, I just made several mistakes. I need to talk to you."

"Well I don't want to talk to you, especially not now. I'd like you to leave."

"Please, Sam."

Finally my hurt and anger made me explode, "GET OUT!"

I'm sure they could hear me clear out into the hallway and the nurses came running. Saffron came back about that time as well, as the nurses were ushering Barb out into the hallway.

"Sammy, settle down, she's leaving. What are you screaming about; I could hear you clear down the hallway. She went back out into the hallway to talk to Barb and I could hear their conversation.

"Barb, I told you this wasn't a good idea, he's still rather emotionally fragile. He got some real bad news today about his physical condition."

"What kind of information about his physical condition?"

"Nothing I can tell you about. He'd kill me if I told you."

"I need to know about him, Saffron. I made mistakes, but he shouldn't have to pay for them. I need him to be in my life."

"He's paying for them now Barb, don't you understand that?"

I heard Barb's crying increase and get louder as I heard her walking down the hall. Saffron came back in the room and basically chastised me.

"Sammy, you cannot let this get you all upset, it's not good for you. You can't let her get to you like that."

"Tell the hospital staff, she's not to be allowed to come in here from now on. I don't want to see or hear from her."

"Sam, I can't believe you're shutting her out like that. I know what she did was bad. But can't you see what you're doing to her as well."

"It's not just what she did Saffron, it's what she said before that. And if you're going to take up for her, you can leave as well."

"Okay, okay, I'm not the enemy here. I'll support you in whatever you decide, she's my friend, but I love you. Don't shut me out too."

"I'm not going to shut you out Saffron, but just drop the subject."

"Consider it dropped; let's talk about your plans. I talked to all of your professors and they said they'll do everything they can to get you caught back up. If it were me, I wouldn't even start back till next semester, to give yourself some time to get your feet back under you, so to speak. You have a medical reason for taking a break, so it won't affect your trust."

"Right now Saffron, I could care less about the trust. I just want to get back to school and continue my education, so I can return to a normal life."

Then I got the surprise of my life, when the Janus sisters all walked in, DJ, Brandi, and Mandy. I couldn't believe that they actually came to visit me.

"Sammy, I want you to know, after Bronco took CC into that room, I thought something was funny, so I grabbed her drink to give to the police. Turns out that worthless piece of shit actually slipped scopolamine into her drink to knock her out like that. How are you doing?"

"Not worth a shit DJ, but thanks for asking anyway. I can tell you that I'd made the local funeral parlors feel like they lost their chance."

All three then started laughing, as well as Saffron, when Brandi spoke up, "Sammy, Mandy and I have been awful hard on you over the past year and I want to apologize. I want you to know that we'll never give you a hard time again. Any girl would be lucky to have you, you're such a gentleman."

DJ just looked at her and said with a cheeky grin, "Jesus Brandi, are you getting wet?"

"Fuck off DJ."

Saffron interrupted them and said, "Ladies, ladies, this young man needs to rest. Take this family drama somewhere else."

"If you need anything at all Sammy, just call on DJ."

"Thanks for that DJ. I appreciate it."

The three of them left and Saffron and I kept talking. I asked her if she had spoken with CC after her confrontation with her in the hallway and she said no.

"I don't understand women; I was just trying to let her know that I would've done the same thing for anyone. I can't understand what in the hell she got so mad about."

"Sam, I don't understand it myself, other than the fact that by doing what you did, you made her feel special. When you said what you said this evening, you may have taken away her feeling of being special. Of course, I am only an unlicensed therapist. You need to choose your words wisely, when you're talking to women; we tend to take things and read into them, as well as expecting men to be able to read our minds. That's a flaw in the female personality, unique to the species.