Caleb 72 - Arnie

With the dregs of my power, I blocked all the pain messages and allowed him to wake up.

His eyes opened slowly, the swelling from his broken nose reducing them to slits.

"Where am I?" he asked, or tried to. It came out as an incoherent grunt.

Sarah squeezed his good hand. "Hey," she said.

He turned his head gingerly, clearly expecting pain and was surprised when he didn't feel any.

"Arnie, This is Caleb." I sent directly into his mind. "You're in the hospital. We found you in a parking garage just around the corner from the hotel. I think you were mugged. You have a few broken bones but I'm going to fix you right up. You remember I told you I can heal with my powers?"

He looked at me, and nodded carefully.

"Don't say anything to anyone about this. I also know where you went and why. I know what you got and where it is now. When things quiet down, I'll retrieve it for you and you can do what you need to."

A ghost of a grin flitted across his face and he shot a sidelong glance at Sarah. I was impressed that he was able to keep his mind carefully blank.

"I won't spoil the surprise," I assured him.

Just then the door opened and the doctor, nurse, and Danny returned to the room. The doctor immediately noticed that Arnie was awake and went over to talk to him.

"Arnie," he said. "Can you hear me?"

Arnie nodded and grunted.

"You're in the hospital," he said. "Can you remember what happened?"

Arnie grunted again.

"He's going to find it difficult to talk with a broken jaw," I noted drily. The doctor glanced in my direction.

"You are?" he asked.

"I'm his girlfriend's brother. We found him," I said.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked. I shook my head.

"The first we knew there was anything wrong was when Danny called to say he hadn't come home," I said, "but his car was still in our parking garage. We went out looking for him and found him a couple of blocks from the hotel."

"Well you're right," he said. "He does have a broken jaw, as well as a fractured wrist and several rib fractures. We were a bit concerned about being unable to rouse him and given the trauma to his face and head. We CT'd his brain but everything looks good there. I'm happy to see he's woken up now.

"Are you in pain at all?" he asked. Arnie shook his head.

The doctor spent a few minutes asking him more questions, and asking him to move his arms and legs, and poking and prodding him in various places while asking if he could feel when he was being touched. Finally satisfied that there was no neurological damage he looked at Arnie, a sudden understanding in his eyes.

"You are his girlfriend?" he asked Sarah. She nodded.

"Tell him," he said, "that it's not macho to lie about pain. We can give him something for it, and you won't think any less of him, if he admits to it."

Sarah looked down at her boyfriend.

"Are you being macho?" she asked with a smile. He tried to smile back but only managed a grimace.

"It's probably best if you admit to a little pain," I sent to him. "I'm blocking it for now, but they'll get really worried if you don't have pain given you have a few broken bones."

Arnie nodded to Sarah.

"You're in pain?" she asked.

He nodded again.

"Good" said the doctor, rather inappropriately I thought, although I guessed he was saying it was good that Arnie was admitting to pain rather than it was good he was feeling it.

"I'll write you up some pain relief. The nurse will administer it directly."

He and the nurse left the room.

"What were you doing?" asked Danny. Arnie grunted.

"I don't think he can talk right now," I said. "Broken jaw, remember?"

"Right," said Danny. "The doctor said that they will be calling for someone to come and look at it to see if it needs surgery. I need to go and get my insurance papers. I'm not sure what we're covered for."

"While you're there," said the nurse coming back, "you might want to bring him some things. He's going to be staying in the hospital for a few days at least."

"Such as?" he asked.

"PJ's, underwear, a robe, slippers. Something to read, phone, charger, toiletries. Laptop or tablet. I can tell you he's going to be bored silly while he's waiting for his bones to heal.

"Now if you'll all excuse me, I need to give him some pain relief and then get him cleaned up some."

The nurse ushered us out of the room. I hung back a little, and made the nurse ignore me, as she made her preparation.

"This will be a little uncomfortable," I told Arnie and then, using a sliver of TK, I gently guided the item he'd swallowed from his stomach, back up through his gullet, and into his mouth. He tensed a little and with a small grimace he pushed it out through gritted teeth. I took it from him and went and cleaned it, before I put it back in the box I'd retrieved at the scene.

"I'll hold on to this while you get cleaned up," I said to him. "I'll give it back in a bit."

He nodded and I left the room.

"What were you doing?" asked Sarah.

"Just making sure everything was alright," I lied. "Now let's go to the cafeteria while we wait. I'm starving."

We made our way to the cafeteria, which was all but closed, and only had vending machines available. Fortunately they were the kind of vending machine that took cards. I emptied out an entire machine and part of another, stacking all the food on a table.

The girls and I sat down and I dug in.

Sarah's eyes were round. I didn't think she'd ever seen me in a feeding frenzy before, having used so much of my powers.

"Healing really takes it out of you," I said. "That is why you need to develop that power bar," I directed that at Melanie.

The girls each nibbled at something, but I ploughed through the majority of the food I'd collected. By the time I was finished there was only a couple of sandwiches and a drink left. I decided to take these back with us in case Danny needed something.

When we returned to the room, Arnie was looking a whole lot better. He'd been undressed, cleaned up, and put in a hospital gown. All the blood had been washed away and some dressings placed over his wounds. His wrist was in a splint and there was a doctor talking to him as we entered.

Danny, who had just arrived back, followed us into the room.

"Good morning," said the doctor. "I'm Dr. Andrews, the Maxillo-Facial surgeon. I was asked to come and look at Arnie here."

"I'm his dad," said Danny. "What's going to happen?"

According to the scans, Arnie had a broken nose and a broken jaw. His nose looks pretty straight so I'm not going to do anything about that. It's not needed. His jaw, although it is broken, is not displaced. I don't think it needs us to do anything other than immobilize it for a while, while the bone heals.

"I'm going to take him to the OR and wire it closed, just to make sure it stays in place. I expect in about four to six weeks he'll be as good as new. After surgery, he'll be transferred to a ward, where he's going to spend a few days in bed, while his bones start to heal."

He scribbled something on a chart and then moved toward the door. "Someone will come soon to prep him for surgery," he said as he left the room.

I moved over to Arnie's right side, before Sarah could take up position, and slid the box into his hand. He tucked his hand under the covers.

"How you feeling?" asked Danny.

"I've felt better," Arnie said through gritted teeth. It appeared that he'd figured out how to speak without moving his jaw.

"What were you doing?" his dad asked.

"Sarah and I had a chat," he told his dad. "I needed some time to think, so I went for a walk. I got jumped. After that, the first thing I remember was waking up here. They got my wallet and my phone. My keys are still with the valets at the Nines, so that's something."

"And did you," asked Sarah, seemingly heedless that Danny was in the room. She needed to know.

"I did," he said. "Although I'd pretty much figured it out when I left. I just needed to clarify things in my mind, and get something."

"Get what?" asked Danny.

"Caleb," said Arnie. "Do you mind?"

I moved away, leaving the space to Arnie's right clear. Sarah moved up beside him.

"After everything you told me," he began, "I needed to think. I needed to plan. I needed to figure out what I was going to do next. You see, I already had a life plan. I was going to be a flight instructor, then I was going to work at that, while studying to become a commercial pilot. I had everything worked out.

"That's still my plan," he said. I saw Sarah wilt a little but she hadn't given up hope yet.

"But," he continued, "then I met you. You were so different to anyone else I'd ever known and we just kind of fit together. I know you felt it too, because of what you told me tonight. What you told me tonight convinced me that I couldn't just carry on as I was going. Having you as a girlfriend, while trying to work and study, and get where I needed to be, wasn't possible. So I made a decision." He let go of Sarah's hand. Sarah's eyes were filling up with tears now, dreading his next words.

He slid his hand under the covers, and with remarkable dexterity, managed to open the small box under the covers, one handed. His hand emerged, holding the ring, in its box out to Sarah.

"So I was hoping that you would consent to being my fiancée?" he asked.

Dannys jaw dropped. I knew that feeling well.

Sarah, too, looked like she'd been hit by lightning. Arnie had managed to completely surprise her, mainly by keeping his mind carefully blank while he made his speech. He was a fast learner.

Tentatively, Sarah reached for the box, plucking the ring from the blue felt inside. It was a nice ring. Probably about a three-quarter carat, which must have cost north of a thousand dollars. When he'd been attacked, he'd swallowed it to prevent it from being stolen.

He'd thought that he'd have to retrieve it the old-fashioned way in a day or two, but I'd been able to fetch it quicker.

"I warn you now," he said, "it's going to be a long engagement. We both have studies to finish, but I'm sure you can handle that."

Sarah stared at the ring. Her bottom lip trembling as tears cascaded down her cheeks.

A nurse had entered the room a few moments before, presumably to prep Arnie for surgery, but she'd just stood back to witness what was going on. She was also a young girl, maybe in her mid twenties, but I saw a tear in the corner of her eye too. I grinned.

"Well?" I said to Sarah. "Are you going to keep the poor man waiting for an answer?"

"What?" she said. My words broke the spell and she came to the sudden realization that everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to speak.

"YES!" she squealed after a moment. She threw herself at Arnie to envelop him in a crushing hug. Fortunately, I managed to catch her before she hit.

"Remember, he's injured," I said as I stood her back on her feet.

"Oh, yes. Sorry," she said with some contrition, before a grin split her face again. She grabbed his good hand, and pulled it up, kissing it. "Yes," she said again, in case there was any doubt. "Yes, please."

She leaned in and gently kissed his cheek. She whispered in his ear. And he laid his head gently against hers.

"I'm sorry," said the nurse. "I need to get him ready for surgery."

"Go home," said Arnie to Sarah. "You have school tomorrow. I'm only going to be sleeping anyhow."

"But," she began.

"He's right," I said. "You know he's alright. He's only going to have his jaw wired. He'll be fine and he needs a good nights sleep. Let's go. You can come back tomorrow evening to see him."

Arnie nodded.

Sarah leaned in and kissed his cheek again. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said. "I love you."

I think that was the first time that she'd said that to him, as his face flushed.

"I love you too," he said back, the words a little harsh, being spoken through clenched teeth, but I could see Sarah thrilling at them.

Danny was standing to one side, shaking his head, apparently stunned by the events that had just transpired.

We filed out of the room into the waiting area. I took Danny to one side to talk to him.

"Call if you need anything," I said to him. "Don't worry about his car, it will be perfectly safe where it is. Once he's ready to come home we can get it moved to your place."

"Don't you think this is a little sudden?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Not really," I said. "It's not like they're running away to get married. They already agreed to a long engagement, so why not let them just get on with it. They'll either figure out they were really meant to be, or they'll get sick of each other and call it off. In reality its no different than them just being boyfriend and girlfriend."

Danny thought about that for a while.

"I guess," he said, uncertainly, but then nodded.

"You're right," he said. "As long as they don't plan a wedding yet. I won't raise any objections. Sarah seems like a nice girl, and they obviously think a lot of each other. Just as long as..."

"She's not going to get pregnant," I said. "That I can promise you."

"Can you?" he asked.

I smiled at him. "She's on the best birth control available," I said. "Besides, I don't think they even got that far yet. And given his injuries, I doubt he's going to be available for a little while yet."

I grinned at him.

He grinned back. "There is that," he said. "I'm going to stick around until he's out of surgery. I'll send you a text to let you know."

"Thanks," I said. "We'll be over to see him tomorrow after school."

I turned to catch up with my girls when he called out to me.

"Caleb," he said.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Thank you," he said. "If you hadn't found him, who knows when he'd have been found. He might have died out there."

"Probably not," I said. "He'd have been spotted some time."

"Even so," he said. "Thank you."