City Girl Pt. 04

Author's note: Just a quick disclaimer, I am not a medical professional so the hospital scenes in this chapter are based on both my own experiences and some research I have done. I do apologize for any mistakes I made in my descriptions of anything regarding the medical system.

Anyway, you're not reading this for disclaimers, so on to the actual story.

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Chase woke up at his normal time. It was a Saturday in late December and he had the next week off from work. After he had taken the neighbor girl with him to look at fields a month or so ago, he had noticed that the front main seal on the engine in his 4650 Deere was leaking. To fix that, he'd had to rebuild the engine, which worked out well because that engine was sure to get a good break-in from ripping all his fields in the spring. He'd also pulled the dipstick on his 4255, but the oil came out overfull and looking like a milkshake, so he knew that engine was likely going to need pulled from the tractor and the block and crankshaft would need cleaned. That certainly wasn't going to be cheap or easy.

As he got dressed, he prepared himself for what he had been planning to do for the day. He was going to give his 7720 combine a thorough inspection. The combine didn't have many hours on it and the engine ran perfectly fine, but he had noticed some harsh vibrations when he'd turned on the separator. He reasoned that it was likely due to the threshing cylinder being out of balance, and so he wanted to check it this morning to see what was wrong with it.

Within a few minutes he began walking toward the shed and was instantly reminded that it had snowed last night as there was about four inches of it lying around. "Good thing I haven't touched that loader tractor yet." He thought to himself. "That'll be helpful today." When he reached the shed he walked inside, turned on the lights, and weaved his way around to the combine. The feederhouse had drifted down so he would have to start the machine to raise it in order to clear the rocktrap and check the cylinder. First however, he wanted to look through the separator for any clues about what might have happened. As he looked across the sieves, he noticed several bent sets of fins towards the front of the shaker box. Curious if the walkers showed similar damage, he climbed up to the top of the machine and opened the walker cover and shined a light down inside. Sure enough, the fronts of several walkers were bent as well.

"Nice." He thought to himself. "This thing's had rocks run through it and they beat the hell out of the sieves and walkers. I'm gonna have to tear the whole separator apart to fix everything." He closed the walker cover and climbed down from the back of the machine and made his way around to the cab and climbed in. He started the engine and raised the feederhouse so that he could open the rocktrap underneath. Once it was up, he killed the engine and made his way to the feederhouse, lowered the lock to protect him while he was underneath it, and climbed underneath so that he could open the rocktrap. The handle was stubborn and the first time he tried he lost his grip and ended up falling over. As he landed on the lift ram, he felt something poke him in his upper right arm.

"Ouch!" He yelled as he got himself off of the ram. He looked at the spot to find what had poked him. Sure enough, the hydraulic hose for that cylinder was badly weathered had braid wires sticking out. He rubbed the spot where he'd been poked and found that there was a hole in his jacket and that there was a small amount of oil soaked into the canvas. Wanting to take a closer look, he pulled his arm out of the jacket sleeve and, sure enough, there was a pinhole right in the same spot.

"Probably just got pricked by a wire." He thought to himself. He put his jacket back on and opened the rocktrap. Just as he'd imagined, the trap was full of rock and metal pieces, most of which were held in place by the rotting grain that was still in the trap. He cleared away the rocks and debris so he could get a better look at the cylinder. Instantly, he saw bent rasp bars and, as he rotated the cylinder, he found that most of them were bent, some in multiple places. "Dammit." He muttered to himself as he closed the trap. A complete rebuild of the separator was going to take a couple of months, easily. He still had plenty of time to do it, but he also knew that the only he was going to get the parts he needed was likely from a salvage yard.

He reached to try to pull himself out from under the feederhouse when a sharp pain in his shoulder made him reel back. "What the hell was that?" he thought to himself, "I didn't hit anything that hard." He tried again, this time using his left arm to pull himself out. As he stood up his text notification sounded. Checking his phone revealed that it was from Sarah, the neighbor girl.

"Hey what are you up to?"

"Just found out that my combine needs the separator rebuilt."

"Oh... Sounds like a big job."

"That's for sure. It'll be a couple months worth of a project."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

"Well I was going to ask you for a favor, but now I don't want to bother you with it."

"Is it to plow your driveway for you?"

"How'd you know? lol"

"Because that's what I was about to do to my driveway. I can get yours once I'm done over here."

"Thanks Chase."

"No problem. I'll be over there in a bit."

"Okay."

Chase put his phone back in his pocket and walked back over to the 2755. He climbed into the cab, despite his shoulder acting up again, and sat down, closing the door behind him. He cranked the engine over and, after a shot of ether, the engine rattled to life. As the tractor warmed up, he got out and pushed on the sliding door, again he felt pain shoot through his shoulder. "I must have got pricked harder than I thought." He thought to himself as he slid the door open. He got back into the tractor, this time only using his left hand.

He backed the tractor out and set to work on clearing his driveway. His shoulder didn't seem to bother him when he was only shifting gears and working the loader. Within about forty five minutes he had completed his driveway and he headed across the road to plow Sarah's for her. Her driveway didn't take near as long and he was done within twenty minutes. As he piled the last bucket of snow out of the way, he noticed that she was standing outside on her porch with two mugs and held one of them up towards him. Assuming one of them was for him, he shut the tractor off and walked over to her.

"Here," she said as he approached, "Have some hot chocolate."

"Thanks." He replied as she handed him a mug. He held onto it allowing the heat to warm his hands.

He could tell that Sarah had noticed what he was doing. "How are you not wearing gloves?" She asked.

"It's not cold enough that I'm willing to give up my dexterity." Chase explained. He then raised the mug to his lips and took a drink of the hot chocolate. The hot liquid caused a warm sensation to spread through his body as he swallowed. As he lowered the mug he noticed that Sarah had a curious expression on her face. "What are you looking at?" He asked.

"Your hands are two different colors." She replied. Chase looked at his hands, sure enough, his left hand had turned red from the warmth of the mug, but his right hand was still pale white.

"Huh. Look at that." He thought out loud as he processed what he was looking at.

"Here, let me set your drink down." Sarah said. He handed the mug to her and she sat both of their drinks down on the glider that was on the porch next to them. "Hold your hands out like this please." She said, holding her hands out flat in front of her. Chase mimicked her gesture. "Did you hurt your hand or something today?" She asked after looking at his hands for a minute.

"No." He replied. "Why?"

"Your right hand looks swollen." She explained.

He looked down at his hands. The right one did look maybe a little bit swollen. "How did that happen?" He thought to himself. "I didn't smash my hand or anything. Furthermore, why did she seem to be getting increasingly concerned?"

"Can you do this?" She asked, opening and closing her hands a few times.

When Chase tried to close his hands, his left one did, but his right one barely moved. He was puzzled, he'd gotten poked in the upper arm by a wire, and now his hand wasn't working right.

"What'd you do?!" Sarah's voice had noticeable urgency in it now.

"I don't know. I didn't do anything to my hand." He replied, "Maybe it's just the cold."

"If it was because of the cold it wouldn't only be one hand." Came the reply. "Something's wrong and you need to get that looked at." She added pointing to his hand. "Let me get my keys and I'll run you to the hospital."

Chase was about to protest, but before he could, she disappeared inside. A few seconds later, she came back out. "Come on." She said as she started towards her garage.

"I can just go home and ice it or something, I should be fine." He said.

She either ignored him or didn't hear him and disappeared inside the garage. Chase sighed in response and walked over to where she was going to pull out of the garage from. Evidently he wasn't going to convince her so he decided to oblige her. As she pulled over next to where he was standing she opened the door. He sat down inside and pulled the door shut.

"Ahhhh!" He yelled as the door closed. A shot of pain ripped through his right shoulder as well as down his arm and across his back. He reflexively grabbed his shoulder, but that only made his shoulder hurt again. He whimpered quietly as he let go of his shoulder and laid his arm across his lap. As the pain subsided, he put on his seatbelt and looked over to Sarah, somewhat embarrassed by the sounds he'd just made.

She was clearly just as confused by what had just happened as he was. "What was that about?!" She asked, echoing Chase's own thoughts.

Chase looked down at his arm laid across his lap. "I don't know," he answered, "I didn't hurt anything that bad."

"Well I'm taking you to get that looked at." She said, still sounding worked up. She headed down her driveway and turned onto the road. He grumbled to himself but didn't protest, he was past the point of arguing anyway. Plus, the nearest hospital was the better half of an hour away so he decided he'd best just keep his mouth shut for a bit and let things cool off.

He sat in silence watching the snow covered fields roll by outside of his window. He did notice that the pain in his shoulder was still noticeable and that his arm was starting to feel swollen.

"Are you holding up alright over there?" Sarah asked.

Chase noticed that her voice was calm again so he decided he could respond without causing any more trouble. "I'm doing alright." He said. "My shoulder's still hurting and my arm feels swollen now though."

"What did you do?" She asked.

"I was working on my combine and fell on an old hydraulic hose." He answered. "I think one of the wires from the hose poked me in my arm. But I don't understand why it hasn't gone away yet." He paused and thought for a moment. "It's probably a good thing you pushed me into letting you take me to the hospital."

"I was honestly starting to think I might have overreacted a bit back there." Sarah replied. "But, if your arm is getting worse, it's probably a good idea."

"Yeah." Chase agreed. "Evidently I did something more serious than getting poked by a wire. That wouldn't make my whole arm swell up."

He worried when Sarah took several seconds to respond. "Chase can I tell you something a little personal?" She asked.

"Sure." He replied.

"So you remember how I told you my dad was killed in a work related accident right?" She asked.

"Yes." Chase replied.

"Well..." she began, "one day he came home from work with a red dot on his arm. Mom asked him what he'd done and he said that he wasn't sure, but that he thought that he'd gotten poked by a ziptie working on a diesel pickup truck." She paused for a moment.

"I'm listening." Chase assured her.

"Well mom asked him if he was supposed to do anything about it. He told us that his boss made him go to the hospital for it and they told him that he should just ice it and to call them if things got worse." Chase noticed that she was starting to sound emotional and the look on her face backed that up. She continued after a brief pause, "Well, the next day when I got up for school, no one was around. I wasn't sure why, but at that point I was more concerned about making it to school. After I got home, I found mom sitting on the couch. When she heard me walk in she ran over and hugged me and I remember that she started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that the night before, dad had been woken up in the middle of night by excruciating pain in his arm and she'd rushed him to the emergency room. They ended up trying to perform an operation on him, I can't remember what it was called, but during the surgery they found that the damage was far worse than they had expected and they weren't sure if they would be able to get everything. They'd kept him at the hospital for that day and... well... that evening my mom got a call saying that dad had passed away."

Chase felt sorry for her, after all, he had been through something similar. She was almost in tears and he wanted so badly to comfort her but his usual go to was a hug or a hand on the shoulder and he wasn't ready to cross that line yet. He thought carefully about what he wanted to say in response.

"So is that why you got spooked back there?" He asked. She nodded in response.

He thought carefully again before replying. "I just want you to know that I have empathy for you." He said, trying to be comforting.

Sarah turned to him for a brief moment before looking back to the road. "You've been through something similar I take it." She said.

"Yes." Chase replied. Right on cue, a voice in his head started talking.

"You wouldn't have had to if only you'd have stood your ground." It said. He felt his chest start to tense and his jaw clench up. "Hell if you'd have stood your ground he might still be around and you'd still have your stake in the family dairy farm back home!" He clenched his uninjured hand into a fist and tensed his arm up. "But you didn't do that did you? You just had to go and screw everyone over, yourself included. Good job."

"Shut up!" He wanted to yell. "I shouldn't be stressing out about that right now." By now he was breathing through his teeth and his clenched arm and fist were trembling.

"Chase..." Sarah's concerned voice snapped him back to reality. He realized that he wasn't alone and relaxed the tension he'd been holding. "Is your arm getting worse?"

He took a breath. "No just..." He wasn't sure how to finish his thought.

"Bad memories?" Sarah asked.

"Something like that..." He said. "I'll be okay. I've got bigger fish to fry right now anyway." He said, pointing to his swollen arm.

"Yeah..." Sarah replied quietly.

Chase returned to sitting in silence watching the plains roll by outside. His thoughts drifted to the girl that was in the car with him. He'd been trying to avoid thinking about her too much but, now that she was taking him to the hospital, it was pretty hard not to. She'd proven herself to be a sympathetic person and also had been been through the loss of a family member. She also hadn't been treating him like some kind of predator only wanting to get some action which, he had to admit, made him actually feel like a person for once.

Ironically, after he thought about her not treating him like a predator, he took a moment to give her a quick once over with his eyes. Her hair was a light brown with some highlights in it. She'd tied it up in a loose bun so he couldn't tell exactly how long it was but he guessed that it was at least shoulder length. Her face had just the right amount of fat on such that it didn't look angular but not so much that it took away from the more delicate look of her features. Her eyes were a light shade of brown, which he had to admit really caught his attention. He was never sure why he liked brown eyes, but he assumed it was because no one in his family had brown eyes. The rest of her was largely hidden by the light winter clothes she was wearing, but he could still make out the clear curves of her breasts as well as the shape of her thighs. Both of which were definitely appealing.

"I really shouldn't be eyeing this girl down right now." He thought to himself. as he was about to look away, she spoke.

"What are you looking at?" She asked.

Chase panicked for a second at being caught but he noticed a smirk on her face. Since she'd apparently liked the fact that she'd caught him, he decided to test the waters a bit.

"The most interesting thing I can see." He responded with a smirk of his own.

The look on her face when she turned and looked at him for a moment was priceless. It was a mix of curiosity, surprise, and joy and he couldn't help but smile when he saw it. He moved his gaze to the road ahead and leaned back in his seat.

A little while later, they arrived at the hospital. The emergency room was largely empty so after giving his insurance information, getting his vital signs checked, and giving a brief summary of his situation, they were taken immediately to the next open room.

"Ok the doctor will be here in a few minutes." The nurse told them. "In the meantime sir, if you could take your jacket off, it would help with the diagnosis."

"Ok." Chase said as he stood of from the examination table. The nurse left the room and he began taking his jacket off.

"Do you need help?" Sarah asked.

"No, I've got it." Chase replied as he unzipped the jacket and worked his left arm out of the sleeve. "Thanks though." he added as he used his left hand to gradually work his jacket off of his right arm. He laid the jacket down on the table and sat back down. As he waited he noticed that Sarah was rapping her fingers across the armrest of the chair she was sitting in. He looked up to her face and could see the concern in her expression.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She replied.

"Just nervous?"

"Yeah."

"It's ok, you've done your part, now let the professionals do theirs."

"I know. I'm still nervous though..."

Chase wanted to ask why but he was interrupted by the doctor walking into the room. "Hey, how are you?" He asked as he held out his right hand.

"Good." Chase replied as he held out his left hand since it was the only one that worked properly. The doctor switched his clipboard to his other hand and shook his hand.

"Ok is this the puncture wound?" he asked pointing at the red mark on Chase's arm.

"Yes sir." Chase replied as the doctor began looking at the wound. As he touched the skin around it, Chase realized that his upper arm and shoulder had become tender and even the gentle touches hurt enough to be distracting.

"Does that hurt at all?" The doctor asked him.

"Yeah, a little bit." Chase answered.

"On a scale of one to ten, how bad is your pain when I do that?" The doctor asked as he gently pressed on the skin around the pinhole.

"Two, maybe three." Chase answered.

"Ok now you mentioned that your shoulder hurt really badly when you tried to close a car door correct?" The doctor asked.

"Yes."

"Ok, I'm going to slowly move your arm. I want you to let me know when that pain returns."

"Ok, thanks for the warning." Chase said. The doctor gently started to lift his arm. Once his upper arm was slightly below level, a jolt of pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm. His involuntary sharp inhale made the doctor stop his movement and slowly return his arm to its former position.

"Can you hold your other arm over here so I can see how swollen this one is please?" He asked. Chase obliged. With his arms close together the difference between his left and right arms was more apparent. He also noticed and "pins and needles" feeling start at his shoulder and work its way partly across his back and partway down his upper arm.