NewU Pt. 04b

"Well, that went well." Jeeves' voice echoed in my head. "At least we know the mind influencing powers work."

Hmmm, I nodded absently, still looking at the closed door. Wait... What?

* * * * * * ** **

Apparently, Jimmy had been told to stay away for that morning's visiting hours as well, the doctors expecting more test, though as my registered next of kin, he was invited to come to the hospital at noon for my consultation with Matthews. I had intermittently checked on the doctor throughout the night. The poor man had been working on my case until exhaustion had pulled him away in the early hours. Although I couldn't understand any of the medical reasoning that was filling his thoughts - and there was a lot of it - the feelings of self-doubt and confusion had never really left him. He entered my room at twelve on the dot, with Jimmy and Becky in tow, a tablet computer tucked under his arm. After a few minutes of greetings and handshakes, everyone was settled, and the meeting began.

"Ok, first of all," Matthews started as silence descended on the room, "Mister Roberts, I feel I owe you an apology."

"Err... you do?" The concern, bordering on panic, that had filled the doctor's mind since the previous dat were now gone. Instead he was feeling something that I could only describe as optimistic relief. He was wearing the closest thing to a smile that I had ever seen on him.

"It's a simple enough set of assumptions," the Doctor continued as if I hadn't said a word, "A patient gets hurt, he goes to hospital. The Doctors and medical staff tell him exactly what is wrong with him and how they are going to treat him. In cases like yours," he went on, "things are done a little differently; in addition to the life changing injuries and damage to the brain, simply being in hospital and learning that they've only had a serious injury, but they have been in a coma for weeks is often enough to send a patient into a deep depression. In those cases, yours included, it is national policy to drip feed you information. We give you one piece of bad news, let you come to terms with it and understand what the treatment entails, then we move onto the next injury and so on. We have found that it helps patients deal with the shock much better.

"In your case, and for obvious reasons , that didn't happen." The Doctor shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Nurse Becky has told me the frustration you have been feeling at being left in the dark. This is something I take full responsibility for but unfortunately, the rapid and inexplicable changes in your condition has given us no time to sit down and actually go through your progress and treatment plans properly. It wasn't an oversight on our part as much as it was a response to a rapidly changing set of circumstances. But regardless, I apologize if that has led to any unnecessary duress."

I stared at the doctor for a few moments; despite the formal and well-practiced tone, he was being genuine. "Don't mention it, Doc." I said with a smile and a slight nod, "You're doing your job to the best of your ability. You'll be getting no more complaints from me." My eyes flashed to Becky, that statement meant for her as much as for her boss.

"I appreciate that, Mister Roberts." He said, looking surprisingly relieved. "Now..." he took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for this unpleasant task, "... I think it's time we all had a talk about what is happening with you. I think beating around the bush is a bad idea here so I'm just going to give it to you straight. You were in a bad way when you came onto the ward. How you managed to survive the injury at all is one thing but surviving all of the surgeries as well is... err... well let's just say it was unexpected. Let me be clear here, Mister Roberts: the level of the injuries you sustained were astonishing! By the time you were well enough to be brought out of the coma those injuries had been downgraded from life-threatening, but they were certainly still life changing. We are taking major neural trauma, significant spinal injuries, damage to several major organs and skeletal damage to the lower half of your body that, if we are being frank here, you never would have recovered from."

"Wait," Jimmy interrupted from his place in the chair next to my bed, "You said he had a good chance of walking again."

"He did." The doctor nodded before continuing plainly, "but he would have suffered from crippling chronic pain and he certainly wouldn't have been able to walk without the aid of a cane or walking stick. Sitting would have been painful, standing would have been excruciating and doing either for any period of time would have been extremely difficult without massive dosages of medication, medication which would have made anything more than sleeping almost incomprehensible. Working from anything other than a horizontal position would have been impossible, driving would have been out of the question - the brain injuries alone would have seen to that - and anything more than half an hour or so of mobility would have been. Well you get the idea."

Jimmy and I shared a concerned look.

What followed was twenty minutes of the most terrifying descriptions of my injuries that I could imagine and all of it underscored by mental images from the Doctor and Becky. The list of complications that would have been considered likely, if not, probable, was enough to make the hairs on my neck stand on end. Sex would've been out; even if I had been able to move and sustain any weight on my pelvis - which I would have found excruciatingly painful - there was no guarantee that my equipment would still work. It was at that point that Becky's feelings switched from abject despair and irreconcilable guilt to something more like curiosity. Even she, despite being utterly convinced that she had done additional damage during our tryst, could see that those details were not accurate.

But the list went on. Blood pressure problems, partial paralysis, loss of sensation, loss of Liver and Kidney function, sepsis, memory problems, mood swings, aggressive or even violent behaviors, vertigo, constant headaches, list after list of consequences of the injuries I had suffered during the car crash. Yet through it all, Matthews seemed almost buoyant. He was confused; there was clearly still a lot that didn't make sense to him, but the concern had vanished.

"I'm hoping there is a 'but' here, Doc." I said after a pause, with visions of a smug looking Jeeves floating around my mind.

"But... your case has ... err... thrown up some surprises."

The Doctor turned in his chair, pulling his tablet from beneath his arm and looking expectantly up at the TV in the corner. An X-Ray film faded onto the screen "For the sake of explaining this to you, I want to concentrate on your legs. The results from your brain scans were much more dramatic than this but MRI scans are nowhere near as easy to read so the X-Rays will have to do."

It took me a few seconds to work out what I was looking at.

"This is your leg on the night of your accident." He said without looking away from the black and faded white image. Even from this distance, I could see the damage. The normally solid white bone was crisscrossed in an elaborate spider's web of cracks and breaks, a few splinters flaking off and shining brightly against the darker tissues of my leg. To me it looked like someone had taken a hammer to a fluorescent tube, shattering it beyond repair. "This type of injury is called a Comminuted Displace Fracture. What that means is that the bone has broken into more than two pieces. As you can see, there are multiple breaks and cracks, and those pieces have either moved, splintered, or are otherwise not lined up in a way that would allow them to heal properly. This is about as bad as that type of injury gets.

"What's worse is that this," he circled a dark line running down the length of my leg, "Is the femoral artery; puncture that and you will bleed out in a few minutes and these bone fragments," he pointed to a few of the white dots suspended in the blackness of my leg tissue, "...Were dangerously close to damaging it. The surgery removed most of them, but there was always as significant risk of more splinters coming lose and nicking or even severing the artery." He turned back to look at me, "That would have killed you," he finished ominously.

"That was the reason we were all so worried about you being sat up yesterday." Becky added, her eyes raising to meet mine. "That kind of movement could have been enough to dislodge one of those splinters and caused damage that we wouldn't have known about until it was too late."

"This is the slide from after the surgery, about a week after the accident." The Doctor continued after another pause, tapping his screen a few times and looking up to see the slide on the TV switch to a new image. The bone looked more or less the same. The cracks didn't look quite as prominent and most of the white specks around the bone has disappeared, but the most startling difference was the mass of screws, pins and bars dissecting the bone at various places along my leg, a long and thick metal looking bar screwed to the outside of the bone at three separate points and faded plastic strips molded to the shattered bone to hold the looser pieces in place.

Matthews stopped, looking down at the last slide in his hand, his other hand rubbing over his mouth and chin almost in disbelief that he was in this position, yet feeling like he was about to reveal the grand prize in some fictional competition. "This was your leg yesterday." He finally said, bringing up a new image.

The differences were subtle, but the more I looked, the more I could see them. The spider's web of cracks and breaks was almost completely gone. Although the screws and pins were still there, they looked almost redundant now. Even the few white specks that had been left over from the surgery had vanished and even I could see that the bone fragments had adjusted position to fuse together in a way that should have been impossible. "I'll be honest," The Doctor said as he stared at the picture, "If you came into emergency room with this kind of injury, I would wrap in in a cast, give you aspirin and send you home." Even Becky had climbed out of her seat and was looking at the screen with an expression of fascination and confusion. It was clear that neither of them had seen anything like this before. The Doc finally spoke up again. "In short, your leg has healed to a point that I wouldn't expect to see for about 18 months, if ever."

I looked over at Jimmy, his eyes were fixed on the viewer with a confused frown. "How is this possible?" He finally said, his eyes flashing cautiously back to me, as if simply looking at me would undo the healing that I had somehow undergone.

Matthews, his eyes still on his table, simply bit his lip and shook his head. Silence settled over the room once again as everyone grappled with the image infront of them. Even I had to admit that this was a shock. Having powers was one thing but seeing the results of them in the flesh was something else entirely.

Matthews finally turned in his seat, returning his full attention to me. Becky took one last look at my final Xray before switching the TV off and returning to her own. "There's a book," Matthews said after a pause and with an almost conspiratorial smile, "they tell you about it in med school in a 'you should probably be aware of this' kind of way rather than a 'you need to study this'. This book is a list of case studies, cases that still defy medical science. Even a century after the patient died, we still have no way of adequately explaining their condition. That's why med school doesn't teach it to Doctors; there is always the risk that a physician will encounter something he can't explain and instead of testing thoroughly, they dismiss it as a case that belongs in this book.

"And we are talking real, honest-to-god medical miracles. Like the little girl born in the 70s without a skull; the skull - or the front part of it - is the only fully formed bone in the human body at birth, it protects the brain from being crushed during labor and not only did this girl survive but there was no physical or mental consequences to her condition, she was fine! A few surgeries as she grew up to install a prosthetic skull but other than that, nothing. She's still alive as far as I know. As much as it surprises me to say this, but there are cases in that book of extremely advanced healing and regeneration properties in patients going back over a century. If you were able to see your MRI and the healing done to your brain, you would agree that this is still an understatement in your case. As amazing as this sounds, there is a precedent for what is happening to you... we just can't explain it."

"Sorry, I'm not following." Jimmy spoke up before I could, "I don't understand what any of this means." His mind was grappling between an accepted reality of me being like this for years, and a new one that suggested I was almost fully healed.

"To be frank with you, neither do we." The doctor answered with a simple shrug, "The National Health service is an incredible institution and despite the financial incentives in other parts of the world, I wouldn't work anywhere else. But resources are limited. We don't have the time, the money or the bed space to investigate this as much as I would like. The simple fact is that medically speaking, at that rate you are healing, we will have no legitimate reason to keep you here for more than another week or two and unless your condition deteriorates, which seems unlikely, there isn't a whole lot more that we can do for you aside from letting you finish healing." His face finally cracked into a beaming smile, his eyes almost lighting up as both Becky and Jimmy felt their chests swell with joy and their jaws hit the floor.

"A week or two?" I asked, the first time I had spoken in a while.

"You are much further down the road to recovery than we would have predicted, and we can't really explain why," Matthews answered. "Your legs, back and internal injuries aren't quite fully healed yet and although the brain injuries seem to be healing at an unbelievable rate, I would still like to keep you for observation in that respect."

"You're Welcome" Jeeves' voice shouted in my mind.

"There is still the issue of physical therapy," Matthews went on. "And of course, they will be the ones who ultimately determine if you are well enough to leave hospital once we have given the medical go-ahead. If they are happy with your progress, you can go home."

I blinked a few times. My powers were incredible, beyond a doubt now, but having the ability to hear people's thoughts in no way allowed me the ability to understand them. So despite the running monologue in both Doctor Matthews and Becky's heads, this news still came as something of a shock to me. I had come to terms with the fact that I would be in hospital for a while, even without being fully aware of how long that may actually be or how bad my condition was. Jimmy looked over at me again, a look of giddy excitement on his face. His mind was only now fully accepting that I would be ok. That all the plans we had made the previous day might actually come to fruition and were not just wishful thinking. He was beyond happy. I smiled internally to myself, he was a good friend and I silently vowed to myself to improve his life in any way I could, now that I had the power to do so.

"I don't know what to say, Doc." I finally said to break the silence in the room. "I mean, I obviously knew I wasn't feeling as bad as everyone thought I should be, but this..." Matthews nodded understandingly as I spoke. "Look, I'm sorry if I've made any of this difficult for you, any of you," my eyes flashed to Becky again, hers finally rising to meet mine, a small glint of happiness behind them. "I haven't been the most co-operative patient, but you and the nurses here have been incredible, I can't thank you enough."

"That's good of you to say." Matthews said with a slight smile, "But there are still some details we need to go over. Then I can leave you to it."

The next hour or so was spent being bombarded with more information than I could have ever hoped to remember without my powers. The schedule for physical therapy alone was exhausting and would be starting in the next day or two. Once they had given me the ok, I would be free to start sitting up and, eventually, even allowed to move around the hospital. After the first round of treatments, they would decide if I was ok to go home. Removing my drip tubes and getting me back onto solid food was another hurdle to cross, I was told to expect some vomiting after the first few attempts but apparently that was normal. My meds, already on the lowest setting allowed for my condition, would gradually be reduced. Despite my healing prowess, morphine addiction was still a real possibility. Jeeves was more than happy to inform me in his smug voice that I hadn't metabolized any of the meds since my awakening and would be fine. In fact, Jeeves seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in correcting the statements made by the consultant.

"You will probably feel sick after your first few meals." No, you won't. "Your stomach would have shrunk a little from lack of food for so long." Nope, its fine. "The physical therapy will be difficult at the start, your muscles may be in a lot better condition than we would've thought but you still haven't used them in months." Might I suggest some Morris dancing, Sir? I think should suitably convince them.

"Alright, alright, calm down, Jeeves."

"I make no promises, Sir."

Eventually the consultation drew to a close. Matthews shook hands with Jimmy and me before taking his leave. Jimmy stayed for a few more minutes before politely being informed that he would also have to leave until the next visiting hours. With a smile and a fist bump he left the room, bumped into Philippa in the corridor and they then spent the next 15 minutes shamelessly flirting with each other. Becky stayed.

"You ok?" I asked after a pregnant pause, her mind swimming in a mixture of relief and euphoria.

She licked her lips. "I don't know." She said finally. "I... I wasn't expecting that."

"What were you expecting?"

"To have almost killed you." she said with a nervous laugh "Or at least to have done some more damage, but not that."

"I'm fine," I said softly as Becky moved from her seat and into Jimmy's vacant one, my hand reached for hers as she settled down. With the guilt and concern finally fading away, the 'within reason' clause of my internal edits seemed to have been satisfied. Her arousal level exploded as our hands touch.

"Which brings up a whole new set of questions, and I don't mean about how you are fine." Her eyes glinted slightly as they rose to meet mine. I could almost see my powers influencing my blonde lover. "I like you, Pete." her lips curled into a seductive smile, "I thought we would have more time to work through those feelings but I can't describe it, and I have no idea what it is about you, but every time I see you I just..." she took a deep breath and licked her lips.

She leant down and rested her forehead against mine, her fingers tracing tiny circles onto the skin of my hand. I could feel it; the rapidly building tide of desire in the pit of her stomach, the fluttering eyelashes, the slow, shallow breaths. Her mind started to race again. The images I remembered so clearly from our coupling the previous day were nothing compared to these. With a deep breath, I felt the decision snap into place, she wanted me, and she wanted me to know it. A slight tilt of her head brought her lips tantalizingly close to my ear. "Every time I see you, I just want to strip out of my clothes, get onto my knees, open my legs and my mouth and wait for you to use me."