The Accident - Alternate Ending
Rating:
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Genre=Fiction;
Pages=6;
Characters=12,492;
Chapter 5a
The Change
Chapter 7 -- Life After the Hospital
Beth opened her eyes slowly, rubbing away the sleep with her free hand. The view out the window gave her a breathtaking sight of the morning sun rising over the cityscape. She looked over at her roommate, John. Lying there on his back, a thin hospital sheet just barely covering his muscular body. His masculinity undiminished and even enhanced by the metal ring and plastic jacket he had to wear because of his head injury. He had been admitted a few weeks after she had, and they had become fast friends. Beth was really attracted to him, and she had been wanting to ask him on a date for weeks. But their hospital-confining injuries stopped her. I'll just ask him when we get released she had thought on many occasions. Just then the door to the room opened and the nurse strode purposefully into the room.
"Good morning Beth, I'm glad to see you awake, unlike this ungrateful slob here." said the nurse
"Hi Sandy" said Beth to the nurse. "Wake up you sack of beans." Beth said to John. It was a game that she and John had played in the mornings over the past few weeks.
"I'm up, I'm up. You don't have to yell so loud" grumbled John through the sheets.
"Did you sleep well?" asked Sandy, turning away from John.
"I hate to admit that I didn't." Beth replied dejectedly. She had so wanted to get a good night's sleep after the previous day's activities.
"That's too bad." said the nurse. "You should have called the night nurse, she could have given you some pain pills."
"I know, but you know how hard I've tried to stay away from the drugs, I am determined to get through this and not come out addicted to anything." said Beth.
"Okay, I understand. Well, it's time for your bath Beth." Sandy said as she pulled the cloth curtain around the bed. Beth knew that even though John had been feigning sleep, he would be wide awake now. He tried valiantly to conceal it, but Beth knew that he loved to watch her beautiful body being washed in the morning even though it was just a silhouette on the cloth divider.
"I think you still need the bedpan." said the Nurse.
"I know, I am still so weak from being in the casts, hopefully tomorrow I will be strong enough to use the Personal." Beth said.
"We'll see." said the nurse as she slid the bedpan under Beth's behind.
"Ooooh! It's cold!" shrieked Beth like always. It had taken Beth a long time to get used to going to the bathroom in bed, but now it was routine. When she finished her business, she called Sandy and she came back in and cleaned Beth up and took the bedpan away.
The nurse disposed of the bedpan and came back to the bedside. "Time for your actual bath." she said.
"Okay." Beth replied.
Beth had had to wear something called "Humoral Traction" all night so that she wouldn't hurt her shoulder. The traction was really just a sling that held her arm up over her chest and kept her from rolling over onto it. Sandy helped Beth remove the suspended sling, and she placed Beth's arm onto the bed next to her since she was too weak to do it herself. The nurse also removed Beth's gown to make it easier to clean her. Beth didn't wear a bra because her young, supple breasts didn't really need the support and because they were uncomfortable to wear all the time.
Nurse Sandy handed Beth a damp sponge so she could wash the parts of her that she could reach like her upper body and face. She started working on Beth's legs which didn't take too long because much of them were still casted. For the past few months, the nurse had had to wash Beth's private parts which had embarrassed Beth for a long time. Now that she was accustomed to it, Beth could do it herself. Ironic how those things worked out, Beth thought. When Beth finished cleaning herself, and the nurse had washed her back, it was time to wash her hair.
Sandy slipped a washbasin under Beth's head to catch the water and soap. she was helped into a fresh gown.
"You need to wear the shoulder splint, remember?" said the nurse as Beth attempted to sit up.
"Of course I remember, I just hate it!" she thought. "Oh yeah, sorry ma'am." she said lamely.
The nurse reached for the brace that was laying on the table. She adjusted it to hold Beth's whole arm in the correct neutral position and tightened down the velcro straps that went around her waist and shoulder. "I just hate it because it chafes my skin." she said sullenly.
After Sandy had finished with Beth, she moved on to John to give him his sponge bath. He could wash almost his whole body, the nurse only had to wash his hair and parts of his muscular back and chest. The whole time the bath was being given he talked to the nurse about mundane things like the weather and her taxes. He spoke well with other people, and Beth admired him for his easy acceptance by others. Beth had always had a hard time fitting in with other teenagers because she didn't have good communication skills. She hoped that by emulating John she would be able to make friends easier.
After the nurse had gone John came over to Beth's bed, something they did every morning after the nurse's rounds. They talked for a bit about nothing. Beth could see how he kept looking at her legs. She decided to try an experiment, she wiggled her toes. John stopped in mid-sentence and stared openly at her smooth toes and shiny toenails twinkling in the fluorescent light of the room.
"Do you like my toes?" Beth asked.
John looked her right in the eyes, with a serious look on his face. "Toes?" he choked out after a few seconds.
"I saw you looking at them." she said and, after a few seconds said "Would you perhaps like to paint them?"
He just stared at her blandly for a second, then recovered. "I would be honored to, ma'am." he said.
I pointed to where I kept my bright green nail polish. He grabbed it and walked to the foot of the bed and sat down on it. There wasn't much room at the foot of the bed but she tried to scoot up as far as she could. She couldn't bend her legs because of the casts though.
He sat at the foot of the bed and took my leg with the short cast on it into his lap. He pulled the cap off of the nail polish bottle and started painting my toenails. Beth could feel how the polish went on and she could see how engrossed John was with the application of the polish. He made them perfect, smooth, exact, sensual. Beth was fascinated that the simple act of painting a beautiful girl's nails would make him so happy and excited. Meanwhile he had moved onto the toes of the leg in the long leg cast. He was having trouble, he couldn't look down over the top of the toes because he was still wearing his halo brace.
"How about if I set my leg on the floor? Then you wouldn't need to lean over." said Beth sensing his frustration.
He agreed and helped me to turn on the bed. He sat down on the floor and had no trouble painting these nails. When he was done Beth patted the bed to the left of her inviting him to sit down. He did, but had to sit cross-legged to face her. She turned her head to look at him, and their gazes met for a second. Beth couldn't wait any longer to ask her question.
"Would you like to go on a date after we get released?" There, she had said it. All these months of tension she had pent up inside herself had been released in those few simple words.
He immediately responded "Yes! I have been wanting to ask you for months but with our ... uhhhh ... incapacitation, I didn't want to ask!"
Beth was overjoyed. He said yes! They shared a look of contented love until the door opened.
"Okay you two lovebirds, it's time to get ready for Physical Therapy." said the nurse who obviously knew that they were in love.
John sighed. But he smiled because this was the second time he would share PT with Beth. Her first day had been the day before, right after she got her body cast off. John had seen her skin and was surprised to see how shriveled and discolored it was after so long in a cast. He hoped that his body wouldn't look like that when his halo was taken off but he had no idea what to expect.
The first time Beth was in PT, she had been brought in on a hospital bed. She was so weak that she couldn't even lift her own body to ride in a wheelchair. The Physical Therapist introduced herself to Beth and said her name was Jenny. Jenny told her that the next week would be the most excruciating part of her treatment, and that Beth had to want to get stronger and healthier. Beth gave her word that she would do her best.
For the next four hours Jenny had pulled and twisted every part of Beth's body that was uncasted. Beth came close to tears many times and even cried out when her back was popped. That night, as they lay in bed in their room, Beth told John how painful it all was. "Almost as bad as the accident itself" she had said. She couldn't even sleep peacefully through the night and kept waking John up with her quiet screams of pain.
Today was different though, Beth was ready for the pain and, though sleepy, was determined to win the fight against the pain.
The nurse brought over the wheelchair and lifted Beth into it. Beth greatly admired her strength and hoped to be as strong as she was someday.
Before she started the bath though, Beth needed to use the Private. Since she was going to be released from the hospital soon, she had to learn how to use the room unattended. This had been the worst part of the day for the last week, and there had been a few "accidents".
Before she even had a chance to swing her legs out over the bed the nurse was there. "You silly girl, you need to wear the shoulder splint, remember?"
"Of course I remember, I just hate it!" she thought. "Oh yeah, sorry ma'am." she said aloud.
The nurse reached for the brace that was laying on the table. She adjusted it to hold my whole arm in the correct position and tightened down the velcro straps that went around her waist and shoulder. "I just hate it because it chafes my skin." she said sullenly.
As Beth was testing the limits of her newfound immobility, the nurse brought over the wheelchair. Beth put her legs over the edge of the bed, one with a long, long cast and one with just a short one. She wiggled over the edge and slid into the chair. It was quite hard since she only had one free hand, but she made it without too much fanfare. The chair wasn't one of those fancy electric chairs though because the hospital couldn't afford them, and since she only had one hand free, the nurse had to wheel her into the bathroom.
Beth asked the nurse to leave since she needed to be able to do this on her own. She slowly wheeled the chair into position in front of the toilet bowl. Using her free hand by half-lifting with her casted legs, she slid herself off the chair and onto the seat. Breathing hard, she pulled up her dress and did her business.
When she finished she tried to use the same method to get back into the wheelchair. She lifted herself halfway across, but the chair rolled away, out of reach. She had forgotten to set the damned brakes! She didn't want to call for the nurse who she knew was hovering outside the door lest she call for help because a similar problem had happened yesterday as well.
Beth was determined to get back into the chair. Her plan was to slide onto the floor and scoot over to the chair and pull herself into it. She made it to the chair, but she just couldn't muster the strength to lift herself into the chair with only one arm.
"Help!" Beth cried out miserably. The nurse was there in a heartbeat, but Beth's pride had been shattered for the day. The nurse had to lift her into her chair, which was quite a feat since Beth, though a slight girl, had on a large amount of casts and braces.
Once she was out of the Private and she saw John, she perked up immediately if just to show him that she wouldn't be stopped by such a petty inconvenience. He just smiled stupidly back at her which cause her to laugh coyly. She really did love him, but would she ever be able to tell him?
Beth arrived at her new home after being confined to a hospital bed for the last three months. She still had on a long leg cast on her right leg, a short leg cast on her left, and a long arm thumb spica cast in an airplane splint on her right arm. She was also confined to an electric wheelchair.