Challenge Me, page 3
“Yo-uo’re n-n-ot a d-d-ctr?” Briar stuttered out.
“My specialty is orthopedics which is why I’m your primary. The lower quadrant of your right leg was damaged beyond saving when the cement barricade collapsed on you. Luckily, we were able to save your knee and there is a stable site for them to fit you for a prosthetic. I’d almost say at this point, you’re a good candidate for an exoprosthesis. We’ll have to see how things heal up, but that might be a great fit for you. But that’s something to look at long term.”
Randolph could tell that Briar had no clue what the doctor was talking about and as he looked at May and Siah, the same blank look was on their faces.
“Um, doc? While that all sounded really smart, you lost all of us after talking about the barricade collapsing.”
“Sorry, I’ve been awake for going on thirty hours covering for a bout of the flu in the ER. Let me rephrase, you’re a good candidate for a modern, easier and less painful prosthetic, eventually. We need to watch how your leg heals and then you can make some decisions.”
“Mu-much b-better,” Briar said.
“Any immediate questions for me? I’m going to contact the neuro and see about getting someone down here to evaluate you and we’ll be running some tests to determine the extent of the seizures. For now, it could just be a one-off due to the stress of everything and you just regaining consciousness.”
“T-two. Ca-an I e-eat? Wh-hen can th-this c-c-ome out of m-my dick?” Briar asked which had them all laughing when they realized what he was talking about.
Chapter Five
Briar had never been a lay around type of guy. Getting comfortable in this bed was impossible. Never mind that every time he moved, it felt strange.
It had taken him and Brand over an hour to convince Carter to go home, that nothing was going to happen while he wasn’t there. Briar had no plans on checking out of this world for the next. He really would like to know exactly what had happened on the patrol and since then though. Maybe Carter could find out for him, somehow.
He shifted in the bed again, he would find a comfortable position. Briar looked to the side of the bed where Brand was nose deep in his Kindle. Lord knew what he was reading. He remembered the one discussion they’d had over dinner about books, to say it hurt his head was an understatement. People would be surprised to find the brain under Brand’s hat. Philosophy and Theology, yeah, not Briar’s cup of tea but listening to how impassioned Brand was? Now that he could get behind.
Another shift of his hips and a hand came out and tapped his thigh.
“Will you settle?” Brand asked without even looking up.
“I can’t get comfortable.” Yeah, he was on the verge of whining. That didn’t bode well for the long term. Briar knew he had quite a long haul coming, whether he liked it or not.
“Need the bed up? Down? Another pillow?” Brand laid his Kindle down and stood up. He made it look so easy. Was never going to be easy for Briar again.
“No. I don’t,” Briar snapped.
“Oh I get the happy Briar tonight? Been saving it for me?”
“Fuck off. If you’re going to be all sunshine and glitter, you can take your sparkly self right out that door. I don’t need you trying to cheer me up.” Briar folded his arms and turned his head away from Brand. Kinda hard to give someone the cold shoulder when you were confined to a bed.
“Ah yes, Mary Sunshine is here. You were just waiting for May and Siah to leave, weren’t you? Worried about sending them into a panic so you kept silent. Come on, give it to me.” There was a teasing note in Brand’s voice as he reached out and tilted Briar’s head toward him.
“I’m not a baby that needs someone watching over me, so you can leave. I’ll be just fine and if not, I’m sure the nurses know what to do.”
“So you think I’ve spent the last week trying to get to you to just what? Leave now?”
“Yup. No reason for you to be here. I’m fine. You’ve seen for yourself.” Why the fuck wouldn’t Brand leave? Briar needed to be alone.
“B, I’m not leaving. I’m right here. It’s okay.”
Briar could feel the tears coming but didn’t want to look any weaker in front of Brand. Lord knows, he wasn’t a complete man any more between his leg— what did it even look like?— and now fucking seizures.
“Please just go.” Briar closed his eyes and covered them with his arm. There was no way he was going to stop the tears from flowing but he wasn’t going to look at Brand and see the pity in his eyes.
“B, open your eyes. Look at me,” Brand said. Briar could feel the rail being lowered and Brand slipping onto the edge of the bed.
Briar sniffled and wiped at his eyes before looking at Brand. “Please? Go? Don’t want—” That was as far as he got before the tears took over. He quickly tried to turn over but Brand grabbed him and pulled him close. After that, there was no way that Briar could halt the tears.
What he was exactly crying about, he wasn’t sure. Losing basically two weeks? His brain doing something? His leg? His friends? Oh God! Who died? What did he do? It had to be his fault. He was the new guy. He shouldn’t have been there. Should have listened to his parents and stayed. Not joined, then he wouldn’t have killed anyone. Just been stuck there doing nothing.
“B, it’s not your fault. You didn’t kill anyone,” Brand whispered.
Briar pulled back from Brand’s shoulder and studied him. “What are you talking about?”
“You were talking to yourself, saying you should have stayed home then no one would be dead.”
“I did not,” Briar denied as he wiped his face as best he could on his shoulder.
“You did. I don’t know all the details of what happened over there but I do know that Siah told me you saved one of the guys when you jumped on him. So think about that. If you hadn’t been there, he’d most likely be dead. Okay, yeah, it sucks that you, and maybe him, lost part of your leg but you’re here and alive.”
Looking at the fierceness in Brand’s gaze, hurt. Briar needed to focus on something else before he broke down again. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing. Meditation was something that he’d always used to ground himself. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Inhale… He repeated the cycle a few times before he realized that he was breathing in sync with the beeping or the beeping was with him. He listened for a minute. Beeping was with his breathing.
“B? You with me?” Brand asked. “You centered?”
“You remember that I meditate?” He was surprised that Brand remembered something so little.
“I remember everything,” Brand said, squeezing his hand. “In fact, I found an app for my iPhone called Calm to meditate. It’s nothing like you do but I’m on a streak. Seventy-two days. There’s all different meditations that I can do, all under fifteen minutes.”
“Sounds like you found something to match your reading.” He moved around on the bed again. It wasn’t the worst he’d slept on but dang.
“Stop fidgeting.” Brand moved back to the chair and just sat there.
“What time is it?” Just like casinos, hospitals were timeless. Nothing to key into how long you’d been there. The curtains across the room were drawn so Briar couldn’t even see if the sun was out.
“Twenty-forty. Time to start winding down. Wonder if this chair reclines?” Brand started feeling around the chair.
“You could just go home and sleep,” Briar offered. He really needed to be alone. He needed to see what it looked like and he didn’t want anyone else to see. It couldn’t look the greatest. He was sure that there were lots of bandages but he needed to see.
“Not likely. I texted Tank and he’s going to clear with the first sergeant me taking a few days to spell May. It’s quiet for us right now. Whoa!” All of a sudden Brand was thrown back and his feet went flying.
“Brand!” Briar moved to get out of the bed when a voice from the door stopped him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lt. Willow asked as she approached the bed. She looked across the bed and started laughing. “You okay, soldier?”
“Yes, ma’am. Just surprised myself,” Brand answered as he sat up. “Didn’t think this chair went back but I found the button.”
“I was just going to grab him. Didn’t want him to hit the floor,” Briar finally answered. He wasn’t out running laps.
“Did you forget something?” Willow was studying the monitors while reaching for the clipboard at the end of his bed. She looked at Briar pointedly before writing on the clipboard.
“My appointment for a facial? It’s not until Tuesday.” Yes, snark was back.
“So it’s not just me that’s getting happy happy joy joy Briar tonight. I’m crushed.” Brand dropped his head to his chest dramatically.
“Give it a break, soldier. I get it from all of you at one time or another. There is nothing, and I do mean nothing, you can throw at me that I haven’t already heard in some variation so why don’t you just save your strength.” Willow stretched to reach something above Briar’s head. When she pulled back, she had a pair of gloves in her hand. “Okay, pretty boy, why don’t you take a walk while I check some bandages?” she suggested to Brand.
“Think I’m good right here, ma’am.” Brand crossed his arms and wiggled like he was making himself comfortable in the chair.
“Did you honestly think I was making a suggestion?” She raised an eyebrow at Brand.
Okay, wow, this was a match worth watching. He wasn’t sure who was really going to win either. “Can I have some popcorn?” Briar asked breaking up the staring contest.
The stalemate broke as both Willow and Brand looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
“Popcorn? Last time you had popcorn in my presence, I ended up with butter in… let’s stop that memory there, shall we?” Briar could see a blush travel across Brand’s face and burst out laughing.
“It’s nice to hear you laugh, private. I really do need your friend to step out in the hallway so I can check your bandages though.”
That got his attention quickly and Brand snapped to his feet. Briar reached for his hand and didn’t think he was going to let go. He’d been trying to get Brand to leave so he could look for himself but now that the nurse was here to uncover his leg? Yeah, he didn’t think he could do it alone.
“Ma’am? I don’t think I can see this for the first time by myself,” Briar whispered. He could feel his eyes filling up again. Damn it.
“It’s okay, private. Take a deep breath. This is hard for everyone that goes through this. I can guarantee that you’re just as special now as you were before this happened. You know how I know? Your two friends that left a little bit ago have been here every day, all day. And this one here?” She motioned to Brand. “He’s been haunting my nurses’ station. Thought I was going to have to call the MPs a few times.”
He really couldn’t wrap his brain around that he didn’t have part of his leg. And why would Carter and Brand not leave him alone? Briar started to shake his head, denying everything that the lieutenant was saying.
“Private! At ease!” Brand’s voice snapped out. Briar had never heard that tone from him. It was easy for him to forget Brand was a sergeant. “The nice nurse is going to check and change your bandages, if necessary. Time to suck it up and move on. Roger?”
“Yes, sergeant,” Briar automatically answered. Who knew that Brand had this in him? Next thing Briar noticed was Lt. Willow had already uncovered his leg and was unwrapping some of the gauze around the lower part.
“Everything is looking good. We were worried that the infection was going to return but it all looks as it should. Skin is pinking up and the bruising is looking normal. No excess drainage and no abnormal heat coming from the limb. I’d say you’re right where Doctor Standard would like you at this point.” Willow had a wet gauze pad in her hand and started wiping it across the surface.
Briar sucked in a harsh breath and exhaled it through his teeth. “That felt strange.” He could feel his muscles tightening up and he started to sweat. “Mmph…” And out he went again.
Chapter Six
That officially sucked. Randolph sat up in the chair and leaned on his knees, rubbing his hands over his face. It was hard enough when they’d been pushed out of the room when Briar had the seizure but to be standing right next to him and watch the whole thing? Suckdom.
Lt. Willow was beyond fantastic with both how she dealt with Briar and how she counseled him. Sure, she’d been doing this for years but still, it takes a certain person to be able to show all the compassion she did. Who knew that you should put something in a seizing person’s mouth? He’d always thought that’s what you did. Her instructions to Randolph? Watch that he doesn’t hurt himself on something and time the seizure. Watch Briar? Yup, he could do that. Remember to time the fucking thing? Bigger challenge.
Briar had fallen asleep soon after he came out of the seizure—something Willow said was normal— but Randolph just couldn’t get his adrenaline to ebb. Maybe knocking out some pushups and sit-ups would help? He dropped to the floor and started knocking them out; the standard at Ranger school could kick his ass if he wasn’t careful and he was determined it wasn’t going to. It had taken a bit for him to get used to the ‘real’ way to do pushups but now that he was doing them, yeah, no problem.
A throat clearing had him freezing and looking up. Willow stood in the doorway.
“Sergeant…?”
“Randolph, ma’am,” he filled in as he stood up.
“No first name or nickname? So unlike the military,” she teased.
“Yeah, well I wasn’t that lucky in the first name department and no nicknames have really stuck.” Randolph shrugged.
“I know I heard your friend call you… Fins?”
“Siah uses Phinny to annoy me. Said he was going to use it until he figured out my first name but he seems to have stopped guessing. Can I help you, ma’am?”
“Actually, you have a visitor. It’s way outside of normal visiting hours but because of the case and it’s super quiet on the ward…”
“I’ve got a visitor?” Who would be visiting him here?
“Yeah, knowing your skinny ass you haven’t eaten today,” Tank teased as he walked into the room carrying a paper bag.
“Not all of us can eat a horse every day,” Randolph shot back.
“I’ll leave him with you then. Just don’t wake my patient.” Willow left the room.
“How’s he doing?” Tank asked as he moved closer to Randolph. “May hasn’t said anything,”
“He’s holding his own. New things are cropping up. He lost part of his leg, Tank,” Randolph said quietly, looking at Briar in the bed and moving back to the chair.
“Shit. What the fuck happened over there?” Tank dropped into the second chair and handed him the bag.
Randolph opened the bag and reached in. Whatever Tank had brought smelled good. He pulled out a bowl of soup, placing it on the table next to him then grabbed a cookie and a take-out container. Peeking inside, he saw his favorite sandwich from Panera. That would mean the soup had to be chicken tortilla – score! Until Tank had walked in, Randolph wouldn’t have said that he was hungry.
He took another minute to settle the containers then stopped. Yeah, better wash his hands before anything else. Lord knew what germs were on the floor of the room. He’d been eating in the dirt when he got his Ranger school slot—he wasn’t going to entertain the idea that he wouldn’t get a slot—but the floor of a hospital? Yeah, not the brightest idea to eat from.
“Hold a second,” he said before walking over to the door on the right of the room and going to wash his hands. “Okay, so from what Siah said just today—”
“What’s up with that? May and Siah not telling any of us? What? We’re not good enough?” Tank interrupted.
“Can’t say for Siah except he’s running on fumes from what I saw. May though? Siah said that he thinks that we, and that includes both crews and Siah, just tolerated Briar for his sake and don’t care at all about him.” Randolph watched as that sank in.
“He thinks what? Has he lost his fucking mind? Did he learn nothing from the sergeant majors? How could he think that of us?” Tank seemed to be getting ready to wind up in a snit.
“Whoa, whoa. I had about the same reaction when Siah told me. Trust me, once things are stable with Briar? Oh yeah, we’ll be having a chat with May. Now, here’s what went down from my understanding.” He could see in Tank’s expressions his own memories. They all had them these days; it was just a case of how new they were.
“The guy he jumped on? He okay?” Tank asked when Randolph finished.
“Yeah, Siah said they’re trying to save his leg but it’s touch and go.” Randolph looked down to realize that he had finished all the food that Tank had brought. Suddenly, a yawn attacked out of nowhere.
“Guess you’re a bit tired?” Tank was snickering as he asked.
“Not sure where that came from. It’s not that late…” He looked at his phone to realize… “Okay, maybe it is a bit later than I thought.”
“You staying here tonight?”
“I am besides promising May that I would, more importantly, I told Briar that I was staying right here. He’s—”
“You’ve got feelings for him?” Tank looked a bit anxious waiting for Randolph’s answer.
“What they are, I’m not sure, but B is special and important to me,” he answered after a minute.
“Might need to figure that one out, huh?”
“Probably but it’s also something that I think I should talk with B about. Just thought I had a few more months before I saw him to get my head on straight.”
“Or not.” Tank grabbed the bag and started cleaning up Randolph’s mess.
“Such a comedian. Got a problem if I’m with B?” He didn’t think Tank would have any problems but…
“Not a one and I’m a bit surprised you asked. Have you missed me at May and Siah’s on a regular basis? Unlike Buster.” Tank was looking like he was heading toward pissed off.
