and Oliver came back from the X-ray room. Oliver climbed back into the bed and started watching TV again, but he fell asleep within a few minutes.
“Obviously, the pain meds worked on him,” Kal said.
“I’m so glad,” Hannah said. “It hurts me to see him in pain.”
Kal laid his hand over hers. “He’s gonna be okay, Hannah. This is almost a rite of passage for kids.”
She laughed. “That’s true. It’s hard to go through childhood unscathed, without getting a bone broken or having to get stitches.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Yeah? What was yours?”
“Bonked my head on the edge of a counter. Concussion. Slid off a teeter-totter, five stitches on the back of my head. Broke my toe tripping over a curb while barefoot.”
That one made him cringe. “Ouch.”
“Yes, surprisingly, a broken toe hurts a lot.”
Despite having a past with her, and all the years in high school they knew each other, Kal was surprised they still had things to learn about each other.
He liked that.
The doctor came in with Carmen after a few minutes.
“His wrist is broken, and I’ll need to reset it,” Dr. Lance said to Hannah. “We can do a local anesthetic so he won’t feel anything.”
Hannah exhaled. “That’s good. And I can be with him while you do that?”
“Of course. I’ll have the staff gather the materials, and I’ll be in shortly.”
Oliver stirred awake, so Hannah and Carmen helped explain to him what would happen.
“It won’t hurt?” Oliver asked.
“We’ll give you an injection, and that’ll sting a little,” Carmen said. “But after that, you won’t feel a thing.”
“Can I watch?”
Carmen smiled. “Sure.”
They had to wait awhile before someone came in, but Oliver fell back asleep, and Kal went up to the dining hall and got Hannah and him something to drink. They watched TV for a while and waited. It wasn’t his first trip to an ER, so he was used to waiting it out.
Finally, one of the techs came in with a tray filled with equipment and set it next to Oliver’s bed. Kal made sure to stay in the corner of the room, out of the way, while Dr. Lance and Carmen got to work on Oliver. Hannah held Oliver’s hand while they numbed the area, and the doctor got to work resetting the bone and splinting it.
Oliver handled everything so well. He didn’t even wince when they numbed his wrist area. He seemed more interested in what the doctor was doing, asking a lot of questions through each step. Fortunately, this doc seemed to be a really good guy, patient in answering all of Oliver’s questions.
Once the splint was on, the doctor told Oliver how brave he’d been and that he was his favorite patient of the day.
Oliver grinned widely with pride.
After Dr. Lance left the room, Carmen pulled out paperwork and went over it with Hannah. “Here’s your at-home care instructions. Minimal activity for Oliver here. No sports, mister,” she said to him.
“Aww, really? I can’t play soccer?”
“No, I’m sorry, buddy.”
Oliver looked crestfallen. Kal felt a lot of sympathy for him. He knew what it was like to have his activities restricted, and it sucked.
“He’ll need to see an orthopedist in a week to put a cast on after the swelling goes down,” Carmen said. “That information is in the packet, and someone will contact you tomorrow. There’s detail on pain management as well. And I’ve written down my cell, so if you have any questions, call me.”
Hannah hugged Carmen. “Thank you.”
“Plus, you have an EMT here,” she said, looking at Kal, “and he knows how things work, too. He’s not entirely useless.”
“Hey,” Kal said.
Carmen and Hannah grinned at each other.
They gathered the paperwork together, and Kal helped Oliver off the bed. He was still a little out of it from the pain medication, so Kal made sure to keep him close as they headed to the truck.
“Sorry about this,” Hannah said as they drove to her house.
“About what?”
“We had a day planned.”
“Hey, you have a kid. Life happens. We roll with it, right?”
She reached over and squeezed his arm. “Thank you for understanding.”
When they got to the house, Hannah’s mom came outside and helped Oliver out of the truck. She kissed Oliver on the top of his head.
“My poor baby boy. What happened to you?”
Oliver filled her in on his day while they walked into the house.
“Well, I should go,” Kal said. “I know you want to get him settled in.”
She frowned. “Wait. You don’t want to stay for macaroni