Help Me (Nick Carter)
"I wish I could define
All the thoughts that crossed my mind
They seem too big for me to choose
I don't know which ones to lose
When I'm falling down so far
I think I'll never see your light
Bouncing off of me
Shining down here from your eyes"
*
James swore he'd never been so sore or hurt in his life. He'd always been a clumsy guy, but as his mom drove him into the emergency room, he still couldn't believe he'd fallen down the stairs. Of course if his Dad hadn't been chasing him, he wouldn't have fallen. And now he was pretty sure he had a bump on his head, and his left wrist and the ribs on his right side hurt like hell. He'd expected his dad to be furious when he told his parents he was gay, but this was a bit over the top. He knew they would be disappointed, but he was used to being the family disappointment. Never tall enough, never athletic enough, never smart enough. It wore you down quite a bit. It was totally liberating to have gone to college and meet new people, and to be able to explore who he was suppose to be. Truthfully, he'd known he was gay before he'd left, had come to terms with it when he was 16, but when you live in a religious household, well, things are better left unsaid.
"Well I hope you learned your lesson about upsetting your father." His mom said, interrupting his internal thoughts.
"Whatever" James said under his breath like a sullen teenager.
"James, maybe you are confused, but don't expect your father to go along with your little joke here."
"It's not a joke Mom, seriously." James said staring out the window.
"We'll talk about it later." Beverly McMonte said in her 'Don't mess with Mom' voice as they pulled into the emergency room parking lot. James swore under his breath, as his mom loved to park in the middle of the lot, so it was further for her to walk. Not that Beverly needed the extra exercise, but now James would have to walk what looked like a mile to get to the freaking entrance to the hospital while feeling like shit.
"Couldn't you park closer, I can't breath great."
"It's your own fault for falling down those stairs, man up." His mom said.
James was floored. Was this punishment for telling them the truth? Not only did he fall down stairs to avoid a beating by his dad, but now he was going to injure himself further by walking. Well, whatever, he was still on his parent's insurance so if he did, they'd just have to pay more anyway. James groaned as he lifted himself out of the car and started the walk to the door.
Ben was returning to work from a brief break when he spotted a young man trying vainly to open the door to the ER, while a woman stood by. It was obvious the man was in terrible pain, yet the woman waited for him to open the door. Ben ran over to open the door for him. The young man almost collapsed into Ben's arms.
"Hey dude, what happened to you?" Ben asked, helping him to a chair.
"Fell down a flight of stairs. Hit the railing on the landing with my chest and then fell down the rest of them. I hit my head and my left wrist."
"Okay, let me go get some paperwork, we'll get you started. It's been a slow night so hopefully you won't have to wait to see the doctor." Ben said.
"Take your time, we aren't in a hurry." The woman said. Ben's opinion of her went further south as the young man groaned as he sat down.
Ben jogged up to the reception counter.
"Hey Cindy, can I get you to fill out paperwork for that guy that just came in? Injury report. And see if we can't get him pushed through, he's hiding it well, but he looks like he could be in a lot of pain, and he said he hit his head."
"Sure Ben. Dr. Cheron will be happy to see him. I'm pretty sure I saw him flinging paper clips at a cup in the break room, he's so bored."
Ben watched Cindy go over and talk to the two, getting insurance information and history of what happened.
Cindy came back over with the chart and handed it to Ben.
"Why don't you pull him into a room and get him started, I'll let Dr. Cheron know he's here."
"Okay." Ben said, as he glanced at the file. 'James' was the man's name. Now that Ben could look at him closer, he looked quite young, barely out of high school if that.
"James McMonte? You can follow me, we'll get you started."
The young man and the woman followed Ben, and he suspected she was James' mom. He quickly looked at the chart and realized that James was over 18. Ben, not being impressed by the woman's attitude so far, turned to James and asked,
"James, since you are over 18, you don't need a parent for the exam if you'd prefer."
"Mom I know you don't like hospitals, do you want to go out to the waiting room or the car?" James turned to his mom, gasping a little.
"Oh, I suppose I'll wait in the family room here, I'll find a magazine to read."
"I'll find you later then, thanks mom."
James followed Ben into a treatment area with multiple beds separated by curtains. Ben set down his clip board and motioned to James to hop onto a open bed. Ben helped him step up and sit down.
James groaned again, and grabbed at his ribs.
"So what exactly happened? Did you really fall down the stairs? Cause to me, your mom's a bit of a bitch..." Ben said as he took James' temperature.
James laughed.
"Yes, I fell down the stairs. Mom had nothing to do with it. But yeah, she's a witch sometimes. She told me that I needed to 'Man up' as we came in."
"Good. Well, I mean about the stairs. Not good about the 'Man up' thing. Sheesh. It's not like you're crying or something. Not that it wouldn't be an unmanly thing to do considering the pain you seem to be in."
"Truthfully I have a high pain tolerance. I think that most guys would be, no matter how manly. I'm pretty sure my ribs are cracked. I'm not sure about the wrist. I tried to catch myself, and twisted around a bit before I fell down the first part of the stairs. I really flew into the banister though. God, it hurts to breath."
"Well, good news is, the doc isn't too busy, so hopefully we can get you some good pain meds."
"Thank God." James said. "Can I lay down? I feel like I could breath easier."
"Go ahead." Ben said.
James sucked in a breath, then laid down.
The doctor walked up then. He quickly did an exam on James, poking and prodding the areas James mentioned hurt the most.
"Well James, you certainly did a number on yourself. I do suspect you broke some ribs, and I think your wrist is sprained, we could verify both with an xray. I don't think you have a concussion, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone wake you up every 2 hours to make sure you're okay once you go home. If you don't have anyone, we could have you sleep here."
"Let's do the xrays. I want to make sure we aren't going to miss something. And I'd have to make sure my mom is okay with it, but she'd probably be put off if she needed to wake up every 2 hours to wake me up, so I would prefer to stay here I think."
Dr. Cheron arched an eyebrow up with that comment, but kept any thoughts to himself.
"Okay, well, Ben, why don't you find James' mom, I'll go order the xrays."
Dr. Cheron left the room.
"Would you prefer to stay, or go home?"
"Stay. It'll give me a chance to make sense of things, and like I said, my mom probably will have a hissy fit if I need care at home."
"I'll be back." Ben said as he left the room.
Ben came back five minutes later, with Beverly in tow.
"So as you can see, James is settling in good. Dr. Cheron is concerned he might have a concussion, so we'd like to keep him for observation after his xrays are finished. So if you want, you can stay with him, otherwise we can call you when he's ready to be discharged."
"Hmm. I guess you were hurt more than you lead on James. Well, if you're comfortable spending the night, I will go back to the house."
