The next morning, Tate and Gage went out early to meet up with a nice family of five for a day out in nature. Tate decided to stay back with the mom and the younger and middle kid, while the teen, Gage, and the dad went onto the trails on bikes. It was the first time that Gage had been out of his normal dress clothes on his mission other than for bed, because he didn't want to ruin them if he fell.
They were riding along a trail that was definitely not for beginners, which was great for Gage because he missed being able to ride like this. It was going well too until the teenage son made a sudden stop because of a fallen tree branch. Gage swerved to one side to avoid hitting him, and Gage sailed off the bike, hitting his knee hard on a branch that tore up the skin from his knee down to his calf. The bike tumbled down after him, landing half on top of Gage as he twisted his knee going down the incline.
Gage sat for a moment in the dirt, a little dazed from the fall. Gage waited until they came back around to the lower part of the trail, slowly moving the bike and himself that way to meet up with them so they could head back to where Tate and the rest of the family were. Gage's knee was now covered in blood, and he tried what he could to stop some of the bleeding while he waited for them.
Tate jumped up when he saw Gage limping along the side of the bike, taking in the sight of the blood and the open wound. "I thought you were good at this?"
"I am, but accidents happen," Gage replied and came to sit down.
The family brought out their first aid kit and got him cleaned up as well as they could and the wound wrapped before they fed the two missionaries and took them back to the city. Gage used some of the money his family had sent him to have Tate go down to a drugstore to pick up some supplies and ibuprofen. He did a better clean up job there, prying as much wood and rocks out of the wound as possible before pouring alcohol over it and wrapping it with an ace bandage so he could ice it for a while.
A few days later, though, it wasn't doing much better. In fact, it was doing far worse. The skin around the wound was red and irritated, and the knee was swollen. When Gage went to get up to get showered, he let out a cry and fell back onto his bed.
"That doesn't look good," Tate pointed out. "Maybe we should call the Mission President."
Gage reluctantly agreed. The Mission President came out with one of their doctors to take a look at it. They agreed it looked infected, and let the doctor work on him for a bit to try and fix things. He drained the pus out of the wound, much to Gage's dismay because it hurt worse than anything he had ever experienced. Tate could hear muffled screaming coming from their room.
The doctor cleaned up the wound again for him and wrapped it before having him ice it again. The doctor was certain that with some neosporin on the wound and Tylenol to bring the fever down, Gage would be fine. Tate didn't look entirely convinced of that, but he knew better than to argue with them.
Gage did everything he was told to do, including cleaning it a few more times, but as the days went on, he wasn't getting better. Gage was already a very pale man, but the pallor of his skin had taken on a sickly tone, and he was sweating all of the time. They were still going on walks to talk to people, but Tate made Gage take far more breaks now and get off his feet.
They were doing just that, sitting on a bench on campus, while Jarek was making his way home from one of his classes. He spotted them on the bench and gave a friendly wave as he approached, pulling his earbuds out of his ears when he got close enough to talk. Gage tried to give him a smile as he walked up to them, but it came out pained rather than warm.
"Are you okay?" Jarek asked as he saw the grimace that Gage tried to pass off as a smile.
"I'm fine," Gage tried to say while Tate replied to Jarek's question with, "No, he's not."
Gage looked up at Tate, who was staring at him as if to challenge him to try and lie again. He could hear his grandma in his head reminding him that a lie by omission is still a lie, so he let out a sigh and motioned to his leg. "I hurt it while biking. It's not horrible, but it's swollen and hurts."
"Can you make it to my house? I should probably take a look at it," Jarek said.
Gage looked in the direction that Jarek's house was, calculating in his head whether he could handle it. He finally gave a nod of his head and let Tate help him get standing again before he limped along after them, pushing through the pain as best he could to get to their destination. They got to the house and Jarek helped them inside and got Gage seated before gently rolling his pants-leg up.
Gage's knee was swollen and bruised, and Jarek could see that the tissue around the cut was definitely infected by how red and warm to the touch it was. The wound itself was turning a yellowish color again under the blood from it. Gage let out a hiss when the fabric of his pants brushed against the wound.
"This needs medical attention," Jarek said, looking incredibly concerned. "Want to accompany me to the emergency room? You can tell me all about your church along the way..."
Gage looked over at Tate with concern on his face. "We...don't have the Mission President's permission...Their doctor already said it would be fine if I just kept it clean and took breaks."
Tate looked over at Jarek, his expression hard, but it was clear he was mad at the situation. The way he looked at Jarek said it was important for him to listen to what he was saying. "Yes, we don't have his permission, but we can't actually stop you if you insist on taking him to the ER or calling 911. As a possible convert, you have more power here than we do."
Jarek looked concernedly at Gage. "Look, I believe very strongly in consent, but if you keep listening to the mission president you could die from this injury. It appears to be infected and you're going to need some time overnight in the ER at a minimum. I wouldn't be surprised if this also requires physical therapy once it's all said and done. It's your call. I'm more than willing to take the blame on this so you don't get into trouble, but I won't do it by overriding your wishes."
Gage looked between Tate and Jarek for a moment, seeing the concerned looks on their faces, and the fight seemed to go out of him. Finally, he nodded his head. "Alright, ER it is. I trust your judgment."
"Do you have a car?" Tate asked. "Or do we need an uber? We can't make him walk all the way there."
Jarek got his phone out of his pocket. "I'll get an Uber. It's faster than an ambulance," he said as he ordered up a rideshare on his phone.
Tate gave a nod of his head, and once the ride got there, they both helped Gage get out to the car. Tate took the front seat, leaving Gage and Jarek in the back seat together. Gage winced at the tight fit with his leg like this, feeling pain where the wound was, while his knee felt like it was on fire. Jarek told him to turn so his back was against the door and put his leg up on Jarek's lap and then he confirmed with the driver that he was to take them to the nearest hospital.
The driver took them right to the entrance of the emergency room where Tate went to get a wheelchair so they could get Gage into the waiting room and checked in. Luckily, he did have his wallet which included his insurance card with him. Tate and Jarek came into the room with him once they got Gage into one. The nurse brought in a hospital gown and asked Gage to take off his shoes, shirt, and pants before getting into the gown.
Jarek had been considering on the trip over here whether he needed to stay here all night but the ER was notorious for wasting at least 6 hours waiting on test results and such, so he called off work for the night. He told his boss he'd pick up an extra night later in the week to try to make up for the missed money.
Once the nurse left, Gage stripped down to his black boxer briefs, neatly folding his clothing before putting it on the counter to wait for later and slipped the gown on before laying down on the bed. Jarek got a good look at his muscled chest and back. Gage's skin was pale and smooth, with a little smattering of blonde chest hair that seemed to be little more than peach fuzz. It wasn't entirely unblemished skin though. He had moles scattered across his back and chest, and old scars that came from dirt biking that had faded to a pale color that was just a little discolored from his original skin tone.
Jarek had considered looking away and letting him have his modesty, but there was something wicked in looking, so he smirked and watched. Gage made eye contact with Jarek as he sat down on the bed, realizing he'd been watching him. He pulled the blanket up over himself as he took that in, surprised that he was mostly embarrassed as opposed to upset or angry. Embarrassed because not only had he fantasized about that very thing before, though without the injury and ER room, but he was also reacting to it. Jarek could see Gage's cheeks flush red as he adjusted the blanket.
They didn't have to wait long for someone to set up an IV and draw labs, which was standard practice in ERs everywhere. Jarek knew they would be waiting at least two hours for the results of those labs, however. Meanwhile, the nurse asked Gage some questions about his injury and how it had come about; his pain levels; and allergies.
Gage explained about the accident, and the small amount of first aid they did at the site but that he'd had to wait to really clean it out later. He told her he was allergic to latex and ampicillin, but okay with other antibiotics. He also explained what the doctor had done earlier and answered all of her questions.
When the doctor came in, he looked over the wound and felt around the knee before telling them he wanted to get an x-ray and MRI on the knee to make sure that he hadn't done any really bad damage to it. He said he would come back once that was done so they could deal with the infection, but he had the nurses start him on a high dose of antibiotics and something for the pain.
They took him off to imaging not long after, and when he came back, the nurse came back in to start numbing his knee up. She had a bunch of little syringes filled with lidocaine. She was sticking the needles all around the wound, while Gage laid his head back and closed his eyes tight to try to distract himself from how much it hurt. It was hard for both Jarek and Tate because they were both coming to care a lot about Gage. Gage did a good job of being brave about it, but Jarek winced as he watched the way Gage's eyebrows would twitch from the pain.
Once his leg was sufficiently numbed, the doctor came back in with a bunch of instruments to cut away infected tissue and get it completely cleaned out and drained. The doctor found some thin and jagged pieces of wood deep in the wounds, which Gage hadn't found before, likely because they embedded so far down. That would be enough to keep them from being able to stop the infection from spreading once it started.
