Chapter Three: The Recovery
~Chapter Three~
Modest came to several times, but those barely-conscious episodes were surreal and disjointed; she had been heavily dosed with morphine at the time, though she would never know that later. When she fully woke up for the first time, she was breathing under her own power, and was laying in a bed in a spartan hospital room. There was one fresh bouquet of flowers next to her bed, as well as one sleeping Marcus. She smiled and reached out to poke him in the forehead, waking him.
"Hey," he said drowsily. "How are you feeling? Are you okay? The doctors said you'd be okay but I was worried and--" she cut off his rambling by patting his head.
"I'm fine," she said, her voice a little hoarse. "Thirsty though..." He pressed a button next to her bed, which prompted a nurse to ask if they need help over an intercom.
"Modest is awake, and is thirsty," he succinctly explained. Within minutes, a pudgy racoon nurse in a bright pink set of scrubs came in with a cup of water, which Modest sucked down. The nurse checked Modest's vitals, brought her two more cups of water before the girl was satisfied, and left with a promise to be back after awhile to check on her. During this time, Marcus had stepped away to call their mother. Victoria had been at the office but was offically on leave due to a "family emergency."
"How long was I...?" Modest asked Marcus when he returned.
"Two days is all," he said. "I have your homework, you skipper." His jab was softened by a worried smile. "Mom is on her way; she's been real worried. Not me though, I knew you'd be okay." The puffiness around his eyes proved his lie, but she didn't call him on it.
When Victoria arrived and after she spent a few minutes hugging and fussing over her daughter, she called the doctor in at Modest's request to explain what happened.
"Basically," the husky explained to her, "the tubes in your lungs collapsed when you hit the wall. The walls of your bronchial tubes adhered to each other, so we had to go in and fix it. It wasn't hard and you're alright. We tried a procedure that should prevent it from occuring in the future." Modest nodded and decided she liked the man; he spoke kindly.
Modest was held for observation for another twenty-four hours, and was allowed to return home on the morning of her fourth day. She was instructed to take it easy for two more days, so Marcus continued to bring her work home so she wouldn't get behind.
When she finally got back to school, everyone knew what had happened. The boy who knocked her over was suspended for two weeks and thus was not at school when she returned, but she did have all her friends and her brother's friends looking after her. It got to the point where she couldn't carry her own backpack anymore. Finally, one week after her return, Modest got tired of it and yelled at people, refusing to let anybody take her books. She felt healthy after all...but that didn't stop her twin from sending his friends all over the place making sure she was okay. They were asked to be discreet, but Modest noticed.
"Marcus," she said to him a couple days later in the back yard at home, "please ask your friends to stop following me around." He didn't answer, only stared across the yard at the trees that marked the border of their land.
"I'm serious Marc," she said, her voice raising a bit. "It's getting annoying! Every time I turn around, there's Jimmy or Bobbie, or Kenneth, watching me like I"m going to fall down at any moment. I'll beat them up, Marc." At this he sighed. It was not an idle threat: their mother had been training them in shito-ryu style karate since they could stand, so she very well could carry out her threat.
"Alright," he said. "I'll tell them to back off. But I worry, Modest. I can't be around you all the time, so...and Jimmy worries about you too. He has been checking up on you on his own." Modest rolled her eyes. She had been aware of Jimmy's crush on her for some time now, but just wasn't interested in the bunny. She had never expressed any interest in any guy at school, to tell the truth. Jimmy was sweet though, so she would tolerate his attention. They sat in silence for awhile.
"I want to build a clubhouse out here," Marcus said suddenly. "I'll ask mom about getting the stuff for it later, and I can get plans from Mr. Gerald, the shop teacher." Modest took her brother's hand and squeezed it, then went inside to study for a test.