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monaboyd Jul. 21st, 2006 12:10 am)
hyacinth-sky747.livejournal.com posting in monaboyd Jul. 21st, 2006 12:10 am)The Long Night
d/b
Part Three
Disclaimer: I've made this up.
Ralph.
Fucking Ralph. Get back here.
The nurse picked up Dom’s teddy bear and tossed it back onto his bed for what must have been the hundredth time. Dom held onto him as tight as he could, which was not tight at all for some reason. He heard the dull plop of Ralph’s body hit the floor.
“Oopsie,” he whispered. His voice was all gone to shit.
The nurse rescued Ralph again and nestled him against Dom’s belly.
“Hold it there,” she said.
It was a gargantuan effort for Dom to open his eyes but he did so. They immediately slammed shut.
“I want Billy.”
“Hello? Can you tell me your name?”
“Dom.”
“You did great, Dom.”
“Where’s Billy? Where’s my mom?”
“Hold on a minute.”
Dom slept again. Where ever had they gotten Ralph from?
Dom was determined to be awake. Something exciting had just happened. He just did something and he did great. He took a deep breath and hollered.
“Where’s Billy?” It came out very soft.
“How do you feel?”
“Better. I had surgery.”
“Yes.”
“Thank God.”
He slept some more.
“Hello, hello, love.”
“Billy.”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I did it.”
“You were fantastic.”
Dom smiled. “I missed you.”
Billy sounded funny, like he had a cold. “I missed you too.”
“You sick?”
“No, just happy.”
Dom slept again.
He woke hungry. And thirsty. Billy rose from his chair and smiled at him.
“Can I drink now?”
“Not quite yet.” He wet a swab and put it in Dom’s mouth.
“My hand is sore.”
“It’s the IV.”
Dom turned his head and saw the pole standing over him.
“That’s lovely.”
“Sleep, you’ll feel better.”
It was dark. There were a whole bunch of people standing over him.
“Hello, Dom. I’m Dr. Kinsdale. Can I take a look at your incision?”
“Oh sure,” Dom said. He felt very magnanimous as he pulled down his covers and hiked up his hospital gown. “Is it pretty?”
Some of the pretty people around him twittered. Like birds. The doctor smiled.
“You’ll heal nicely,” he said.
In the morning Elijah leaned over him.
“Where’s…”
“Billy was forcibly removed from your side last night. He’s just called. He’s on his way.”
“Poor Bills.”
“You must promise not to run him ragged while you recover.”
“Oh, I won’t. You’ll be there too?”
“Always.”
“Love you, mate.”
“Love you too.”
“Wanna see my scar?”
Dom’s parents showed up that evening. Billy vacated his chair to let Dom’s mum fuss over her son. She was pleased with his incision, which made Dom happy, and proud and grateful for Billy’s care, which made Billy blush.
“And now I’m not joking, I’m really fucking hungry and I gotta piss.”
Dom’s mum got the plastic bottle for him but Dom scowled at it.
“I’m getting up.”
He flung back the covers and pulled them back in hurry when he found he was fully exposed. He righted his hospital gown and cast a sheepish smile at his mum.
“Sorry.”
“You’ll need some help.”
“I’m fine.”
Billy went to fiddle with the controls on the bed but Dom couldn’t be bothered. He made to sit up and fell back with a deep groan.
“Fucking hell.”
“Want that help then?”
“Fuck.”
Billy and his mum hauled him to his feet and Dom trembled like an old man between them.
“Where’s Ralph?”
Billy’s face was puzzled and his mum laughed. She held up a flannel sheet taped into a square with first aide tape.
“You mean this?”
“My guts are spilling out,” Dom grabbed the bundle and held it to his stomach. He felt much better. “Let’s go.”
He shuffled along, leaning on Billy, his mum guiding his IV pole. After an eternity he crossed the five feet between the bed and the bathroom.
“Go away, Mum,” Dom said. He did not embarrass easily but there are some things a grown man is not meant to do in front of his mother.
His mum looked at Billy. “Maybe you could…?”
“Yeah,” Billy said.
She shut the door behind her. Dom had all he could do to hold himself upright and press his wadded up sheet into his stomach.
“I’ll hold Ralph,” Billy said. “You do…your thing.”
Billy had to hold up Dom’s hospital gown too. Dom didn’t care. He had to piss too bad to leave any more room for shyness.
“You are a right sight, my friend,” Billy said as he led Dom back to his bed. Dom was glowing with triumph. His dad was pissing himself laughing in his little corner by the TV. Dom did not care. Nope, he did not care one bit.
“Why don’t you take your bride out for dinner?” he said.
His mum wavered.
“Go on, Mum. Billy’s dying to fuss over me.”
Billy blushed but didn’t deny it.
“He’s not up for anything too strenuous yet, Bill,” Dom’s dad called over his shoulder as he left the room.
Billy sat with his head in his hands.
“He loves you, Bill, or he wouldn’t joke.”
“No?”
“No, he’d take you down the hall and have them castrate you.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Bill.”
Billy didn’t answer.
“Have you gotten any sleep?”
“Yes, just not enough to regain my sense of fun I guess.”
“Poor Bills.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Dom worried. Then he forgot to and peaked at his scar. It was endlessly fascinating. Billy came back shortly.
“You mad at me?”
“No, I could never stay mad at you. I got you something.”
“A pressie? You’re enough, Bill. You didn’t have to.”
“Relax, it’s not that big.”
“Oh.”
“Who was Ralph?”
“My teddy bear.”
“He saw you through hard times huh?”
“He was you before I knew you.”
Billy pulled out the sharpie he had stolen from the nurse’s desk. He took the folded up sheet and wrote on the cotton tape Ralph II.
“I love it, Bill.” Dom hugged the new Ralph to his belly. “Kiss me, you fool.”
Billy kissed Dom gently but deeply and then he kissed him hard. Then he got up and made Dom brush his teeth.
“Here, blow into this.”
“Why?”
“It will keep your fever down. Use it often. They won’t let you go home with a fever.”
“I’d like to go home.”
“You will. Soon.”
Dom blew into the little tube, watching the ball in it rise with his breath. The doctor knocked at the door.
“How you feeling, Dom?”
“Hungry.”
He checked over Dom’s incision again and pressed his stethoscope to Dom’s belly.
“You can eat. Take it easy though. I’ll have a tray sent up.”
Dom clapped his hands.
The meal they sent him was entirely unsatisfying.
“Don’t you have any tidbits squirreled away, Bill?”
Billy exchanged glances with Dom’s mum who nodded her permission. Billy took great joy in opening the package of biscuits one of Dom’s aunts had sent him. He hadn’t been able to grant Dom any small comforts during his ordeal. Dom sighed with happiness and fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.
Visitors started popping in. Dom would show off his wound and have inane conversations with them before falling asleep mid-sentence.
“He has a lot of morphine in him,” Billy explained.
Billy left late in the evening when Viggo showed up and threatened to sling him over his shoulder and carry him home to bed. Dom laughed and laughed at this mental image and then scowled at Viggo.
“You’re not supposed to make me laugh. It hurts my belly.”
Viggo looked perplexed. “It wasn’t that funny.”
“The morphine in me begs to differ.”
“Give us a minute,” Billy pleaded.
“One,” Viggo said firmly and went to wait in the hall.
Billy sat on the edge of Dom’s bed, careful not to bump him, but Dom pulled him down onto the sheets and snuggled him.
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
“Sleep in, Bill. I’m fine here. They’ve got doctors and everything.”
“I can’t wait to get you home.” He kissed Dom and fussed over him until Viggo called from the hall.
“Goodnight,” Billy whispered.
“’Night, Bill.”
Dom was wide awake after Billy left. There was nothing on TV but someone had sent him a crappy horror novel. Dom opened it and became immediately entranced. It was so strange, so frightening. He opened the drawer where Billy had hid the biscuits and munched happily. At ten o’clock his eyes didn’t want to stay open any longer but he was too scared to sleep. He rang his buzzer. A nurse arrived and Dom held up the book to her.
“It’s scary,” he said sleepily.
“Why don’t you sleep?” She took the book from him.
“Too scared,” Dom yawned. “Will you check under the bed for me?”
“Check under the bed?”
“For murderers. Or Satan. No one should be under there really.”
“Oh my goodness,” the nurse said but she humored him and Dom gave her a sweet smile and dropped into dreams.
“I heard you made a right arse out of yourself last night.”
“Did I?”
“You had the nurse check under the bed for monsters.”
“Oh. Well, you can’t be too careful, Bill.”
Billy cleared away Dom’s breakfast tray. Dom felt put out. He hadn’t even made a dent in it yet, but Billy held up two bags and began unpacking a breakfast from Dom’s favorite diner.
“You do love me, Bills.”
“Course I do.”
Later, the nurse came and sat him in the chair next to his bed. She had a little basin of soapy water and she cleaned his face with it. She untied his robe in strategic positions to preserve Dom’s modesty, not realizing that Dom didn’t have any. Billy held out his hand for the cloth.
“Let me do it.”
The nurse sat in the corner while Billy worked. Dom looked down at his bare chest.
“What’s all this yellow gunk on me?”
The nurse looked up, “Oh, they had to glue sensors to you during the surgery.”
Billy washed it away.
“How come I have a plaster on my belly button?”
Billy answered this time. “They cut you open there a little bit. They sent a scope in to make certain it was your appendix.”
“I have two incisions?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s a good thing I have Ralph.”
Dom was thankful for Ralph later that day when he was wheeled into the hall to practice walking. He clutched Ralph to his abdomen in pain. He was very slow.
“Don’t really feel up for a jog today, Bill.”
“No foot races?”
“Christ, this is painful. I feel a draught.”
Billy adjusted Dom’s gown. “No, you’re all covered.”
He began to feel woozy. The nurse pulled the wheelchair up behind him and he settled gratefully into it. Billy took him for a ride then. Dom fell asleep in the chair, like a toddler in his pram.
“You had a big day,” Billy said as he settled Dom back into his bed.
“Tired now.”
Billy gave Dom his tube to blow into.
“Don’t forget to use this. If your fever is gone tomorrow they’ll let you go home.”
Dom blew into the tube dutifully before nodding off once again.
“You can go home!” the nurse said the next morning.
“Oh good,” Dom tossed back his covers and looked around for his trousers.
The nurse laughed. “Not right this minute. I’m going to take out your IV and then we’ll get you showered, wash your hair.”
The IV came out. Dom touched the pole sadly. “Goodbye, my Polish friend. You have stood by me through hard times. I shan’t forget it.”
Billy lay down on the bed and howled laughter. The nurse collapsed to the chair.
“What?”
Billy hauled himself to his feet and kissed Dom’s forehead. “You are the cutest, drugged-out convalescent ever, that’s all.”
They wrapped Dom’s middle in a plastic bandage so he wouldn’t get his wound wet and Billy wheeled him down to the showers. There was a little plastic seat inside the stall.
“Need help?” Billy asked.
Dom thought of all the movement that was required of one to bathe and nodded his head.
“Yeah.”
It would have been easier if Billy could have stripped down and gotten wet too. As it was, Dom had to do some of the work on his own. It hurt most to raise his right arm above his head to wash his hair. Billy pushed it down and ended up getting his shirt soaked. Dom was thankful for his seat though. He still felt faint if he stood up for more than a minute.
Elijah showed up to help load all of Dom’s gifts into the car and get him home.
“You have to leave Ralph here,” Billy said.
Dom looked stricken.
“I’ll make you another at home. It’s the hospital’s blanket.”
“How can you say that? I need him.”
Elijah turned away suddenly to hide the expression on his face and Billy sighed and shoved Ralph deep into Dom’s bag.
“I see you laughing, Elwood,” Dom glowered at Elijah’s back before looking up at Billy in puzzlement. “Am I drunk?”
“No, sweetheart,” Billy winked at him, “You’re stoned.”
Dom blushed. “Maybe we ought to leave him,” he said, but he looked very sad.
“No, we’ll keep him.”
“Good,” Dom sighed, “I’d hate to think of him here all alone.”
Elijah dropped all pretense and laughed until a coughing fit overtook him. Dom thought it served him right.
d/b
Part Three
Disclaimer: I've made this up.
Ralph.
Fucking Ralph. Get back here.
The nurse picked up Dom’s teddy bear and tossed it back onto his bed for what must have been the hundredth time. Dom held onto him as tight as he could, which was not tight at all for some reason. He heard the dull plop of Ralph’s body hit the floor.
“Oopsie,” he whispered. His voice was all gone to shit.
The nurse rescued Ralph again and nestled him against Dom’s belly.
“Hold it there,” she said.
It was a gargantuan effort for Dom to open his eyes but he did so. They immediately slammed shut.
“I want Billy.”
“Hello? Can you tell me your name?”
“Dom.”
“You did great, Dom.”
“Where’s Billy? Where’s my mom?”
“Hold on a minute.”
Dom slept again. Where ever had they gotten Ralph from?
Dom was determined to be awake. Something exciting had just happened. He just did something and he did great. He took a deep breath and hollered.
“Where’s Billy?” It came out very soft.
“How do you feel?”
“Better. I had surgery.”
“Yes.”
“Thank God.”
He slept some more.
“Hello, hello, love.”
“Billy.”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“I did it.”
“You were fantastic.”
Dom smiled. “I missed you.”
Billy sounded funny, like he had a cold. “I missed you too.”
“You sick?”
“No, just happy.”
Dom slept again.
He woke hungry. And thirsty. Billy rose from his chair and smiled at him.
“Can I drink now?”
“Not quite yet.” He wet a swab and put it in Dom’s mouth.
“My hand is sore.”
“It’s the IV.”
Dom turned his head and saw the pole standing over him.
“That’s lovely.”
“Sleep, you’ll feel better.”
It was dark. There were a whole bunch of people standing over him.
“Hello, Dom. I’m Dr. Kinsdale. Can I take a look at your incision?”
“Oh sure,” Dom said. He felt very magnanimous as he pulled down his covers and hiked up his hospital gown. “Is it pretty?”
Some of the pretty people around him twittered. Like birds. The doctor smiled.
“You’ll heal nicely,” he said.
In the morning Elijah leaned over him.
“Where’s…”
“Billy was forcibly removed from your side last night. He’s just called. He’s on his way.”
“Poor Bills.”
“You must promise not to run him ragged while you recover.”
“Oh, I won’t. You’ll be there too?”
“Always.”
“Love you, mate.”
“Love you too.”
“Wanna see my scar?”
Dom’s parents showed up that evening. Billy vacated his chair to let Dom’s mum fuss over her son. She was pleased with his incision, which made Dom happy, and proud and grateful for Billy’s care, which made Billy blush.
“And now I’m not joking, I’m really fucking hungry and I gotta piss.”
Dom’s mum got the plastic bottle for him but Dom scowled at it.
“I’m getting up.”
He flung back the covers and pulled them back in hurry when he found he was fully exposed. He righted his hospital gown and cast a sheepish smile at his mum.
“Sorry.”
“You’ll need some help.”
“I’m fine.”
Billy went to fiddle with the controls on the bed but Dom couldn’t be bothered. He made to sit up and fell back with a deep groan.
“Fucking hell.”
“Want that help then?”
“Fuck.”
Billy and his mum hauled him to his feet and Dom trembled like an old man between them.
“Where’s Ralph?”
Billy’s face was puzzled and his mum laughed. She held up a flannel sheet taped into a square with first aide tape.
“You mean this?”
“My guts are spilling out,” Dom grabbed the bundle and held it to his stomach. He felt much better. “Let’s go.”
He shuffled along, leaning on Billy, his mum guiding his IV pole. After an eternity he crossed the five feet between the bed and the bathroom.
“Go away, Mum,” Dom said. He did not embarrass easily but there are some things a grown man is not meant to do in front of his mother.
His mum looked at Billy. “Maybe you could…?”
“Yeah,” Billy said.
She shut the door behind her. Dom had all he could do to hold himself upright and press his wadded up sheet into his stomach.
“I’ll hold Ralph,” Billy said. “You do…your thing.”
Billy had to hold up Dom’s hospital gown too. Dom didn’t care. He had to piss too bad to leave any more room for shyness.
“You are a right sight, my friend,” Billy said as he led Dom back to his bed. Dom was glowing with triumph. His dad was pissing himself laughing in his little corner by the TV. Dom did not care. Nope, he did not care one bit.
“Why don’t you take your bride out for dinner?” he said.
His mum wavered.
“Go on, Mum. Billy’s dying to fuss over me.”
Billy blushed but didn’t deny it.
“He’s not up for anything too strenuous yet, Bill,” Dom’s dad called over his shoulder as he left the room.
Billy sat with his head in his hands.
“He loves you, Bill, or he wouldn’t joke.”
“No?”
“No, he’d take you down the hall and have them castrate you.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Bill.”
Billy didn’t answer.
“Have you gotten any sleep?”
“Yes, just not enough to regain my sense of fun I guess.”
“Poor Bills.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Dom worried. Then he forgot to and peaked at his scar. It was endlessly fascinating. Billy came back shortly.
“You mad at me?”
“No, I could never stay mad at you. I got you something.”
“A pressie? You’re enough, Bill. You didn’t have to.”
“Relax, it’s not that big.”
“Oh.”
“Who was Ralph?”
“My teddy bear.”
“He saw you through hard times huh?”
“He was you before I knew you.”
Billy pulled out the sharpie he had stolen from the nurse’s desk. He took the folded up sheet and wrote on the cotton tape Ralph II.
“I love it, Bill.” Dom hugged the new Ralph to his belly. “Kiss me, you fool.”
Billy kissed Dom gently but deeply and then he kissed him hard. Then he got up and made Dom brush his teeth.
“Here, blow into this.”
“Why?”
“It will keep your fever down. Use it often. They won’t let you go home with a fever.”
“I’d like to go home.”
“You will. Soon.”
Dom blew into the little tube, watching the ball in it rise with his breath. The doctor knocked at the door.
“How you feeling, Dom?”
“Hungry.”
He checked over Dom’s incision again and pressed his stethoscope to Dom’s belly.
“You can eat. Take it easy though. I’ll have a tray sent up.”
Dom clapped his hands.
The meal they sent him was entirely unsatisfying.
“Don’t you have any tidbits squirreled away, Bill?”
Billy exchanged glances with Dom’s mum who nodded her permission. Billy took great joy in opening the package of biscuits one of Dom’s aunts had sent him. He hadn’t been able to grant Dom any small comforts during his ordeal. Dom sighed with happiness and fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.
Visitors started popping in. Dom would show off his wound and have inane conversations with them before falling asleep mid-sentence.
“He has a lot of morphine in him,” Billy explained.
Billy left late in the evening when Viggo showed up and threatened to sling him over his shoulder and carry him home to bed. Dom laughed and laughed at this mental image and then scowled at Viggo.
“You’re not supposed to make me laugh. It hurts my belly.”
Viggo looked perplexed. “It wasn’t that funny.”
“The morphine in me begs to differ.”
“Give us a minute,” Billy pleaded.
“One,” Viggo said firmly and went to wait in the hall.
Billy sat on the edge of Dom’s bed, careful not to bump him, but Dom pulled him down onto the sheets and snuggled him.
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
“Sleep in, Bill. I’m fine here. They’ve got doctors and everything.”
“I can’t wait to get you home.” He kissed Dom and fussed over him until Viggo called from the hall.
“Goodnight,” Billy whispered.
“’Night, Bill.”
Dom was wide awake after Billy left. There was nothing on TV but someone had sent him a crappy horror novel. Dom opened it and became immediately entranced. It was so strange, so frightening. He opened the drawer where Billy had hid the biscuits and munched happily. At ten o’clock his eyes didn’t want to stay open any longer but he was too scared to sleep. He rang his buzzer. A nurse arrived and Dom held up the book to her.
“It’s scary,” he said sleepily.
“Why don’t you sleep?” She took the book from him.
“Too scared,” Dom yawned. “Will you check under the bed for me?”
“Check under the bed?”
“For murderers. Or Satan. No one should be under there really.”
“Oh my goodness,” the nurse said but she humored him and Dom gave her a sweet smile and dropped into dreams.
“I heard you made a right arse out of yourself last night.”
“Did I?”
“You had the nurse check under the bed for monsters.”
“Oh. Well, you can’t be too careful, Bill.”
Billy cleared away Dom’s breakfast tray. Dom felt put out. He hadn’t even made a dent in it yet, but Billy held up two bags and began unpacking a breakfast from Dom’s favorite diner.
“You do love me, Bills.”
“Course I do.”
Later, the nurse came and sat him in the chair next to his bed. She had a little basin of soapy water and she cleaned his face with it. She untied his robe in strategic positions to preserve Dom’s modesty, not realizing that Dom didn’t have any. Billy held out his hand for the cloth.
“Let me do it.”
The nurse sat in the corner while Billy worked. Dom looked down at his bare chest.
“What’s all this yellow gunk on me?”
The nurse looked up, “Oh, they had to glue sensors to you during the surgery.”
Billy washed it away.
“How come I have a plaster on my belly button?”
Billy answered this time. “They cut you open there a little bit. They sent a scope in to make certain it was your appendix.”
“I have two incisions?”
“That’s right.”
“It’s a good thing I have Ralph.”
Dom was thankful for Ralph later that day when he was wheeled into the hall to practice walking. He clutched Ralph to his abdomen in pain. He was very slow.
“Don’t really feel up for a jog today, Bill.”
“No foot races?”
“Christ, this is painful. I feel a draught.”
Billy adjusted Dom’s gown. “No, you’re all covered.”
He began to feel woozy. The nurse pulled the wheelchair up behind him and he settled gratefully into it. Billy took him for a ride then. Dom fell asleep in the chair, like a toddler in his pram.
“You had a big day,” Billy said as he settled Dom back into his bed.
“Tired now.”
Billy gave Dom his tube to blow into.
“Don’t forget to use this. If your fever is gone tomorrow they’ll let you go home.”
Dom blew into the tube dutifully before nodding off once again.
“You can go home!” the nurse said the next morning.
“Oh good,” Dom tossed back his covers and looked around for his trousers.
The nurse laughed. “Not right this minute. I’m going to take out your IV and then we’ll get you showered, wash your hair.”
The IV came out. Dom touched the pole sadly. “Goodbye, my Polish friend. You have stood by me through hard times. I shan’t forget it.”
Billy lay down on the bed and howled laughter. The nurse collapsed to the chair.
“What?”
Billy hauled himself to his feet and kissed Dom’s forehead. “You are the cutest, drugged-out convalescent ever, that’s all.”
They wrapped Dom’s middle in a plastic bandage so he wouldn’t get his wound wet and Billy wheeled him down to the showers. There was a little plastic seat inside the stall.
“Need help?” Billy asked.
Dom thought of all the movement that was required of one to bathe and nodded his head.
“Yeah.”
It would have been easier if Billy could have stripped down and gotten wet too. As it was, Dom had to do some of the work on his own. It hurt most to raise his right arm above his head to wash his hair. Billy pushed it down and ended up getting his shirt soaked. Dom was thankful for his seat though. He still felt faint if he stood up for more than a minute.
Elijah showed up to help load all of Dom’s gifts into the car and get him home.
“You have to leave Ralph here,” Billy said.
Dom looked stricken.
“I’ll make you another at home. It’s the hospital’s blanket.”
“How can you say that? I need him.”
Elijah turned away suddenly to hide the expression on his face and Billy sighed and shoved Ralph deep into Dom’s bag.
“I see you laughing, Elwood,” Dom glowered at Elijah’s back before looking up at Billy in puzzlement. “Am I drunk?”
“No, sweetheart,” Billy winked at him, “You’re stoned.”
Dom blushed. “Maybe we ought to leave him,” he said, but he looked very sad.
“No, we’ll keep him.”
“Good,” Dom sighed, “I’d hate to think of him here all alone.”
Elijah dropped all pretense and laughed until a coughing fit overtook him. Dom thought it served him right.
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Hurray for Dom on morphine!
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*does happy dance*
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