My Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

[Gwbiii†]

((Sarah Xu continued from Small Person Collider))

After twenty minutes or so the ambulance pulled up into one of the bays outside the emergency entrance of the United Hospital.

"Hokay, we're here. I'll just wheel you in, sign off on the paperwork and then we'd best skedaddle and wait for our next victims." He looked over at Reiko. "You can still walk can't you darl? Perfect." Turning back to Sarah, he pulled out a bunch more tissues and handed them to her. "They could take a while"

The ambulance doors opened with a thunk, then he and his friend wheeled out the collapsable trolley Sarah was lying on. The second medic went back to help Reiko as the first wheeled her into the emergency room, passed the seated area and put on the breaks against a convenient wall.

"Right, paperwork time. They should be able to take you from here, so I guess this is goodbye."
"Thenk you"
"No problem, have a good one"

As she lay in the corridor waiting for someone to come move her elsewhere, Sarah was feeling ambivalent. On the one hand, her headache, bleeding nose and assorted scrapes and bruises were causing her lots of pain. On the other hand it was kind of exciting, she'd never been in hospital as a patient before. Okay, with the state she was in maybe not exciting, but interesting at least.

[Rocky†]

((Reiko Ishida continued from Small Person Collider))

The ambulance pulled into the hospital, and the paramedic asked if she would be able to walk. Truth be told, she probably couldn't without help, but she nodded her head anyways. The two person team took Sarah out, as Reiko pulled the seatbelt off, and attempted to get down from the back. Things could have gone bad there if one of the paramedics hadn't come back at that moment and caught her by the arms.

"Easy now. You seem like a strong girl, but you might be worse than we thought." he said as he assisted her into the emergency room.

Reiko sat down in a vacant chair near where Sarah had been left, while the two paramedics who brought them in went off to do their paperwork and out back on the road. This was not Reiko's first trip to the emergency room by any stretch of the imagination, but she never remembered it being so bright the last time she had been here. Hopefully they wouldn't take as long to get around to them this time either, not so much for her sake as for Sarah's.

[Gwbiii†]

Five or six minutes passed before a nurse arrived. She looked pretty worn out. She couldn't have been much taller than Sarah either. Filipino maybe? Sarah couldn't really tell.
"Hey, we managed to find a spare room for you two over in the children's hospital. Hope you don't mind, but we're kinda short on bed space." She smiled, Sarah wanted to say 'no surprise there' but she didn't really feel like talking. Instead she managed an "mhm"
"It's better than the hallway anyhow. We'll just wait for Peter to get your friend a wheelchair. I'm Susan by the way." the nurse watched off to the side, probably checking that Peter was doing it right. "And we're off."

Along the hallway a bit, into and down a lift, through a slightly darker tunnel, up another elevator, along another corridor and they were there. It looked like they were in one of those open areas with all the curtains surrounding individual beds. Susan wheeled Sarah next to one such bed, applied the brakes, and then she and Peter helped Sarah shimmy onto it. The bed felt harder than at home, obviously, but she still felt quite comfortable propped up with a couple of pillows at her back. With Sarah cosy the two nurses turned their attention back to Reiko.

[Rocky†]

((Reika Ishida continued from Lunch for the bored and hungry))

Reika arrived at the hospital about 10 minutes after Sarah and Reiko, entering the front doors and going straight to the front desk. The nurse at the desk had seen the worried face of Reika on many occasions, and practically knew the twins on a first name basis.

"Reiko get in another accident?" the nurse, whose name was Grace, said with a bemused look on her face as she pulled up the record of recent patients. "She's in the pediatric ward. room 12."

"Thanks Grace." Reika managed to get out before tearing through the hospital to her destination. Grace just shook her head with an amused look on her face. She's more like her mother than her sister. she thought as she turned to the next person entering the hospital.

By the time Reika arrived at the room, Reiko had been set up on the bed nearest the door, with another girl in the bed beside her. Reika payed no attention to her for the moment, making a beeline straight for Reiko.

"What happened this time?" Were the first words out of Reika's mouth.

"I ran into a friend of yours, at least I think she's your friend. She knew your name." Reiko's response came slowly, as she pointed towards the other bed.

Looking over to the other girl, she recognized the girl laying there, although it was hard to tell through all the blood at first. Walking to the space between the beds, she looked at Sarah, her friend that she had met at the beginning of the year during peer tutoring. Looking from Reiko, to Sarah, and back, she couldn't help but have a small grin cross her face.

"Well this is a coincidence. Are you ok Sarah?" of course, Sarah didn't know Reika had a twin, simply because it had never come up in discussion.

[Gwbiii†]

Before Susan left with Peter, she informed Sarah that her parents had been called, and that she could get some rest before the doctor got there.
"Buh inn..."
"Almost definitely a myth."
"Uh. 'kay thenks."
She also moved the flat box of tissues to Sarah's side, which was handy, though the flow of blood was considerably slower than before. Sarah threw the blotted ones in her hand into the waste basket by her bed and took another few to replace them.

As unsure as she was about lying down, it couldn't hurt to rest her eyes a little right? So she slumped further and let the pillows support her weary head. She was just drifting off before she noticed talking near her, it was kind of like when she daydreamed in class though, she could hear speaking, but couldn't listen to the words. It always happened during the important parts of a lectury thing too.

"... Sarah?" Huh? it took her a moment to open her eyes and piece together what'd just been said. Coincidence and asking how she was... was Reiko. Why was she standing looking so cheerful when they'd just... ok, she was dreaming.

After quite a long pause she started to close her eyes again and just said "Mm okay" to the phantom Reiko. Stupid dreams interrupting her sleep. Wait. That made no sense, she double took and opened her eyes again. There was Reiko, and there was Reiko in bed. She pushed herself back against the bed head. She looked again from one to the other and finally worked it out. Twins. Duh.

"Hey Reka"

She started to giggle behind the tissues, it was kind of crazy that she'd known this girl for almost a year and had never found out about her twin sister. Her fit of giggles tickled her nose though, and came to an abrupt halt when she sneezed violently, spraying blood into her wad of tissues. She rested her head back again, the pain in her cerebrum flaring. "Eugh"

[Rocky†]

Reika once again looked from one girl to the other, wondering just what happened to land them in the hospital together. Just as she was about to ask, a middle aged man, looking to be in his 40's. Looking at the short girl standing between the beds, he addressed her.

"Are you family?"

Before Reika could answer affirmative, Reiko piped up from her bed. "Are you blind? She's my sister."

"Reiko!" Reika scolded. "I'm sorry about her. She can be a bit brash at times."

The doctor just sighed. He had had a long day, and was almost off work, and these were to be his last patients for the day. So naturally, he got a room full of teenagers.

"Right well, I'm going to have to ask you to step outside while I check up on these two."

Reika nodded her head, and walked out into the hall, leaving Reiko and Sarah alone with the doctor.

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah was busying herself replacing tissues when the doctor came in. And after a short exchange which further reinforced the fact she wasn't dreaming, the doctor came over.

"Ok, let's take a look. Just going to check you haven't fractured anything. Could you look that way please?"

Sarah looked away from the doctor as he'd asked. And he began sifting through her hair, pressing as he went.
"Well there's nothing at the base of the skull, which is good. Be sure to tell me if it hurts a lot"
"Mhm" She winced as he pressed against the back of her head where she'd hit the concrete.
"Okay, looks like some bruising, if it was fractured you would have been screaming... look towards me. Hokay..."

He checked her face for bruises and tried to move the bridge of her nose. "Well, your nose isn't broken... did you get hit in the face?"
"Mhm" Just a little...
"Good. Well, not good, but that means it's probably not a fracture. Anyway, you just do what you were doing and we'll wait for it to stop bleeding, looks like you've just got a concussion and I can't find any fractures."

With that he swivelled back to Reiko. "Now young lady..."

[Rocky†]

Reiko was somewhat familiar with the process that the doctor was using, so when it came to her turn, it went fairly smoothly.

"Ok," the doctor said after he was done checking Reiko. "You don't appear to be seriously injured, perhaps a minor concussion, though your lip will be rather puffy for a couple weeks. I'll write you two up a prescription for some light painkillers, and you'll be free to wait for your parents at the front."

The doctor pulled out his prescription pad, jotted down some things, then tore it off and gave it to Reiko. He repeated this process and gave one to Sarah as well. As he left, Reika reentered the room.

"So, how did it go?" Reika asked both the girls.

"Well, I'm going to be fine, but apparently Sarah is suffering from major brain trauma and might die any minute..." Reiko couldn't help but let out a snort when she saw the look on Reika's face. "I'm kidding. We're fine. We're also free to go."

Reiko swung her legs of the bed, and attempted to stand up. She managed to stand, but her legs were still rather wobbly. Reika went to help her, but she waved her off.

"I'll be fine. Help her out though. I doubt she'll be able to walk." Reiko said, pointing to Sarah.

Grabbing the wheelchair they had left by Reiko's bed, she wheeled it over to the side of the bed. She would then start to help Sarah get into the wheelchair.

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah almost complained about having to get up before her parents arrived, but the sooner she was downstairs the sooner she'd be on her way home and the sooner she could sleep in her own bed. She snickered when Reiko told her sister she was dying, and was only a little miffed when she said she couldn't walk, since it was probably true.

The headache had subsided a little more, as had the bleeding, and it was starting to feel more like she'd been hit by a brick than an anvil. Or at least the closest rollerskating equivalent.

Reika had pulled the wheelchair up beside the bed, looked like it was time to get moving. Sarah maneuvered herself onto the edge of the bed, then carefully plonked herself into the seat.

"Thenkyou Reika" Before they started moving, she grabbed one more handful of tissues... just in case.

[Rocky†]

They must have been one hell of a sight. Sarah was being pushed along in the hospital supply wheelchair by Reika, with Reiko walking unsteadily behind, one hand on Reika's shoulder for support. Slowly they made it to where the front was. Sitting Reiko down on a chair with an empty space so she could put Sarah beside her, she pulled out her phone and began to search through her contacts.

"You're not calling Mom, are you?" Reiko said with a frown.

Reika looked at Reiko with her trademark worried face. "Who else is going to take us home?"

Reiko looked over at Sarah, who was probably still pretty out of it, but Reiko didn't really care. "You think your parents would drive us home?"

Reika wanted to stop Reiko from asking the question, but it was too late, it was out into the open. Oh well, no sense crying over spilt milk.

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah's nose had finally stopped bleeding, which meant she could stop holding the wad of tissues against her face. With the dirty tissues in one hand, she supported her head with her other arm, drifting off to sleep again. The only thing stopping her was the fact she slipped and dropped her chin every thirty seconds or so. The conversation the other two where having came to an abrupt stop, so she looked up only to see them both looking at her. her subconscious probed around again trying to remember the question before.

"uh, oh. uhm... probably. Defately if there's room." With that, she looked up to see a well-built, relatively (to her) tall, middle-aged Chinese man wearing casual clothes and a concerned look on his face walk briskly in through the slidey doors. It wasn't a surprise that her dad was the one to come pick her up, since he could usually get away from work when needed since the higher-ups were just a little scared of the union rep.

"Baba!" Her cry managed to get his attention, and he jogged towards her.
"Hui!" As soon as he got there he leaned down and hugged her, just short of too tighly. She reciprocated as well as she could. "Are you ok? I was worried!"
Sarah grinned, he always worried too much about her, but it was nice."Of course dad. You shouldn't worry so much."
"Let's get you home anyway, you look like you've been in a riot" He pulled away from the hug and went to start moving the wheelchair, Sarah hesitated for a moment.
"Uh, dad, could we give Reiko and Reika a lift?"
"Who?" Momentarily confused, he looked up at the two girls "Oh, do you guys want a lift?"

[Tythanin†]

((Andrew Mitchell kind of continued from Lunch for the bored and hungry.)

-= In Bayview Secondary School =-

'Well this is it. Like Kimberly said, I need a date and Reika needs a date. And I have her phone number. So the obvious conclusion is that I call her and ask if she wants to go to Prom with me. I mean, I'm not that bad looking of a guy, am I? And I think I can clean up well. Or at least good enough. Sports jacket, a nice set of pants...maybe I should ask my dad for some more advice. Either way...she's so short. Is this really going to work?' Andrew thought to himself as he paced around the hall, his open cell phone clutched in his hand. 'Now, I can't falter. There's no point in overthinking this. It's only one night and she seemed like a fun girl so...I mean, what's the harm in going out with her? Okay, got this. I just gotta call...no daydreaming!'

He dialed Reika's phone number and waited for an answer. He probably looked strange, leaning against a wall in the Math Wing, but he didn't really care. He had this all set up in his head...kind of. 'Okay, okay...first ask if she's all right since that shows that you care and you remember the fact she dashed out of the cafeteria earlier. Next...next...uh...I guess the next step is just asking whether or not she wants to go. ...I feel like I'm missing some very important thing, but I'm sure it'll come to me.'

[Rocky†]

The two twins weren't really paying attention as Sarah and her father talked, not that it would have done them any good anyways. Neither of them understood what the two were saying. Sarah's dad then caught their attention and asked if the two would like a ride.

"Oh yes than..." Reika was cut off by the ring of her cell phone, which she reflexively answered. "Hello?"

As Reika answered her phone, Reiko started to make her way towards the front door, not even paying attention to her sister on the phone, or really anyone for that matter. She just wanted to go home, pop a couple aspirin, and rest. Of course, her mom would never see the painkiller prescription she was given, as that would let her know something was wrong.

[Tythanin†]

'Oh thank god, she answered. And she doesn't sound that irritated either. Good, I think everything's okay.' Andrew thought to himself with a sigh of relief. He had no idea what he would have done if she had sounded angry over the phone. 'Okay, gotta do this. Gotta be calm, Andrew. Don't screw up now! It's not the time to choke!'

"Hey, it's Andrew. You know, from lunch? I was wondering whether or not things were okay...I mean, you left rather suddenly so I was worried." He cleared his throat, fidgeting in place. "And you also mentioned that you didn't have a date for the prom. Neither do I, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going with me? I know this is out of the blue and all and we barely know each other, but I think it might be fun."

"Um...I didn't hit you at a bad time, did I?"

[Gwbiii†]

Sarah felt a lot more comfortable for her dad's presence, but she couldn't wait to get home and have a proper rest either. As he wheeled her to the sliding entrance doors, Reika's phone started playing some random, vaguely familiar classical music. random classical music AKA Toccata and Fugue in D minor, by mr. Bach, which she'd have known if she ever put in the effort to remember such things. It wasn't that she didn't like classical music, just that it was sometimes a bit too long, and it tended to make her drift off into sleep. She yawned and flopped her head into her palm. Even thinking about it was making her sleepy.

Random music from Phantom of the Opera! that's it! not that she'd ever seen Phantom of the Opera. Yeah that's right. When she closed her eyes her head felt kind of cosy, and her thoughts just drifted further.