Chapter 7: Cyclone

Thursday afternoon rolled around with the nurse Kai had come to know as the Dragon Lady, a tired old grump of a woman that never seemed to have any patience when she asked for assistance. Except this time, Dr Wallace was following her with what looked like discharge papers. Kai perked up slowly pulling herself into a sitting position.

“You look like you are ready to get out of here,” Dr Wallace beamed, holding the discharge papers up and waving them above his head, “You still have to prove that you can get up and around before i sign off on these.”

Kai didn’t waste any time, she had already showered and gotten dressed that day by herself a little lap around the unit was nothing. Grabbing the cane next to her bed, she stood slowly leaning on it with her right hand and striding over to the door, “Ok then shall we walk.”

Dr Wallace merely shook his head and gestured for Kai to go in front of him. They made light conversation, Kai talking about some of the things she needed to do when she went back to work. Her doctor became stern almost immediately, “I didn’t patch you up so that you could end up back in here in a few days because you tore your stitches out because you refuse to sit still and heal.” Kai merely rolled her eyes. So dramatic.

“I’m not going to tear out anything,” she huffed having made it back to her room and sitting on the edge of a chair, “I am perfectly capable of light duties and paperwork.”

“Ah huh,” Dr Wallace didn’t seem convinced, particularly since he was the one that tried and failed, on numerous occasions, to get her to slow down and use the walking frame, which she ignored him every time, “I believe that for about 10 seconds.”

“Scouts honor,” Kai held up her three fingers in a scout salute, “I will not train, fight, be on my feet for long periods of time in the cafe, or do anything to excessive for the next 6 weeks. You will not see me in here again.” As much as she wanted to keep this promise, even she knew that she was lying to herself. ‘Take it easy’ was not in her vocabulary. The doctor said 6 weeks for a full recovery, she would do it in 4. Week 1 had already passed while she was hauled up in the hospital, she just needed to start moving to stop the stiffness in her body now that the gash was starting to heal more. Stitches were dissolvable so she didn’t even have to come back in to have them removed.

“I still don’t believe you but i have to take your word for it,” Dr Wallace turned the clipboard to Kai so that she could sign on the dotted line, “Is there someone that can pick up today? You can officially leave when someone is here because i don’t trust you not to try and do everything yourself. And rolling your eyes at me isn’t going to change my mind.”

Apparently everyone in the hospital had gotten used to her attitude, calling her out on her behavior more and more. Not that Kai was surprised, she was raised by a nurse so she knew that her tactics didn’t work on them. “I can call my roommate, Sara. She said if i needed a lift when i was released from this prison to call her.”

“Good. Call her and tell her that you will be ready to be picked up at 5pm,” Dr Wallace nodded to Kai, taking the clipboard back and turning to leave the room, “I will meet Sara at the nurse’s station at 5pm so you can leave and deprive us of your sunny personality.”

“Now i know you’re just taking the piss out of me,” Kai finally smiled and chuckled at him, “I have been an absolute angel while i have been here.”

The nurse snorted behind the doctor, okay so maybe she hadn’t been as nice to the nurses some days because the pain was horrible and they wouldn’t give her any more pain medication since there would not be a supply of morphine outside of the hospital. Kai had to learn to manage the pain without it but she was a right bitch to some of the nurses when the pain was spiking. She made eye contact with the nurse and a deep blush spread across her face and down her neck across her shoulders, ashamed to say that Dragon Lady had taken the most of the verbal attacks. Not her finest moments.

As soon as the doctor left, Kai was firing off a message to Sara to come and get here at 5pm from the hospital. Sara was excited for her best friend to be coming home after more than a week in hospital and she swore that she would willingly be Kai’s chauffeur until she was able to drive herself around. 5pm on the dot, the door to Kai’s room burst open and Cyclone Sara blasts threw stopping just short of Kai before reaching out and giving her a tentative hug.

“Gosh you have no idea how good it is to see you,” she whispered pulling back to cup Kai’s face in her hands, gently squeezing, then leaning back in planting a kiss on her forehead, “You are not allowed to do that to me ever again.”

“It wasn’t part of the plan, that night turned to shit too fast,” Kai sighed out taking Sara’s hand to stand from her bed and dropping into the wheelchair that had appeared with the doctor, “And yes i know i have to behave for the next few weeks. I will not overdo it and ask for help when i need it.” saying the last part more to the room than herself. Sara snorted knowing that Kai’s version of ‘overdo’ was a normal person’s day.

“I will make sure she doesn’t overdo it Doc,” Sara announced with the sternest voice Kai had ever heard her used, guess there was no arguing with her now. Grabbing the handles of the wheelchair and guiding them out towards the parking zone. After getting into Sara’s car and taking the 45 minute trip home, the pain was almost too much to handle. It didn’t even feel like she had done any healing so far, even though Kai knew that the slash was closing but this pain was reminding her of how far she still had to go to heal. She only had a week worth of prescribed pain medication too, have to figure out how to manage this pain and fast.

“so i guess you want to go to work tomorrow,” Sara was perched on the edge of the couch she had arranged Kai onto. Pillows stuffed under her back to keep the pressure off stretching the stitches. Kai smiled at how Sara was ‘taking care of her’, what a good mommy.

“I don’t even have to go in all day,” Kai began gently rubbing her left side to ease the trying to ease the tight muscles, “I just want to go and get an update at the 9am managers meeting, see if there are any pressing issues that require my attentions and how well D.A.R.E is on track with the production launch. So like 4 maybe 5 hours tops!” She was sounding unsure even though she kept a smile plastered on her face, hoping Sara would listen.

“I don’t have any client sessions until 1pm. You can go in until lunch time, 12:30 at the latest, and then I'm bringing you home.” Again, with the stern tone with a finality to it. Damn it, she really wasn’t going to let her overdo it. This wasn’t going to work for going into work every day next week and the dojo. She may not be able to train but she needed to show her face.

“Fine,” Kai laid her head back on the pillows. Sara nodded and walked to the kitchen, pulling down the medicine box and coming back with 2 Panadol.

“Take these and in 2 hours it will be 2 Advil. Pain and anti-inflamatory.”

“Yeah i know,” Kai accepted them and took a few sips from the glass of water, swallowing down the pills and setting the glass on the table, “You don’t need to go all Mommy on me you know.”

“Then don’t be the brat that i know is coming. I can call Preston.” Sara glowered crossing her arms over her chest.

“No. I already ended our arrangement, this isn’t his problem,” she didn’t need two of them ganging up on her. Her relationship with Preston had been mutually beneficial, with hard lines drawn as too how much they involved themselves in each other’s lives outside being Dom/sub. He had enough to worry about without adding her issues.

Kai laid up for the rest of the night, binge watching Criminal Minds with Sara while she psych-analyzed everything that happened, laughing at the inaccuracies and adding commentary to the observations and conclusions made by the characters on screen. That’s what happens when you live with a psychiatrist who had a double doctorate in criminal forensics. Sara worked mostly with clients who have complex sexual trauma from abuse, it was how they had met 5 years ago. Kai had been making plans to leaving her ex boyfriend/dom and found a support group that Sara ran, giving support and resources to individuals fleeing domestic violence. Its why she had her phone number incase of emergencies.

Sara got Kai into a shelter to begin with and worked with her as a client for over a year including helping her find an apartment, apply for universities and getting a job; until she became confident in herself and have the skills to stand on her own. When Kai started to step back into the Kink community, Sara was there, revealing her own identity within the community. She was a Mommy. The two had ended their therapeutic relationship the year prior so Sara had no ethical dilemmas posing as Kai’s protector when she started going to clubs again. That’s how she met Preston, he and Sara had been friends for years. Kai had moved in with Sara because her parents wanted to move and retire to some small town in rural NSW, Kai was staying in the city to keep working with VCafe. It had all paid off.

By 9pm, Kai was barely keeping her eyes open. Sara being ever observant didn’t say a word before helping her up, down the hall and into bed.

“Take the perc so you can sleep through the night,” Sara handed her a bottle of water and pill which Kai got down before settling down under the blankets and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.