"Has the new girl even said anything?" Tenn asked Omar as he sat for dinner.
"Nope. She's been here a week and still hasn't spoken a word. I wonder how she has lived."
Tenn gave a bland facial expression and sighed.
"I wonder what's got her so quiet." Clem chimed in.
"Maybe you should go ask her." Violet joked to Louis as she jabbed him in the side with her elbow. Louis stuck up a middle finger and rolled his eyes. Violet just laughed to herself as she pushed her spoon back into her bowl.
Louis looked over to see the girl sitting in a ball by herself at the end of another table.
Louis sighed and got up. He took his bowl with him and sat down next to the girl.
He waved to her and she waved back giving him a half smile.
"You're Louis aren't you?"
He nodded and she smiled a little wider.
"You're also an Avox aren't you?" He just raised a brow. "Oh, an avox is someone without a tongue."
He nodded and put a thumb up.
"I'm sorry. That must have been horrible." She frowned as she let her spoon rest in the bowl. She turned to him and brushed a little bit of frizzy hair off of his forehead.
He just shrugged and looked into her eyes.
"You know, for a while I was a nurse. I could... I could try to see it back on."
He looked at me with wide eyes.
"Do... do you have it?"
He nodded vigorously and ran into the school. He came back out with a covered jar.
"Is this it?"
He nodded and people started to crowd.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked.
"I asked Louis if he wanted me to sew his tongue back on and he said yes."
"Louis you kept your tongue? That's kinda weird." Aj blurted.
Clem scolded him and aj jusf shrugged.
"You can do that? That takes a lot of medical talent."
"I have been working as a medic for about four years now. Since I was about twelve or thirteen."
Ruby nodded in pleasure from my knowledge and asked Louis to get to her medical room. I walked behind him and talked to him.
"So Louis, I don't know if we are going to have any anesthesia so it may hurt a whole lot, but I want you to remember what's happening. You're getting your life back so I know it will be worth it."
Louis nodded and ruby looked around the room while Louis sat on the table.
"Not much left, but it'll knock him out for about half an hour."
"It's better than not having any." I replied.
"That's very true." She agreed.
"Okay Louis, lay back. I need to give you this now."
He laid on the table and I injected the fluid into his arm.
"Can you use your hands and count down from ten for me?"
He held up ten fingers and slowly started to push them each down. He got to six and he was out.
"Okay, time to get working."
I asked ruby to stay to help me. She agreed and stood on the other side.
"So we are going to need a scalpel. I'm going to have to make an incision on both sides of the tongue and reattach them to both then open flaps."
"Okay. Here."
I sliced the two halves of his tongue and ruby threaded the needle.
"Here you go."
I took the needle with the thread thinner than a hair and inserted it into the bottom half of the now cut tongue. I connected the bottom section of the two and then moved onto the top half.
After I got through the bottom half, Louis started to wake up.
"Louis, we are going to need to stay calm, okay? If you don't like the sight of blood you should close your eyes and hold Ruby's hand. It may hurt depending on how fast that stuff wears off. It's still going to be a while but we are about halfway done."
Louis seemed to understand and he closed his eyes and reached out for Ruby's hand. She squeezed it and I moved on to the top.
Luckily for Louis, the anesthesia was still numbing him to the point where he didn't feel immense pain.
About another hour later I was completely finished with all of the sutures. I closed them up and dabbed the rest of the blood off of Louis's mouth.
I took a heavy sigh or relief that there were no complications and I sat on the floor.
"You okay darlin?" Ruby asked me.
I nodded and swallowed hard as I got up.
"Yeah, I've just never done a surgery that long."
"How long was it?" She asked.
"Like three hours."
Her eyes went wide and she left the room quickly.
"Now Louis, I'm going to assume that you're going to have to be silent for about another week before we even try to do anything with it. I would avoid dinner for tonight because it's so fresh, but in about 30 hours, you can start to eat again. Stick to soup and try to avoid all the pieces in it. And then in a week I'll check it to see if you can start doing more exercises and then start talking again. I don't know if your nerves will grow back unfortunately but we just have to wait and see."

A week later
"Well soup seems to be treating you well as it doesn't seem to be messing with your tongue very much. I would still give it a couple of days before you start trying anything."
Louis nodded and walked out.

Two weeks later
"Okay, I think you're good to start some small exercises. For about half an hour a day I wasn't you to just start moving your tongue left right up and down."
Louis seemed to smile. I could tell he was happy about the progress he was making.

Four weeks later
Louis was able to love his tongue completely like normal. We still hesitated to take the stitches out because of the fear that it wasn't fully reattached. Louis was starting to make some words but still struggling. So far there was no nerve repair.

Two months later
Speech was getting easier for Louis, still no full coherent words past two letters but he was getting there. Still no nerve repair but we are considering stitch removal in the coming weeks.

Two months and three weeks later
Louis got his stitches removed today and everything went okay. His tongue is fully reattached and it's basically a miracle. Louis started being able to say my name and I was really happy. I've never heard him speak but it was beautiful. I know that his voice is probably a lot different than it was but I still think it's the most amazing thing I've ever heard.
"Y/n." He said slowly which pulled me out of my daze.
"What is it?"
" 'Ank you."
"You're welcome Louis."
Louis wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me tight.
"I'm so happy for you Louis. You are going to get everything back if I have anything to do about it."

Louis never fully got all of the nerve back into his tongue but he did have some. He knew when things were hot and cold. He knew not to bite his tongue, he knew when he did that it really hurt and he could feel his teeth and his gums in his mouth.
Louis speech was about ninety five percent back, he still stumbled with a couple words but they tended to be longer and more complicated.
Louis thanked me every day and never let me forget how amazing I was. It honestly made me feel like a nerd.