Welcome back to Mice. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year. Let's hope 2021 will turn out to be awesome and especially for Linc. ❤ He's in a bad way :(

Michael rushed to Becky and lifted her in his arms. He carried her to the seating and knelt before her. "Becky, he's alive. They've got him in surgery. The doctor is going to come and tell us all the details soon."

"Are... are... you sure he didn't break his back?" Becky burst into tears struggling to get the words out. "He... he... wouldn't, Mike. He... he... I... I... just wouldn't want to see him... him... live with that. Not after all the... the... trouble with his leg." She sniffled back her tears and pleaded to him with her eyes.

Mike couldn't look at the worry on her face so he dropped his gaze to the floor, and then finding the courage looked back up at her knowing she'd taken his moment of silence as saying yes, that Linc did have a spinal injury. He clutched her hand. "No, hun. His spine is in one piece." He cocked his head and gave her a sorrowful look. "It's his hip again. He broke it in the fall so he's going to have another long road to recovery on that score."

A sigh of relief eased from between Becky's lips. "He'll do it." She wiped her eyes and gave a quick smile. "He's a tough little bugger. I just know he'll be back to mischief once he's..." She couldn't finish but burst into tears once more.

"Hey." Rob sat beside her and wrapped her in his arms. He didn't know what to say but seeing her in so much pain carved a gouge in his heart. There was no way he was going let her sit without trying to comfort her nor was he going to tell her everything would be okay. Empty promises wouldn't fix this so he held her tight and was surprised when her arms hooked around him as she buried her face in his neck and sobbed.

They stayed like this until she grew quiet.  Rob barely breathed. His awareness of her was sending sparks to every sense, every nerve, every thought that ran through his mind and body. She was so familiar, her smell, her skin, her warmth was like coming home. She belonged in his arms.

He had to put a stop to the feelings coiling around him. This wasn't the time or the place. Linc was the priority.

As Rob built up the courage to release Becky he thought of Linc. His name said it all. Linc was the link; had been from the very beginning, all those years ago. Rob's mind spiralled. Tragedy just couldn't be his reward for being so important to so many people. Rob lifted his chin from Becky's head and looked at the rest of the group who were waiting with fear and hope on their faces, his mother, pacing the floor like a caged animal. His father, sitting with his head hung, hands clasped tightly between his knees. Drew's face was drained of colour looking thin and strained. Trin staring at the wall in front of her and a girl Rob didn't know but he'd heard her arrive and was sure the name Emma was mentioned. A tear rolled down his face. Linc would be so upset if he saw this scene. To think his future could cause so much worry would blow his mind.

Rob could picture Linc standing in the corridor with his mouth agape, and then telling everyone they were a bunch of idiots thinking he'd give up as quickly as they all appeared to have. A surge of confidence lifted the corners of Rob's mouth to form a smile. This was not how things were going to end. He gripped Becky's shoulders and made her sit up straight. "He's going to be okay, Becky. I just know it." Rob turned to the rest of them and said, "It'll take more than a bump on the head to stop our Linc. No matter the outcome, he'll soldier on. He'll make his way in this world and he'll need us to lean on so we've got to stop being so sad and inject positivity into his future."

"Yeah," Becky said as she wiped her eyes. "Linc's no quitter."

Sheila stopped pacing and wrapped an arm each around Rob and Becky's necks. "You're right. He certainly is no quitter. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and focus our energy on Linc." As she stood to face Michael, a blonde man dressed in blue scrubs and carrying a laptop walked toward them.

*

Doctor Feld watched the family freeze as he shortened the distance between them. He saw the moment they each took a breath and held it. It wouldn't be long before he'd hear them release the air from their lungs as a sigh of relief. He smiled, and then said, "He's doing great. I feel confident that he's got a ninety percent chance of coming through this with no serious damage to his brain."

And there it was, the hissing sound of souls easing out stress caused by fear and the unknown. "Shall we sit?" Hayden Feld smiled again and used the laptop he was carrying to indicate more comfortable seating in the small private waiting room, which included a kitchenette, around the corner.

He had no idea why people chose to wait on hard backed chairs in moments of stress. He positioned himself so they could sit facing him, and then said, "Linc has what we call a basilar skull fracture. His break is in his temporal bone." Hayden touched the side of his face. "The temporal bones are at the side and base of the skull." He looked at each person to make sure they understood him. "Looking at his injuries, he's landed on his side, luckily, as his hip took the first lot of impact, which, in my mind, saved his life. If he'd have hit head first I'd think he'd have broken his neck and well..." he petered off, and then added, "He's going to hate recovering from the damage done to that hip but he can thank it for saving his life."

"He's been through it before so he'll do it again," Becky said with conviction. "He's a fighter."

Hayden smiled at her, and then opened the laptop. "Our biggest concern with his skull fracture was cerebrospinal fluid leak," he paused, looked at each face and continued, "This can happen in about twenty percent of cases. We've kept a close eye on him and thankfully this hasn't happened in Linc's case. However, there are other complications which can occur, such as meningitis, but we'll continue to keep him under observation. I'm also very pleased to say we've found no nerve or blood vessel damage." Once more he looked around the circle of people to make sure they were following what he was saying. "However, we're keeping him in an induced coma for up to a week to let him rest completely. I will let you go in to see him shortly but he is asleep so won't respond to you." Hayden paused, and then added, "Be warned, he has a lot of bruising." He smiled as he continued, "We call it raccoon eyes, black eyes, common to this injury along with bruising around the mastoid area. His face is swollen so it might be a shock when you first see him."

Looking at the group again Hayden sighed and said, "Now about his hip. Most of his time in surgery was to do with the repair of the breakage. We couldn't tackle this last night as we were more concerned with his head injury, hence why he was back in surgery this morning. The femoral neck was very weak from his previous injury." The doctor focused on Sheila. "I've been told he was in a car accident when he was eleven. Is this true?"

"Yes." Sheila nodded and glanced at Becky before she added, "It was before he came to live with us."

"Right. Okay." Hayden nodded, and then said, "Well, this time we've had to replace the femoral head and neck with titanium rods and we've added some more pins into the pelvis and femur." He turned the laptop around so they could all see the screen and x-ray photos.

"He's going to need intense physiotherapy and I can't see him running marathons or playing sport that requires a lot of leg work." Hayden sighed again, and then said, "I'm certain he's going to end up with a permanent  limp and the hip will give him pain in the future."

"What kind of pain?" Becky exclaimed.

"Oesteo, rheumatoid type of pain. Especially after a hard laborious day or in cold weather." Hayden looked the young woman in the eye. "I'm telling you this because constant long drawn out dull aching pain like this can cause depression in some people and I want you all to be aware of this so you can keep a look out for it." He glanced at each of them before adding, "And we know depression is serious if not treated properly."

He smiled and pressed his palms to his thighs as he stood. "But that's a possible future. For now let's get him through this and on his feet again." Hayden swept his hand toward the corridor. "He's in room S-thirty-nine. If you have any concerns, I do my rounds at ten every day or you can ring the surgical ward and leave a message. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor." Michael took the surgeon by the hand and shook before rushing after the others.

Photo of 'Raccoon Eyes' taken from the internet. Copy right belongs to 25hournews.