Page 20 of Reconciling the Consequences

The stitches on her left arm pulled tightly, and the cast on her right arm was a hinderance. Not to mention, she only had two fingers available to grab anything with because of said cast.

Groaning, she gave up and pulled a headband out of her toiletry bag. Once the fabric band was secured around her head and pulled her hair out of her eyes, she huffed and turned only to find Johnny standing in the doorway, watching her with an amused smirk on his lips.

She rolled her eyes and pushed past him.

“Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Princess?” he quipped as he walked into the bathroom.

She ignored him and headed for the bed. She had an hour before they had to leave, and she was sore. Now that she had her phone, she could lay in bed and catch up on social media. She heard the shower start and looked over in time to see Johnny’s naked ass as he slid his thumbs into the waistbands of his boxers and gym shorts and dropped them to the floor.

Her mouth grew dry as she watched him walk into the shower. She was still fucking frustrated over last night. He had gotten her off but refused to let her help him, and he wouldn’t fuck her either. She might have come, but she was still unsatisfied.

And the more she watched his firm, plump, naked ass saunter into the shower, the more annoyed and frustrated she became.

The drive to the hospital was tense. Her doctor’s office was located in a building on the main hospital campus, not quite inside the hospital but sharing the same parking lot. When they drove past the ER they had to wait while an ambulance and a minivan screeched into the emergency bay.

Kara watched quietly as a husband flew out of the driver’s seat while the medical team pulled a woman on a gurney from the back of the ambulance. Her stomach rolled while watching the husband, clearly upset about his wife’s injuries, walk into the ER with the medical personnel.

She had to look away as she remembered waking up confused and upset in that same emergency department. She had flailed around, inconsolable until she passed out again. Her doctor had told her that they had to sedate her to calm her down.

She shook her head. Her doctor had told her all that the following time she woke up alone in the hospital. Despite what Marcos said about waiting for her, despite Johnny’s knowing damn well where she was, they’d left her alone.

Johnny pulled around the building and parked as close as he could to the medical office building.

Kara blinked away tears and got out of the truck. She didn’t want him to see her crying. She didn’t need his help, not if he didn’t want to truly be there for her, be with her.

She heard his door close a moment after hers and rolled her eyes, ignoring him as she walked into the building. She looked up the suite number on the directory and punched the call button for the elevator.

Johnny was silent as he walked onto the elevator after her.

She ignored him.

She was called back for her appointment right on time, which she was grateful for. So many times, the doctors’ offices ran behind schedule. Johnny went back into the room with her. He charmed the socks off the elderly nurse who wasn’t even put off by the tattoos and leather cut.

“Alright Miss Kara.” Dr. Jacobs smiled warmly as he walked into the examination room. “Let’s get these stitches out.” He was a middle-aged man with short light-brown hair and green eyes. She had liked him immediately the first time she’d met him.

“Sounds great.” She smiled broadly.

It took Dr. Jacobs some time to remove the many stiches from her body. She had twenty alone in her left arm, where, presumably, a nail had scratched her from her tumble down the basement steps. The cut went right through her tattoo of the wordsLive in the momentjust below her left inner elbow.

The tattoo wasn’t completely ruined, but it was not pretty by the time Dr. Jacobs was through with it. She’d have to call her girl Slade and get something scheduled to touch it up once it was fully healed.

“Alright,” Dr. Jacobs said as he worked on her knee. “Your knee is a little more swollen than it should be at this point. Have you been keeping it elevated and icing it?”

“Elevated mostly,” she replied, “not iced.”

“Well, start icing it. Twenty minutes at a time off and on all day, every day. Keep the knee elevated as often as you can. If you notice it swelling, it means you’re doing too much and need to take it easy. This week is all about resting. Your body is still hurt,” Dr. Jacobs stressed.

Kara sighed and nodded.

“Should she be walking up and down stairs?” Johnny asked, leaning forward in his chair in the corner and resting his forearms on his knees.

“Stairs are alright but not a lot if you can help it. If bedrooms are upstairs, try and stay up there and have someone bring you food. If you go downstairs, set up camp on the couch for the day. Try to avoid constantly going up and down if you can.”

Kara sighed and nodded.

It was another few minutes of Dr. Jacobs removing the stitches from her knee before he moved to her ribs. “Alright, lift your shirt up and let’s take a look here.”

Kara winced as she pulled her tank top up, grateful for the sports bra beneath it.

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