Hospital 

Marco grabbed some stuff and hurried out of his apartment. When he got in the car he sped over to Dylan’s. He pulled in but left the car running because he knew he’d be out in a minute. He walked up to the door and knocked before opening it. “Dylan where are you?” he yelled. He was calm but he wanted Dylan to be alright. 

Dylan knew that with his age he shouldn’t be still playing hockey. Even if he loved the game too much. Getting off the floor with help from the bed, he slipped on his shoes lacing them half assed because he really didn’t care at this point. “I’m in the bedroom, no need to yell!” He laughed a bit despite the pain he was in. He walked limpingly out getting his keys and wallet. 

“Alright fine.” he waited by the door for Dylan. When he got into the room he stood next to him. “Are you ready to go?” he asked with a small frown on his face. He didn’t like seeing people he loved in pain. “Do you want to lean on me?” he asked quietly. 

“I always gotta learn the hard way apparently.” He was in pain worse than usual. Most of the time he just put ice on it and in a couple of days it would be better. “I’d lie and say no, but yeah I need to.” He sighed a bit and started walking again. He already knew what was wrong just by the way he was feeling. Now the x-ray was just going to confirm it. Which was just lovely.  

He help Dylan out to the car opening the door for him. He walked over to his side and climbed in. “Off to the hospital we go!” he said putting his car in reverse and pulling out of the driveway. The hospital wasn’t to far away, nothing around here was. “So how do you think this happened. During practice?” he asked while focusing on the road.

“It was definitely during practice. I felt it rip.” He frowned some and then continued. “When I felt it I should’ve stopped playing during practice. But stupid me doesn’t learn.” He shook his head. Whenever he felt something wrong he usually ignored it like it was no big deal. Until at least he felt like his knee was giving out on him. “I’ve never blacked out from pain before, it was strange.”

They pulled into the parking garage at the hospital and he turn off the car. “We’ll know what’s wrong soon enough.” He climbed out of the car and opened the door for Dylan. “Need to lean on me more.” he smiled a little bit as he helped walk him to the entrance. 

He laughed. “I can tell already they’ll x-ray it and tell me ACL. Only reason I know is because I’ve torn it before only it was minor so I didn’t need surgery. You feel like your knee is giving out on you.” He nodded matter of factly and then laughed. “Sorry you probably have no idea what I’m even going on about.” He walked to the entrance leaning on Marco for support and then stopped. All the walking was killing him so to speak so he paused for a few before making their way to the front desk. 

Marco stood by his side while Dylan filled put all the papers. They were soon after taken to a small room. Marco helped Dylan sit and then sat next to him. “Do you think you’re going to need surgery?” he asked quietly. He knew Dylan was tough and could handle anything but he was still worried about the face that this was the second time in a week that he had been hurt.

He looked at him and could see the worry in his eyes. “Baby, don’t be worried okay.” He sighed a bit and thought about it for a minute. Lying was never really his forte. Sure he could lie if he wanted to, but this was Marco. Dylan couldn’t and wouldn’t lie to him. “Yeah, probably.” He had been hurt twice in a week and the first one was minor. But this one might put him out for awhile. 

He frowned a little bit a sighed. “Well I’ll be here by your side the whole way.” he grabbed his hand and kissed the top of it. He hoped out of his chair and walked around the room. “Do you want me to get you anything. I feel so helpless.” he laughed a bit and walked over to Dylan. 

“I’d give anything to walk around the room like you just did without cringing.” He laughed and gently pulled him into his lap wrapping his arms around his waist. “You’re not helpless stop it. Just stay here okay.” All he wanted to do was sit with Marco and hold him until the doctor came in. But this was a hospital and it was usually busy. After a few minutes the doctor finally came in. Which meant Marco had to move off of his lap even if Dylan didn’t want him to. 

He slipped into a chair on the side of the small room. The doctor took Dylan’s temperature and asked him basic questions. He sat there listening as the doctor continued to ask what seemed to be a million questions. He didn’t knowwhat to do besides sit there, listen, and nod his head. 

Dylan already knew the standard boring hospital questions as he had been there quite a few times during his span of playing hockey. He answered them like he always would. Straight to the point. Poor Marco was just sitting there not knowing what to do. Dylan felt bad that Marco couldn’t even answer a single question or help really just sit there. After the doctor got all the information he needed, he left after saying they’d need to x-ray and Dylan snorted a bit. “The doctor looked at me like I was crazy since I answered everything straight forward. Just x-ray me, cut me open, and then let me sleep.” 

He smiled a little bit. “Yeah well I’m sure you have this whole hospital thing down.” He got up and sat back down next to him. “I wonder how long it’s going to take them to get the x-ray?” he wrapped his arms around Dylan and kissed his forehead. “Also I wonder what the standard healing time is….”

“I’d count how many times I’ve been in the hospital and what for. But that might bore you.” He smiled some. “X-ray isn’t that long really. About 20 minutes is when you get it back if even that.” He shrugged a bit. “That I can’t answer. The last time this happened, when it was minor was a few weeks all they did was put a brace on. But with the way my knee is it could be a month or so.” He gave him a kiss. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” he smiled and squeezed his hand. The Doctor came in with a wheel chair to take Dylan to the room to get his X-ray. He followed along behind the doctor and Dylan to another room this one wasn’t as small but it had a giant machine in the middle that they made Dylan lay on. He stood outside of the door while the doctor set up the machine and started the x-ray. 

“You’ll actually get to see one of my x-rays honey.” He laughed a bit. It wasn’t that funny but he figured if he cracked jokes and smiled, he wouldn’t think about the pain so much. “I’m personally getting tired of looking at them. I think I’ve seen every bone in my body at this point.” He made a face. He then stopped talking and moving so the doctor could do the x-ray. It didn’t seem like a machine like that would get the picture so quickly but it did. 

“I can’t wait to see what’s inside of you.” he laughed. The doctor had walked off to develop the x-rays so they were alone again. “Those machines always freaked me out a little bit.” he said pointing at it. “I feel like I’ll get radiation poisoning and turn into a ninja turtle.” he laughed some more. He wanted to try and distract Dylan from the pain he was in. 

“Want to know what freaks me out more than whales? Needles. I know it’s stupid since I have tattoos, but if I close my eyes and not watch the needle going in I’m okay.” He laughed a little at his comment about radiation poisoning and turning into a ninja turtle. “I don’t think that’ll happen. You’re pretty safe.” He shook his head. “This just killed the weekend I think. But there’s always another time.” 

“That’s because needles are scary.” he nodded. “About this weekend it’s fine, I’d much rather you get better then letting it get worse.” he smiled. “Plus we have all the other weekends we can think about to spend together.” he held his hand again and smiled. “That is if you don’t hurt yourself every week.” 

“Yes there’ll be other weekends to spend together, so it’ll be okay.” He smiled and looked down at their hands. “I doubt I’ll be playing hockey anytime soon. So I probably won’t be hurting myself anytime soon either.” He shook his head. “I would’ve walked around limping, telling people that I’m fine when I really wasn’t. Then you would’ve had to drag me here.” 

“I would literally drag you because you’d be in to much pain to walk.” he said shaking his head. “But luckily you’re smart and knew what you had to do.” he smiled and rubbed his hand. He looked down at his leg and frowned “How bad does it hurt?”

“I’ve had too many injuries that’s why. You feel something wrong you go to the doctor or the hospital.” He smiled. “Bad. My knee feels like it’s on fire or maybe I’m in so much pain that I’ve started hallucinating. Is it swollen? I’m afraid to look but it probably is.”

Marco got out of his chair and got on his knees to look at his knee. It was puffy and red and looked extremely painful. “It looks pretty bad Dylan.” he frowned and sat back down next to his wounded boyfriend. “Hopefully the give magic drugs that will fix you.” he said with a smile.

“Yeah it feels like that bad. I was afraid to look though.” he said as he sat up some on his elbows.  He laughed a bit. “Oh they’ll give me magic drugs alright. Ones where I sleep mostly.” Soon the doctor came back with the x-ray in hand putting it on the board and turning the light on to light it. Dylan made a face. “Oh that’s just lovely. Split completely apart.”  

Marco looked at the x-ray with a twisted face. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking at but it didn’t look very good. “What exactly are we looking at.” he said staring at the x-ray. He scratched his head and then held onto Dylan’s hand for support. 

“Your knee has three ligaments in it. The one we’re looking at is the main one that helps your knee move if I remember correctly. In short I tore it in half and that’s why my knee feels like it’s going to give out. Because there’s nothing there holding my knee together pretty much.” He frowned knowing that Marco was confused and after that speech about Dylan not being able to walk really, he might as well have passed out at the mention of it. The doctor looked at Dylan funny for a minute and nodded at him. Then said they’d have to do surgery.

Marco just nodded some more with a blank expression on his face. “Whatever they have to do to get you better.” he looked at Dylan and smiled. “I just hope nothing like this happens again.” he frowned a bit before thanking the doctor and asking him when they think they can do surgery.

He laughed. “You have no idea what I just said. You just nod and smile.” He laughed some more. “I don’t think it will. Hopefully.” The doctor said that he was going to see when they could do the surgery. It should’ve been that night or tomorrow morning. Dylan sighed as the doctor left again. “I should’ve been a doctor I’m thinking….”

“I’m thinking you should have been a sports doctor.” he smiled. “You’d still be involved in sports and you would be putting your medical knowledge to good use.” The doctor didn’t seem so worried so it made him calm down a bit knowing that it could have been worse but wasn’t. He didn’t know what he would have done if it was really bad.

“Maybe I should’ve been one, I seem to know a lot and that’s just based off my injuries alone.” He smiled. “But that would’ve taken forever degree wise. Don’t know if I’d be able to do it, with all the schooling.” He shrugged a bit. “I find it amusing when doctors look at me with a funny look. I told you it was my ACL and the x-ray confirmed it. Yet the doctor still gave me a funny look.” He laughed shaking his head.