The Blackout ⤖ George Russell

S I X

The weekend passed. There were no appointments to do, only the quick check-up from Damien on Saturday morning. Over the weekend, her family visited her, her grandparents were delighted to see Nora. Other people than her family and George weren't allowed to visit her; otherwise, it would become too much for Nora. And even facing the few people, was making her exhausted. Nora had to do the exercises Damien gave her over the weekend, she read one book and slept a lot. She was hoping George would come, but he didn't - what she understood.

"Good morning Nora!" The cheerful voice of Damien filled her ears.

Oh, god. It is eight in the morning, and it is Monday. Nora faked a smile on her face. "Hey," she said, fake cheerfully.

"How are you feeling today, young lady?" He sat down on the doctor's stool and drove himself to the bed.

"It is Monday?" Nora said. Damien understood her humour, so he chuckled. "But fine, I guess. Headache and tired, but that's all I can feel now with all the painkillers," she honestly answered.

He nodded and read the charts, there was nothing unusual in it. "I see," he mumbled and read a note of doctor Kline: headache was too painful two nights ago. "On a scale from one to ten, how bad is the headache?"

"Seven, probably eight. Sometimes I don't feel the pain anymore because it hurts so much," she answered and pressed her lips into a thin.

Damien nodded and got a small light, he checked if the reaction of her pupils were normal. In this case, it luckily was. "Follow the light please," he instructed and held the light in front of her eyes, going from the right to the left, checking the reaction. "It's going to be less over the days, it's the stimuli what you have to get used to again."

"Is it normal it takes that long?" Hugo stirred with the conversation, he was worried about his daughter. And it was heartbreaking to watch her have pain.

"In some cases, it is," Damien answered and turned to Hugo. "It is different per person and what the cause of injury it is. I will send doctor Kline when we are finished." A comfort expression was spread over his face. He turned back to Nora. "Do you want to start on the next step of your recovery, or should I come back later? It's totally okay if we wait for another day," he asked.

Nora nodded on his story. "No, I can handle it," she said.

"Okay, we will take it easy," he said and put away Nora's chart. "I'm gonna test your strength on standing on your legs, nothing special," he informed her.

She pushed the blanket off her body and felt the cold slamming against her legs, even though she was wearing socks, sweatpants and a hoodie. Nora sat up, it took some time. Damien and Hugo watched her moving, both not helping her. A small smile played on Damien his lips, it was going better than Saturday. Nora let her legs hung over the edge of the hospital bed.

"Cool socks you got," Damien smirked and pointed at her Happy Socks: black socks with watermelons.

"Thanks," Nora softly said.

He stood in front of her. "I'm here to support you, it's fine if you have to use me. So, what you will do is get up and stand on your legs. That's it. Try to find your balance," he simply said. "And if you want to stop, we stop. This is the easiest we can get, Nora."

She swallowed hard and nodded. Her eyes were burning on Damien's arms. She wrapped her hands around his forearm, he did the same at hers. Nora took a deep breath, I can do this. She got up, a painful expression washed over her face. Her legs felt like pudding, they were shaking.

"Remember to breathe," Damien said when he noticed she was holding in her breath to save energy. She squeezed in his arms to stand still. "We can stop, it's alright," he whispered. She nodded. "Easy," he said and helped her sit down again. "What do you think?"