Chapter six

Sarah loved the concert and wished she could be there in person to see and experience it. Then she could watch Richie play instead of Jon singing. The camera was mostly on Jon but she loved the jukebox part, it really seemed unexpected to the band and even for Jon when they picked a song, maybe it was.

After an hour the screen turned black and the music stopped, Sarah was disappointed, she liked watching Richie. Here on stage he looked so passionate, a passion she hadn’t seen when he played just for her, that had been a different kind of passion.

“Have you seen them play before?” Alyssa asked.
“No, this was the first time.” Sarah answered.
“Same for me, I think it’s probably even way better if you’re in the audience.” Alyssa continued.
“I think so.” Sarah agreed easily. Hopefully she could see the next concert from her space in the audience but she didn’t know when it was, she’d have to ask Richie later.

A knock at the door made them both look in the direction of the sound. Then Alyssa got up to answer the door.

For a second Sarah had thought it was Richie but that was too soon. Just like her second thought thought, it was room service with another cold pack.

Alyssa took the blue pack and turned back to Sarah. She lifted the pack that wasn’t as cold anymore and wrapped the new one in the towel before putting it back on Sarah’s ankle. Then she looked up at Sarah. “Good?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“It looks a little less swollen, I think.” She thought but she wasn’t sure about it.
“That’s good.” Sarah concluded. She doubted she could convince Richie though.

The bruising wouldn’t be gone by the time he would be back; neither would the swelling have gone all the way, not to forget the pain. As long as she kept the ice on, the pain was numbed but when she moved it, it still hurt a lot.

She almost wanted to go the hospital to know if it was broken or not. If she knew it wasn’t, she wouldn’t be as scared to move her ankle. If she was going anywhere, Richie was going with her and that way it would be okay.

“Do you need anything else? Food or a drink? The toilet?” Alyssa asked before she went to sit down again.
“No, nothing.” Sarah said simply again.”
“Okay, let’s watch a movie then.” Once back on the bed next to Sarah she moved the laptop to the night stand and picked up the remote to switch on the tv.

After a minute she asked Sarah if there were only German shows. Then they decided to rent a movie, like Richie and her had done before, at least they could watch that in English.

Alyssa talked almost the entire time during the movie, giving her opinion about each of the actors and their characters and even their acting skills.
Sarah didn’t mind much.

After room service had brought another cold pack, Sarah’s ankle started hurting again, the ice didn’t seem to help anymore. She felt like she needed to stretch her foot but was scared to incase it really was broken and she’d make it worse. She tried to relax and not concentrate on the pain but the movie.

The next knock on the door made Sarah hopeful that it just might be Richie. Him being there would already make her feel better.

Again Alyssa went to open the door, this time she stepped out in to the hallway, presumably to have a conversation with the person that had knocked.

It only took a minute before the door opened again but this time Richie walked in, much to her relief.

He saw the relief on her face when he walked closer to her. “How are you doing?” He asked still worried about her.
Sarah shook her head. “It hurts.”
“That bad?” She hadn’t said much about the pain before. Concerned, he sat down at the end of the bed to take a closer look at her foot. “Does it hurt more than before?” He asked as he carefully lifted the cold pack up.
“Yes.” Sarah said, feeling even more pain now the ice was gone.

Richie carefully reached for her foot, carefully swiping the pad of his thumb below the bruises, making Sarah hiss. “Sorry.” He quickly apologized and put the pack back, then stood up. “I’m gonna go talk to Matt before we go to the hospital. You okay for a minute?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She answered, wondering who Matt was.

Richie dropped a quick kiss on her lips before leaving the room.

Who was Matt and why did he need to talk to him about going to a hospital first? The hospital, how busy would it be on a Sunday night, close to midnight? She just hoped they didn’t have to wait in a waiting room for ages. Richie being a rock star probably wouldn’t help matters at a hospital, they’d have to wait, just the same.

Sooner than she expected Richie was back but he wasn’t alone. Sarah assumed it must be Matt since he didn’t look familiar, she hadn’t seen him before.

“Matt’s the head of security so he needs to know where we are.” Richie explained before Sarah could even ask. “He’s also coming with us. Just to be sure, you know, fans or reporters.”

Sarah didn’t even care anymore. “Are we leaving now?”
“Ready when you are.”
“I’m ready.”

Richie moved to be able to pick her up, it seemed the best way to get her to the car since she couldn’t or didn’t dare to walk.

Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck and they followed Matt through the hotel down to where their cars were parked. During their walk, Sarah reached up and placed a kiss on his jaw. “Thanks.” She said.

Matt parked the car at the emergency entrance of the nearest hospital. “I’ll get a wheelchair first.” He looked over his shoulder at Sarah, then turned back to Richie and got out of the car.

They watched him walk the short distance to the entrance. Sarah was glad she wouldn’t have to walk that way and that Richie wouldn’t have to carry her. Carrying her must be hurting his back.

Richie looked over at Sarah behind him. “You alright?”
She was alone in the back seat with her foot up on the other end of the couch. “Yeah.”
“It’ll be alright. I’m right here, okay?”
She nodded.
Richie could see she was scared to do this but was glad she was doing it. “Which door should I open?”
“Probably that one, then I can just slide out.” Sarah meant the door where her foot was. She didn’t want to have to twist around in the backseat again like before. Things were painful enough as they were.

Richie did what she asked and went to open the door for her. Carefully Sarah slid out until Richie gave her a hand to help her up and out. Meanwhile Matt had returned and Sarah could sit down again. Matt started pushing her towards the entrance, while Richie walked next to her.
“It didn’t seem very busy.” Matt said. “For a big city hospital.”

Matt brought them to the waiting room, and then left them alone to do the paperwork, knowing insurance would be a little different here.

Sarah and Richie sat together not saying much. Her ankle started hurting again now that it wasn’t raised anymore. “Richie?”
“Yeah babe?”
“Can I put my ankle on your lap? It hurts when it’s down.” She explained.
“Sure you can, come here.” He turned her wheelchair sideways so she could reach better.
Sarah lifted her leg, carefully Richie took it by the knee again and laid her foot down on his lap. “That better?”
“Much.” Sarah could already feel the difference. She was glad she had Richie, he had been so sweet taking care of her. So gentle and caring, the way her ex-husband had never been. He had never told her she needed to go to a hospital even when she knew she had to.

Matt returned a good 15 minutes later. “All good. A nurse should be here any minute.”

He was right, just a minute later a male nurse walked in the room. “Sarah Matthews?”

With a slight panic Sarah looked up at Richie.
“I’ll wait here.” Matt said as Sarah moved her foot off of Richie’s lap again and Richie stood up to follow the nurse.
“I’m right here.” Richie bent over to whisper by her ear.

Once in a private room with a bed, the nurse padded the bed. “Jump on, well don’t jump.” He said. His English didn’t sound too bad but they could definitely hear the German in it.

Sarah stood up from the wheelchair with Richie’s help and he helped her up on the bed. The back of the bed was raised so Sarah could lean back against it.

The nurse washed his hands and turned around to meet them. “What happened?” He asked, looking at Sarah, expecting an answer from her.
“She fell of slipped in the shower.” Richie answered for her again.
The nurse nodded his understand, then turned his attention back to Sarah. “Did you hurt your head?”
“No.” Sarah answered herself this time.
“You are sure?”
“Yes.” She said certain of herself, after all, her head didn’t hurt and the edge of the bathtub had been far enough away from the wall that she couldn’t hit her head.
“Did you hurt… anything different? Arm or back?”
“No.” Sarah said again, forgetting the pain in her back, her ankle was most important to her.
“Yes you did.” Richie corrected her, then turned to the nurse. “She bruised her back and shoulders too.”
“Okay, we look at that first. Then your ankle too.” He moved over to stand beside Sarah who was still sitting up on the bed. “Close the door?” He asked Richie.
Richie closed the door and took his position next to Sarah again.

The nurse carefully lifted Sarah’s shirt to see the bruises. “You can still move your arms? It doesn’t hurt?
“No, it’s okay, I can move.” Sarah answered.

The nurse stepped away again, standing in front of Sarah as he nodded his understanding again. “Can you…” He seemed to be looking for words then gave up. “Do this?” He rolled his shoulders.
Sarah nodded and did the same.
“This?” He shrugged his shoulders.
Sarah mimicked what he did perfect and painless.
“Good.” Satisfied with it, then he walked back to the foot of the bed and inspected her ankle. “I have to touch a little.” He already sounded apologetic about what he was going to do, knowing it might hurt her.
Sarah nodded, ready for what would come and was glad when Richie took her hand.

He carefully turned her foot to get a better look at the bruises. “Does it hurt only here? Not the other side?” He asked.
“No, just there.” Sarah answered.

Just like Richie had done at the hotel he swiped his thumb below her bruises and again it made Sarah hiss as she felt the pain.
The nurse apologized again and moved up higher on her foot, away from the bruises to her toes. “It doesn’t hurt here?”
“Not really, a bit.”
“Okay, I’ll go to talk to the doctor and we get x-rays.” He explained. “You have to go back to the wait room.”

Richie helped her off the bed and back into the wheelchair, then pushed the chair back to the waiting room.

“And?” Matt asked hopeful when they got back. “That’s fast.”
“Nothing, we have to wait.” Richie said a little confused.
“That’s weird, you didn’t get a bed?”
“I guess they do it different here.” Richie shrugged and sat down again to put Sarah’s foot back on his lap.

20 minutes went by of nobody saying anything; they just watched more patients walk in and out and returning to wait some more, exactly like they had done.

Finally they heard, “Sarah Matthews?” again and followed a female nurse to where she left them by four empty chairs to wait again.
“Isn’t this fun?” Richie joked. “You never get to see these places of the city when you’re visiting as a tourist.”
“Maybe we should try to see the touristic things too then.”
“We could do that.” Richie agreed.

“Sarah?”
“Yes.” She looked up at yet another lady.
“I’ll be right back and then I’ll take you for your x-rays.” She said in perfect English and left.

Sarah looked up at Richie, slightly panicked.
“I can’t go with you because of the radio-activity. It’ll only take a minute.” He encouraged.

The lady returned and wheeled Sarah in to the room, closed the door and helped her to sit on the machine. “Stay very still.”
Sarah watched her walk behind a big screen with a computer.

A light buzzing sound came from the machine. When it stopped Sarah was asked to move in a different way. The buzzing came back but it only lasted a second. Again she was asked to move and again she heard the buzzing sounds.

“Okay, that’s it.”

Sarah was helped back in the wheelchair and was wheeled back out to Richie, much to her relief.

“See, you’re fine.” Richie said as soon as Sarah got out of the room.

They were once again sent back to the waiting room to do some more waiting.

“And?” Matt asked again when they got back.
“Just x-rays.” Richie said as he sat down again.