Dogo - Home From the Hospital

Ten. God. Damn. Days.

Dogo wasn’t trying to be a little bitch about it but he was not loving life. Hospitalization, soft food only and worse not talking allowed, even if he wanted to he couldn’t it hurt to even try. His throat had been thoroughly messed up and at this point it was just time and healing.

But his ten day where finally up as at least now he could go home!

“So,” Mal said chipperly, picking his brother’s duffel up off the bed. “Good news and bad news. Good news is you can come home today. Bad news is - it’s gonna take a long time for that larynx to heal up. But don’t worry, Cain bought one of those Ninja blenders, and has been practicing up, you missed pork chop shakes last night.” He was trying to focus on the positive, rather than on the fact his brother might never be able to speak again. Time, the doctor had said. Time was the only thing that would tell.

And it wasn’t just any doctor, Katsu had a specialist flown in from Japan. The Red Dragon really looked after the boys who looked after Kimura, he’d spared no expense.

“The pork chop milkshakes are also on the bad news side of things. There’s leftovers.” Mal added with a smirk.

Dogo looked around for a pad and paper. ‘Is Cain trying to convince me not to eat anymore?” He wrote holding up the pad.

“Don’t you worry, I will keep you well stocked in ice cream and custards. But just in case, we bought a shit ton of baby foods. The carrots, I have to say, not bad.” Mal told him, smiling at the pretty nurse who came with a wheelchair to give Dogo a lift to the entrance.

Dogo looked tot he wheelchair, the nurse and then Mal. ‘Seriously.’ He scribbled.

“I hope he didn’t give you too much trouble,” Mal said, making small talk.

“He was a perfect gentleman,” the nurse chuckled. “His discharge papers are in the folder, as well as instructions. I believe he’s going to need an MRI in a few weeks, but it’s all in the paperwork. No talking, soft diet, liquids only, and there’s some pain medication waiting at the pharmacy if he needs it.”

“Do you make house calls, if he needs it?” Mal asked, getting a look of disgust from the nurse in return.

Dogo flicked the side of Mal's head and pointed again to his pad. ‘SERIOUSLY?!’ He did his best to give the nurse a smile, pointed to the wheelchair and shook his head.

“Hospital policy,” The nurse told him. “You trip and fall on your way out, we’re responsible, we roll you to the door, this guy pulls the car around, and you become his problem,” she teased. “So, sit. Otherwise I get in trouble, and I take back what I said about you being a perfect gentleman.” Her voice was gentle, but firm. Policy was policy.

Dog gave both Mal and the nurse a withering look and reluctantly sat down on the wheelchair. If he ever ran across that asshole again … there was going to hell to pay.

The nurse wheeled him into the elevator and out to the front of the hospital, dodging gurneys, wandering patients and doctors, and attempts from Mal to ask her out,

“All right, this is your stop,” she told him as they reached the curb to the parking lot.

“You need me to pull the car up?” Mal asked, as Dogo stiffly climbed out of the chair.

Dogo grumpily shook his head. He was down and out long enough, he didn;t need or want to be babied any more then he had already been. Fucking baby food!

Mal hadn’t parked far off, and even though Dogo was shotgun, he let him pick the music. The kid had a rough road ahead. “We got you a white board at home, you know, for now. This way you won’t have to tap code all day.” He told him.

‘Good at least you won’t confuse me with a dripping faucet.’ Dogo wrote with a snort. He leaned back with a huff looking out the window, there was a still alot of emotion running through him.

“It won’t be so bad,” Mal consoled. “And you know Kimura’s not going to treat you with kid gloves. You’ll be back out in the field before you even have time to get bored of Netflix. Plus, Cain set aside a couple of his models, just for you.”

Dogo exploded, he didn’t mean to, not at Mal. But he had been doing nothing but stewing for days. He hit the passenger side door with a fist, not able to just easily say what he wanted anymore. ‘I don't want kid gloves. I don’t want Cain’s model. I want my fucking voice back!’ He scrawled, pressing down on the paper so hard he tore it.

“Chill!” Mal told him, trying to keep his voice even. “You heard what the doc said. I know you don’t want to hear it, but you gotta be patient. I’m not gonna blow smoke up your ass and say it’ll be okay, because this may be your new normal, but we’ll deal. Learn sign language or some shit. All of us. And when we find that motherfucker, you get first dibs.”

‘It’s not going to be okay Mal. What am I going to do flap my fucking arms to warn you? Oh, I know take a month of Sundays to morse code over the radio!’ Dogo scrawled scowling.

“So you want to what, quit?” Mal asked, his voice taking on a bit of an edge. “Give up on Kimura and Cain and me? Shit, we don’t even know if this is permanent, it could take fucking months for the swelling to go down. You wanna be mad, be mad, you know damn well I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could.”

‘And till it’s fixed you know I’m a liability on the field.’ Dogo scrawled his retort.

“And you know me, Cain, Kimura would rather have you - liability or not - than anyone else watching our six.” Mal shot back. “Any day of the week.”

‘That's stupid and you know it.’ Dogo wrote with an accusatory look.

“Look man, I don’t know what to tell you. We need you, voice or not. Kimura - she’ll figure it out, know what to do. She always does,” Mal said proudly.

‘You don't know what to tell me because you know I’m right. If i wasn’t your bro you would bench me in a heartbeat.’ Dogo worte trying to be stern about it but the effect was lost when you had to scrawl it quickly on paper.

“If you weren’t good at what you did, brother or not, I’d bench you in a heartbeat.” Mal insisted. “And no, I don’t know what to say because we’ve never been in this situation before. And I don’t want you giving up.” Mal explained.

‘I’m not giving up but reality is being kind of a bitch right now.’ Dogo wrote down. ‘Also this fucking sucks!’

“Reality isn’t the only thing being kind of a bitch right now.”But it’s okay. You’re our bitch, so you go ahead and bitch all you want," Mal replied, pulling into the lot of their new home.

‘I so will. Constantly.’ Dogo wrote fighting a smirk. ‘Screw you making me smile!’

Mal smirked, “That’s my job. C’mon.” He grabbed Dogo’s bag from the back seat. “You can go wash up, enjoy your own bed.” He gave two short whistles to let Cain know they were back.