Aloha, I'm back from vacation, it was very nice. Thank you all for waiting through it for the chapter. Happy Birthday on the 26th to Green_Hooves. I thank my beta reader.
A high pitched ringing sound was all that filled Ditzy's head. Then the harsh mechanical beep of a heart monitor. She felt the uncomfortably tough bed underneath her. She heard her own breathing. She tried to force her eyelids open, but only managed to catch a glimpse of the room she was in before her eyes shut again.
The room had white walls, adorned with all manner of medical posters. She deduced that she was in a hospital room, but she couldn't think of much else with the ringing that filled her every thought. She searched through the fog that had her mind in its grasp.
She decided to do a self-check. She moved her front legs: they moved, but had spots of pain scattered all over them. She stretched her hind legs: they felt better than her front, sore but no real pain. She turned onto her belly and opened her wings; she felt a burning of pain on her right wing. She managed to open her eyes for a quick look, and saw that the feathers on her right wing were slightly charred. She hurt all over, but otherwise she felt that she was in one piece.
That left her to worry about other things, like if Carson was okay, or if Macintosh was injured. Her heart sunk at the thought of Macintosh as she remembered the way he had been acting before the explosion. He had good reason to be angry, but Ditzy had looked him in the eye and told him the truth and he still didn't believe her… then again, he did save her from the explosion. Whether it had been only to save his son was yet to be seen.
Ditzy focused through the ringing and opened her eyes. The blinding light from the florescent bulbs overhead caused her to squint, but her eyes quickly adjusted to the light. She was indeed in a hospital room. Ditzy looked around: she was separated from another patient by a curtain. In the corner was a chair, which was occupied by Dinky, who was curled into a ball. On the side table was a mirror. She saw that she had a bandage wrapped on her left cheek and that her mane was burnt to about half its original length.
Ditzy sat up. She couldn't tell where she was: the window was covered by thick drapes. So she called very gently: "Dinky, hey, Dinky. Wake up, Muffin."
Dinky stirred from her sleep, and looked up. Her eyes went wide before she jetted over to Ditzy.
"Oh mommy... You’re okay....I thought you were d-d-dead..." Dinky started to cry. Ditzy took her daughter in a tight hug.
"Shhh...Shhh... I'm okay. Everything is going to be okay." Ditzy soothed Dinky. Dinky continued to cry into her mother's chest. Ditzy was sure everything was going to be okay, but she needed to calm her child.
Dinky blubbered on for a few minutes as Ditzy held her in a tight embrace as she gently rubbed Dinky's back. After a few minutes she started to calm down.
"Muffin, where is Carson?" Ditzy asked, even though she was afraid of the answer she would receive. Dinky wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I don't know." Dinky said. Ditzy looked around for something to call the nurse. She found a call button and pushed it, and it gave a slight ding in response.
In a few moments, a nurse that looked a lot like Nurse Redheart came in. "Dinky I told you to stop- oh you’re awake."
"Where am I?" Ditzy asked. The nurse went over to the window and opened the curtains. Ditzy saw the large buildings of Manehattan.
"Manehattan. Do you remember what happened?" The nurse asked. Ditzy thought for a moment, the last thing she remembered was Macintosh tackling her and then the explosion.
"All I remember is the explosion… then it's black." Ditzy said.
"That's not unusual." The nurse looked down at the clipboard that was attached to the end of the bed.
"Is my son okay?" Ditzy asked fearfully. She was terrified of the answer that she might receive; she didn't think she could take the loss.
"Your son..." The nurse looked down at the chart again. "Oh yes. It looks like he is in the infant care unit. Shattered wing."
Ditzy cringed. Pegasus wings were extremely sensitive and a shattered wing would hurt a lot, and for a long time. "Can I see him?"
"Well, let me get a doctor to give you a physical. If you check out all right you can go." The nurse said. It sounded like a suggestion but Ditzy knew it wasn't. She nodded and the nurse left to go fetch a doctor.
"Have you seen daddy, Muffin?" Ditzy asked.
"No." Dinky said quickly. "Auntie Carrot Top says I shouldn't."
That wasn't a good sign. Ditzy had come through the explosion mostly unscathed, but Macintosh had taken the brunt of the blast.
"Where is Auntie Carrot Top?" Ditzy questioned. Dinky's face scrunched up in thought.
"Last I saw she was with Peashooter." Dinky recalled. She rolled off Ditzy and onto the floor. "I'll go get them."
"Wait-" Ditzy started to say but Dinky was already gone. Ditzy looked around again. She pulled back the curtain that was beside her. The bed on the other side was empty. As she looked around the other side of the room, the doctor pony walked in. It was a mare that had a serious face and professional looking glasses with a name tag that read 'Dr. Cross.'
"Good day, I am Dr. Cross." The medical pony gestured for Ditzy to try and stand. Ditzy's muscles felt sore as she got to her hooves. "Alright you can stand, that's good."
The doctor shone a light in Ditzy's eyes, nodded and proceeded to do many more tests.
"Well, you seem to be in one piece and in control.... I'm going to release you." The doctor signed a piece of paper, then turned back to face Ditzy. "Do you have any questions?"
"Is my son going to be okay?" Ditzy asked again. Not that she didn't trust the information that she had received from the nurse, she just wanted a second opinion.
"Your son...Carson? Yes. Compound fracture in the lower wing and shattered upper wing, but he hasn't woken up yet, so we can see if anything else is wrong. Physically he is fine....on the other hoof your husband..." The doctor trailed off. Ditzy's eyes went wide with worry. "He's in the intensive care unit. He took a lot of shrapnel: eight hours in surgery to remove the shrapnel, and he had several broken bones."
"Is he going to make it?" Ditzy asked the dreaded question. The doctor gave her a gentle look, losing the cold professionalism that she had been trained to put on.
"We're not sure... If he were a lesser pony he would already be dead." The doctor said, then rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, realizing that her statement didn't help the situation any. "But with as strong as he looks I'm sure he could pull through."
"Can I see him?" Ditzy asked.
"Not at the moment. He's in surgery to get pins in his left hind leg." The medical mare said. Ditzy looked sadly down at the floor. "If you want, I can take you to see your son."
"I'd like that."
______
Ditzy felt her heart skip a beat when she saw him. He looked so peaceful even with a soft cast on his wing. His breathing was heavy with sleep. Ditzy put a hoof softly on his forehead. Ditzy felt guilty for having brought him along to the still, he could have gotten hurt a lot worse than he had.
Carson stirred in his sleep and his eyes fluttered open. He looked up at his mother for a moment, and then he started to cry. The way he cried hurt Ditzy. It wasn't his usual cry for his mother's attention; this was deep and full of real pain. Ditzy wished she could somehow comfort him, but she knew that if she tried to pick him up she would just hurt him more.
"Can you do anything?" Ditzy asked the doctor.
"We can't give him anything too strong, it could make him very sick." The doctor warned. Carson looked at his mother between cries. The look was full of pain and it broke at Ditzy's heart. "We can give him a little something to put him to sleep."
The doctor got a syringe and filled it with a liquid from a glass bottle. She poked it gently into his leg causing him to cry harder. She squeezed the syringe and the liquid pumped into his leg. It took a few minutes, but he stopped crying and fell into a drug induced sleep.
"There you are!" Ditzy heard a shrill female voice. Ditzy didn't even get to turn before she was embraced in a strong hug.
"Hey Carrot Top." Ditzy said quietly.
"Thank goodness you’re okay. Peashooter! She's in here." Carrot Top called. Peashooter walked into the room with a black eye and a smile. He was missing one of his teeth.
"I'll just step out for a moment." The doctor said, and then she left the room.
"Hey kid." Peashooter said, slight slur to his words. "Your husband packs a wallop. Gave me a concussion and knocked out a tooth."
"So...what happened, you know, after the explosion?" Ditzy asked.
"Well, we all heard the boom; everypony ran to see what happened. Apparently the propane tank got too hot and exploded. We found you three and made a quick decision that the doctor in Appaloosa didn't have the supplies to help you, so we decided to send you three to Manehattan. Peashooter here flew Carson here as fast as he could." Peashooter nodded overzealously: the concussion was affecting his metal state. "And we put you and Macintosh on the next train."
"How did Macintosh look?" Ditzy asked a touch of fear and nervousness in her voice.
Carrot Top looked back at Peashooter for help, but he had a dazed look in his eyes and a bubbly smile, his mind no longer on the conversation.
"I'm going to tell you the truth..." Carrot Top looked her friend straight in the eyes. "He...didn't look like he was going to make it."
Ditzy buried her head in Carrot Top's shoulder. She held back her sobs for as long as she could, which wasn't very long. Carrot Top rubbed her back gently to provide support.
The doctor stepped into the room again. She coughed to get Ditzy's attention and said: “I can take you to see him now. I can't promise that he'll be responsive though."
"O-okay..." Ditzy stammered.
_________
Ditzy stood at the wooded door that separated the hall from the room that held her husband. The intensive care unit didn't inspire confidence in what condition Macintosh was in. She saw ponies attached to more machines then she had ever seen before. Carrot Top stood next to her and placed a supportive hoof on her shoulder.
"I'll go in with you if you want." Carrot Top said supportively.
"No, thank you, but no." Ditzy almost whispered. Carrot Top nodded and backed away. Ditzy took a deep breath and opened the door, then closed it quickly behind her.
She stopped dead when she saw him. He was attached to an oxygen tank and a heart monitor with its slight beep. He had an IV in his leg and he had scars of varying lengths and number of stiches. Macintosh had a lot of burns on his side. Ditzy wasn't sure what sort of mental state he was in, but she decided to say something.
"Macintosh?" Ditzy said quietly. His jaw tightened, so he was awake and he was in a good enough mental state to recognize who she was. "I know you’re awake, Mac."
His eyes opened slowly. He still had a pained look in his eyes. His breathing wasn't deep and steady like what Ditzy used to fall asleep to: it was shallow and shaky. He reached up and removed his breathing mask.
"How is Carson?" He asked. Ditzy was kind of relieved that he didn't just tell her to go away.
"His wing was shattered." She cringed when she said it: thinking about it was bad enough.
"Painful?" He asked, noticing Ditzy's cringing. Ditzy nodded. "P-poor boy."
"The doctor says he's going to be alright..." Ditzy trailed off.
"How are you?" He asked, and that caught Ditzy off guard.
"Not much more than bumps and bruises... Thanks to you." Ditzy said softly. He closed his eyes for a long moment.
"Sugar Cube.... Did you do it?" He stared right at her. He didn't want to believe that she had cheated on him, but he wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
"Mac, I did not do it. Peashooter took me to bed after I ran my head into a tree." That got Macintosh to raise an eyebrow. "Then he watched over me most of the night to make sure I was okay, but then fell asleep."
"Okay." Macintosh agreed. Ditzy took a few steps towards him.
"Why didn't you believe me before this happened?" Ditzy asked, relief filling her voice.
"Ah was heartbroken... And mighta been drunk." Macintosh admitted.
"Why believe me now?" Ditzy took a seat on the edge of his bed.
"Ditzy...Ah don't think Ah'm going to make it.-" Macintosh was cut off.
"Don't say that Mac. You're going to be fine." Ditzy interrupted. She felt a tear roll down her cheek. On some level she knew his chances were slim.
"Sugar, we both know that Ah don't look good." Macintosh said grimly. They sat in silence for a long time. Ditzy thought she could see the strength leaving him and his life slowly fading away.
"Look at the mess we've gotten ourselves into." Ditzy mumbled. She put a hoof on his leg, receiving a cringe in return.
"Ah’m sorry, Ditzy for... this." He tried to sound strong, but his voice was waning.
"It's not your fault... It's the damned photographer's." Ditzy comforted him. "You just focus on getting better."
The beep on the heartbeat monitor was getting slower and irregular. She saw that Macintosh heard it as well.
"Ah just wish Ah didn't had to work so much before....this." Macintosh said. "Ah realized Ah haven’t spent any time with ya for months. What kind of husband never makes time for his wife?"
"You were just trying to make ends meet and you are a great husband." Ditzy looked down at the floor. She felt more tears start to form on the edges of her eyes. "I'm sorry for yelling at you for accidentally giving Carson whisky."
"Ya were just looking out for his health, and ya were right: Ah should have just given him pain medication." Macintosh sighed.
"Mac...you are a great dad." Ditzy felt a sob choke her.
Macintosh laid his head back down. His words tugged at her heart: "Ah wish Ah could tell how much Ah love ya...how much Ah love our family."
"I know Mac." Ditzy felt herself breaking up. "P-please ju-just pull through..."
"Ah'll try my best, Sugar Cube." Macintosh gave a weak smile back. "If Ah...don't make it...don't give up, Carson and Dinky need ya, Sugar. Promise me that."
"I...I l-l-love you." Ditzy said between heavy breaths of sobs, and kissed him.
"Ah love you too." He responded. He coughed: it was scratchy and his breathing became shallow. Mac put his oxygen mask back on and sank back into his rest.
She started to walk away. She opened the door to leave, only the beep of the heart monitor breaking the silence. She felt her heart drop, as the beep became weak and unsteady.
Dinky was waiting for her as she closed the door behind her.
"Is daddy going to be okay?" Dinky asked in a very small voice. Ditzy wrapped her daughter in a hug.
"I don't know, Muffin, I don't know." Ditzy started to sob.
Thank for reading.