//------------------------------// // Chapter 21 - Getting Away // Story: Married to Her Job, Single in Her Heart // by Revenant Wings //------------------------------// 21. Despite Twilight’s risen heart rate, she had yet to open her eyes and awaken. She was, however, able to make small movements of her hooves and ears, and scans of her bones showed a near constant magical energy had staved off most of the effects of atrophy. Even with this helping the doctors, the bones in her wings and her hooves were weak and it was likely she wouldn’t be able to stand on her own immediately after awakening. With Twilight’s condition increasing, Doctor Stable decided to undergo the still controversial operation of relocating Twilight’s wings. To allow time to see if Twilight awoke, the date wasn’t for a few days after her heart rate rising. Redheart kept Twilight updated on everything at the hospital surrounding her condition, and decided to tell Twilight about the surgery. “Twilight,” she said. “We’re going to try and relocate your wings with magic. We’re hoping that the shock isn’t too much that you fall back.” Twilight reached out a hoof towards Redheart, patting the area on the hospital bed next to her. Redheart placed her own hoof where Twilight had pointed to and felt the unicorn rubbing up and down her hoof. “Are you awake?” Two flicks of her ear, followed by a relatively weak spark from her horn. She was currently using magic, but likely didn’t have the strength to actually communicate further. “You want me to be there with you while they do the operation?” One flick. “Alright,” Redheart said. “If it helps you, I’ll be in the room if my superior allows it.” There was a soft knock at the door to the room and Doctor Stable peeked his head in. “I hate to interrupt the moment, but we have the results of the brain scans,” he reported to Redheart. “You’ll have to come down to the lab; we can’t quite release them yet.” Redheart nodded and turned back to the mare. “I’ll be back in a minute, Twilight.” Two flicks of the ear. “Doctor Stable has finished scanning your brain. It’ll tell us how strong you’re going to be mentally when you wake up.” There was a pause before Twilight flicked her ear once. Redheart smiled and followed Doctor Stable out of the room and through the halls to the lab. “It seems you’ve managed communication with Twilight,” Doctor Stable said. “So, how is our mare doing lately? Has she decided to awaken yet?” “She seems to want to, but her energy isn’t enough yet. A few more days of rest and her eyes should be ready to open. And it isn’t hard to speak to her, just to get a response. We’ve worked something out. One flick of her ear means yes or happy, two flicks for no or dissatisfied.” Stable laughed. “Interesting. Well, at least she’s on the mend, and the lab reports are good for the most part.” Doctor Stable opened the door and led Redheart into a dimly-lit room filled with lighted areas on the walls that had semi-transparent screens showing the outline of a unicorn head as seen from the top and sides, horn included. “I won’t bother you too much with the charts, but with the exception of one area she seems to be alright. Speaking will be on track shortly after she gains the energy to do so, as will movement once she starts exercising again. From the way she’s been acting in her brain ever since the heart rate went back up, I’d say she came out pretty well for as bad as it was.” “Hold on a minute, Doctor,” Redheart interrupted. “You said this was with an exception. What is the exception?” “Advanced magic,” Doctor Stable explained. “With the area of the brain that hit and the broken horn, she won’t be able to do much besides very simplistic levitating for a while and it might fizzle out on her. Teleportation is out of the question and I wouldn’t combine two or more magic spells together at one time, even if that’s levitating two different objects, until she is well on the road to recovery.” Redheart nodded. “She won’t be happy to hear the news. I think she’ll manage, though. Oh, and she had a request. She wanted me to be present during the operation to relocate her wings.” Doctor Stable smiled. “That’s easy enough to allow. It might even help with keeping her from going into shock. I do have another unicorn coming down to help with the relocation, though, so please keep this thing quiet for the time being, as no other nurses will be allowed in the room at that time.” Redheart nodded again. “I will.” The two walked out of the lab and darkroom and started walking back through the halls. “I do have to ask what you currently think of Twilight,” Doctor Stable said. “You’ve managed to spend a lot of time with her lately ever since the heart rate rose.” Redheart sighed. “It’s not exactly an easy question, Doctor. I mean, we might have something of a system to communicate, but it’s not exactly an intelligent or sophisticated one. It runs purely off the fact that she can respond only to very basic questions or stimuli. I should like to try and get to know her once she awakens, however.” Doctor Stable nodded. “You didn’t tell her about your jealousy, have you?” Redheart shook her head. “That is the sort of issue I personally think would be better if I talked to her about it face to face. It would be hard to explain if she didn’t realize where I was coming from, and I won’t get a decent reaction if she can hardly make a face towards me.” “Well, then, where exactly did the idea to get to know her better come from? It’s not like you were interested much in her at the beginning of this.” Doctor Stable stopped once he realized that Nurse Redheart was not walking beside him any longer. He turned around to see she had stopped in the middle of the hallway and was staring at him with a mixture of accusation and confusion. He playfully smirked at her. “You should have been named Nightingale.” Redheart was taken aback as she continued following the Doctor. “That whole adage isn’t exactly true, you know.” “Perfectly aware,” Doctor Stable replied as he barely held in his laughter. “But still, you must admit your concern for Twilight does not have very much grounding besides you taking care of her for the past nine weeks.” “What about what I told you earlier about my jealousies?” “All well and good, but it’s not a background of years and years of knowing each other on a more personal level. I will say that perhaps the change of pace and a new face will be good for you.” Redheart gulped. “…I was actually considering moving back to Trotsworth.” Doctor Stable stopped in his tracks. “…you what?” “Back when I was at the Academy, I had an internship at a hospital in Trotsworth. They said with my grades and previous experience that I could move back there and they would set me up with a well-paying job. I… I’ve had too many memories about this place that I would want to get away from and I’m actually considering it.” Doctor Stable was now trying hard not to look aghast. “Redheart, do you really think that would be an appropriate thing to do at this moment?” “What do you mean?” “You’ve been taking care of Twilight for ten weeks, have started to consider trying to become friends with her when she awakens from her coma, and you want to move away?” “It’s not an immediate thing,” Redheart replied. “It’s not like it takes days to move. I’d have to find a place there, let my current landlord know, arrange a deal with the landlord there, and arrange a move date. It takes a few months.” “But…” “I’ve had too many problems here in Ponyville lately,” Redheart said irritably. “I just saw my old stallionfriend, we got back together for about eight weeks, and then he cheated on me. I just want to get out of here and away from him.” Doctor Stable blinked. “You never told me that part…” “Well, now you know. That’s half the reason I’ve been so irritable and slow lately.” Doctor Stable looked around nervously. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t try and stop you if that’s what you want. But please, do think it over. At least wait until Twilight has completely recovered and is released before you start actually thinking about moving.” Redheart didn’t respond. A few days later, a unicorn doctor came into the hospital from Canterlot. He met with Doctor Stable and they talked for a little bit, then Stable called for Redheart to join him and the other doctor as they went to Twilight’s room. Redheart explained the conditions of Twilight’s coma to the doctor and how they were willing to try and relocate the wings now that her heart rate had risen and they weren’t afraid of her falling into a worse condition. After Redheart’s explanation, scans were taken of the wing joints and the two physicians talked for a while about the procedure. After a few hours, they returned to Twilight’s room and brought her to the operating rooms along with Redheart, who helped attached the ventilator and the electrocardiograph up to Twilight before taking one of Twilight’s hooves in her own as the doctors began the procedure. After about half an hour, Twilight was taken back to her room in the emergency ward with her wings back in place. While she had suffered a bit of a loss to the heart rate during the procedure, it was brought back up a few minutes later with Redheart’s consoling her. After Twilight was back in her room with the IV bags attached, Redheart’s shift ended and went to clean herself off. As she left the hospital, she passed Doctor Stable taking care of paperwork at the front desk. She could feel him watching her as she left and she didn’t like it at all. Not because it was angry or looking down on her, but because it was a look of pity, and she had quite enough of that already.