Married to Her Job, Single in Her Heart

by Revenant Wings

Chapter 28 - Physical Recovery

28.

Even with the surprising amount of strength that Twilight had in her first day of being awake, she was still weak. The strain ended up causing her to fall asleep a few minutes after Redheart left the room and stay asleep until morning. Redheart returned in the morning to help care for the now awake Twilight, keeping her attached to the IV for nutrition and recording the times she spent awake and asleep. Despite being able to talk for her first day, Redheart noticed Twilight had regressed back to ear flicks afterwards.

For the first few days, Twilight hardly moved or spoke. Redheart recorded her staying awake for an hour at the most and sleeping for periods of a few hours each. If she wanted a doctor for anything, she often grunted or moaned or alerted passing nurses with a magical spark, the limits of her magic at that time. Redheart still kept checks of her vital signs, but never reported anything to Doctor Stable while Twilight was awake, waiting until she had gone to sleep again before leaving the room or speaking with the doctor or another nurse.

After Twilight awoke, Redheart often found herself spending most of the day at the hospital, even on days where she would have been off. Doctor Stable had diagnosed Twilight with mild post-traumatic amnesia; the only ponies she recognized were Redheart and Doctor Stable; upon a first meeting with Rainbow Dash and Applejack trying to apologize to her, she turned to Redheart and gave two flicks of the ear.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash,” Redheart said. “She’s been in a coma for eleven weeks. It’s not uncommon for comatose ponies to have some amnesia after awakening. She can barely talk as is.”

“But I thought with her being awake that she would be back to her normal self!” Rainbow Dash protested.

“Not always,” Redheart told her. “If it was a few days long, she would recognize you by now. However, even an alicorn can have problems with memory after eleven weeks of not being fully conscious. Maybe after a few weeks we can get her to recognize you again.”

Rainbow Dash pouted and went off.

Applejack smiled. “It’s good to know she’s on the mend, at least,” she said. “Don’t be mad with Dash, though; she just thinks life doesn’t move fast enough for her sometimes.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Redheart said. “In the meantime, we’ll be contacting her parents to let her know of her awakened state. Again, we can’t have too many ponies coming in to see her all at once; can’t have the shock at this stage.”

“If this means keepin’ Pinkie Pie away from the hospital, I’ll do the best I can. She’s been waitin’ for her to wake up for weeks.”

“Even with her waking up, it may take weeks for her to fully recover,” Redheart said. “Just tell Pinkie to keep that party waiting for her for a little while longer,” she added with a wink.

Applejack smiled. “I don’t know what she would have done without you,” she said. “And I don’t even want to think about what could have happened with Twilight. Just keep takin’ care of her and bring her back to us soon.”

“I’ll keep trying,” Redheart said.

A few days later, Twilight was finally able to speak again and was able to eat and drink some food, in addition to being taken off the ventilator and IV bags. Redheart watched and helped her as she ate a soup and drank a glass of water with some medicines dissolved in it; she ate maybe half the bowl before Redheart had to take it back. Even so, it was a remarkable step, and one step closer to Twilight’s recovery.

Doctor Stable again took scans of Twilight and examined the results before coming in to tell Twilight and Redheart. “It seems that Twilight has around a ninety-five percent chance of making a full recovery,” he said, “with a seventy percent chance of only a partial recovery. It seems like she’ll at least be able to walk and talk and do basic magic again, but we’ll have to make sure she doesn’t stay up too late or it may damage her brain again.”

“What about my experiments?” Twilight asked.

“I’m afraid they’ll have to be cut short for the time being,” Doctor Stable said. “It is possible at this stage to overthink, especially with you using magic. Again, you’ll only be able to levitate one item at a time for a while.”

Twilight was downcast.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Redheart said as Doctor Stable left the room. “You’ve already made some big steps towards recovering. It just takes time.”

“I just hope I’m not a burden on Celestia after this,” Twilight said.

“You aren’t a burden on anyone,” Redheart said gently. “It’s our job to take care of you, and Celestia understands the physical troubles you have. For now, our first priority is making sure you get well.”

Twilight nodded. “I want to walk again.”

“Not so fast,” Redheart told her. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll bring out a walker, but you won’t be able to use four legs so easily.”

Twilight nodded again, then smiled at Redheart. “Maybe not,” she agreed, “but at least I’ll have someone to help me.”

Redheart smiled at her.

The next day, Redheart did bring out the walker. Doctor Stable came in to supervise and helped lift Twilight off the bed with his magic. Gently, Twilight’s back two hooves were set down on the floor and her front two hooves were set on the walker.

“Alright, Twilight,” Redheart instructed, “lean forward and put your weight on your front hooves. Very slowly, take your back right hoof and try and move it forwards. Don’t lift it so high off the ground, you’ll lose your balance! There we go. Now, bring it forward and set it back down again. Now let’s do it again with the left. Lift it up only a little bit, bring it forward, and set it back down. How are you doing so far?”

“Wobbly,” Twilight said, “but alright.”

“It takes time,” Doctor Stable said, “but we need to keep your energy up. Let’s see if you can do another step on your own.”

Twilight took four tentative steps. The adult alicorn was like a young filly learning to walk for the first time, every step taking a few seconds for her to process the motions required for each foot on its own. One time of the four she lifted one leg up and tried moving the other one, and Redheart had to go and pull the right one forward and set it down. After four steps, the alicorn’s head was poking out into the hallway from the bed.

“Six steps, with three on your own,” Doctor Stable said as he levitated Twilight back to the bed. “Not bad. How are you doing? Any pain? Are you tired?”

“My legs felt weak,” Twilight said. “But I don’t feel too tired.”

“Good. We’ll be doing this more for the next few days.”

Later that day a book was brought in for Twilight. The alicorn read the book for a little while, enjoying being able to do something that she loved after so long of lying still in the bed. After half an hour, Redheart came in and set the book out of Twilight’s reach and turned on the air conditioner, after which Twilight fell asleep a few minutes later.

The next day started a regime to get Twilight back in condition. She was woken up about mid-morning and was given breakfast to eat. It started simple with eggs and potatoes, peas, and carrots cooked until they were soft enough for Twilight to chew, along with a glass of orange juice. After breakfast, Twilight got to read for half an hour, then she was taken into the hall outside her room for walking practice. She would walk using the walker until she told Redheart and Doctor Stable that her legs were hurting her, then Doctor Stable would lift her back into the bed. By now it was usually lunchtime and Twilight would be served soup and soft wheat bread. After which, Twilight normally fell back asleep for a while and Redheart would take her vital signs and check her for symptoms of any possible diseases that could have set in. By evening she would wake again and the whole process would restart.

It was a joy to the whole hospital staff to see Twilight even being able to walk with a walker after the time she had spent unconscious. Every day she progressed a little further down the hall and around the building. Every day the food she ate got harder and harder to chew and she ate it fine. Every day she could read a little more without feeling confused or hurt or tired. Eventually, two weeks after starting the regime, Twilight could stand and walk on all four legs without needing assistance, her diet was back to normal, and she could even do basic levitations.

Nearly sixteen weeks after entering the hospital for severe trauma to her head, Doctor Stable deemed Twilight Sparkle fit for release from Ponyville Hospital.

Except for one thing.

“She won’t be able to take care of herself still,” Doctor Stable said. “While her recovery is astounding and I can say with near complete certainty that she will make the full recovery, the Golden Oaks Library may not be the best place for her to stay alone.”

“Ah, yes,” Redheart said, prying her own memory. “The building has three floors, doesn’t it? There are two above ground and a basement if I remember correctly.”

“Yes. I wouldn’t trust Twilight with the stairs in the house yet. If Spike returns it will be a bit more comforting, but I don’t know if he would react to Twilight’s other more complicated problems as easily.”

A light clicked on in Redheart’s head. “Let me take care of Twilight,” she asked Doctor Stable. “As part of my work, I could go over and take care of Twilight during the day, make sure she’s asleep, and be able to report back on her condition. She trusts me more than any of the other nurses at the hospital and I’d be able to take care of the medical issues as well as companionship needs and help around the library.”

Doctor Stable smiled. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“I’m certain.” Redheart smiled. “I wasn’t hired by you for nothing, now was I?”

Doctor Stable’s eyes lighted up. “You have both Twilight’s trust and my own. Starting two days from now, you are Twilight’s live-in nurse. A little extra will go into your pay for this job since you’ll be taking care of Twilight’s home as well as your own, but I know you can do it.”

Comments

[ARTL]

Keep it up! You are making wonderful progress.

[Revenant Wings]

3235708
I'm also about 8 to 9 chapters away from being done. So... about 2 weeks.

[Aura Zero]

.......... no... this setup is all too familiar......