Chapter 26. Road To Recovery
"Light. It was an accident." Roll spoke up. "You wouldn't have done that on purpose."
"It still happened." Light mumbled. "She's in the hospital because of me." Her voice sounded so tired, she hadn't spoken much since the incident. Not even Lyra could get her to cheer up or break the funk. The others chose to give her time to herself, Roll didn't want to leave her alone…but she was starting to see why they were letting her have her space. She wasn't responsive and was just getting more annoyed and tired.
"I'll leave you be." She sighed. "Call us if you need us, okay?"
"Mm." Light grunted.
The shorter girl pushed off the floor, turning back to see the blonde, hugging her knees. She turned to the door, heading out of the back room in the school's gym. She made no effort to return to class, dipping out one of the back doors.
'She's gotta hear it from the horse's mouth. That'll fix 'er.' Roll thought, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets as she walked. Just had to make it off campus and head into the city.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" The voice of Light's snooty friend asked from behind her. Roll groaned, turning to face her. If the DJ didn't seem to have her eye, Roll would have given flirting a shot. However…the disapproval evident on her features clearly hinted at the futility.
"For a walk, darlin', why?" She asked with a shrug.
"We may not be close, but I assure you I am not stupid." Octavia said with a frown. "Lightning accidentally hurts someone and the two of you disappear. We know she's beating herself up about it, then you decide to ditch school?" She noted each point as she stepped closer to Roll. "What are you up to?"
Roll now understood why Lyra or Vinyl would stop whatever nonsense they were up to when Octavia spoke up. She had an intimidating aura about her, without even raising a hand or threatening violence.
"I was giving her space. Isn't that what you wanted?" She asked, shrugging.
"You know that this will only make her feel worse if you get in trouble." Octavia noted.
"You just seem to have all the answers then? You know how everything is gonna shake out before you even try?" Roll asked, growing annoyance in her tone. Octavia simply took a breath.
"I understand that you're having trouble not knowing what to do, but turning that frustration onto someone trying to help is not the answer."
"Bloody know-it-all." The delinquent sighed. "So. What do you propose I do?"
"Go to class. Get through the day. Wait for Light to come to us." She said, crossing her arms. "Coddle her and she'll get upset, ignore her and you lose her, you have to respect her process, just as you'd expect someone to respect your own if you were going through a difficult time."
"Just sit on my fucking hands while she's spiraling? Choice advice." She scoffed. "She's gone through so much shit already, and we just leave her to stew in her blame? It don't sit right with me."
"Rolling Thunder. I've said my piece. If you want to ignore me, we both know I couldn't physically stop you if I tried. Just think before you go off on your own." She said with a frown. "Your actions as someone closest to her can and will affect how she handles the outcome.
Annoyance built in the taller girl as she clenched her fist. She stomped to the musician, glaring down at her. Octavia seemed to flinch back just slightly. Roll sighed. "Sorry." She mumbled. "I just-"
"It's okay."
"I wouldn't have hit you or anything, you know that right?" She asked.
"I was pretty sure you wouldn't, but I was willing to risk it." Octavia said with a small grin.
"Cheeky." Roll chuckled. "Let's get back to the school thing then." She shrugged.
"She'll be back soon, it's not as bad as it could have been, luckily." Lemon said with a weak, but hopeful smile. Sour didn't perk up at all. She continued staring out the window of the lunchroom. Lemon's smile faltered. "Sour-"
"And you're just okay with what they did to her?" Another voice spoke up from behind her. The Shadowbolts jumped at the sudden question. Royal rested her hands on the table as she leaned in. "Indigo gets fucked up and you just sit here hoping things get better?"
Sour's expression changed, sitting between them, she could feel the air shift. "You're right, Royal." She spoke up with a scowl.
"We should return the favor." The athlete said simply. "An eye for an eye."
Sour's anger faltered momentarily. "What?"
"Are you out of your mind?" Sugarcoat asked.
"What?" She asked with a shrug. "They did it to one of ours-"
"If you think that was intentional, you're a bigger fool than I thought." The blunt girl spoke, rising from her seat. "You play the fucking game, for you to not accept that an accident like this could happen speaks volumes for how ignorant you are." Sour, Lemon and Sunny all watched in shock as Sugarcoat's usually calm demeanor was thrown to the side.
"Stop calling me stupid, you little-"
"Then act like you have some goddamn sense! You're going to go out of your way to hurt someone for an accident? Have you actually taken the time to assess what happened the other night, or are you still just blindly reacting?" She asked, her composure seemed to slowly work its way back as Royal was put on the defensive.
"Why aren't you more upset than I am?" The taller girl asked. "She took out my captain, but that was your friend." She looked at Sunny. "You oughta be the most pissed, but you're sitting at school without a care in the world."
Sunny blinked. "I can't do anything for her at the moment, but I know one thing. Planning to hurt someone in her name would only make the situation worse." She spoke calmly. "Sugarcoat, dear, please. Take a moment."
Sugarcoat huffed, returning to her seat, adjusting her glasses with two fingers. "I apologize for that outburst…" She said quietly.
"I can't believe this. Some friends you are." Royal said, crossing her arms.
"You're not listening, dude." Lemon said simply. "You're looking at this all wrong."
"So you keep saying. I know what I saw, she kicked her knee in." Royal said. "And when I called her out, her lap dog attacked me."
"This is hopeless." Sour grumbled. "Why don't you just think about it until Indigo gets out and talk to her yourself? You can run this whole 'revenge' plan by her."
Royal squinted at the girl.
"No? It's almost like you think she wouldn't agree or something…" Sour scoffed. "And here I thought for a moment you didn't have your head up your own ass."
"You want me to knock you down a peg, brat?"
"Stop!" Lemon groaned. "Both of you. This is ridiculous." Sour seemed to wince at those words. "Royal, you have a right to be upset. Your plans are misguided and you won't find support here. Please go."
She scoffed. "Whatever. I'm telling you, something is wrong about this." She said before turning to leave the table.
Lemon slumped back into her chair with a sigh. "Geez…"
"Sorry." Sour said quietly.
"You've been doing so well, why does Royal get under your skin so easily?" She asked. "And you agreed with her at the start…"
"I don't know why, she just makes me want to fight her, and at the start…I didn't know she was trying to get into a fight. I just-" She looked down. "I want to do something that isn't just waiting."
"That's all we can do. Don't lose yourself to impatience." Sugarcoat spoke up.
"Speaking of. What happened there, Sugarcoat?" Sunny asked.
"I lost my composure, simple as that." She crossed her arms.
"You very rarely use such harsh language, that was pretty impressive." Sunny noted.
"I'm expecting Royal to finally have enough of my mouth soon, I've told her off twice already." Sugarcoat thought aloud.
"Probably. But if she does, I'll have something to say about it." Sour assured.
"How is she doing?" Lemon asked, looking over at Sunny.
"It's gonna be a struggle, but she'll be okay. She's going to be on crutches for a bit." Sunny said with a frown. "She's at home for now, she hasn't spoken much since coming back, outside of pleasantries for helping her get around, she's been keeping to herself."
"What kind of attention did she need?" Sugarcoat asked.
"I'm not sure. I got pushed out after we got to the hospital. The next time I saw her was a few hours after. Her leg was wrapped and she had a brace on her knee."
"What was it, officially?" Lemon asked.
"Fractured patella. A broken kneecap, basically." Sunny explained. "Mom has helped replace her bandages for the last few days. She's going back in a few more days to get the staples removed."
"Dang." Lemon frowned. "Do you think she'd be okay with us visiting?"
"I'd give her a little more time." Sour said, crossing her arms. "If Sunny can't get her to cheer up, we have no chance."
"Yeah. You're right. She lives with her and can't get her to respond…" Lemon sighed.
"She's strong. She'll make it past this, we'll just have to be ready if she asks for our help." Sugarcoat said.
Indigo stared out of the window of her bedroom, with a deep inhale, she sighed dejectedly.
A gentle knock at her door made her turn to look over.
"Hey, kiddo." Solar said with a hopeful smile. "I'll be looking after you today, Cerise has work."
She gave a nod to at least know she was acknowledging his words.
"Maybe we could watch some old matches if you get bored." He suggested.
Indigo looked back, giving him a small smile.
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Yup, definitely not taking it well in the slightest. A fractured kneecap. I'm not big on medicine but I'll guess that's not something you just recover from. Indigo definitely won't be in the phisical field anymore which is a shame considering who she is.
Also, really appreciate that you gave time to show the other characters dealing with this. You're right that even if Indigo is the main, the others are just as important.
Keep up the good work
I’ll be honest it’s not what I was expecting but it’s good to see, how this has affected characters other than indigo and the other bolts.
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Well, my initial plan was something much worse, but after looking into the repercussions and healing time, I had to shift a few things around.
Thank you for reading!
11342173
Things get pretty rough for Indigo. But her recovery may do her some good. Things might just go on an upswing for her from here.
Also I can’t believe this story is almost 2 years old! It’s the the only thing keeping me interested in FIMFICTION atm, after I’ve read the current chapter I spend the next month imagining what could happen in the next one. ❤️
11342228
Aww, that's very sweet. That's one of the only goals I've ever had with writing. Hard to believe it's that old, but it's gone through two jobs and being unemployed cycles.
Thank you so much for taking the time and i'm very happy that you enjoy what I came up with.
11342288
I have a question: you said this chapter was going to much darker than it actually is, what was the original idea for this chapter? Xx
11342406
I dont mind answering questions at all.
The original injury was going to be a torn ACL, which is like...muscle coming off the bone. Its like a year long recovery process, I dunno if I will, but that may come back up at some point.
It was too long for the setting I'm working with. Fractured patella is more manageable at around 6-8 weeks of recovery, but boy is it a rough thing to work through.
11342418
Yeah doesn’t sound fun indigo has long and hard road ahead of her!
Does Royal actually care about indigo or is she just looking for an excuse to fight someone? I can’t tell.
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Maybe a bit of both? We'll see more of her as we go along.