Eveything Changes but Some Things Don't

Chapter 36: The Hospital Proposal

Little did Rokk know but Donovan had been one of the volunteers helping the heroes seeing as he was in Monterey, CA for a business meeting and he was standing close enough to the three to hear Rokk call The Fírinne, Ariel.

“But not just any Ariel, his Ariel. Ariel Kent?! Ariel Kent was The Fírinne! He was dating the Fírinne?! Why didn’t she tell me?! You know why you idiot. She was afraid you’d either not want to be with her or want to be with her for other reasons than herself. Though it would be cool to tell the guys in the lounge I’m dating the Fírinne to get ‘em off my case. But I can understand why she wouldn’t want to tell me, but then again if I’m going to be in a relationship with someone I would like to know something that important about the person. Now she’s hurt bad, real bad! I could lose her before I can show her I don’t mind if she kept something like that from me, though I do mind a little bit. Show her I can understand why but if we want this to go anywhere she needs to be honest with me. God, I love her and I’d hate to lose her before I really got to know her. I’d hate to lose her period, I love her. Maybe it’s time I asked her what I’ve been meaning to ask her for awhile now? I have got to get to the hospital. Now!” Donovan kept thinking.

The hospital…

Donovan was grabbing nurses, doctors, orderlies, anyone and everyone asking where the Fírinne’s room was. He was getting desperate when finally in an ICU hallway he finally spotted Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad. He rushed to them yelling, “How is she?! Can I see?!”

The two young men turned to him confused but came back with the practiced quotes that had become second nature to them when dealing with admirers or reporters which they thought Donovan was.

“The Fírinne is a bit beat up right now but she’ll be back to patrol the skies soon enough. No need to worry yourself sir,” Rokk replied.

The doctors wish her to go undisturbed so if you’ll just give us your name we’ll be sure to tell the Fírinne you were concerned and she’ll be glad to write you a thank you when she can,” Garth finished.

“Guys, it’s okay. I know and I won’t tell anyone. I know The Fírinne is Ariel. I’m Donovan Lachlan,” Donovan whispered to the two.

“Donovan? Oh, you’re the new boyfriend. It’s nice to meet you. The circumstances aren’t the best but it’s nice to meet you anyways,” Garth laughed.

“Same here. So…can I see her?”

“Well, let’s wait until the doctors come out and we’ll ask them.” Rokk said tensing. Rokk knew Ariel hadn’t had the best of luck with guys for a long time and he was quite protective of his mentor/friend.

“Of course.”

So there the three stood in an awkward silence that Garth tried to break with the odd joke every once in awhile until a young lady doctor came out of the room. She looked to the men waiting for news. Then she faced Rokk and stated seriously, “She was pretty beat up and that last wound and the blood loss did a lot of damage. It was dicey but she’s stable now. She could probably go home and mend quite well on her own, but we’d like it if she stayed at least the night and she’s agreed thankfully. We’ll be giving her a strict rehab schedule and medication regime that we want her to follow to the T, make sure she does. You know how she is…”

“Yeah we do,” the two heroes said smirking and then Rokk said, “Thanks Doctor Rain. We’ll make sure she does as she’s been told. Promise.”

“Don’t promise what only she can’t keep. Just try to remind her every once in a while of her new medical rules until I give her the all clear,” the doctor smiled and walked away but as she turned the corner she yelled, “Oh and boys…”

“Yeah?”

“Good work out there. She’s proud, even if she won’t say it.”

“We know,” they smiled.

A few minutes later a nurse came out of the Fírinne’s room. Smiling she said, “You can go in but only for a few minutes each. She needs to rest.”

“Okay,” all three said.

And then Donovan said, “You two can go first. I’ll wait.”

“Okay, if you’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I need to get myself together anyways.”

“Okay,” and the boys went inside the room. They were in the room for maybe 5 to 10 minutes and then they came out telling Donovan he could go in.

He asked if they would stay and they smirked saying, “We have orders to get ‘our asses out there and help those people’. So we got to get to it.”

So with a small laugh Donovan watched the two men leave and then went into Ariel’s hospital room to find Ariel lying in the hospital bed resting. He knew the doctors must have used something with Green Kryptonite in it to help get the IV’s in and all that because it may not of hurt her or made her sick like it did her dad but it did weaken her force field. He’d seen the holographs of her dad and even her own fights.

“Hey, I guess you figured it out,” a tired voice said.

“Yeah well I am pretty smart but it kinda helped that I was close by when your pals called your name and rushed you here. You may want to talk to them about that, it could cause problems if the world knew who you were.”

“I’ll get right on that,” she laughed. She loved how they snarked at each other, their banter was fun.

“So…you know.”

“Yeah I do…I just…”

“You don’t want to be with me anymore because you’ll worry too much. You want to be the tough one in the relationship because guys should be tough…”

“Would you shut up?!”

“I would kick your butt for telling me to shut up if it weren’t for all these tubes with sedatives and pain killers they’re pouring into me,” Ariel commented motioning to all the tubes with her arms slightly.

“If you would have let me finish you would know I was going to say I just don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me? And plus I haven’t been the tough or in charge one throughout this whole thing we have. You’ve made sure of that by keeping yourself separate from me the one way you can, by secrets. Why would being tough matter to me? I like tough girls and really I can’t get any tougher than the Fírrine,” he replied coming to sit by her hospital bed and taking her hand in his.

“True,” Ariel replied quietly as she smiled softly at him.

“Ariel, I was actually going to ask you this in a few weeks or so but this seems like the right time to me”

“What?”

“Do you want to move in together?”

“Move in together? Aren’t we rushing things a bit?” she laughed trying to cover her unease.

“I really don’t think we are, but I’ll let you think about it. I should let you rest…so I’ll go back to my hotel and sleep there, but I’ll be back in the morning okay?”

“Okay?” Ariel said softly but when he was opening the door to her room she called out, “Let’s do it.”

“What?”

“Let’s move in together. What could be the harm? We practically live together now anyways.”

“You sure? I wouldn’t want to pressure you into something…”

“Do I look like I could be pressured into something I wasn’t ready for?”

“Well…” he said smirking at her.

“Don’t answer that. I mean usually, on regular basis not when I’m weakened by a fight and green K laced tubes.”

“Usually, no you’re not. Okay if your sure. When we get back to Metropolis we can start looking for a place that’s neither yours or mine but ours.”

“Okay,” Ariel replied quietly letting him think she was getting tired again and not hiding her unease yet again.

She had never moved out of her place that used to be her parents’ before and maybe that was another reason things never worked out with her other relationships. Maybe this would be a good thing. But as Donovan left and Ariel was left alone with her thoughts they drifted back to what the doctor had told her earlier that day.

“Ariel was in a foggy haze. She knew she was in pain and hurt badly but she couldn’t feel it. She knew there were people working, talking around her but she could only hear muffled noises. She knew there was a huge battle but couldn’t remember what had happened or where she was. Her body was weighed down and she couldn’t move much when she tried. She slowly moved her fingers and tried to open her eyes, but her body wouldn’t do what she wanted it too.

Finally after what felt like forever the voices were becoming clearer. She could make out the voice of Dr. Rain her specialist doctor and a couple other voices who she assumed were nurses under the doctor. They were saying things like blood loss, abdominal tears and interior damage. She finally got her eyes to open slowly and was met with lights that were dulled probably but hurt her tired eyes. She shut her eyes and tried opening her eyes again. This time she was met with the face of her doctor looking at her concerned.

“Welcome back, Fírrine. For a while there we were worried.”

“Worried? About me? You shouldn’t be. I’m the Fírrine, after all.”

“Yes, I know.”

“You can go now ladies. I need to speak with my patient for a moment.”

“Of course.”

“Wow, a one on one. We haven’t had this for awhile. What’s up doc?”

“Fírrine…”

“Come on doc, we’re alone now. You can call me by my name.”

“Alright Ariel. Well, I must say of all the things I’ve seen you go through this is one of the most shocking.”

“So what’s the damage, doc.”

“Well…besides the busted ribs and multiple broken bones that will probably heal within a day I really don’t know how to say this Ariel…”

“Just give it to me doc. Don’t sugar coat it I’m a big girl I can handle it.”

“I know I was just hoping to never have to say this to anyone, especially you seeing as you’ve been through so much in your long life…”

“What is it doc?”

“You have a broken pelvis, major internal damage and combined with the severe blood loss and all the damage you’ve suffered over your many years of doing what you do…”

“What?!”

“Ariel, I’m afraid it will be nearly if not completely impossible for you to have children of your own and if you were to become pregnant there is a very high possibility you could miscarry. And if by some miracle you did get pregnant and didn’t miscarry I can grantee your labor would be unbelievably difficult with the high possibility you or the child or both could be lost…I’m sorry Ariel…I know you’ve always wanted a family of your own…”

“Hey it’s okay doc…I knew this might be a risk when I started this hero thing. So, I won’t be able to have kids it’s not the end of the world,” Ariel said nonchalantly trying to make it seem like the news wasn’t that big a deal though it was. “Yes she could adopt but how could she really? Adoption services would see a child raised by baby sitters more than a potential parent because she, Ariel Kent, would be gone all the time. But if she adopted as the Fírrine the child wouldn’t be left alone for a moment. Always in danger from her enemies, always hounded by the media plus the child would be raised by a baby sitter more and everyone would wonder if she was raising the child just to be another hero sidekick or prodigy,” she thought to herself.

“Um…well I’ll leave you alone to rest…if you want to talk…you know where I am…” the doc said softly.

“Yeah I know doc. I’ll be fine really. Now go you have other patients more important than the girl who can heal in her sleep,” Ariel said shooing the doctor out of the room.

A few hours later the doctor was back to check on her and update her on what they wanted her to do when they finally sent her home after about half an hour of fighting with her about her staying at least one night before going home.

“She couldn’t tell him they’d never be able to have kids or adopt because of all the issues they’d have with either one and because she just didn’t have the will to raise another child to be a civilian or a prodigy. She had done that once with Connor aka Superboy and look where that got her. But God did she want this relationship to work out so maybe she could keep it hidden until it came up and there was no way to avoid it or something. Yeah that’s what she would do, wait it out,” and with this thought she did lay back and rest until a nurse came back to check on her when shifts changed.