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Get Hank and get me back to the Clinic.

You need Medical Attention.

I’ll be fine.

If you leave here, it will be against my direct advice.

I understand.

I push myself from the chair. The muscles in my legs are twitching and my legs are unsteady. I take a small, slow step and I stop. I take the blanket off and I drop it on the chair and I take another small, slow step and I stop.

Can you make it?

Yeah.

Do you need help?

No.

My eyes are focusing and my stomach is settled. I’m still shaking and I’m still cold and I’m still hurting, but being away from the chair makes me feel better. I look at the door. If I can get to the door, I’m closer to being out of here. I want to be out of here.

I take another step. My legs are jelly. Another step. They weigh a million pounds apiece. Another step. They hurt. Another step. They throb. Another step. Each movement is a titanic effort. Another step. After each I don’t know if I can do it again. Doctor Stevens is watching me and the Nurses have returned and they are watching me and I know if I falter I go to the Hospital. Another step. Another step.

I get to the door and I stop. To my right is a mirror. I glance toward it and catch a glimpse of myself. I am white as chalk. My face is hideously swollen. The area around my mouth is splattered with flakes of dried blood. There are stitches protruding from my lower lip and my eyes are black. There is a bandage across the bridge of my nose. I am too thin for my frame and what flesh I have is loose and limp. The white T-shirt I’m wearing is caked with brown and red vomit stains. The tan pants I’m wearing are caked with brown and red vomit stains. I look like a fucking monster.

I turn to Doctor Stevens and the Nurses. The Nurses look away, Doctor Stevens does not. I speak slowly.

Thank you for helping me.

No problem. It’s what I do.

I’m not what you do. You went beyond what you do today. Thank you.

Doctor Stevens smiles.

No problem.

I smile back. It is my first smile with my new teeth. I’m amused by this and I smile wider and I point toward my mouth. Doctor Stevens laughs and he walks toward me and he puts his arms around me and he hugs me. We are two men who have just been through a terrible ordeal together. Although it was worse for me, I know it wasn’t easy for him. This hug is our bond, our bond to learn from what we have just been through and become better and stronger because of it. I know he will keep the bond, I don’t know if I can. I pull away.

Thanks again.

Take care of yourself, James.

I’ll try.

I turn and I slowly walk away and I don’t look back. It has always been a fault of mine, but it is the way I am. I never look back. Never.

I move down a Hallway, gripping the side of the wall for support. Each step is more difficult than the last, each step hurts more. My face is throbbing to the rhythm of my heart, the rhythm of my heart is not as strong or as steady as it was. It is speeding up and slowing down, beating with irregular strength, sending sharp messages through my left arm and my jaw. It held when it needed to hold, but it’s not going to hold much longer. I’m not going to hold much longer.

I get to a door and I push it and I walk though it and into the Waiting Room. Hank is sitting on a couch chatting with an elderly woman and when they look up the elderly woman gasps. Hank stands and he walks over to me and I put my hand on his shoulder. Without his shoulder, I would fall.

Jesus Christ.

Get me out of here.

You all right?

Not even close.

What can I do?

Get me the fuck out of here.

Hank puts my jacket on and he places my arm around his shoulder and his arm around my shoulder and he holds me up and we leave the Office and we walk down the stairs. When we get to the bottom my legs stop functioning and Hank drags me toward the door. He leans me against it and he pushes it open and he pulls me outside.

The Storm, which was growing when we entered, is now raging. The wind is whipping sheets of frozen rain and sleet