Awakening the next morning from a drug-riddled sleep, Staff Sergeant Chambers was still a little fuzzy about all of the details that led him to where he was, but he remembered the nurse from the night before. Her name began with a C, but he couldn't quite remember what it was. Thinking about her visit the night before sent a warm sensation through his chest that radiated out to the rest of his body- what he could feel anyway. He hoped she was on a regular shift there.

As other nurses came in and noticed his new level of alertness, they would exchange pleasantries, but none of them seemed particularly interested in much small talk. They had to have other patients that were in more critical conditions than he was. It was embarrassing and often difficult for Jason to ask for help when he needed something. Nurses turned the television on for him, but he didn't ask them to change the channel, settling for the AAFES channel that it was already on and the programming that came with it. When lunch came he just ate whatever they gave him. His own feelings of embarrassment meshed with his own perception of being a hassle to care for, and so he asked as little of them as possible. It was a nightmare whenever he developed an itch somewhere, but he just endured as best as he could.

When the doctor came in to speak with him, Jason said that the morphine could be turned down. The pain sucked- a lot- but he would rather fight it with "Ranger Candy"- 800mg of Ibuprofen- and maybe some codeine and water than be in a fog and have a hard time remembering everything all the time. Outside of that, he spent a lot of time throughout his day sleeping. His appetite sucked, even though he knew he should eat. With no control over his lower body, he was terrified of what would happen when his digestive system went to work. Having slept many hours of the day, however, he was wide awake when his new favorite ginger came in to the room that night.

"May I come in? I have to torture you with a set of vitals."

"I don't really see that I could do much to stop you," Jason replied, sounding a little more bitter than he meant to with the joke as she crossed the threshold.

"Thanks for sitting with me the night before," he tried to initiate more conversation than he had with the other nurses, "It really, reeeeeally sucks being stuck in here all day with no one to talk to and nothing to do but watch Reba on TV. They say an occupational therapist is going to come in tomorrow and talk about ways to deal with my new condition, but the doc told me today that he expects me to be able to walk again after a few more surgeries and some intense rehab. How long do you think they'll keep me here before they send me back stateside for recovery and rehab?"