- The Fire Still Burns -
Damaged Goods?
Part Two
-[ Tomorrow Man follows the large nurse down the hallway where there are some empty rooms. When they reach the end of the hallway, the nurse walks into the last room and Tomorrow Man enters slowly behind her. She takes a seat at a small desk, opens it up, and pulls out a pen. She then points at the bed while she clicks the pen. ]-
Nurse: Take a seat, Mr. Man.
-[ Tomorrow Man does what she says and sits on the bed, crinkling the paper covering that�s on top of it. He sits there and waits as the nurse writes down something in a file, then stands up and makes her way towards the door. ]-
Nurse: Doctor Campbell will be with you shortly.
Tomorrow Man: Thanks.
-[ The nurse then leaves the room, closing the door behind her. Tomorrow Man sits there patiently for a moment or two, then gets bored with waiting. You know how it is at the doctors. First you wait 20 minutes in the waiting room, then you wait another 10 in a private room. It�s typical and Tomorrow Man knows it, so he preoccupies himself with some of the posters hanging on the walls. One is a poster of that shows a diagram of a foot. He then looks at another one that�s a full body poster of a male and a female. It lists a bunch of muscles that are commonly pulled during a person�s everyday work. He then hears some chatter going on behind the door and some footsteps. He quickly takes a seat back on the bed and looks at the slight crack between the floor and the door. The footsteps come to a halt and there are two small shadows in the crack, indicating to Tomorrow Man that there�s somebody there. Suddenly, the doorknob turns and finally the door opens. To his surprise, the girl that he helped on the street a few weeks ago walks in, all dressed up in a doctor�s coat and looking professional. He recalls that her name is Amy in his mind. She walks in nervously, remembering him too, but still surprised that he�s here. She looks at the folder she has in her hand, apparently looking for his name. ]-
Amy: Um, hi.
Tomorrow Man: Hi.
-[ She sets the folder down on the desk and starts to walks towards him with her right hand extended. ]-
Amy: I�m Dr. Campbell.
-[ Tomorrow Man shakes her hand carefully, still amazed that he�s meeting her again. ]-
Tomorrow Man: Amy Campbell, right?
Amy: Yeah, we�ve met before, haven�t we�um�Tom Man?
-[ Tomorrow Man laughs to himself at the alias name and nods. ]-
Tomorrow Man: Yeah, I�m Tom Man.
-[ He almost bursts out with laughter as he says the name because it�s so stupid to him. ]-
Amy: Well it�s great to finally find out who you are. You left me hanging there a couple weeks ago.
Tomorrow Man: I know, I�m sorry about that.
Amy: That�s all right. I was looking at your file and it says you�re having some sharp pain in your left shoulder. Is that correct?
Tomorrow Man: Yes.
-[ Dr. Campbell moves in closer and pulls the neck of his t-shirt back some to look at his shoulder. She doesn�t see anything out of the ordinary yet. ]-
Amy: Can you remove your shirt, please?
Tomorrow Man: Sure.
-[ She then walks over to the room�s sink and turns the water on to wash her hands while Tomorrow Man takes off his shirt. While she washes her hands, she gets a grin over her face as she remembers that she�s thought about him more than once since their first encounter. She then vows to herself to keep things professional; but when she turns the water off and turns around, all that professional crap goes out the window. She starts to walk back towards him and quickly notices his upper body is strong and in good shape. She then sets her hands on his shoulder and starts to massage it. ]-
Amy: When did you start to notice the pain?
-[ Tomorrow Man winces in pain as she hits the place where it hurts. She notices his discomfort immediately and stays away from the area. ]-
Amy: Sorry.
Tomorrow Man: I started feeling the pain two weeks ago. I figured I jammed my shoulder or bruised it at work. But the pain wasn�t going away.
Amy: I see. Well, there isn�t any visible bruise but it could be deep down in the skin. So to be on the safe side follow me across the hall and we�ll take a quick MRI to see if there�s any significant damage.
Tomorrow Man: All right.
-[ Dr. Campbell walks towards the door while Tomorrow Man picks up his shirt. As he attempts to put it back on, she notices that he�s struggling to put his shirt on his left shoulder. ]-
Amy: Don�t worry about your shirt. The room is right across the hall. Besides, you look good with it off.
-[ Tomorrow Man looks up at her with a shocked smile while she gives an embarrassing smile back, not believing she just said that. It�s too late to take it back now so she opens the door. Tomorrow Man gets off the bed and walks towards the door to follow her, seemingly enjoying this just as much as she is. She exits the room, walks across the hall, and walks into the room next door. Tomorrow Man follows her into the room and she closes the door. She then points at a futuristic-like chair in the center of the room. ]-
Amy: Take a seat, Mr. Man.
-[ He does as she says and sits down. She then comes over to him with a bulky blue blanket type thing. She covers his body with the blanket but leaves his left shoulder exposed. She then pulls over a large machine that has like a telescope attached at the end of it. She points it at him and makes her way towards the door. ]-
Amy: Stay still. I�ll be back in a second.
-[ Tomorrow Man sits there while she leaves. The machine makes a slight click and then Dr. Campbell comes back. She pulls the machine away and back into the corner and then grabs the heavy blanket. ]-
Amy: All right. Just go back across the hall and wait for me. I�ll see you in a minute.
Tomorrow Man: Ok.
-[ Tomorrow Man hurries across the room and takes a seat on the bed again. He rubs his arm carefully, hoping that is only a deep bruise like Dr. Campbell believes. If it�s worse, then the injury could halt all that he and Cody have done in Advantage Wrestling so far. Then after a minute or two, Dr. Campbell comes back into the room with two print outs of the MRI. She closes the door, sets the print outs on the table and starts to look at them. Tomorrow Man, obviously curious what the result is, stands up and walks over to the table for a look. ]-
Amy: Do you see that?
-[ She points at one of the print outs. There is a small discolored mark on the print out of Tomorrow Man�s left shoulder. ]-
Tomorrow Man: What is that?
Amy: That�s not good. That�s showing you have a slight tear in your rotator cuff.
Tomorrow Man: Geez.
-[ Tomorrow Man�s worse fear comes true. He shakes his head in disbelief that this has happened to him. ]-
Tomorrow Man: So what do I do now?
Amy: You should schedule surgery to have the tear repaired.
Tomorrow Man: How long would something like that take to heal?
Amy: Well if the surgery is successful, you�ll be out of work for at least a month.
Tomorrow Man: A month? Will it get better without the surgery?
Amy: That�s highly unlikely.
Tomorrow Man: Well can I wait to have the surgery?
Amy: Yes, but you could risk doing more damage the longer you wait. The sooner you have the operation done, the quicker you�ll have full mobility of the rotator cuff.
-[ Tomorrow Man goes back to the bed and grabs his shirt. He struggles to put it on again but he finishes it this time. Dr. Campbell doesn�t want him to leave but she knows he�s going to because he doesn�t like what he�s hearing. ]-
Amy: What sort of work do you do?
-[ Tomorrow Man turns around and faces her. ]-
Tomorrow Man: I�m a professional wrestler.
Amy: Really? I don�t get that from you at all personality-wise.
Tomorrow Man: Well I am, and this injury comes as a big blow to what I have going on right now. If I have the surgery sometime soon, it will ruin everything my partner and I have worked on for the past couple weeks.
-[ Dr. Campbell sits down at the desk and looks at the print outs again. Tomorrow Man makes his way towards the door; but as he reaches for the door handle, something comes over him and he stops. Instead of leaving, he sits down at the empty chair next to the desk. ]-
Tomorrow Man: How long do you think I can put off the operation?
-[ Amy takes the glasses off her face and rubs in between her eyes while she thinks. She then puts the glasses back on. ]-
Amy: Mr. Man�
-[ Tomorrow Man cuts her off with a quick laugh. ]-
Tomorrow Man: That isn�t my real name. That�s just something my friend came up with when he called in for the appointment.
Amy: I see. So what is your name?
Tomorrow Man: I usually just go by my stage name�Tomorrow Man. You can call me T-Man if you�d like.
-[ She laughs at the name because it sounds goofier than Tom Man. ]-
Amy: All right�T-Man. Since I�m a doctor, I�m supposed to have you schedule the operation as soon as possible. But since you seem like a nice guy, I�ll give you my personal opinion. The tear isn�t extremely serious yet so you can possibly put off the surgery for a little while if you have important work to do. I�ll warn you though, your life is going to be miserable until you have the operation done.
Tomorrow Man: I respect that opinion, Dr. Campbell, and I�m glad that you�re honest with me.
Amy: Please, call me Amy.
-[ She gives him a flirtatious smile and he can�t help but smile back. ]-
Tomorrow Man: Ok, Amy. I don�t want to rush into a decision so I�ll have to talk it over with my partner. Can I call you back in a couple days and tell you what my decision is?
Amy: Yes. I�ll be here.
-[ Tomorrow Man stands up from his chair and Amy does to. They both shake hands and Tomorrow Man walks out the door while Amy takes the print outs and places them in his file. Tomorrow Man walks down the hall and opens the door to go back into the waiting room. When he comes through the door, Cody stands up from his seat and approaches his partner. ]-
Cody: Well?
Tomorrow Man: We�ll talk about it later.
-[ Tomorrow Man walks over to the receptionist and at the same time Dr. Campbell comes over to the receptionist and sets the file down on her desk. ]-
Receptionist: That�ll be $15 for today, Mr. Man.
-[ Tomorrow Man reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet. He hands her $5 and $10 bills and she takes it. Then she hands him a receipt. ]-
Receptionist: Have a nice day.
Tomorrow Man: Thanks, you too. I�ll call you soon, Amy.
-[ Amy grins and nods at Tomorrow Man while Cody stands behind him mouthing �Amy?� to himself. He looks around his partner to see who Amy is and he sees that she�s the doctor Tomorrow Man saw. Tomorrow Man makes his way towards the door and Cody follows slowly behind, interested in what took place back there. ]-
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