I opened my eyes and was blinded by a sea of white. I could hear a symphony of machines working nearby. As my eyes adjusted to the lights, I realized that I was in a hospital room. Stiff and sore, I tried to sit up and stretch, but my attempt was shortly halted. I had various tubes and wires connected to me, and the throbbing pain by my abdomens did not help matters. I struggled to remember what had happened. My mind was blurry, and I had a difficult time even thinking. As I sat there, searching my memory, it hit me. I suddenly remembered the whole thing: the mall, the gas station, everything up until I blacked out. A chill of fear accompanied my revelation. I became worried about Tori. What if the robber shot her after I took the first bullet? I knew I had done everything possible to protect her, but I still wouldn’t have forgiven myself if she got hurt. However, unable to do anything, I just tried to think about other things. This proved to be next to impossible to accomplish. Thankfully, it was only a few minutes when a nurse came in to check on me.

“Oh good. You’re awake.” She said. “Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m dandy. Is everyone else okay?”

“Yes they are. The clerk at the gas station was able to apprehend the robber after you were shot. That was very brave of you to push that girl out of the way. You’re quite the hero.”

“Thanks” I said, relieved that everyone was alright. “But I’m no hero. I’m sure everyone would do the same thing if they were in my shoes.”

“I’m not quite sure you’re right about that, and neither is the press. It’s been all over the news the last couple days.”

“Last couple days? How long have I been out?”

“Well, today’s Sunday, and you were shot on Friday. So, it’s been two days. You’ve been in and out of surgery twice, too! They were worried you might not make it out.”

“Really? What all happened? Am I gonna be OK?”

“You’ll be fine, but you’re going to have to wait until Doctor Morrison can talk to you. Why don’t you rest a bit while I call your parents and tell them your awake?”

“Okay.” I said as the nurse left the room. Not being tired, I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. There was nothing on, so I settled for an afternoon baseball game on ESPN. I never really was a fan of the sport, but I gladly chose that over some stupid soap opera on the next channel.

After only two innings, forty minutes had past. Man, was this a slow sport! I was about to renew my adventure of channel surfing when the door opened, revealing my parents, accompanied by the nurse from before.

“Oh thank God you’re alright!” My mom said, rushing in to give me a hug.

“OUCH! If you keep that up, I won’t be!” I said as my abdomens screamed in pain. She apologized and backed off, sitting down on a chair next to the bed.

“I’ll leave you guys alone,” said the nurse. “Doctor Morrison will be in shortly to talk to you.”

“How are you holding up, sport?” My dad asked once the nurse left the room. “We were worried about you for a second. You almost gave your mother a heart attack”

“I’m not surprised. She freaks out every time I even trip.” I replied, causing my dad to laugh as my mom gave us a dirty look.

“Don’t act like it’s a crime!” she said. “I just don’t want my baby to get hurt!”

“Mom. Is that really necessary?” I whined. I always hated it when she called me her “baby.” I knew I was her only child but I liked to think of myself as a man. Besides, how many baby rock stars have you ever seen? It didn’t really complement my image very much. I decided to try to change the subject. “So what else has happened while I’ve been out” We continued in some small talk for a few minutes. However, since the main thing on the local news was the whole gas station event, there wasn’t much to talk about. Thankfully, not too long after we exhausted topics to talk about, Doctor Morrison entered the room.

“So here’s the hero.” He said with a cheesy grin. “How are you feeling?”

“OK, I guess. I’ve been better.”

“Do you have any pain in the abdominal region?”

“Yeah. It’s really sore and it hurts when I move too much.”

“OK. I’ll have Nurse Jennings bring you more pain pills in a bit. I bet you want to know what’s going on, don’t you?”

“Yeah. That would be nice.” I said. I was trying to be polite, but I was starting to lose my patience with this whole ordeal.

“Well, as you probably already know, you were shot. The bullet penetrated your bladder in the front and was lodged in the back. We were able to remove the bullet quickly and stitch your bladder up, but it’s been damaged very badly. We were able to operate on it during the second surgery and were able to make some progress.

“Wait. Do I have any control over it?” I inquired, slightly embarrassed about the topic.

“Well, yes and no. With the successful operation, everything should be fine, but it’ll take a month or two to heal. In the time being, I am prescribing a pill for you that relaxes the organ, allowing it to heal faster and easier. It’s very important that you take the pill. If you don’t you’re bladder may never heal completely. Unfortunately, your bladder won’t hold too much urine at once though. You won’t have much control over it at all. However, I think you’d rather have temporary incontinence than permanent. Am I correct?

“I guess.” My spirits dropped quite a bit. I was happy to hear that everything was going to be alright, but the fact that I wouldn’t be able to control my bladder made me feel helpless and dependent. I turned to my parents was glad to see that they were relieved quite a bit, but still had concerning looks on their faces.

“So, does he need any… er, protection?” My mom asked.

“Well, that is up to you, but I strongly recommend it, as it would be much less of a mess. Right now, he has a catheter hooked up to him, so he doesn’t need it, but when he leaves, he’ll need some incontinence products.” My heart sunk lower as I realized what they were talking about. Call me stupid, but I didn’t really think about this point. Their use of euphemisms weren’t helping either.

“You mean I have to wear diapers?” I asked bluntly.

“I’m afraid so.” the doctor responded. I looked to my mom for some support.

“There’s got to be another way, isn’t there?”

“I’m sorry, honey.” She said, rubbing my back. “But this seems to be the only one.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo. It’s only temporary and nobody will know. You’ll be back to normal by the time school starts. Think of it as a good way to start your Senior year!” My dad said, intending the words to be comforting, but they only demoralized me more. What if it wasn’t completely healed by the start of school? The thought of going to school in diapers frightened me to death. It would be impossible to hide them since I had to take Phy Ed both semesters and we’re required to change for it. But I knew that worrying wouldn’t help matters.

“Yeah.” I said. “I guess it’s only a small sacrifice. Tori could be dead otherwise.”

“That’s the attitude.” My dad replied. “Speaking of Tori. She’s been wanting to talk to you for days. I imagine it’s to thank you for saving her. She even waited with us during your first surgery. She was almost as bad as your mother.” The thought of Tori wanting to talk to me brightened me up a bit. She was really that worried about me? Is it possible that she likes me too? My hopes were shot down pretty quickly, however, when it dawned on me that it was probably just pity or guilt driving it. But you never know. I could be lucky.

“You better get some rest.” Doctor Morrison said, breaking my thoughts. “You should be able to leave tomorrow. I’ll check up on you before you leave to make sure you’re ready. If you have any concerns, you can have the nurses contact me.” He shook my hand and left the room.

“I guess we’d better leave you alone.” My mom said. “We brought your iPod for you. I knew you’d want it.”

“Thanks” I said as I took it from her. “You do know me pretty well.” My parents bid their farewells and left me to listen to my music. As always, it made me feel better, but it also reminded me of the battle of the bands coming up. I hoped that I would still be able to play, but then again, it would mean performing in diapers. “That must be a first.” I thought. For some reason, I had a hard time seeing Metallica playing with “protection.”