It was a slow-moving machine. But they finally got Caleb loaded up and moved him out of the area in an ambulance, and Hawk was allowed to ride along with him. He knew itwasn’t how he or Caleb had intended to spend their evening together after Caleb’s run, but it didn’t matter. He wanted to make sure Caleb had somebody there with him while this all happened.
“Sorry,” Caleb told him about two hours later after the ride to the medical center, X-rays, and some blood tests. “Not the way we wanted to spend time together.”
“I had that exact thought. I don’t mind, though, as long as you’re going to be okay.” Hawk hated that Caleb was in pain, dammit. It made him hurt, as well, right under his breastbone, and he rubbed the spot absently.
“Caleb. Sorry to see you under these circumstances.” A middle-aged doctor with wire-rimmed glasses walked over eventually, smiling a tired smile. The clinic at the Livigno village was pretty busy.
“No problem, doc. It always sucks to have to come see you this way and not like at the bar or something. What’s the deal?” Caleb sounded casual, but Hawk could feel the tension in his body.
“It’s cracked.”
Hawk frowned, and Caleb drew in a deep breath and then let it out. “What’s cracked exactly?”
The doctor smiled faintly. “Well, not to put too fine a point on it, your foot, but it’s not your ankle or your heel. It’s the navicular bone, which is at the top of your foot, actually, and there’s a hairline fracture. But with your chart showing the RA and the subsequent bone loss from that, it’s not particularly unusual.”
“RA?” Hawk asked. He knew what it was, of course. He had osteoarthritis in his knee, not anything autoimmune, but he had no idea Caleb had been diagnosed with RA.
Caleb gave him a little bit of a sideways look and shook his head. So Hawk sat there with his mouth shut, but he wanted to know everything.
“So, what does this mean for the medal round?” Caleb didn’t seem surprised or even particularly worried.
“You can compete. I would prefer you were careful, but it’s not like it’s going to get any better in time for you to do your medal run. It’s, what, two days away?”
“Yeah, if I can make it through the medal round, then we can talk treatment after that.” Caleb shrugged. “It’s not like I’m not hurting all the damn time anyway.”
Hawk opened his mouth but then closed it again as soon as Caleb touched his arm. He got the signal; they would talk about this after the doctor was gone.
“Okay, well, I can give you a shot that’ll help things for the time being. And I’ve cleared it already. So if you get tested, they’ll know why it’s in your system. You stay off the practice runs tomorrow and just do what you need to do on medal day.”
“Got it.” Caleb made the sort of “hang ten” motion with his hand. “What are you going to do as far as me leaving today? You going to boot me up or what?”
“Yeah. I’m going to put you in a short air boot, and I want you to keep it on unless you’re in bed.” The doc scribbled a bunch of stuff on his tablet using a stylus. “Right, hang tight, we’ll get you hooked up.”
He was off without another look.
Hawk raised an eyebrow at Caleb, just waiting for him to explain.
Caleb shrugged. “So that wasn’t as bad as I worried it was.”
Hawk pursed his lips for a second before he answered, trying to figure out why he was so furious with Caleb because he was. “RA?” It was what finally popped out of his mouth.
Caleb glanced down, not quite meeting his gaze. “Yeah, I was diagnosed a while ago. I know it mostly affects the joints,but also since it’s an autoimmune thing, it leeches some of the bone.”
“You’re still competing?” His voice rose a little bit, and Hawk knew it wasn’t reasonable. People competed with that kind of stuff all the time. Hell, he’d known guys in the NHL who played through injuries, illnesses, autoimmune disorders, everything known to man.
But this was Caleb, and he didn’t want Caleb to get hurt, so he was pissed off.
“To be honest, I’ve competed with worse, so yeah, I’m gonna do it.”
“Jesus, Caleb.” It burst out of him and he couldn’t help himself. “You can’t just go out there and jump with a broken foot.”
Caleb stared at him. “You mean a cracked foot? And yeah, actually, I can.”
“God damn it?—”
Caleb, cut him off. “Why are you so mad at me? I’ve seen footage of you competing with injuries. I’ve also seen the tape of how you were after your game where you won the Cup.”
Hawk snapped his mouth shut, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. “Okay, yeah, sure, I did some stupid stuff in my time, but…”