Chapter Text
Penelope woke up in her own bed (for once) with a terrible hangover - her and Jed really went hard last night. They weren’t supposed to go out but most of the time when they hang out, they end up at some shitty club. She blames Jed as it’s always her caving when he plants the seed early in the night. They started their weekly movie night watching High School Musical which ended in Jed turning it into a drinking game that he found online. Not even halfway through the movie, Penelope was buzzed which always makes Jed’s ideas so much more appealing.
That’s how they ended up at college rave and she can’t remember anything from the night. She can vaguely remember arriving at the rave, Jed buying some drinks for them, talking to some cute girls and even jumping into bed alone but everything else in between is a blank.
She blindly reaches over to her bedside drawer to grab her phone, which has full battery. Drunk me may be stupid but at least she is sensible. She looks at the time, 12.03pm before checking her many text messages and notifications. She sees a text from her best friend, Hope and opens up the messaging thread. Of course you drunk texted her you idiot.
Pennywise (1:30am): Hopeyyyy, yoi need to ger yousel to hte rave. Jed and I are hvaing so mch fun!!!
Hopelessness (1:32am): Are you out drinking again?!
Hopelessness (1:33am): Penelope you need to finish working on your diss. Your lecturer already extended the deadline for you
Pennywise (1:45am): Blaem Ryan n Sharpya. They gto me drunkkk
Pennywise (1:45am): Adn Jed
Hopelessness (1:50am): I am not even going to ask who you and Jed are tag teaming tonight
Hopelessness (1:51am): I’m going back to sleep. Enjoy the rave and I’ll come over tomorrow with some hangover food for you
Pennywise (2:01am): You da bset lvoe yoiiii
Hopelessness (10:30am): Yeah I love you too and good morning pisshead. Planning to bring pancakes round about 1ish so any one night stand better be gone by the time I arrive
Penelope internally cringes at the messages she sent Hope last night but at least her best friend is used to it and loves her. Hope was right - she really did need to finish her dissertation but her motivation was gone. Mr. Clarkson already extended her deadline by two weeks so she could go to Germany for a family emergency.
Her gran wasn’t very well and everyone knew she wasn’t going to be alive for much longer so Penelope and her cousin, Jed, booked the first plane they could and headed over to spend their final moments with their gran. Penelope was handling the death very well - getting drunk and avoiding university work were her unhealthy coping strategies.
Penelope is casually scrolling through her instagram when she notices she has seriously bad cotton mouth. Drunk Penelope must be really sensible because as well as putting her phone on charge, there sits a pint glass of water next to a packet of painkillers on her drawers. Penelope sits up and goes to reach over with her right arm when she suddenly feels a sharp pain in her shoulder.
“Oww fuck!” She shouts, placing her left hand on her right shoulder. But as soon as her hand touches the skin she notices something off. Her shoulder is sitting lower than her other one and is sticking out a bit and she can barely touch it without the pain. This can’t be good. Penelope tries to move her arm again, but the pain comes back with a vengeance, this time spreading down her whole arm.
“Fucckkkk!” She shouts. Penelope thinks back to last night and tries her best to remember if at any point she fell or banged her shoulder. Her mind is blank. “Jed!” No answer. “Jed! I think I need to go to the hospital!” She shouts again but silence answers her calls for help. He probably is still sleeping or stayed at a girls. Probably the latter. Penelope scrolls through her phone, selecting the one person she could count on since her cousin is useless at times.
Penelope sits in her bed, pillow placed under her arm acting as some sort of protection. The phone rang a couple of times before a voice answers.
“Good morning to you! I thought you’d still be dead to the world considering you don’t get up till 2pm after a night of drinking,” Hope greets.
“Hope can you please hurry to my apartment? I think I did something to my shoulder last night and need to go to the hospital.”
“Yeah sure! I’m actually just getting in the car with some pancakes. Will be about ten minutes. Wait? The hospital? What did you do?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember anything from last night. I woke up this morning and I can barely move my arm without getting a serious pain in my right shoulder. I think I might of broke it.”
“Okay okay. I’m coming. Are you able to get dressed or semi decent so we can leave straight away?”
Penelope looked around her room for some clothes. She would be able to stick on a pair of underwear and shorts with one hand easily enough but her bra and t-shirt is something that she is really going to struggle with. “I might need some help with my bra and t-shirt,” she says embarrassed.
Hope laughs from the other end of the call which causes Penelope’s hangover to be getting worse. “Peez remember that time I had to shower you because you spewed on yourself when drunk. I think I can handle seeing your boobs again.”
Penelope begins to laugh at the memory of Hope telling her the story of that event the next morning - she was mortified but Hope complimented her body by saying if she was gay and didn’t have a boyfriend, she’d tap it. “So you keep telling me but I know you secretly want to see my boobs again Mikealson.”
“Please, more like you wish you could see mine,” Hope replied, starting her car engine. “Okay Peez, I shouldn’t be too long. Gonna hang up the phone now because I don’t want to be on it and drive.”
After a quick ‘see you soon’ Penelope attempts to get out of bed and get herself washed and dressed. She is more than aware that she probably smells like a brewery but she can’t shower because she is in so much pain.
She manages to walk over to her drawers, pull out a pair of underwear, shorts, a bra and t-shirt and walks into the bathroom to try and get changed. She decides to first brush her teeth and wipe her face with a cloth - she feels less dirty after it. Penelope slightly struggled to get her underwear and shorts on but eventually managed to pull them all the way up with one hand.
She attempts to take off the t-shirt she slept in by sliding out her left arm but she gets it stuck halfway so she has a right arm that is dangling useless and a left arm looking like a t-rex’s. For fuck sake c’mon. She twists and turns to try and dislodge her left arm but it only makes it worse. At this point, Hope walks in the bathroom and catches Penelope losing a fight with a t-shirt.
“It’s a tough match between the two John. Penelope is trying her best but the Taylor Swift t-shirt has the upper hand,” Hope says, using her hand like a microphone and pretending to be a commentator.
Penelope rolls her eyes. “Can you help me please?” Hope stands there, looking at her. “Hope please! I’m in so much pain and instead of one broken arm I have two.”
Hope stifles a laugh. “Okay. One second.” Hope reaches into her jean pocket, pulls out her phone and quickly snaps a picture of Penelope who looks seriously unimpressed with all this. “Looking good Park,” she says, looking down at her phone. “Now let me see your boobs again.”
After a good ten minutes, Penelope is finally out of the bathroom wearing a clean set of clothes. She is standing next to the front door holding her arm in place whilst Hope is searching around the apartment for a small towel to create a sling with. Penelope remembers that she read somewhere online that you could turn up the bottom of your shirt and use that as an improvised sling in a sports setting so she does just that. “Hope! I’ve got something sorted. Now hurry up and get my hungover ass to the hospital!”
Hope comes running into the living room holding a mountain of towel in her hands. “Wait Peez? I couldn’t find a small one so I just grabbed all of them.” She dumps the towels on the sofa and looks over to Penelope.
“I said I can just use my t-shirt now let’s go.”
“Okay that works. Wanting to show off your abs as well I see,” Hope says with a wink. Penelope rolls are eyes and starts to head out of the door, Hope following closely behind.
Penelope and Hope are sitting in the Accident and Emergency waiting area at Mystic Falls Hospital patiently waiting for a doctor to call Penelope’s name. The receptionist was lovely and helpful but she was a little too chirpy for Penelope. Hope is sat on her phone, probably texting Landon her whereabouts, and Penelope is observing the other people sat around her.
The waiting area mostly consists of parents and their children who, judging by their clothing, have clearly been playing sports. It is a Sunday after all. One little girl is sitting in a wheelchair with her left foot exposed to the room, a boy is holding an ice pack to a big bruise on his face and another little girl is in the same position as Penelope as she uses her shirts as a sling.
Penelope watches her and can see how brave the little blonde girl is being whilst Penelope was screaming in pain 20 minutes ago in her apartment. Although there’s always one kid who can’t stop crying and he is really making Penelope’s head hurt worse than her shoulder. She glares at the mother who is clearly more interested in her phone than her kids wellbeing. Make your kid shut up or I’ll break your phone.
“Miss Penelope Park!”
Penelope thoughts of breaking the woman’s phone in different ways are disrupted by someone calling her name. She looks up to see a tall blonde woman wearing blue scrubs standing at the entrance of the waiting room. “Yeah that’s me,” she says with a nervous smile, standing up and walking towards the doctor. Penelope turns around to look at Hope before she goes in and Hope gives her a thumbs up and mouths good luck .
Penelope follows the doctor into a small white office and sits down in the chair adjacent to the computer desk. The office is very minimalistic. A computer, two chairs, a plinth and a skeleton with a name tag on it - Sally - in the corner. There is also a picture of the blonde doctor with a hot brunette. Must be blondies girlfriend. Wait? I feel like I recognise her from somewhere. Penelope’s thoughts are disturbed when the doctor closes the door and sits down in the computer chair, moving the mouse to wake up her computer.
“Hi Miss Park, my name’s Doctor Lizzie Saltzman and I’m one of the A&E doctors in this hospital. Do you mind confirming a few details before we continue the assessment?” The doctor asks, opening up a folder on the computer screen. Penelope nods her head in confirmation. “Okay full name?”
“Penelope Lauren Park”
“Date of birth?”
“22nd August 1996”
Dr. Saltzman moves and clicks the computer mouse. “Lovely.” She turns her chair to give all her attention to Penelope. “So from what you told the receptionist you’ve hurt your shoulder. Do you know how this happened?”
Penelope tries again to think back to last night but it’s useless. “No doc. All I can tell you is that I had a little too much to drink last night with my cousin and we went to a college rave. I only remember parts of the night.”
The doctor types some notes on her computer as Penelope speaks. “So no memory of trauma at all?”
“No sorry.”
“No need to be sorry Miss Park. It’s more than likely that your intoxicated state reduced the amount of pain you felt so you may not even notice you done anything at the time. Have you been taking any pain medication?”
“Only paracetamol but it isn’t really doing anything.”
“Paracetamol only helps with small amounts of pain. I will prescribe you some co-codamol, it’s a stronger painkiller.” Penelope listens to the doctor talk but she has no idea what she is talking about. “I can I have a look at your shoulder please? I will need you to take off your top.”
Penelope sits in the chair and tries her best to get her shirt off by herself. She is struggling massively and the doctor comes over to help her take it off without causing too much pain.
Penelope is sitting in her bra and shorts whilst the doctor concentrates in examining her shoulders. Penelope yelps in pain when Dr. Saltzman applies pressure to her right shoulder. The doctor gently holds Penelople’s right arm and tries to passively move it but Penelope is extremely guarded due to the pain.
After a thorough examination, the doctor sits down and starts typing on her computer. Penelope is trying to hide her glare towards the doctor after causing an extreme amount of pain. “Alright Miss Park. From my examination it looks like your shoulder is dislocated. I have ordered an X-ray for you then afterwards I will decide the next step. Do you have anyone we need to inform in the waiting room whilst you are getting an X-ray?”
Penelope couldn’t believe her luck. Of course I would dislocate my fucking shoulder when I have a diss to write. She needs to let Hope know what is happening. “Yeah. I came with my friend Hope. She’s the small auburn haired woman sitting next to the vending machine.”
“Okay Miss Park I will go and alerted her of your current condition.” There is a knock at the door and man with an impressive afro stands opens the door. He gives the doctor a love sick smile. “Miss Park if you can please follow Milton,” he clears his throat, “Sorry. MG to the X-ray room and I’ll see you after your done.”
Penelope gets up from her chair and follows the guy through the hospital. She’ll never admit this but hospitals freak her out. The small fear started when she was little and broke her leg after falling off a wall. She was in the hospital for about a week and had the worst man as her physiotherapist. Since then, Penelope has refused to see any therapist - even the one for her sports team.
Penelope is waiting outside the X-ray department with MG sitting beside her. He is babbling on about how good Dr. Saltzman is and how her sister is a well known physiotherapist within the hospital. “Oh man you’re really lucky to have Dr. S looking after you. She’s easily one of the best doctors in this hospital. And her sister is a really good physio. You’ll probably end up meeting her in the clinic since Lizzie refers most of her patients to the her.”
As soon as Penelope heard the word physiotherapy she internally cringed. She will not be going to any physiotherapy after her shoulder is sorted. I bet blondies sister is just like her. Maybe worse if she’s a physiotherapist. Before MG could continue to boast about his colleagues, a small woman comes out the X-ray room calling Penelope’s name.
Turns out Penelope definitely did dislocated her shoulder last night and it was bad. Dr. Saltzman gave Penelope gas and air to help with the pain whilst she tried to manipulate the joint back into place. After a couple of attempts and a very high Penelope, the joint popped back into place.
Penelope was too high to listen to the doctor who explained everything so she decided to speak to Hope who was in the room for support but secretly recorded the whole thing to tease Penelope about later.
Dr. Saltzman finishes the procedure by putting a sling on Penelope. “So Miss Park will need to wear this immobile sling for the next six weeks. I will schedule a follow up appointment for when those six weeks are up and I will refer her to our physiotherapy clinic for rehabilitation.” The doctor says to Hope who is giving the woman her undivided attention. Maybe it’s because Hope is definitely attracted to her. “Penelope is free to go if you don’t have any further questions.”
Hope is about to answer that she understood everything the doc said but Penelope spoke first. “I’ve got a question doc. Can she have your number? Cause she’s got the hots for youuuu,” Penelope sends a teasing smile toward Hope who’s whole face is blushing.
“Peez stop it!” Hope whispered, hitting Penelope lightly on the shoulder, who just continues to chuckle to herself. Hope turns to the doctor and see she has a slight blush on her cheeks. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. “She’s not wrong you know.” She winks at Lizzie. “Can I get your number and take you for coffee sometime?”
Lizzie tucks a piece of hair behind her ear which has fallen out of her ponytail. Before Hope can get an answer, Lizzie goes back into her professional persona. “Miss…”
“Mikaelson.”
“Well Miss Mikaelson. As lovely as that sounds I will have to turn down that offer due to work rules.” Hope’s face falls in disappointment. “But if you saw me at the Grill, say on a Friday night, I might have a different answer,” Lizzie continues, sending Hope a wink. “Now I have to leave and attend to other patients. Please follow everything I’ve said Penelope and go to your physiotherapy appointment. It will mean this won’t happen again.”
Hope gives the doctor a thankyou and sends her a massive grin before whispering “see you on Friday”. Penelope on the other hand, is currently singing along to the radio which is playing ‘We are never getting back together’ by Taylor Swift.
Hope eventually managed to get Penelope home. Granted she had to help Penelope walk because she could barely walk in a straight line with how high she is. Hope sets Penelope down on her sofa, double checking that the girl won’t fall on her bad shoulder. Once Penelope is settled, Hope gets up into the kitchen to grab the pancakes she brought over earlier and brings them to Penelope.
“Ooo pancakes? Gimme gimme gimme!” Penelope says as she reaches out with her good arm like an excited toddler. Hope passes Penelope the box and watches as the girl shoved them into her mouth.
Hope sits down next to Penelope and decides to stick ‘Wild Child’ on for both of them to watch. “Damn Peez. This is gonna be a long six weeks.”
Josie Saltzman was one of the best physiotherapists in the state which is unheard of since she only graduated two years ago. She graduated top of her class and had several job offers lined up before she finished university.
She always knew she wanted to go into healthcare but didn’t know what. A doctor was too intense and she didn’t want to stay in Lizzie’s shadow and nursing was a no go since she had a slight fear of blood. When she discovered physiotherapy she knew it was the career path for her. A combination of a love of human biology, exercise and helping people - a perfect fit for Josette Saltzman.
There are many perks to the job but it does have a downside. Long hours, working weekends and sometimes angry patients. That’s how Josie ended up at a college rave with her friend Landon at the weekend. She had so much fun letting her hair down and not having to worry about anything - she even had a cheeky hook up with a very attractive girl but didn’t catch her name.
But reality set back in as she is back at work, sitting in the physiotherapist gym all alone, eating her lunch as everyone else covers shifts in the hospital. Josie has been spending the morning seeing patients, ranging in age with a variety of musculoskeletal conditions.
Since she has no one to talk to, she decides to read the notes and referral letter for the next patient - Miss Penelope Park.
Patient No. 44625873
Miss Penelope Park
22/08/1996
Hi Josie,
Miss Penelope Park attended A&E on Sunday with a subluxation of the right shoulder. No recollection of how it occurred. Confirmed by X-ray. Complaints of pain 7/10 and limited movement. Manual manipulation to replace shoulder with gas and air was successful.
Patient is to wear a immobilising sling for 6 weeks and attend weekly physiotherapy sessions to regain shoulder movement and muscle strength.
Follow normal shoulder subluxation protocol. Will reassess in 6 weeks.
Kind regards,
Dr. Lizzie Saltzman
P.S. Good luck Jo! I’ll think you’ll need it for this one.
Josie reads the letter and understands everything in it except the last sentence Lizzie added. Good luck Jo. I wonder what she meant by that. Please don’t let her be another difficult patient. Josie continues to look through the notes and gathers everything she will need for an initial assessment. She looks at the clock and sees it is time for her to meet this Penelope Park.
Josie opens the gym doors to reveal multiple patients sitting in the waiting room. She clears her throat. “Miss Penelope Park.” No one reacts to the name so she tries again a little louder. “Miss Penelope Park.” Still no answer. Just as she is about to close the door and mark the woman down as a DNA, she sees a girl dragging another girl into the waiting room.
“Penelope move your ass or you’re gonna be late to your appointment!” Hope whisper yells, dragging Penelope through the door to the waiting room.
“No! I don’t need to go. I told you I’m fine Hope.” Penelope answers, trying to loosen Hope’s grip but it is no use.
Hope manages to push Penelope down into one of the chairs. “Stay.” She commands as she points a finger to Penelope who rolls her eyes. Hope sits down next to Penelope and an older gentleman who looks at the girls shocked. Hope gives him a big smile in return acting as if nothing happened.
Josie just stood at the door, watching the whole thing happen and trying to hide her laugh. This girl clearly doesn’t want to be here. She tries again to call for the patient, having a feeling this might be the girl. “Uh, Penelope Park?”
Penelope looks up at the source calling her name and she’s the pretty brunette that was in the doctor picture on her desk. Damn she more attractive than I remember but she looks really really familiar. “Um yeah that’s me,” she answers, slowly getting up from the chair and entering the room - sending a final glare to Hope before the door shuts.
Josie directs Penelope to sit down on the chair and closes the curtains around them for some privacy. She pulls a pen and notebook out her trouser pocket. “Hi Penelope, my name’s Josie and I’ll be your physiotherapist for the next month or so,” she says with a big smile, sensing the other girls nerves. “I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions about your shoulder.” Penelope nods. “How did it happen?”
Penelope takes a deep breath to calm down before speaking. “Honestly, I don’t remember much. I was at a college rave and pretty drunk when -“ Suddenly it clicked. She looks at Josie with wide eyes and begins opening and closing her mouth like a fish.
“Penelope are you okay?” Josie says, slightly concerned at Penelope’s change in demeanour.
“It was you! You dislocated my shoulder!” She exclaims, pointing at Josie.
To say Josie is thrown off is an understatement. She has never met this girl before and attempts to deescalate the situation. “Miss Park I have no idea what you’re talking about. Have you been drinking by any chance?”
“No it was you! I knew I’d seen you before. You were also at the college rave at the weekend.” Josie is still lost until Penelope’s next words slap her in the face. “We danced, made out and you pulled me into the bathroom stall. That’s when it happened.”
Josie stares at Penelope shocked and at a loss for words. She knows Penelope’s telling the truth because Josie remembers most of the night. She is not sure how to react. But one thing for she knows for sure…
Josie Saltzman has slept with one of her patients.