AN: Hi all! I can't believe this story's at over 5K views. That's wild! I hope you've been enjoying it! Thank you so much for reading! ☺️

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Tuesday rolled in with soft snow falling in the dull quiet morning. Rylee and Sebastian crunched across the snowy sidewalk and made their way into the hospital.

Sebastian would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. He expected to be going completely under for his surgery, not just getting an anesthetic in his leg.

Sooner than he expected he was laying in a hospital bed that was wheeled into the operating room. He was switched over to the operating table and he heard a familiar voice.

"Good morning Mr. Stan, how are we today?" Dr. Singh said as he walked into the room, covered head to toe in personal protective equipment.

"Pains a 2. Nerves are an 11." Sebastian tried to joke.

"I promise, it doesn't sound like it will be, but it'll be painless...This is Dr. Cunningham, he's our anesthesiologist. He'll be helping us take extra good care of you today.

"Morning...big fan." Dr. Cunningham laughed lightly, making Sebastian say thanks along with a laugh too.

"This is my surgeon assistant, Dr. Carter. And our circulating nurse, Justin."

They all say their hellos and Dr. Singh continued.

"So here's what's going to happen today Sebastian, first Justin is going to sterilize the work area, and then Dr. Cunningham is going to inject the local anesthetic into your calf, so your leg from the knee down will be numb. You may still experience some pressure, or even a crunching sensation, but you won't feel any pain."

Sebastian worried his lips in his teeth at that last part. Crunching sensation?

"Next I'll be diving in to reset the bones and stabilize them with internal fixations." He holds up two small metal plates and a few screws for Sebastian to see. Once you're all put back together we'll stitch you up and we'll be done! You'll hang out here for a day or so and you'll be home before Christmas...sound like a plan?"

"If you say so," Sebastian tried to laugh.

"Alrighty, Justin, ready to start us off?"

Justin gave a thumbs up and dove into sanitizing Sebastian's leg. While he did so, Dr. Singh asked, "So Sebastian, what's your go to karaoke jam?"

Sebastian thought about it quickly, "Hmm. Hungry Eyes..."

"Oooo. Good choice! He pointed to the upstairs booth where Sebastian assumed there were people watching that they couldn't see, seeing as this was a teaching hospital.

Suddenly, Hungry Eyes started playing quietly across the speakers in the corners of the room.

"Sometimes you just gotta jam out yah know?" Dr. Singh said as Dr. Cunningham prepared the anesthetic.

"Alrighty Cunningham, you're up."

Dr. Cunningham walked around the other end of the table and patted Sebastian's leg. "You're gonna feel a small pinch and then you won't feel anything at all from your knee down."

Sebastian nodded.

He felt the pinch the doctor had mentioned but the next sensation was so absurd. They were absolutely right, it felt like he didn't even have a left leg, which felt beyond strange.

"Alright, you're going to hear a lot of noises. Revving. Crunching. Saws. But don't panic. You won't be able to feel any of it."

This was the moment of truth in Sebastian's mind. It's not gonna hurt. It's not gonna hurt.

He heard the whirring of a bone saw and tried not to panic.

Dr. Singh could hear the panic from Sebastian's heart monitor. It started beeping more rapidly. Dr. Cunningham patted him on the shoulder and got close to his ear, "Does anything hurt?"

Sebastian didn't speak, just shook his head no.

"Then you're golden my man, Singh's already a third of the way done."

Sebastian was shocked to hear that. He could've swore the saw noise had just started, but they were right, he couldn't feel a thing.

The noises changed occasionally but Sebastian tried not to let it bother him. He just listened to the music and Dr. Singh humming along. The song had recently changed to Kiwi by Harry Styles. Sebastian let out a chuckle. You wouldn't expect that the man breaking your bones would rock out to Harry Styles.

"Hey...I've got two teenage girls. I know this whole CD man. Don't judge."

Before Sebastian even realized it, Dr. Singh walked up towards his head so he could see him and said "All done my man. You did great."

"Really?"

"Yep! Great job everyone."

After a few minutes, Sebastian was team lifted back onto his hospital bed and was wheeled back to the recovery room.

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Rylee sat patiently in the waiting room. She was told by Dr. Singh before the surgery started that it would only be an hour or two for the procedure and recovery would be around an hour before he was moved to a patient room.

After about two hours Dr. Singh entered the waiting room and found Rylee. She was surprised when he sat down beside her.

"Sebastian's surgery went perfectly by the book. No complications or hiccups. He was even impressed by my singing skills," Dr. Singh joked.

"He's currently in recovery where they'll keep a close eye on him for the next hour or so, and as the local anesthetic wears off, we will give him some morphine and move him on down to his patient room for the night.

"Thank you so much Dr. Singh."

"We'll come grab you when he's all cozy in his room, okay? Just sit tight." Dr. Singh patted her hand that was in her lap and stood up, walking back through the doors back towards the OR.

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At almost exactly the hour mark, Laura, a nurse that Sebastian had had during his past time here, walked out to greet Rylee.

"Hi honey! How you doing?" She leaned in for a hug.

"I'm doing well! How've you been!"

"Doin' just fine." She smiled, "Sebastian's all ready to see you. Wont stop talking about you. Just a heads up, he's got a good bit of morphine running through him so he's feeling...mighty fine." Laura laughed. Rylee wasn't sure what she meant, but she was intrigued to find out. Last time he'd had morphine he was mainly just tired.

Laura led Rylee back to Sebastian's single patient room and drew back the curtain.

"Baby! Hi!" Sebastian practically yelled.

Oh. So what Laura meant. He was feeling good.

"Hey you, how are you feeling?" Rylee walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, pushing back some of his hair.

"Great. Singh is the best. And Laura. So are you." Sebastian said pointing in Laura's direction as she wrote down some information on his chart.

"You're the best Sebastian," Laura laughed and winked back.

"Good luck with this one Rylee." Laura winked at her as well.

"I'll be back in a bit, alright Sebastian?" Laura patted his good leg and began to walk towards the door.

"Miss you already Laura!" Sebastian practically slurred.

Rylee could hear Laura laughing down the hallway. At least she had a good sense of humor.

"You've gotta tone down that flirt, Mr. Stan, or you're gonna leave here with six girlfriends." Rylee joked.

"Nope. Just you baby. Youuu you got what I neeeed." Sebastian started to sing, his eye lids starting to look heavy.

"You did not just break out Biz Markie on me." Rylee laughed.

"Singh played it in the OR. It's a catchy song. I haven't heard it in so long!"

"It is indeed a catchy song." Rylee smiled and raked her fingers back through Sebastian's hair, scratching at his scalp as she went, drawing light, happy noises from him.

"Alright, love. How about you try and get some sleep and I'll be here when you wake up okay?"

Sebastian started to mumble, fighting off the morphine trying to pull him down, "Okay...Sounds good. I luh you so much. So, so much. Imma marry the shit outta you someday."

Rylee froze at that comment. Did he just say that? Calm down. He's high as a kite right now. He probably won't even remember he said that in the morning.

"Alright Mister," she kissed his forehead and sat down in a chair that she pulled closer, "love you more."

She laced her fingers with his as he drifted off to sleep, his last words still ringing through Rylee's head.