Injured

"Ow. Fuck." Jean said, making the assorted noises of pain and anguish as he dropped the weight. As he had been lifting weights with his upper body, his shoulder felt like it had popped out of place, and stayed popped. Susan helped put the weights away, and began to lead him through some stretches. In no time, it went from shooting pain to just dull throbs.

"Better?" Susan asked.

"Yeah. Much." Jean replied. "Let's keep going."

"I admire your persistence, but we'll stop the upper body workouts for today. For now. Let's do some high intensity stuff." Susan replied, and they switched it up.

By the end, it had been a repeated day of what he'd gotten used to, with her legs blasted by the end and his walk turned short steps. Susan got him onto the stair stepper, telling him she'd be back in 30 minutes. It felt like 30 days. Jean was happy when he saw her reappear, and his freedom came back. The pain barely registered for Jean when he was leaving the gym.

"Hey, before tomorrow's session there is a spin class. I won't be in attendance. But your membership means its free. Worth checking out if you'd like." Susan said. Jean made sure to mark it on his calendar.

Stopping by the drugstore, Jean briefly searched for pain medicine, the shelves looking empty. Something that'd just minorly help his annoying dullness. Unable to find anything, he had the clerk help him look, and the man reached deep into one of the shelves, pulling out an older looking bottle.

"There you go. Sorry, we've been having labor problems. I ring you up up front." The clerk said, and Jean grabbed some food, starving form his exercise.

Sitting in his car, Jean polished off the food, and popped the pain pills, feeling the minor relief only after a hour or so.

Back in the drugstore, the clerk kicked up his feet, and unmuted the channel. Right before his unmuting, the anchor spoke:

We're in the third week of recalls for the popular over-the-counter pain medicines like Ibuprofen. Industry experts say effects were due to a bad batch originating from a factory not up to code. Effects range from....

He switched the channel to his usual dull action movies.

Jean spoke on his stream, yet no words came out, and he grabbed his throat. Typing on the screen, he put up a notification for his viewers, surprised at the lack of voice. Everyone seemed to take him in good faith, and he felt good when he retired for the night. 100 viewers, and a healthy amount of interaction! Hoping to just sleep off the ailment, Jean popped some more of the **** and went to sleep.

When he awoke, his voice was back, if only in a hushed whisper. Rushing to prepare a light breakfast, he got ready for the spin class, and headed out for the day.