That was true and Simon already noticed that. With a short leap into history, we found Nasty got her first cast at the age of six, when she'd fallen with a bicycle, breaking her arm. It was an easy break, but her arm was put in a huge long arm cast, her little fingers merely protruding from thick layers of plaster. She was afraid of the cast at the beginning, but soon she discovered how much attention she gets from family and friends of her. Her older sister Ulrike decorated her cast with many signatures and drawings and at the end it looked really good. After a month her cast was off and she kept it as a precious souvenir. 

Three years later she broke her leg while skiing. It didn't hurt too much and she got a long leg cast and forearm crutches. At first her mother decided she won't go to school until her cast would be removed, but Nasty soon learned to walk on crutches very expertly and the next week she was hobbling to school which was only a hundred meters from their flat. A boy from the neighborhood was waiting for her every morning to carry her schoolbag. Sister Uli was already jealous for all the attention which culminated around Nasty's cast and crutches, and Nasty was enjoying both the attention and the strange, but nice feeling being unable to move her knee and ankle, regardless how she was stretching or twisting her muscles. All her school friends decorated her cast with vivid magic markers and they were begging her for crutches for a short walk around. After three weeks her cast was replaced with short leg cast with special plate that supported her kneecap, and with a rubber heel for walking. She was still on crutches but now it was much easier to walk, although she hasn't any problems with the long leg non-walking cast neither. She was a little disappointed when the cast was off completely six weeks after accident and, needless to say, she kept both of her leg casts, too.

In next years Nasty suffered several injuries that required casting, but she always recovered quickly and without any complications worth to mention. Not bad experiences at all, concluded Nasty. One particular incident Nasty remembered with thrilling joy. There was rock festival in Berlin few years ago and Nasty was always in the first lines of the crowd at the concert. As it was an underground concert without proper security guards, stage diving was allowed and Nasty enjoyed it very much. At one moment, when she'd already thrown herself off the stage in double forward somersault, she noticed that crowd distanced and she landed on the floor before she managed to turn herself into suitable position. She felt a sharp pain in her right ankle, but she didn't want to miss the rest of the concert. But the pain was just increasing and finally her momentary boyfriend convinced her to go to the hospital. 

"OK, but you have to promise me we'll be back for Nick Cave," finally agreed Nasty.

The ankle was just badly sprained and she got a short leg walking cast, a thing she was already familiar with. They were back to the concert just few minutes after Cave's concert started. Her boyfriend put Nasty to be seated on his shoulders and she was screaming, waving and swinging all the time from her mounted position. Boyfriend's jacket soon became whitened with Nasty's not completely dried cast. At the end of the concert it happened. The crowd was already leaving the stadium, but Nasty was still hobbling around, when she noticed someone is approaching from the backstage. It was - believe it or not - Nick Cave himself.

"Are you that crazy little girl who was jumping from the stage?" he asked. "The crew told me you hurt yourself while stage-diving."

"Yup, that's me," breathlessly whispered Nasty.

"Does it hurt a lot?" asked Nasty's favorite star.

"No, not at all," Nasty just kept staring at him. "Your concert was splendid, mister Cave. Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Would you mind to sign my cast?"

Nick Cave gladly did that and wrote with blue marker over her whole shank: 'Get well soon, Nasty! Nick Cave.'

Next morning Nasty returned home. Her parents didn't know anything about her recent injury, of course. "Mom, can you imagine?! Nick Cave signed my cast!!!" she yelled with excitement.

"My poor child, what happened to you?" screamed her mother.

"Forget about that, mom. Look, Nick Cave personally signed my cast! It's incredible!" repeated Nasty euphorically.

"That was a lucky break, wasn't it, you silly punk?!" grinned sister Uli.

"The happiest in my life," agreed Nasty. "Beside that, it's sprained only, what a pity."

Simon brought Nasty into an operating room and doctor Steiner called another physician and a nurse to help him. "First, Nasty, we have to anaesthetize you and when you'll fall asleep, we'll try the reduction with skeletal traction. We had to make two small incisions, at your heel only, that won't spoil your tattoo..."

"I don't want to be anaesthetized," repeated Nasty. "Just a simple injection of local anesthetics will be enough. I want to look what you are doing, doc."

"Don't make me anger, Nasty!" doctor raised his voice. "It could last quite a long time and local anesthesia can't remove all the pain."

"I am resistant to pain, doc. And you know you have to have a patient's permission for any intervention you're going to procedure. In other words - I don't give you permission for general anesthesia, that's all."

"It will hurt a lot, Nasty, believe me."

"What do you know about the pain, doc?" boldly repeated Nasty. "Did you ever have a period?"

"Hold me, Britte," yelled doctor to the nurse, "before I slap that evil monster!"

"Please, doc," asked Nasty quietly. "I promise I won't scream or so."

"Today you defeated me completely, Nasty," sighed doctor. "OK, let's go with local anesthesia. Britte, give her a double dose."

"You don't need to argue, doc. A week ago I defeated the whole adversary's tank company, unfortunately at maneuvers only."

Two syringes were emptied into Nasty's calf and one near her heel. Doctor Steiner made two short incisions in both sides of Nasty's heel, then inserted so-called Schmertz horseshoe for skeletal traction and mounted her lower leg on special traction splint. He was turning the screw until two stainless steel spikes of traction device were firmly fixed at girl's heel bone. A rope was fastened to the horseshoe, then put across pulley and a sandbag was fastened on the other side of the rope. A sharp pain flushed through her entire leg, but Nasty clenched her teeth and Simon was holding her hand firmly with one hand, caressing her hair with the other. "Be strong, my poor little Chelsea, it won't last long," he whispered gently.

Britte quickly wheeled portable digital x-ray device and doctor started to monitor Nasty's broken bones, neatly manipulating them with his gloved hands. The pain was just growing and when it became almost irresistible, Nasty gripped Simon's arm and bit her teeth into boyfriend's forearm.

"Bingo!" yelled doctor few seconds later. "Nasty, don't even think about moving a single muscle! We made it, but I still have to immobilize your leg. Doctor Brandt, give me the bandages, quick!"

Doctor Steiner was supporting Nasty's leg and ankle with his fingers and doctor Brandt was quickly bandaging it with cotton padding. Then came a plaster splint all the way along Nasty's leg, from above her toes to the middle of her thigh. Now doctor Brandt and Britte were supporting her leg and doctor Steiner started to bandage it with a rolls of wet plaster, beginning with two rounds across her foot, leaving a small gap around Schmertz' horseshoe, gently continuing around the broken ankle. First round ended just above her ankle and doctor immediately continued upwards her leg, across her knee until he reached an end of the cast splint at the upper third of her thigh. He stopped for few seconds only to gently remove the traction splint from under her leg.

"Is it squeezing you anywhere? Alright, let's continue." He grabbed another roll of plaster and repeated the procedure.

Finally Nasty released the bite at Simon's forearm and he cynically looked at it; the girl bit him to bleeding: "Look, doctor, now I am the candidate for surgery!"

"It's just a scratch, you'll survive," absently repeated doctor. "But your babe is a really brave one. I didn't believe she would bear that, it had to be an immense pain."

They waited few minutes until the cast was beginning to dry, then doctor carefully loosened the horseshoe and removed the traction hardware. He stitched two small incisions on Nasty's heel and yet another turn of plaster was neatly applied over her leg, molded and smoothened, then the doctor carefully laid down girl's leg on some foam pillows.

Doctor checked out the position of fragments again with digital x-ray: "It looks just perfect. Now just lie down still and rest. We'll take you to the big x-ray, which would give us much sharper pictures. I just want to be sure that everything had been done correctly. If it would be fine, you could go home after a couple of hours, when your cast dries."

"Thank you, doctor," whispered Nasty with relief. "Can you bend down a little?"

When doctor bended down to her mouth, she hugged him gently and gave him a long, hot kiss on the cheek: "Thanks again, doc. I knew you'd made it."

Doctor Steiner blushed up, then looked at Simon embarrassingly.

"It's not a problem, Franz," he laughed. "She's doing that all the time, she's so emotional person, you know. Too emotional for a tank commander, I think."

"Actually, I have to thank you, Nasty," assumed doctor Steiner. "You were the bravest and calmest patient I ever have. How do you manage that?"

"It's the will of the Gods," Nasty shrugged. "Gods like me, you know."

"Are you a pagan?" shuddered doctor.

"Of course I am," answered Nasty deliberately. "In fact, I am Valkyrie, the daughter of Wotan - or Odin - and persons who seem to be my parents are actually only my step-parents on Earth. My sister Ulrike is Valkyrie, too."

"Don't believe her, she's sick in the head," grinned Simon.

"I am sick in the leg only, and you know I am Valkyrie, Hillbilly!" Nasty protested.

"Why were you lying to the doctor about your accident?" asked Simon, when Nasty was left in the corridor after being x-rayed.

"Well, lieutenant Schaeffer, the commander of our anti-aircraft attachment, celebrated his birthday and I've drunk a couple of beers. I wasn't drunk at all - you know I am able to drive with a dozen beers in my butt - but, according to my 38 kilos, breathalyzer would show too much like none. When a traffic accident is in the case, alcohol test is obligatory and I don't wanna loose the driving license, not to mention the problems with my insurance. With this 'staircase fall' and two months casted I could pick up quite a good money," laughed Nasty.

Although Nasty was somehow childish person, she wasn't irresponsible. She discovered the benefits of accident insurance in her high school when an insurance agent entered their classroom, offering a collective arrangement for a very low annual fee. She accepted the proposal without much thinking and few months later she broke her wrist at gymnastics, nothing terrible at all. The indemnity wasn't a big one, but enough for two-week holidays in Amsterdam, sleeping in youth hostel, of course. As she was involved in some accident quite often, she found an insurance to be a good investment for her and so her weird pleasure of being casted had monetary benefits, too.

"That could be called a fraud, Chelsea," grinned Simon.

"Who the hell would know about it?! Are you going to report me, my sweet Hillbilly, or you'd rather join me at holidays in Greece?"

"Won't we rather go to Chamonix, as we planned?"

"You planned Chamonix, Hillbilly, and I planned Crete, did you forget? By the way, I'm wondering my leg won't be good enough for mountain climbing for few months, but some physiotherapy in Mediterranean sea would be fine, ha?"

"Name it with the right words - you meant a lot of chemotherapy with Greek wine and Metaxa?" laughed Simon.

"And some sex on the sand beach under pine trees would be fine for my rehabilitation, too, I guess... Damn! is our jeep still out there, with my bike on?! Hurry up, Hillbilly, and cover it somehow, hide the fucking thing!"

"I covered it with a rug when we were still at the cornfield, I'm sure nobody had seen it... I did it without much thinking," stated Simon a bit surprised.

"Wow, that's a fuckin' hand of Fortune," exclaimed Nasty. "How clever you are, Hillbilly, although you are blonde. Come here, you deserve a huge kiss."

They were close to the castroom and a bearded biker with leather jacket, sporting an emblem of biker's gang called 'War angels', was just leaving the castroom on crutches with a short leg cast. Nasty yelled to him: "C'mon, chieftain, were you hit by a Mitsubishi, too?"

A police officer, which was talking to one of the nurses before, had heard her and approached: "Excuse me, young Lady, do you know anything about that Mitsubishi accident?"

"What Mitsubishi accident?" asked Nasty innocently. "I just slipped off staircase when I was leaving the church after five o'clock mass, that's all. With my platforms..."

Policeman absently looked at her shoes, put aside on a stretcher: "Yes, I understand you completely. Ouch, I believe I would break my both legs just trying to stand up in them... Are they comfortable?"

"More than a cast, I assume. Beside that, I don't have much choice with my 148 centimeters. By the way, what happened with that Mitsubishi?"

"It was a terrible accident just few hours ago, near the barracks of armored brigade. An army tank carrier truck with a loaded tank was just leaving the barracks and one businessman with sports Mitsubishi crashed into it with well over hundred kilometers per hour. Are you sure you don't know anything about that?"

"I don't know anything about crash of Mitsubishi and a tank trailer, I swear," honestly answered Nasty.

"OK, than excuse me for disturbing you. I wish you quick recovery," policeman leaved Simon and Nasty.

"You're welcome, officer. Have a nice day," smiled Nasty.

Few minutes later doctor Steiner appeared with Nasty's last x-rays: "I am glad to tell you, Nasty, that we managed to align your bones fine. You see those hairlines on the x-ray? These are fractures, but fragments of your bones are fitting exactly and the joint surfaces are smooth. You can go home now, but before we have to do one more thing; I'll cut your cast lengthwise, then bend it with an elastic bandage, just to prevent any complications from swelling, you know. You'll have to rest for a few days with your leg lifted over the level of your head. And don't try to scratch yourself by pushing wire, rulers or something else beneath your cast. After few days you could start to walk around on crutches, but you mustn't lean on your injured leg at all for several weeks. I suppose you are familiar with crutches?"

"They are friends of mine."

"Yeah," laughed doctor, "You came here in our mountains... Three years ago, right? And you quickly became one of my most regular customers. I was looking at your medical record before and I assume you are really a little disaster. By the way, if you excuse me for my professional curiosity, what happened to your face?"

Really, there was a ten centimeters long scar on Nasty's right cheek, which was deliberately skipped at her description few pages before. It was a little paler than her other skin and although obviously not stitched at all, it was very smooth. Simon also thought it looks sexy and it added to Nasty's image of a tank commander a sense of a front-line veteran.

"Well, I earned that in a fight with some football hooligans two years ago," grinned Nasty. "Me and Simon were in Matheser beer hall in Munich just after a match that Bayern lost few hours before. Some stupid skinhead started to annoy Simon because of his long hair and we were involved in a fight immediately. I grabbed a heavy, thick one-liter beer mug and smashed it into one's face, leaving only the handle in my fist. He'd just lain down, calm as a lamb, and few others met painfully with Simon's iron hillbilly fist. We managed to escape somehow before police entered the hall, but somebody slapped me with a broken bottle or so, I don't remember for sure. I didn't want to go to the doctor, as there were obviously not only a lot of participants of that fight, but also policemen searching for them. Simon's mother put some herbs anddormouse's fat on our wounds and they healed perfectly, as you can see."

"Dormouse's fat?" shuddered doctor. "Such superstitions are still alive in such a developed country? I didn't know that our highlands are still stuck in the mediaeval ages!"

"But it works," Nasty protested. "Especially if the Gods are on your side, as in my case."

Doctor was shaking his head and started to sing slowly: "It's the end of the world as we know it..."

"Why that could be an end of the world?" smiled Nasty.

"I don't know why, but it's definitely an end, if German army accepts creatures like you for officers," grinned doctor. "Enough talking, before I get out of my mind. Let's finish with your cast, I have a plenty of patients today."

Nasty was wheeled into castroom and before doctor started with a cast saw, she asked innocently: "By the way, I heard outside some rumors about a crash of some sports car and a tank carrier from my brigade. What happened?"

"Oh, it's a sad story," said doctor. "That poor fool crashed with Mitsubishi in full speed under the tank carrier trailer, loaded with one of your Leos. Nosoldiers were injured, but that stupid rooster suffered severe brain and spinal trauma, it took paramedics and firemen almost half an hour to cut him out of wreckage. Doctor Brandt is still fighting for his life. I am afraid he'll be confined to the wheelchair for the rest of his life, if he survives."

"Huh, that's really terrible," stated Nasty with strange voice. "When it happened?"

"According to my report, almost the same time you'd felt downstairs."

Doctor had cut her cast all the way lengthwise and banded it with elastic bandage: "That's it, Nasty, I hope there won't be any problems. Can you wiggle your toes? Is the sensibility normal?"

Nasty gladly did so: "Yes, I can feel them as always, but it hurts a bit when I move them."

"I am sorry, but it's normal for such a break that your whole leg will be very painful for some days. It will hurt even more, when local anesthetic's effect diminishes, but in a week or two it will be better. I'll prescribe you some painkillers."

"It's not necessary, doc, I'll be fine without them."

"As you like it," doctor rolled his eyes. "You are terrible girl, you know that?"

"That's what my mother always says," chuckled Nasty.

Doctor wheeled Nasty out of the castroom: "Well, we finished for today. Some of the nurses will bring you the crutches, pink ones would be great, I guess? I'll book an appointment with you next week; if everything's gonna be alright, we will remove the stitches from your heel and close that cast completely. I expect to change your cast for a short one after a month or so."

"Yeah, it's funny to change something from time to time," smiled Nasty. "Thanks a lot again, doc, you really made quite an effort for me."

"That's my job, isn't it? Just be careful, give nature it's time and you'll be as good as new, OK? And promise me not to go on some rave party tonight."

Simon thankfully shook doctor's hand: "How can I thank you, Franz? You were so patient with my little troublemaker. Come on some rafting soon, it will be free for you and your family."

"It's not necessary, I am just doing my job, as I already said. But we'll come, you really know to push some adrenaline in my veins," he answered and disappeared to look at some other patient.

"Franz is a great doctor, isn't he?" stated Simon when they were alone. "Does it hurt a lot, my poor little Chelsea?" Gently he hugged his brave babe and lost himself in few hot, deep kisses.

"Shit, I could remember that before," mumbled Simon. "I think I should go home and bring you some flat shoes. And I'll take brother's minivan, so you could lie down at the back seat. I'll be back in few minutes, OK?"

"Yeah, bring me my Teva's, please," answered Nasty. "Actually, one would be enough for next weeks. I'll wait you here, I won't runaway. Just one more kiss, please."