Tim Sat in the waiting room of the hospital, shifting in his seat uncomfortably, when the nurse called his name. He got up and followed him down the hall to an examining room where his doctor was waiting for him.

"Good afternoon, Tim. What brings you here today?" he inquired as Tim hopped up on the examining bed, "Your physical isn't due for another eight months," he added as he began to look Tim over.

"I've been getting this pain around my chest," Tim responded as he rolled his shoulders to ease the discomfort that made itself known once he settled on the bed.

"Have you been coughing a lot? It is flu season after all, lift up your shirt please," he commented as he readied his stethoscope.

Tim complied and pulled his shirt up, "No, I don't really feel sick like that. No fever, or sweatiness. No coughing or sneezing. It's just I feel something hurt a little when I move certain ways or breath in too deeply. When I first noticed it, I thought I might have had some fluid in my lungs, but I haven't been coughing as I said. I guess it feels kind of like when you crack your knuckles and feel the joints pull," he explained.

"Uh-huh, self diagnosis is often unreliable for anything worse than a cold or flu, so, let me have a look and we'll see," he chided as he place the receiver on his chest, "Breath please."

Tim slowly breathed in, wincing at the discomfort at the end before slowly letting it out. The doctor had him do this several more times before telling him to put his shirt down.

"Well, the good news is there isn't any fluid in your lungs that I can detect, "the doctor said as he pulled the stethoscope from his ears, "But, I do hear some bones rubbing together on your right side. It could be from a sedentary lifestyle like sitting or sleeping in an awkward position too long or even a sudden jolt of movement the wrong way can do it. Do you recall doing anything that could explain this?" he asked.

Tim shook his head, "No, well I am a desk jockey, I always do stretches throughout the day. And I like to stay active in my personal time. I've got a membership at the gym and I go for runs on the weekend," he explained. "It just sort of started in the middle of the day and I wasn't doing anything strenuous that I can recall at the time."

His doctor tapped his pursed lips with a finger in thought before responding, "I'm going to suggest a chiropractor then. Sometimes, things just come out of alignment with no reason. If this does persist, then come back and we'll see what else we can do. Sound like a plan?"

Tim nodded in acquiescence as he got off the bed and thanked him before leaving. It wasn't too much later that day that he found a chiropractor who was able to fit him in that day. And after a painful session, which the chiropractor insisted meant the treatment was working, he finally made his way home. He felt looser but his ribs were still bothering him.

The next day he woke up in a series of cricks and cracks throughout his chest as he sat up. On taking a breath he felt the discomfort in both sides of his ribs. His morning stretches failed to rectify this so, with little recourse, he called his doctor to set up another appointment. With an appointment scheduled later that afternoon he called into work to let them know of his absence. With a long wait ahead he did what he could to pass the time unsuccessfully to fix his problem.

After he arrived at the hospital and was admitted, he went through the check-up with his doctor again, telling him of how he could only take short shallow breaths without discomfort. The doctor noted that he could hear more of his ribs rubbing and advised an x-ray. Thankfully, it was a short wait an Tim was firmly ensconced in the room and a few minutes later he was let out. His doctor prescribed him muscle relaxers and over the counter pain meds and sent him home while he looked over his x-rays when they developed.

On arriving home Tim took his meds and did what he could with his sick day and started some deep stretches in hopes that would go towards solving his problem. An hour had gone by before he gave up stretching. At times he felt he almost had it but also felt like something was hooked on something just so. It was irritating. With him being only able to take shallow breaths, it only further hindered him. So, fed up and feeling stifled, he went to the bathroom and filled the tub and relaxed, turning on the jacuzzi function. He spent the much of the rest of the day until bed.

The next day he woke feeling stiff all up and down his back and sides. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he had already become accustom to taking shallow breaths so he was able to abate much of the discomfort and actual pain now. He winced his way to the kitchen for breakfast. It was while he was cleaning up that he got a call from his doctor.

"Hello Tim, I'm going to need to to come in for another x-ray," he told him.

"Is there something wrong?" Tim asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach could be felt as he imagined the worst.

"No, there was something wrong with the machine. When I got your x-rays back, there was a double image on it. I had the techs recalibrate it and it should be working fine now, but, I'll need you to come in again for another session."

Tim grumbled a response before ending the conversation and once again drove to the hospital. On meeting his doctor, again, he disrobed, again, donned the apron, again and took the position and had his x-ray taken. Again.

Instead of sending him home, his doctor gave him a full physical while they waited. After what seemed like an eternity, Tim's x-ray's finally came back. His doctor took a look at them giving them a look before getting real quiet for several minutes. He went to the side and pulled a large plastic sheet out of an envelope and stared at that one before turning back and forth several times. Tim wasn't sure what to think until his doctor turned to him.

"It seems that the x-ray machine wasn't broken after all," he started as he stuck both sheets on a light panel beside each other before flicking on the light for said apparatus. "What do you see?" he asked Tim.

Tim looked at the two pictures on the panel. They looked like what you'd expect x-rays to look like. He gave the doctor a quizzical shrug not sure what he was getting at, "They look like x-rays," he told him.

The doctor gave a sigh before gesturing to the pictures. "With a normal x-ray it's fairly easy to see the human skeleton. And with an experienced physician, abnormalities can be detected, such as tumors or other malformed organs. Not to say you have any of these, the problem is here!" he stated pointing. Seeing Tim's confused look he explained further, "See the skeleton and how there's looks to be a double image there?" Tim nodded slowly. "This isn't a malfunction of the machine, not twice on a row. The fact of the matter is, You are growing another set of bones inside you," he paused to let that sink in. After a pregnant pause the doctor continued, "I want to schedule an MRI for you so we can get a closer look at what's going on. To be safe, I'm going to need you to stay for observation while we get everything checked out."

Tim nodded dumbly, still trying to grasp what was told to him and soon enough he was ensconced in a room and changed into a hospital gown. It was late afternoon that he was ushered to the MRI room and injected with a dye and rolled into the machine. After a few minutes of chatter and instructions to lie still there was sudden silence. Tim was about to ask what was going on when the tech asked him to take a deep breath. Reluctantly, Tim did so, slowly breathing in before getting halfway he couldn't go any farther without feeling a sharp increase in pain as it felt as if a large hand was squeezing him on both sides of his ribs. There was silence for a few more minutes until his doctor came back on the speaker.

"How are you doing Tim?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to take anymore deep breaths like that till this is over, can't say I'm doing too good," he answered sarcastically.

"Sorry, we just wanted to be sure of what's going on," there was a pause, "The situation is a bit more complicated than you just growing another set of ribs. It seems that you are not only growing new bones but your body seems to be shutting down "service" to your original bones. Eventually, the new bones will take over, effectively changing your skeletal structure. And this is not just happening with your ribs but with all your bones, including our skull.

On hearing this, Tim got angry and started to panic. He took a deeper quick breath than he meant to to shout "What?!" but he never got that far. On breathing in so suddenly he felt a click on both sides just beyond the pain his ribs protested and he was unable to breath out. If he was panicking before, he was in a frenzy now as he started flailing his arms and legs trying to gasp somewhere in the stabbing pain that was lancing up and down his ribs as they tried to compress. before passing out he vaguely heard his doctor swearing before shouting to get Tim out of the machine. Before passing out, Tim would barely remember something about his doctor shouting about surgery before he, thankfully, passed out.

Tim awoke to the beeping of a heart rate monitor and his doctor talking to another at the foot of the hospital bed he found himself in. A grunt from Tim drew the attention of the two. Tim's doctor handed the chart he was holding to his colleague as he moved to the side to better communicate with Tim, "How are you feeling?"

Tim took a hesitant breath, found he wasn't restricted and took his first full breath he had in the last few days. Although, he was a little sore down the middle of his chest, "Better," he told him after a moment, "What happened?"

His doctor gave a quick glance to his colleague before turning back to him, "While you were in the MRI we found that you have actually grown a full set of smaller ribs under your original ones. The reason you've been having problems breathing was because your new ribs had taken over breathing for you. When your new ribs tried to expand, they were pushing against your old ones. So, when you took that sudden deep breath in the MRI you new ribs pushed your old ribs just enough to get caught on them preventing you from breathing outward." He paused a moment to let that sink in. "We had to rush you to surgery and were forced to remove your old ribs to save your life."

Tim was still weak but at the statement of hearing that his ribs were removed, a spike of adrenaline entered his bloodstream and he pulled the sheets and gown out of the way to see his bandaged torso that now seemed a lot smaller than what he remembered and seemed to taper near his waist a little.