"So, can I see you walk now?" I ran into the Sanders's house, looking at Will excitedly. He closed his computer and looked up at me tiredly over his cereal.
"Good morning to you too, River," he rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly.
"Let's get past the formalities, I want to see what this is all about."
His wheelchair was in the corner of the living room, but a new gray walker was next to the stool he was sitting at. We mostly ended up sitting around during the game night last night, so I hadn't actually gotten to see him up and about much. We also hadn't exactly talked about everything that had happened on the porch, but I was hoping that would work itself out. Hopefully.
"Wait, are you still driving me to PT? You can just come in and watch, I'm sure the guy will be cool with it," Will said as he worked his way off the stool to put his hands on the walker, "But also, could you put this in the dishwasher for me? I would do it myself but my mom's kind of sick of me breaking dishes because I didn't ask for help."
"Sure, I want to see this first though," I nodded at his walker.
Will shook his head, the curled ends moving back and forth. "Heck of a lot of pressure here, Riv," he muttered.
I raised my eyebrows at him as he looked at me and waited for a response. Finally he groaned and put his hand on the counter as he stood up straighter. He left the walker behind as he took small steps down the hall towards the front door.
Each step was slow and jerky, and it was clear from the tense expression on his face that this was taking a lot of effort. Will turned around slowly at the end of the counter, glancing at me before removing the hand from the counter that was helping him balance. His eyes went back to the wood paneling on the floor as he focused on each step.
When he was two steps away from his walker, his legs started to shake a little. I stepped towards him as he began to lose his balance on one step, and he quickly reached out to grab the closest thing to him, which also happened to be me.
Will grabbed my shoulders to steady himself before looking down at me with a weak chuckle. The stupid grin that I got every time he did something impressive was back in full force.
"By the way, in case you didn't figure it out after last night, I kind of like you," he said quietly from his position leaning over me.
"Just kind of?" I teased.
He gave some combination of a laugh and a groan. "Yes, just kind of, and don't push your luck or I might just revoke that statement."
I put my hands on his shoulder and tiptoed up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Well, I kind of like you too I guess."
"Nice try with that one," Will turned my chin so that he could kiss me on the lips.
I pulled away after a few seconds, not because it wasn't enjoyable, but because we did have other things to be doing. "Okay, we should probably get going now."
"That bad, huh?" He pouted before moving over to his walker to gather his things for PT. I placed the dishes in the dishwasher and followed him down the ramp to my car.
Once we arrived at the physical therapy center Will beckoned for me to follow him inside after they called his name. A middle aged man led him to a curtained off area with a table, a chair nearby, and a stool.
"Hi, I'm Mark and I've been working with Will on his recovery. I think I may have seen you a couple of times when I was working with Will in the hospital, I'm pretty specialized with what I do so I see patients on both an in and out patient basis," The therapist smiled as he sat down in front of the computer.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm River."
Mark gave Will a glance as Will worked his way onto the table. "Ah, yes, I've heard a bit about you recently," he chuckled, "How did the big reveal go?"
"Pretty well, I'd say," Will smirked at me and I shook my head at him.
Mark left the subject at that. The two of them moved on to a variety of stretches on the table, which mostly consisted of Will attempting the exercise while Mark adjusted him to be in the proper position. Will advanced to a large machine that he was hooked up inside that basically moved his legs in a normal walking motion for him so that he could continue to get used to the movement. Honestly, he looked like he was inside some early model of a Iron Man suit, but whatever helped was better than nothing.
After the extensive process of removing Will from the machine, Mark led him over to a pair of parallel bars. An elderly man was already there working with a female therapist, likely recovering from some sort of hip replacement or other surgery, and a wide smile spread across his face when he noticed Will making his way over.
They were across the room from where I was sitting, which meant that although I couldn't hear their conversation, I was still able to watch the pair of them exchange some complicated handshake. The older man talked to Will for a few minutes as the two took turns walking and using the bars to support them. The female therapist eventually dragged her patient away and back to his own table, but he continued to talk to Will on his way back before the two exchanged goodbyes from across the room.
Mark walked Will through a few more exercises before they returned to where I was seated. "He might be a bit shakier than when he came in, but give him a few hours to recover and then he should be back to his normal strength. It will just take him a while to get back to his normal strength after his muscles have sat still for so long," Mark explained as Will eased himself onto the table that Mark had lowered.
I nodded and sat quietly as Will made his next appointment and discussed what exercises he had to do on the day between therapy sessions. "Okay, before I let you go I just need to check in due to the nature of your injury. Any changes in mental state, anxiety, depression, rapid changes in mood?"
Will shook his head at Mark, "Nah, I'm all good."
Mark looked at me as if to confirm this idea and I shrugged. "Okay, that's good, your mom said the same thing last time so I'll take your word for it. Just remember that it's completely normal to experience those things after the trauma that you have gone through, so just reach out if anything changes," Mark answered.
"And then the second topic on the agenda is slightly more fun, I just wanted to check in on something but don't get too excited. I'm just going to do this because I know that you're already thinking it. I remember that you played baseball at UH," Mark nodded at Will's shirt which proudly proclaimed his status, "but I just wanted to have it on my radar when your season starts."
"February 7th," Will spat out much too quickly.
Mark grimaced, "Wow, spring sports really start earlier than I ever expect them too. Okay, so I'm never going to make you any promises with regards to your treatment. And as you may be able to see, it's January and you're walking, which is a miracle, but you're barely even walking. So I think that we can pretty much take February 7th off of the drawing board. That being said, we can continue to evaluate as you continue to improve, and when you get a little firmer on your feet we can eventually work some other stuff in. But we will take it all as it comes, and there is no promise that you'll ever play again."
Will nodded, although he looked disappointed. They confirmed the next appointment and we made the trek back to the car.
As soon as I closed the drivers side door, Will slid down in his seat next to me. "Fuck this."
I looked over at him, slightly surprised because he tended to keep the swearing to a minimum. His mom had never let it slide growing up, and he usually refrained even when he wasn't around her.
"Okay, in my head I knew that I wasn't going to make it to Opening Day, but I was still holding onto some stupid ounce of belief. It's so dumb. But I just keep thinking about how if I just didn't go surfing I would be out there working to make sure that I'm starting, not just making my legs feel like jelly from just trying to walk," he looked away from the dashboard to give me a look, "And don't say 'at least you can walk.'"
I nodded and put the car in reverse, pulling out of the parking lot. "It sucks, that's for sure."
He exhaled loudly and continued to stare out the window. "Who was that guy that you were talking to when you were working on the bars?"
Will smiled slightly at the reminder. "That's Jack, he got his knee replaced recently and started around the same time as me. He's pretty cool, he actually lost his other leg below the knee in Vietnam, so it's not his first go-around with recovery.
"That's cool."
"Yeah, he's a great guy. It's been fun getting to know him, and it's encouraging."
We talked about what Will's therapy had looked like so far since he had started working on walking. A few minutes later we were back in our neighborhood, and I dropped him off before heading to my own training at the gym.
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Sorry for the brief absence, school is in full gear right now but I'll hopefully be able to get stuff out at a reasonable (but probably inconsistent) pace. Â I feel like I have a better sense of direction after this chapter, so that's good.
Thanks for reading, any comments or votes are always appreciated :)