Quantum Leap: My Bones May Break but the Law Never Will (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter 8

Someday, he had to go back to work, and today was that day. That wasn't until five in the evening, but Yun had to wake Sam a lot earlier so they could do what they had to do that day: go grocery shopping. His heart was stricken with fear at the mere sound of her words, but she insisted.

"Why do I have to go?" he moaned.

"Because you need exercise to strengthen your muscles and bones!" she said.

Sam sighed, but he knew she was right. On bad pain days this would be impossible, so he might as well enjoy this average amount of pain while it lasted. He could always work and study if he had medium, normal pain, so he supposed he could also grocery shop a little. Maybe now he could buy more food that would be easy to prepare by himself.

Yun had already prepared some eggs and toast for them. Sam was still injured, so Yun put him in his wheelchair, but he wouldn't be using it for grocery shopping, probably. The back brace would be sufficient, and he had to work later, so he might as well get some practice. Sam knew that either he would become stronger, like a normal person, or he would get so tired out that he would have to take twenty breaks at work and still be tired tomorrow. The very idea of becoming that tired made Sam cringe internally, but maybe he would learn a thing or two from the experience. But honestly, Sam was pretty much sick of learning at this point in the leap.

The toast was covered with delicious strawberry jam. Sam ate his breakfast eagerly since he was so hungry, but even the act of using a fork tired out his hand, so he decided to use the one with which he would not be carrying his cane. He needed a good arm for his cane more than he needed breakfast.

Sam wore his work shoes to go shopping since he really didn't care which shoes he was wearing, and he changed into some jeans to replace the pajama pants he had been wearing for days. This was something else he learned while living the life of someone with a chronic illness: wearing the same clothes for days sometimes just happened, and since he was home most of the time, showers also didn't happen on a regular basis. It was just too hard to take care of everything else while also maintaining proper hygiene and changing his clothes every day. Normally he would find this really gross, but it was just what he had to do. Energy was very limited most of the time and he could only use it on so many activities every day.

The car ride to the grocery store was interesting, Sam thought. He saw more buildings, they had to go a lot further since it wasn't in the middle of the city like they were, and he got to smell all the amazing restaurants that they passed. They all smelled a lot better than Burger King.

The grocery store was interesting, but Sam was really only focusing on walking with his cane and not falling or hurting himself. Yun asked for his opinion on food sometimes, but he hardly paid any attention to it so he often just agreed with her.

Since he wasn't listening to Yun at all and rarely looked anywhere besides his feet and the tiles in front of hi, he left the store with only a vague impression of what they bought. At least he would have a few hours to relax and calm down before going to work, though. He sat in his usual arm chair the second they got back to the apartment and sat back in it with relief.

"Well, you got through it," Yun pointed out as she put the groceries away.

"Barely," Sam mumbled with his eyes closed in relaxation. It wasn't really relaxing as much as taking a well needed break, but he would call it anything he wanted. The brace pressed against his shoulder blades as he leaned his head back onto the chair, but that didn't matter to him in the slightest at this point.

While his eyes were closed, Yun apparently sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Sam jumped a little bit because he was lost in his thoughts and he thought she was still in the kitchen. She then flipped through the channels for a while and eventually stopped at a show Sam recognized as Family Ties. They enjoyed that for a while- well, Yun enjoyed it and Sam continued to listen with his eyes closed, but they still both had a good time. However, after a couple hours of this, Yun broke the news to Sam.