Lean on me

Chapter 26

Sloan smiles as she counts and realizes that she's stayed up longer than the last time. At eight seconds, the backdoor opens and she gets distracted, looking over her shoulder quickly, making her lose her focus and balance. She falls backwards this time, landing on her butt. Sloan groans in frustration looking up to see everyone now outside. She pushes herself up and Jensen resets the boards.

"So, what exactly are you doing?" Gen asks as she eyes the contraption. 

"Working on balance." Sloan tells her, using Jensen's shoulder again to get on the board. He slowly removes the wooden ones and Sloan finds her balance quickly.

"She has to stay up for at least ten seconds." He explains. "This is her third try." 

"What happened on the other two?" Grayson asks, looking away from Sloan and to Jensen.

"The first time, I leaned too far to the left and fell." Sloan answers, wobbling slightly as she looks up from her feet. "The second time, I got distracted by the four of you." 

"So it's our fault?" Jared asks in amusement. Sloan nods. 

"How long has it been?" Danneel asks, looking to her husband. 

"Seven seconds." He answers. Sloan counts in her head, smiling when she reaches fifteen.  She jumps off the board, ignoring it as it falls to the ground and fist pumps the air. 

"Fifteen seconds!" She yells triumphantly before turning to Jensen. "What's next?"

"Now we start working on muscle." He says. Sloan nods and follows him to the concrete behind them. Jensen grabs a green towel from the ground and looks at her. 

"What are you gonna do? Whip me?" She asks, raising a brow at the towel.

"I should but no." He says, rolling his eyes. "Pushups." 

"I can't do pushups." She tells him. "Only got one arm, in case you forgot. That's why we're doing all this."

"That's what the towel's for." He says before gesturing to the ground. "Get in position." Sloan huffs as she kneels on the ground. She places her arm under her like she had on the tube the day before and stretches her legs out, almost like she's planking. "I'm gonna hold the ends of the towel to hold you up." Jensen says, looping the towel under her abdomen and pulling on it, keeping her up. Sloan straightens her arm out, the limb already shaking from all of her weight being on it. "Alright. Give me ten." 

Sloan slowly lowers herself, keeping her back straight, until her nose is almost touching the ground. She slowly pushes herself back up and Jensen pulls on the towel, helping her a bit. By the third pushup, Sloan's arm is shaking so much she can barely push herself up. By the fifth, she's having trouble going down. 

"We can stop at five." Jensen says, seeing her struggle. Sloan shakes her head stubbornly. "Sloan, don't strain yourself. We have plenty of time." Sloan shakes her head again, lowering herself despite every muscle in her arm protesting. 

"I can do it." She tells him. 

Sloan ignores Jensen's continued protests as she forces herself to keep going. On the seventh pushup, Sloan starts to lower herself when her arm gives out and she collapses, Jensen barely pulling on the towel in time to stop her from hitting the ground. 

"Alright. You're done." He says, his voice leaving no room for argument as he gently lowers the girl to the ground before dropping the ends of the towel. Sloan rolls over onto her back and looks up at him. 

"What's next?" She asks.

"Rest." He says, making the girl groan. "Sloan, you're not going to improve anything if you keep pushing yourself like this. You're just gonna do more harm than good."