“You don’t have to come in with me,” I told Chase. “You might get bored.” It was Tuesday after school, and we were currently sitting outside the building where I did my physical therapy. Chase had offered to drive me there, and now he was saying that he would stay for the session so he could drive me home after.
“I’ll be fine, Dana. Come on; let’s get in before you’re late for your appointment.” He got out of the car and waited expectantly for me to join him.
I sighed and climbed out of the car, hunching my shoulders against the biting cold. I went into the building with Chase following along behind me. I put my coat on the hanger in the small waiting area and Chase did the same. We sat down in two of the chairs and waited until it was time for me to go in.
Jared came out of one of the rooms with an older man. “Okay Gerald, I’ll see you next week.” He turned to me and gave me a warm smile. “Hello Dana. Who’s this?” he asked, looking at Chase curiously.
“This is Chase. He volunteered for chauffeur duty today.” I got to my feet. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Chase, would you like to come into the room with us? That is, as long as Dana doesn’t mind.” Jared glanced at me with a questioning look.
My heart sped up slightly at the thought of letting someone see my leg, but I nodded anyways. “Sure. You’ll probably be less bored if you can come in.”
The three of us moved into one of the therapy rooms and I hopped onto the padded bench and lay back. I hesitated for a moment before pulling the left leg of my pants up, revealing the mass of scars that covered the entire leg. The leg was also slightly crooked from the crash, but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable now as it had been at the beginning.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Chase to see his reaction, so I just closed my eyes and tried to stay still as Jared poked and prodded at my leg. I had to grit my teeth a couple of times to keep from cursing at him, but I managed to stay quiet. He spent twenty minutes massaging the muscles before hooking me up to the machine that he always did. I opened my eyes once he was done that and saw that Chase was sitting in a chair next to my head. Jared wrote a couple of things down on a clipboard and then smiled down at me. “You’re doing really well, Dana. Have you been doing the exercises every day?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I do them twice a day. Once when I wake up and once before I go to sleep.”
“Good. I think in another month or two you’ll be able to get around without the cane.”
That perked me up a little. “Really?”
“Yeah. Your left leg will always be weaker than your right, but you should be able to walk without aid again one day.”
I heard the front door of the office open, and then a female voice called out. “Jared?”
Jared frowned and stuck his head out the door. “In here Hailey. What’s wrong?”
A moment later a young woman appeared in the doorway. “Oh, sorry. I thought you would be done for the day already.”
“Dana is my last patient. What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop to invite you over for dinner tonight. Jake and Amanda are coming and I thought you and Cindy would like to join us.” She gave him a charming smile. “Actually, I really want Cindy to come; you’re just part of the package.”
Jared laughed and shook his head. “More wedding plans?”
She nodded. “Yeah, and you know how much Blake starts to whine if I ask him anything about it. According to him we could just get married naked and it wouldn’t matter to him since he wouldn’t see it anyways.” She rolled her eyes .
Jared laughed. “That does sound like something he would say,” he replied. Then he seemed to remember where he was. “Crap, sorry. Dana, this is Hailey. I told you about her a little while ago.”
I glanced at the young woman in surprise. This was the girl who had been in an accident that tore her life apart? But she was so happy and bubbly. And there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with her back. “Hello,” I mumbled quietly.
“Hi,” she said, smiling warmly. “Have you thought of any colorful names for Jared yet?”
My lips turned up into an answering smile. “Yeah, but I keep them to myself.”
“Oh, you should say them out loud. It’s very therapeutic to get it out of your system. I had some very creative names that I used to call him when he worked on me.” She gave Jared an adoring smile. “And he took it so admirably.”
Jared rolled his eyes. “You on your own wasn’t so bad. It was when Blake came into it that the names got really colorful.”
Hailey chuckled. “That book of insults I bought for him really came in handy for that,” she murmured. She glanced over at Chase. “Hi.”
I looked at Chase as well and saw that he seemed a little uncomfortable. His eyes met mine and I saw him relax slightly before shifting his gaze to Hailey. “Hey,” he muttered.
Hailey glanced between the two of us and a knowing look crossed her face. “Jared, have you shown Chase how to help Dana, like you showed Blake how to help me?”
Jared frowned slightly. “No, this is the first time Chase has been here. And that’s not something I usually do, Hales. You and Blake were special.”
“I think you should show him, if he’s willing. It made a big difference to me.” I saw them exchange a look before Jared turned to us again.
“Chase, would you be willing to learn what to do?” He waited until Chase had nodded hesitantly before looking at me. “Would you be willing to let him do that?”
I paled a little at the thought of Chase having to put his hands on my deformed leg. But then Chase placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly, so I nodded. “Okay.”
Hailey chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before speaking again. “Jared, I know this isn’t normal protocol, but could you leave the room for few minutes? Chase, you too. I’d like to talk to Dana alone.”
Jared was hesitant, but I nodded in agreement so the two of them walked out of the room. Hailey took the seat that Chase had vacated. “It’s hard thinking about having Chase touch your leg, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “It’s not pretty to look at.”
Hailey twisted in the chair and raised her shirt up, exposing her back which was covered in scars, much like my leg. She lowered her shirt back down and turned to face me again. “Trust me, I know how you feel.”
I was speechless for a moment, absorbing the shock of how her back had looked. “How did that happen?” I whispered.
“Car accident. The back windshield shattered and a bunch of the glass went into my back. Some of the scars are from the glass and some are from all the surgeries I went through.” She gestured to my leg. “What happened to you?”
“Car accident as well. My leg got crushed, but they managed to save it.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Sometimes I think it would have been better if it had been removed. At least then I’d know exactly what my limitations would be for the rest of my life.”
Hailey lifted a brow. “You think losing a leg would limit your life?”
“Yeah.”
She shook her head. “It only would have limited you as much as you wanted it to. Blake, the guy I’m marrying, is blind, but it doesn’t affect him much. When I met him, he was one of the rudest and nastiest people I knew, because everyone had set limits for him and therefore he’d set them for himself. I helped him realize that being blind didn’t make him different, just like the fact that I was occasionally bound to a wheelchair didn’t change who I was.”
“How did you get better?”
“I pushed myself really hard. If Jared told me to do something, I’d do it twice. It took a lot of work, but I eventually started walking again and now I rarely have to rely on my wheelchair.” She sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “At first I wanted to give up, but Jared wouldn’t let me. He’s my brother’s best friend, so I’ve known him forever. Once he got me out of my stupor, he helped me a lot.”
“He said that you lost your parents in the accident.”
“Yes, and I nearly lost my brother as well. Did you lose someone in your accident?”
I nodded. “My twin brother.”
Compassion filled her eyes and she placed her hand over mine. “That really sucks.” She glanced at her watch and swore softly. “I have to go before Blake thinks I got lost.” She hesitated briefly. “I’d like to talk to you again, if you don’t mind. You remind me of myself, and I’d like to try and help you if I can.”
“That would be nice,” I replied, surprising myself a little. I hadn’t expected to feel so comfortable with someone new so quickly.
Hailey dug into her purse and produced a piece of paper and a pen. She quickly scrawled her number down and then handed the paper to me. “Call me anytime you feel like it. I’m always happy to have new friends, though I can’t say the same for the man I’m going to marry,” she added wryly. “He’s not overly fond of people in general.”
I gave her a half smile. “Sounds like Chase. If he doesn’t talk to you, don’t be offended. He doesn’t really talk to anyone aside from me.”
She got to her feet and smiled down at me. “It takes a lot to offend me. Next time I talk to you, I’ll tell you about the first time I met Blake.”
“I’d like that. It was nice to meet you.”
“You too. See you later.”
She left the room and Jared and Chase came back in a moment later. Jared showed Chase how to massage my leg, and it wasn’t as weird as I’d thought it would be having Chase touch my leg. “The more often you can do this, the better,” Jared told Chase. “It will help her with the pain.”
We left a few minutes later, and Chase turned to look at me before he started the car. “Does your leg hurt you a lot?”
I shrugged. “Not as much as it used to, since it’s getting stronger. But there are times when it aches, especially with the weather getting colder. Jared told me I’ll always be able to tell when the weather is changing now because of my leg.”
“Do you mind me massaging it for you?”
Again I shrugged. “I know it’s not pretty to look at, but if you don’t mind then neither do I.”
“It’s part of who you are, Dana. Scars don’t bother me.” He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Are you hungry?”
The change of subject surprised me, but I nodded. “Yeah, I could eat.”
We stopped at a fast food restaurant and had some food and then he drove me back home. “Thanks for driving me today,” I said.
“Anytime,” he replied, leaning over to give me a light kiss. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night.” I climbed out of the car and headed into the house. I spent a little time with my parents and then went down to the barn. I no longer had to wait until they went to bed before going down there, since they knew about my visits now.
As I was riding Justice around, Hailey’s words about pushing myself came back to me. I urged Justice into a trot and this time I kept it up for a full ten minutes, twice as long as I’d previously managed. My leg was shaking slightly by the time I was done, but I was proud of myself for making it for that long.
Once he was untacked, I spent some extra time grooming him. “We’re going to start working harder, boy. I need to get my leg stronger and you need to start working more before you get fat.” I ran my hand down his neck. “Plus, I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’ll work.” I gave him a last pat and let myself out of the stall. “Have a good night boy.”
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A lot of you really wanted to see Hailey and Blake, so I brought Hailey in earlier than I'd originally planned. You'll see more of her and Blake in later chapters.
I know a lot of you are curious about what happened to Chase, and I promise that you'll find out more soon. I'm just trying to build up their relationship a little before he reveals his secrets.
Question for this chapter: What's your favourite season? Mine is summer because I hate the cold and I like riding outside.
The response to the last question was phenomenal, and hopefully it'll be the same for this chapter. I entered the story into the Watty Awards, so I really need your votes and comments now. Thanks guys! You all make writing so much fun because you enjoy it so much :-)