I awoke again to a crash of thunder. I had no idea how long I'd been sleeping, but it was quiet in the cave so I imagined the guys went to check the traps.
Another rumble of thunder shook the cave and I cowered into my sweatshirt. Honestly, I would have given anything for the warm Arizona sun. Or at this point, I would have been fine if it was a little chilly, but the thunder and rain had to go.
"Derek?" I asked.
"He just went to go get some clean water. The rest of the guys went to the traps," Cam replied as he stood up to walk closer to me.
"Even Wes? I thought he was staying back."
"He was, but he started to get a little restless," Cam said with a shrug.
Another loud thunder cracked the sky and I flinched. "Why'd they go right now? The weather seems worse."
"It wasn't when they left. They should be back soon, don't worry. How are you feeling?"
"My hangover is much better," I answered. I didn't want to say I was fine because I still felt a little gross, and I was freezing again. I was getting so sick of being cold and I could not stress this fact enough. The cold was literally driving me insane.
"That's good. Are you cold?" Cam asked.
It never ceased to amaze me how observant the guys were. I nodded. "How can you tell?"
"You keep pulling your sweatshirt tighter and I can see you trembling. I know Jake usually lays next to you while you sleep to keep you warm at night, but it's extra cold today and he isn't here. I noticed you shivering, so I gave you that extra sweatshirt earlier but I don't know if it really helped."
I hadn't even realized that I had an extra until he pointed it out. Sure enough, the familiar grey sweatshirt of his that I borrowed on the first day was draped across my legs. My heart warmed at how thoughtful the guys could be. "Thank you for looking out for me." I smiled and tried to smother another shiver so he wouldn't worry.
"I can sit next to you if you want? To try and warm you up a bit. I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable before," he said with hesitation. His cheeks appeared to tinge red as he spoke. This kind of shy thing he was doing at the moment was very uncharacteristic for him, and it confused me.
"Sure, if you want to," I agreed to make him feel less awkward, and I let him slide in close to me. He wrapped his big arms around me, and pulled me into his chest. Although Cam was warm, Jake was definitely warmer, and I felt more comfortable with him; but, Jake wasn't here and I was sick of being cold. We layed together like this while I pressed my head into his muscular chest until Derek returned with the water.
He stopped short when he saw Cam and I together, cocking an eyebrow. I felt a little awkward to be caught this way, but we were all friends here. I slept with Jake like this every night and nobody said anything. However, I couldn't help but wonder what Jake would think if he saw Cam and I laying together like this... would he care?
"She was cold," Cam answered Derek's silent question. This appeared to be a reasonable explanation and Derek's face went back to normal.
"Ah yes; she's always cold," Derek smirked and set the waters down. "Do you feel well enough to work on your ankle?"
I pushed myself up off of Cam and stretched out a little before replying, "Yes please! Let's get me back on my feet."
Both men chuckled, "Okay short stuff, don't get too excited; it's not going to be healed in a day," Derek warned.
"True, but it's a start," I smiled as I crawled my way closer to him.
Derek sat down on the ground and patted his lap, indicating for me to hold my foot out to him. I gently placed my foot in his lap and he carefully unwrapped it. He moved it around to try and see it in better lighting, observing it from many angles and moving it gently in different directions. His silence was killing me.
"Well?" I asked.
"Let's try some rehabbing. Not a lot though; I mean it," he said with a stern tone, pointing a lean finger in my direction.
"Yay! Okay!" I said with excitement. Another loud thunder erupted in the valley, shaking the cave. I held my arms tight across my body and tried to steel myself against flinching.
Cam chuckled beside me, "Still not a fan of the thunder, huh Cass?"
"Nope," I replied, "but neither is Nathan, and they're all outside in this right now. I hope they're okay."
"I'm sure they're fine. Adam and Nathan, and sometimes Wes, can be idiots, but they have Jake and Luke with them," Derek replied.
Cam chuckled a bit at this, "I'm sure Jake wants to kill them right about now if Nathan's bitching about the thunder."
Derek smiled and shook his head, "I'm sure it's going fine. Hopefully there actually was something in the traps, or their trip would have been pointless. Okay Cass. We're going to start simple. You can keep your leg in my lap, but we're going to try and write the alphabet with your foot. Don't stretch it too far. If it hurts too bad, tell me."
I nodded my head and flexed my foot gently to the right and up to begin writing the "a." It didn't hurt that bad, although it did feel tight. As I rounded my ankle to the left, that's when it hurt more. I grimaced a little but completed the letter.
"Okay stop," Derek commanded, "how did that feel?"
"It was okay. I need to go slow; it feels really tight. It only really started to hurt me when I rounded it to the left," I responded.
"Hm, okay." This wasn't the answer he was hoping for. "Well, I don't want to push it. Let's just maybe do the alphabet slowly, 1 time today, and then we will try more tomorrow. I may have you stand and try and put just a little bit of weight on it today as well."
I started into the alphabet, moving slowly and making sure to stop if I felt it stretching too far. I made it through "j" when I heard some shuffling outside the cave, although it was quiet and I wasn't sure if it was just the rain. I stopped to focus on the sounds to see if I could tell what it was.
"Why'd you stop?" Derek asked, concerned.
"I hear something. Maybe it's the guys?"
Derek turned to look towards the cave entrance, and Cam got up to go check it out. "Anything?" Derek asked.
"Yeah. I see them coming back, they're still kind of far away though, so I'm not sure how you were able to hear them," he said to me.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. I guess I'm just kind of sensitive to sounds."
Cam smiled at me and took a seat on the floor beside me as I continued on with my alphabet.
"That's impressive," Derek said, as if he was deep in thought about my unique gift. I found myself feeling like I needed to explain for some reason.
"Yeah I don't know. Truthfully, after the whole Trent incident, I was always listening in my house to be sure if he's there. I listen for little clues and movements so that I know whether or not I should come out of my room or stay in. Maybe that's why I'm so aware of differences in sounds," I shrugged, and continued to move my foot, tracing an "m."
"That's really sad. God Cassie I swear when we get out of here and I see that guy I'm going to kill him," Derek said, rubbing a hand up my shin and locking eyes with me to make his point.
"Diddo," Cam muttered.
Just then, the rest of the guys came in. Wes and Adam entered first, with Wes carrying what looked like a rabbit, followed by Jake who had another rabbit in one hand and Nathan gripping onto his other arm, followed by Luke.
"All that for 2 bunnies," Adam grumbled while removing his wet sweatshirt and t-shirt.
"Better than nothing!" I tried to sound enthusiastic. More of the men started removing their wet clothing, and I could feel my cheeks heating as I tried to avoid staring at their perfect, muscled, bodies. My eyes moved to Nathan who was still standing closely to Jake.
"Nate are you okay?" I asked, "Why are you holding Jake's arm?"
He released his arm quickly, puffing out his chest as he replied, "Oh yeah, I'm good. Totally cool."
Jake set his rabbit down, and removed his sweatshirt. "Nate's scared of thunder. He freaked out a little bit, and felt comforted enough if he was able to hold onto me," Jake smirked. The other guys in the cave laughed.
"You guys don't understand!" Nathan defended, "It's really scary when its all dark and stormy, and being in the woods with trees all around, and then the thunder being THAT loud! I mean come on, everyone's scared of something."
"What, you thought Jake could protect you from thunder?" Cam teased.
"Kind of. I mean, if anyone could it would be Jake right?" He shrugged and removed his shirt. I focused hard on my ankle so that I wouldn't get caught staring at his farmer's body. He was stunning; they all were.
"I get it Nathan. The thunder is worse out here; it's louder and more menacing," I said, smiling up at him and completing the "o." I flinched a little on this letter because it required me to bring my foot around to the left.
"Thank you Cassie. What are you doing with your foot?"
"Rehabbing it! I'm writing the alphabet."
"Are you sure she's ready Derek? She just flinched." Jake asked, sitting down on our bed and pulling a dry sweatshirt over his head. I was shocked he even noticed; I thought I was being subtle.
"Yeah, it's fine. We're only doing it one time. She promised she would tell me if it hurts too bad," Derek explained.
"huh," Luke chuckled, "She would not. She always says she's fine when she's not."
"Hey now, that's not true! Well, maybe a little, but I'm getting better at that," I chuckled. A few of the guys exchanged glances like they didn't believe me, but I kept moving through the letters.
After the alphabet, Derek and Jake had me up on my feet with a few of the other guys standing nearby. I had all my weight on my good leg, holding onto Derek's arms in front of me as Jake stood behind me with his hands on my hips. We were going to try and see if I could take a step.
"Okay. One, two, three," Derek counted down, and I put my foot forward to take a step. I felt Derek's arms tense up to support my weight, and Jake lifted me by my hips as I moved forward to complete the step. They overdid it, and I barely even touched the ground at all; my toes may have lightly dragged on the dirt floor.
"Um guys? You didn't even let me put any weight on it," I chuckled. "Can we try again without the two of you completely lifting me off the ground?"
They looked at each other and chuckled, "Right sorry. Let's do it again," Derek replied.
This time they didn't help me quite as much. It hurt a little bit, I'm not gonna lie, but I was able to take a few steps on it with their support before Derek insisted I be done for the day. I felt like this was good progress, and I was excited to finally be on the road to recovery.
The rest of the day went by slowly and without any incidences. The rain kept us inside all day so we spent most of the time laying around, discussing our lives, and playing tic-tack-toe or hang man in the mud. At night, I cuddled up next to Jake again and listened to the guys chat until I was able to fall asleep. It didn't take long, and for once I drifted peacefully into a dreamless sleep.
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Thanks for reading!
See you in the next chapter...
-Haley