Five Little Words

Part 13

It was indeed Trent at the door, and he smiled at his patient when he opened the door and walked in.

"Ready?" he asked, smiling encouragingly when he caught the nervousness in Dec's eyes - knowing better than most the reasons behind that.

Swallowing hard, Dec just nodded, and together they got him settled into the wheelchair and started the short journey to the physio room.

Along the way, Dec kept glancing at the watch on his wrist, glancing around impatiently as if waiting for something. Trent stayed quiet, pondering the behaviour in silence as they walked down the corridor and into the treatment building.

Coming to a halt beside the bars, Trent gestured for Dec to undo the strap across his waist and wait for him to come back. Obeying, Dec watched as the other man walked over to a cupboard and brought out the robot suit.

"Again?" he asked, surprised - and mildly irritated.

Trent smiled knowingly, he knew exactly what his patient thought about the Ekso suit, and it nearly always amused him.

"Afraid so, but just a quick warm-up session, and then we'll do a few of the exercises before we let you loose" he explained, smiling wider as Dec's mouth twisted into something that resembled a cross between a grimace and a pout.

"Come on, the sooner we get through this, then the sooner you can show us what you've got" he added, trying to make it sound more enticing.

Sighing, Dec allowed the suit to be put on, and then he went through the - by now - very familiar motions of walking with the help of the robot. Trent had to admit that he was impressed with the smoothness and speed of his gait, and he suddenly felt more comfortable with letting Dec try on his own later.

After a twenty minute session, Trent acknowledged that that was enough, and he helped Dec out of the suit, passing him a bottle of water to sip on while they had a short break.

"How did that feel?" he asked when he returned from putting the robot back in its place.

Swallowing a mouthful of water, Dec shrugged.

"Almost normal - if you take out the stiffness of the metal robot suit" he replied, but his eyes were dancing dimly and a tiny smile curled at his lips, and Trent knew that he was just playing at being annoyed.

Although he couldn't really blame him for being relieved to be out of the suit - he'd tried it on once when they'd first received it, and it was bloody uncomfortable!

He was about to reply with some other jokey quip when the door to the room opened and they both glanced around to look at who was arriving.

Expecting it to be Charlie or one of the other physiotherapists, Trent got quite a shock when he saw the - at first - unfamiliar dark-haired headed man walk in, looking around like he'd lost something, then breaking into a wide grin when he spotted them.

"Was wondering when you'd get up here!" Dec greeted cheerfully, and Trent quickly realised exactly who the other man was, and he found himself feeling increasingly nervous (and, he didn't mind admitting, rather star-struck).

Over the past eight weeks, he'd gotten quite used to being around Dec, and they'd actually built up a good friendship - seeing each other for nearly an hour a day almost every day for nearly eight weeks will do that, he supposed - but he'd never actually met Ant, and so he was still a little intimidated by the celebrity status of the man in front of him.

Ant - for that is who it was - grinned wider and walked over to them, clapping a warm hand on his friend's shoulder before holding his other hand out for Trent to shake - which he did, albeit rather nervously.