The Tour

twenty six / nice try

"So, can I see you walk now?" I ran into the Sanders's house, looking at Will excitedly. He closed his computer and looked up at me tiredly over his cereal.

"Good morning to you too, River," he rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly.

"Let's get past the formalities, I want to see what this is all about."

His wheelchair was in the corner of the living room, but a new gray walker was next to the stool he was sitting at. We mostly ended up sitting around during the game night last night, so I hadn't actually gotten to see him up and about much. We also hadn't exactly talked about everything that had happened on the porch, but I was hoping that would work itself out. Hopefully.

"Wait, are you still driving me to PT? You can just come in and watch, I'm sure the guy will be cool with it," Will said as he worked his way off the stool to put his hands on the walker, "But also, could you put this in the dishwasher for me? I would do it myself but my mom's kind of sick of me breaking dishes because I didn't ask for help."

"Sure, I want to see this first though," I nodded at his walker.

Will shook his head, the curled ends moving back and forth. "Heck of a lot of pressure here, Riv," he muttered.

I raised my eyebrows at him as he looked at me and waited for a response. Finally he groaned and put his hand on the counter as he stood up straighter. He left the walker behind as he took small steps down the hall towards the front door.

Each step was slow and jerky, and it was clear from the tense expression on his face that this was taking a lot of effort. Will turned around slowly at the end of the counter, glancing at me before removing the hand from the counter that was helping him balance. His eyes went back to the wood paneling on the floor as he focused on each step.

When he was two steps away from his walker, his legs started to shake a little. I stepped towards him as he began to lose his balance on one step, and he quickly reached out to grab the closest thing to him, which also happened to be me.

Will grabbed my shoulders to steady himself before looking down at me with a weak chuckle. The stupid grin that I got every time he did something impressive was back in full force.

"By the way, in case you didn't figure it out after last night, I kind of like you," he said quietly from his position leaning over me.

"Just kind of?" I teased.

He gave some combination of a laugh and a groan. "Yes, just kind of, and don't push your luck or I might just revoke that statement."

I put my hands on his shoulder and tiptoed up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Well, I kind of like you too I guess."

"Nice try with that one," Will turned my chin so that he could kiss me on the lips.

I pulled away after a few seconds, not because it wasn't enjoyable, but because we did have other things to be doing. "Okay, we should probably get going now."

"That bad, huh?" He pouted before moving over to his walker to gather his things for PT. I placed the dishes in the dishwasher and followed him down the ramp to my car.

Once we arrived at the physical therapy center Will beckoned for me to follow him inside after they called his name. A middle aged man led him to a curtained off area with a table, a chair nearby, and a stool.

"Hi, I'm Mark and I've been working with Will on his recovery. I think I may have seen you a couple of times when I was working with Will in the hospital, I'm pretty specialized with what I do so I see patients on both an in and out patient basis," The therapist smiled as he sat down in front of the computer.