Creed of the Leviathan I

41 | M + E

Mattia

"How are you feeling today, Mattia?" Dr. Leighton asked.

"I'll be doing a lot better when I can walk on my own again."

"You'll get there. Your progress has been great so far." He comforted me.

"In time for our wedding?" Gia inquired. "It's in about four months."

Dr. Leighton pressed his eyebrows together, his left hand was on his hip, his right hand covered his mouth.

"That's not something I can guarantee," he shook his head. "Like I've said, you need to give your body time to heal. You need to be patient, don't let anyone or anything rush you. That'll only make you stress." He directed his words at me.

By Gia's facial expression I could tell that she felt attacked by what he had said.

"Okay, let's get started," Leighton clapped his hands. "I want to start with a few basic exercises that we've already dealt with and after that," he tapped the parallel bars. "We'll continue with this again."

I nodded in agreement. He placed the walking frame in front of me and held it steady as I pulled myself up. I had to stand still for a few seconds before I was able to take three steps.

"Fuck." My legs gave out sooner than I had hoped. Some sessions I would take five steps before I needed to rest, other days I would do three at maximum. "Damn it."

"Easy, easy. You'll get there, alright." Dr. Leighton squatted down and took my left leg in his hands. I looked up at Gia who was standing with her arms folded in front of her. She hated this place, could I blame her? Because I did too.

"Deep breaths." He said as he bent my knee. "Okay, straight. Good, hold it. Hold, hold. Now, bent." I followed his instructions. "One more time."

My leg hurt and started to tremble, but I trusted Leighton which is why I continued pushing.

"Very good. Let's see the other one." His focus switched to my other leg. By the time we were done with this part it felt like I could not move my legs anymore. They were dead tired and hurt like hell.

"Okay, take a few seconds to rest."

"No, I'm good. Let's continue." I said. He helped me up, only letting go when I was standing in between the parallel bars and holding up my own weight. My right leg was far weaker than the left one. Every time my weight was put on this leg I bit down on my teeth to deal with the unexplainable pain. However, it can not be compared to the uncomfortable neck brace I had to wear for such a long time.

I took deep breaths and carefully placed one foot in front of the other. Whenever the painful sensation became too much I would halt and lightly push myself up. My arms were not as strong as they used to be, but I managed.

"Almost there, Mattia. Come on." Leighton was pumped up. To motivate me he would randomly clap his hands in between every other step I took.

I was half way to the other side when I could not move any further. My arms were burning and my legs were about to give out. "I'm done. I'm done."

He placed the wheelchair behind me and pushed me to the other end until we were no longer between the bars. "You did good. Almost ten steps. Major progress."

"Yeah." My lips curved into a smile. I was genuinely happy and proud that I managed to do this. I turned to Gia, hoping that she was sharing a smile of her own but as I should have expected she was not impressed.

"I'll see you next week. And congrats on the engagement. You make a lovely couple." He smiled at both of us.

"We're having a small get together on Saturday. We'd love to have you there if you can. I'll send you the details." From the corners of my eyes I could see that she was not happy about the invite.