Adelphe's Convalescence

Nothing

Nothing

"Are you ready?" Hue asked kindly, his hands grabbing onto Addie's legs with a firm but gentle touch, holding her calf and the back of her knee.

Addie nodded, watching him wearily. She tried to hide the way her hands clenched the sheets under her into nervous fists.

It had taken a couple hours after the initial injury for the pain to fade. Intellectually, she knew that she wasn't hurt any longer, but that didn't stop her knees and calves from continuing to throb with each beat of her heart. There was apparently some delay in her head, because her brain continued to insist, even as Elaine was healing from the injuries, that they were still on her legs.

Master Hue had allowed her to sleep in his clinic that night, understanding in his eyes. Elaine and Addie had rested together, and when Elaine woke up the next morning, her ankles and calves were fully healed. The heel cord intact, albeit sore, and her knees were slowly reforming. It was only a single night, but she was already nearly fully healed.

Since Master Hue couldn't bend her knees yet, he was focusing on Addie's recovery. Either out of the habit that she had developed since her knees had been broken or out of fear of the pain returning, Addie hadn't moved at all during the night, and woke up in the same position she had fallen asleep in.

Like a mother bird pushing her babies out of the nest, the master wasn't going to let her remain bedridden if he thought she could stand. It was a cruel sort of love that insisted she move despite the fact that she desperately didn't want to attempt doing so.

Hue's instruction had been for her to remain still and limp and to allow him manipulate her body fully passively. However, it was a battle of will to keep her muscles from stiffening as he lifted her leg. It bent only at the hip as he carefully palpated along the knee, making sure that it was normally formed.

Then, slowly and carefully, he began to bend it down. Addie tensed, waiting for the pain or the catch to stop it, but the movement was as smooth and easy as it had ever been before. He kept pushing on the limb until he had her leg bent so far that her heel was touching the back of her thigh.

A triumphant smile crossed his face as he straightened it out again. He took hold of her calf and ordered her to point her toe then pull it back. It was a movement that he had only been able to perform for her prior, but now she was able to accomplish on her own again.

A staggered breath escaped from her lips as the phantom pains began to fade. As though her body had just been waiting for the movements to confirm that she wasn't injured, the sensation of her legs stretching and bending banished the remainder of her soreness as he fully ranged the formerly broken limbs.

"Perfect," he murmured, smiling as he lowered her feet back to the bed.

Addie stared at her knees like she had never seen them before. Her awed moment of disbelief was broken by a lazy cry of joy from the next bed.

"Good job, Addie," Elaine grinned, her own toes wiggling. "My knees should be better by tomorrow. I challenge you to a race at that time."

A smile pulled at her face and she was about to accept her offer but Master Hue intervened, giving Addie a warning look.

"There is no racing on those legs. Not this soon."

"But they work again," she said, lifting one leg in demonstration-

-only to find that even that small action was far more difficult a task than it should have been. Like sandbags were weighing down the limbs, it took a great deal effort to even try to elevate it off of the bed. She stopped, foot dropping back as she frowned at her legs in confusion.