Offside

“It sounds to me like Thomas has thought this through,” he said to her.

“No!” Nicole stood up and took a step toward him. “He’s not leaving! What if…what if that other therapist comes back, huh?”

“We’re still looking for him,” Greg reminded her.

Steven had apparently skipped town, maybe even the country. No one had heard from him since the day Dad shot himself. Greg had some feds trying to look for him in LA, where he had lived before coming to town, but no one had been able to find him. Once Dad’s suicide and the “alternate medications” Steven had used on me were discovered, he just disappeared. The feds seemed to think he was afraid of having charges pressed and fled.

“He’s not going to come back to the rehab center,” I told her.

“You don’t know that!”

“Look,” Greg said as he stood up from his chair. He put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder and guided her back to the couch. “I’m gonna go and let you two work this out. I’ve got some paperwork crap to do at the station, and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

So much for having my back.

Nicole put her face back in her hands as Greg got his shit together and left the house. I wheeled over as close as I could get to her without running over her foot and reached out to put my hand on her leg.

“Why are you leaving me?” she whispered through tears.

“I’m not, Rumple. I swear.” I took a deep breath. “I’m doing this for you as much as for me. If there is any possibility that I might walk again, I have to go back there and work on it. I can’t do that here. You haven’t been back to school since the funeral, and I know you want to…to take care of me, but I have to learn to take care of myself.”

“No, you don’t,” she said. “I’ll do it. You…you saved me, and I want to…”

“I know you do,” I said. I tried to hold back my own tears as she got off of the couch and crawled into my lap. I held on to her as she wrapped her arms around my head.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I know,” I told her. “I don’t want to go, but I have to. I have to do it for both of us.”

I held her. She cried. I cried. Eventually, we crawled into my bed together. We didn’t get kinky or anything, just held on to each other for the longest time. We talked more about how she would still come up to the center to see me as often as she could as well as to bring me my assignments so I could finish school on time. I’d have sessions with Danielle and Justin and work my own shit out so I could be here for her when I got back out.

It wasn’t what my heart wanted, but in my head, I knew it was the right thing to do.

“Rumple?” I whispered into her hair. I was half afraid she had fallen asleep. It was getting late, and Greg hadn’t come home yet.

“Hmm?”

“I don’t know how long I’ll have to stay there,” I admitted. “If I…if I’m there too long…I mean…would you…you know…wait for me?”

She turned her head up to look me in the eye.

“I can’t believe you would even ask that,” she replied.

I shrugged.

“You wouldn’t have to,” I said softly. “But…if you did…”

“I would,” she said. “I will. You know I will—for as long as it takes.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. I didn’t realize how tense the thought made me until my body relaxed after hearing her words.

“Thank you,” I said. “Because I’m pretty sure even if I do walk again, I’m still going to need you.”

“Anything,” she replied as she placed her lips against mine.

If nothing else, Shakespeare taught me “tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.” Somehow, I knew Nicole would have plenty of opportunities to help me in the future.

Now I had to, as it were, stand on my own two feet.