Sufferable Acceptance

Forty-Seven

Amelia

Theo spent the next few days in the infirmary. A day after he woke up the doctor approved him to walk around the house, but he was ordered to take it easy. He was feeling better, but I could tell his shoulder wound was still bothering him.

I wanted him to take a longer break and focus on healing, but Theo wanted to get back to work. He was pissed at whoever tried to hurt Theresa. He played it off when working, but at night I could see how much pain he was in. He was barely healed, and pushing himself too hard. I tried talking to him about it his first day back working with Marcus, but he snapped at me. He swore he was fine.

It was getting late, and Charlie and I decided to wrap up for the day. We weren't allowed to leave the house anymore so we had to try and get information about Dominic being in hiding other ways. We continued to reach out to people he knew, and I tried tracking the finances of the bookstore to give us a clue.

We caught Lorenzo up on everything we found then I went upstairs to find Theo. Without thinking I opened up the bedroom door and walked in on him changing his bandages. He saw me walk into the room, and quickly turned. It was too late because I had already seen his scars. They were red and irritated.

"Theo..."

He turned back around. He avoided looking at me. He must have known how frustrated I was. I knew it was too soon for him to start working again. He should have rested another week.

"I really think you need to take more time off. No one would blame you for needing more time." I tried to convince.

"No!" He interrupted. "I can't. My family needs me. I can't help them if I'm sitting in a hospital bed. You don't get it. You don't see how everyone stares at me all day long. It's fucking pathetic. They are treating me like a wounded animal. If I take more time the stares are only going to get worse!"

"Then let me at least help you! You don't have to do this by yourself." I said.

"No. Please, I'm fine." He said.

I didn't want to push it, so I walked into his closet pretending not to care anymore. I grabbed a shirt for him and walked back into his room. He was still struggling to wrap around his bandages. He let out groans of pain. I knew it was killing him. He had almost no mobility in his left arm.

He spent almost five minutes trying to finish wrapping up his shoulder. He gave up and threw a fit by throwing his gauze across the room. He sat down on his bed and put his head in his hands.

I walked over to the bathroom, grabbed more bandages and walked over to the bed.

"Stand up."

He hesitated at first, but eventually caved. I lifted up his left arm long enough to get his wrap around it. He seethed in pain. I finished with his shoulder, and applied some ointment to his smaller wounds on his forearms. When I was done I helped him put his shirt on.

I cleaned up the supplies on his bed stand, and started to walk away to the bathroom. While walking away he grabbed my wrist. Still annoyed with him I didn't look back.When I tried to get out his grip he pulled me to him. I sat next to him on the bed.

He put his hand on my thigh and looked me in the eyes, "Thank you."

*****

Almost a week had passed and we were still in lockdown. Lorenzo wasn't letting anyone leave. Theo was healing, and I was busy trying to find Dominic. Lorenzo wanted nothing more than to find the men who tried to kill Theresa. I was working off of a few hours of sleep when Gio ran into my office.