Russian Roulette: Family secrets [2021 version]

Ch. 66: Aww don't look so sad

Grumbling, Gareth supported himself on the cane he had switched to using after he had outgrown the crutches.

Outgrown.

Yelled at the doctors to get off his case and thrown the crutches out a window.

Same deal.

Just over one and a half months of grueling living since he had come out of his coma, and it was almost the end of August, but still warm in the weather. Warm and beautiful, though Gareth rarely noticed half the time.

He noticed nothing anymore.

He remembered August the year before. His first date with Mackenzie. They had made love for the first time, and she had told him she belonged to him.

It seemed like a lifetime ago.

Gareth felt he had missed that summer entirely. He had more or less missed all of that year. Like with the snap of his fingers, boom, August. He had worked nonstop since the day he woke up.

Had had a lot to do, though he knew he had done it to distract himself from the pain.

Rehab with physical therapy to learn how to walk normally and use his hand properly again had been a priority. He could not lie, but that shit had been hard, excruciating at times, though nothing compared to the pain of that night when it had happened, and that night's pain came nowhere near the day he woke up. His efforts felt worth it. He managed with the cane, even if he had pushed himself from the crutches too fast.

Still, he had his good and bad days.

It took time.

Through determination, Gareth had built up some of his old body mass again. He was not quite where he wanted to be. That would take more time. Luckily, he no longer looked like a skeleton. Vigorous training and a diet of pure love from Natalya's kitchen had done him wonders.

Mackenzie's cooking would have helped him more.

When he had finally allowed himself to see the scars left by his surgeries, the visuals had overwhelmed him. He rationally knew how bad a condition Aidan's torture had left him in. Seeing the scars, he had realized just how miraculous his recovery was.

No other word covered it.

Miraculous.

The doctors' efforts amazed him, and the scarring looked acceptable. They looked unfamiliar and made him feel sort of vulnerable. He wished he could act blasé enough to call them battle scars. But they simply reminded him of Mackenzie's scars and, by that, reminded him of Mackenzie.

His arm looked worse than his leg, but his chest was remarkably unscathed. There were small incision marks from where the wires had protruded from and one larger from the tube. All in all, had his torso not changed much. What was there, Devil could easily cover with a few tattoos, later on, the same with his arm, eventually, but he did not want a full leg tattoo.

That one, he had to live with.

Devil already worked on thinking up something good for him.

Anything he came up with would be amazing, Devil never failed when it came to creative tattoos.

He owed the doctors on his staff plenty for their skills, even if they were the pick of the litter. He always knew how to employ the best, never had he rejoiced more in that decision.

His hand felt a little stiff. It could not be helped. Aidan had warned him, and Gareth accepted that slight loss of motor skills compared to losing his arm, or life, for that matter. Rather his left hand than the right one he used to put his weight on with the cane.