physiotherapy | awsten knight

21: mixed signals

December 29th, 2 weeks after the incident

In the middle of the night, Cosima was woken up by pain pulsating in her leg. The painkillers were wearing off, but she tried to sleep anyways; unsuccessfully. After a while she fumbled around for the reusable water bottle she kept by her coffee table, only to find it empty. She knew she had to get up to refill it.

Still half-asleep, she reached for the crutches laying on the ground. With one shaky motion, she pulled herself up. She had her hands wrapped around the handles but still managed to hold onto her bottle with one finger around the hook.

She tried to be as quiet as possible, but she still bumped into the bathroom's doorframe with one crutch. Cosima hoped, that it hadn't woken up Awsten, while she held onto only one crutch, to open the tap and hold her bottle under the water stream with her free hand.

Muffled footsteps could be heard from behind Cosima, and that's how she knew that Awsten must have been woken due to her noises. Sleepily, he leaned against the doorframe and peaked inside the dark bathroom and adjusted his eyes to the lack of light.

"Everything okay?", he mumbled drowsily.

"Yeah, sorry for waking you.", she said and huffed when the weight on her good leg started to become too much.

"Let me help you.", he said and stepped up right next to her and took the bottle out of her hands.

She took her second clutch again, that had been leaning against the sink, and held herself up more steadily.

"My pain killers wore off...", she explained to him quietly.

"It's fine, don't worry.", he assured her while screwing the lid onto her bottle.

He walked into her bedroom with the water bottle in hand and she slowly followed.

Awsten sat down on her bed and took the crutches from her when she sat down next to him. She got a pill out of the painkiller box and gulped it down along with her water.

When she was done, she leant her head on Awsten's shoulder and let out a small sigh.

He reached around her shoulders and stroked her hair soothingly.

"Are you okay to go back to sleep?", he asked.

Cosima nodded, but reached around his waist to hold onto him tightly.

"Can you stay here with me?"

Awsten could only assume that she felt as lonely as he did, so he didn't decline.

The bed was big enough to fit both comfortably. Cosima had to lay on her back to achieve the best sleeping position and Awsten laid on his side; facing her.

She turned her head to him, "G'night.", she mumbled.

"Sweet dreams.", Awsten replied and quickly drifted back into a deep sleep.

*****

The next morning, Cosima woke up to find the side next to her empty. She assumed Awsten had gotten up already and was roaming around her apartment.