I'll Be There

5 | pretty wings

Bright and early Saturday morning, Olivia stood outside Justin's door. After a couple of weeks of scheduling conflicts, Justin was finally executing his grand second date idea. All he told her was to dress comfortably and wear a sturdy pair of sneakers. From the context clues, she figured she was in for something outdoors and adventurous.

When the door opened, Justin's smiling face greeted her, "good morning beautiful." He leaned down to kiss her.

"I made us some green juices," Olivia said, pulling away to proudly show off her two bottles, "don't tell me I never cooked you anything."

"I don't know if juicing counts as cooking," he led her into his kitchen.

"Spinach, apple, celery, ginger," she rattled off her recipe, "combining multiple ingredients sounds like cooking to me." Twisting open one of the bottles, she offered it to him.

"Not bad," he approved after taking a sip.

"See," she grinned up at him, "cooking."

After a scenic drive towards the coast and a lot of guessing from Olivia, they pulled into the parking lot at the Long Beach pier.

"I knew it! Ugh, I've been dying to go to Catalina," Olivia's face lit up as she took in the ferry boats, "it is Catalina, isn't it?"

"Yes, Ms. Detective," Justin laughed at her excitement, "we're going hiking on the island."

__________________________

On the other side of town, Spencer and Grace walked into the medical center at the Rams training facility. When he was discharged from the hospital, his records had been transferred to the team's medical staff for them to take over his recovery.

"Good to see you, Spence," Jerry, the team physician, welcomed them, "Ms. James, always a pleasure."

"Happy to be here," Spencer replied, looking through the glass windows that overlooked the weight room, "I miss this."

"You'll be back soon," Jerry gestured them towards the hall, "let's see how those arms are looking. It may your lucky day. You both can go sit in room 2b, and I'll go find Gina to help get these x-rays done."

"Thank you, doctor," Grace nodded before making her way to the room.

Settling down in one of the chairs, Grace looked over at Spencer, "how are you feeling?"

"Alright," he looked down at his hands, "I told myself not to get my hopes up, but being here again is making it kind of hard."

"Everything has its time son," Grace placed her hand on his shaking knee, calming the jitters, "you just have to be patient."

"I know," he mumbled.

For the past couple weeks, Spencer and his trainer have been easing him back into more physical movement. Mostly lower body work to keep his legs active, but Spencer was growing anxious to have his arms back. Even the simple idea of stretching made him itch.

"And how's Miss Olivia? She hasn't been coming around as often."

Spencer sighed at the mention of her name, "she said we need some space. She said we came back into each others' lives too quickly."

"Hmm, and how are you handling that?"

"Giving her space. And I've been meeting with Dr. Spears. There's not much I can do when she keeps shutting down on me."

"Like I said, give it time. You two will find your way back," Grace replied gently, "you always do."

"I don't know about this time ma."