Side By Side

5

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

~ A Few Weeks Later ~

I was impatiently waiting for the doctor to arrive. After I'd been healing from my wounds for weeks to months, I could finally start the process of getting prosthetic legs. I was really excited for it, even though nothing would happen for a long time. They were going to make a mold and measure my stumps to see what would fit me.

I sat on the couch, leaning against Sapnap's body again, looking at him. During the last few weeks, I had been having a really hard time with all the nightmares and the flashbacks. There was always someone who slept with me during the night and during the daytime, I was with Sapnap a lot to distract myself.

'I'm so excited,' I signed to Sapnap. We were both basically "fluent" in sign language now since we studied a lot. My parents had more trouble, but they could communicate with me when they had access to a phone so they could look a word up every now and then.

'I'm really excited for you too,' he signed back with a smile on his face.

'How has your arm been doing? Does it hurt?'

The doctor made a mold from his arm a few days ago since it healed faster. We were both recovering for months after our surgery now and since he only had one wound that needed to heal, it went faster than my two wounds.

He shrugged. 'It hasn't been hurting too much, but I still feel it. I sometimes have an itch around my hand, but I can't itch.'

I nodded and pointed to my legs to show him I had the same thing. He understood me and then smiled, looking to the door. 'The bell is ringing,' he signed.

He picked me up and laid me down so I would fall and stood up to open the door. I was really excited and waved to the doctor who came in, carrying some things. I smiled brightly and looked at him.

'Hello doctor! I'm really excited, I know it will take a while before I get my prosthetics but I'm just already so happy to start this process!' I signed to him.

'Let's get started then!' he signed back with a smile, kneeling down in front of me. 'I'm going to take off your sweats so I can reach it, okay?'

I nodded as he took them off and inspected my stumps. I didn't have bandages around them anymore because it was basically healed, the stitches were out too and the wounds were only scars now.

I giggled softly as I decided to tease the doctor. I started moving the leg that was gone from my knee and below and laughed softly.

'How dare you?' he signed at me as I chuckled.

I leaned forwards and put my hands on the ground, moving forwards by pushing myself up by my hands. I started "walking" away and went to the kitchen as I laughed loudly, happy to have some fun.

I practised a lot with the doctor to move myself better and since I had a lot of arm muscles, I could push my body up and move forwards like that. I sped away and kept giggling from happiness as the doctor ran up to me.

'You're so rude!' he joked, picking me up to put me back on the couch. I laughed and he put me down again as Sapnap sat next to me with a grin on his face, holding his arm around my waist so I couldn't escape.

The doctor seemed to laugh and lifted his hands. 'Don't escape again, I'm going to measure!'

I smiled brightly as I sat in silence so he could do whatever he needed to do.

~~~

After the doctor was done measuring everything and making the mold for the prosthetics, he started to practise more things that I could do without my prosthetics yet.

He smiled as he showed me a bar, hanging it up on the edge of the door. He attached it and pointed up. 'You can do pull-ups and train your arms since they need to be strong!'

I hopped up and down on the couch from excitement and the doctor grabbed me by my waist, pulling my sweats back on now he was done measuring. He lifted me up and let me grab the bar with both hands. To make sure I wouldn't fall down, he stood next to me with his hands ready to grab me.

I loved exercising since I used to exercise every day for years. I pulled myself up and noticed it was harder than it used to be since I hadn't moved myself much in months. I kept going and still managed to do fifteen pull-ups, then shaking my head at the doctor. He grabbed my waist again and put me back down on the couch, signing to me.

'There's another doctor coming soon to see if you can get qualified for a hearing aid. Since you hear nothing at all, you will for sure be qualified, but they need to see if a hearing aid is going to help you or not.'

I nodded with a smile. 'I guess it's okay if I don't get one, but I really hope it works.'

Sapnap sat with me and smiled shortly. He pressed a short kiss on the top of my hair as he suddenly shot up. I didn't know why but the doctor signed that the doorbell rang.

I waited for him to come back and he smiled brightly as he held a few papers, laying them down to sign to me again.

'It's letters from George, Karl and his father. They sent two letters, one for both of us!' he signed sitting down next to me as he looked which letter was for who. He handed me one and grabbed the other himself as I smiled brightly before I started reading.

The doctor smiled and then looked at me. 'The hour passed again. I'm going now but I'll be back tomorrow for another hour of training.'

I nodded and waved him goodbye.

1030 words