Her White Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Three

It seemed like it took little time for almost two months to pass in the Barnes/Rogers household. James watched as Cleo got a bit better every day and was proud of her progress to say the least.

Currently he sat on the living room couch while Shuri helped Cleo with her exercises and went through their light yoga routine while Steve took his second run of the day, needing to blow off energy. "You're looking good, baby doll," he coached, watching as Cleo clenched her teeth in excursion.

Rehab certainly wasn't a comfortable process, and it was one that Cleo couldn't wait to be finished with. She was getting stronger; her wounds were all closed now and were instead replaced by pink scarring. Shuri was doing what she could to minimize them, but it was inevitable that she'd have reminders forever. Her chest, her arm, and part of her neck... they wouldn't look the same. But her face was healed, and she was starting to feel more human.

Her eyes lifted to James' as she did her best to hold a plank, the weakness in her left arm creating difficulty. "Five, four, three, two, one," she counted through gritted teeth before she dropped herself onto her yoga mat. "Fuck, this sucks," she exclaimed annoyedly.

He smiled down at her as Shuri patted her back. "You're doing good, baby. You're getting stronger every day."

"James is right," Shuri agreed. "You can hold it for almost three minutes now."

Cleo pushed herself into a seated position and sighed, tossing her ponytail out of her face. "Sure, but can I hold a scalpel yet?" she asked, frustrated with her fine motor movement. "I just want to go back to work but I'm useless right now."

"You'll get better," James assured. "I can help you with that too if you'd like. Maybe knife training would help."

"Hmm, knife training..." Cleo pondered as Shuri shook her head with a smirk.

"Let me know how many times she cuts herself," the princess mused.

"Hey! You have no faith," Cleo told her friend as she shook her head. "Anything fine motor will help. The nerves in my hand are still tingling. Ooh, hey," she said, an amused look in her eye as she narrowed her eyes on Shuri. "If my hand doesn't go back to normal, can you make me an arm like his?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.

Shuri laughed while James' eyes widened largely. "You didn't lose your arm," she pointed out. "But if you have nerve damage that cannot be helped by therapy and practice, I will look into something for you."

Cleo dropped her head back to give James a wink before she turned her attention back to Shuri. "Thank you," she said with a softer smile. She needed to be able to have full range of movement for what she did, and she had no desire to change her job because of this injury.

"Good news for you, my dear," Shuri said with a smile, "is that aside from lifting, you don't have any more physical restrictions."

Cleo's eyes widened and she glanced back at James, her smile growing. "For real?" she asked, turning to find Shuri again.

"For real. Within reason," Shuri replied, adding the caveat. "Don't go backpacking or white-water rafting or anything. But regular activity is fine."

James raised an eyebrow at Shuri as he crossed his legs. "Define regular activity."

She rolled her eyes. "Walking, light jogging," she suggested, but between the looks on both of the other faces in the room, she knew she should just spell it out. "You can have sex, but not super soldier intensity sex. Got it?"

Cleo broke into a laugh, but she glanced back at James and gave him a wink. "Yeah, don't break me."

"Wouldn't dream of it, baby doll," James replied. "Although Steve will need to be tamed down a bit. He's been biting the bit for a few days."