A Time For Love (A Time For Love Series-Book 1)

Working With Bird

LENA POV

"Very good honey. You are doing so well." I say to Frankie as I had been working with her for the last couple of weeks as we do some simple exercises for her legs and arm.

Her progress was good but she was struggling mentally as to be expected, and dealing with the fact that she didn't know if she'd ever play basketball the same. I was working hard to make sure that her dream would come true but right now we had to take it very slowly and one day at a time which wasn't always easy for her to understanding being she was only nine. Honestly all my patients felt that way regardless of their age.

Originally they had planned to put her with another physical therapist but considering she knew me a bit and we formed a little bit of a relationship over the last few months it just made it that much easier if I worked with her. At times she'd mention little things to me about her mother, who was still missing, or her best friend Mariana at school, but she never brought up the shooting and I never asked. Ever.

Frankie did for sure bring up Stef every session telling me she showed her basketball moves and bought her pizza. It seemed she really had a place in her heart for this cop often expressing she hopped Stef was ok, and every time I told her I wished the same for her.

Which I did of course because now that Stef was awake I had only gone in one time when she was sleeping because I didn't want to startle her or confuse her or add to any stress she may be feeling. The nurses did tell me she continued to make a tremendous amount of progress but that she was an extremely difficult patient and the only person she cooperated with was her brother. Stef did speak a few words, she could breath on her own and responded well to commands. That was already remarkable considering she was shot in the head.

No one really knew how much she remembered at this stage and I couldn't imagine how she'd feel when she found out about her friend Tess who had passed. I had gone to her funeral of course and witnessed how much she was loved and what kind of dedicated officer she was to the city. Her mother was there and the entire NYPD as the entire thing continued to break my heart. All of it did because no one deserved to die like that, and at such a young age.

I had not really spoken to Michael either even if I saw Callie working with him daily. He seemed like a very nice guy but my heart hurt for him. It did and Callie mentioned he was very optimistic about his sisters recovery and that the two were very close. All three of them were close she said even if he rarely if ever mentioned Tess.

"I hope so. I miss playing ball." She says as I gently massage her knee just a tad. Doctors had removed the bullet and fragments in both knees and Frankie was looking at months of being in here and in the hospital.

"I know you do. We are going to work on getting you back on the court ok? We will." I soothe as I have the radio on and she nods her head. "I'd love to see you play too Francesca."

"People call me Bird." She looks right into my eyes as I smile softly.

"Bird?"

"Yeah. My favorite player is Larry Bird."

"Ohh from the Celtics. I should have made that connection ya know. I don't watch alot of basketball but I do know the big players." I smile as she shrugs and I continue to massage her right knee. "If you want I can get it on TV, the games? I can look up the schedule for you."

"The season is over. I missed it."

"Well, when does it start up again?"

"Not until October." She says as I see her face wince and remove my hand from her knee.

"Sorry did that hurt?"

"Just a little. I had a bet with Stef that my team would win. She bet on the Lakers."