Our Last Dance

35.

After playing the waiting game for a few hours, Stevie had gotten everything done; her X-rays were completed and she was given a temporary splint with a new set of crutches.

Before the hospital had to reach out to the kids to pick her up, Annelle was already there, ready to aid her mother in-law's needs.

"Hey, you didn't get a cast," Annelle mentioned as she walked in, immediately taking her purse for her. "Was it serious?"

"They want me to see a specialist this week. I have to call in the morning. They said due to my age, a specialist would have a better recommendation on my recovery process because they may want to operate. It's not set in stone yet, so, don't tell Trevor."

"Got it," she nodded. "Was it a clean break?"

"Sort of," she shrugged. "It's been almost ten years since I last used crutches..."

"Can you manage them okay?" she wondered.

"Yeah, just gotta get used to it," she assured, standing tall on her left foot in order to keep the right cast up.

"Okay, the car's just outside and ready for you..."

"Thank you, sweetheart," she acknowledged as she hopped right along.

...

Once they got to the house, Stevie was ever so relieved to finally be home after having been at her son's and the emergency room; it definitely hadn't been her typical Sunday.

"How was Ireland after I left?" she wondered. "She was really upset she couldn't come with..."

"Oh, she's okay. But you know you're her softest spot. She's glued to you, so she was just scared," she opened the front door, allowing her mother in-law in first.

"I felt so bad. It broke my heart when she started crying..." she sighed, settling her crutches to the side while she plopped onto her couch.

"She's with her daddy so I'm sure they're doing fine... You're ger favorite person in the world so she got scared. He was gonna take her to grab something to eat, just the two of them special and then he was gonna drop some dinner off for just us gals so Ireland has opportunity to see that you're well."

She kind of nodded. "He doesn't have to go through all that trouble... He can just bring her by and take you to eat... I'm sure I can handle her for an hour or so."

"Yeah, when I told him, that you were probably gonna say you didn't want anything to eat, he said, I don't care, that woman never eats and she's gonna have to now that she's getting pain meds..."

She rolled her eyes.

"And this is just your reminder from me, you can't drink if you take pain meds."

"Oh, I know that. That's why I'm not gonna take them... I don't need them."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," she nodded. "I've never really had to take them. I didn't even take them when I broke the arch of my foot... And that was bad."

"Well, that's good. I'd be dying..." she trailed, settling the woman's purse on the coffee table.

She smirked, closing her eyes slowly. "I was clumsy when I was younger and Trevor's dad would watch me bump into things, twist my ankle even if it was flat and it drove him crazy so if I got hurt, he knew I wasn't hurt that bad. I always reacted different when it was big..."

"Well, you're a tough cookie. I give you that..." she sighed, looking around at what she could possibly do for her next.

"So I've been told..." she smirked, thinking about the medic that had been quite flirty with her that evening but then suddenly all she could think about was the upper floor of her home. "I don't even want to think about attempting going up the stairs to get to my bed right now."