The Expansion of the Universe {Completed}

Sixty-One | "Peace at last."

"You're doing very well, Miss Garner," Suzanne, her physical therapist for the day, encouraged her.

Liza, tense, covered in sweat, and frustrated by how physically weak her body had become while she lay still and useless in a hospital bed, scowled. "I only made it to thirty reps," she complained, allowing her leg to fall limply against the side of the bed. She'd only been lifting her damn legs halfway in the air—a task that even her former, house-confined self could have accomplished easily enough.

Suzanne nodded from where she stood several feet away. "True, but you have to consider that you're essentially starting—"

"From scratch," she interrupted with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I remember." Then, realizing she sounded like an ungrateful bitch, she ran her fingers through her hair and groaned. "I'm sorry. I know you're just doing your job and helping."

"You don't have to apologize," Suzanne assured her immediately, as the woman always did when Liza accidentally became snippy. It felt as though the moments were occurring more often, and Liza worried about how much longer she could remain in such an unfamiliar environment without totally falling apart.

She'd nearly broken apart when a male physical therapist had attempted to work with her earlier in the day. The second he cracked open the door and revealed his figure—tall, imposing, and too similar to Rod Hubbard—her breathing had picked up and she'd scrambled as far from him as she was capable in the small hospital bed.

Thankfully, he'd rushed away quickly, but even Suzanne—a woman—entering had made Liza anxious enough that she'd forbidden Suzanne from touching her. She knew herself well enough to know that having a stranger touch her, no matter their sex, would be her undoing, even with Milo tense and watchful at her side.

If Elijah or her mother had been present, she knew they would have offered to assist her with their own hands, aiding her in moving her weakened legs since she mentally could not tolerate Suzanne doing so. With how fatigued she was, she supposed she should have just been grateful that she could do any reps at all.

"I think that'll do us for today," Suzanne said, crouching down and analyzing Liza's skinny legs.

"They're like sticks," Liza grumbled unhappily.

Suzanne clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "They're thin," she corrected. "But they won't be that way forever. As long as you keep up with these exercises and work on your nutritional input, you'll get that muscle mass back. You can already see some more definition than when we started."

Liza wasn't so sure, but she'd been rude enough to Suzanne for one day, so she bit her tongue and nodded in acknowledgement. Suzanne passed her a patient, knowing smile as she stood back up. "You'll get there," the woman insisted. "I'm going to go let your nurse know how everything went. Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks." She didn't confess that she simply needed to be left alone in order to feel safe again, but Suzanne was kind enough to slip out of the room once Liza had answered.

"Peace at last," she murmured to Milo, who had dropped his head beside her legs on the bed, his muzzle hanging over the side. It was strange to be alone, since she was rarely without Elijah or her mother, but she was glad for a few minutes of quiet.

Elijah hadn't wanted to leave her alone for even a second after he'd learned that her mom was going to be away for nearly half a day, but he'd already agreed to go on a short flight with Austin that day. Liza had practically forced him to follow through with the commitment, but he'd only relented when he'd been assured that she would text him regularly.

He wouldn't see the messages while flying, but he'd insisted that he wanted to be updated on her well-being and would read them as soon as he was able.