After All These Years

Recovery

Jason's surgery was successful, and after spending a few days in the hospital afterword, he was sent home to start his recovery process.  Elizabeth had been a godsend, her entire family had really, filling in the gaps for his own family when they could.  Jason's mother had switched her shifts temporarily to nights so that she could tend to Jason during the day.   Elizabeth had been given permission to stay in the guest room at Jason's house as long as she maintained her straight A status so that if he happened to need something the middle of the night, someone could be there for him while his mother was working as his father was still somewhere overseas. 

Elizabeth was no longer worried or focused on Brittany Sheffield, or seeking revenge, her main focus was on Jason and Jason alone.   While he was thankful he had been able to get his casts removed just before the Spring Fling, he was still stuck in his wheelchair until he could start to put weight on his legs securely.   His mom wanted to make sure that he had as good of a time as he could and had sprung for a blacked out, but handicap accessible sprinter fan to help him, Elizabeth, Nicholas, Nicholas's new girlfriend Valorie get a ride to and from their dance in style.  

She could tell that Jason was nervous, and a bit embarrassed, having to roll up to their school dance with a wheelchair lift and make an excruciating slow descent to the pavement below for his arrival, but she tried her best to reassure him that everyone was going to be so excited to see him at a school event again.   As Elizabeth unlocked the wheels of his wheelchair and she pushed him toward the school, she leaned down and whispered to him how incredibly dashing he looked and if he saw Brittany at any point he should consider ramming into her calves for good measure which brought a smile to his face. 

The dance was relatively uneventful, though he seemed to be the center of attention people constantly coming up to him to say how happy they were he was feeling better and on the mend.   After a while he became annoyed as none of the people that approached him offering their support, had made any effort to engage him since the accident.  He knew who his friend's really were, and while his basketball and football teammates had been supportive, Nicholas and Elizabeth, were there for him the most.  Elizabeth in particular had been remarkably dependable and as much as being wheelchair bound sucked, he was grateful it had given he and Elizabeth the opportunity to become that much closer.  

As he looked at her, in her beautiful floor length soft teal dress with sequins and glitter, and it didn't escape him just how remarkable she looked that evening.  His heart was skipping more and more beats recently being in her orbit, but that night, looking at her as radiant as she was made it harder and harder for him to keep his feelings at bay.   As she pushed him around the edge of the room, he was brought to reality that he was not a man she would ever want romantically.  She deserved someone that could spin her in circles around the dancefloor, someone that could hold her close swaying back and forth to a slow song, and he was not anywhere close to that in his current state.  It gave him something to work toward, for sure, but he was not about to try to convince her that he deserved her to look at him as more than what they were when he couldn't offer her any more than conversation at this point in his recovery. 

After about an hour of the dance, even after he encouraged Elizabeth to find someone to dance with, and even refused a few offers to leave his side, he looked at her with a smile and asked her if she wanted to get out of there and she happily agreed saying she thought he'd never ask.   His mom had said he was free to instruct the driver to go whereever he wanted and he knew just the place.   They headed about thirty minutes toward the coastline and settled at a restaurant overlooking the water for dessert and some live acoustic music.    "It is so beautiful here." Elizabeth remarked simply taking her seat across him, looking out at the water. 

"Yeah there isn't quite anything like this view." He smiled not taking his eyes off of her as she watched the water as if she were waiting for something to happen.  As two dophin's fins crested the water she pointed with excitement as they watched together as the dolphin traveled down the canal until they were out of sight.