Baggage Claim

Taking Care

Chapter Eight: Taking Care

The unfamiliar tone of Layla's text message woke her up. It vibrated enough to shake the end table next to the bed, dragging her awake from another fitful sleep.

 She wiped the morning crust from her eyes and tried to force them to focus on the bright screen.

'Hope you are okay, I know you are probably busy but when you get a chance I would like to talk.’ - Kim

Layla read the text out loud and felt a pang of guilt. She had been in Geneva for over four weeks and she had yet to answer Kim or Alex's messages. She knew that both felt disregarded but Kim's were becoming more frequent. It wasn't that she was trying to ignore Kim; it was that Layla had no idea how to help anyone at the moment.

She groaned as the stress of the texts made her back ache, and she got up to look for the pills the doctor had prescribed for pain.

Layla knew AJ had been hiding them from her after he found out she had been lying about how many she had been taking. He was surprisingly observant during their sessions and it didn’t take the therapist long to figure out Layla had been self-medicating. How long she had been self-medicating she kept to herself, but she admitted to the pills she was carrying on her at the time of his revelation.  Layla searched her drawers and found a hidden bottle. She went to take one and remembered that AJ would be arriving any minute for their session. She dropped the bottle and chose to take a cold shower instead; cursing the reaction she had to him already.

True to form AJ arrived right on time, without his usual items in tote and suspiciously eyeing Layla before breaking into a wide grin.

 "I have a surprise for you today grumpy." He said teasingly.

"I cannot begin to explain how much I do not enjoy that." Layla groaned in response.

"Wouldn't have said it otherwise," AJ grinned in response. "Since you have been working at things for several weeks now I feel today would be a good day to try out the things I taught you in real life."

"I'm not following your train of thought." Layla backed up as AJ took a large step towards her.

"You are going to have this injury for the rest of your life Layla, and the rehab will mean nothing if you can't apply it in real life. So today we will go out and do real life things and I will show you how to best manage your strain."

"And how are you going to show me that?" Layla asked hesitantly.

"Well let's start with driving and then maybe some light shopping?" AJ smiled, extending his hand out to Layla.

She glanced at his hand for a moment before turning purposely away. "I'll just grab my coat."

Layla followed AJ out the door, and looked around at the untouched snow piled in front of the house. "So where is this vehicle?"

The smirk on AJ's face instantly changed Layla's mood "Where is the car AJ?" She snarled.

"I parked about a mile away; I figured a walk would do you some good." AJ started down the dirt embankment that lined the side of the road, not stopping to see if Layla was following.

"A mile? Are you out of your mind? I can't walk a mile, I have a hurt back!" Layla walked quickly behind AJ, reaching out for his arm as his pace quickened.

 "I know, I'm your physical therapist." AJ laughed.

"Exactly, my physical therapist, you of all people should be aware of the harm this amount of walking is going to have on my injury."