Broken 💔

Chapter 5

It was the next day and Steven gets stronger with each passing hour. Greg made regular visits to spend time with his son. 3 times a day he came, supporting Steven. But later in the afternoon, someone unexpected came in. They knocked on the door and entered the room. It was a young woman with short, curly, blonde hair

"Hi Steven! My name is Abigail Miller and I will be your physical therapist." Steven had a puzzled look on his face. He didn't know what that meant. Mrs Miller noticed and was confused herself. Steven finally spoke up

"What's a physical therapist?" Mrs Miller lightly giggled to herself

"What I mean is, I'm going to help you learn how to walk again."

"What do you mean? I'm fine." Steven sat on the edge of the bed and stood up only to collapse on the floor. He fell to his knees and used his hands to hold himself up. Greg panicked

"Steven!" He picked up his son and sat him back on the bed

"Okay, maybe I'm not fine." Mrs Miller walked over to Steven and did some leg exercises to help him stretch out. The next step was to get him to practice walking

"Okay Steven, I'm going to grab you a wheelchair and we'll go over to our therapy facility." She went out into the hall and grabbed one of the black wheelchairs by the ICU entrance. She helped Steven in the chair and Greg wheeled him into the other room

Steven started to feel this emptiness inside of him. He wasn't sure what to make of it. He didn't know what to do so he tried to stall a little

"Wait, where are the gems?!" Greg tried to reassure him

"They're back at the house." Steven started feeling anxious

"I want them here with me. I'm nervous and they always make me feel more comfortable."

"Okay, I'll call Pearl." Greg pulled out his phone and dialed Pearl's number

*

Back at the temple, the gems were sitting on the couch. Pearl felt her phone ring inside her gem. She pulled it out and answered

"Hello?.......Oh Greg! Is Steven okay?..............Uh huh.........okay........we're on our way." She hung up

"Steven wants us at the hospital. I don't think there's a warp pad near that area."

Amethyst replied. "No but we have a Lion." They all got on Lion and warped to the hospital. Then they walked up to the facility where Steven and Greg were. Steven turned his head smiling. They were running towards him

"Guys!" The gems hugged him and they carried on with his therapy session. His plan worked. He did feel better but there was still something nagging him. He ignored it for now. Mrs Miller began to give instructions

"Alright Steven, here we have a walkway. You will start by standing at one end and walking across to me. Now don't worry if you can't do it on your first few times. It's okay if you fall." Greg helped him out of the chair

"You got this schtu ball." 

"Just grab onto the railings and walk towards me." Mrs Miller tried to encourage him. Then before Steven started, she turned to the gems

"Now I know this will be hard for you to hear, but if Steven is struggling, let him figure it out. He needs to learn how to do it on his own."

Steven grabbed the two metal railings and began taking his first steps. Sweat started dripping down his face as he was using all his energy to make it across. He was about halfway until his arms started giving out. He fell to the ground. Tears came into his eyes but he didn't want to cry in front of everybody. He held it back as he was panting on the floor. Mrs Miller dropped down to his level

"It's okay Steven. We'll try again later this week. For now we will focus on leg exercises. You did great."

Steven continued to stare at the ground while he held himself up with his arms. "..........I'm just a little tired. I should probably rest." Greg got him back into the chair and wheeled him to his bed. Steven couldn't help but feel bad. Not only for himself but for everyone around him. He was in a bad mood the rest of the day

As soon as everyone left the room, he finally let the tears flow