Being with Michael: Part 1 (Book Two)

Chapter Forty Three

A day later when Paige comes home from physical therapy there's nobody back yet.

Paige decides she wants to see how far she's come since the accident without the help of her physical therapist, Scott.

Throughout her physical therapy, Paige has been able to experience some feeling in her left leg, but she's never been able to move it independently.

She wheels herself down the hall into the practice room where there's a bar up against the mirrored wall like in ballet.

Paige wheels herself up to the wall. She puts her right foot on the floor and pulls herself up out of the chair as she rests her right side of her body against the railing.

Paige takes a deep breath and closes her eyes as her heart races. She reaches down with her left arm and wraps her hand around her calf.

She pulls her left foot off the wheelchair and it wheels away. Still balancing her body against the railing, Paige slowly rests her foot flat on the floor.

Breathing slowly, Paige looks up into the mirror and sees someone unrecognizable.

She knows that once she loses the support of the bar, she won't be able to stand on her own, and she can't keep holding on forever.

In a way, her current position represents how she's been feeling lately: like she can lose support at any moment in time, and there's the constant threat she won't be able to stand on her own.

A moment later, she hears her phone ring from her wheelchair.

'That's probably Michael,' Paige thinks. 'Oh what am I thinking. Of course it's Michael.'

Paige slides down the mirror until she reaches the floor. Then she flips over onto her stomach to army crawl to the wheelchair.

She picks up the phone on the last ring, "Hello?"

"Paige?" Michael responds, "You sound worn out, what have you been doing?"

She giggles, trying to dismiss the topic, "It's kind of a funny story. I went to pick up the phone and I dropped it so it was quite an adventure."

She felt a pang in her heart for lying to him.

Michael perks up at "adventure," but Paige isn't really paying much attention to what he's saying.

"Paige?"

"Yeah?"

"I know you didn't drop the phone."

What? Paige is confused for a second before she turns her head to the door and sees Michael standing there.

Paige's heart jumps in fear, "Michael, I-"

"It's okay," he assures her.

Paige's eyebrows furrow, "No it's not."

"I understand. I'm the one that should be sorry," Michael says as steps forward.

Paige asks him, "Sorry for what? You didn't do anything wrong."

Michael explains, "That's the point, I didn't do anything. I should have asked you if you wanted any help, but I was too busy with myself and work. And I'm so sorry for that, Paige."

Guilt swells up in Paige's chest and she can't stop herself from feeling it. She just keeps staring at Michael.

Michael walks over to the side of the room and and turns on the stereo.

"What are you doing?" Paige asks.

"Asking you for a dance," he replies.

Paige is still on the floor from army crawling and Michael walks over and stretches out his hand to her with a smile.

Paige looks up at him and can't keep herself from grinning before she gives him her hand.

Michael bends over and uses his hand to pick up her left foot and rest it on his foot for support.

Paige and Michael exchange a quick glance before he pulls her up off of the floor and into his arms.

Then, "Let it Be Me" by Jennifer Lopez begins playing and they position themselves to begin dancing.

[Authors note: if you don't know this song, please go listen to it so you can get the tone of the story. It's great.]

Paige swings out her right leg and Michael leads her into a dance keeping her left foot always rested on his.

Throughout the dance, they don't take their eyes off of each other.

Paige's heart is racing. She hasn't moved like this in over six months.

And she hasn't connected to Michael like this in longer.

Michael flashes a loving grin at her and she tries to him give a grin back, but it's too hard.

'Why is this so hard for me?' she thinks. 'I can't hide anything from him anymore. I can't.'

As the song comes to a close, Paige says softly, "Michael, I have to tell you something."

Michael looks in her eyes before he reaches over and grabs the wheelchair.

He rolls it back over and holds Paige's arm as she steadies herself and sits down.

Michael kneels down next to her and Paige looks at Michael's face and the only thing she can find in his eyes is love.

She sighs, knowing that in no way will she ever be good enough to earn his love, no matter how much she loves him with all her heart.

"You know my favorite movies?" Paige asks.

Michael replies, a little confused by the random question, "Yeah, the Fast and Furious movies."

Paige nods, "There's kind of a reality to those movies. You know, all the racing, drugs, and gangs in them."

"There's a lot of realities in life," Michael says to her. "And it's horrible that some people have to live like that, and I'm just glad that we haven't had to. My goal is so that Prince, Paris, Blanket, and the rest of the family will never have to deal with gangs and violence and have to sell themselves out like that."

'I sold myself out like that,' Paige thinks to herself.