Ride

Chapter 29- Little Victories and Big Victories

Wow! Long chapter alert! Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 29- Little Victories and Big Victories

"How did she go today?" Lightning wanted to know when Luigi, Guido and a sleeping Fudge arrived at Flo's one evening in late September.

Luigi made a face at him (even after eight months, he was still mad at him!) before lighting up and answering. "Fudgie did an excellent job today! She did not even cry today! She is so close to standing up on her own!"

"That's great!" everyone cheered. "Good for her!"

"I know it is hard on her", Luigi went on. "She wants to do this, she wants to start walking again, but it is very painful. And it is so hard to see her like that. That is why I hope she starts walking again."

"I'm sure she does too", Sarge agreed.

"But what if she can't?" Ramone wondered.

"Well, we'll help her as much as we can, right?" Lightning asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, sure we will, man", Ramone assured him hurriedly. "It's just... How will she take it?"

An uncomfortable silence followed.

"Well, right now, she is getting so close! She can nearly stand up on her own!" Luigi repeated. "Let's not worry about that just yet."

"Right." Sarge nodded. "Let's just take this one day at a time."

"And no matter what", Sally chimed in, "we're all very proud of her for how far she's come."

"Absolutely", every single one of the others agreed without even a nanosecond of hesitation.

"Still", Lightning went on, "I wish there was something we could do to make this a little easier for her."

"I know one thing you can do to make things easier for her", Luigi informed the race car.

"What?" he questioned, eager to help. "Anything!"

"You can go back in time and stop yourself from causing the accident!"

Everyone sighed.

"Luigi, this has gotta stop!" Sally insisted for the millionth time that year. "It was an accident! Stickers would never do something like this on purpose."

"That is not the point!" Luigi argued. "The point is, whether or not it was an accident, it still happened and it happened because of him!"

Everyone sighed again. They couldn't help wondering if Luigi would ever come around and forgive Lightning.

While nothing had really changed with Luigi and Lightning, things had improved for Fudge a lot lately. She did spend a lot of time in bed in her pyjamas, but she still got dressed regularly. She spoke to her spy friends and Lightning's racing friends fairly often, both on the phone and in person. This, and how well she was going with her physical therapy improved her mood significantly. Then that improved the rest of her family's moods as well. It was fantastic, Fudge thought, to have so many wonderful people to have her support her with such a difficult challenge. Although sometimes, she did end up forgetting that; like the day before...

"Owww!" Fudge cried out in pain as she tried to stand up. "Ow, ow, owww!"

"It is okay, Fudgie!" Luigi assured her comfortingly. "It is okay!"

"You're doing fine", Dr. Cortez, the woman in charge of her physical therapy, added.

"I can't do this, I can't do this!" she wailed.