Letting Go [complete - expanding chapters during rewrite]

Chapter Eight Point Two

    Mason and I went to the gym. He worked out really hard. Focusing on all parts of his body. When it came time to work on his legs I left the treadmill I'd been running on and went to his side. Together he moved back and forth on a pair of parallel bars. He held himself up with his hands and shuffled up and down the walkway formed by the bars. I helped him move his feet forward one at a time. After that we followed the doctor's list doing exercises he already knew. He seemed to get more and more confident as the day went on, pushing and pushing himself.  By the time he was done my hand was saturated in his scent.  I rolled my fingers into a fist to hold onto the smell as long as possible.
    After he drove us home we split up and each took a nap. When I woke up it was time to get dressed and go to dinner. Mason had waited for me, and we left together. Dinner was full of congratulations, and Mason was the center of attention. Connor who had been sitting on my other side turned to me.
    "It's really great, your doing this. I don't think I've ever seen my parents so happy."
    "How could I not. I'm being given the chance at a full life of happiness and children. I wouldn't have got that without him."
    "You would have got that with me, but I was a jerk and rejected you. I knew I had to do it fast. I knew if I let you talk, if we talked that I wouldn't be able to let you go. Seeing Mason suffering without his mate was torture. I didn't have it in me to go through that."
    "Well, he was also injured." I pointed out.
    "Yeah, but that was almost secondary. The real damage was done with Jessa's death."
    "That must have been horrible seeing her die like that."
    "He didn't even get that much closure. The rouges dragged her body away. We didn't even find it, just a pool of blood too big for her to have survived. Mason collected the bloody leaves. That's all that's in her grave."
    "That so sad!"
    "Connor, leave it alone," Mason cut in. I guess he'd finally listened in to what we were talking about.  Mason turned his head away from me, letting his shoulder turn as well so I was facing his back. 
    The rest of dinner was spent in quiet contemplation. Talk of Jessa having killed the conversations.