Boundless Love

Pain

Levi's POV...

Someone was always with me or had me in their sight for the next two weeks.

Everyone's still on edge, thinking I'm going to lose it at any moment. So Charlotte, Nate and Sarah rotate the night shift.

Normally this would annoy the hell out of me, but I don't blame them after what I put them through. I also sleep a little better knowing that I'm not alone.

Nate and Charlotte act the same as they did with me before the pool incident, but Sarah is a different story. She's no longer her bubbly carefree self. Whenever she's near me she only say a few words, never really making eye contact with me. I think she's still freaked out and blames herself somehow.

I miss the Sarah who smiled about everything, talked too much, and occasionally made me laugh. So last night when it was her turn to be on Levi duty, I decided to confront her... well apologize really in hopes that she would return to her old self again.

"Sarah," I started. She briefly looked up at me then back down at her book. " Yes," she softly answers.

"Please look at me," I sigh.

She closes her book and places it on her lap then slowly lifts her head to face me.

"It's not your fault Sarah," I assert.

A puzzled expression covers her face, "What?"

" I want you to know that what happened at the pool a few weeks ago was not your fault... It was all my fault, and I'm sorry," I tell her, praying she will stop blaming herself.

Her reaction was not what I expected. She practically leaped out of the recliner towards me, her hand rubbing her forehead and angrily fires back, " I was the last one to leave the pool door unlocked and you could have DIED Levi!!"

I'm a little shocked, I've never seen Sarah angry about anything before... she's a little scary!

"I know, I'm so sorry Sarah," I try to calm her.

After a few moments of pacing back and forth, she sits back in the chair and reclines, opening her book back up to read it.

"I'm sorry too, I'm ... I'm just still mad at you," she admits.

"Fair enough, ... but I hope you can forgive me soon." I know she will when I catch her smiling before looking down at her book again.

The days have been long. I'm constantly moving from one therapy to the next, pausing only to eat. Charlotte's clever way of keeping me distracted from any irrational thought I might have I'm sure.

I've actually made friends with another patient. His name is Jake and he's twenty-eight, just a couple years older than me. We meet in the exercise room the same time every day. He was in a car accident leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, but he has all of his upper body strength unlike me. I envy him for that and the fact that he's able to hold himself up on the parallel bars or with crutches to walk. He's only been here two months longer than me, but he makes it a point to show me his progress and encourages me to keep working.

Nate's in charge of working with me in the weight room, but Charlotte spends the most time with me trying to get me to stand for more than 5 seconds before my hips start swaying out of control.

My left arm and leg aren't progressing the way I want, the way Charlotte was expecting. She says it's rare that someone with a spinal cord injury makes progress on only one side of the body. Usually there is semi-equal improvement in both arms or both legs or all four limbs, so I'm a special case. I really don't want to be special when is comes to my recovery.