Fragile Tension (Alan Wilder x Martin Gore)

6: The New Normal

"Do I have to?" Martin pouted, feeling skeptical.

"Yes, you kinda do have to, my love." Alan answered. "And what's there to worry about? You'll do brilliantly."

"I thought I needed rest, not physical therapy." His partner attempted to argue, playing with his food.

"I thought that too, but the doctor thinks it's time you started putting some weight back onto your foot. Don't worry; it's only baby steps for now." Alan got up from the table to put his bowl in the sink, pecking Martin on the forehead. "Doctors don't lie, right?"

"Right."

Martin really thought wrong, but he decided to say no more and continue eating his breakfast, staring at his foot which was up on a separate chair.
~~~~~
Later that morning, the couple were leaving their flat to go to Martin's first physical therapy appointment.

Sitting in the car, Martin was still silent as he watched the day go by. The nervous energy he gave off was quickly brought to the attention of Alan.

"Nervous, babe?"

"Yeah..."

"Don't be. Everything will be just fine."

Martin couldn't think of a response. He desperately wanted to believe Alan, but he couldn't. He had an inkling feeling within him that the appointment was a recipe for disaster.
~~~~~
"God, I hate waiting rooms." Martin whispered to his partner as he slumped in his chair, trying not to disturb any of the other people in the room with them. "How did Dave and Fletch manage in one of these for five hours?!"

"I couldn't tell you, to be honest." Alan whispered back, chuckling.

"M. Gore?" A nurse opened the waiting room door, a clipboard against her chest.

"Come on then, Mr. M." Alan smirked as he started standing up, reaching to take Martin's hands.

"Oh, God..." Martin mumbled as he and Alan's hands interlocked.
~~~~~
"So, Martin, the focus of today's session is to work on getting you back to walking with both feet on the ground." The physician, whose name tag read Eileen, explained.

The sun glimmering through the blinds and reflecting against Martin's platinum hair, he sat on the examination bed with his legs dangling from the side. Alan sat on a hardback arm chair beside him, subtly holding his hand and rubbing it with his thumb.

"A-Alright." Martin responded with a slight stutter to his voice.

"Now, the first session is always the most nerve-wracking, but I'm going to make sure that your limits aren't pushed; you should only do what you can and not worry if there's something you can't." Eileen continued, bringing Martin huge reassurance.

"I told you everything would be fine." Alan whispered to his partner on hearing the physician's words, making Martin chuckle and shake his head.

He finally believed him.

"Okay, so the first thing I'm going to do is have a quick look at your ankle just so I have some idea of what we can work on today." She smiled before asking Martin to remove his boot.

After doing so and exposing the bandaging in the process, Martin adjusted the thin paper in which he was sitting on with shaky hands.

Placing her gloves on, Eileen began examining his foot whilst asking questions.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but how'd this happen? You poor thing."

Martin immediately hesitated.

"I-I had a bit of an accident... My ankle got caught in the curb of the pavement when I fell."

"Ouch! I'm so sorry about that... How're you feeling now?"