BOND

54.

I'd stand before you, as a man who's been broken

Truer words never spoken

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Elena bent over backwards over the top of the couch to catch a glimpse of the doorway just as Daniel came in, the smell of fresh coffee grounds still lingering on him.

"Just because your leg is better it does not mean that you should be trying weird sex positions," he flicked her forehead and gently pushed her back down.

She glared at him, her attention quickly shifting as he dropped the huge Cups and Co. haul beside her, the smell of hot baked confectionaries immediately warming her up. Only after she had sufficiently enjoyed her first cookie, she said, "Remind me not to leave you and Taylor alone on my couch."

Daniel chuckled and winked at her from the kitchen counter, "That ship sailed a long time ago."

"Ew, Daniel," she dragged out the muffled name and threw a box lid at him, missing marvelously.

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," he raised his hand towards her, the bouquet of wildflowers standing out more than his words.

She did not look at them for long. Or the note she knew would be sticking out of the vine holding the flowers together. The words, well word, was inked into her brain from the first few times she had read it.

Joey had been depositing the same gesture on her doorstep twice a day every day for the past two weeks like clockwork. The only interaction they had had.

He never knocked or signed the note, she had recognized the messy handwriting in half a second, just left it there after his morning and evening runs. A schedule she knew because Taylor purposely kept her up in her room within an hour's interval of that time.

"Speaking of you having sex," Daniel said and stuck the flowers into the small ceramic pot they had started to keep in the kitchen to house the growing nursery. A pot they would need to swap with something bigger quickly because it would not house any more than two or three days more of apology.

Her mind was a million miles when Daniel finally flopped down beside her. He reached out and grabbed her leg, propping it up on his thigh.

"How was therapy?"

She nodded, finishing her donut, said, "It's getting there. There is at least another month till I can play again."

He gave her a sad look and caressed her leg, gently rotating it around to see the improvement for himself. It was in excellent condition compared to how it had been just days ago. All the credit going to how incessantly she had pushed herself to get it better.

"One good thing came out of your breakup," he said, setting down her leg gingerly and moved to the other armrest.  

She flicked a fry at him which he caught midair and popped into his mouth. 

"How is he?" she stubbornly kept her eyes on the fries.

"You would know if you weren't avoiding school because of him," Daniel hit her lightly, mindful of the leg.

She glared up at him but did not deny it. Summer had ended nearly a month earlier and though her doctors had given her the liberty of going to school if she needed to, she had chosen to stay at home. 

Not just because of Joey but facing everything without him. He was a huge part of what she could think about and doing it in the privacy of her house seemed a better alternative to her than with him always hovering somewhere in the background.