Stuck: Together

But Arthur kept his eyes on hers, he'd already seen her missing limbs so the shock value was gone but more importantly, he could see how important it was to her that he not make a fuss over her accident.

"Hey." It was all he could think to say, but he saw the flash of a smile on her face, it was enough.

Adam and Lexi quickly looked at each other and silently agreed to leave the two of them alone.

Lexi kissed her daughter on the head. "We're just gonna grab something to eat, we'll be back shortly."

Nicola just nodded, part of her worried how the conversation with Art would turn out. She didn't even notice her parents had gone until the door closed and she was left with the silence between them.

Arthur took a cautious step forward. "How you feeling?"

She noticed that his eyes still hadn't looked at her stumps, they were concentrated on her eyes, she could tell he was doing it for her, and it made it really difficult not to burst into tears at the gesture.

"Well. I've got a bit of an itch on my foot."

The two young lovers broke down in laughter, Nicola didn't even try to hide her tears anymore, as Arthur dashed forward to hold her in his arms she openly wept, partly because of the loss of her legs, partly in release, mostly because she was overwhelmed by having Arthur still with her.

Through her tears Arthur could hear her saying something over and over, he had to listen closely to make it out but eventually he caught three words.

"It's not fair."

He didn't know what to say to her, he didn't know if there was anything to say, he just kept hold of her as she let it all out. After a few minutes he felt her slowing down, he couldn't tell if she'd stop crying because she was finished or if she had nothing left to cry with but eventually she lifted her head off his chest and looked up at Art.

Arthur quickly grabbed a tissue from the nearby table and dried her eyes, then he leant forward and softly kissed her.

"I know it's not fair Nikki, and I don't know if I can say anything to make it better. But I promise you I'm gonna do everything I can to help you. It's like you said before, you're stuck with me."

"Pfft, you girl."

As Nicola's natural humour defence kicked in, the couple couldn't help but laugh again, it was going to take a long time for the old Nikki to return, but at least shades of her were still there.

*

Over the next couple weeks Nicola stayed in the hospital while her stumps healed. The doctors were quick to make sure that she did minor exercises to keep her muscles in strong condition, at first making her lie flat for an hour or two a day to keep her hips loose, then later on having Nicola touch her stump so that it could get use to the sensation and not become hyper-sensitive.

She had plenty of visitors during that time. Art came every day and stayed as long as he was able to, he sometimes came with Brendan but was usually by himself, she saw him more than her parents who were able to come round every day as well but not for as long.

Emily and the rest of the volleyball team made their visits, often there was one or two of them to give their well-wishes but at one point there was a squad of five of them all in the one room catching Nikki up on what she'd missed. Shep joked that Nicola's accident had taken the focus away from her and Charlotte moving in together.

Megan came by every other day and Nicola was quick to notice that Kevin was with her every single time she visited, she decided not to ask anything about it, instead waiting until she was better to tease them about it.

It was on the 15th day since she woke up that she got an upsetting wake-up call, when Amanda Freeman walked in holding a grey vest top and a baggy, neon blue pair of gym shorts.

"It's work out time." She said, struggling not to laugh at Nikki's horrified face.

"The fuck it is."

"Sorry Nicola, but it's necessary, you've just gone through a traumatic experience and there will be muscle damage, we need to make sure you're up the strength before we can fit you for prosthetics."

Nicola and Amanda had done some talking about prosthetic legs for her, since both her legs were amputated below the knee she was incredibly lucky to still have the joints available to her, but as she was about to find out this also meant she would need to strengthen her knees to be able to use her new legs properly.

Reluctantly -- and with the promise that nobody she knew would see her wearing the hospital gym clothes -- Nicola got changed and, with Amanda's help, climbed into her wheelchair, setting up a couple leg-rests for her stumps to keep them elevated, Amanda then put a couple rubber-sock things onto her stumps.

"Ouch, tight fucking fit there, ain't they?"

"Sorry Nikki but they need to be, stops swelling from the exercise."

"You're not selling me on this."

Amanda stood up and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Now don't worry, we're not asking you to lifts weights or anything. We'll do some muscle tests to start but it'll be majority yoga, getting you into a good place mentally as well as physically."

"Sounds delightful." The roll of Nicola's eyes could be heard through her voice.

"Oh get over yourself, you'll thank me later."

"You call my parents and get me some proper fucking clothes and I'll think about it."

Amanda laughed and continued wheeling Nicola through to the hospital gym. As they pushed through the double-doors Nicola immediately saw a number of other amputees training at different stations across the room. One man was using skipping rope with one prosthetic leg, two women at the back of the room were playing table-tennis and it wasn't until Nicola looked closer than she saw one of them had a fake hand. Closest to her, a few feet from the door next to the closest wall, a man struggled to walk, both his legs were gone, one below the knee, one above, his right arm was little more than a shoulder and the right side of his face was heavily scarred with his eye missing entirely. While he had the prosthetics the effort it was taking him to lift even one of his legs was driving him to tears, Nicola watched him as Amanda went to get a specialist, she was so enraptured watching him she barely even noticed a young woman pushing an older man in a wheelchair beside her.

"I.E.D." The woman answered Nicola's unasked question. "Him and two others got caught in the explosion, one of them died instantly, the other survived three days before his wounds got to him. He survived, didn't even know what happened to him until he woke up here."

"Jesus."

"Fucking travesty." The older man spat out.

"How do you know him?" Nicola managed to look away long enough to speak to the woman's face.

"He's one of my patients, I'm a counsellor, people talk to me about their problems and I help them refigure their mental wellbeing. I specialise in sexual trauma, rape, incest, molestation, that sort of thing, but I've done a few amputee and PTSD victims as well. Who knows, I might get you as a patient, how did it happen, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh, um, car crash, I made the mistake of giving a lift home to someone who wanted me dead. It's a long, stupid story."

"I'm the same." The man piped up. "Crashed my car high off my ass on coke, flew right through the fucking window, shattered my spine. I'm fucking lucky I can still move above the waist."

"I apologise for his foul-mouth, this is my dad Trent, he comes by to visit me at work every now and then. My name's Elizabeth, Elizabeth Martin."

"Wait, Martin? As in Joseph Martin? He's my dad's boss, Adam McAllister."

"Well no shit." Elizabeth chuckled. "Small world. That'll make you Nicola then, Joseph's my uncle I remember him mentioning your accident to me."

"Speaking of small fucking worlds." Trent quipped as Amanda returned, smiling at him mockingly.

"Hello Trent, you remembering to smoke outdoors?"

"Blow me."

"You wish old timer. Hey Elizabeth, I see you've met Nikki."

"I have, and I hope to meet her again if she wants a talk."

Nicola looked up at Elizabeth, she couldn't place her finger on it but something about her made her feel reassured, she simply nodded in response. "Yeah, I might do."

"Well Amanda has my number, just give me a call if you want a session, first ones free for family and friends. Now come on dad, let's get you back."

"Can I get a fucking smoke first?"

"Fine, but outside like the good doctor ordered. I'll talk to you both later."

As Elizabeth rolled Trent away, Amanda took Nicola's chair further into the gym.

"She seems nice." Nicola spoke up.

Amanda nodded. "She is, wonderful at her job despite her young age. Plus she's family, distant family but still family, makes it easier to have someone I talk to about work aside from my husband."

Amanda stopped the chair in front of one of the specialist trainers, a well-toned man, looking to be about mid 30s or so, with a prosthetic left arm which he deliberately put out for Nicola to shake.

"Hi there, Oliver Renton, but folks call me Olly."

Taken aback, Nicola cautiously reached out and shook the fake hand. "Nicola, but I guess you knew that."

Oliver laughed. "Ha, yeah Amanda here told me about you. I'm here to help you walk again."

"Good luck on the impossible."

"You say that now, but we'll have you back on your feet in no time. Let's start off gentle, you ever seen one of these?"

Olly held up something resembling a large rubber-band, Nicola shook her head, not recognising it.

"It's called a resistance band, it's designed to help firm up your muscles and improve blood-flow, which you're going to need since you'll be walking with your knees instead of your feet now."

"I swear the more you people talk about it, the more comfortable the chair's looking."

Oliver laughed again. "Not afraid of hard work are you?"

"Hard work I can do, I've gotten my boyfriend to dress up for Halloween twice now. This whole learning to walk again shit though, I'll be learning to do something I know how but can't. I foresee myself giving up."

Oliver bent down so that he was level with Nicola's face. "I won't lie to you Nicola, this is gonna be difficult, and it's going to be frustrating. But I promise you, you'll regret it if you never give yourself the chance to walk again. You're in a prime position where, with the right training, you have the chance to do it, but the longer you put it off the smaller that chance becomes. Now, you ready to start?"

Nikki rolled her eyes but a smile crept on her face all the same. "Fuck it, let's do this."

Oliver laughed. "That's what I like to hear. Now then, we'll need to get you out of the chair, d you need help or have you got it?"

"I've got this." Nicola's voice wobbled slightly and she hoped no-one noticed. Gritting her teeth she pushed herself up and climbed down from her wheelchair, she immediately regretted the decision to do this herself when she realised that the floor was further than she thought it was, but stubborn as always, she said nothing until she could feel the floor on her stump. Then she pushed herself forward and landed on her ass, nothing was said for a few seconds but Nicola could see Amanda and Oliver struggling not to laugh.

"Ow."

Oliver gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't worry about it Nicola, you did it all by yourself and that's already a massive step."

"Yeah, well it's the only stepping I'm doing anytime soon, hand me the fucking thing."

Oliver have Nikki one of the bands, a light blue colour with the number 1 printed on it. "Just slip that over both your legs and lean back. Then when you're ready, push your legs apart, hold for a couple seconds and bring them back. You're not looking to push yourself today, go as far as you're comfortable with, we'll start off with 3 sets of 5."

Having done plenty time at the gym, Nicola was ready to put in the effort and get it over with, but when she tried her first rep and could barely get her legs to move she realised she was in for a harder time of it than she thought. After the fifth one she was out of breath and sweating, and she'd barely moved.

"Fuck."

Oliver laughed again. "Tougher than you thought it be huh? Don't worry, everyone struggles on the first day, if you make it through this without throwing up I'll be impressed."

"I thought you said this was supposed to help me mentally, how can it when I feel like a fucking drunk toddler."

"You gotta hit bottom to understand how great the top is. This is a long, difficult road and it's gonna fucking suck, but it's one you need to take."

Nicola found her breath again, wiped the sweat from her brow and without saying anything, leant back to do her second set.

She managed a total of five sets before she threw up.

*

Over the next week Nicola saw Oliver on an almost daily basis, she called Arthur after the second day to bring her some proper gym clothes, she hated the work but she hated the thought of never waling again either so she put in the effort, and she was throwing up less with every session.

It was on the weekend when Arthur came by earlier than usual, he had nothing else to do and so had volunteered to help Nicola out with her exercise. But more importantly, he'd brought a freshly washed and dried set of gym clothes with him, for which he was met with an enthusiastic cheer as he walked into her room.

"Yaas Art. God I couldn't handle wearing what they gave me again, especially not after I was done with it last time."

"What did you do to it?"

Nicola pulled him closer for a kiss. "Best not to ask, you mind shutting the blinds."

Arthur dutifully followed his orders and shut the blinds on the window, giving them at least some semblance of privacy. He turned round to see that Nikki had already taken her top off, and since she wasn't wearing a bra in hospital her shameless nudity was on show.

"Can I help you?" Nikki asked, her trademark mischief in her voice.

Arthur shook her head out of a stupor. "No, no, I was just... let me help you with your shorts."

He rushed over as Nicola put on her sports bra and lay back, allowing Art to pull off her comfy shorts and replace them with her gym wear. It was there he got a perfect view of her panties, nothing special, simple off-white pair made for comfort, but in the couple of week since he was last introduced to Nicola's crotch he noticed a few stray hairs poking out of the sides. In all the time he and Nicola had been a couple, he'd never seen her with a hairy pussy, the idea fascinated him.

Nicola laughed at the sight. "Jesus Art, keep it in your pants."

"I was just curious."

"Sure you were."

"I was, I noticed a few stray hairs and it hit me that I've only seen you bald before now."

"Do you..." Nicola paused, she had a look on her face that made it seem like she was thinking of the right word to say but Arthur knew her better, she was facing one of her insecurities. "Do you prefer hair?"

"I prefer you, and whatever you have to offer."

The roll of her eyes told Arthur that Nikki's defences were back up, probably for the best going into her gym session. "Ugh, you're the worst. Now come on, let's do this."

Arthur helped Nicola into her wheelchair and took her through to the gym, it was quieter than he was expecting but considering it was still fairly early in the day he figured that would explain it. As he was looking around Oliver walked up to them.

"Hey there, you must be Arthur." Oliver put out his fake hand for a shake, Arthur was caught off-guard for a fraction of a second but quickly composed himself and shook it.

"I am, you'll be Oliver I'm guessing."

"You are correct sir, I see Nicola's been talking about me."

Nicola looked up at Arthur. "He made me throw up Art, he's a bully."

"Well he's here to help you so let him bully you for a bit."

"Boo you whore."

Oliver patted Nicola on the shoulder. "Alright then, Nicola if you're ok to start your warm-ups, I have a couple texts to send and I'll be right over."

"No problem, Art hun you mind holding the chair steady."

With the wheels locked and Arthur holding the back, Nicola quickly but carefully pulled herself out of the wheelchair and onto the floor, where immediately she began stretching. Arthur went to put the wheelchair against the wall but he found himself locked on watching Nicola, for the first time since the accident it hit him just how difficult life was going to be for her now, even in her element there was no hiding the fact that she was in for a tough time.

He barely noticed when Oliver came up next to him.

"You're worried about her."

Arthur nodded, his eyes not leaving Nicola. "I have to be, she's the most important person in the world to me, and I know she's too proud to say she's hurting."

"Well if it means anything, she's one of the strongest students I've ever had, also one of the most foul-mouthed."

Arthur chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

The two men looked over at each other, Arthur's eyes darting to Oliver's fake hand, before he could say anything, Oliver spoke up.

"Shark attack; I was vacationing in Australia with my girlfriend about 10 years ago, went out surfing, went too far out and the next thing I knew something had grabbed my hand and pulled me under. Funnily enough what saved my life was that it was a young shark, more power in its jaw, bit right through my wrist and gave me the chance to escape before I drowned. I don't even remember swimming back to shore, the last thing I saw was blood and sand and then I woke up in the hospital."

"Must've been rough."

"Was at first, the first year was the worst, I'd keep reaching out to grab things with my left hand only to bump my stump and either get hurt, break something, or both. But even after I got used to that the thing that hurt me the most was the fear, fear that my girlfriend was see me as a one-handed freak and leave me. It's happens to most amputees, that feeling of being less, Nicola's got it even worse than I do, and I know it's none of my business but for both of your sake's, if you're not willing to put in the effort to help her, let her go now so she can heal properly."

Arthur stood silent for a minute, mulling over Oliver's words. "Did Nikki tell you what happened before the crash, between us?"

Oliver shook his head.

"I was planning to propose, she caught onto me and said that the minute we were alone I would ask and she would say yes. I've still got the ring ready and waiting for her, I'm not giving up on her."

Oliver smiled. "She's lucky to have you, a lot of partners would've ran at the first sign of difficulty."

"Is that what happened with your girlfriend?"

"Somewhat. We made it three years before she decided she couldn't be my girlfriend anymore, so she became my wife instead, plus the two kids means we're kinda stuck together now. I loved her even more for sticking with me through it all."

Oliver left to check on Nicola while Arthur kept still, his hand gently felt his coat pocket, the faint outline of the engagement ring was still there.

He was ready whenever Nicola was, and he was more than willing to wait for her.

*

It was closing in on a month since the accident, Nicola had kept up her exercise regime, Kevin had gone home but promised to come back in time for Christmas, and despite his best efforts Martin Allen was being charged with a bunch of crimes including the death of the other driver and was facing 25 to life.

To Nicola though, it was a fairly simple day in late July, her parents had come over, there was a decent breeze so the room didn't get too stuffy, absolutely nothing else mattered until a smiling Amanda walked into the room.

Nicola saw the smile and got flashbacks of the gym clothes. "You fuck off Freeman, if you have another pair of crusty shorts behind you I swear..."