Chapter 1: Always There For You
A/N: This is a sequel to my first story My Hero. It will probably make a lot more sense if you read that one prior to reading this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the story line. No suing necessary!
Lilly chuckled a little at the scene on the television set in front of her. She was watching another rerun of Bonanza.
"Hey Lilly, you ready to go home?" Robbie Ray asked from the doorway of her hospital room. It had been ten days since the entire ordeal her and Miley had undergone and the doctors had finally agreed to release her into the care of the Stewarts. Her mother was still out of town for work and was asked to stay another couple of months. Robbie assured her that Lilly was very welcome to stay with them and that they would take great care of her.
"I was ready to go home a week ago Mr. S." she answered in her chipper voice.
"Miles is on the way with your wheelchair."
Just then, Miley came rolling into the room standing on the back of a wheelchair, smiling her biggest ear to ear.
"Hey girly, need a lift?" she asked pushing the chair up to Lilly's bed.
"Why yes, thank you," Lilly swung her legs over the side of her bed and her heavy casted leg clunked loudly against the metal bedframe. Miley looped her arms under Lilly's armpits and lifter her onto her good leg. She then rotated Lilly and sat her down gently in the chair.
"Hang on tight now," she said. Miley popped the chair into a wheelie and pushed it out into the hallway.
The girls wheeled quickly around in circles in the parking lot waiting for Robbie Ray to get done signing all of Lilly's release papers. When they saw him emerge from the doors they quit horsing around and chilled out next to the car.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm missing something between you two?" Robbie asked limping up to the car, leaning heavily on a cane to keep his weight off of his still injured leg. The gunshot wound was healing a lot faster than anticipated so he could had begun putting some of his weight down on it, but not too much yet.
"We weren't doin' nothin' daddy. We're just eager to get home." Miley replied innocently.
"Okay, well get in and buckle up then."
The ride home wasn't a very long one and before they knew it they were pulling into the Stewart's driveway.
"Welcome home my lady," Miley said opening Lilly's door. She reached into the car and helped Lilly into a standing position, throwing Lilly's arm over shoulder and wrapping her own arm around Lily's waist.
"Miles, why don't you let Jackson help Lilly inside?" Robbie suggested.
"No daddy, I got her," she replied already halfway to the door.
They clumsily made their way down into the living room and plopped down together on the couch. Miley helped Lilly prop her leg up and then leaned back smiling at her.
"What?" Lilly asked, smiling back.
"Nothing, just taking you in."
"Aww," Lilly said putting her head on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"Don't get all mushy on me now," Miley laughed. "Wanna watch a movie?"
"Yeah! How about Empire Records?" Miley giggled because Lilly still had a very small slur in her speech due to her head injury. "It's not nice to make fun of the disabled!" Lilly defended herself.
"I'm not laughin' at you babe. Empire Records it is." She hopped up and loaded the movie into the dvd player. Then she reclaimed her spot on the couch next to Lilly. As she got comfortable, Lilly laid her head back down on Miley's shoulder.
When Robbie came down to make dinner, he smiled to himself seeing the girls together on the couch. As the sauce he was making began to cook, Lilly lifted her head looking for the source of the good smell. As Lilly stirred, Miley awoke too.
"Lil, you need something?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Whatcha need? I'll grab it for ya."
"I need some of whatever your dad is cooking!" she replied smiling over at Robbie.
Miley laughed at Lilly's eagerness to get food. "Daddy is it ready yet?"
"Sure is. Come on and get some before your brother comes down and eats it all."
Just as she did before, Miley looped Lilly's good arm over her shoulder and helped the petite girl over to the table. Once they were both sitting, Robbie Ray set two large plates of steaming noodles in front of them.
"Thanks Mr. S., it's delicious!" Lilly exclaimed already digging into her plate. "Better than that hospital food I've been eating all week."
"You are very welcome Ms. Lilly," he smiled. "So what are you ladies doing tomorrow?"
"I'm taking Lilly to the mall and we're gonna get some new outfits," Miley explained as she ate her dinner.
"Sounds like a good time to me," he replied turning back to the stove.
Both girls ate the rest of their dinners quietly. When they finished Miley turned to Lilly.
"You wanna go upstairs and look at some magazines?" she asked.
"Sure." Lilly agreed.
After a bit of a struggle, Miley and Lilly finally got into Miley's room. Once they got Lilly sitting on the floor against Miley's bed, Miley went over to her dresser.
"I'm gonna put some p.j.'s on okay? I'll be right back."
The moment Miley left the room, Lilly used her good arm to pull herself up onto the bed. From there, she hopped gently on her good leg over to the gym bag Jackson had grabbed from her house. She rummaged through it until she found a pair of blue boxers to sleep in and a pair of baggy sweatpants. Moving as quickly as she could, she tried to remove the jeans she was wearing. This turned out to be more of a struggle than she had expected. She managed to get them off and replace them with the boxers, but when she tried to pull the seatpants on, she accidently stepped down on her casted leg and her whole body pitched forward. Just as she landed on her face, Miley came back into the room.
"Lilly! What happened?!" Miley exclaimed rushing over to help her up.
"I just wanted to get some sweats on," she explained.
"Well why didn't you just wait for my help?"
"I don't wanna be helpless Miles. I wanna be able to do stuff on my own. I've been dressing myself for a long time now, I should have to rely on you to put my own pants on me." By the
time she finished speaking tears of frustration ran down her cheeks. Miley enveloped her in a tight hug.
"Don't worry sweetie, you're not helpless. You just need to give yourself some time to heal."
"I don't want time to heal. I don't wanna be a burden on you and your family. I don't want you to have to carry me around and do everything for me."
"You are definitely not a burden to us, and I don't mind helping you do things here and there."
"But-," Lilly started but was cut off.
"Lilly, you risked your life to save mine. That broken leg would never have happened if you hadn't shoved me out of the way and taken the hit for me. You protected me from those guys and for that I owe you my life."
"But Miley- "
"Shh. Stop. I love you Lilly and no matter how long it takes for you to get better, I'm gonna be here for you." Miley said, wiping Lilly's tears away with her thumb.
Lilly smiled and looked down as her cheeks flushed a deep pink color.
"Now how about we pull these pants up and read some horrible gossip?" Miley said meeting Lilly's eyes.
Lilly nodded her head and together they pulled her sweatpants up to her hips. Then, with a little help from Miley, she got on her stomach across Miley's bed.
Once Lilly was good and situated, Miley walked across her room and grabbed a stack of magazines and joined Lilly on the bed. She wrapped her arm around Lilly and flipped througha magazine with her other.
That's how Robbie Ray found them in the morning – both laying on their bellies, Miley's arm wrapped securely around Lilly, and their faces flat against the magazines on the bed. He decided to let them sleep awhile longer. As he left, he quietly pulled the door shut behind himself. When the door clicked shut, Miley's eyes popped open. She smiled to herself as she looked at her sleeping girlfriend lying next to her. As much as she would have loved to stay like that forever, her bladder was screaming at her to empty it. So she got up gently, so as not to wake Lilly, and made her way to her bathroom. While in there, she decided to get dressed.
When she came back, Lilly had spread out across the bed. Miley noticed that her pant leg had moved up, revealing Lilly's black cast. She chuckled a little remembering the fight Lilly had put
up to get that black cast. Using a silver Sharpie marker, Miley knelt on the floor in front of Lilly's cast and started drawing. After about ten minutes, Lilly stirred so Miley quickly capped the marker and slipped it into her jean pocket.
"Hey sleepy head. How'd you sleep?" she asked moving to the side of the bed.
"Wonderfully," Lilly replied happily.
"Good. You want some breakfast? I think daddy is makin' pancakes."
This got Lilly to sit straight up and swing her legs over the edge of the bed.
"Well why didn't you say that sooner!?" Let's go lady!"
Miley smiled and pulled Lilly to her feet. Together, they went down the stairs, which they found to be much easier to be going down than up. When they reached the kitchen they were met with steaming plates of pancakes.
"Good morning ladies, sleep well?" Robbie asked. Both girls blushed a little before nodding in response. "Good. Well, after you finish up your breakfast and Lilly gets dressed, I'll drive you over to the mall."
Lilly had already wolfed down a plate of pancakes when Miley started in on her own.
"Wow, you musta been hungry Lilly. You want some more?" Robbie asked.
"No thank you. I think I'll just go back upstairs and get dressed for the day."
"Don't you want some help Lils?" Miley asked quickly, remembering the incident from the night before.
"Maybe you could just help me get on the floor." Miley replied.
"Sure," Miley helped Lilly down off the stool and set her on the floor.
"Thanks Miles. I'll be back in just a bit," she said scooting towards the stairs on her butt.
With much effort, Lilly managed to get up the stairs and into Miley's room. After picking out a simple outfit to wear, she pulled herself up onto Miley's bed using her good arm and good leg.
"Okay Lilly, you've got this handled now," she said to herself.
With that, she very slowly changed her undergarments and pulled on a pair of black baggy board shorts. After getting the shorts on successfully, putting a fresh shirt on was easy as pie. She chose a neon green Billabong t-shirt. To finish getting dressed, Lilly pulled one black
converse out of her bag and pushed it onto her non-casted foot. When she tried to tie the lace, she found that she couldn't get her left hand to grab it tight enough.
'Must be because of the cast,' she thought, 'it's restricting my muscles.'
Shrugging it off, she slid herself back to the floor and scooted back down the stairs to Miley and Robbie Ray.
"Wow Lilly, I'm very impressed!" Miley exclaimed upon seeing the freshly clothed blond.
"Thanks! I just need a little help tying my shoe please," she asked raising her foot in the air.
"No problem hun," Miley walked over to her and tied it loosely, just like Lilly liked it. "You want me to help you a little with your hair too?"
"Oh, I totally forgot about my hair," Lilly laughed, "yeah, you can just throw it up into a ponytail if you want."
Nodding, she went behind Lilly and quickly but gently brushed the blond hair and pulled it up into a hairtie.
"You two ready to go?" Robbie asked from the kitchen.
"Yeah. Did you put the wheelchair in the trunk already?"
"I did indeed," he replied.
"Great! Then what are we waiting for? Let's get to the mall!" Miley shouted.
Lilly had already scooted to the door when Robbie Ray's voice stopped her.
"Truscott! I know you don't think you're scootin' out there in the dirt on your little butt and then getting' into my car!"
"C'mon." Miley helped her up and they walked together to the car. Miley lowered Lilly into the front seat and then climbed into the back. Robbie took his place in the driver's seat and started the car up.
"To the mall good sir. Pronto!" Lilly said clapping her hands together. Robbie turned his head and glared over at her. "Please?" she said more timidly.
To that, Robbie just smiled and pulled out of the driveway. That's when the fear and worry started to rumble around in Lilly's stomach.
