Chapter 4 Revelation

6:00 am

Yet again, Auggie couldn't sleep through the night. He had just been lying in bed, awake, when he noticed his clock hit 5:00 am. He decided to go work early. He pulled into the parking lot and saw it was nearly empty. It was Tuesday and he had his running gear in the trunk of his car. So he decided to work out. After rehab he'd pushed his workout routine into full force again and he opted to go three to four times a week into the gym at work plus a run minimum every Sunday. He was in pretty good shape, six pack and everything. He could be wearing skintight shirts, but he opted to not wear clothes that showed off his muscular body.

If he had to, even now, he could fight and disable someone in seconds. He could fight either on his prosthetics or without, he wasn´t going to be a victim. He would be able to fight in defensively if he ever was attacked. But other than that he would never fight again. After the horrific things he'd been forced to do in Iraq, he couldn't bring himself to do something to hurt anyone else, unless his own life was at stake. If something was bothering him, he would now work the heavy bag in gym, harder and with more endurance than ever. If he fell, he'd land on soft padding. Boxing cleared his head, so today he would work that heavy bag first.

After changing into gym clothes, a tank top and shorts and using his normal prosthetics, he warmed up with boxing the punching bag nearly half an hour. Then, he did his routine of calisthenics such as pushups, crunches and high planks. Next came the chin-ups, first with his prosthetics, and after a quick break, he got rid of them and did more without. He was so immersed in his routine that he didn´t even pay one ounce of attention to his surroundings. He knew that other gym users were observing him but he couldn´t do anything about it. He wasn´t some zoo animal to be stared at, but some people just couldn´t let him be.

He hand-walked to the empty sparring room to do some gymnastics. Some of the exercises had been specifically recommended by his physiotherapists, while others he'd learned to do with a lot of training. He was a decent floor gymnast in high school, and now he could do some tricks as well. As he was doing some handstands, he felt someone staring at him. He had been so deep in concentration that he didn´t heard anyone entering the room. After turning on his hands his gaze fell upon two lean legs.

"Hey, you can have the room in just a second. Ok?" He was panting and hand-jumped a few times.

"Oh. No problem, I don´t want the room. I was just observing your training."

"Good Morning, Annie," he said. Then he got down onto his butt. He looked up at her and saw a familiar red face. "Who died? You look like you've seen a ghost," Auggie commented, before turning to his water bottle.

Auggie swallowed and waited for an answer but the only thing he got from Annie was a look at his residual legs. Even though he knew that this was the first she was learning of what his real problem was, he still got agitated with her reaction towards him.

"If you find your voice again, I will see you in the office!" he half-barked, then he walked on his hands out of the room.

Auggie showered longer than normal. He was alone in the shower room and so he let himself enjoy the hot water working on his sore muscles.

Twenty minutes later, fully dressed and with his unused running legs stored away, he entered his workspace. Only to find his office empty, but there was a cup of coffee, with a post-it note on it sitting on his desk. Written on the note, in capital letters, was the word "SORRY". It was followed by a smiley.

He grabbed the cup and took a sip from it. He got out his chair from under the desk, sat down and booted up his system. He was typing his password when he heard a knock on his door.

"May I enter?" Annie asked in a low voice, head down.

"You can speak?" Auggie asked sarcastically.

"I would say 'sorry`," Annie replied nervously, "but I learned yesterday that you don´t like to hear that… so I wrote it." She shot him a brief meek smile.

"You may enter, I accept your apology by the way," Auggie said as he noticed that Annie was still standing at the threshold.

Annie walked in, laid her bag down on her desk, and walked up to Auggie. "So now I understand the cane. I don't know what to say. Yesterday, I thought you maybe fell again at home, or you are the weather-feeling in your bones type or something. But I didn´t think that you might be a double leg amputee. I´m pretty astonished by your floor exercises. Were you a gymnast? Oh I´m rambling. I'll stop. Do you have work for me?" With that, Annie turned and walked to her desk, not even waiting for a response from Auggie.

He was still for a few moments and you could see his brain comprehending all of the words that had just flowed out of Annie´s mouth. He collected his thoughts and made sure his temper was in check and then answered everything.

"I have your next assignment and will Email it to you. I was an athlete in high school, before I lent my brain and body to this company and the Army." His last words out, he stood up and walked out of the office, not even thinking about grabbing his cane.

He thought about what he'd just revealed to Annie and just needed some time for himself. He walked up to the fridge and took an energy drink out. He heard footsteps behind him and the door closing with a slight click. "Auggie, again I'm sorry! I know I say it a lot, but I tend to put my foot in my mouth. You may have recognized that by now." Annie said to him, being open and honest.

Auggie turned to her and smirked. "Yes I noticed your tendency. I´m sorry for reacting the way I did, but I don´t like to be stared at. I´m a human being, just one with legs ripped off in Iraq. I´m normal; just treat me the way you would treat everyone else." Annie was surprised just to get this small amount of information from him.

Before even thinking, she said, "Auggie can you show me some of your moves?"

"Tomorrow 6:30 am. I'll show you some things no one with two working legs can do." He smiled his first real smile and added, "Now, hurry up. We've got work to do and an upcoming mission to plan."

At 12:00 pm Auggie stopped what he was doing. He was really buried in his planning. So he didn´t notice that Annie had walked out of the office. Just seconds later after he noticed the absence of Annie, she entered with two dishes of cake. "Here this one is for you Auggie. Kind of a slimy creep1 treat to get on your better side." Annie smiled as she handed it over.

"I just hope you're not the too-healthy kind of eater?" Annie hesitated.

"Thank you Annie. First coffee, now a sweet treat? Will you work your way to my complete sympathy?" Auggie asked her, preparing his first bite with the fork. "The only thing left you could do would be to show up with pizza after a long work day, by the way," he joked and then he put the first forkful of cake into his mouth. "That's tasty. Thank you Annie." He smiled again at her.

After calling it a day at 8:00 pm, Auggie walked out of the office leaving Annie behind.

Annie had just been waiting for Auggie to go home. Over the afternoon, she'd come up with a plan. Just two minutes after Auggie left, Annie put it in motion. She'd been paying attention when Auggie had revealed exactly the right way to apologize to him.

She looked to see if Joan was in her office, and as she could see light in it, she knocked and waited for a response.

"Come in," Joan answered.

Annie walked in and closed the door.

He was exhausted after the day. He was stuck for nearly an hour in traffic because of an accident on his route to his apartment. When he finally walked in, he grabbed a coke out of his fridge. He made his way into his bedroom. He put the can down and changed into one of his old university hoodies and some grey, loose fitting shorts. Years ago, he would have walked barefoot but now he couldn´t. That was really something he missed, walking in sand or grass, or just feeling everything on the floor.

He was reading on his iPad when he heard a knock on his door.

Please review! The muse will work faster! Thanks to my beta luvtheheaven.

1 I like the wording because it´s something you say in German, but you could say "kind of a bribe to get on your better side" that´s what my beta suggested but for me it´s the slimy creep treat