Ch. 9- Going Home
The next morning Jack came in to give Alvin some pain medicine and I woke up. "Hey, Jack." I said, "I forgot to tell you Alvin woke up last night." I carefully removed Alvin's arms from around me, trying not to wake him. But, he awoke anyway. "Good morning, gorgeous." he said. "Hi, Alvin." Jack greeted. "Glad to see you're awake again. I'll call your family." Jack called the others and disconnected the wires on Alvin.
Alvin wanted to get closer to me so he made an attempt to stand up and walk to the other side of the bed, but he couldn't. "Hey, are you ok? Can't you stand?" Alvin tried again, but failed. He shook his head. "Then you're going to have to learn to walk again." Jack said. "Ronald must have really hurt you this time, huh?" I asked. "Yeah, uh, how are we going to do this?" Alvin asked.
"C'mere, baby." I scooped Alvin up and brought him to the floor. I got to my knees and gave him my finger. "Let's try to walk to the chair, ok?" I said. "Ok." Alvin used all his strength to push himself to his feet with a tight grip on my finger for support. He took 2 steps and fell on his rump. "Hmm. Would this be easier if I shrank to your size?" I asked. "It's worth a shot." Alvin said.
I shrank and held his paws as I helped him up. "Let's try this again." I said and Alvin nodded. He tried to walk but fell after a few steps. It took several tries, but after about 10 minutes, he finally managed to walk from the bed to the chair on the other side of the room. "Look, J, I did it! High five!" Alvin exclaimed and we high- fived each other. "Good job, baby! I'm very proud of you!" I stroked his head and kissed his cheek.
"You know what you gotta do now?" I asked and Alvin shrugged. "What?" he wondered. "You gotta walk to me all by yourself." I said. "What's the reward?" Alvin grinned. I rolled my eyes. "The reward is you get your legs back." I said and walked to the other side of the room. "Awe, c'mon, gimmie more than that." Alvin crossed his arms. "Ok, if you can walk all the way to me without falling, then you get a J special. Is that good enough for ya?" I replied. "What's a J special?" Alvin questioned. "Come over here and find out." I giggled and held out me arms for Alvin.
Alvin got up again and looked ahead. The distance seemed a lot longer than it really was. "You can do it, Al." I encouraged. Alvin nodded and slowly began to walk. "That's it. Nice and easy." He held out his arms for when he gets to me. "Almost there, baby. Just a little closer." I said. All of the sudden, he lost his balance. But Alvin shook it off and got up, continuing to leisurely walk to me.
Alvin was losing his balance again and he sped up. He luckily got to me before he fell over. "Not bad. Ready for the J special?" I asked. "But I fell over, remember?" Alvin said. "Oh, that was just for motivation. You're gonna get it either way, baby." I said, picking him up and bringing him to the bed. I sat cross-legged and held Alvin in my arms.
"So what's the-" I cut Alvin off when I snuggled him and showered him with kisses. He giggled as I tickled him and kissed him on his cheeks, forehead, nose and neck. His high-pitch laugh made me laugh and I set him down. "Wow, why haven't you done that before?" Alvin asked. "Well, you never asked." I answered. "I'm asking now. Please, do that again." Alvin said. I picked him up and repeated the snuggles and kisses.
Dave and the others came into the room. "What are you doing?" Simon asked. Alvin and I stopped laughing and I put Alvin down. "Uh... J special." Alvin said, blushing. They looked at each other. "It was a reward for regaining the ability to walk." I added, stroking Alvin so he'd relax.
"You're telling me Ronald almost paralyzed him?" Rachel asked. "Seemed that way." I replied. "J, who's that?" Alvin pointed to Rachel. "Ronald's ex-wife." I answered and Alvin went pale. "No, it's alright. She's completely sane." I said, hugging him. "Yeah, I'm not going to hurt you like my ex-husband. Highlight EX." Rachel said. "O-ok." he said.
"Dr. Olsen told us if you're up to it, you can go home." Dave said. "I do but..." Alvin trailed off. "But you're scared Ronald's gonna come and hurt you again." I finished for him. "Uh-huh." Alvin nodded. "Don't worry, baby. I'm gonna to protect you." I assured and cradled him. His eyes began to droop. I could only imagine how tired he must have been. "Go to sleep, Alvin. Let's take you home." I said, rocking him, as he nodded and fell asleep.
Next Chapter is where the real drama begins...
