Chapter 10 is up! This chapter will be mainly Scout being bound and determined to get herself walking again, since she's sick and tired of lying around in bed all the time. But by the end, she's decided to keep it a secret for one particular reason…

Enjoy!

Uncle Jack had gone to take Calpurnia home, since one of her grandbabies was sick and needed taking care of, and Scout was left on her own. This wasn't common, but it wasn't unheard of, since it had been nearly three weeks since that scare with the fever.

"I am so sick of this bed!" Scout said impatiently to the room in general. She slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, as she had been doing for weeks, and then swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Slow and steady," She said to herself, the phrase that had been told to her several times over the past two weeks.

Dr. Reynolds had decided to get her moving, so she would sit on the side of the bed for a while and just move her legs and work on sitting up straight. That may not sound like much, but when you've been stabbed three times in the stomach and twice in the chest, it hurts a whole lot.

"I can do this," Scout said, gritting her teeth. She grasped the headboard of her bed and inch by inch she used her arm to pull herself into a standing position. Her hurt shoulder was screaming in pain, but as she slowly relaxed her grip on the headboard the pain slowly went away until it was only a dull ache. "I did it!" She exclaimed, letting herself stand up completely straight, though her stomach was killing her.

Her eyes strayed to the doorway and she found herself wanting to walk towards it, but she remembered the last time that she had tried that. She ended up crumpled on the floor; feeling like she was getting stabbed all over again and she had worried Atticus, Uncle Jack and everyone else yet again.

"My legs feel weird," She mused, sticking one of her legs out and moving it around. It felt a little like learning to stand up and walk away, but that was because she had been laid up in bed for so long. Her injuries really began to ache then so she decided to sit back down, and then leaned back slowly until she was lying down. Scout was truly exhausted, and she fell asleep almost instantly.

That was the case for the following days, whenever she was left alone she could get to her feet and see how long she could stand there. The time grew longer and longer, and pretty soon she felt the normalness returning back to her legs. About 10 days after she successfully stood on her own, she reached over and gripped the dresser, taking a tentative step. Her legs wobbled so she stood there for a long moment and then took another step.

She almost fell to the ground, and she knew that was as far as she could push it. For a few more days it was only one step, and then it grew to two, and then three, and then four. Pretty soon she could make it all the way to her door and back, though granted it was with a lot of pain. It was a month after Dr. Reynolds wanted her to start sitting up, and Scout could walk to her door and back to her bed with a relatively small amount of pain.

That was when Scout decided she wanted to keep her recovery a secret. She envisioned the day when she would amaze Cal and Uncle Jack by getting up and saying she wanted to go and greet Atticus when he came home. Jem would run out before her, and then she could walk (hopefully run) out and greet her father on her own two feet.

"I can do this," Scout told herself over and over again as she worked on being able to walk from her bed to the door with little to no pain.

The doctor came back and asked Scout if she thought she could try standing up. She nodded her head and Uncle Jack came in to help pull her to a standing position. "It hurts," Scout whimpered over and over, and Uncle Jack finally laid her back down.

"It's too soon, Dr. Reynolds, she's in too much pain," Uncle Jack said, and Dr. Reynolds concurred. Scout knew it was bad to lie, but she didn't consider this lying. She was just hiding the fact that her recovery was speeding along.

And then the time came when Atticus had to go to Montgomery.

"I really shouldn't go," He said to Uncle Jack as they were sitting in Scout's room.

"Yes you should. You can't just refuse to go, Atticus, you know that," Uncle Jack admonished.

"I know that, I do," Atticus said, and looked at Scout. She carefully sat up and shook her head when both Uncle Jack and Atticus offered to help her.

"You need to go, Atticus, I'm okay with Uncle Jack and Jem and Cal. Besides, you'll be just a phone call away, and Dr. Reynolds is down the road. I'll be fine," She said, and crawled into his lap. He held her tightly and she reached up and kissed him.

"Are you sure?" He asked, still hesitant.

"Yes, I'll be fine. You go do what you have to do," She told him, and he nodded.

"I'll be gone a week at the most," Atticus assured her, and she shrugged.

"Who knows, you might be gone longer. It's okay, Atticus, it really is,"

"Well, all right then," He said, and got up to make his travel arrangements and plans. Atticus left Maycomb a few days later, and he held Scout for a long time.

"I'll be here when you get back," She promised him, and he kissed her cheek.

"You'd better be. I'll call if I'm going to be later than a week," And with that he departed for the train station.

When he'd left, Uncle Jack came into Scout's room and closed the door. "All right, Jean Louise, out with it,"

"Out with what?" Scout asked, and Uncle Jack pulled a chair up.

"Your wounds are healing very nicely, and yet when you stand up you're moaning about the pain that I know you are not feeling. What's going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Scout mumbled, and Uncle Jack's eyes turned serious.

"Don't lie to me young lady,"

Scout only held out for a few more moments and then said, "All right, all right. I've been sorta working on standing up on my own," She confessed, and peeked at Uncle Jack to see if he was mad.

"What do you mean, working on it on your own?"

She couldn't tell if he was mad or not, so she continued, "When everyone would leave, I'll pull myself up, and I was real careful, Uncle Jack, I didn't want to fall down again,"

Uncle Jack was silent, and then asked, "So you can stand?"

Scout hesitated, and then sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed and walked to the door and back without much difficulty. When she sat back down on the bed she chanced a glance at her uncle. His face was so unreadable she knew he was mad. "I'm so sorry, Uncle Jack, I just wanted to do something on my own for once, I mean I haven't even been able to wash myself in the past few months, and I wanted to surprise all of you and make it a happy thing. Please don't be mad at me, Uncle Jack, and please don't tell Atticus,"

"You think I'm mad at you?" Uncle Jack said slowly, and then shook his head as a big grin spread across his face. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap, saying, "Baby, I am so happy, and I am so proud of you,"

"You are?" Scout said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Of course I am! But why don't you want me to tell your father?"

"Because I was kinda doing this for him. I wanted to be able to run out and greet him and surprise him, make him smile," Scout admitted, and Uncle Jack smiled even wider.

"Well, we've got a week to make that happen, don't we?"

"Are you gonna help me?" Scout said, drawing back.

"Yes ma'am. You just found yourself a recovery coach," Uncle Jack said, and Scout beamed at him.

"Thank you, Uncle Jack,"

"Can, can you do that again?" Uncle Jack requested, and Scout slid off his lap, walking to the door and back.

"I might be able to walk farther but that's as far as I can go right now without hardly any pain," Scout said, and Uncle Jack smiled, but Scout could see the tears in his eyes. "What's wrong, Uncle Jack?"

"It's just, Atticus and I were talking a few nights ago and the possibility of you never walking again. It scared me, scared both of us, but clearly we were on the wrong track,"

Scout went back into his arms and he held her tightly, stroking her hair. "I'm sorry I hid it from you,"

"Oh, that's all right, it was a very nice surprise. Now, are you ready to get to work?" Uncle Jack said, clapping his hands together.

"Yes sir!" Scout said with a mock salute and a big grin on her face.

Aw, Uncle Jack and Atticus were worried about her never walking again! They thought maybe the knife had done something to her spinal cord or something, that's why. Anyways, I hope you're enjoying this story so far! The next chapter will have Scout and Uncle Jack working more on her recovery. Thanks for reading!