Finally, a new chapter. I know, I know. I said I'd be more frequent, but at least it wasn't as long as last time. It occurred to me a few days ago I was going out things the wrong way and now I know exactly where I'm going and things should pick up again, hopefully. There's really no updating schedule, so, yeah.
Miranda looked over this as always, so a thank huge thank you to her. Though any errors are probably from the things I added at the last minute.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.
Months passed. Three, to be exact, and Artie's life was going as good as ever, or as good as it could be, he supposed. He and Tina were still going strong, despite a few spats that caused her to storm out of his house, disheveled with only one shoe on, but that was to be expected with any couple. He was doing well in school, had all of his volunteer hours out of the way, and the glee club was going to Nationals. For possibly the first time in his life, things were just…good. Steady, unproblematic, and simple.
Despite the fact that he had finished his volunteer hours almost two months ago, plus about ten extra, he continued to visit Cassie with astounding regularity. Twice a week, at least. Three or four if glee rehearsal was short or his homework load was light. Tina went with him occasionally, but most of the time he went by himself. And at that point, that was alright with him. In fact, he kind of liked it.
A place that once used to terrify him now had become kind of like home. Again.
It was strange—he'd never been able to pinpoint the cause of his fear. Nothing particularly bad had happened to him here. He ran into a few walls when testing out his wheelchair, got a few painful blisters on his hands, but otherwise, he just did a lot of sitting around. It was just that overwhelming sense that he couldn't get out of there. He had spent so many months that he just felt…trapped. It's not a definite answer to one of those questions that never truly has one, but it was good enough for him.
It never really used to keep him up at night, but it had a few times in the past few months. Just questions of why? He felt like he probably could have helped a lot of kids in his situation through this process if that fear hadn't been there, or if he'd powered through it.
Cassie was getting to that point that he remembered getting to. A constant state of boredom. It was still that fairly yucky part of winter, but the sun was shining more often, it was even a little bit warm on some days. Mostly though, it was just gross out. But she was still a kid, a kid that probably would've liked to have gone sledding during the winter, or make a snowman, or something of that sort. He could see the wistfulness in her eyes when she'd look at the window, probably imagining what could be.
Artie knew that story all too well.
It was the time of year he hated the most. He spent much of his time trying to dry his wheels so he didn't slide on every surface and he'd been thrown in more than his fair share of snow banks. Snow just gave people incentive to toss him around like a sack of potatoes.
For the first time, well…ever…he was visiting Cassie someplace other than the hospital. She had been released just a few days before and he agreed to start coming to her house once or twice a week. He had already been there once, when he went with his mother to help Cassie's parents test out newly adapted doorways and other amenities, too make sure that she'd be able to navigate both now and when she got older. Things checked out on that one.
"You know," Tina said, loading a child's sized wheelchair into the back of her car, "It's really nice to give Cassie one of your old wheelchairs."
"She can't go around in the hospital one forever," Artie replied, "Plus, when am I ever going to use it? It just sits in the attic collecting dust. And you made it all pretty for her anyway."
When Artie had suggested the idea to his mother, she had gotten behind it immediately. Wheelchairs for a child aren't horribly priced, but they aren't cheap either, and his mother understood that fact. Purchases of wheelchairs in various sizes had become quite an expense over the last few years, but he was finally to the point that he was in the size that he would most likely be in for the rest of his life.
Tina had gotten the chair down for him from the attic over the garage one day after school, took one look at it, and said, A little girl would never use this. Upon protest, she pointed out the dinosaur stickers stuck to various places, the racing strips on the sides, and the upholstery was bright yellow, cracked, and stained. She took it into her care that day and spent a week on it, cleaning it up and making it more like something that wasn't a hand-me-down wheelchair.
Tina gave him a ride to Cassie's, helping him get the wheelchair up to the door. Her mother answered, letting them inside.
He was sure that their house looked different before Cassie's accident. Now, it was still a bit of a construction zone, with furniture pushed into the most convenient places, and tool boxes in just about every room. He maneuvered around the obstacles and Tina followed behind him with the folded up wheelchair underneath her arm.
Cassie's face brightened when they entered the room. "Is that it? Is that it?" Artie smiled and nodded. She had been ecstatic about the prospect of Tina fixing up a wheelchair for her and she had asked him about it every time they'd seen each other since he'd told her about it. In retrospect, if he had known he'd been saying "no, not yet" so many times, he would've just surprised her with it.
Tina unfolded the chair and set it up next to the bed. Cassie hadn't gotten the hang of transferring quite yet, so Artie put his hands on her hips and lifted her up, setting her carefully in the seat. She adjusted herself and Artie backed up, letting her wheel around the room.
"Do you like it?" Tina asked hesitantly. Artie wanted her to stop worrying, because she had almost gone out of her way to make sure it was perfect. The pink upholstery matched the walls of Cassie's bedroom, the tassels coming off the handlebars had were curled to perfection. There were even butterfly stickers were there were once dinosaurs. He wasn't a girl, of course, but he thought that it was pretty awesome.
"I love it!" Cassie told her, "Thank you, Tina!" She wheeled up to his girlfriend and threw her arms around her waist, burying her nose in Tina's stomach.
"I'm glad," Tina replied, patting Cassie's hair. She looked over at him until the younger girl let go, then said, "I'll pick you up in an hour?"
He nodded and she kissed the side of his face before leaving the room.
"What do you want to do now?" he asked, looking around her room. She wheeled over to the toy box, pulling out a Barbie and a Ken doll, handing him the Ken. He followed along with the story she was producing for a little while before fading into conversation with her, "Are you excited to go back to school?"
She shrugged, continuing to make her Barbie doll make through the air, "Will they laugh at me, Artie?"
He pressed his lips together. People hadn't laughed at him, per say, but people had tended to gawk at him back then. In those first few years, he always felt like more of a circus attreaction than an actual person. Especially because of the kids in his class, who would stare and would just watch him struggle when things got caught in his wheels. He finally said, "I don't know."
He didn't want to make her afraid. In a way, he wanted to keep her mind pure for just a little while longer. Because it was hard to peg children's reactions. Her situation might be one hundred percent different than his. She might be accepted back in almost immediately. All of her old friends may come back to her. Or it could be worse—she could be friendless and an anomaly among her peers. There were really a million ways it could go. He didn't want to put a single bad thought in her head.
It reminded him of when his sister would say, "you'll just have to find out," when he asked about middle school, or later high school. She didn't want to taint his mind with bad thoughts and she also didn't want his expectations of anything to be too high, in the event that he could be disappointed.
"Will you go with me?" she asked, making her Ken and Barbie kiss, not looking at him, "Will you tell them about us? About people like us?"
He didn't mull over this decision, like he had so many others, he just said, "Of course."