A/N - Well... The con is on...
And things get interesting with Parker and Eliot...
Hope you like it!
Parker wants you to send Eliot some reviews because he is her favorite vet...
So, please send some!
Thanks and enjoy!
"Likewise," the priest he'd just met took his seat behind the desk. "Now, as I understand it, you wish for me to officiate your wedding."
"Yes, my mother would have wanted it that way since we grew up together," Tara spoke.
Enrique wondered where these two grew up together considering the priest had an Irish accent and his girl didn't. And then he considered their possible ages and wondered if the two had once been an item before he might have gone into the priesthood. If so, Enrique had a new threat to his new relationship…
"Both of you are Catholic?"
"Yes," his girl uttered, "You know I am."
"Enrique says yes. My family priest is Father Salvador. He is back home in Brazil," he let him know as if the priest might want to contact him to verify that he was Catholic.
"Whell, my children, there are requirements the church has that you must fulfill before you may be allowed to marry in this Catholic Church," he spoke with an Irish accent.
"Like what?" Tanya asked.
"To start, you must complete four weeks of classes with me. We will be going through the different aspects of and our Heavenly Father's views on marriage."
Enrique began to squirm in his seat a little… Four weeks? A whole month? Could he keep up the charade of getting married to the woman next to him? He had only wanted to get into that sweet, warm, and wet spot between her legs with his pride. Now it felt like she was holding him by the balls because of some promise he supposedly made to her after a night of partying… He was so ready to walk away, but he knew his grandfather's pride in his family wouldn't allow him to just walk away, especially since his mother and grandmother were hungry for a new grandchild, great grandchild to devour and spoil rotten like they had the rest of the males in the family… His grandfather warned him to be wary of Tanya though… Maybe he could find a loophole there… Because then he would be free to walk away if she strayed first.
"We should start next Monday through Friday. Your homework assignment is to put something down on paper about how you see the ceremony."
"Great. Will you be available later today, Father?" Tara asked.
"Yes, my child."
"Good. I will be by later so that I can catch up with you."
Enrique wasn't sure what she was up to… He didn't want to be jealous of the Father, but… He didn't like that she was going to return and be in the presence of another man.
"When was the last time you let me hear your confession?"
"My gosh, too long. Would you? When I return?"
"Yes, I would be honored."
He wondered what the woman had to confess. She just went to confession on Saturday…
Later on before lunch, Parker thought she would try to get some laundry done. The hitter's door wasn't closed all the way, like he hadn't closed it until the mechanism in the doorknob clicked. She caught Eliot standing on his legs and trying to make his bed. He was using his cane in one hand and using the other to pull the sheets over the corners of the mattress. There he went again, trying to rush his recovery… She wondered if it might be time to start him working on standing on his legs with his physical therapy. It would be pushing his legs and knees with a lot more weight than ever before. So far, she'd only had him doing exercises laying down or sitting up. Parker wondered if having him walk short distances with her help, might help him build strength in his legs.
"You need help?"
"Dammit Parker, don't sneak up on me."
"I didn't sneak up; the door was cracked open."
"No, I don't need help. I'm almost done."
"You hungry yet?"
"Not really. Why, what did you have in mind?"
"I thought we could try something different for physical therapy this time, since you clearly want to be up on your feet."
"I'm tired of that damn chair… I know I can move, Parker."
"I won't say no, this time. But we're gonna start small and build. Hop in and I'll take you to the kitchen."
"Why would I want to go to the kitchen?"
"Just trust me, Sparky."
He gave her a look and then hobbled over to the chair; the bed supporting him on one side while his cane supported the other. She let go of the breath she was holding until he finally sat down in the wheelchair. Then Parker wheeled him into the kitchen and parked him next to the breakfast counter that was next to the refrigerator. She locked the wheels in place and put the foot rests up.
"Now, I want you to get up and take small steps with me to the other end of this counter. Then when we stop there before the back door, we'll turn and come back to the chair. Remember small steps. I don't care if you wanna shuffle, just go slow. Now Sparky, let's go for a walk."
Eliot was bored and he decided he had enough time before lunch to go in and change his sheets. There had been an extra set in the bottom drawer of his dresser. At least it was something he could do alone. It was one more thing Parker didn't have to do for him and would give him a sense of normalcy. He started by stripping down his bed on the left side of the bed. For a moment, he swore he heard his mother's ethereal voice in his ear telling him that making his bed was a way to make her happy. He smirked at the memory. He hated to make his bed because he was a teenager, but he did it to make his mother happy and to keep his dad from beating either one of them up after he drank. His father used to beat on his mother, and him, if the house wasn't clean to his standards. Once the bed was stripped, he put the fitted sheet on top of the bed. He used his body to lean against the bed while he used his arms to spread the fitted sheet the right way. Eliot managed to get the right two corners on the left side of the bed. Then he hobbled over to the right side, where his back was to the door. He was bent over pulling one of the corners down over the right top corner of the bed, remembering when his mother used to go around the house humming, 'Crazy,' by Patsy Cline when his dad was at work at the store, when he suddenly heard Parker's voice behind him. He nearly fell backwards from being startled.
The hitter barked at her because she still should have knocked even if the door was cracked open. She asked if he needed help, but he only had one corner left to put on. Putting on the top sheet was easy from there. Then she wanted to know if he was hungry… He wasn't starving, but he could eat something if something was made, by him or her. So he told her that he wasn't really hungry and then out of the blue, she wanted to try something new with his physical therapy… He didn't know if he was going to like her idea… But if it got him out of the wheelchair for a while, he might be persuaded to give whatever she had in mind a try. And the first thing she told him to do… Was to get back in the wheelchair. Dammit… He had to trust her that she had a good plan for getting him out of the wheelchair for a while. And she took him into the kitchen, locked his chair in place, and up the foot rests went…
'What next,' he thought…
Parker told him that she wanted him to get up and walk to the other end of the counter. Then turn around and come back, but with slow and small steps… It seemed like a good idea at first, but suddenly it felt like his flesh and bones didn't want to comply. He wasn't that tired… But for her he had to try or she would be sad, and sad on Parker's face wasn't pretty. Eliot stood and he looked like he was going down as his left hand couldn't steady his cane. Suddenly, Parker glued her right side to his left. She put his left arm around her shoulders and her right hand had a grip on his right hip; no more cane. His right hand and arm in the soft cast rested on the tiled counter; his fingers gently guided his hand along the tile. She let him take one shuffled step on the right and then he shuffled the left, once broken leg. All the while, she held onto him, encouraged him after each shuffle of his feet. He felt the strength in her arms as she held onto him and he prayed he wouldn't fall. Twenty, agonizingly painful filled steps later and they'd made it to the end of the counter.
"Good job… Slow and steady… Ready to turn around, Sparky?"
Eliot didn't want to admit he needed help. Hell, he was ready to sit back down in that damn wheelchair again, and have her go find him two of those white pills she left for him earlier… But then he remembered that he hadn't eaten yet and those kinds of pills on an empty stomach was not a good idea.
"Ready as I'm ever gonna be."
So Parker turned him around so that she was next to the counter. He didn't get why she was there instead of him.
"Parker, we're a little backwards…"
Abruptly, she wrapped her arms around his waist, and ducked her head out from under his shoulder. Eliot wasn't sure what she was up to… But then he felt her body as it slid against his backside; especially her breasts… He felt something like electric shocks go up his spine and then she was there under his right arm…
"See? All set, Sparky. Last few steps and then we'll eat, promise…"
Eliot didn't know where he found the strength to deal with the pain, but he made it those twenty steps back to his chair. He carefully sat back down in the wheelchair and she took care of the foot rests so that he could rest his legs.
"You did great… I know it wasn't easy, but it will get better…" she encouraged him again.
"Thanks."
'Oh my Goddess… He pushed himself harder than he should have,' Parker thought as she set about getting him something to relieve his pain.
She brought him a glass of water and two pills. He took the glass of water and she put the pills in his hand. The blond thief's eyes told him to go on and take them, because he'd earned them. Then she turned away and went to the refrigerator. Several times it felt like Eliot was going to fall so she made sure she held on tighter when he was about to put his weight on each foot as he shuffled another step. Parker figured that later after dinner she'd just have him do some stretching exercises, something easy since he did his hardest work that afternoon. After lunch she planned to massage his legs, this time just to his mid- thigh and no higher. She didn't want him to feel uneasy if she went higher than that. The blond thief reminded herself that they were just friends. Mid-thigh seemed like the right place to stop for just being friends. She made Eliot one of her, 'Monster,' sandwiches and she couldn't find anything that appealed to her appetite, so she just munched on some Golden Grahams.