Chapter 45

Riley was laying on the physical therapist's bed with Lucas on her right and Cory on her left. She really wished neither of were was there, a PCL injury wasn't as bad as her previous one, but still she had no idea what to expect, if these stretches were going to hurt or if she could take them like a champ. "Sorry I decided to do early therapy, I forgot we were out of school."

"It's alright honey, I think you just were wanting to skip my class." She laughed when there was a knock on the door.

"Riley Matthews?"

"Guilty." The therapist looked towards the paperwork and back up at her.

"I'm Melody. How is your knee?" Her brown eyes glanced at the brace.

"I don't know, I haven't really used it." Melody started taking off the brace, slowly, to prevent her from being in pain.

"Can you put any weight on it?"

"Yeah, I haven't used crutches in almost 2 weeks." The brace was off and she didn't recognize her leg. It was so tight that it left impressions on her knee, and her normal muscular leg looked scrawny. "Ew." Lucas started laughing and held her hand. "So is, are the stretches as bad as an ACL?"

"No, since the injury is on the back of the knee, you do more straight leg flexing, and stair stepping." Riley didn't like where this was going, those were everyday activities but, she hadn't bent her knee in so long. "You ready to get started?"

"No." Lucas tried to hide his laughter.

"Fantastic. This way."

"Wait! I'm walking out there, no brace?"

"Well, you can have some help. I'm sure one of these strapping men can help you but, it's a nice warm up before we start stretching. I'll meet you out front." Riley blew a raspberry when Lucas helped her off of the table. The brunette put her weight on the uninjured leg and took a step with her right, almost collapsing to the floor.

"I got you baby." Lucas was of course right beside her, supporting her every step of the way. Like he had always done. Riley smirked and tried to take another step. It was more successful than the last, she took more weight off of Lucas and bent her knee again. "Go easy honey."

"I can do it." His green eyes rolled. Typical Riley, no one can see her in pain, or struggling. Ten minutes later Riley was on the floor up front, stair stepping and doing leg raises while flexing her thigh. She'd do wall squats with a ball and use the wobble board, her knee was in serious pain at the beginning and eventually just became exhausted. Now that her knee was tired the therapist was constantly correcting her on how to do the excercises. "I feel like this has been longer than an hour." Melody looked at her watch after the cheerleaders statement.

"Oh, you're right. Let's go back to the room." The brunette was a little ticked, how did she not know it had been over an hour? "Alright, you did a pretty good job Riley. Congratulations 1 down and 4 to go. Do you have a fabric knee brace?" Riley slowly nodded, her knee was on fire. "Use that, when you don't have this one on. Wear this for 4 hours a day, and take off an hour each day. So tomorrow 3 hours, and by the last day of our therapy you will be weened off of this brace and walking on your own with the other one. Keep it tight." Riley signed a few pieces of paper indicating she showed up and put the brace back on. Her knee needed a break.

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"Riley!" She had on her metal brace and clocked in. The brunette ended up picking up her strong medication from the pharmacy. Lucas was right beside her, as usual, any other time in her life she'd make fun of the fact he never left her side, but her heart enjoyed him being around.

"Hey Adam." Riley mumbled.

"Let's walk and talk. If you want to go into my office that'd be great." She limped into Adam's office after winking at her boy toy. The brown eyed girl didn't know why he wanted to talk to her. Everything went really well this last weekend, they didn't go to the parties that other stores threw, they all showed up 10 minutes before they were supposed to, and suprisingly the brunette wasn't sarcastic with the managers. "Hello Ms. Matthews."

"What can I do ya' for?" She smiled genuinely.

Adam cocked his head to the side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah why?" He took a seat in his big leather chair.

"You look exhausted. Like too exhausted to even try and be sarcastic." She chuckled lightly and rubbed her makeupless face.

"I had physical therapy this morning and then I took some Tylenol 3 that was prescribed. Apparently strong medication makes you sleepy."

"You could've called in. I would've written it off as excused because of the doctor."

She yawned before stumbling over her words, "thanks, I appreciate that. But, Thanksgiving is in 3 days y'all need the help." He smiled. "So, what did you need?"

"This last weekend." Her facial expression didn't change. "I heard great things from both the manager and hotel staff. Unlike some of the other store managers."

"Great, i'm glad we could help."

"So, to thank you we're giving y'all Wednesday off." Riley's face lit up. She'd have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday off.

"Thanks Adam, you have no idea how much I need that."

"Now, go tell the others. If you need to leave early let me know. Register 15 please." The brunette smirked and limped outside.

"Hey beautiful." Of course he was waiting. "What'd he say?"

"We have Wednesday off. All of us do. Can you tell Josh and Maya?" He was a little taken back, he was expecting sarcasm.

"Of course. That's great sweetheart. You just have today and tomorrow, and you can relax all day." She smiled and walked to her register. The running back watched her limp away, wanting to take away her pain, and rid her of the exhaustion that was written all over her face.

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Riley pulled up to her house and put the car in park. She stayed seated in her parents car and closed her eyes for a few minutes before she got out. "Hey mom." The keys landed in the bowl as the door slammed.

"Hey, how was work?" She looked up from her laptop and smiled.

"Busy. It made the day go by fast, but i'm going to take a bath and lay down." Topanga smiled and watched her daughter leave the living room. Riley opened her door, and the room was lit up with candles and there were a bouquet of roses laying on her bed. Riley's mouth was open but her hand covered it up. She turned into her bathroom and he was sitting on the edge of the tub, that was filled with bubbles. Her stereo was on, playing easy country music.

"Hey beautiful girl."

"Hi. What is all of this?" The running back stood up and sauntered towards her.

"You're going to relax. I can see how exhausted you are. So, enjoy all of this." He kissed her lips. "I found someone to cover your shift tomorrow, Adam approved it. So you're going to have the rest of the week off. Pizza will be here soon." He kissed her again. Riley wiped a tear away and smiled.

"I love you." Her arms wrapped around him and he squeezed her tight.

"I love you sweetheart." He clutched her hands and kissed them. "Call me before you go to bed." He was fixing to leave when she stopped him.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I was going to let you go to bed early." She smirked and held his hand. He was so sweet, always and constantly surprised her.

"I don't want you to go." Lucas loved hearing those words, she was sleepy but he knew she meant it. "Stay."

"What about your bath?"

"I hate to say this but, i'll skip it. I love all of this, it's amazing. But, I don't want you to leave." Her arms were around his waist again, and Lucas felt butterflies in his stomach.

"I'll stay." He kissed her head. "Why don't you get dressed and i'll meet you out in the living room." Lucas lifted her chin and started kissing her. "Massage?"

"That sounds amazeballs." He chuckled and left her alone. "I'm so lucky." She whispered.

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"She asked you to stay didn't she?" Topanga laughed.

"Yeah, she did." The running back put a DVD into the player and started making some popcorn. "I couldn't say no."

"Well, i'll leave you two alone. Thank you for everything you've done for her." Topanga hugged him. "Midnight."

"Yes m'am." Riley entered the living room, she had on the fabric brace and she looked beautiful. Her hair was out of the messy bun and landing right above her chest. "Hey beautiful girl." Lucas took the ice cream out of the fridge and his popcorn out of the microwave. He pressed a button on the remote and her favorite movie started to play.

"Steel Magnolias? You spoil me." The green eyed man stood behind her and gently moved her hair out of the way. "Mmm." He looked down and saw the small freckle that he loved to kiss, because for whatever reason it made her giggle. The brunette cracked up laughing and pushed his lips off of her. "Come sit down, I don't trust you back there."

His gorgeous smile, made Riley's stomach flip. "Hey babe, can I talk to you?"

"Sure. About what?" She paused the movie and laid her legs across his lap.

"Remember how I was teasing you about what you said the other night when you were sleeping and I carried you to bed?" She nodded her head. "Well, I didn't tell you everything that you said."

"Oh God." She covered her eyes. "What'd I say? Did I embarrass myself?" She started to laugh.

"Not not quite. You did mention however, about being a wife." Her eyes widened. "I'm not saying this to scare you. I just, I never really pictured-"

"Me talking about marriage?" She didn't know if that should bother her or not but, considering her past demeanor she didn't expect much else.

"Yeah. Please don't take that the wrong way. I don't want to-" His green eyes were pleading with her to not freak out, which made her love him more.

"No don't worry about it. You're right, a few months ago I didn't even want to get married. I always said it's just a piece of paper."

"So, you don't want to get married?" The running back massaged her feet. Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best.

"Can't say I haven't thought about it." She held a mischevious smirk. "Who knows maybe i'm growing up?"

"Who do you see as your husband, when you think about it?" He bit his lip and kept staring at her feet while she peruzzed her mind.

"Hmm, Ryan Guzman." He started tickling her feet. "I'm kidding."

"I'm not." Riley looked at him and smiled. "Who do you see as your husband?" Lucas subconsciously knew that it was him but, needed to hear it from her.

"I think it goes without saying." She smiled, and he felt like his heart exploded in his chest.

"Okay, we can get back to your movie." Her jaw dropped as he tried to snatch the remote away.

"Uh uh, you aren't getting off that easily. Your turn." His green eyes seemed confused. "Do you want to get married?"

"Yes, and be surrounded with thousands of children." He laughed.

"Who do you see?"

"I think it goes without saying." She rolled her eyes.

"Don't try to get on my good side. I no longer have one." Riley smiled and pressed play on the remote.

Don't try to get on my good side, Truvy, I no longer have one.

Lucas laughed and blew her a kiss. "I don't get why you love this movie so much. It's sad."

"Ouiser, is like my idol." He raised his brows. "Not entirely, but to an extent and Shelby is also someone I admire. Complete opposites, the best of both worlds."

"What do you admire about Shelby? I understand Ouiser." She giggled.

"She put her life at risk for the sake of a child. I mean very few people would do that."

"I hope you never have to. But, I understand the sentiment." He kissed her hand and grinned at her. He continued to fall in love with her more and more, by every little thing she unknowingly did.

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Thanks for reading. Please follow, favorite and review. This chapter was a little tedious, but important for their relationship.

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