"How does that feel?"

The brunette looked down at herself, her hands flexing towards the floor as she gazed up at her physio.

"I can literally almost touch the ground with my hands standing up," she replied with a rather unamused tone.

The physio, Mike, chuckled with his hands on his hips.

"That's the point," he replied gesturing down to the ends of Beca's stumps were 'stubbies' were screwed into place on her stump covers.

"Stubbies are a starting point to getting you up and moving, get your balance right. As you progress and become stronger and more cable, we'll work our way up to taller prosthetics and we'll keep going until you're walking at your full height."

Beca nodded her head. She guessed it made logical sense, it was just weird being upright but yet so low to the ground. Mike crouched down on his haunches, elbow resting on his knee with his fingers interlocked so that Beca was now looking down at him.

"The lower your centre of gravity the easier it's gonna be for you to work towards taking steps and walking. If you started out at full height prosthetics your body wouldn't be able to handle the amount of balance it takes to just be standing," Mike said.

Beca could see where he was coming from as he continued to explain.

"It's kind of like walking on stilts. Because they elevate you off the ground, they knock out your centre of gravity so it takes a bit of getting used to to figure out how to move without falling over. Prosthetics are the same. They may be your legs, but they're also artificial, so your brain doesn't have a direct line of communication. It needs time to learn to communicate so you get that natural flow again."

Beca heaved out a sigh. Even though she was fully committed to getting back on her feet, it was still a lot to take in. At times she did feel overwhelmed, especially when she realised that she couldn't just snap back to standing and walking like she used to.

Mike stood up and walked over to the far wall, picked up a walking frame and returned to where Beca was still examining her stubbies. He placed the walking frame in front of her and lowered it all the way down to her level.

"Okay, we're gonna start with some basic steps. Once you get the feel for walking on the stubbies, we'll start on getting into sitting down and standing up with the help of the environment around you. Sound good?" He asked.

Beca gripped the hand supports of the walking frame and adjusted her grip a couple of times, leaning herself back and forth a little to get a feel for where her balance was at and how the stubbies felt and reacted to her movements.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

After two hours of working with Mike, Beca had worked up quite the sweat. She hadn't been prepared for just how much upper body strength was needed to get around and she was consciously aware of the fact that she was still only beginning to regain the strength and muscle she once had in her arms.

Mike had helped her back into her wheelchair and removed the stubbies as Beca was greeted by Jesse who had stopped by for another visit.

With the former soldier living out of state, he only had a small window of time to catch up with Beca and he had been making the most of it before he had to return home to his family, visiting frequently and catching her up on how things have been.

"Well what do you know? Even with no legs you still manage to work up more of a sweat than me," he joked crossing his arms over his chest and smiling down at her. Beca rolled her eyes.

"It's also why I outranked you Swanson," Beca sassed as the man placed his hand over his chest feigning a hurt expression.

"Beca you wound me," he sighed before they both chuckled at his dumb joke. Before she knew what he was doing he moved behind her and began wheeling her out of the rehab room and down the hallway.

"I brought coffee and doughnuts. We're gonna get our sugar buzz on and fatten up those little chicken arms so they got some meat to work with in the gym."

"Gee thanks buddy. Really boosting my confidence and self esteem today aren't we," Beca shot back and Jesse patted her on the head.

"There's my favourite little troll. I knew that moody little princess was still in there."

Beca swatted his hand away as he rolled them down to the entertainment room where he had already set up a little corner for them to drink their coffee, eat their doughnuts and play some cards like they used to do back on their tours together.

He positioned Beca comfortably at the table and then handed her the caramel macchiato with cream and centred the box of doughnuts between them before taking a seat and pulling the deck of cards from the pack.

"So, gin rummy?" He asked as Beca took a bite out of one of the glazed doughnuts in her hand and shrugged her shoulder.

"Sure why not," she said placing the other half of the doughnut down on a napkin

After a couple of hours of card games and chit chat, the pair found themselves out in the garden wandering around. They had engaged a couple of other soldiers and found themselves all exchanging stories of past glories, battle scars and tour shenanigans that people outside the military could never understand.

It was weird but Beca found herself almost mournful of her military days. She knew she would never return, nor would she want to after everything that had happened, but she couldn't help but feel sad for the sense of comradeship she felt she would never experience again. Not like she used to.

There was something about being a soldier that was a unique experience in that so few ever really understood what that experience was like. Unless you had lived it, you couldn't understand it. In a way it was like being part of a secret club. One Beca was proud to be a member of even if the experiences weren't always ones she would like to remember.

Even in the depths of the desert, locked away and caged like wild animals, she still never lost that sense of honour that came with wearing the uniform. Even when she was being tortured relentlessly for hours, not once had she ever considered giving in.

Not when giving up that information meant putting the people she loved back home, the person she loved most, in danger.

Finally finding a bench that was vacant, Jesse took a seat as Beca parked her chair next to it, both of them people watching from their centralised view in the middle of the garden.

"So what's the deal with you and Chloe? Are you guys together or?" He asked as he swung an arm over the back of the bench angling his body towards Beca.

Beca hummed in thought as she herself contemplated their situation.

"It's complicated dude. I mean yeah we were engaged before I left but…. Dude that was two years ago. As much as I would love to be able to just snap my fingers and go back to how things were," Beca sighed.

Ever since she had been back, Chloe had been her rock, and the pair had been close, but in terms of intimacy and romance, it was like something was holding them back.

With Beca it was the obvious. She didn't want to commit herself fully to Chloe until she thought she was in a position to be able to be the partner she deserved and that meant Beca had to focus on getting better. She didn't want to be a burden or for Chloe to feel like she was a caretaker.

But with Chloe it was something else. Beca couldn't put her finger on it but she could feel Chloe holding back, especially the closer they got throughout her recovery. The redhead was still the amazing supportive, caring person she always had been in their relationship.

But there was a roadblock, one Beca was trying to figure out. Jesse scratched the scruff on his chin and shook his head.

"I dunno Bec's. I mean she's obviously still in love with you. Anyone with two eyes can see that. And, I mean I don't know if you've noticed, but that sparkler you got her has been sitting cute as a button on her ring finger. She obviously knows what she wants."

Beca nodded her head at that and then gazed down at her lap, fidgeting with her fingers as she mulled over what Jesse had said.

"Yeah, I guess. Still doesn't change the fact that there's two years of our lives that we missed. Theres like this big question mark hanging over us. And I'm not saying that it's one sided, hell there's a lot of things I'm not ready to talk to her about. I guess it just, it makes things tricky you know."

Jesse nodded, he could understand where his friend was coming from. Two years didn't seem like a lot, but without realising it, people can also change in that time. And both Beca and Chloe had been through hell in those two years. It was understandable that they were feeling a little lost.

"I get it," he replied as he pulled his arm down from the back of the bench and pressed his shoulder up agains it instead.

"But maybe that's something you guys should talk about. I mean if you both still want this thing, and you clearly do, maybe you guys need to acknowledge those lost years so you can move forward."

Beca tipped her head at this, because it was something she had discussed with her counsellor. That question mark was beginning to haunt Beca a little bit. She wanted Chloe, God did she want her.

But she knew they needed to acknowledging and put to bed that time they had lost, that had been stolen from them so that they could move forward and start rebuilding their lives. Because Beca wanted that, she wanted it more than anything. She just hoped the future they had originally planned together was still a possibility….