Disclaimer: I don't own 'em...you know the rest.
Spoilers: Pilot
By: A Fan
Title: Someone to Watch Over
Chapter 2: Small Miracles
Just as Max was about to race over to Logan's she heard Bling coming into the apartment.
"..forgot the list...." Bling stopped short as he saw Logan collapsed on the floor.
"Oh God... Logan... I'm so sorry.... I shouldn't have left you alone." Bling choked out the words. His voice was thick with concern. He raced over and bent down to help Logan but was pushed away.
"Leave me alone! I can do it myself!" Bling was so shocked that he just stood back and stared. Logan was lying face down on the floor. He was obviously exhausted but with every bit of strength he had left he pushed himself up. He then reached up to the edge of the couch and grasping and pulling he somehow managed to twist himself into a seated position on the floor. His whole body was shaking from the effort yet he looked up at Bling defiantly.
"You pull a stunt like that again and I'll kill you!" Bling was furious when he realized what Logan had been trying to do. But despite his shock and anger, Max could hear an underlying note of relief in his voice. He dropped down on the floor beside Logan and held his head in his hands in exasperation.
"We start tomorrow." It was a simple statement.
"What?" Logan wasn't quite sure what he heard.
"You're ready." Bling was serious.
"What about the two weeks?" Logan still couldn't believe it.
"Close enough. Besides if I don't teach you how to do this soon I'm going to be scraping your sorry body off the floor of this apartment every day." Bling smiled. "We start tomorrow. 10 am. Now, do you want to get on the couch or are you going to sit there all day?"
For once Logan accepted his help without protest.
"Gotta Bounce!" Max said to herself. She was ready to get out of there. This guy was going to give her a freaking heart attack.
---------------------------------------
"I'm gonna get fired. There's no way Normal's gonna keep accepting the stupid excuses I've been giving him each time I blow off work. I don't need to see this. It's just a rehab session. There's gonna be hundreds just like this. They're gonna lift some weights, do a few sit-ups, work on some flexibility. Logan's gonna pressure Bling to do more. Bling's gonna preach to him about patience and takin' it slow. You'd think I'd know these guys by now. I don't need to be here."
It was 9:50 am the next morning. Max was back on the roof waiting for Bling to finish setting up his training table and halfheartedly trying to convince herself to leave.
"Don't kid yourself Max." She said out loud. "You wouldn't miss this for the world."
Then Bling's voice cut through the air. "Logan this is the program. We will start with a short warmup. One or too lengths across the living room, taking it slow should do it. Then we'll get you onto the table to work on muscular endurance. We'll focus mainly on chest and upper arms, the pectoralis muscles and the triceps. We'll also work on your back muscles, the lattisimus dorsi and trapezius, and on abdominals for balance and stability. Then we'll finish with some flexibility and range of motion work. In a couple of weeks or so we'll add some more intense strength training. Once you've built up some strength and endurance in your upper body you can start covering longer distances in the chair to get your heart rate up and give you some cardiovascular training. But for now we are going to focus on strength and endurance. The program today should take about an hour."
"An hour! That's it?" Logan's patience was already tested and they hadn't even started yet. Max almost laughed.
"It'll be enough." Bling was matter of fact. "Let's get started."
Bling cleared the obstacles from the centre of the room and had Logan push himself to the windows and back. Logan took off with an intense ferocity.
"Wo!! Slow down!!. This is supposed to be a warm up not a blow out!" It took all of Bling's effort to get Logan to slow down and pace himself.
"Get with the program Logan!" Max shouted at him from across the street. This guy was so predictable but she couldn't help admiring his tenacity.
Bling then helped Logan onto the exercise table. Throughout the whole session Bling kept up a running commentary.
"Logan, we will begin by working the abdominal muscles." Bling had Logan lie on his back on the table. "I'm going to move to the side of the table so I can support your legs as we work." Bling bent Logan's legs and placed his feet flat on the bench. He then placed one hand over Logan's knees to support them in place. "This position will put less strain on your lower back and also help you to isolate your abs. Your injury is at vertebrae T8 in the mid thorasic region, your mid back, so you have relatively good abdominal control. These muscles are the key to providing balance and stability for everything else that we will do so we will begin here." Max could see that Logan was intensely focused on everything Bling was saying. "Today we will focus on simple contractions. At this point our goal is not to fatigue your abdominals but to increase your awareness of how they function. In the next few weeks we will progress to more advanced exercises as you regain strength in this area."
"Logan, I'm going to place my hand on your stomach. Can you feel that?" At Logan's nod Bling continued. "I want you to contract the muscles under my hand then relax them. Good, that was a strong contraction." Bling smiled at Logan and continued again. "Let's do that one more time. This time breathe out when you contract and breathe in when you relax. Good. Now hold the contraction for a count of two and relax for a count of two. Okay. Let's do a few more like that." Bling continued to guide Logan through the exercise. "Excellent job. That's enough repetitions for today." Bling finished with another smile. "We want to reserve some of your strength for the remaining exercises. You will find that you will be using your abdominals to stabilize every exercise that we do today so we don't want to overdo it now."
"Let's move on to some upper body work." Bling released Logan's legs. "I am going to move to the head of the table to spot you during the bench press. While we work through the exercise I want you to exhale on exertion the same way you did with the abdominal contractions. I also want you to remember to keep your abs engaged throughout the exercise. This will provide support for your lower back." Bling moved to the head of the table then placed a couple of light dumbbells in Logan's hands. "Now push straight up to the ceiling for a count of two and lower for a count of two. Good. Let's do it again." Bling spotted Logan just above the elbows as they worked through several repetitions.
Bling then helped Logan sit up and they worked through a few more exercises in a similar manner. With each exercise Bling described the muscle group being targeted and explained how the exercise would strengthen the muscle. Cool! An anatomy and physiology lesson all wrapped up in one, thought Max. She was impressed with Bling's skill and fascinated by the knowledge that he shared so easily. After about thirty minutes Logan was noticeably tiring. As he strained to complete the last couple of repetitions Max could hear his laboured breathing.
"Excellent work Logan." Logan seemed encouraged by Bling's comments. "Now I want you to relax as we work on your flexibility. We'll start with the upper body first and stretch the muscles you worked today. I want you to breath regularly as we move into and hold each position." As Bling worked Max could see Logan relax into the stretches. "Okay, now we will work on the range of motion in your hips, knees and ankles. Even though you can't feel it right now I want you to think relaxed and free. This is one of the most important things we will do each day even if we do nothing else. We need to maintain the elasticity in your leg muscles and to keep the synovial fluid moving in your joints. This is essential for you to be able to walk again." Bling said it so calmly and matter-of-factly there appeared to be no question in his mind that Logan would walk again.
Bling's comment took both Max and Logan by surprise. Logan looked at Bling with shock in his eyes but only saw Bling's steady gaze in return. Max could see the seed of hope was planted in Logan's heart and, she couldn't deny it, in her heart too.
"Bling, you'd better not be messin' with this guy or I'll kick your ass." After seeing in what bad shape Logan came home from the hospital Max had almost given up on the idea of his walking. Now she wasn't so sure. But to protect both Logan and herself she didn't quite want to believe it. She instinctively new how devastated Logan would be if it didn't come true and wanted to protect him from any more heartache. "Girl you are way too involved with this guy" she accused herself.
"Logan, I've got something for you." Bling's voice drew Max back into what was happening across the street. "Let's move over by the couch." He helped Logan back into his chair and pushed him over to the couch. He then went into his room and brought out a short flat board. It was about three feet long with rounded ends. The wider end was about a foot and a half across and the narrow end was about six inches across.
"What's that? It looks like a mutant surfboard." Logan's curiosity was piqued.
"Close. It's called a slide board. It'll be a few more weeks before you build up the strength to do chair transfers easily by yourself, but you can use this to help you right away. I think you are strong enough to use it now."
"How does it work?" Logan was cautious but also hopeful that he might be able to have some more freedom.
"Align your chair sideways to the couch." Bling explained the slide board's use as he helped Logan to try it out for the first time. "Place your feet on the floor and move the pedals out of the way. Now place the wide end of the board under your hip and place the narrow end on the couch. Since you can't feel it under there you must always do a visual double check to make sure that it's tucked far enough under your hip to be stable. Now lean forward and with your hands on the board just pull yourself forward. The board will support your bodyweight. That's it! You did it. Now try it going back to the chair."
"Can we try it again?" Max could hear the excitement in Logan's voice.
"Sure as many times as you want." With each attempt Logan's smile grew and so did Max's. It was almost like a miracle.
"Can I try it in the bedroom?"
"Sure" Bling got up to go with Logan.
"I really want to try this by myself." Logan pleaded. "If you hear a crash you can come and scrape me off the floor."
"Okay... just don't rush it." Bling was reluctant but he also wanted Logan to enjoy his newfound independence.
A few minutes later Logan rolled back into the living room with a schoolboy grin on his face. As he tried the board a few more times he looked like he had been given the best gift a kid could ever want. His smile was so infectious that Max couldn't help grinning from ear to ear as well.
Suddenly Logan became very serious and looked down silently at his legs. After several minutes he looked up at Bling with tears in his eyes. A look of intense gratitude was written all over Logan's face.
"Thanks, Bling. You don't know how much this means to me..." Logan couldn't say anything more.
"Don't mention it man." Bling placed a comforting hand on Logan's shoulder.
Max stood on the roof a long time after Bling and Logan had moved into the kitchen out of her view. The intensity of the moment left an indelible mark on her. Max had never seen Logan cry even through all he had been through. Yet he was crying now. Here was this guy that through his family had all the money and power that anyone could want. But at this moment the most precious thing to him was the simple ability to move from his chair to his couch by himself. Max awkwardly wiped the unexpected tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand as she contemplated what Logan had lost to bring him to this day. Yet at the same time she gained a new appreciation for the simple things in life and the small miracles that sometimes make them possible. The scene continued to play in her head long after she had climbed off the roof and biked back to Jam Pony for an afternoon of delivering packages.
A/N: Not a lot of "action" in the usual sense. But hopefully it moved you in a different way. Let me know how you felt reading it.
There will be more to come in a few days.
Spoilers: Pilot
By: A Fan
Title: Someone to Watch Over
Chapter 2: Small Miracles
Just as Max was about to race over to Logan's she heard Bling coming into the apartment.
"..forgot the list...." Bling stopped short as he saw Logan collapsed on the floor.
"Oh God... Logan... I'm so sorry.... I shouldn't have left you alone." Bling choked out the words. His voice was thick with concern. He raced over and bent down to help Logan but was pushed away.
"Leave me alone! I can do it myself!" Bling was so shocked that he just stood back and stared. Logan was lying face down on the floor. He was obviously exhausted but with every bit of strength he had left he pushed himself up. He then reached up to the edge of the couch and grasping and pulling he somehow managed to twist himself into a seated position on the floor. His whole body was shaking from the effort yet he looked up at Bling defiantly.
"You pull a stunt like that again and I'll kill you!" Bling was furious when he realized what Logan had been trying to do. But despite his shock and anger, Max could hear an underlying note of relief in his voice. He dropped down on the floor beside Logan and held his head in his hands in exasperation.
"We start tomorrow." It was a simple statement.
"What?" Logan wasn't quite sure what he heard.
"You're ready." Bling was serious.
"What about the two weeks?" Logan still couldn't believe it.
"Close enough. Besides if I don't teach you how to do this soon I'm going to be scraping your sorry body off the floor of this apartment every day." Bling smiled. "We start tomorrow. 10 am. Now, do you want to get on the couch or are you going to sit there all day?"
For once Logan accepted his help without protest.
"Gotta Bounce!" Max said to herself. She was ready to get out of there. This guy was going to give her a freaking heart attack.
---------------------------------------
"I'm gonna get fired. There's no way Normal's gonna keep accepting the stupid excuses I've been giving him each time I blow off work. I don't need to see this. It's just a rehab session. There's gonna be hundreds just like this. They're gonna lift some weights, do a few sit-ups, work on some flexibility. Logan's gonna pressure Bling to do more. Bling's gonna preach to him about patience and takin' it slow. You'd think I'd know these guys by now. I don't need to be here."
It was 9:50 am the next morning. Max was back on the roof waiting for Bling to finish setting up his training table and halfheartedly trying to convince herself to leave.
"Don't kid yourself Max." She said out loud. "You wouldn't miss this for the world."
Then Bling's voice cut through the air. "Logan this is the program. We will start with a short warmup. One or too lengths across the living room, taking it slow should do it. Then we'll get you onto the table to work on muscular endurance. We'll focus mainly on chest and upper arms, the pectoralis muscles and the triceps. We'll also work on your back muscles, the lattisimus dorsi and trapezius, and on abdominals for balance and stability. Then we'll finish with some flexibility and range of motion work. In a couple of weeks or so we'll add some more intense strength training. Once you've built up some strength and endurance in your upper body you can start covering longer distances in the chair to get your heart rate up and give you some cardiovascular training. But for now we are going to focus on strength and endurance. The program today should take about an hour."
"An hour! That's it?" Logan's patience was already tested and they hadn't even started yet. Max almost laughed.
"It'll be enough." Bling was matter of fact. "Let's get started."
Bling cleared the obstacles from the centre of the room and had Logan push himself to the windows and back. Logan took off with an intense ferocity.
"Wo!! Slow down!!. This is supposed to be a warm up not a blow out!" It took all of Bling's effort to get Logan to slow down and pace himself.
"Get with the program Logan!" Max shouted at him from across the street. This guy was so predictable but she couldn't help admiring his tenacity.
Bling then helped Logan onto the exercise table. Throughout the whole session Bling kept up a running commentary.
"Logan, we will begin by working the abdominal muscles." Bling had Logan lie on his back on the table. "I'm going to move to the side of the table so I can support your legs as we work." Bling bent Logan's legs and placed his feet flat on the bench. He then placed one hand over Logan's knees to support them in place. "This position will put less strain on your lower back and also help you to isolate your abs. Your injury is at vertebrae T8 in the mid thorasic region, your mid back, so you have relatively good abdominal control. These muscles are the key to providing balance and stability for everything else that we will do so we will begin here." Max could see that Logan was intensely focused on everything Bling was saying. "Today we will focus on simple contractions. At this point our goal is not to fatigue your abdominals but to increase your awareness of how they function. In the next few weeks we will progress to more advanced exercises as you regain strength in this area."
"Logan, I'm going to place my hand on your stomach. Can you feel that?" At Logan's nod Bling continued. "I want you to contract the muscles under my hand then relax them. Good, that was a strong contraction." Bling smiled at Logan and continued again. "Let's do that one more time. This time breathe out when you contract and breathe in when you relax. Good. Now hold the contraction for a count of two and relax for a count of two. Okay. Let's do a few more like that." Bling continued to guide Logan through the exercise. "Excellent job. That's enough repetitions for today." Bling finished with another smile. "We want to reserve some of your strength for the remaining exercises. You will find that you will be using your abdominals to stabilize every exercise that we do today so we don't want to overdo it now."
"Let's move on to some upper body work." Bling released Logan's legs. "I am going to move to the head of the table to spot you during the bench press. While we work through the exercise I want you to exhale on exertion the same way you did with the abdominal contractions. I also want you to remember to keep your abs engaged throughout the exercise. This will provide support for your lower back." Bling moved to the head of the table then placed a couple of light dumbbells in Logan's hands. "Now push straight up to the ceiling for a count of two and lower for a count of two. Good. Let's do it again." Bling spotted Logan just above the elbows as they worked through several repetitions.
Bling then helped Logan sit up and they worked through a few more exercises in a similar manner. With each exercise Bling described the muscle group being targeted and explained how the exercise would strengthen the muscle. Cool! An anatomy and physiology lesson all wrapped up in one, thought Max. She was impressed with Bling's skill and fascinated by the knowledge that he shared so easily. After about thirty minutes Logan was noticeably tiring. As he strained to complete the last couple of repetitions Max could hear his laboured breathing.
"Excellent work Logan." Logan seemed encouraged by Bling's comments. "Now I want you to relax as we work on your flexibility. We'll start with the upper body first and stretch the muscles you worked today. I want you to breath regularly as we move into and hold each position." As Bling worked Max could see Logan relax into the stretches. "Okay, now we will work on the range of motion in your hips, knees and ankles. Even though you can't feel it right now I want you to think relaxed and free. This is one of the most important things we will do each day even if we do nothing else. We need to maintain the elasticity in your leg muscles and to keep the synovial fluid moving in your joints. This is essential for you to be able to walk again." Bling said it so calmly and matter-of-factly there appeared to be no question in his mind that Logan would walk again.
Bling's comment took both Max and Logan by surprise. Logan looked at Bling with shock in his eyes but only saw Bling's steady gaze in return. Max could see the seed of hope was planted in Logan's heart and, she couldn't deny it, in her heart too.
"Bling, you'd better not be messin' with this guy or I'll kick your ass." After seeing in what bad shape Logan came home from the hospital Max had almost given up on the idea of his walking. Now she wasn't so sure. But to protect both Logan and herself she didn't quite want to believe it. She instinctively new how devastated Logan would be if it didn't come true and wanted to protect him from any more heartache. "Girl you are way too involved with this guy" she accused herself.
"Logan, I've got something for you." Bling's voice drew Max back into what was happening across the street. "Let's move over by the couch." He helped Logan back into his chair and pushed him over to the couch. He then went into his room and brought out a short flat board. It was about three feet long with rounded ends. The wider end was about a foot and a half across and the narrow end was about six inches across.
"What's that? It looks like a mutant surfboard." Logan's curiosity was piqued.
"Close. It's called a slide board. It'll be a few more weeks before you build up the strength to do chair transfers easily by yourself, but you can use this to help you right away. I think you are strong enough to use it now."
"How does it work?" Logan was cautious but also hopeful that he might be able to have some more freedom.
"Align your chair sideways to the couch." Bling explained the slide board's use as he helped Logan to try it out for the first time. "Place your feet on the floor and move the pedals out of the way. Now place the wide end of the board under your hip and place the narrow end on the couch. Since you can't feel it under there you must always do a visual double check to make sure that it's tucked far enough under your hip to be stable. Now lean forward and with your hands on the board just pull yourself forward. The board will support your bodyweight. That's it! You did it. Now try it going back to the chair."
"Can we try it again?" Max could hear the excitement in Logan's voice.
"Sure as many times as you want." With each attempt Logan's smile grew and so did Max's. It was almost like a miracle.
"Can I try it in the bedroom?"
"Sure" Bling got up to go with Logan.
"I really want to try this by myself." Logan pleaded. "If you hear a crash you can come and scrape me off the floor."
"Okay... just don't rush it." Bling was reluctant but he also wanted Logan to enjoy his newfound independence.
A few minutes later Logan rolled back into the living room with a schoolboy grin on his face. As he tried the board a few more times he looked like he had been given the best gift a kid could ever want. His smile was so infectious that Max couldn't help grinning from ear to ear as well.
Suddenly Logan became very serious and looked down silently at his legs. After several minutes he looked up at Bling with tears in his eyes. A look of intense gratitude was written all over Logan's face.
"Thanks, Bling. You don't know how much this means to me..." Logan couldn't say anything more.
"Don't mention it man." Bling placed a comforting hand on Logan's shoulder.
Max stood on the roof a long time after Bling and Logan had moved into the kitchen out of her view. The intensity of the moment left an indelible mark on her. Max had never seen Logan cry even through all he had been through. Yet he was crying now. Here was this guy that through his family had all the money and power that anyone could want. But at this moment the most precious thing to him was the simple ability to move from his chair to his couch by himself. Max awkwardly wiped the unexpected tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand as she contemplated what Logan had lost to bring him to this day. Yet at the same time she gained a new appreciation for the simple things in life and the small miracles that sometimes make them possible. The scene continued to play in her head long after she had climbed off the roof and biked back to Jam Pony for an afternoon of delivering packages.
A/N: Not a lot of "action" in the usual sense. But hopefully it moved you in a different way. Let me know how you felt reading it.
There will be more to come in a few days.