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Warring Hearts, Part 14

Jonathon flexed his left hand a little as he wrapped it. It was a week before David and Kellie's wedding. He was still going through therapy for his hand. He stopped for a moment and looked at the scars crisscrossing the top of it before continuing to wrap it. He slipped a glove over it and then the boxing glove. He wiggled his fingers a little, satisfied with their flexibility. They weren't close to what they used to be and technically, he wasn't supposed to be boxing either. But today was the European sector boxing championship and he would be damned if he was going to let his injury get in the way of him winning it for a fourth year in a row. He also knew he wasn't nearly as ready as he was supposed to be like he had been other years. "But I'll be damned if I'm going to let anything stop me," he muttered under his breath as he pulled on the other glove. He flexed his right hand. He brought his gloves together in a light punch. A slight twinge of pain coursed through his left hand. "Screw it," he said as he shook his head and walked towards the door.

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Leigh sat in the box with Ling. It belonged to the hospital. They were the only ones there. She leaned forward in her chair and looked down at the ring below. She felt strangely apprehensive since she knew that he would be competing for the title. He was the reigning champion and he had to defend it anyway. She glanced at Ling out of the corner of her eye. "Have you ever seen a match before?" she asked as she leaned back in her chair.

"Only last year. That was my first time. I was impressed by his skill and this year I want to see if he's able to keep his title for one more year," Ling replied as he patted the back of her hand. He soon twined his fingers with hers. "How many times have you seen Jonathon box?"

She swallowed a trifle nervously and wetted her lips. "Plenty of times. Since he started really. I grew up with him."

He nodded his head and looked back towards the ring.

"But he shouldn't be doing this. He injured his left hand. Doctor Cantrell didn't give him medical clearance," she said softly as she saw the crowd stand and cheer as Jonathon came out, followed by David and Chris.

"Couldn't you have stopped him? You're Doctor Cantrell's supervisor aren't you?"

"Yes, I could've stopped him, but telling him what to do is like talking to a brick wall. And even if she had come to me, it would be a moot point. He would've done it with or without medical clearance, which he is."

"He's the type that does what he likes, I suppose?"

"He's always been that way," Leigh murmured as she watched him get into the ring. She raised her eyes heavenwards for a moment. "God help him if he hurts his hand more."

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Sweat poured down his face as he leaned back in his corner. He flexed his left hand within the glove again. He hid the wince from his brothers as they gave him water and draped a towel around the back of his neck. "I totally miscalculated that last punch of his. He must have known I would use my left to block it out of reflex when he saw I was favoring it. Damn him!" His hand felt stiff and sore from the blow it received, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He flexed his fingers within the glove as the bell rang again. He stood up. "Samini is going to get it this time. I have to end it now with a knockout before he gets another shot at my hand again."

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Leigh sat forwards in her seat, her hands resting on the ledge in front of her. Her eyes were riveted on the ring below. She glanced behind her at the other doctors that had showed up to use the box. They were talking quietly and watching the match as well. She saw Jonathon take another blow with his left hand. "Dammit, he's going to break it," she muttered as she watched him shake it off. "Samini is deliberately going for his left hand. He must have figured out that Jonathon is favoring it."

Ling took a sip of his drink as he watched her. He had never seen her so interested in a sporting event before. He looked back at the ring. "Enjoying the fight sweetheart?"

She glanced at Ling out of the corner of her eye. "It's an interesting match because I know he's fighting with a handicap. He's doing very well considering he shouldn't be using his left hand like that yet. He'll pay for it later on," she replied as she watched Jonathon finally use a right cross, knocking Samini flat on his back. "That's the way," she said under her breath. She felt her blood tingle with excitement, knowing that Jonathon had won.

He smiled at her response and clapped loudly as the bell sounded, signaling the end of the match. "Well it looks like Jonathon won," he commented.

"Yeah, he won," Leigh said as she smiled widely. She then frowned a little as she recognized Morgan run towards the ring behind Randy. She watched as Randy hugged him. Then Morgan hugged him. He swung her around once before kissing her on the mouth. Her lips twitched a little. "So that's the way it is," she said softly.

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Jonathon put Morgan down and looked up at the boxes. He knew that Leigh would be here with Ling. He found her staring right back at him before she gave him a slight smile and turned towards Ling next to her. He felt a faint tug of jealousy. He looked over at Samini, who was still out cold. "You got away with it twice and I gave you a good going away present," he smirked as he raised his gloved hands in the air, making the crowd cheer loudly.

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Leigh walked down to the refreshment stands after the match. There were several going on today besides the European Sector championship. The youth division was on now. She did a double take as she noticed Jonathon walking off with a large bag of ice, resting it on his left hand. She frowned deeply and ran after him. "Jonathon," she called out. She noticed that he had since showered and changed into his green soccer shorts and a plain white tee shirt.

Jonathon turned to see her running towards him. He arched his brow at her. "What?"

She stopped in front of him. "How's your hand?" she asked as she nodded towards it.

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's fine," he lied.

"That's bull," Leigh snorted as she took the ice off of it. His hand was black and blue. "Good God Jonathon! Your hand is far from fine!"

"So?"

"So, you're going to permanently damage it if you keep this up! Does anyone know that you did this without medical clearance?"

"No."

"Does your mother know?"

"No."

Leigh pursed her lips. "Let me take a look at it."

"It's fine Leigh," Jonathon said as he pulled his hand away from her.

"I'll tell your mother if you don't," she threatened.

He blanched. "Fine," he sighed reluctantly as he started walking back towards the locker room he was in.

She followed him with a smirk on her face. She sat down on the bench as he closed the door behind her. "Now let me look at it," she ordered as he sat down in front of her.

"Yes Doctor Chang," he said as he rolled his eyes.

Leigh blatantly tugged on his fingers of his left hand, making him wince. "Cut with the sarcasm or else I'll really make them hurt."

"Yes ma'am," Jonathon replied sulkily as he watched her run her fingers over the back of his hand. His eyes wandered over her, taking note of everything. She was wearing a short black skirt with a fitted light blue blouse, showing off her slender figure and toned legs. His eyes went back up to her face. Tendrils of her hair caressed her rose tinted cheeks as she leaned forwards a little, while the rest of it was piled on the top of her head, held in place by black chopsticks.

She felt his eyes on her as she looked at his hand. She raised her eyes to his and found him watching her. "Does this hurt?" she asked as she pressed lightly on the back of his hand, along the scar in the center of his hand.

"A little."

Leigh ran her fingers over to the scar that sliced from his pinky down to his wrist. "How about this?"

He shook his head. "That hurts a little too," he admitted.

Leigh frowned as she pressed down on the other scars on his hand, noting that he winced a little. "You shouldn't have boxed at all. Doctor Cantrell shouldn't have let you."

"She told me not to, but it was my decision," Jonathon answered as he looked back down at his hand.

"If it had been me, I wouldn't have let you. I would have made damn sure that you didn't. You have such a hardhead Jonathon."

"And what would you have done Leigh?"

"I would have tied you to a chair and told you that you weren't boxing."

Jonathon snorted. "Like you could've stopped me."

Leigh's eyes narrowed slightly. "I would have." She twisted herself on her bench to get more comfortable.

"Leigh, why don't you just put your legs on either side of the bench. It would probably be more comfortable."

"I'm wearing a skirt."

"So I promise not to look. It's not like I haven't seen any of it before."

Her face flared with some color. "Fine," she said as she swung her leg over on the other side. It hiked her already short skirt up even more. She glared at him before looking back at his hand. "Stretch out your hand as flat as it can go."

Jonathon held up his left hand, extending his fingers out, flattening out his palm. He winced at the tightness.

"Just as I thought. You can't even do that," she said as she grasped his right hand. "Let me see your right hand."

He stretched out his right hand and held it up next to his left hand.

She assessed both of his hands with the critical eye of a physical therapist. "Your fingers are slightly bent still. I don't like this. I don't like this at all. You might have damaged this even more. How long were you training for this? I assume you didn't go in cold."

"Two months."

"Two months. You're surgery was at the end of December. Your rehabilitation was about three months, which would put the end of it, towards April. It's now June," she said as she examined his hand again. "Dammit Jonathon, you were training for this and you weren't even out of rehab yet!"

"So sue me. I wasn't going to miss this. I have a title to defend Leigh!"

"Not at the expense of your hand, you dope!" Leigh exclaimed with exasperation.

He didn't say anything, but scowled slightly at her. "So, what's the prognosis?"

She sighed and spread his fingers out, looking at them for a moment. "Back to rehab with you. And this time, no strenuous activity for it. You'll never have the same elasticity in your left hand any more. You damaged to many tendons and a lot of repair work was done to fix them. You shouldn't have boxed Jonathon. You set yourself back by pushing it."

"So, I can't box."

"Not for a long while. And if I catch you doing anything besides typing on a computer with your hand, I will have your hide," she said sternly as she lowered his hand between them.

"Yes doctor," he sighed as he looked at her hand holding onto his. Her hands looked so small compared to his. He raised his eyes to hers. "And how are you going to make sure that I don't do anything that I shouldn't?"

"I'll take over your therapy and make damn sure that you don't."

"You think you can handle me?" he teased.

"I know all your weak spots. I think I can handle you well enough," she teased back. "And since I'm here, I'll put you through some exercises," she said as she lifted his hand back up between them. She flattened his hand out against hers. "I want you to squeeze my hand as hard as you can."

"Ok," he replied as he let his fingers thread through hers. He tightened his grip on her hand, but he couldn't help but flinch a little.

"I know you can squeeze harder then that. Again."

Jonathon squeezed her hand again, harder this time.

"Good, that was better. A little harder this time."

"You know the last time you were telling me harder, it was for something a lot more fun then this," he said under his breath.

Color raced up Leigh's face. "Don't be crude Jonathon."

"I couldn't help myself," he smirked, noting the color in her cheeks.

"Hentai," she muttered as she gave him a reproachful look. She could see that mischievous look in his eyes. She knew he was flirting with her.

"It's so nice to know I can still make you blush."

"You're incorrigible," she commented, shaking her head. She slipped her fingers out of his. "Now I'm going to bend each of your fingers back towards you. I want you to resist the movement," she said as she started bending his fingers back towards him.

His mouth tightened as he resisted the movement. It hurt some.

Leigh frowned when she noticed that he was having trouble with his middle finger. "This was damaged the most, wasn't it?" she asked as she raised her eyes to his.

"More or less," he replied as he looked back at her.

Leigh scooted forwards a little, her knees coming to touch his. She spread his fingers flat again and moved his hand closer to her face. She ran her finger along the back of it. "This is really tight," she remarked.

"How?" Jonathon asked curiously as he leaned in to look.

"See, when this particular tendon was repaired, the surgeon had to reconnect everything to the bone. You sliced it pretty deep, ripping up many of the tendons that connect your middle finger to your index finger. He had to tighten them up when he reconnected them. And since you were so hell bent on competing, you didn't give it enough time to heal properly," she explained as she tapped her nail against the back of his hand. She looked up at him and not realizing how close his face was to hers, she pulled back, startled. Unfortunately for her, she was sitting on the edge of the bench. She fell back and grabbed onto his other hand out of reflex.

Jonathon didn't expect her to fall. He had been too interested in the way her lips were forming each word. He was pulled forwards on top of her and between her legs. He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked down at her. Her eyes had gone wide.

Leigh looked up at him. His eyes were a little wide as well. She could feel him pressing down on every inch of her body. Tiny shock waves were thundering through her body from the close contact. The closest they'd been in months. He was warm.

He watched her eyes widen even more. He could see his reflection in the ice blue depths. "Are you all right?" he asked quietly, fighting the urge to kiss her.

She nodded her head as she looked up at him. She stared up into the cobalt orbs above her. Her heart was pounding. "This feels so good and so right. Now, now Leigh, you can't have him. You're with Ling, remember? Jonathon is your past. You moved on."

Jonathon could see conflicting thoughts cloud her eyes for a moment. He didn't want to move. He liked himself just where he was. "You know, this is not new," he observed dryly.

"Jonathon!" Leigh's face turned a bright pink as she tried to move from under him. It was near impossible since he was lying on top of her. His hips pressing into hers.

"Can you not do that?" he asked as he gave her a look.

Her face heated up even more.

Jonathon pushed himself off of her, grasping her hands in his. He pulled her up with him. He reflexively smoothed his hands over her back. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No," she replied as she felt his hands run down her back to her hips. She dared to look up into his face. She blinked once.

His own heart was pounding against his ribs. "Damn I want to kiss her. I swore that I would let her go all those months ago, but she still has a hold on me. She looks so tempting." He lowered his head a little.

Leigh leaned forwards, her eyes sliding closed.

And just about the time his mouth was to touch hers, the door swung open.

They sprang apart immediately.

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" Chris asked as he noted the high color in Leigh's cheeks. He looked back at Jonathon, who was looking away.

"No, I was just leaving," Leigh said hastily as she turned on her heel. She looked back at Jonathon. "Apply ice to your hand and then wrap it," she instructed. She looked at Chris. "And I should smack you for letting him box in the first place."

Chris shrugged. "He does what he wants." He then smirked. "But I can see that you made it all better."

Leigh's cheeks flared with color again. She then glared at him. "If this gets out, I'll kick your ass," she said as she hurriedly left the room.

Jonathon watched her go. He didn't dare meet his brother's eyes as the door closed behind her. He sat back down on the bench and placed the ice back on his hand. "Don't you knock?"

Chris sat down on the end of the bench. "No, but I'm glad I didn't."

"Chris," Jonathon ground out as he looked up at him, eyes narrowed.

"Oh get over it Jonathon. You know I and I know that you're still in love with her. And I think she still loves you too," Chris remarked knowingly.

Jonathon scowled and took the ice off his hand. "What do you know?" he mumbled as he picked up the tape and started wrapping his hand.

"I know plenty," he replied shortly. "So what did she mean about your hand?"

"That I shouldn't have boxed today. She said I damaged it even more," Jonathon answered tightly as he continued to wrap his hand. "And that if mom saw it, she would have fit. My hand is black and blue from those two shots Samini gave me."

"Black and blue?" Chris repeated as he moved forwards. He took a look at Jonathon's hand. "Good God, Jonathon, she's right. You baka! You should've said something!"

"I wanted to finish the fight. I wasn't going to let pain get in my way," Jonathon retorted as he finished taping up his hand.

"Do you have shit for brains or something?"

"No more then you did when you started running on that knee of yours before you were ready to."

Chris's mouth tightened a little. "So what were you two doing before I interrupted?"

"Nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing. It looked like you were going to kiss her and she was going to oblige you by accepting it."

"It was nothing Chris," Jonathon gritted out.

"Yeah, I'll believe that when hell freezes over," Chris snorted.

"She saw me with an ice pack on my hand. She was looking at it and assessing the damage. It was all innocent."

"Innocent? Hardly. I saw you looking. That skirt of hers was short enough for you to take notice."

"Will you drop it Chris! It was nothing!" Jonathon snapped.

Chris smirked at his brother's irate expression. "All right. But you know I'm right," he said as he stood. "Come on, let's go."

"You better not say a word of this to anyone," Jonathon warned.

Chris nodded his head. "I won't tell anyone. Except my wife," he said as he opened the door. He looked over his shoulder at Jonathon. "I learned not to keep too many secrets from her. If I do, it's my ass on the couch. I don't like the couch."

"Fine, but no one else! I don't want Randy or David to find out. And I especially don't want mom and dad to know."

"Done," Chris said as he held it open for Jonathon as he followed him out.

Jonathon nodded his head stiffly. His bag was slung over his shoulder. He was resting the ice on his left hand again. "I just couldn't keep my hands off of her and now Chris knows. But at the same time, whom am I kidding? I'm still in love with her and he knows it. But there is no possible way that Leigh still loves me."

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Leigh pressed her palms against her face as she made her way back to the box. "What the hell was I thinking?" she asked herself. "I almost kissed him! Baka girl!" she berated as she opened the door to the box.

Ling looked up as the door opened. "I was wondering where you got to." He went over to her and pressed a kiss on her lips.

"I ran into Chris. I was talking to him," she lied as she gave him a faint smile.

"And how is he? It's been a while since I've seen him," he said as he led her back to their seats.

"He's fine. Busy as usual. His two kids take up a lot of his time," Leigh replied as she looked out at the crowd below.

"I guess that's expected. His kids are both quite young."

"Alex is eighteen months and Rhys is almost seven months. Alex looks like Victoria and Rhys is probably going to look like Chris."

Ling smiled. "And how about tonight? We still going out with everyone?"

"Yes, we're all going to The Crown. Kellie likes to dance and she wanted everyone together to have some fun," Leigh answered as she smiled at him.

"Can you dance?"

"A little, although I'm not quite as good as Randy, Veronica, Carin, and Kellie. Those four are the dancers in the group. Can you?"

"I'm not bad."

"That's good to hear."

"Will anyone else be bringing dates besides you?"

"I don't know. The couples within our group will be together, but I'm not sure about anyone else."

"Will Jonathon be bringing Morgan?" Ling asked curiously. "Since we saw him kiss her in the ring."

"I suppose," Leigh supplied as she hid her slight twinge of jealousy. "I wonder if he's really dating her again. It wouldn't surprise me. He's always with her. But at the same time, why would he try to kiss me if he was with her?"

A/N: This chapter is better, yes? Stay tuned for more coming soon! XOXO!