"I heard you met up with Heller last week," Sarah asked as she opened the window to let some air into the room.

"Who told you that?" Jack asked, suspicious, although he didn't know why he felt that way.

"Kim did," Sarah replied.

"Oh," Jack said, not knowing what else to say.

"How did it go?"

"What do you mean?" he said, sounding sharper than he intended to.

"I'm just making conversation," Sarah said defensively, "is that a crime?"

"No," Jack replied, bowing his head, "sorry."

"I'd prefer an explanation instead of an apology," she said, sitting herself down on a chair and folding her sleeves up.

Jack smirked, "we talked about things. He wants me to talk to Audrey."

"So you going to talk to her?"

"I don't know," Jack said, breathing heavily, "I mean, I don't want to make her feel any worse about the stuff that happened."

"What stuff?" Sarah asked.

"Lets just say that we parted on bad terms."

"How bad?"

"Very."

"You wanna expand on that, I'm a little in the dark here and I have no clue what you're talking about."

"It doesn't matter," Jack said softly, "I hurt her very badly. I don't want to walk back into her life after so long and reopen the wounds."

"How do you know the wounds have even closed yet? I mean, if you haven't seen each other since before you were taken, how do you know?"

Jack smiled softly, "I don't."

"Do you think that maybe, you ought to find out?"

"Maybe," Jack said, "I don't know. I might give Heller another call when I've thought some more abut it."

"Well until you do, lets get onto it. I ain't getting paid to talk to you all day. We can't have you on those things forever," she said, pointing to the crutches propped up against the wall.

Jack nodded his head and smiled, but their was still sadness and worry floating through his eyes as he did so. Sarah wasn't fooled, she didn't want to make things worse for him so she stayed quiet throughout the remainder of their session.

Four weeks later.

"Jack what are you doing?"

Jack looked down from the newspaper he was studying at the table to see Angela peering up at him. "I'm reading?"

"Okay," she said, "can I read with you?"

"Um… This is reading for grown ups, I don't know if you could read it," Jack said, struggling to think up a suitable answer.

"Can I read one of my books?"

Jack nodded his head, "of course you can."

She stood on her tip toes and looked at the paper Jack was reading. "That looks boring, my books have pictures, you can borrow one if you want."

"No thank you," Jack said, "I like reading the boring ones, but its very kind of you to offer," he added.

Angela looked at him strangely, "okay, then, but will you come upstairs with me to help me pick one?"

Jack nodded his head again, smiling more broadly, "sure he said," and he got up and grabbed the cain and leant on it lightly. As they reached the stairs Jack let go of Angela's hand and smiled at her cheekily, "I'll race you!"

Sarah's smile was infectious, though Jack had plenty of reason to smile without it. "How do you feel?"

Jack took another hesitant step, without the use of the cane he had been using of lately, one hand gently touching the wall for support as he kept his balance. "Good," he said, "it feels good."

"Great," Sarah said, before leading him back to the bed where he sat down, slightly disappointed. "But we don't want to overdo it at once, you still need the cane, we're just gonna have to reduce the dependency on it, as we did with the crutches until eventually you wont be needing it at all."

"What's the time frame?"

"I'd say another month, tops, and you'll be getting around just fine."

"That's excellent," Jack said as he leant over to massage the back of his knee slightly.

"Now, time to be honest Jack, did it hurt? Please don't lie to me…"

Jack smirked slightly, "a little. Just a little. A twinge at best."

"That's to be expected. The more you practice, the easier it will get."