Sorry it took me so long to update this. I kept rewriting this chapter and even now I'm not to sure if it's as good as it could be... Please let me know what you think :) And I'll do my best to not take so long for the next chapter!

Also, my knowledge of Artie's condition and it's variations is limited to Google basically, so forgive me if I get any of my fact's wrong.

Tina pulled off her (his) sweater as soon as she stepped outside the building. It was unbearably hot outside, but her dad's office building always had the air-conditioner on about 20 degrees, so she made sure to bring extra warmth. She had worked all through lunch so he let her off for the day. She was coming back tomorrow anyway.

Cramming the sweater into her bag, she pulled out her phone, pressed a button and held it to her ear.

"Hey girl, how are you?" Mercedes said as soon as she picked up.

Tina smiled, "Hey M, I just got out of work. Wanna meet up?"

"Yup. We're at the mall, meet us at the pretzel stand?" Mercedes said, and Tina heard someone laugh excitedly.

She hung up and stared at her screen for a moment, a smile spreading across her lips, before she pressed the speed dial.

It rang twice, before: "Yo, this is Artie. Leave a message and I'll get back to ya. Holler!"

She giggled as at his attempt to be anything less than nerdy. "Hey, it's me. Just finished, and am meeting up with Mercedes and Kurt. I'll try again before dinner. Miss you."

Closing her phone she made her way towards the mall, which was, luckily, only five minutes away.

She found Mercedes, Kurt, and a very not-pregnant Quinn standing near the pretzel stand. She smiled widely and tried not to look too surprised as she gave them each a hug.

Quinn laughed and she knew she'd failed, "Mercedes brought me shopping since I'm finally able to fit into something other than tents and track pants."

"If I'd known we were going to spend that long in Forever 21, I probably wouldn't have bothered coming," Kurt said, from behind Mercedes.

Mercedes laughed, "We spent long enough on the men's floor of Macy's, so stop complaining!"

He just rolled his eyes and mumbled something about the integrity of fashion.

Chuckling, Tina glanced at their many shopping bags and decided they had spent long enough in the mall, period.

"Can we please get some pretzels now? I'm starving!" Quinn suddenly burst out and Mercedes doubled over laughing, dropping one of her bags.

"Looks like baby mama's cravings haven't died down just yet."

Quinn shot her a playful glare and they all moved to stand in line for some snacks. Tina realised she was famished herself, not having eaten since breakfast.

"Tina," she turned around to the sound of Quinn's voice behind her, "Where's Artie?" She looked around as if he'd be hiding somewhere.

"He's away on some physiotherapy camp thing. For a month," She shrugged, trying not to show how not-okay she was with the whole thing. Nearly immediately though, Kurt's hand flew up to her shoulder.

"Oh," Quinn said apologetically, "I know he really misses you." Tina shrugged again. Not as much as she missed him, she thought.

Artie wheeled himself back into his room, exhausted and sore already. It had only been one afternoon, but he could already imagine what the rest of the month would be like. He couldn't rally complain though, he knew this could help him in the long run.

He pulled himself onto the bed and reached across to the bedside table to grab his phone. He left it in the room because he knew he wouldn't get a chance to use it during the exercises. Seeing one missed call he smiled, knowing exactly who it was. There weren't any other options. His mom knew enough about this place to know he wouldn't be free till after dinner and really, who else would call him.

He pulled out his laptop, hoping she was online and excited to see her face. He turned it on and was waiting for it to load when he heard a knock at his door. Looking up he saw a guy around his age at the doorway.

"Hey, Artie, right?" he asked,

"Yup," Artie nodded and motioned for the guy to come in. He wheeled in slowly, and stopped a few feet from the bed.

"My room's next door. I'm Sean, Sean Hedley. I was going to come say hi before, but I had to go to the pool."

"Yeah, I'm starting the pool next week. How's it going?"

"Good. They have this hot new physio! Dude, you're gonna love her!" Sean said, his eyes lighting up at the thought. Artie laughed, he was pretty sure Sean had him mistaken with someone like Puck and he didn't even know that was possible.

"So what's your deal?" Sean changed topics suddenly. It was a vague question, but Artie knew what he was getting at.

"L3, car crash. 7 years now." Artie answered. It was standard short form; he learnt it from years in chat rooms for people like him. There was no need to sugar coat it, or make it sound better than it is. "You?"

"T6, playground accident. 5 years," Sean shrugged, "You're lucky."

Normally Artie would've either laughed or screamed at someone who don't him he was lucky. But here, were he saw people that were so much worse off than he was. Even Sean, Artie was pretty sure he wasn't able to sit up without a backrest. His own injury was pretty low, giving him quite a lot of movement in his torso and upper body. He knew Sean probably wouldn't even be able to do the type of dancing he did for Glee club. So yeah, he could go with lucky.

"How long are you here for?" Artie found himself asking, hoping, selfishly, that he wasn't leaving too soon. He could use a friend in here.

Sean pulled his T-shirt down a little bit, before answering, "Another two weeks, I've already been here three. The girl who was in here before you, she was hot, but so annoying. One of those Twilight girls and all." He made a face before laughing. Artie chuckled quietly, nodding as if he understood. But he tried his hardest to avoid those girls at school, and he couldn't deny he was glad to have avoided another one. They were scary!

Suddenly, his laptop rung out and Tina's face popped up on the open screen. His laptop had automatically connected to the Wi-Fi, so she had seen him online.

"Hey! Oh-" her grin hesitated when she saw Sean in the background.

Turning around to face Sean, Artie pointed to the screen, "I'm gonna -" but he didn't have to even finish his sentence before Sean got the hint and wheeled out of the room with a wave.

Turning back to her, he smiled and she grinned even wider, "Hi!"

"I miss you!" he blurted out, then blushed.

She laughed, "You haven't even been gone an entire day."

He shrugged, "Yeah, well -"

"I miss you too," she interrupted him and he grinned at her as she blushed a little as well. Shaking her hair off her face she pointed into the camera and his chest, "I see you got my gift."

"Thanks, Tee. I love it."

She smiled, but spoke seriously, "You know, I want that back when you come home."

"Yeah," he raised an eyebrow, "Well, I want my sweater back."

She bit her lip to try not to smile, which he took to mean she'd been wearing it. It's not like he minded any way. And besides, she looked adorable biting her lip like that.

Tina strted telling him about spending the afternoon with Mercedes, kurt and Quinn and laughed when he looked surprised at the latter. But before long, Tina heard her mom call her to dinner. And though he knew the Cohen-Chang's had dinner ridiculously early, he als knew that meant he'd be having his own dinner soon.

"I should go." Tina said, obviously not pleased.

He smiled, "Don't be a stranger."

A laugh escaped her, "As if." She smiled and blew him a little kiss and before he was even able to respond, she had logged off.

He sighed, he couldn't believe it had only been one day.