Three weeks after telling Trini and Aisha about the nightmare, Kim felt the first tingles in her right leg.
Kim and Tommy were swimming in the pool when a sharp tingle shot up her right leg. Gasping, Kim lost her concentration and slipped beneath the water's surface.
The sound of a splash behind him turned Tommy around. Jason was swimming toward where he had last seen … "Kimberly!"
Powerful strokes brought him to Kim's side about the same time Jason reached her. They nodded at each other and both dove under to catch their friend's arms. They pulled Kim up to the surface where Tommy gathered her into his arms.
When she finally recovered from the water she'd taken in, Tommy pressed his forehead to hers as they moved to the side of the pool. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him desperately.
"Kim, what happened?" Trini asked as Jason took the young woman from Tommy's arms and set her in her wheelchair.
"It was a tingle. It shot straight up my right leg. You know that feeling that you get when your legs are waking up after being asleep? That's what it felt like, only hot and it came and went."
"I think we'll go back to your room and have the doctor take a look. He said to let him know if anything unusual happened."
Tommy pushed her back to her room where he went to get the doctor while the girls helped her change back into her regular clothes.
The doctor came in and looked over her legs and nodded several times. Then, he pulled Tommy outside in order to talk to him for a moment.
Tommy and Jason were at the gym sparring and Kim had been left alone with the girls. "Should we go shopping today?" Aisha asked.
"I guess we can." Kimberly wasn't sure if she really wanted to go out but part of her just wanted out of that hospital room.
"If you don't want to, we don't have to," Trini said. She didn't want Kim to feel uncomfortable or forced into going out.
"No. It's okay. I need to get out and start learning how to get around in public." Kim steeled herself not knowing how well known her story was by the general public.
The girls had been shopping for some time when Kim started feeling uneasy. She'd seen how people were looking at her. She'd seen some of them whispering to others. Apparently, the entire city knew what had happened to her.
"Guys, can we go back to the hospital now?" she asked as she watched Aisha and Trini try on yet more outfits. She'd even bought a couple. The girls thought it would help her to feel better if she had some new clothes.
"What's wrong, Kim?" Trini asked, kneeling beside her friend.
"I see the looks people are giving me. They pity me. They feel sorry for me. They're whispering about me."
"Kim, what do you expect? Yours was the worst injury in the history of the Games. Everybody knows what happened to you."
"Of course they feel sorry for you. But they also are amazed that you're out and about only three weeks after the injury. They want to talk to you but they aren't sure what to say."
"I just don't know what to do. I hate the pity in their eyes and I don't want it. I don't want people to feel sorry for me when they don't even know me." Kim sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
"Ignore them. You said it. They don't know you. We do and we know that eventually you'll get back on your feet." Aisha wanted her friend to cheer up. She wanted to let Kimberly know that what other people thought didn't matter.
"So what do we want to eat?" Trini tried taking Kim's mind off of the pitying looks that people were sending her way.
"I don't know."
"Do you really want to go back and have that nasty hospital food?" Aisha asked with a smile on her face.
"I guess Mexican sounds pretty good," Kim said with a slight shrug. Aisha and Trini smiled at each other, knowing that they had gotten her.
Twenty minutes later, the three girls had found seats on the outer edges of the food court where they could maneuver Kim's wheelchair up to the table. But Kim decided that she was going to sit in a chair like a normal person. She managed to get into the chair and waited for her food. Trini brought it over and smiled at her friend as they ate, chatting as if the wheelchair off to one side was not even a part of the picture.
"'Ello, my friends!" came Ana's cheery voice. "Might I have a seat with you?"
"Of course!" Kim exclaimed, happy to see her young friend.
She picked up her cup and shook it. "What's wrong, Kim?" asked Aisha.
"I'm empty. I guess I should go get some more. Would you bring my chair over here?" Ana nodded, walking over to the wheelchair to bring it to Kimberly. As Trini and Aisha moved to help her into it, Kim shook her head. "I have to learn to do this on my own."
She pulled herself into the chair and then wheeled over to the fountain. Reaching up she realized that she was just a little bit too short from the chair. Locking the wheels, the brunette pulled herself to a standing position and started filling her cup.
She was doing fine until some teenagers came along, not paying any attention. One of them nearly tripped over the wheelchair. He caught himself and spun on Kim.
"What the hell --?" He shoved the wheelchair away from the fountain. It landed about ten feet away on its side. "What's your problem?"
Ana had noticed the kids heading for Kim and hurried over the moment she noticed a problem. Trini and Aisha were right behind her.
Aisha went ahead and set the wheelchair back up as Trini stepped to Kim's side to help her stay standing. Ana was on the other side of her and watched carefully as Trini kept herself between the teenagers and her best friend.
Once Kim was back in her wheelchair, Trini turned to the kids. "The problem wasn't Kimberly's. You weren't watching where you were going. If you had been you wouldn't have nearly tripped over her wheelchair."
"Just get her out of our way. We want a drink."
"I think you should apologize to my friend. You almost hurt her."
"Trini, let's go. I'm getting tired anyway."
"Kim, they need to show some manners." Trini stood her ground. Ana had her hands on the handles of the wheelchair, ready to leave at any time. Aisha was standing beside Kim and had a hand on her shoulder. "Are you going to apologize?"
"Why should we? She was in our way." Trini shook her head. "What?"
"You aren't worth wasting my time or effort. I'm taking my friend back to the hospital. I hope that you someday learn that no one person is any more important than anyone else."
With that parting statement, Trini and the others left the mall and headed back to the hospital.
Once they had her tucked back into bed, Kim asked everyone to leave because she wanted to take a nap. They left and Kim sat her bed up and buried her face in her hands to weep.