Chapter 22—
A/N: Again special thanks for all the reviews. I never expected to be on to chapter 22. But I am enjoying myself and I hope all of you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it. Please keep the reviews coming.
Jeremy was very excited but anxious to go home. He knew that his parents were also looking forward to having Jeremy home. Jeremy had made a commitment with himself to getting ready to go to college. He and Stephanie had devised a plan where he would take a class or two at a local community college, just to get his feet wet. However they had both agreed that he still needed to wait a couple of months before attending college, as he needed time to be in the 'real world'. He had been in a very controlled environment at the hospital for a long time, and it would do him good to become accumulated to being in a non-controlled environment.
The relationship between Stephanie and Jeremy grew stronger everyday, but there were no romantic feelings between them. The relationship grew because Stephanie needed Jeremy has much as he needed her. Jeremy needed Stephanie because he needed to be able to rely on someone who was not his parents or his parents' friends. Stephanie was one of the first people that did not know him before he was blind. She was patient with him. Stephanie needed Jeremy because she had shut herself off from her family for so long that there had not been many people that she could talk to about life, about the Army, about anything.
Jeremy was sitting in the back seat of his parents' SUV on the ride home from the hospital. Denise and Frank were talking about some dinner party that they had to go to or something like that. Jeremy's mind was somewhere else. His mind was on Stephanie, and her obsessive nature about her parents' upcoming visit. The stories that Stephanie had told him, were sad. She never felt like she lived up to her parents expectations. Stephanie had told Jeremy, that she felt like she had failed her parents, especially when she had gotten hurt. Jeremy had not known what to say, because he had had the same feelings of not living up to expectations, and he admitted to Stephanie that he had hit is mother. He assured her that he had changed… and she accepted that.
"Jeremy, we are home son." Frank said breaking Jeremy's thought.
"I am glad to be here." Jeremy said as he gingerly stepped out of the SVU. The doctors were very surprised how well his knee had healed, and how much mobility that he actually regained in such a short time. Granted his knee would never be back to normal, but there were drastic improvement.
Jeremy opened his cane and started walking to the front door of the house. Frank opened the door, and…
"Surprise." A large group of people yelled.
"Welcome home, Son, Welcome Home!" Frank said; helping Jeremy to maneuver through the crowd of people in the Sherwoods home.
"Wow, thanks every one. I never expected this." Jeremy said. He wondered if Stephanie was here, and then all of the sudden he heard the rubber of the tires of Stephanie's wheel chair squeak on the hardwood floors of the home.
"Stephanie? Is that you?" Jeremy asked, glad that Stephanie was here. She would save him from all the well wishers. It was not that Jeremy did not appreciate the welcome home party, but he was hoping for a quiet low-key home coming.
"Why yes it is. Welcome home, Sherwood." Stephanie said in her usual southern accent.
"Thanks… why did you not tell me about the party?" Jeremy asked.
"One, because it would not have been a surprise. And two, I just found out about it a couple of days ago." Stephanie replied. At that point Frank came up behind Stephanie and grabbed a hold of the handles, and said,
"Well, what Stephanie is not telling you is this was her idea."
"Not really Major Sherwood… it was a team effort." Stephanie smiled.
"Stephanie, are you ever going to call me Frank?" Frank asked because in the last month or so Frank had gotten to know this incredibly energetic woman, who had a special place in the Sherwood family.
"I am sorry, sir, you can take the soldier out of the Army, but you cannot take the Army out of the soldier. But in your case, I will try." Stephanie loved being around Denise, but Frank made her very uneasy, not because Frank was not a nice guy, but he was still Army. Stephanie had great respect for the traditions, the job, and the customs of the Army. She always knew that despite being injured in the field, she would always be part of the Army.
At this point the party patrons had divided up into their clicks. The Army Wives or rather the 'tribe' in one corner. And the Army personnel in another click, leaving Stephanie and Jeremy sitting together at the kitchen table talking.
"So Sherwood welcome home. How do you feel?" Stephanie asked.
"I am glad to be home… I just wish that this was not a party." Jeremy said quietly, trying to make sure that know one else would hear that comment.
"Why… all these people are here to see you." Stephanie said with a little twinge of guilt for suggesting the party.
"Please do not miss understand me… it is very nice that there are this many people who care about me. It is just I cannot see them, and I have found it difficult to follow a conversation with more than 2 people. And also these are my parents' friends, not mine. But I am glad that you are here." Jeremy said, trying to take the guilt that Stephanie was feeling away.
"Well Sherwood, you are home. What are you going to do now?" Stephanie was fishing for something, but Jeremy did not know what.
"I really do not know. I thought that I would try to learn my way around here." Jeremy said knowing this was the wrong thing to say to Stephanie.
"Sherwood, you are such a goof. It will take you two days to figure your way out around the house. Then what?! Are you going to sit in your room and mope?!" Stephanie had been around Jeremy long enough to know that he was past the moping stage of the recovery. She was being a little hard on Jeremy at the moment, which really was not fair, as did have a number of things that he had to do.
"Stephanie… I am long past the stage of crawling in a corner and never coming out. Honestly I thought that I would start looking into some college classes. The question that I should be asking is you is… when are you going to take the MCAT?" Jeremy knew how to throw it back to Stephanie. Stephanie had been procrastinating taking the entrance exam for medical school for about 6 months.
"Hey hold on… we were talking about you…NOT me." Stephanie said trying to change the subject.
"Well the door is opened now… what is your plan?"" Jeremy asked, but luckily for Stephanie, Frank and Denise were coming over to the table.
"You two look like you are having a very serious discussion over here…" Frank noticed.
"Not really, sir, um… we were just talking about planning for the future." Stephanie said again trying to change the subject.
"Which brings up a good point… is there something special that you would like me to make for your parents, when they come to dinner on Saturday night?" Denise asked sensing that Stephanie was trying to change the subject from something else.
"Again, you really do not have to make dinner for my parents and me. I am sure that I can find entertainment for them… other than watching Jeremy, here, um… walk around without a cane." Stephanie said with a laugh. Jeremy loved how she could take a very serious subject and turn it into something funny.
"Stephanie, I agree it would be funny and entertaining for you to watch me walk around without a cane…which by the way, I would not think it would be funny. Mom really wants to make dinner for you and your parents." Jeremy said.
"I really want to make dinner… again is there anything special that you would like for me to make?" Denise asked again.
"I am sure that any thing you make is good. Again thank you for the offer."