ASL Chapter 10

EPOV:

Tanya pulled into the driveway of a beautiful two-story home in a nice neighborhood. I looked around as I waited for Tanya to get my wheelchair out of the trunk and come around to help me out of the car. There were quite a few neighbors attempting to covertly watch us from their windows. A few blatant people were standing on their lawns openly staring at us. It was a little rude and it was making me self-conscious. "Ignore them right now, Edward," Tanya whispered to me as she set up the chair. "They all know you and have been worried about you, about all of us."

I noticed that a temporary wheelchair ramp had been placed leading up the stairs to the front door. I could only assume that it was placed here specifically for me. I wouldn't really know because she could have pulled into any of the driveways on this street, or any other street for that matter, and I wouldn't have known any better.

The people continued to gawk as Tanya got Ethan out of the car and pushed me up to the front door and into the house. You would think that at least one of the men that were watching would have come over and offered to help her. That was even ruder than just staring at us arriving like I was some kind of circus attraction.

It was a Friday morning so most of my family was at work. I was glad that they weren't here right now. I really didn't need any more of an audience for this. They were all coming over later for dinner and we would have a little homecoming party then. Tanya got me into the house and took me straight to the living room. I sat there taking in the room. There was a bed in the corner. Tanya saw where I was looking and smiled, "We all figured that you weren't going to be able to get up the stairs to our bedroom. So Emmett and Jasper came over last night and moved the bed down here for us. When you can safely navigate the stairs they'll put it back for us."

Unsure of what I could say to that, I just nodded my head. As I sat there in the chair Tanya just stood there watching me take everything in. After a minute, I stopped looking around the room and started watching Ethan play with his toys.

After sitting there for what seemed like a hell of a long time, I turned to Tanya who was still standing next to me, "Where is the kitchen? I want to get something to drink."

"What do you want? I'll get it for you."

"Thank you but you really need to relax. You are making me really nervous and antsy just standing there like that. I don't know what I want but I know that I want to do it for myself."

She sighed, "Edward how are you going to do that when you can't move the chair on your own." I hated that. There was very little that I could do for myself at this point.

"I made a fresh pitcher of tea this morning before I came to get you. Would you like a glass? Maybe a glass of juice?"

"I'm an adult over the age of twenty one and I am in my own home, right?"

"Yes," she said, obviously suspicious of where I was taking this.

"Can I have a beer? Maybe something with tequila in it?"

"It's not even noon and you don't like hard liquor."

"Maybe the old me didn't. But it could be something that I would like now."

"Well, you can't mix alcohol with the pain medicine you are on so the answer is still no to any type of liquor."

"Fine, I'll take the iced tea then."

As soon as Tanya disappeared into the kitchen Ethan came running at me with a game in his hand. It was the game Memory. "You want to play Memory with me?" I asked him.

"Grandpa and Miss Bella said you lost yours. So you can have mine."

"When did they say that to you?"

"I hearded them talk about you the day you made Aunt Rose cry. Mommy says only bad boys would make a girl cry. Dat's why I hafta be nicer to Kara. I don't like it when mommy puts me in the time-out corner. She looks so sad when she does it."

I had no idea what to say to him. I decided that it was best not to make a big deal out of it right now. "How about if we share the game? I'll even let you keep it in your room so it stays safe and I don't lose this one. Ok?"

"Ok, Daddy."

"Are you sure you don't want to play the game with me?" He dropped the game on my lap and went around to the back of my chair and started trying to push it saying that we always play in the dining room. I yelled for Tanya to come help. She told Ethan to go set the game up and we'd be right behind him.

We spent the next couple of hours taking turns playing memory with Ethan. I had no idea if this was something that we would normally do with him, but he was so excited to get our undivided attention directed to him. He was really good at playing this game. I could see why Tanya had him enrolled to start preschool soon. This child was really smart.

I kept playing with him after Tanya excused herself to make us lunch. It was going to be so nice to know that I was always going to get edible food to eat again. I couldn't believe hotdogs and French fries could be so delicious. To be honest, it was not like all that I had for the last three weeks was hospital food. Mom, Dad, Tanya, and even Bella would sneak me in treats, but more often than not I was stuck with the hospital's version of food.

After lunch I was tired from all the excitement of the morning so Tanya helped me onto the bed in the in the corner of the living room. I was glad that they had set it so that I could see the TV from there, even if I had to watch this annoying cartoon with this talking yellow sponge whose laugh made me want to throw something at the TV.

I rolled over so that I was lying on my undamaged side and attempting to tune out the annoying show on the TV so that I could fall asleep. I was just about to doze off when I felt the bed shift. Then there was pain as Ethan slipped as he was climbing over me and accidently kicked my broken arm. Then he snuggled into my side and closed his eyes. I closed my eyes again and this time I was able to fall asleep.

I woke a couple of hours later to the sound of Mom and Dad arriving at the house. They were attempting to be quiet but were failing miserably I rolled over onto my back and attempted to sit up. This got everyone's attention on me, alerting them that I was up. Mom ran over and started trying to help me sit up.

"Will you get my wheelchair? I want to go sit on the couch."

"Are you sure you won't be more comfortable sitting in the chair?" Dad asked me, bringing the chair and taking Mom's place in front of me to help me into it.

"No. I want to sit on the couch. That way if my leg hurts too much I can turn and prop it up."

"Oh! That's a good idea." Mom said as she ran ahead of us to the couch and started fluffing the throw pillows. They weren't exactly trying to be pushy or hover, I think they just didn't know what else to do for me.

"Where is Ethan? He was lying next to me when I fell asleep."

"He's probably in the kitchen helping Tanya with dinner. He likes tearing up the lettuce for the salad." I nodded my head and braced myself for Dad helping me to lift myself out of the chair to sit on the couch.

I turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels but not really finding anything on that I was interested in watching, so I turned it off again and laid my head against the back of the couch and sighed.

It was only four in the afternoon and the rest of the family wasn't due to arrive for a couple of hours. Dad asked me when my next therapy session with Bella was and how I was going to get there. I told them that it was in a couple of days and Tanya was driving, but we'd appreciate it if Mom would watch Ethan for us so we wouldn't have to worry about him getting bored. Mom agreed right away that there was no sense in dragging him along.

Ethan came bounding into the room a few minutes later, "We're haffing barbies for dinner!" He announced happily while crawling onto the couch next to me.

"We're having 'barbies'?" I asked him. "Are you sure about that?"

"Uh huh! Mommy gonna put lots of Barbie sauce on da legs. I hafta pee." He told us as he scooted off the couch and ran upstairs for the bathroom. The three of us sat there for a moment staring at each other, utterly confused until Mom finally got up and went into the kitchen to find out what Ethan was talking about.

Mom came back out of the kitchen a minute later laughing. She told us that we were having BBQ chicken legs for dinner. We all had a laugh at that. When Ethan did make it back downstairs I turned the TV back on for him. Luckily that sponge creature wasn't on again. I flipped to PBS and, "Is that Ringo Starr from the Beatles?" I asked my parents.

"No Daddy! That's Mr. Conductor!" From the tone in his voice I guess I should have known that.

"He was only on the show for one season," Dad told me quietly, "And then he was replaced by George Carlin." That got my attention. Who in their right mind would cast George Carlin in a children's show! I may only be sixteen but even I knew how vulgar he could get. He was funny as hell but not appropriate for children at all. This new world I was thrown into was unreal.

It was a cute show and by the end of it Ethan had moved to the floor and gotten out a bunch trains that resembled the ones on the show. After that episode was over Ethan ran to the TV, looked through a bunch of cases, and then handed one to me and asked me to turn it on. It had those trains on it so I assumed that it was another episode. Dad took the case from me and put the disk in for Ethan. Even if I could move to make it over to the TV to put it in, I wouldn't have a clue how to work the damn machine. I was basically a useless lump at this point. I don't think that I was ever going to be able to get used to all of this new technology.

Ethan made us watch several more episodes until he finally got up and ran off upstairs again. He was halfway up the stairs when Dad yelled at him to come back and put his trains away. He grumbled a bit about it but did what he was told.

A half hour later Alice and Jasper showed up with their kids. Alice went into the kitchen, holding what looked like a bakery box, while Jasper flopped down on the other end of the couch, putting the baby carrier down at his feet. He took the blanket off the top to reveal the sleeping baby boy inside. He and Dad got engrossed in a discussion about local politics that I did not understand so I tuned them out and started flipping through channels again. This time I found an episode of Seinfeld on. Now that was something that I remembered.

They sat there like that until Tanya stuck her head into the living room and asked Dad and Jasper if they would mind getting the grill set up and started. Of course she wouldn't ask me for help. I couldn't even get myself a glass of tea. How was I supposed to be of any use? I was just a burden.

Emmett and Rose showed up while I was sitting there, wallowing on the couch. "Where is everyone?" She asked, looking at me sitting alone on the couch.

"The useful people are getting dinner ready. I'm just the useless lump stuck alone on the couch."

"Come on, Grumpy." Emmett said, coming over to me and leaning down to pull me off the couch.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"I'm getting you off of the couch. You are injured. You may be injured but you are not going to start wallowing. I won't allow it. Neither will anyone else in the family. There are thing that you could and should be doing to help with dinner. So let's go!" He carefully put me in the chair and pushed me through the kitchen and out onto a back patio. He pushed the chair up to the table and then he turned and went back into the house. When he came back out a few minutes later he was carrying a cutting board, some vegetables, and a bowl. He placed them all on the table in front of me, "Start chopping."

"Emmett. I only have one good arm. How am I supposed to cut vegetables?"

"There are a lot of people out in the world that have permanently lost an arm and they have to figure out how to cope to survive. It's going to be frustrating and it will be a process of trial and error, but when you do figure it out, that fact that you did it yourself will be immensely rewarding."

I tentatively picked up a zucchini and turned it so that it was laying long ways across the cutting board. I picked up the knife and tried to slice it but it rolled away from me. I brought it back and tried cutting it again. After the third time that it rolled I came up with a brilliant idea. We used to have a neighbor that would work on cars and when he did he'd always put wooden blocks behind the tires to keep the call from rolling. I asked if someone would go inside and get me four forks. I placed them two on each side, tines down, against the uncontrollable vegetables and started cutting. It worked well enough that I was able to cut the vegetable by myself, even if they did look like they were hacked up by a serial killer. I managed to cut the yellow squash the same way even though they didn't roll because of the way that they were shaped. The onion, however, was impossible for me to get so I handed the knife to my dad and rested my now aching arm. Emmett was right, though. Emmett was right; it did feel really good to be able to do something for myself. If felt amazing to be useful for once.

I stayed outside while Dad, Emmett, and Jasper fired up the grill and cooked the dinner. It was a hot night but at least there was a breeze blowing. And we were even luckier that the wind was blowing the smoke from the grill away from us because there was a lot of smoke coming from it.

Dad was the one that was really managing the grill while Emmett and Jasper chased Ethan and Kara around the backyard. It was nice to see Ethan having fun, and his screams and laughter made me smile. I was having fun. I had also been sneaking sips of Dad's beer when he had his back turned. I figured a few sips wouldn't cause a reaction with my meds and I could probably skip them all together if I really wanted to.

When Dad finally proclaimed that the chicken and vegetables were done, the women came out with the side dishes they had been working on in the kitchen and the plates and flatware that we would need to eat outside.

We continued to sit outside until the sun went down and the children fell asleep in their chairs. Dad carried Ethan upstairs to his room while Jasper carried Kara to their car and carefully buckled her into her car seat without waking her up.

Everyone hugged me the best they could and told me that they were so happy that I was home. After everyone was gone, Tanya said that she was going to run upstairs for a shower and asked if I wanted her to help me take a bath tonight. I told her that I probably should take one but if she would just get me some hot water and soap I could take care of it myself. Bella had showed me how to be able to bathe myself while sitting in my chair. The only thing that I would need help with is taking my shorts off. I needed Tanya to help me stand and while I balanced myself on my good leg and kept a towel wrapped my waist with my good arm.

As soon as I was seated in my chair again, she excused herself to go upstairs for her shower. I quickly washed myself as well as I could with only one working arm. There were two basins of water, one with soapy water to wash and one with clean water to rinse. I decided that it would probably be a good idea to try to wash my hair while I was at it. I made quite a bit of mess with the water, but I think I did a halfway decent job getting my hair clean. I wrapped the towel around my waist again and waited for Tanya to return.

She brought me a clean pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt when she came back downstairs. The shorts were the only thing that I owned that we could get to go over the cast without resorting to cutting the material. I couldn't even get my boxer briefs on so I was going without those for a couple more weeks. I tried my hardest to keep myself covered while she helped me get them on. It was awkward and I knew that it upset her to an extent that I insisted on keeping myself covered, but I just didn't feel right exposing myself to her yet.

If I thought that letting her dress me was awkward, it was nothing compared to when she helped me into the bed and then went around the bed and climbed in the other side. I didn't think about that. It never hit me until now that she actually intended to sleep in the bed with me. I had never spent the night with a girl in bed with me. I had had sex a couple of times with Lauren, but we both dressed when it was over and I went home to sleep in my bed alone. I didn't know how I was going to relax enough to actually fall asleep. What if I snored? What if she did? I would be stuck here with no escape! I sighed. This was going to be a really, really long night.

A/N:

Whew! I really was sure that I was not going to get my updates done in time this week. It was totally me being distracted by the new Black dagger Brotherhood book that came out Tuesday and then I somehow email only half the chapter to sweetpea123 to beta. But she was all shades of amazing by getting the second half done for me Friday morning and I suddenly had some talkative characters. So today she gets Chapter 11 of which I am offering a teaser if you review. (if you don't want a teaser let me know in the review)

I am going to get my garden started this weekend. I am going to try to grow corn, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. I've had great luck with the tomatoes and cucumbers for years. I won't do pumpkins again. They took over the whole lawn and we got strange looks from the neighbors…like they didn't know that we were insane before that!