Day Two

The next day, Jamie woke up at quarter to four, stretched, drank a protein shake, and went out for his first run of the day. When he got home, he warmed down, showered and snuck into Roy's room to wake him up and feed him the morning pill. Then he made them both breakfast and took it into Roy's room. He sat on the chair in there and ate himself.

"I have an appointment with Dr Sharon this morning and then rehab this afternoon."

"Do you need to go to her office?" Roy shook his head. "Okay then, let me know what time and I'll disappear."

"You don't need to."

"Need privacy, don't ya?"

"You know where the gym is."

Jamie nodded; he'd get a workout in while Roy was talking to Dr Sharon. "What time's rehab?"

"Two."

"Right, I'll take Phoebe for an ice cream or something." Jamie looked at the clock on the wall and stood up. "You gonna be okay while I go and get her?"

Roy nodded.

Jamie went and picked up Phoebe, stopping on the way back to buy the stuff to make a beef with broccoli salad that he'd made for her and Roy before. As soon as they were through Roy's door she was off, running into the lounge room and yelling Roy's name. Jamie knew she'd be gentle and as he went into the kitchen he heard her telling her uncle off about the fact he hadn't been taking his medication. He heard phrases that he knew she had to have memorised with Ruth. He grinned, put everything he'd bought away and then grabbed the bag of sweet and salty popcorn into the microwave and turned it on. He filled up a jug with the cordial Phoebe liked and took everything into the lounge room. Phoebe was sitting next to Roy, on his good side, and was hugging his arm.

"I have popcorn and cordial, what are we watching?"

"You can't drink cordial," Roy said.

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Fuck that, it's the off season, I'm drinking cordial."

"What type of popcorn?" Phoebe asked.

"Sweet and salty."

"Fuck," Roy grunted. "You can't have that and cordial."

"That's a pound," Phoebe said.

"What about him?" Roy asked, pointing his head at Jamie.

"Jamie isn't going to get charged until he moves out."

Jamie grinned.

"Why?" Roy grumbled.

"Because he made you take your tablets, and Mum said I had to take all my tablets last year when I had a chest infection and this isn't really different even though they are different types of tablets."

Roy glared at Jamie while the other man grabbed the remote off the tablet and handed it to Phoebe.

"You choose, Fifi?"

"What did you call her?"

"That's Jamie's nickname for me, Uncle Roy."

Roy looked between the two of them. "I don't understand."

Jamie poked his tongue out at Roy and looked at Phoebe.

She turned to the TV and ignored her uncle as she opened Disney and found 'Mulan'.

"Yeah, I love Mulan," Jamie said. "Good choice, Fifi."

They finished watching 'Mulan' and started the sequel before having to stop while Roy had his appointment.

"Come on, Fifi, let's lift some weights."

"Awesome," she said, following him into Roy's home gym. He got her set up with a set of 1kg weights and showed her how to do curls. When they were finished with their reps, he run her through some stretching and warm-ups before setting her up on the walking machine and jumping on the elliptical next to her. When she got bored, she turned off the machine and grabbed Roy's skipping rope to skip for a while. Roy called his mobile when the appointment was over, not able to get to the gym. Jamie sent Phoebe back up to him and finished his program and then warmed down. It wasn't enough of a workout for him to smell so he went back upstairs and went into the kitchen to start making lunch.

"What about the movie?" Phoebe asked.

"You can watch without me, Little Kent," Jamie said. "I need to make sure Uncle Roy eats regularly."

"We'll wait," she said. "I can be your helper."

Jamie nodded.

"My surname isn't actually Kent," she told him while she was weighing the almonds and cranberries.

"Sorry, of course."

"It is one of my middle names so it's okay if you call me Little Kent."

Jamie smiled at her. "I'll stick with Fifi if you like."

"I like both."

"Me too," Jamie said.

They ate their beef with broccoli salad in the lounge room while they finished watching the movie. Afterwards, they played a game of uno until they needed to go to the doctor and Jamie and Phoebe kicked the soccer ball around the park for a while before they collected Roy – who looked pretty fucking sweaty and wrung out. Jamie took them all for ice cream. Roy fell asleep on the couch ten minutes into 'Encanto' and Jamie and Phoebe watched it until there was a ring on the doorbell. Phoebe followed Jamie to the door and jumped at her mother in a hug as soon as Ruth was visible.

"How is he?" Ruth asked.

"Sleeping," Phoebe explained.

Ruth smiled.

"He was pretty knocked around from rehab."

"That means he worked."

"Yep."

"Right, so what are we doing?"

"We just finished 'Encanto' which Jamie had never seen before."

"It's a fucking masterpiece," Jamie told her.

"And I was going to show him 'The Princess Bride'."

"Not sure that ones for me, eh?"

"It is," Ruth assured him. "But we might need some popcorn."

Jamie winked at Phoebe and went to make it while Ruth went into the other room and woke her brother up. Phoebe trailed behind Jamie and caught his attention when he had the bag in the microwave.

"Yeah, Fifi?"

"Thank you."

Jamie dropped down onto his knee so he could see Phoebe better. "What for?"

"Being such a good best friend," Phoebe said. "I was really worried about Uncle Roy, but I don't knowing you're here looking after him. He even lets you look after him, he didn't like mum looking after him."

"He doesn't like not bein' the strong one."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "He would tell me it's okay to rely on my friends."

"Yeah, he would, he just isn't used to having a best friend yet."

Jamie bought pizza for dinner because he didn't have much longer that he could get away with a day like today, and they ate it in front of the best fucking movie Jamie had ever seen – how had Ted not shown them this fucking movie…wanker. He showed Ruth and Phoebe out before standing outside the bathroom while Roy showered and then going upstairs when the other man was settled for the night. He'd grabbed a book from Roy's library and snuggled into the sheet with it until he felt like he could sleep.

They're days fell into a pattern; Phoebe wasn't at school, so she'd come over on a free day or when Ruth needed her too. They'd watch movies or play games or whatever. On days Roy had rehab while she was there, he'd run her through drills ready for the season, on days without rehab he'd set her up with a TV show while he helped Roy with his exercises. When Roy passed out with his afternoon pill, Jamie would go into the gym. He was still out every morning at 4am while Roy was asleep. He'd make them lunch, reheat something from the freezer for dinner – thankfully Roy was still a footballer at heart and most of his meals were nutritionist approved. Ruth came over for dinner a few times a week to check on Roy and Jamie would sometimes go out for a run to give them some alone time. Roy would sometimes get frustrated about his limited abilities and the easing pain, but he never yelled at Jamie, just near him, so it wasn't as bad as that first day. Slowly, Jamie could see Roy's improvement, and he felt better about leaving him alone as pre-season got closer and he needed to get back to three training sessions a day. Roy was only taking the pain pills at night now, and if needed through the day but he was pretty fucking stubborn still and wouldn't take them unless he actually needed them. Nate and Beard were handling the pre-season with Roy coming back only when he was ready even though he had to go in for one day to do a fucking presser about being named Manager. Jamie thought about going home but he didn't want to and so long as Roy couldn't get up the stairs he felt justified in staying. Dr Sharon told him he was avoiding the issue but she was insightful like that.