Page 21 of The Long Walk Back

‘Knock it off,’ she said sulkily. ‘I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Did you know I was there?’

He nodded, offering her his hands to get up. She took them without question, and he yanked her up with ease. He tapped his lap. ‘Yep. Want a ride?’ He waggled his eyebrows flirtatiously, and was delighted to see her face redden. She pulled her hands from his as gracefully as she could, feeling pins and needles in her hips.

‘No thank you,’ she said politely, smoothing her hair back into place. He smirked at her and she pretended not to notice.

‘What’s with the ninja moves?’ he teased, doing his own karate chops to illustrate. She swatted at him again, trying and failing not to laugh.

‘Stop it!’ she said. ‘I was surprised, it’s a reflex.’

Cooper laughed. ‘Okey doke.’

She looked at the clock. It was gone one o’clock. ‘We still have some of the day left, do you want to get lunch and then do some work?’

Cooper didn’t really. In fact, just thinking about working his muscles today, after the pain of last night, made him feel sick to his stomach, but he didn’t want to be mean to her again after that morning.

‘Fine,’ he shrugged. ‘But I, er, have to take it steady today. I didn’t sleep much last night.’ Why did he add that little gem? He didn’t want her to know that!

Kate’s expression was questioning, but he said nothing. She nodded slowly, seemingly turning something over in her mind. ‘No problem.’

12

Kate paced her room. It was gone two in the morning, and she still couldn’t sleep. She didn’t know whether it was the excitement of hearing Jamie laugh and talk, or the disconcertingly comfortable afternoon she had spent with Cooper. They had ended up ordering burgers in, and chatting far more than normal. Nothing personal, just chit chat: films, movies, but still – she had found herself relaxing a little. She had noticed how tired and drawn he looked though, and she had a suspicion she knew what the cause was. She was just trying to talk herself into action. Jamie hadn’t spoken to her that afternoon, not that she thought he suddenly would, but he also hadn’t thrown anything at her and had even let her ruffle his hair, so that was major progress. Thinking about how Cooper had helped her son galvanised her into action. Pulling her mirror off the wall, she left her room.

The corridor was quiet, the staff quarters filled with empty rooms or sleeping people. Here if you weren’t on shift, a lot of the time you were in your room, catching up on your sleep or researching some paper or another. She walked towards Cooper’s room, looking in on Jamie on the way. He was fast asleep, his hair sticking up in tufts from under the duvet. She dropped a kiss on his forehead, before leaving and going to Cooper’s room. She hesitated here. The door was closed, but there was a light under the door. She held her breath and knocked once. Nothing. She tried again, a little harder this time, hoping to God she wouldn’t wake him if he was getting some much needed sleep. She heard a wail, a low grumble, and decided to enter. The light from the corridor bathed the room in light, and she realised that the light under the door was coming from the bathroom. Knocking on the bathroom door, she waited.

‘What?’ Cooper snapped. ‘I’m fine.’

‘Cooper? It’s me, Kate. Can I come in?’

‘No!’ came the reply, followed by a groan. The man was in pain. Kate rolled her eyes. ‘Cooper, stop being a dick, make yourself decent and let me in!’

Kate heard nothing. She was about to go get help when she heard the lock being clicked open. She gently pushed the door. Cooper was sat in the shower area, wet through with sweat, clad in only a pair of white boxer shorts. He was gripping his stump. Kate went to grab the mirror she’d left in the corridor, and locked the door to his room behind her when she returned. She came back into the bathroom, sliding the mirror in between Cooper’s legs, till the mirror reflected Cooper’s good leg, making it look like he had two.

He was in a bad way, his face red, eyes gritted. She reached out, gently removing his hands from his stump. He flinched and resisted at first, scowling at her, but she persevered and he gave in. His operation site looked good, but the skin area around it was covered in bruises. Kate pressed her lips together, fighting the stab of pain she felt for him. This had obviously been going on for a while. She glanced up at him, and saw his eyes were closed tight, his head against the tiled wall.

‘Cooper,’ she said softly. ‘Thomas.’ He opened his eyes and pierced her with his gaze. ‘Look at the mirror, please. It will help.’ Cooper nodded once and looked. After a few moments his face seemed to relax a little, as his brain registered the fact that it was seeing two legs. Kate started to rub his leg tentatively. He looked at her warily, and they both felt the tension in the room. Looking away, she concentrated on trying to be professional. She could feel the heat coming off his body. It felt nice against her cold hands. If he found them cold, he never let on.

‘How long has this been happening?’ she ventured curiously.

‘It’s happened a few times, that’s all. No big deal.’

‘I can help, you know. If you just let me…’

‘What’s the point of that?’ he retorted. ‘Not going to get me back into service, is it?’ His eyes flashed with anger, and her hands stilled. He noticed her flinch, and he grabbed for her hand suddenly. She jumped. ‘Sorry,’ he said ruefully. ‘I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s helping, please don’t stop.’ She swallowed hard. He squeezed her hand. ‘I would never hurt you. I could never hurt you.’

She started to massage him again. ‘I know that,’ she said, giving him a small smile. I do know that, she thought to herself. In fact, he makes me feel safe. He challenges me, sees through my bravado. I feel calmer just by being around him. Which was selfish, given our history. ‘I hurt you though.’

She waited for him to make a comment, close up, but his gaze was on the hands massaging him.

‘That’s different,’ he rasped. ‘That was the job. I figure you have enough on your shoulders right now.’ Her breath caught in her throat at his words. ‘So, how does this work?’ he asked, and she was grateful for the change of subject. A way she could offer help to him. ‘The mirror helps the brain to centre again. Tricks the pain receptors into rebooting. If you can, wiggle your toes, it will help. I can get you some pain relief?’

He shook his head hard, drips of sweat dropping down his neck and chest. She reached for the rack and started to pass him a clean towel, then changed her mind at the last minute and wiped gently at his face herself. He flinched again, and she went slower, dabbing the sheen off his hair, his face and finally his bare chest. She noticed how defined his chest and arm muscles were. She could see them flexing as he shook from the pain. ‘You should take some pain relief, it’s too much to expect you to cope without any.’

‘No,’ he said softly. She didn’t argue. She finished dabbing him and threw the towel into the corner of the room. She went back to massaging his leg, noticed that he was pointing and flexing his foot. His colour had come back a little.

‘It hurts a bit less. It’s helping.’ His face sagged with obvious relief, and her heart went out to him. ‘Thanks, Kate.’

She was surprised to hear him call her by her real name, and she kept working to cover her own emotions at hearing it from his mouth. The way Thomas had felt from her mouth. How his body had responded to the sound. Whatever this was between them, it went both ways.

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