Page 22 of The Long Walk Back

‘We can sort this. The mirror will help, and we can do other things too, if you’ll let me. Your leg looks good.’

Cooper snorted a little. ‘Oh yeah, it looks awesome.’

She didn’t bite. ‘The wound has healed, minimal scarring. We could start to work on a prosthesis once the bruising heals.’

She let the idea linger, not wanting to babble away or make him mad. Especially when he was so… not vulnerable, she couldn’t ever describe him as that, just… not himself. She finished off rubbing his leg and sneaked a glance at him. He wasn’t looking at his leg though, he was looking at her. Reaching a hand out, he moved it to her face, his fingers brushing her cheek as he tucked a ratty strand of hair behind her ear. She shivered at his touch, and her grip on his leg tightened a little. As he pulled his hand back, he ran his thumb from the base of her ear, along her cheek. Not quite believing what was happening, Kate’s lips parted a little and she didn’t dare let the breath in her lungs slip free. Cooper was looking at her now, and her gaze met his, seeing her own surprised expression mirrored in his. He winced in pain, once, just as his thumb grazed her bottom lip, and it seemed to wake him up. His features changed back to the cocky exterior he normally sported, and she grabbed the chance to rock back on her heels, away from him. She stood, and giving him a quick smile, she went to leave.

‘Kate—’ he called after her.

‘I’ll just get the nurse to help you up,’ she interrupted. She didn’t wait to hear a response. That name again. Hearing him say it was like she had never heard it before. Twice in one night, after weeks of ‘Missy’ and ‘Doc’. She had no idea what had happened, but she did know that after today, seeing him with Jamie, how his touch had made her feel, she had seen another side of Thomas Cooper, and she was intrigued. Just who was the real Captain Cooper? Was he all the versions she’d observed?

Giving instructions to the nurses at the station, informing them discreetly of what had happened, she went off to her room before any other surprised nurses who had seen her coming out of a patient’s room in the middle of the night could ask any questions.

When she had safely shut the door to her quarters behind her, she looked at the nail on the wall where the mirror had once hung. Laying down on her unmade bed, she touched her fingers to her lips, where his thumb had brushed them. What a day, she thought to herself, as she fell asleep thinking of broken soldiers, mute boys and shattered lives.

The next morning, Kate was scheduled to have a meeting with Trevor, to discuss her patient’s progress. To say she was dreading it was an understatement, but Trevor was too distracted with the news about Jamie to press her for any details.

‘So, Jamie spoke, and laughed, I heard! That’s amazing!’ Trevor was jiggling from foot to foot in his office, and he was making Kate feel nauseous.

‘Okay Trevor, calm down, I haven’t had my coffee yet!’ She laughed at him, and Trevor grinned all the more.

‘And a laugh from you! Wow, the captain is really working his magic, huh?’

Kate flushed at the mention of Cooper, and an image flashed in her mind of him looking into her eyes, his face close to hers, his thumb touching her lip. ‘He seemed to get through to him, yes,’ she replied reluctantly, hoping that Trevor would let the subject drop.

‘Well, that’s good, and since he’s doing okay with therapy, keeping active, we can probably decrease your time with him a little, get you back on the patient rotation. I understand he has refused the prosthetics, so I don’t think there’s much more to do, unless you disagree?’

Kate wanted to disagree. She wanted to protest, to fight for more time with Cooper, but what could she say? ‘I quite like him now, he’s growing on me’?… ‘I think I can get through to him’?… The point was, she didn’t know that she could change his mind. And she did miss seeing other patients, having new challenges. So she replied, ‘Yes, that’s good with me.’

Trevor turned away from his desk to the filing cabinet at the far wall. Drawing out a couple of files, he put them on the desk in front of her.

‘Okay then, Tuesday 1st, start seeing these guys. See out the month with Cooper, and then we will reduce the days with him to just Mondays and Fridays. I’ll let him know.’

Ten minutes later, Kate was on her way to call in on Jamie before her meeting with Cooper. Walking down the corridor, she made a pact with herself to try to give Cooper her all till the end of the month, when her new clients kicked in. She would work the weekend, make him work, force him to listen. He had got through to her son, she had heard Jamie laugh, a sound she had thought lost forever. She owed Cooper this time, and she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. She wouldn’t have this soldier on her conscience. She felt guilty about enough already, and it was time to stop. Work harder to chase it away. As she walked to Jamie’s door, she wondered whether her motives were really as clear cut and innocent as they sounded in her own head. Walking into Jamie’s room, she was surprised to see him watching television. He was dressed and sat in his chair, engrossed in his programme, and for a second, she forgot that the last few months had even happened. He looked just like he normally did on a weekend at home, his facial expressions comical as he followed whatever character was in a scrape on Power Rangers this week. He turned towards her, and she saw a slight smile pass over his lips, before he turned back to his programme. She sat on the bed next to him, folding her trouser clad legs under her, having slipped her hospital flats off. She stayed there for a good half hour, both of them watching the screen in silence. When she next glanced at the clock, it was time for her to go and meet Cooper, and she got up to leave. A small hand covered hers, and she looked up in surprise.

‘Five more minutes?’ Jamie asked tentatively. She sat back down, covering his hand with hers. Kissing it, she nodded. ‘Five more minutes, baby.’

Twenty minutes later Kate pirouetted to the rehab suite. Walking in, she sat down at the table, savouring the fantastic morning. The usual bacon and coffee smell filled the air, but something was different. Cooper’s face was pure thunder, and he was ripping into his bacon roll as though it was the spoils of a sworn enemy.

‘What’s got you so mad…’

‘What’s got you so chirpy…’

‘Trevor came to see me…’

‘Jamie spoke to me…’

They both laughed as they spoke at once, and the tension in the air popped.

‘You first,’ Cooper said, passing her a roll and coffee. She took them gratefully, her tummy grumbling in anticipation.

‘Okay,’ she replied in between bites of breakfast. ‘I went in to see Jamie this morning, and he was watching television. He let me watch it with him, and when I went to leave, he asked me to stay. Sounds daft, but it was amazing!’

Cooper laughed. ‘It is amazing, and it’s also cheered me up.’

‘So what did Trevor say?’ she asked with what she hoped was a look of innocent curiosity on her face. He wasn’t falling for it.

She noted once more the furrowed lines deep in his brow, and she once again daydreamed about what it would be like to smooth them out with her fingertips. He seemed to be trying to rein in his anger, and she noticed his foot was jiggling against the footrest of his chair.

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