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“I have, but I don’t remember it. It happened so fast.”
“Chances are, this will be the same. Open wide.” She does as I ask. Quickly, I reach in and grasp the tooth. It’s almost so loose I don’t have to jiggle it. “Take a deep breath.” Twisting it, the tooth comes out easily. “Here ya go!”
Her eyes are wide as she sees the tooth in my palm. “Natalie, we did it.”
“We sure did.”
“I can’t wait to see what The Tooth Fairy leaves,” she exclaims, blood coming out of her mouth.
Something I hadn’t even considered, but Cam isn’t at home tonight and it’ll definitely fall on me. “I’m sure it’ll be amazing.”
And it had been. I’d gotten on Pinterest and figured out what to do in order to make it special for her.
“We need to go this way.” I direct her to the left once we enter the rehab facility.
She’s on her best behavior when we enter the area Gauge is normally in. There he is, working hard.
“There he is,” she whispers, pointing over to where he’s doing his exercises. She waves when he looks up.
Bless his heart, he waves back to her. There’s pain etched across every inch of his face, but he’s still here putting in the work, not making it look easy.
“His face looks like he’s dying,” she whispers again, this time louder.
“I know,” I shush her. “But maybe we’ll keep that to ourselves.”
“I can hear you.” Gauge points up at us with his good arm. “If you two can’t be quiet, you’re not going to be allowed to watch me.”
The two of us look at each other, zip our mouths and make like we’re throwing away the key. For the rest of his session, we’re quiet as can be. When he gets done, he walks over to us, his leg slightly dragging. “You hurting?” I ask immediately, not able to see anything else. It’s so different than the strong brother I’ve always known.
“Yeah, but that’s nothing new. What are you two ladies doing?” It’s an effort for him to give us a smile. Evident by the pain around his eyes.
“Came to see you.” Trinity wrinkles her nose up at him. “But you’re sweaty and stink.”
“I do, do I?”
He grabs her up, swinging her around. She giggles, kicking her feet. It costs him to show her this little bit of who he was before he was in the fire. When he sets her down, he’s breathing hard.
“What do you say we take Gauge to get some ice cream?”
Trinity’s eyes light up. “Yeah, come with us, please?”
I have no doubt he’d say no if she wasn’t with us, but proving she’s still enough to melt his defenses, he agrees.
“Let me go clean up and I’ll meet you both out front.”
Gauge
Turning my back to them,I grimace as I slowly take steps toward the bathroom area. I’m sweating like I’ve run a marathon, when all I’ve done is an hour of light exercise. I’ve lost so much lung capacity and muscle tone, it’s almost fucking embarrassing.
I was a firefighter who could move furniture or fallen debris off someone in crisis and now I’m lucky to lift a fifteen pound weight. I’m having a hard time being grateful for living when all I can think about are all the things I’m missing. All the things I’d once been able to do that now I can’t.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Grimes.”
But the fact of the matter is, that’s exactly how I feel and I don’t see it stopping any time soon.
* * *
“Are you ladies ready?”
