Looking Up

-----Steve's POV

"Are you ready to get ready?" I ask Elle as I stick my head in the bedroom door way.

"Yeah but I need some help getting dressed," she says to me with a trace of guilt.

"Hey, don't feel bad about this, ok? I'm more than happy to help," I respond, tilting her head so her eyes meet mine and she gives me a smile and a nod. Once I pick out some clothes for her to wear at our morning practice today and I gladly help her put them on. It's hard to keep myself tame when helping her get dressed since we haven't done anything in what feels like months. I help her put on her bra and underwear, keeping my eyes closed so I don't feel tempted to do anything, even though she asks me to.

"Well you're just a perfect gentleman aren't you?" she asks with a playful sneer.

I laugh and open one of my eyes, "yes and we're going to keep it that way," I retort with a big grin on my face.

"I can't wait till everything stops hurting and I won't need help with everything," she huffs.

"I know you do but if you push it too fast you're never going to heal," I say as I help her hop to her wheelchair.

"Yeah, yeah I know. I can't wait to at least use crutches once my arm heals enough- or maybe just have one crutch and I can be Tiny Tim- I'd totally be cool with that if it meant getting out of this damn wheelchair," she grumbles. I wheel her in front of the bed, grab a hairbrush, take a seat on the bed behind her and bring the wheelchair closer.

"So what hair style would you like today Bambi?" I ask as I brush the knots out of her hair.

She laughs at my proposition, "you can't be serious- you don't have to do this."

"Too bad, I'm already motivated, what would you like?"

"Surprise me," she challenges.

"Alrighty," I say confidently and start to French braid her hair- not perfectly but still good enough. She is totally surprised and while I'm braiding her hair she pulls out her phone, takes a picture, and posts it to Instagram.

"Okay, you're done," I say as I tie the ends of her hair with a hair tie.

"How'd you learn to do that?" she asks completely surprised.

"I have a sister remember? And I might've watched a couple of videos on YouTube to freshen up my memory," I confess as we head into the kitchen.

"Well I'm absolutely impressed, Steve," she says with a big smirk. After we grab something to eat, we make our way towards the truck and head over to the Skate Zone for my morning practice.

-----Elle's POV

"Elle! How are you feeling?" Claude asks happily as he walks up to us in the long hallway connecting to the rink and locker rooms.

"I'm feel like I want to get out of this stupid wheelchair and actually do something but other than that I'm pretty good," I say with a smile. Even though it has been a couple days since I came home I'm already feeling guilty that Steve is taking care of me full on. I insisted on him not taking me to practice yesterday since I don't want him getting sick of me- even though he says it won't happen.

"Well I'm glad- just focus on getting better, eh?" Claude says.

"I already hear that enough from Steve, you don't need to tell me that too," I joke with him.

As we make our way into the break room where some of the players eat breakfast before practice, some of the guys come up to me and ask how I'm doing so far.

"We were really worried about you Elle," Brayden admits, "especially Steve."

"We all just want to tell you we're so happy that you're okay and we couldn't imagine losing a part of the Flyers family," Jakub adds with a big smile.

I start to feel overwhelmed by the guys coming up to me and saying such nice things, "Thanks," I reply to them not really knowing what to say- I can't just say "I'm glad I woke up from the coma too guys!" Wayne grabs a sharpie from Chief's office and signs my cast; soon after there is a line to sign my leg and arm cast. Brayden wrote, "Don't run over Steve's foot if you get mad at him- he has to skate- Brayden." Wayne wrote, "Get better soon Ellie- Wayne Train." Claude signed, "I'll tell my friends you got into a fight on the ice ya badass- Roo." Michael Raffl wrote, "Get better my little buddy- Raffl." Sean wrote, "At least you still have your two front teeth- Sean." Many of the other guys signed their names as well along with a funny comment; I am just thankful to be surrounded by such a loving group of guys.

Before practice starts, Steve walks alongside me as I try to wheel the best of my abilities into the rink and get settled in a good spot. "Alrighty, I'll meet you here after practice," Steve says and kisses my forehead, "now don't speed off without me."

"I don't think I could even if I tried," I admit with a laugh and we say our goodbyes as he heads to the locker room.

*****

"Andy get the game on!" I yell from the bedroom while Jamie helps me get back into the wheel chair. Jamie and Andy have thankfully been helping me out while Steve has been at games and practices, and workouts. They usually come around to entertain me for a couple of hours whenever they can. Without them, I think I would've gone crazy by myself with George at the apartment all of the time since Steve's so busy with hockey.

"Alright, alright calm down grandma," Andy says with a laugh and I roll my eyes at him. As the game starts, I get out of the wheelchair and stand around to stretch my legs and actually move around- I feel like a potato sitting at home and not going to work. However, over the past couple of days I've been keeping myself busy getting back into drawing which has been able to kill a lot of time.

The first period is tough and the Bruins are pushing hard but Steve makes some really good saves early in the period. Andy, Jamie, and I cheer, and yell like we're at an actual game which puts me in a much better mood than earlier. During a break in the game, I hobble over to the kitchen to grab something quick to eat for lunch.

All of the sudden I hear gasps from Andy and Jamie. "Oh my gosh Elle," Jamie utters. I turn around and see Steve being helped off the ice by a trainer and someone else I can't see.

"What the hell happened?" I say in disbelief, "I turn around for a minute and Steve's hurt!"

"They're saying he hurt something when he went to skate away," Andy informs us, trying to listen closely to the announcers.

I pick up my phone and send a text to Steve: Hey I hope you're okay. Let me know what's up when you can please. I'm at home with Jamie and Andy.

As the game continues and Emery skates out onto the ice, I anxiously check my phone every 3 minutes to see if Steve texted me back. In what seems like 2 hours, Steve finally texts me back saying: Hey, I'm ok. The athletic trainer said I need to rest and ice my knee and check in with him about twice a week for checkups.

I let out a sigh I didn't realize I was holding in and inform Andy and Jamie. "See I told you he was going to be fine," Jamie chimes.

"Yeah I know but still," I say sternly, still upset about what happened to Steve. I can't help but to feel guilty for causing his knee injury since he's been taking care of me. When the game is over Andy and Jamie leave to head back to their house after making sure I'm fine being by myself till Steve gets home- I guess they could tell how upset I was but nevertheless I sent them home.

I begin to pace around the living room, becoming restless and panicking about Steve's injury. As I make my way around the room slowly, hobbling from once side to the other, I suddenly slip on the corner of a knitted blanket laying partly across the wooden floor. I try to catch my balance but I land hard on the floor with a loud thump. "Ow," I grumble and then let out a loud frustrated groan. Abruptly, the door swings open slowly and I hear Steve talking to what sounds like Jakub- of course they would walk in on this.

"Elle!" Steve practically shouts as the two see me. He limps over quickly and just before he gets over to me I stop him.

"No, no, no, you're not helping me up, I've already caused enough damage," I say as I wince as I attempt to sit up and Jakub jumps to my side. "Thanks," I say with a smile to Jakub.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Jakub asks.

"Were you down there for long?" Steve adds, walking with Jakub and I over to the couch.

"I'm fine, it honestly happened right when you got here so don't worry," I say trying to calm the two men down.

"As long as you're okay," Jakub says with a smile, "are you guys good now? Do you need anything?"

"Nah, we're good you can get going- thanks again Jakey," Steve says and Jakub leaves after saying goodbye.

"So do you know how long you'll be out for?" I ask cautiously as we sit together on the couch and he strokes my hand.

"Possibly 3 weeks, but for now it's a week," he admits with a defeated shrug, "I can't put much weight on it or work out my legs until I get thoroughly by the trainer."

"Well aren't we just a hot mess?" I half laugh as I think about our situation.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Steve smirks and kisses my forehead lightly as he places the bag of ice back on his knee.

Notes

Hey guys! Hope you like the chapter. Incidentally I'm an idiot and forgot to post this chapter- it was done for a week, work totally took over and I blanked- so sorry about that! The next chapter is past halfway done so I'll get on that and post it sometime before the weekend. Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to comment and tell me what you think! I've been trying to follow what actually happens during the season so you can guess what happens with Steve next!

I was thinking about ending the story soon- but I'm not quite sure. I might just write more chapters but we'll see! Thanks so much!

Elle's Outfit