“Right. Sorry.” She wheeled her friend away from the counter and headed toward the waiting room area.
“Okay, let go.” The fae reached up to brush her friend’s hands off the handles, and Cheyenne released them with a chuckle. Ember wheeled herself toward the mostly empty waiting room and stopped beside the closest chair. “Are you okay?”
Cheyenne glanced around the lobby again and narrowed her eyes. “I’m great.”
“Right. ‘Cause you zoned out back there, and now you’re looking for something in a PT clinic. Wanna fill me in?”
Spinning to face her friend, the halfling offered a closed-lipped smile with innocent eyes. “Can’t a friend just check out another friend’s medical facility?”
Ember snorted. “Not when it looks like you think you’re being watched.”
She’s reading that too? “It’s all good, Em. I just wanna make sure you’re in the right place, you know?” Cheyenne stepped toward the chair on the other side of her friend and sat.
The fae frowned and studied the half-drow with a scrutinizing intensity. “Okay, the only reason I’m not telling you to leave that decision up to me is that you—” Ember leaned toward Cheyenne and lowered her voice. “That you’re paying for all this. And don’t even try to deny it to my face. We both know what’s going on.”
Smirking, the halfling crossed one black Van over her knee and slung her arm across the backs of the chairs lined up against the wall.
“If you’re trying to scout this place because you don’t think it’s the best place for me to be, that’s cool, and I seriously appreciate it. I’m not gonna bite the hand that pays my PT bills.”
Cheyenne laughed and didn’t say anything.
“But seriously.” Ember sat back in her chair and tilted her head. “If there’s something else going on, something that’s not related to me getting out of this chair at some point in my life, you better tell me.”
“Nothing’s going on, Em. I promise.” The tingling prickle rose again on the half-drow’s neck, moving slowly across her shoulders. Not my drow magic. No one is standing behind me. What the hell?
“You promise?” Ember raised an eyebrow, and Cheyenne met her friend’s gaze and held it.
Don’t look away. “I promise. And I’ll get it out of the way now and also promise that I’ll tell you about anything else that comes up, whether you’re with me when it happens or not. Like I’ve been doing.”
“Yeah, okay.” A skeptical smile bloomed on the fae’s lips. “Then stop looking like an amateur PI undercover for the first time, huh?”
“You know what? I’ve been sneaking around places without anybody seeing me for, like, as long as I can remember. No amateur sleuthing here, okay?” The halfling laughed and tried to ignore the constant tingling on her neck and shoulders. “Honestly, Ms. Gaderow, I’m a little insulted by your assumptions.”
“Uh-huh. Save the Bianca Summerlin act for your students, Professor.”
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself.”
“Maybe.”
They sat like that for a moment, and the halfling found her gaze drifting back toward the lobby and the patients milling around among nurses and assistants passing in and out of doors.
“Ember?”
Both magicals turned toward the open door on their left, and Ember raised her hand. “Yep.” Then she wheeled toward the nurse standing with a clipboard in hand and looked over her shoulder at Cheyenne. “Come on.”
“What?” The halfling sat upright in the chair. “No, it’s okay, Em. I don’t need to go with you.”
“I know that. Get your ass out of that chair and come with me.”
Cheyenne gripped the edge of the chair and looked at the woman. “Is that okay?”
The woman shrugged and glanced at Ember. “If that’s what she wants, no problem.”
“So get over here.” The fae jerked her head toward the door.
Leaping to her feet, the halfling rubbed her hands down her pantlegs and made her way through the door while the woman held it for her. “Thanks.”
“Of course. Right this way, Ember. My name’s Sarah. I’m Dr. Boseley’s assistant.”
“Hi. This is my friend Cheyenne.”
The halfling nodded with a thin smile. “Moral support.”
Sarah chuckled. “That’s great. Everybody needs someone in their corner now and then, right? That’s what we’re here for too. Dr. Boseley already has an excellent treatment plan written up for you. She’ll go over all that with you first. Talk about how you’re doing now, what you’d like to see happen in the next six, twelve, eighteen months. Then she’ll explain the different phases of your personalized physical therapy plan, and you guys can start today if you’re ready.”
“I was ready before I left the hospital.”
Sarah opened a glass door into what looked like a weight room at a gym, only with machines Cheyenne didn’t recognize and a bunch of other unknown equipment. “This is the ‘gym’ where you’ll be doing all the hard work with Dr. Boseley. You’ll also have a list of exercises you can do at home between sessions. Feel free to take a look around. She should be in here in just a couple of minutes.”
“Great. Thank you.” Ember smiled sweetly at the assistant, and Sarah returned the gesture to both magicals before opening the door again.
Cheyenne peered through the glass wall of the gym, watching the woman walk down the hall toward another office or exam room. “Seems like a decent place, right?”
“It looks like a gym.”
The halfling chuckled. “Yeah, I had the same thought. But look, you have this whole giant PT playground all to yourself!”
“Ha-ha.” Ember pulled a hair tie off her wrist and twisted her hair into a high ponytail. “Is it weird that I’m only slightly nervous?”
“Not even a little.” Cheyenne gave the room and all the equipment another sweeping glance. “Three days a week in here, and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.”
“That’s the plan. I don’t care how low the full recovery rate is.”
“You got this, Em.” Looking down, the halfling saw her friend’s hands clench around
