She Left Me in Traction, Then the Will Made Me Her Boss novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: No Lying About Pain

*Don't be in that room.* Marissa's whisper rode along with me for two days, and I still didn't know which room she meant or why.

By Friday I could lift my heel six inches off the mat.

Hannah's clinic was a long room on the second floor of the St. Anne's annex, with parallel bars, a row of tables and a window that looked at a parking structure.

At seven in the morning it was empty except for us.

"Again," she said.

I lifted the leg.

She had one hand under my knee and the other flat on my thigh above the scar.

Her palm was warm and dry.

I had been touched by a lot of nurses in a week, and none of them had made me look at the ceiling.

"Pain," she said.

"Four."

"Your jaw says seven."

"Four."

"Tobias."

"It's a five."

She pressed her thumb two inches above the scar, and I made a noise I didn't choose.

"That's an eight," she said, not unkindly. "You broke rule three. Say it."

"Eight."

"Thank you." She lowered the leg and left her hand where it was. "Why did you lie?"

"I wanted to be better already."

"I know. Everybody does."

She still hadn't moved her hand.

Her pulse sat at her wrist, six inches from my knee, and I could see it going fast.

I told myself it was the stairs.

She had walked up them with a box on her hip.

"Your heart's going," I said.

"I climbed a flight to get you tea." She took her hand back and wrote something on the chart. "Next set."

The back of my neck was hot, and I blamed the lamp.

We did three more sets, and on the last one I said *seven* before she asked.

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