Just do the damn therapy

Covet: Felix was in the office working on his laptop, frowing as he went through a few pictures that he'd been playing with a little bit digitally. He didn't really care for digital edits, but sometimes, that's what people want in their photos, so it couldn't help to dust some of the rust off. He reached up and messed with his hair with one hand while the other was moving his usb mouse for his laptop, across the table top.
Alexithymiaa: -Steph had just finished cleaning up a bit in the kitchen and started to head for the office, curious what Felix was getting up to. With her crutch under her arm, she limped toward the office and paused in the doorway, watching him toy with his hair for a moment before continuing forward to come up behind him, setting her hand down on top of his head because she wanted to play too. "Whatcha working on?"-
Covet: "Hey, good, you do that while I focus." He said with a grin bringing his own hand back down to his computer. "Practicing things that I hate." He said getting a serious look on his face. The only time editing should be used like this, is for making black and whites, and Sepia toned pictures. I've never understood why have an all grey picture, but one color thing? I get they want to draw focus, but eh.. it's really not my thing."
Alexithymiaa: -She kept her hand in his hair as she twirled his locks around for him in the fashion he normally would, her eyes staying on the screen. "Usually it's a symbolic thing. Or... I don't know, I'm not really into it either. It usually looks too edited for my tastes." She paused, watching him work. "That kind of style looks pretty good with higher contrast levels though... if you want to try that..." She said, trying to offer friendly editing advice since she used to do this shit for Dean all the time. // Andre parked his sedan in the driveway, reaching into the backseat to grab an oversized dufflebag, climbing out of the car and swinging it up onto his fairly beefy shoulder. He made his way up to the front door of the house, knocking and hearing a flurry of dog barks almost immediately after he knocked.-
Covet: "Hmm, I can try that." Felix said as he tweeked the contrast a bit, before deciding it looked good enough. " There, That looke better?" He asked. Hearing the knock on the door he looked back at Steph, then got up to go look out the window, "It's a Sedan? Was company supposed to be coming?"
Alexithymiaa: "Much better. I think you can be done with this one, they'll be satisfied." She furrowed her brows when she heard the knock, limping over to the window with him to peer out. "I don't recognize the car. And I wasn't really expecting anyone. Think Cadence took an uber or something?" She asked, turning to face him. // Andre fidgeted on the front porch with the heavy bag, turning to look behind him to see all the vehicles in the driveway, sort of mentally confirming at least someone was home.-
Covet: "I don't know... I guess we could just go answer the door though." Felix said as he headed out towards the front door. "Penny, Nugget, go lay down!" He said to them as he opened up the door and grabbed Penny's collar. Nugget couldn't run anywhere near as fast as her so he wasn't worried if he got out. "Oh, Hi Andre.... I uh...what are you doing here?'
Alexithymiaa: -She turned to follow him, adjusting the crutch halfway through since her arm and shoulder had been seriously aching from all the limping she was doing. She stopped behind Felix, staring at Andre on the porch in pure horror because she knew she'd been dodging him for the last couple weeks. "Yeah... uh... why are you here?" // Andre smiled to Felix when he opened the door, shifting the bag on his shoulder. "Hi Felix. I was actually looking for Steph." When she came around the corner, he gave her a friendly wave. "Heyyyy kid, long time no see. Got a few minutes to talk?"-
Covet: "Oh, Yeah she's here." Felix said moving out of the way with Penny in tow so that Andre could come in. He looked at Steph, seeing the look on her face and he rose his eyebrows.
Alexithymiaa: "Well... we were actually kind of busy..." She started, trying to figure out a way to get rid of him. She didnt want to talk to him. "Maybe we can talk another time when-" // Andre cut her off because he kind of knew her shit by now, stepping into the house when Felix let him in. "Well I'm not sure the next time I'll see you, so I might as well make each meeting count, huh?" He asked, making eye contact with her for a brief moment before heading towards the living room to set his bag down on the floor. "I was curious how everything was going since I gave you the green light to start walking and driving. I haven't seen you in a couple weeks."-
Covet: Felix raised an eyebrow and closed the door behind him then let go of Penny. "I didn't realize that you could drive, I knew about the walking." He didn't feel bad about letting Andre in, considering he could tell that Steph had clearly been avoiding this.
Alexithymiaa: "I..." She stammered, her mind reeling as she tried to think on her feet a little bit. "I've just been really busy. My friend had her baby... and we were staying in the hospital with her for a while..." // Andre nodded, leaning down to his bag and unzipping it to begin pulling out metal poles to click together. "I figured you were busy, but I can tell by how much you're still favoring that left side and by the fact that I told you to lose the crutch, literal and methaphorical that you haven't done much home therapy. Lucky for you, I brought you a present to make that a little easier for you." He said as he continued to put the therapy walker together, glancing up at Felix. "Oh, no? Yep, I want her walking on both legs and I want to see her driving again. I told her that almost three weeks ago. I didnt realize you didnt know." He was being smug about it. Tough love.-
Covet: He looked at Steph, just crossing his arms with an annoyed look on his face. "Well, then I'm glad you thought to stop by. Now I know to be on her ass about it a little more." He watched as Andre put the device together .
Alexithymiaa: -She chewed on the tip of her tongue, glancing down at her feet because she definitely didn't want to make eye contact with Felix right about now. "My priorities were elsewhere right now..." // Andre finished putting the walker together which was just metal bars that easily slid across the floor on furniture slider type things so she could brace herself on it in the beginning. "Well then this gives you the opportunity to readjust them." Zipping his bag closed, he returned to his feet, turning to look at them. "I didn't want to intrude, just wanted to drop this off since I haven't had the opportunity to work together with it. Since I doubt I'll be seeing you in the office anytime soon, please make sure you're using this every day until you're comfortable walking on your own. As long as you're not doing any sort of high impact activity, I'm okay with it. No excuses." He said, wagging a finger at Steph before he started to head for the door.-
Covet: "Oh she will most definitely be working on it every day. Would you consider Swimming to be a low impact activity?" He asked just double checking because Steph had told him Andre had cleared that, and he wanted to make sure she wasn't just making stuff up about that too. He followed Andre towards the door so he could let him out.
Alexithymiaa: "Well I-" She stopped when Felix jumped in, pursing her lips tightly and keeping her eyes on the floor. // "Swimming is a great activity. It doesn't put any pressure on the knee, but works to strengthen those muscles. Good for your heart, too." He said, pointing over at Steph. He wanted to make sure she heard him. "If you use that crutch too long, you're going to hurt that shoulder. Crutches really aren't meant for long term use." He walked to the door with Felix, stopping and lowering his voice so only he could hear him. "I know it's tough, so go easy in the beginning. It's only okay for her to cry and hate me, not you." He gave him a little pat on the arm before turning to head outside.-
Covet: Felix nodded his head, "Yeah... It's tough. I just wish she didn't feel the need to make it tougher on herself. Thanks Andre." He said as he closed the door behind him and made his way back into the living room area. " Sooooo. Sounds like we need to have a talk."
Alexithymiaa: "He's making it sound worse than it actually it..." She started, unable to actually look at him. She felt shitty that she lied, but she still really didnt want to do the therapy.-
Covet: "Stop." Felix said "He's making it sound exactly like what it is. So don't try to say otherwise. "You've been complainging about how bad your shoulder hurts, and you'd rather potentially injure yourself further, than take on the pain, that's eventually going to go away, the more you do your therapy." He stared at her, "Do you realize how stupid that sounds in theory, let alone in actuality?'
Alexithymiaa: "It's not going to go away. It's always going to be there. And now it's going to be even worse than it was before. You think every time the weather changes my knee doesn't hurt like a bitch? It did before I hurt myself again. And who's to say that once I start walking again and going back to normal things, that something stupid isn't going to tear it all over again? The doctor said it's even more fragile now than it was before. What if I'm just running down the stairs and it happens all over again?" She asked a little frantically, swallowing hard.-
Covet: "Steph. You're litterally using your crutch as a crutch." Felix said flatly. "I'm sure it does hurt, and it's frustrating, but it is, what it is. It was going to be this way with or without surgery. So all you're doing is giving me a bunch of excuses, and I'm sorry, but none of them are going to fly with me." He said then took a deep breath. " First of all, don't run down the stairs. That would be high impact and you're not supposed to be doing that. Secondly, babying something because it's fragile doesn't make it any less fragile. If anything it's going to make it weaker, or cause problems elsewhere. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know."
AlexithymiaaAlexithymiaa : "But I don't want to go through this again..." She said in a small voice, finally looking up at his face. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, debating back and forth in her head a handful of times before forcing the words out of her mouth. "Babe, I... I'm scared."-
Covet: "The only way you're not going to go through it again is if you do a full knee replacement. And if you thought this was bad, I can assure you that getting rid of your knee, for a metal one, isn't going to be any less painful." He told her. "I know you're scared, and that's okay. Nobody is asking you to run marathons or save a falling kitten. You can take it slowly, but you can't keep using your crutch. Or your shoulder is going to go through all of this same stuff, and then there won't be the possibility of joining the swim team at all."
Alexithymiaa: -She turned her head to stare at the therapy walker for a long minute. "Not a single part of me wants a metal knee. Even if I can say with more validity that I'm metal." She paused, giving aa jerky shrug of her shoulders. "I don't think I'm trying out for the swim team anyway..."-
Covet: "Well,then you need to start building your knee back up so it's not fragile. So that means this." He said pointing at the walker. "You might have to do it when you're older, but by then you'll probably want to just lay in bed with all your cats around you." He snickered, then tilted his head, " Why not? I think you have a real potential there."
Alexithymiaa: "I already just want to lay in bed with all of my cats around me. I don't need to be eighty for that." She said with a smirk. "Because it just seems like a waste of time. Everyone trying out is crazy good, and I haven't swam competitively since high school. I don't stand a chance against any of them and I'd prefer not to make a fool of myself."-
Covet: Felix laughed, and shook his head, " No you don't but you don't do it for very long, that's for sure." He told her then went to give her a hug. " I understand, but I think if you pushed yourself just a little that you could do it. You might start in low ranking, but you're also recovering from a surgery too, so your times would get better. If you happen to be good enough they might be willing to work with you on it."
Alexithymiaa: -She leaned into his hug, wrapping her arms around him and lying her head on his chest. "And if I'm not good enough and I get turned away?"-
Covet: Then we will find something else swim based you can do, maybe... synchronized swimming?" He said teasingly as he lifted up a little so that he could take her towards the bedroom. "Don't think I'm letting you off the hook for lying to me though. We take that shit seriously in this house."
Alexithymiaa: -She shot him a very 'fuck you' sort of look because go fuck your synchronized swimming. "I didnt really lie... I just didn't tell the full truth. It's different. And for good reason."-
Covet: "Witholding, or lying by ommission.. is still lying. Regardless of the reasons. If I can't get away with that line, then I'm not going to let you get away with it either." Felix told her, in a tone that said she didn't have a choice in the matter.
Alexithymiaa: "Still good reason..." She mumbled on their way into the bedroom, because god fucking forbid she give in and admit wrongness.-