Wheels of Steel, Book 2 (14 page)

She heard someone rush into the restroom and then beat on her stall. “Hey! Are you the one with the retarded guy?! He’s having some type of fit!” Robin’s heart crashed against her ribcage in one large leap. She ran out of the restroom to see a crowd of people so dense that she could not see past them. She could not see Jason! She pushed past them and they parted for her.

Jason was on the floor kicking and clawing violently. It was a bad one. She’d never seen him thrashing so violently!

“Jason!” She dropped down next to him. A man was cursing and pacing back in forth.

“He bit me!” He held his hand to his chest. Blood had just begun to appear from the broken skin. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as her eyes rose to the man, holding his bloody hand. Then she was robotically turning Jason’s head to the side. His mouth was clenched and he was kicking violently. Once his head was turned to the side saliva began to dribble from his mouth.

“Please baby….” She rubbed his back gently. “Please…” His muscles slowly calmed and he went limp. She waited for his quick intake of breath; his gasp. But it didn’t come. He wasn’t purple, he was blue.

“Jason?!” He’s not breathing. He’s supposed to start breathing, it’s normal to lose your breath but it’s supposed to come back. “Breathe, Jason! BREATH!” Jason lay there limply on his side; dying.

Suddenly a waiter pushed past them. He reached down and grabbed Jason under his arms and lifted his limp body from the floor. The man’s strong arms went around Jason’s middle and with three sharp thrusts a partially chewed chicken tender flew from Jason’s mouth.

Oh god, he had been choking on food! But he still wasn’t moving. Robin watched as if through a pool of slow moving water, the way the waiter placed Jason back onto the floor. He turned his head to the side and used his finger to sweep out the inside of his mouth; which amounted to the last bits of partially chewed food.

Then the man placed him onto his back and began to administer CPR. Robin stared numbly. Jason was dead. Jason’s not moving. He’s blue, he’s not breathing…

There was a loud gulp from his still body and then he was suddenly sucking in air. He reached up blindly and began clawing weakly at his throat. The waiter backed away as Robin lunged forward and gripped Jason into a tight hug.

“Breath, baby, I’m here. Breathe.” After a moment, his ragged breathing calmed and he lay limply in her arms, but at least he was breathing even if he still hadn’t completely regained consciousness, he breathed. Someone was making the crowd move away, but Robin could barely tell how she knew this as her attention was so intent on the semi conscious young man.

She was shaking so badly that she was almost having a seizure herself. That was the first thing that Jason knew when he regained consciousness; that he was laying on the floor and that Robin was holding him and sobbing. He remembered her dashing off to the bathroom and then he remembered the chicken tender going down the wrong pipe. He was coughing and trying to bring it up and then the seizure. That was the end of his memory until he awoke in Robin’s arms.

He reached up weakly, hugging her. “Robin?” She pulled back enough to look at him frantically. Jason saw that several of the restaurant’s staff was crouched on the floor with them, talking and trying to get them up. But Robin was staring at him with wide, shocked eyes.

“You stopped breathing.” She spoke in a stilted tone.

He gave her a weak smile. His throat hurt and so did his ribcage. Jeez…He had choked bad.

Robin allowed someone to help her to her feet, but Jason could plainly see from where he was struggling to sit up on his own that something was wrong with her.

“Sweetheart?”

But then they were suddenly ushered from the room; Jason was given assistance with his crutches and the two were shown to an office. Papers were signed while Jason craned towards Robin. She stood stiffly, her eyes too big for her face.

“Robin?” Her eyes swung to his but she didn’t respond.

Papers were offered for them to sign and before they knew it, they were being ushered out the back entrance with two gift cards in their hands. Jason reached out for her hand.

“I can’t.”

He frowned. “You can’t, what?”

She couldn’t do this. She wasn’t equipped for this type of job. She wrung her hands and headed for the car. Jason stood there and so Robin had no choice but to return to his side.

“Jason, I can’t take care of you. You almost died because I left you alone!”

So that was it. “Baby, that always happens-”

She threw her hands up. “No! Not like that!” Her eyes bulged as she got in his face. “That waiter in there gave you CPR and revived you! You were dead…” The last word cracked and she took a step back. Jason’s mouth was gaped open. The two were behind the mall area where there were just parking, and thankfully no people.

He wheeled forward. “No, honey. I wasn’t dead. You said breathe. I heard you say breathe.”

She paused. Doubt appeared on her face. He’d heard her? Jason watched her with clear eyes. He had not heard her. He never had a memory of the events that occurred while he was seizing. But he knew her. After weeks of seizures he knew that she would tell him to breathe. He held out his hand again.

She shook her head, appealing to him. “Please get another Assistant, Jason. I can’t do this-”

“Do you love me?”

“Yes!”

“Then who will be a better Assistant then you?”

She tried not to look at him as the tears splashed from her eyes. She swiped them away angrily while staring into the sky. “Someone who is not so fucking stupid.”

“Robin.” After a moment she looked at him. He had a sad look on his face. “You’re not stupid. You just did what anyone else would do; you panicked. Sweetheart, how many times have you helped me?”

“But not when it mattered!” When it mattered she had just stood there watching him die. Tears splashed down her face. She couldn’t do this! She couldn’t be responsible for killing him because she did stupid things like run off to the bathroom, or fall asleep, or even leaving him unattended in a car…

She hurried to her car and opened it. Jason had a pained look on his face and he was pale with the beginning of bruises appearing beneath his eyes. But he didn’t say anything as Robin helped him to sit. But once she was inside he reached out and placed his hand on her leg.

“Robin…” He took a deep breath which dragged raggedly through his lungs, but his gaze was steady on her. “I know that this…job is stressful. You have an ulcer to think about. Your health is the most important thing. If…” He cleared his throat. “If you can’t deal with this then I understand. I understand.”

His words were like a splash of cold water. Not able to deal? It wasn’t her ulcer. Jesus, she’d messed up again. Now he thought that she was bailing because of his disorders. Robin took a deep breath and placed her hand on his.

“Jason, you don’t think that I’m saying that I don’t want to be with you, do you?”

He looked at her and after a moment gave her hand a slight squeeze. “Maybe you should reconsider that too, Robin. I won’t blame you, Sweetheart, if you want to break up-”

“No!” Her grip tightened on his. “I’m not leaving you. I just found you!”

The sadness was still present on his face though he offered her a shaky smile. “Whether you are my assistant or not, these are the problems that will always follow me. As my girlfriend, you are still going to be exposed to these things.”

“I didn’t mean it.” She whispered. “Jason, that’s not what I meant.” It crushed her that she had hurt him. And she could clearly see that he didn’t accept her words. She would have to struggle to find the right way in which to explain. “Jason, when I fell in love with you I never once thought about you having CP, or being in a wheel chair. I didn’t think about your seizures, I just wanted to be with you.” He watched her closely, searching for the lie in her words.

He smiled. “If you don’t want to be my aid-”

“Shh! I was hysterical, but I’m okay now.” She leaned forward and kissed him and he scooped her close and returned the kiss.

He pulled back and looked at her. “You don’t have to do this-”

“I know.” They just stared at each other and then Jason nodded. “But I want to. I really do.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” She started the car and they drove in silence for a while.

“I’m sorry about…what I said to the old lady. You were right. I could have handled it differently.” He could have said a lot worse and would have if Robin hadn’t been there. But he would never tell her that.

When she thought about all that was wrong with her; the fact that she didn’t stand up for herself, that she held things in until she made herself sick and the way Jason stood up for himself, spoke his mind, she felt stupid for even suggesting that he be different. Look at her. She was a freaking mess. “No Jason, I’m sorry. Who am I to tell you how to-”

“Someone who’s opinion I respect a great deal. That’s who you are. And I’m willing to listen to what you have to say.” Jason knew that Robin had been right. No one had ever taught him that there was a certain way that he should speak to people. His mother had been so wracked with guilt that her son had accepted the abuse of his Aids without telling her that she had taught him to lash out in anger; because his anger would be his protection. And then the Aid had fallen down the stairs because of his angry approach, and the only thing his mother had said was, ‘she got what she deserved.’ This approach was all that Jason knew. And he knew that he was very fucked up in his own right.

Chapter 10

They were late and so had to hurry to rehab. Thankfully they were much too late to have time for the Jacuzzi, as Robin felt very little desire to saunter around in her bathing suit. Jason quickly changed in the locker room and Raymond didn’t chastise him for his tardiness once looking at the tension that was evident between the two of them. Robin looked like she had been crying and Jason looked like someone had straight up bitch smacked him. He hoped the two would make it. Jason had been through a lot in his life and if that sweet, mild mannered girl was still here with him, then maybe it was mean to be.

Raymond unstrapped the braces from the young man’s legs and then froze. He and Jason exchanged looks.

“Your joints are badly swollen.”

“No shit.” Jason responded. Raymond ran his hands up both legs, over his feet and ankles and then had him lay on his side where he examined his hips. He had him sit up and then Raymond gripped his legs in his big strong hands and bent it, rotating the knee cap.

Jason grimaced and bit back a cry, his eyes were tightly squeezed. Robin moved forward from the seat that she had selected next to Raymond’s desk and stood next to Jason.

“What’s wrong with his legs?”

Raymond was glaring at Jason. “You need to see an orthopedic specialist. You need to be fitted for leg braces meant for walking.” He turned to Robin, holding one of the knee braces. “This is for standing, to keep his knees straight. Not for walking correctly.” He looked at Jason again. “And since you’re off the Baclofen your legs have weakened a lot.”

“Baclofen?” Robin asked. “What is Baclofen?”

No one said anything. Raymond moved to get heating pads which he placed on Jason’s knees. Finally he spoke. “Did you tell her that you used to be able to walk? Without crutches?”

Robin gave Jason a shocked look. But he wouldn’t meet her eyes. He was staring sullenly at his knees. Finally he spoke. “I learned to walk the way any toddler does. It took me longer and I limped and fell more often. But I walked the way Amberly does. By the time that I was about seven the seizures got worse until I was losing consciousness and I got a wheelchair so that it was more convenient. My mom would go to work and the Aid I had would keep me tied in bed or to the chair for the whole day. I didn’t ever think to tell her…it just seemed sort of like, what I had to do; like getting the shots, taking the medicine. So she didn’t know.” He met Robin’s eyes. “I don’t blame my mom for that. She blames herself. But it was just convenient for her to wheel me around. She never understood that I had lost those muscles. Then when she would have me walk, I was on my tiptoes.”

Raymond was massaging Jason’s feet and he interjected. “When a person is restricted to a wheelchair they have to have physical therapy to keep the muscles limber. Once they atrophy it can never be undone. All that can be done is to surgically release them. In other words, to cut them. Jason’s muscles had to be cut so that his legs could straighten and his feet could flatten. That’s what he means when he says that he was on his tiptoes.”