You're My Way Home, You're My Backbone.

Brendon has never been in a physiotherapy room before, or at least one that had more than just a massage bed and a few posters. Seeing all the fancy equipment wasn’t all that nerve racking as he thought it would be. Instead it was quite interesting. Most of the exercise machines in the room were surrounded by posters showing what they did and what part of the body they worked.

He kind of wanted to try them out just for fun. The Pilates bed in the back corner of the room looked the most fun, having all the springs and straps. Brendon doubts he would be using them and currently wasn’t physically able to, so he didn’t ask.

The wheelchair he was sitting in came to a stop in the middle of the room. Taking his attention away from the fancy equipment, he watched as Rose – the physio- walk around to stand in front of him.

“Is this your first time being here?” She asked, her voice was extremely light for how easy it was heard.

“Yes.”

Rose smiled gently and crouched down to his eye level. He was glad she did that because it was awkward sitting in a wheelchair and having to look up at someone like that, plus Rose was pretty tall. Maybe even as tall as Dallon now that he thought of it.

“Being that you don’t have much in the way of muscle damage, this maybe will be you’re only full physical visit here besides checkups. A lot of what you’ll be doing is home exercise routines.
Depending on how well you can walk at the moment, which is what we’re going to test today.”

Brendon nodded picking at the ripped fabric on the arm rest. He already knew he can stand taking his full weight on his leg but hasn’t tried walking yet without someone holding him. The nurses had agreed that it was probably best if he say the physio before attempting that. There really was no point being in hospital longer than he already had to.

“To start off with, we’ll try standing and walking on flat ground. Then we’ll move on to stairs and other steps. If you need to you can grab onto my arms at any time to keep you balance. You leg is a little weak and will be for a while to start with, so don’t be embarrassed that there might be some things that you can’t do yet. It’s normal.”

Brendon nodded again and showed a small but nervous smile. Rose smiled encouraging back and reached out carefully pulling Brendon’s feet on the ground and put the foot rests up so he could stand. Rose stood quickly holding her thin hands out.

He took the offering and shuffled forward in his seat.

“Keep your motions slow and even. Tell me if your leg starts to hurt at all.”

“Okay.”

Taking a deep breath Brendon slowly stood keeping most of his weight on his left leg at first then slowly evened it out.

After a minute or two, Rose took a step backwards gesturing for him to follow, keeping their hands locked. Stepping off he felt a small ache in his leg where the stitches are pulling lightly at the skin. He kept following as she kept taking small steps back until they reached the far left wall of the room.

“You’re doing great!” She smiled brightly. “How is it feeling?”

“Good.” Brendon said glancing down. “It’s aching a little but I think it’s from the stitches more than anything.”

“Okay, but the second it starts to hurt more, say something. Keeping quiet will only make it worse. Now we are going to walk around the room in a circle slowly from your left.”

Brendon nodded, more focused on his balance than talking when Rose let go of one hand. Slowly but surely he turned and took two small steps. Rose copied his steps keeping pace, free arm out ready if her help was needed.

Considering that this was the first time Brendon had walked on his own and only two days after the operation, he was quite surprised how fast everything was going. He actually though he would find walking a little harder for at least a week and maybe even relying on crutches more. So far he was doing fine, a little slow with small steps but it was marginally better than his little hobble he had going for the last two weeks.

It took around fifteen minutes or so to get across to the room, only stumbling twice. He laughed it off and kept going not letting it worry him. When he reached three fourths of the way around the pain started to flare up.

“It’s starting to hurt down the side of my shin to my ankle.” He said as he came to a stop. “That normal?”

“Yes, the muscle in the area where the tumour was located are tighter than what they should be, which is stretching them. With time, use and stretching exercises, it will even out as the muscle builds strength. For the next couple of weeks you have to be careful not to over work it.” She explained in a professional matter.

“Do you know how long it will take for me to get full used again?” Brendon asked curious and slightly worried.

“Can’t say for sure,” Rose said apologetic. “It would be a couple of weeks to a couple of months. It all depends on how fast you leg heals and how well you keep up with home physio.”

Rose smiled softly reaching out to link Brendon’s arm with hers. She slowly turned him around and back the way they came allowing him to rest his weight on her, and lead him over to the three small stairs in the corner that went into a wall. Brendon gripped the handrail and slowly lowered himself down onto the top step.

Letting go of his arm Rose set on the bottom step and picked up Brendon’s leg placing his foot on her knee. She pressed her fingers into the sore area above his ankle moving her thumbs around in circles. He bit his lip and wiggled his toes.

“At least I have more balance than before.” He muttered. “The amount of bruises I ended up with was ridiculous.”

“It’s amazing how such small growth can alter things.”

Brendon hummed in agreement and Rose placed his leg down so his foot was on the step next to her hip. She sat there for a moment in thought.

“We’ll try,” She started to say brushing her hair back from her face. “Walking up the stairs, then I’ll show you the excises you can do at home.” She smiled.

Brendon grabbed the handrail again and pulled himself up, eager to be able to do more. Sitting in a bed for two days isn’t all that great entertainment wise. It felt good to move around almost independent again. He thought about how awesome it will be to be able to move around on stage again like before all of this happened, and grinned.

Rose smiled knowingly and helped him spin around to face the small staircase. She took a step up with her right leg. Brendon copied.

*
Walking down empty hospital hallways was something that was never comfortable for Jon. He just did not like the silence and the aloneness that filled the space. It was like a mini maze to get to the room Brendon has been staying in, which was near the back of the ward closer to the operating room at the back of the building. When Jon finally reached the door he walked in around the corner to stand at the foot of the bed.

Brendon looked up from where he was sitting and smiled softly as his head titled to the side in question. On the bed in front of him were all his things ready to take home and a pair of folded up crutches.

“Hey,” Brendon greeted. “I thought Spence was going to pick me up?”

“He was, but he’s out like a light on Ryan’s couch right now.” Jon frowned slightly. “So I borrowed his car to pick you up instead.”

Jon walked around the opposite side of the bed to Brendon and sat down on the edge. He started placing clothes in a bag he had brought with him.

“He’s not sick is he?” Brendon asked in a worried tone.

“Nah, his next door neighbour’s kid turned twenty one. They have been partying for two days straight. He turned up at Ryan’s around four in the morning and literally crashed on the couch.”

“Oh.” Brendon blinked handing Jon a t-shirt.” Shouldn’t the police have shut the party down by now?”

“You would think so.” Jon muttered.

Brendon grabbed the last of his clothes from the bedside table. He honestly didn’t think he had so many with him and realised that Ryan much have brought him an extra change at some point. Pulling open the second draw, he pulled out his iPod and other knickknacks.

Once he was sure he had everything, Brendon did a double check anyway, the nurse walked into his room pushing a wheelchair. Jon stood up and quickly moved to the side slinging the bag so his shoulder as he went.

“Dr Carol just signed your release papers; you’re officially free to go.” The nurse smiled pushing the wheelchair around as close as possible to the side of the bed. “I’ll wheel you to the front entrance, has you ride home been all set?” She asked before glancing at Jon, who nodded.

“Got everything?” Jon asked patting the bag slung over his shoulder.

Brendon nodded and slid along the bed closer to the wheelchair. With the nurse’s help Brendon got into the chair easily, placing his feet on the footrests as the nurse spun him around and slowly worked their way out of the room. Jon picked up the crutches from the bed and quickly dashed forward to open the door.

“Can we get some food on the way home?” Brendon asked hopeful.

His breakfast was horrible, like eating carpet but he wasn’t about to say that in front of the nurse.
“Sure,” Jon flashed a lazy grin. “Where are we heading to, yours or Ryan’s?”

“Whichever. Doesn’t bother me.”

Jon hummed and followed Brendon as he left the room with one last glimpse. That last look reminded him that, yes, that part was over now and he got through it. The tumour was out of his leg, out of his body. For good.

He smiled to himself and looked up at Jon, only to smile brighter when Jon looked up from his moving feet. Jon returned the smile like a mirror image.

The hallways were still quiet as they headed for the front entrance. Once out of the building Brendon sighed and closed his eyes briefly when the first bit of sunshine washed over him. It was warm on his skin, refreshing. The nurse stopped wheeling the chair in a patch on sun by the pickup bay.

Jon quickly made his way over to Spencer’s car, parked not far from the hospital doors. Within a couple of minutes he pulled up right in front of Brendon, pulled the parking brake and got out, opening the passenger door before the nurse could.

The nurse took one look at the car and frowned. Brendon quickly realised why, Spencer’s car wasn’t exactly the best thing for this, but on short notice it was the only car available because Ryan’s car wasn’t much better. Brendon realised that they should have thought of this earlier as Jon could use his car being that it was the only on that wasn’t the side of a truck or a tin can.

“I’ve got him, don’t worry.” Jon reassured, smiling as he leant down to Brendon’s level.

Brendon wrapped one arm around Jon’s neck and let himself be pulled up. It took a few awkward move and the nurse holding the car door open because it kept trying to close on then, before Brendon got safely into the passenger’s seat. Somehow he managed not to knock his bad leg on something and counted that as a win.

“Good luck with everything.” The nurse smiled pulling the wheelchair back away from the car.

“Thank you.”

With another smile she walked back into the building, Jon rounded the car and got in.

“What do you want to eat?” Jon asked, taking a quick glance at Brendon while pulling out of the pickup area.

Brendon shrugged settling back against the seat.

“Something that’s not hospital food.”

“It wasn’t that bad was it? That jelly was revolting but everything else I snuck bits of wasn’t too bad.”

“Hit and miss. Breakfast this morning was like eating cardboard.” He blanched at the memory. “Whatever is close to where we’re going. You’re the driver!” He half sang.

“And you’re the passenger.” Jon shot back playfully.

Brendon laughed and reached for the stereo skipping songs on the CD Spencer had in the player until he found one he liked better. Jon turned the volume up and laughed when the seat started to vibrate from the bass controls Brendon was playing with.

“Were going to get in so much trouble.” Brendon said loud enough to be heard over the music. “What else can we do?”

Jon snickered evilly pointing to the CD case on the floor by Brendon’s feet. He wasted no time in opening it, rearranging all the discs out of alphabetical order.

*

“Do you think Spencer will still be asleep, or Ryan for that matter?”

Jon looked over his shoulder at Brendon bitting back a laugh. He pushed open Ryan’s front door with the keys he borrowed, or actually took-meaning-to-give-them-back before Ryan noticed they were gone.

“With how loud we had the car stereo? I doubt it. They probably heard us from three blocks away.” Jon laughed stepping through the doorway. “How the fuck did the speaker not blow up?”

“The fuck if I know. I was expecting smoke to pour out at any second!”

They both laughed entering Ryan’s living room. Brendon poked his head around the door frame the best he could balanced on crutches, checking the couch to see if Spencer was awake yet. By the light snoring it didn’t sound like it.

Ryan raised an eyebrow over his cup of coffee. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they did something to Spencer’s car with how loud the music was. Everyone did it because Spencer was the first one to buy a car that wasn’t an old bomb. It became a weird habit. Jon shrugged grinning and wondered off down the hallway out of sight.

“ ‘Morning.” Brendon greeted, moving towards the table Ryan was sitting at slowly.

It was still weird walking with crutches. It wasn’t new or anything but it still made him feel like they were going to slip under his weigh on the polished flooring.

“Hmm,” Ryan hummed around his coffee swallowing a mouthful as he placed the cup down. “Good morning. Walking better today?”

“Yeah. Leg feels a lot better too, can’t wait to get the stitches out.”

“When’s that?”

“Next week.” Brendon smiled.

Nodding Ryan picked up his drink again taking another mouthful finishing it off. He stood, walking over to the sink.

“Did the doctor talk to you about the chemo?” Ryan asked sounding unsure if that was something he could ask about.

Brendon nodded, though Ryan wasn’t facing him, trying not to frown. The news he got this morning was better that he thought it would be, but knowing he had to have the treatment wasn’t something to be happy about.

“She did. I’ll tell everyone when Spencer is up.”

He made a mental note to ring his parents when he got back home about it. They had yet to come and visit him but Brendon had no hard feeling about that. He got they lived so far away. They made it up by calling a lot, almost every night.

“Do you want me to wake him up, or?” Ryan offered.

“Nah, let him sleep. It can wait a couple of hours.”

“Probably a good idea. He’ll be calmer when he finds out what you two did to his car.”

Ryan gave him a hard look. Brendon looked away snickering to himself. Messing with Spencer’s car was the most fun he had since going into hospital.

Jon walked out of the hallway then, into the living room and snuck around the couch to the coffee table. He placed the car keys down and walked silently towards the kitchen table smiling widely.

Ryan smiled shaking his head.