The Four

Chapter 30

"Are you going to talk or are you going to be silent again?" The older man asked a twinge of annoyance in his sentence.

"Is that rhetorical?" Emmet responded with a slight sigh.

"You can't keep doing this you know" The other man responded, "You're going to be getting back into the car next week."

Emmet glanced to the side of the beige office knowing that he was right. It had been a full month and a half since the crash and he had been in physical therapy during that entire time. Along with that he was also in therapy to talk about everything going on in his life.

"Are you ready?" The man asked him, trying to get a proper answer out of him.

"Are we talking physically or mentally?" Emmet looked back at him, "Physically, yes."

"How are you feeling mentally?" He was trying to get more than just a surface level answer out of him but he knew it would take a lot more than just a few questions.

"The same" Emmet smiled at him, not in the mood to have a full conversation about his feelings. Therapy wasn't even his idea in the first place.

His therapist, Shane Porter, wanted to sigh but didn't. Instead he put a smile of his own on his face and tried a different approach, "We never did talk about why you are here in the first place. I know we discussed the crash but why are you here? Do you want to talk or do you just want to sit in silence."

Emmet stared at him trying to figure out what he was doing. He had a feeling that it was all a way to get him talking and unfortunately it worked.

"I don't know why either, it wasn't my idea to come here or go to physical therapy. I was happy never getting into a car again." Emmet responded by twisting one of his rings.

"Whose idea was it?" Shane asked him with caution.

"My girlfriends, she said and I quote, 'I'm Niki Laudaing you.'" He sighed as he leaned back in the black couch he was seated on.

Shane raised an eyebrow, "Niki Laudaing?"

"Niki Lauda was a famous formula one driver who got into a really bad car crash that resulted in the side of his head being burned. After his crash he went on to win fourth in the Italian Grand Prix. That was only six weeks after." Emmet gave a brief explanation, "Her reasoning was if he could do it then so can I"

As he continued on talking about the conversation that he had with her in the hospital the scene became clearer and clearer in his head.

"They said you can start physical therapy next week" Melanie slid the topic into their conversation with ease, "They also said if you start now you can be back to racing in no time."

Emmet looked over at the brunette woman, an eyebrow raised. He had no idea she was even thinking about him racing again or even talking to his doctors about it.

"What if I don't want to go back to racing?" He said with a small shrug, "Last time I did, I was almost killed."

"Well my dad's gone and I think you can trust me not to kill you" Melanie laughed a little trying to make light of the situation.

Emmet gave her a small smile before shaking his head, "No Mel I don't think you're getting it. I don't want to race again. I'm done"

"You're quitting?" Melanie asked him slowly as she tried to figure out where this was coming from, "Emmet. NASCAR was your dream. Are you seriously going to give it up?"

He listened to her words and as much as he wanted to continue on racing he didn't think he could. What had happened to him and shook him to his core. You can't immediately want to jump back into a car after the people you originally trusted hurt you. He didn't even know how good he would be after his injuries. His back was completely scarred over. How could he sit in a car after that? The burns would never fully go away, they would be there as a constant reminder of what happened. Same with his ribs, two of them were cracked! It would take a while for his leg to heal as well.