Don't Give Up

Only he can help himself

"How is he?" Stevie asked Julia, waiting long enough for her daughter to take a seat in the living room. 

"Um..." Julia trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm not really sure, Mom. He's not worse, but he's not getting significantly better either."

"I don't expect him to start running tomorrow, but is he moving around more at all?"

Pulling her lower lip into her mouth, Julia shook her head, then sighed. "The only thing that's much better is his speech. Dad's still talking a little slower than normally, but he doesn't stutter anymore at all."

"That's good." Stevie smiled weakly. "That's something. Actually, that's a lot."

"I think so, too." Julia agreed. "But I spoke to the doctor who's looking after him and he said that Dad isn't too keen on taking part in physical therapy still. Well, he does, but not enough. He just claims to be tired most of the time."

"What do they want from him? Of course he doesn't posses the same level of strength like before the surgery."

"That's true, but Mom, how else is he going to get that strength or at least some of it back if he continuously lies in bed. His left arm is a little bit better, but he needs to work on his legs too. He doesn't." Julia emphasized. 

Stevie exhaled heavily, running a hand through her hair. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

"I wish for that too, but this one is on Dad. Only he can help himself." Nodding, Stevie opened her mouth to say something else, but she was interrupted by the doorbell. Julia raised an eyebrow, asking. "Are you expecting someone?"

"It's probably Mark." She replied simply and left the room, while Julia was a bit speechless. Who the hell is Mark?

"I'm sorry I took longer than I had planned." Julia heard a man's voice, followed by her mother's. 

"It's fine, the boys have been no trouble at all. I'll go and tell Tim you're here." Stevie said, then climbed up the stairs, leaving Mark waiting in the hallway.

Julia, still rather confused, stood up from the couch she had been sitting on and tried to make it seem like she was going to the kitchen, actually wanting to see this Mark. "Oh, hello."  She said. She had never met him before.

"Hi." Mark smiled. "You must be Julia. I'm Mark." He held out his hand.

Julia reciprocated, shaking his hand. "Yes, that's me." Well, he's definitely heard about me.

"You're probably wondering who I am. Your mother and I met at the park a few weeks ago. Your brother and my grandson were playing together. They became friends quickly."

"Oh, I see."

"I had something come up and asked your mother to look after Tim for a couple of hours." Mark explained further, but Julia was still skeptical for some reason.

Stevie then returned with the boys, Tim jumping into Mark's arms, while Zachary stood beside his mother, clutching her hand. 

"Thank you again, Stevie. You saved me."

"You're welcome." She gave him a lovely smile.

"We should get going. I'll see you soon, hopefully." Mark added and Stevie nodded her head, hugging him goodbye.

Minutes later, it was only Stevie, Julia and Zack. Julia wanted to ask about Mark, but she decided not to. What was so bad about her mother having made a new friend? A quite handsome male friend, but nevertheless.

"So I don't forget, Dad asked me for his lyric book or something. He said, you'll know what he means." Julia said, lifting her brother up and into her arms. 

"He wants to write?" Stevie asked, slightly surprised. 

"I don't know, he just wanted me to bring it." Julia shrugged and Stevie nodded her understanding.

"I'll go look for it. You two make yourselves comfortable, I'll start working on dinner in a minute."

~

The following day, Julia was on her way to Lindsey. She visited him nearly everyday. She didn't want him to feel lonely or forgotten, because he wasn't. Pulling into the parking lot, she found an empty space quickly. Having turned the engine off, she grabbed her bag with Lindsey's notebook in it and got out. 

Smiling at a nurse she recognized on her way to Lindsey's room, Julia stopped by his door and knocked, hearing Lindsey's voice, allowing her to come in. 

"Hi, Daddy." Julia smiled, walking to stand by his bedside. 

"Hey." Lindsey half smiled.

Pulling up a chair, Julia took a seat and opened her bag. "Is this what you wanted?" She asked, holding up the small book and Lindsey nodded.

"Yes, that's the one. Thank you. Put it somewhere in my reach." He instructed and Julia got up again to place the notebook by his right side, making sure to leave a pen as well. 

"How are you today?"

"The same as any other day, sweetheart." 

"Mom asked about you. Are you sure you still don't want her to come here?" Julia tried to soften her voice.

"I'm sure." Lindsey replied, clenching his jaw.

After a silent moment, Julia continued. "She met this man at the park, Zack was playing with his grandson. From what I gathered, Mom's spending quite a bit of time with him."

Lindsey couldn't breath for a moment, hearing that, though he didn't want Julia to notice that he was bothered. "Um... It's good that she has someone."

Julia didn't expect that to be his answer. She knew her father to be overly jealous. "Yeah, Mom was babysitting for Mark yesterday. They just met, but they seem rather warm with each other." She hated doing this, but Julia hoped this would anger Lindsey and he would ask to see Stevie.

"I... I'm happy your mother has someone there for her."

Sighing, Julia looked away. This was no use. Or so she thought. If anything, Lindsey was certainly not happy about it.