Lachlan's P.O.V.
I was so frustrated that I almost wanted to throw the glass that I was trying to hold across the room. I knew that Vikk could sense my frustration because he pulled my gaze towards him and squeezed my free hand, encouraging me to breathe slowly.
"You're doing great but have patience okay, you can't expect everything to come at once." He kept on with the breathing exercises until he was satisfied that I was calm, but I was annoyed.
I had been trying out my prosthetic arm for over a month by that point but still nothing was getting any better. I couldn't pick up anything other than a glass for a few seconds, and even then I dropped it back onto the desk because I couldn't keep it in my grasp.
"Okay I think that'll do for today Lachlan, keep trying it out at home and we'll see you next week?" I nodded sullenly, allowing Vikk to take my hand and led me from the doctors office and back out to our car.
As soon as we were back in the car and in our seats I cried out in frustration and leaned against the car door, my head buried in my arm. There had been a lot of frustration and anger over the past few months as I struggled to cope with what had happened, everything often becoming too much. Vikk leaned over to hug me.
"Hey Lachlan, hey, oh- oh no, don't cry." The tears of angry and sadness had begun to slip from my eyes, everything coming to the top. "It's okay Lachlan, I know you're frustrated and nothing I say will help but just let it out."
We drove home hand in hand, Vikk's left in my right and his other hand on the wheel. I was still crying, frustrated and angry at myself and whatever forces had caused all of this mess and drama in my life.
The mess and drama was mostly surrounding the fact that I lost my left arm.
I had been out on a run in the morning and was crossing the road when a car came speeding down the road at almost double the speed limit, catching me and pinning my arm against a parked car beside the road. My left arm had to be amputated from just above my elbow as there was no saving it.
I was in hospital for well over a month, struggling to recover from the amputation as well as broken legs, ribs and possible spinal injures. Although the spinal injuries never amounted to anything, everything else took at least 6 weeks to heal so I spent that time unable to do anything.
It took another month before I could spend most of my time at home, having come back to hospital every day for physical therapy and counselling which eventually saw some improvements on both counts.
Vikk stuck by my side the entire time, staying at the hospital while I was there, driving me to and from hospital each day and putting up with my outbursts when things got too much for me. He honestly put up with everything.
Back at home we spent most of the rest of the day laid out on the couch, a movie on the television screen and a bowl of popcorn by our feet. Vikk knew I preferred silence over talking so he didn't pressure me to talk at all, simply allowing me to lie in silence.
I had my prosthetic off. I mostly refused to have it on at home because all it did was remind me of how much I couldn't do and although Vikk tried to encourage to wear it so I would be better at using it, I still refused. I simply wanted to pretend that nothing had ever happened.
"Lachlan?" I didn't bother to lift my head. Vikk sighed sadly, carding his hand gently through my hair as a few more tears slipped from my eyes. It wasn't surprising to me that I had been diagnosed with depression just a month after the accident, followed by anxiety just a week after that.
"Please? Can you look up at me?" His voice was pleading, thick with emotion. I didn't look up but I turned my head a little so he could see me, too tired to lift it properly. He sighed.
"I know you're tired. I know you're frustrated. I know you want to give up and not keep going anymore but for my sake, please, keep going." He was crying by that point too, hugging me tightly. "I don't want to loose you, not again."
He was referring to the time my heart stopped in the surgery to amputate my arm, which I did end up coming back from.
"Please, for me, keep trying." I sighed.
I didn't want to keep trying but I knew that, for Vikk's sake alone, that I had to keep going. As much as I just wanted to just stop, to give up, I couldn't. And all of that was because of Vikk.
"I'll try." I breathed, still too exhausted to lift my head. Vikk smiled to himself and just let me lie there, hands in mine and peppering kisses along my hairline on my forehead.
"Thank you for not giving up on me."
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With a shaky hand, tongue stuck out in concentration, I reached my prosthetic hand out to the glass on the table in front of me, trying again to lift it. It was the week after the frustrated breakdown I had and I just plucked up to try again, not at the hospital this time, but at home.
Vikk was sat beside me a camera pointed at the glass and at me, to film my progress. They were the only videos that went up on my channel and were probably going to be the last of my videos as I didn't think I would be able to go back to YouTube, even after my recovery.
"That's it, that's it." Vikk praised me as I managed to get a hold on the glass, pausing as I took a breath, the strength I needed to lift it from the counter. "Come on, you can do it!"
And with all my concentration focused on the glass, my plastic fingers squeezed the glass tighter and I managed to, slowly and shakily, lift the glass from the desk. I was so surprised that I almost dropped it but I managed to keep a grip on it, just.
"Yes! That's it Lachlan, you've got it!" I held the glass in the air for around a minute before slowly lowering it back onto the desk, flexing the muscles in the top of my arm to open my fingers. And it worked, to my utter and complete amazement.
It had rarely before that, the nerves in the end of my arm having been damaged so much that the doctors had considered getting a specially made arm for me because of the nerve damage.
"It- it worked? It worked!" I crowed happily, throwing my non-prosthetic arm up into the air.
"You did it." Vikk came around to my side having turned the camera off and hugged me tightly. "You really did it."
He turned my head and our lips touched in a gentle and loving kiss that told me everything he needed to say, without speech.
Our foreheads touched and we simply sat in silence, basking in each other's warmth.
