“It’s okay. We’ll go slow. I’d like to try fifteen seconds at a time. We’ll try it three times today and work our way up,” Lila explained. “The injury you have has a good chance at healing if we do this right.”

“Fifteen seconds at a time? No. I’m trying this once and then I’m done.” Noelle shifted her arms and that was when it happened. Her right leg moved from the hip but in an odd, coltish fashion. Her foot slipped and Noelle headed for the ground.

Her father was the slightest bit too slow to catch her. She hit the ground with a dull thud.

The room went silent. Lila knew it was a good thing, but sometimes the patient didn’t understand. She knew Armie was going to break soon. He wouldn’t be able to watch his baby in pain.

He dropped to his knees beside his daughter. “Sweetie, are you okay?”

“It hurts,” Noelle said, her shoulders shaking.

“I’m so sorry.” Armie’s whole being was focused on his daughter.

“Daddy, it hurts.” Noelle’s head came up, and sure enough there were tears streaking down her face, but a smile was there as well. “My leg hurts.”

Pain. It could be sweet. The world went watery, the two people in front of her crystalizing in a picture she would never be able to get out of her head.

It was enough.

It had to be.

She looked at Armie and Noelle, holding on to each other, and she wanted to be with them. It was an actual ache in her body, but she took a step back. She wasn’t a part of that family and it was time to let them be, to let them bond over this new beginning. She would be there for the next session. She would watch as Noelle healed and took back her future.

And maybe someday Armie would be ready for a relationship. It probably wouldn’t be with her, but she would be happy for him because she loved him. Her heart hurt as she forced herself to walk away. This was love, the real thing. It wasn’t selfish. It wasn’t the mad passion of her youth. It was a quiet belief in another person, a prayer that her love could protect him whether or not he could return the feeling.