Page 38 of Hold Me Down

He was going to white-knuckle it through this recovery no matter what.

* * *

Of course, white-knuckling it and trying to do things on his own wasn't so easy when he had a partner trained in paying attention to his surroundings.

Not only would Travis hand him a glass of water before Dave could fully sit upright from his slump to reach for it, but he also fetched him the second package of cheese sticks, a paper towel, and the remote Dave dropped when he tried to grab the paper towel roll from the coffee table.

It was honestly embarrassing how clumsy Dave was now, but Travis didn't comment on it even once.

Which was the worst part of it, in a way, because if Travis had teased him, Dave wouldn't have even raised an eyebrow.That's what they did, after all—constantly ribbing each other and not taking each other too seriously.

But there was little to no teasing tonight, both of them in their heads—or maybe Travis was really that invested in following the ridiculous plot of the show they'd put on. The crime was convoluted, the prosecutor's case was sketchy at best, and while Dave had checked out of the show halfway through the episode, he'd seen enough to know the cops had mishandled critical evidence.

Finally, when the episode was over, he decided to put himself out of his misery at least for the day, and go to bed early. There was hoping tomorrow would be better, but for now, he was done.

Waiting until Travis busied himself in the kitchen with the pizza boxes and plates, Dave stood up on his own again and grabbed the crutches. He knew he had no chance of going upstairs without Travis noticing, but he could at least get a head start.

Or not.

"You heading up?" Travis appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, and when Dave nodded, he stepped closer immediately. "Okay, let's do this."

"No," Dave protested too loudly, stopping Travis in his tracks. "No, thanks, I'll be fine," he added in a softer tone, even though he didn't meet Travis's gaze as he put his crutches on the first step.

"I thought we went over this—"

"Well, that was before, now it's later, and I want to do this on my own, okay?"

Dave snapping was a truly rare thing, so it made them both pause. He immediately felt guilty, of course, but he was determined to stand his ground on this one.

"Sorry, it's… I really need to do this myself."

For a minute there, Travis looked like he was going to argue.

Then, he nodded.

"Okay."

Still, he didn't move from his place already at the bottom of the stairs, so after a couple of seconds of staring, Dave resigned himself to asking.

"You're not going to watch me go up, are you?"

Narrowing his eyes briefly, Travis shrugged. "Humor me and my overbearing tendencies."

How about you humormeand back off, Dave wanted to say, but he thankfully swallowed the words back. He really was tired of his own bullshit today.

"Fine," he gritted out before facing away from Travis and climbing the first step, then the next one, and the next.

It was slow going, and his arms ached more than when he had Travis to lean on, for sure, but he was doing this. He was going up the fucking stairs on his own, and it might be a silly thing to be proud of, but tonight, Dave would take it.

He needed that win.

Unfortunately, his body wasn't as happy with him, and he was a sweaty mess of tight muscles by the time he got to the top of the stairs.

How ridiculous was that?

"You good?" Travis spoke up from below, and Dave would bet everything he owned that if he asked Travis for help now, the man wouldn't even blink, wouldn't throw it in his face, because he understood Dave's thirst for independence more than perhaps anyone Dave had ever met.

And yet, the words wouldn't leave his mouth.

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