Chapter 73: Aftermath

Warren was in the hospital for a week. He was recovering, physically.

Warren and Tim's next door neighbor, John, had a double room but had never had a roommate. They talked it over, and agreed. Tim offered to move in with John, so Sophia could stay with Warren. "He's gonna need you, Soph. I know how shook up he is." Sophia gratefully accepted their kind offer, and helped Tim move his stuff.

When she brought Warren home from the hospital, that's the first thing he noticed.

"Where's all of Tim's shit?"

"He moved in with John, so I could stay with you as much as possible."

"OK."

The next day, the police called. Warren went down to a lineup, and picked out the four guys. They were still attending Watson's campus meetings, and the police had grabbed them there, based on Warren's descriptions. And physical evidence proved that one of them was definitely the one who had raped Warren. Because that was in the papers now, word of the rape got out. One of the effects of that was shock and disgust even among the Watson acolytes, because the irony that Sophia had spoken about was lost on no one.

Sophia was glad that the goons had been caught--although she wasn't looking forward to Warren having to go through a trial--but she had bigger problems: getting Warren back on his feet.

It wasn't going well. It was a week after he had come home. His parents had flown back a couple days earlier, so it was all up to Sophia, and she wasn't having an easy time of it.

"Warren?"

"Hm?"

"The doctors said you could skate. We have our ice time tomorrow morning. Want to give it a whirl?"

"No."

"We really should, soon, you know. We need to see if you can get to the point where we can go to Worlds. It's only a month and a half away."

"I'm not going to Worlds."

"We might be able to. If your wrist can handle it, we might be able to."

"No."

"OK, we'll talk about this later." She took a breath. "Hey, you want to go out? Get some food, hit a movie? Might be fun."

"No."

"Warren, you can't just sit in this room, except for going to class!"

"Sure I can. Watch me."

"Oh, Warren." She went to touch him on the shoulder. He flinched. She backed away, trying to hide how upset she was. "Oh, by the way, Christine Arsenault wants you to call her. I've got her number."

"Oh."

"You should call her. A good flirt might be what you need," she said playfully.

"No."

Sophia sighed. "Warren, you and Chris have been friends for a long time."

"Yeah, but she's a skater. I don't want to have anything to do with skaters and skating."

Sophia just sighed, and went back to reading her book.

A couple days later, Sophia was on Warren's computer, checking her e-mail.

"Hey, Snugglebear. You should see the lovely e-mail I got from Anya Malekova. She's such a sweetheart."

"Hmmm."

"She even offered to fly out here, at her own expense, and help us get up to snuff for Worlds if we need it. Might be a good idea."

"I told you, no Worlds."

"Come on, Snugglebear. You're healing. Your ribs are better, your legs are fine, and they are going to change that cast on your wrist to a splint. We just have to rechoreograph around your wrist a bit. I think you can skate. We should try."