Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, or the characters, and chances are that I never will.
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Enjoy the final chapter!
But it wasn't as easy as Alex may have hoped, it wasn't as simple as just putting the device on and walking. Ben showed Alex over to an exam table.
"Okay Alex, let's get you up onto the table, do you want any help?"
"I'm good," Alex replied as he went to the end of the table, against the wall, and used the controls to lower the table, before positioning his wheelchair alongside the table, and put on the handbrake. He then grasped one hand on the side of his wheelchair and the other on the edge of the table, and with great effort he lifted himself over onto the table.
He was getting used to having to use assistive devices and different methods to get around, part of him had now resigned itself to the fact that things would never get back to how they were.
Ben only helped Alex shift his legs into line, the dead weight was much harder to move, especially given that Alex still had some weakness in his arm, his fine motor skills were fine, but lifting, stretching, those sorts of things were hard, it made transfers difficult, but Alex was learning to adapt the action to suit his abilities.
They moved on as soon as Alex was in place, there was a lot to cover. "Now, Alex what we're gonna do is put your body in this piece, strap you in, then we'll put both of your legs into these pieces, they'll hold your legs steady, while you use your torso to swing your legs up and forward one at a time. You up for that?"
Alex was certain that he was, "For sure."
Ben adeptly fastened the RGO to Alex's body, explaining what he was doing as he went.
Once the device was on, no sooner than Ben had stood up and moved to the side, preparing to help Alex stand, when Alex used his arms to push himself up off the table.
Alex started to fall, his legs couldn't hold him, luckily Ben managed to catch him before he hit the floor.
"Easy Alex, easy," Ben urged as he helped Alex ease back onto the table, he then motioned to another physical therapist, Trey, and called out to him, "Trey, you give me a hand over here?"
"I thought…" Alex began, he had thought that he'd just be able to stand, when he stumbled, to was so scary, so unexpected.
"I should have warned you that it takes some practice."
Feeling stupid, Alex just nodded in acknowledgement.
Once Trey came over, Ben and he stood at either side of Alex. Ben then explained to Alex, "Now, what we're going to do is, me and Trey here, we're going to hold onto your arms, you just put all your weight onto us as you stand up, if you feel okay with that then we can have a go with a few steps."
It was shaky and awkward, but Alex managed to take five small, shuffling steps.
A major victory for Alex.
When Izzie, Meredith and Christina came to visit that evening, Alex was still beaming, standing on his own two feet, even though he had been dependent on the RGO and two physiotherapists, knowing that he was finally on his way to getting his life back was the best feeling.
"Geez, Karev. What's up with you? There a leaking nitrous tank around here?" Christina asked jokingly, as Izzie and Meredith more gently greeted Alex.
It wasn't until his friends, his family had sat down that he told them, "I walked today." It was all he could do to make it sound casual, no big deal.
Their eyes bulged out of their heads. "You what?" Izzie asked disbelievingly.
"I walked."
"How?" Christina asked, she was curious, what had the therapist done to get her colleague, who was paralyzed, to walk.
"An RGO, reciprocating gait orthosis. Ben wanted me to try it, you strap it on to your torso, then your legs, stand up, and then you use your stomach muscles to lift and swing one leg after the other. It's slow as, but it beats being in a wheelchair."
After finally seeing that he could get back to somewhere close to how he'd been before the accident, Alex began to really push himself in physical therapy, and just six weeks later, Dr Gordon, Alex's attending physician summoned Alex to his consulting room.
There he suggested something that was both exciting and terrifying to Alex.
"We think that it would be good for you to have a trial day out of the centre. Whether it is just for you to go home, and spend some time there with your wife, or you could go out, have a picnic, go to the shops, whatever you'd like."
"I… I don't know…" Alex said, the idea of leaving the centre, a place where no one looked at you if you were in a wheelchair, or had a scar running around your upper arm, it terrified him, he knew he looked different, all the work he'd done, it still hadn't gotten him back to what he was before the accident. Even with the RGO, it was still obvious that he was now disabled.
The doctor smiled understandingly, "I know it's daunting, going back into the real world, almost all of our patients feel that way. It's easy in here, no one judges you, it's supportive, out there, honestly it isn't. But if we take time to plan it, talk to Izzie, it's more likely that we can set up your outing so that it can be a success," He paused, "If you manage alright, we'll start doing home modifications, and such, and see if we can get you home."
The next weekend, Izzie and Meredith picked Alex up from the centre in Meredith's car. The first difficulty they encountered was getting Alex into the higher vehicle, but Alex had worked on this with the occupation therapist, and after a couple of tries he succeeded, without Izzie or Meredith's help, as much as they had wanted to help, Alex had been insistent that he could do it.
They just went home, spent the morning there, and that felt fine, not far from normal. But after lunch, Izzie wanted to go out, and Alex agreed, just the two of them.
Throughout their outing, all Alex cared about was making sure that no one was staring at him, but no matter what he tried, short of getting back in the car and going home, people stared. He was walking with the RGO, but having a large series of metal and plastic strapped to his legs, and that drew attention, at least a long sleeved top hide the scars on his arm.
By the time Alex returned to the centre, though he had kept up a tough façade, he was wrecked, he had no idea how he was going to manage this everyday when he was released.
Of course the councilors and therapists talked to Alex about the experience, but he hadn't told them just how much it had bothered him. He could handle it on his own.
Alex was released from the centre two months later, and officially finished four months after that, he still hadn't returned to work, and he wasn't going to. His injuries prevented him from returning to the surgical program, and he wasn't going to settle for general practice or dermatology.
Things were tough, but Alex and Izzie were figuring it out. They would get their lives back, albeit very different lives.
The End