Zoe's breathed deeply through her nose, enjoying the pleasant soreness of her legs, even enjoying the blisters on her toes she knew would appear again after this afternoon.
A quick glance in the mirror told her to straighten her posture and she admired her graceful shape for a moment, before focusing back on the task at hand.
It was surprisingly hard to master the art of thinking about your next steps but appearing completely serene, mind blank, focusing on nothing but the beat of the music. It had taken Zoe awhile, but her teacher said she was now not thinking so hard. She wasn't quite sure what she had changed, exactly, but whatever it was, it was obviously the right thing.
So as she extended her left leg up, bringing it out into a perfectly straight line as her arms moved in beautiful patterns above her head, her mind was racing forward to her next move, the run and leap into Christophe's arms, then the throw, then the catch and dismount, all while keeping your body perfectly posed.
Zoe took a deep breath, then ran and leapt, and it felt like clockwork, all was going to plan... until...
She remembered the sensation of flying, revelling in the wonderful freeness that accompanied it, before suddenly, there was a sickening crash which was surprisingly close to her ears. Then there was a second of darkness before the pain.
Zoe lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, her left arm feeling strangely disconnected, yet painful. Her left ankle was twisted in an almost impossible position, and even though she lay on her back, she could see the dots of blood on the chest of her leotard from where her face had smacked into the floor.
And it was the sight of blood, more than the pain, that made her wail.
~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Tulsa, a phone was ringing.
Diana and Mackie
Diana was preparing dinner when the phone rang. Just as she was going to put down what she was doing, she heard the ringing stop, so she didn't worry about it.
"Mom?" called Mackie.
"Yes, honey?"
"It's for you."
"Do you know who it is?"
Mackie shook his head. Diana sighed and gave her hands a quick rinse under the water, dried them off and picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
Zoe
"Mrs Hanson, this is Tanya, Zoe's ballet teacher... there's been an accident."
Zoe was trying her hardest to stop crying, the hot tears prickling at her eyes as she bit her lip.
Diana and Mackie
"An accident?" Diana repeated. "What's happened?"
"She had a fall. One of her shoulder's looks to be dislocated, and she's twisted her ankle. We don't think it's broken or anything. Her nose was bleeding for a bit, but that's stopped now - I don't think she's injured it really," Tanya replied, the voice of experience. "I can get her down to the hospital, if you like, and meet you there? Or would you rather take her yourself?"
"I'll take her," Diana said. "You must be busy with the other girls. I'll be right there."
"See you soon."
The women hung up. Diana put a halt to her cooking so that nothing would get burnt, bundled Mackie out to the car and drive down to the ballet school.
Zoe and Avery
"Owowowowowowow," Zoe was chanting silently to herself.
"Zo?" Avery's prescence appeared in her mind. "You ok? What's happened?"
"I fell over at ballet and mommy's coming to get me," Zoe thought back. "I'm ok. I think. It hurts."
"It's ok, Zozo," Avery replied. "Mommy will take care of you, and you'll be better in no time. If you need me, call out, ok?"
"Ok, thank you Avie."
Diana and Mackie
Diana parked near the door and walked inside.
"Oh good, you're here," said Tanya. "She's just in there. I'll help you get her out to the car."
Diana nodded.
"Mackie? Can you open the back door please?"
Mackie nodded and bounded off back to the car while Diana followed Tanya to where Zoe was lying.
"Hi honey," she said, trying to keep the distress off her face as she sensed what Zoe was feeling. "How you doing?"
Zoe
As soon as Zoe saw Diana, she burst into tears.
"Mommy!"
Diana
"Oh honey."
Diana leaned over and gave her a gentle hug, careful not to touch her dislocated shoulder.
"We'll get you down to the doctor, and he can fix you all up," Diana said. "Here, we'll help you to the car, okay?"
Zoe
Zoe hiccupped.
"Ok, Mommy."
She looked at Mackie.
"Hi."
Diana and Mackie
With Tanya's help, they supported Zoe during the walk to the car so that she didn't have to put any weight on her foot and settled her inside.
"Thank you," Diana said to Tanya.
Tanya nodded and went back inside while Diana and Mackie got into the car.
"We're on our way. We'll be there soon," Diana promised Zoe.
Zoe
Zoe nodded, hiccupping every so often.
"Mommy, will I be able to dance again?"
Diana and Mackie
"Of course you will, honey," Diana replied with every confidence. "It's not at all unusual for dancers to have accidents occasionally. You'll be fine."
Mackie turned around to face her and started pulling silly faces at Zoe to make her laugh.
"Almost there."
Zoe
Zoe giggled.
"Are we seeing Randy?"
Diana and Mackie
"Yes," Diana replied as she turned into the driveway.
"Here we are," Mackie said cheerfully.
"Can you run inside and let them know we're coming? And hold the door open for us?" Diana requested.
"Okay."
And as soon as the car stopped, Mackie bounded to the front door of Randy's office. Diana got out and helped Zoe out of the car.
Zoe
Zoe carefully got out of the car, making sure she didn't apply any pressure at all to her left side.
"Owowow," she mumbled.
Diana and Mackie
Diana was helping Zoe into the office when Mackie returned, holding open the door and Randy's wife (and secretary) stepped out to give her a hand.
"Thank you," Diana said to her when they got inside.
"No problem," she replied. "Oh you poor thing. Randy'll be with you soon. He's just finishing up with someone else at the moment."
Zoe
"Mommy, can we sit down?"
Zoe was breathing heavily with the effort of making it from the car into the room.
Diana
"Yes, of course, honey," Diana said.
The secretary pulled up a chair so that Zoe didn't have to move to one.
"You you go, darling," she said. "I'll go see where Randy's up to."
She trotted off and Diana patted Zoe's healthy shoulder gently.
"You'll be all right soon," she assured her.
Zoe
"Ok, Mommy."
Zoe nodded and carefully sat down.
Diana and Randy
Diana waited impatiently for Randy to arrive. At last he excited the room along with his wife and his other patient. The patient left and Randy walked over to Zoe and knelt down.
"She had a fall at ballet," Diana said.
"Ahh. Well, this we can take care of," Randy said.
He put a hand gently on Zoe's ankle and in moments it was healed.
"Try not to put too much weight on it for the next week or so," he advised. "And skip your ballet classes."
Zoe
"Ok."
Zoe tried to nod without hurting her shoulder, but then just gave up.
Randy
Randy gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Okay, I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder now. I apologise in advance if that hurts. It will only be a moment, so I can numb the pain for you. Then I have to put it back into place, okay? You might feel a jarring motion - you'll definitely feel it going back into place, but because I'm numbing it, it won't actually hurt."
He stood then, and put his hand on her shoulder as gently as possible. He used his power to numb her shoulder and the surrounding area, and then with a mix of his atom manipulation and physical force he pushed her shoulder back into place. Healers were generally adept at using atom manipulation on living tissue.
Zoe
Zoe felt her shoulder slide back to where it was meant to be, although she felt none of the pain or discomfort there should've been. It was a strange feeling.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
Randy
"You're welcome," Randy replied. "Try to rest that arm a bit. It'll probably be a bit sore after the numbness goes away, but that'll pass. Is there anything else sore?"
He couldn't sense anything else, except for a recent nose bleed. Still, it didn't hurt to ask.
Zoe
Zoe shook her head.
"No, that's all, thank you," she said again.
She looked up at Diana.
Diana and Mackie
"I'll just settle up and then we can go home," Diana replied.
She walked over to the desk where she settled the account with the secretary. Mackie shuffled from foot to foot until she was done.
"Okay," Diana said at last. "Let's go."
Zoe
Zoe waited patiently, and followed her mom and her brother out.
"I'm sleepy," she said.
Diana
"I'm sure you are," Diana said as they piled back into the car. "It's been an exhausting afternoon. Did you want some dinner when we get back home? Or would you rather go straight to bed?"
Zoe
"Ummm, I think I'll just go to bed, Mommy," Zoe replied.
She yawned and rested her head against the seat.
Diana
The trip home was done in silence. When they arrived, Diana carried her tired daughter up to bed, and then resumed her dropped dinner preparations for the rest of the family.