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possible…She won’t go and set this venture up if I’m not sorted out so I need to practise getting by on my own.” He pulled his prosthetics back over what remained of his limbs and stood up carefully. He could immediately feel the difference with the two socks and he balanced himself before he took a step forwards.
    Colin grinned encouragingly at him.
    “There you go! Easy , don’t lean so far forwards. Now let’s just get you walking slowly again. Hold onto the bars until you’re confident. As I said, there’s no time limit on this. Some people take to it like a duck to water and others struggle. You have some of the best hydraulics in those legs but they’re not easy to get used to. Your thigh and buttock muscles are going to give you hell by tomorrow.”
    David rolled his eyes and then winced as he placed one leg carefully in front of the other.
    “Thanks, just what I needed to know. More pain. ”
    “It’ll get better as your upper thighs strengthen again. This is just a beginning. Remember, you were lying flat on your back for weeks and then you had months in a wheelchair. I know that you have kept reasonably fit but this is something else entirely, a whole new ball game. Prosthetics are no joke, they’re damned heavy and your thighs, glutes and stomach muscles are going to take up all the strain of that weight with no help. You’re going to need intensive physiotherapy over the next few weeks but you’ll soon see and feel a difference. You’ll feel better in yourself too once you’re back up to man height. Being four foot two rather than well over six feet can’t feel good. Wheelchairs don’t do much for your self-esteem either. All that conversing with belly buttons and crotches can become dull I’m told.”
    David laughed aloud.
    “You’re not wrong there. Ellen always sits when she talks to me but most people don’t even think about it and carry on chatting right over my head. I could make up a book about the different type of fly buttons and zips there are. I could also tell you a lot about some people’s underwear. Not what you want to see all the time, I can tell you. It’s most off-putting when you discover that your dentist wears Batman pants. It gives whole new meaning to the expression, ‘flying.’”
    It was Colin’s turn to laugh.
    “He doesn’t! Nice. I suppose that wearing Batman is better than wearing Robin but from now on, just in case I ever go ‘flying’ anytime, I’ll remember to make sure I’m wearing Iron Man undies at the very least!”
    David nodded and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
    “Might as well give the ladies an idea of what to expect,” he grinned back at Colin and grunted as he reached the end of the bars. He steadied himself before he turned around to head back. Every step was an endurance test but he was not about to fail it.
    Steve had saved both his and James’s lives that day, putting his own on the line as he had cut David from the wreckage of their burning vehicle. On a several occasions in the last months David had been less than grateful to his friend for that small service and in his lowest moments had even contemplated taking enough pain killers to end it all but now that he was feeling better and able to stand, he was thankful.
    Seeing Ellen’s smiling face every time he came to the breakfast table was more than enough to tell him that she would have been devastated if he had died. He couldn’t bear the thought of how unhappy she might have been.
    He took a determined breath and let go of the bar as he took his next step. It took an agonizingly long time t o reach the other end of the supports but he made it. Several people in the room cheered him as the perspiration ran from his brow. He gave a little bow of his head and felt better than he had done for weeks. He could walk. Such a small thing that he’d always taken for granted, but he would never do so again. He lifted his head and looked around the room at some of the other