Bane of my Own Existence

Former Boxer, current trainer. Single father of two boys, Dean and Forrest. Recent Widower, permanently exhausted.

[charles-kayson]

“Lucky might not be the right word.” Jessie chuckled as they unlocked the car door. “But yes a pitbull, I was doing an exam and I must have ticked him off because he kicked me right in the nose and eye with his back leg. Try exposing that to the emergency room staff.” It was still a story that many of her own staff laughed and teased her about.

Jessie started Charlie’s car, backing out of her driveway and heading towards the restaurant. Once she was on the main road, Jess reached over and found Charlie’s free hand and laced their fingers as she drove. “Oh poor Forrest. It’s a little scary for adults, I can’t imagine for a kid.” She let go of his hand, running it briefly over his hair before finding his hand again. “Lizzie has officially entered her terror threes stage. She gave me such a hard time today.” Jessie sighed, glancing over at Charlie for a second. “I don’t know how you do it with two kids.”

“I love your work stories, animals are so much more interesting than up and coming boxers.  I don’t want t feed into the stereotype that we’re all idiots, but it’s hard to find a conversationalist anywhere in my part of the gym, myself included.”  He relaxed into his passenger seat, he felt bad that he wasn’t going to be the best date tonight, but now that he had let his guard down he realized just how unwell he was feeling.  It wasn’t unexpected, a broken face bone, some painkillers and the fact that he hadn’t eaten all day were the perfect storm for a headache and an upset stomach, he pushed through it though, as he’d been missing Jessie and was looking forward to have some adult interaction with an adult who wasn’t trying to punch him.

Charlie smiled and squeezed her hand back, he was happy with her, even if he felt guilty for moving on after losing Ellie, but he knew she would want him to. “Yeah, I’ve looked the same his entire life, I think it’s just a little much for him.  He’s a sweetheart, but he gets overwhelmed so easily these days...I’m sure I’m babying him, but it’s hard not to.”  He was quiet for a moment and then smiled, “She’s just testing you, I remember when Dean was that age...the kid was on my last nerve for weeks at a time.  It’s tough , but if you stand your ground and be consistent and and you’ll be fine.”  He leaned over and gently kissed her cheek, trying not to wince as the sore side of his face touched hers, “I have complete faith in you.  You’re doing  an amazing job and giving Lizzie and amazing life, don’t sell yourself short.”

[lennonriley]

Lennon had decided to get out of the house and had made her way to the gym. She wasn’t cleared by her doctor for a ton of physical activity but she felt like she needed to be there. She had always loved the gym and had found it as a nice place to go and distract herself from everything that had been happening. She went in and found the weights. She knew she couldn’t do much but even just being in the building was already doing wonders for her. She picked up the light weights, the 5 pounders, and got herself settled. She couldn’t wait till she could do more but she also didn’t want to risk reinjuring herself or opening up her stitches. She used the weights, forgetting her surroundings for a moment as she started her workout. 

Lost in her thoughts, Lennon jumped when there was a loud sound of a weight dropping. It had instantly brought her right back to the war in her head. Sure, she wasn’t a soldier, just a reporter, but she was over there, she was exposed to the war and everything that went with it. She had seen firsthand people dying and explosions and it had taken a toll on her, one she hadn’t actually told anyone about, but when the weight had dropped, she had found herself down on the ground, covering her head as if it was the explosion in her unit all over again.

@charles-kayson​

[charles-kayson]

A good chunk of Charlie’s life was spent in this gym, especially since his wife had died the year before, there was always something there to keep his mind occupied when he was away from his sons, and the last thing he wanted was to be trapped in his own head as it was a dark place to be these days.  Typically he spent his time in the part of the gym that was reserved for boxing, as that was his job, but he’d recently taken a punch to the face and he had a fractured orbital bone, so he was taking a break from getting punched for a while and he wasn’t comfortable on most of the machines with how sore his face was, so he decided to do a little weightlifting before going home.  

He’d been totally engrossed in his workout when someone dropped a weight and distracted him, so he set his weights down and reached for his water bottle, slightly irritated at the disruption until he realized someone else was seriously more affected and he wanted to help if he could.  He quickly grabbed a water bottle from one of the fridges and approached her gently.  “Ma’am?  Are you alright?  I’m Charlie and I work here, but I’m off duty.”  He was rambling, but he’d found in similar situations that it sometimes helped.  He sat down near her, while still giving her some space, “I got you some water, if you’re thirsty, or you just want something to do with your hands, I’ve done that when I’ve had panic attacks before, sometimes it helps.”

[charles-kayson]

Jessie clicked her tongue against her teeth, her head shaking slightly. She know how much a black eye hurt, being no stranger to them, but this was just a new level of gnarly. The wince telling that it probably hurt more than he let on. “Dangers of the job, I suppose. You look worse than that one time I got kicked right in the face by a pitbull. Sucker gave me a nasty black eye.” It had been a hell of story to tell the ER staff; she still remembered how the nurse had giggled at her.

‘Okay, if your sure…but hold on.” Jessie help up a finger at Charlie, before darting back inside the house. She re-appeared a few seconds later with a bag of frozen peas in her hand. “I’m driving and you are going to be holding these to your eye.”  With a final wave at Dani, Jessie wrapped her arm around Charlies, squeezing his arm comfortingly. As they walked down the steps, Jessie glanced over at the man beside her. “Are you sure, Charlie? I don’t mind but gosh, I’m in pain just looking at you.” She shook her head, reaching up to touch her own eye. “I bet it was fun explaining this to the boys.”

Charlie smiled, “I’ve had some pretty impressive black eyes over the years, but this might be the best one I’ve ever had, and it’s not all that bad right now, I’m fine.”  He grinned again, “A pitbull? That’s an impressive story, much more interesting than getting sucker punched by an overly-excited boxing student.  I’m just lucky I haven’t broken my face before this, and it honestly could have been a lot worse.” 

“I’m sure,” he told her, but couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as the peas touched his face, it felt so nice.  “Alright, I can’t argue with that,” he said, handing her his keys.  “I promise, it doesn’t feel great, but they give me some decent pain meds and they’re taking the edge off enough that I can function, it’s alright.”  He laughed, “Dean thinks it makes me look tough, Forrest has cried every time he sees me, but it doesn’t take too long to calm down, it’s going to be an interesting week or so until this thing goes down.” 

[charles-kayson]

“Okay, so you should have everything and she should be fairly quiet for the rest of the night. My number and emergency numbers are on the fridge.” Jessie listed off as she grabbed her purse and finally looked up at Dani, her new blessing in form of a babysitter. Ever since they met on one of their routine vet visits at Luke’s farm, Jessie had taken Dani under her wing and the sweet girl in turn, had been helping her take care of Lizzie. It was only because of her that she was able to go on this overdue date with Charlie. Dating was hard. Add in demanding careers and children, sometimes it felt damn near impossible.

Giving a quick hug to Dani and placing a series of kisses on her daughter that earned her some giggles, Jessie finished grabbing her things. At the ping of her phone, a frown knitted at her eyebrows as she read the text message. “What did you get into now?” The brunette muttered under her breath with mild amusement as she opened the door. The mirth fell away fairly quickly the second her eyes landed on the nasty black eye on Charlie’s face. “Frankie….” She said softly, jumping on his earlier Frankenstein joke. Her fingers gingerly trailed along the side of his face, taking in the extent of the damage. If she dared to hazard a guess, she’d bet he fractured something. “Whoever put you together, didn’t do such a good job.” She joked lightly, sighing as she cupped his cheek. “Are you okay? We don’t have to go out; that looks like it really hurts. What happened?”

Charlie laughed and then winced just a little as she touched him, it wasn’t all that painful, but the area was pretty tender, “I’m a bit of a failed experiment, unfortunately.  It’s alright though, it looks a lot worse than it feels, I’ve had worse in the ring and the doctor says the bone should heal pretty quickly since it was just a small fortune. 

He gently touched the area himself, he needed to come up with a story that was believable and didn’t have anything to do with street-fighting.  It wasn’t that he was hiding it from her, exactly, he just never talked about it with anyone and he didn’t want to worry, but he needed the extra money the fights brought in, especially since he was one of the best fighters on the circuit.  “I just had some strong and enthusiastic newcomers at the gym this week, one of them got a little too carried away and really got the drop on me.  We can still go out though, unless you think I’m too mangled to be seen right now, I know it looks pretty bad.” 

[charles-kayson]

Between their jobs and children, it was sometimes hard for Charlie and Jessie to find time to go on traditional dates, but they had one planned for that night and he was determined to make it a good night, no matter what.  Unfortunately for him, the universe was throwing him curveballs that day, and while he was determined to pick her up and time and make it fun for them.  The night before, he’d been out late at one of his street fights and got the nastiest black eye he’d ever had, he hoped it would be better in a day or so, but by the time he had to leave for the night his eye was still dark purple and swollen shut, it looked pretty horrible and it was very sore, but he didn’t’ want to miss this date just because of a black eye and a slightly fractured orbital bone, if his doctor was to be believed. 

He got out of the car and texted Jessie from the doorstep, “Hey I’m here, but full disclosure, my face is pretty mangled and I didn’t want to scare you, so when you open the door, it’s not Frankenstein, it’s me,” and with that, he rang her doorbell. 

@jessie-m​​