the sound of silence [open]

[Deleted]

 pieced back together with glue and duct tape

She had tried countless times to get her leg back to full functionality but something - perhaps, herself and her own fear - held her back. Even now, she was favoring her leg, bent over to rub the throbbing joint. She sometimes limped and other times... Well, she was lucky to even make it out of her house. It wasn't the first time she'd been shot but it had been the first time she'd been permanently incapacitated. How was she supposed to protect her loved ones when she could barely walk a few feet? Sure, she steamrolled ahead on her jogs but not without her physical therapist barking at her. She couldn't do much of anything anymore... Heck, she was probably lucky to be able to hold up a serving tray. 

A wry smile touched her lips as the wayward thought crossed her mind. Quite simply, she was a mess if there ever was one. It was a sad state of affairs, truly. Shrugging the thought off, she brought herself carefully down onto the beach's shore and slipped off her jogging shoes, dipping her toes in the water as the cool waves lapped lazily at the shoreline. She leaned her head back, letting the warm rays from the sun bathe her in their warmth. She didn't want to seem like she never saw the sun but, on the other hand, working an eight to five job and going to physical therapy after didn't exactly leave much room for fun. The only fun she really seemed to have was on weekends when she spent time with her nieces and nephews. 

She sighed quietly and closed her eyes, tapping out a quiet rhythm on her thighs. To a certain degree, she missed being a detective but, ultimately, she knew that it was a life she wouldn't be able to return to... Not without a miracle, in any case. She scrubbed her hands over her face, frowning thoughtfully, as her pale hair framed the soft contours of her face. For being almost forty, she knew better than most that she could easily pass for late twenties or early thirties. She took pride in her good genes, as it was one of the few things people couldn't take from her. They could take her job, certainly, but she wouldn't allow them to take much else from her. She bit down on her lower lip and shifted uneasily, resting her head in her hands as she looked out over the water. 

► kaigra ◄

[Shani McGuire]

Shani McGuire

Shani was trying to make an effort to exercise more; it was an effort she had never said she would stick with as some half baked idea at the fire house that wanted them in the best shape. Had they seen her shape, she was a parent of two children under ten and a husband who was a cop that she hardly saw anymore. It was a shape and it was her shape, she spend her day running around after her family then swinging into a paramedic shift at the fire house. What more shape did they want out of people? Yet Shani was attempting the crazy, her fitness tracker stuck to her though she figured it she tied it to a shoe lace and swung it around her head a few times the thing would light up and say she had run for miles. As the saying went walk in another person’s shoes and see then how a shape hardly mattered anymore. Running had always been a way to release tension for her but she hardly had the time to even try it until the children were back at school and her shift pattern had changed a little which meant she barely could say hello to her husband before one or the other was out at work. Shani had caught sight of another woman running though she seemed to favour her leg; at first it seemed to be perhaps a jogging injury. A missed step or a twisted ankle but then as Shani watched she moved down to the shore, dipping her toes in the water. Shani jogged over feeling a stone in her shoe and landed herself far enough away from the woman to not appear like a stalker but close enough for a conversation as she laid back against the sand. She pulled off her shoe and shook it out to dislodge the stone. The sand felt like home to her, a small piece of Chicago that let her feel like she was back in Israel. Watching with curiosity for a moment when the woman rested her had in her hands Shani smiled over. “Hi.” She said deciding that was about as none threatening as it came from her. If anything she was straight to the point and that never usually sat well with people she found. “Are you okay there? You seem like you might have hurt your leg?” Shani asked figuring that the woman likely knew that already but there was no harm in stating that she had seen it. “I’m a paramedic; do you want me to take a look?” She offered not entirely sure what she could do with no kit apart from wait for other medics if needed but she was still attempting to be friendly. @willow (Notes: Hope you do not mind me jumping in)