Title: Yesterday to Tomorrow: Chapter Twenty-four, Accidents Happen
Rating: R [violence, swearing, nudity]

Summary: Chris and Alyssa go shopping to decorate bedrooms in their home.

Previous Chapter Baby Steps

Current Chapter Accidents Happen

Next Chapter Questions

Laying in bed with Chris, she stared down the bed, "Isn't it amazing?"

"What?" he asked, shifting to lay on his side, eyes on hers.

She pointed down at her feet, both of which were wiggling, "That."

He chuckled and kissed her temple, "Absolutely. But I may be biased."

Alyssa looked to his eyes, "Why's that?"

"Because I think everything about you is amazing," he commented, before catching her mouth in a kiss.

She giggled, "Silly. But really. Isn't it amazing at how happy moving my toes makes me?"

He chuckled, "Not considering the fact that we thought you would never wiggle those toes again a few weeks ago."

"Can we move back upstairs tomorrow?" Alyssa asked.

His hands ran down her face, "Are you sure about that? You've only been walking three days, Lyss."

"I know that. But I think the stairs would be good for me," she replied. "If I get the monks to say it's okay, can we?"

Chris shook his head, though he was smiling, "I don't need the monks for me to say yes to you, Alyssa. If you think you're ready, I'll give it a sho— chance. Just as long as you understand that we'll move back down here if you're not as ready as you think."

She nodded, "This means we need to go shopping!"

He arched a brow, "Why's that?"

"Brad told me that you haven't done anything upstairs since the fire. Just had it gutted," Alyssa replied. "We already need to go shopping for the kids' rooms, especially since they'll be here in three days. So we can just add our room to that too."

He hesitated, thoughts sticking to the words 'our room.' Smiling brightly at her, Chris nodded.

"We'll go shopping tomorrow. It would probably do us both some good to get out of the house for more than just your theraphy session," he decided.

Alyssa giggled and kissed him, "I knew you loved me!"


Wandering down aisles in a local home furnishings store, Alyssa leaned on Chris some. Sure she was walking, albeit as slow as the grandmother the aisle over, but it was still tenative. Ever so often her knees would buckle, usually just her left. It concerned Chris but he knew asking her to sit down or even use a walker would get him a slap in the face, probably literally. She wouldn't even hold onto the shopping cart for support.

"That one," she pointed at a bedding set displayed above the shelves of product.

Chris paused, looking at it, "You sure?"

"I told you before we came here, the reason we're going here is because it won't cost us four thousand dollars to outfit the kids' beds, so if it doesn't work out, it's okay," Alyssa stated.

"By that theory we could have gone to Walmart," he declared, reaching for the set on the shelf.

"Well sure. But we would have to replace it a lot sooner. Walmart quality...is meh," Alyssa replied.

"If we have Brad over more, we'll need to be replacing things anyways," he joked.

"Tim, darling. The fireworks were Tim's idea," she corrected, slowly starting to move down the aisle again. "Brad just stepped in to make sure it was safe."

"Whole lot of good that did," he smirked.

"Accidents happen, Chris. We're just fortunate no one was hurt," Alyssa stated.

As if Karma found that funny, she turned the corner and ran directly into a display that had been knocked over. Her legs didn't react quickly enough and Alyssa tumbled into the pile of sheets and pillows. A shock ran through her body at the collision and she didn't dare move for a few moments.

Especially when Chris's eyes widened and filled with anger at the lacking of the store's staff who hadn't cleaned it up. She heard him snap at a nearby employee before pushing aside the merchandise to get to her. Slowly she pushed her upper body up, her face red from embarassment.

"Baby, you okay?" he said quickly, hands reaching to help her up.

"I think so," she nodded slowly.

Her knees buckled as she stood, causing Chris's arms to wrap more tightly around her.

"Baby?" he muttered, that being all that he needed to ask, the rest of the question unsaid.

"Just shaken up. I'm okay," but she didn't push away his arms.

About that time the store employee returned with the manager. With Alyssa balancing herself, leaning some on the shopping cart, Chris laid into the manager. Her face turned a few more shades of red, her eyes apologetic to the employee.

Finally unable to handle it anymore, she stumbled towards Chris, grabbing his arm, "Leave. We're leaving now, Chris."

"But—"

"No buts. It was an accident. And now you've made matters worse. So we are leaving now," Alyssa declared strongly.

"But—"

"Zip it," she stated, before turning her attention to the store manager and floor clerk. "I apologize for my fiancee's words. He's been rather stressed with all that has happened in the past two months. I do not fault either of you for what has happened and I will not speak poorly of your store in the future. Excuse us."

Had she been able to, Alyssa would have stomped away from Chris at that point. But the issues with her legs' instability meant no stomping off, not even hurrying off.

"Lyss—"

"I don't want to hear it, Christopher," she seethed.

He fell silent at that. Not saying a word in the store. Helping her into the car, he climbed in, his eyes apologetic.

"Lyssa—"

"Not yet," she claimed. "I'm not ready to talk to you."