Elena caught her.
“That reaction,” Elena said quietly.
“That is what I mean.”
Ethan wiped his face with the back of one hand.
“I was happy.”
“To her, it looked like panic.”
He stared at Sophie.
Grace placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You have been panicking for a year.”
Ethan did not deny it.
He sat on the rug, still wearing the dark suit he had intended to wear to a morning meeting.
Sophie leaned against Elena, watching him from beneath her lashes.
“What do we do?” he asked.
It was the first time Elena had heard him ask instead of command.
“We contact her doctors,” she said.
“We tell them exactly what happened.
We ask for a trauma specialist and a physical therapist who will work slowly.
I can help with the routines they approve, but I am not licensed to replace them.”
Ethan glanced at the therapy ball.
“And this?”
“We stop unless they approve it.”
His expression showed surprise.
“You were using it five minutes ago.”
“I used what I knew from my training, and I kept both hands on her.
But progress does not make me her doctor.”
That answer disturbed him more than confidence would have.
Elena was not trying to prove she possessed a secret cure.
She was asking him to build a team and pay attention.
Grace sat beside Sophie.
“Will she walk again?”
Elena looked at the child before answering.
“I don’t know when.
I don’t know how far.
Nobody should promise what they cannot know.”
Ethan’s shoulders dropped.
“But she moved,” Grace said.
“Yes,” Elena replied.
“And now we protect that movement from becoming another performance she is afraid to fail.”
Ethan canceled his meeting.
Before noon, he had spoken with Sophie’s pediatric team.
The doctors were cautious but encouraged by Elena’s notes.
They arranged an evaluation for the following day and instructed the family not to force Sophie to stand again.
Ethan wanted to test her immediately.
He wanted proof he could repeat.
Instead, he sat on the playroom floor while Elena read a story.
Sophie remained beside the window.
For nearly an hour, nothing happened.
Then Elena rolled the stuffed rabbit across the rug.
It stopped near Ethan’s knee.
He reached for it automatically but remembered Elena’s warning.
Sophie leaned forward.
Her left hand touched the floor.
Her right knee shifted beneath her.
Ethan’s entire body tensed.
Elena glanced at him.
He released a slow breath and forced his shoulders to soften.
