Day 27

magfreak:

(Day 1)
(Day 4)
(Day 10)
(Day 23)
(Day 26)

The attending doctor who had seen to Tom at the hospital had prescribed him a pain killer after stitching him up, while Sybil waited at the nurse’s station and mostly unsuccessfully avoided questions from colleagues about who her friend was (“He’s just my neighbor!”). So she insisted to Tom, after it was all done, that he get home, take his medication and rest, but she herself did very little resting once in her own house later. She spent many hours laying in bed thinking about how wrong she she’d been, how funny and interesting and intelligent he was, how well they’d gotten on in what might have been a terribly awkward situation, and what was supposed to happen now.

So she wasn’t entirely surprised—but no less touched—when she stepped out her front door the following afternoon to go for a run and found a small vase with flowers with a note on her welcome mat.

Thank you for coming to my rescue. -T.B. 

Sybil couldn’t stop herself from smiling as she brought the flowers inside and forced herself to take several deep breaths before going back out to knock on his door.

When she did, he opened it with a slightly concerned look on his face and said, “You may want to run for it while you have the chance?”

Sybil narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“SYBIL! So good to see you again!” Sarah popped up behind Tom and took Sybil’s arm to escort her into the kitchen, where Moira was stirring something at the stove and Caitlin was at the table looking at her mobile. 

“Perfect beef and barley stew, if I must say so myself,” Moira said as she looked up. “Oh, hello!”

Caitlin also smiled at her brightly. “Hi, again.”

“Thank you so much for taking care of him last night,” Sarah continued. “He can’t get out of his own way sometimes.”

“I do just fine,” Tom put in, “no thanks to sisters who abandon me while I’m bleeding.”

Caitlin looked up from for mobile. “Hey! I fetched you a doctor, you big baby.”

“It was very kind of you to take him to the hospital,” Moira said. “He showed us You didn’t have to stitch him up yourself, did you?”

“No,” Sybil replied. “They likely wouldn’t have let me anyway. The emergency care doctors at my hospital like to protect their turf, and I’m actually a pediatrician.”

Moira’s eyes widened in delight. “You are?!”

“She has two very accident prone boys,” Sarah explained.

“Not accident prone so much as too daring for their own good,” Moira said.

Sarah laughed. “The phrase, ‘Hey mam, watch this!’ hasn’t gotten so much use since this one,” she said pointing to Tom.

“Says the one who did everything I did just to prove she could,” Tom replied.

Sybil smiled. “How old are they?”

“Seven and four,” Moira answered.

“Wonderful ages to be,” Sybil said. “It can be tough on parents, but letting them explore and play really is the best way for them to learn who they are. Telling them to be careful is important but not to the point that it discourages activity. Many pediatricians wouldn’t say so, perhaps, but broken bones are much easier to mend than broken spirits.”

Moira looked over at Tom. “Oh, Tommy, we are definitely keeping this one.”

Sybil bit her lip and looked over at Tom who was scratching his forehead in embarrassment.

“And on that note,” Sarah said, looking pointedly at both Moira and Caitlin.

Caitlin stood abruptly. “Uh, yeah, I’ve got to be home.”

“Sure, you do,” Tom said, in a tone that suggested he’d seen this coming. 

“She does!” Sarah said.

“And so do we,” Moira said, putting a lid on the pot she’d been stirring. She quickly grabbed her purse and followed Sarah (who was pulling Caitlin along) out the door toward the front of the house.

Tom and Sybil continued to look at one another as the slam of the front door rang through the house. 

“Do they always leave so quickly?” Sybil asked with a smile.

Tom looked at her with a smile for a long moment. “Sometimes they don’t leave quickly enough.”

Sybil blushed and looked down, not sure what to say or do next.

“So, um … fancy some beef and barley stew?”