"You really are adventure guy, aren't you?"
Jake Green lifted his head slightly, cocked it to the left and squinted to see the silhouette of the questioner. He had decided to take advantage of the quiet morning and the bright sunshine, after some extensive prodding from his parents, and take a well-earned late morning nap. Outside. He had spent the long previous night with the town's leaders in Mayor Gray Anderson's room in the clinic. His father, the former mayor, had also been present. Johnston Green had apologized to his son on their walk home, their three in the morning departure from the meeting consuming a goodly amount of Jake's rest time.
Johnston had come to realize these last months what a good man his oldest son had become, and what an invaluable resource the town had in his smart, intuitive, inventive and compassionate offspring. He had been hard on his son when he'd first returned. They still weren't communicating great, but when they were more comfortable with that part of their relationship, he would have to make sure he told his son how sorry he was for acting the way he had.
Gail Green had warned both men to not stay out too late. Johnston knew that the directive had been intended for him, the true meaning: don't eat into Jake's recuperative sleep time with meetings that could be held during the day.
"Your mother's going to have my hide," he said as he watched Jake yawn for about the seventh time during their walk home; he had been counting.
Jake shrugged, feeling the stiffness in his shoulders brought on by hours sitting in the same position in the cramped room. "I'm afraid you're on your own there, Dad. I'm heading straight to bed."
"Your concern for my welfare is a little underwhelming, son," the senior Green had said as the two stepped through the back door into the kitchen.
"Good night, Dad," Jake replied with a grin and another yawn.
The younger Green went straight to his bedroom, but his internal clock, or his heightened sense of responsibility to his hometown and the many people he cared for there, had him up early. He had been up and running by seven. By the time Johnston and Gail had corralled him and convinced him to come home for a nap and then lunch, it was near ten o'clock in the morning. He'd been forced to admit that he was ready for the break; his parents held their tongues and chose not to tell him that he looked like crap. They said, rather, that he looked like he could use one.
"Adventure guy? I'm lying on a lounge chair and trying to take a nap."
"It's forty degrees out, Jake."
"The sun's out and I have three…" he felt to verify the count, "make that four blankets on." His mother had evidently decided that he'd needed another one after he'd fallen asleep. He'd felt warm and toasty, the three scarves, one hiding most of his face, and the blankets helping to lull him into a sound sleep.
"You'll be sorry when you get pneumonia," Emily spat back smartly. She regretted it as quickly as she'd said it, remembering too late that Jake could well have developed the illness from the aftermath of the accident just a couple of weeks before. She wondered when their shared complicated past would allow them to talk to one another without reverting to the negative. The incident with Roger had sparked her anger with Jake once more, but reason had ultimately prevailed with her; she wished that the same could have been said for Roger.
Emily knew that she needed to take a step towards reconciling her feelings from the past; her confusing, conflicted feelings for and about Jake Green. Now seemed as good a time as any to start.
"Damn it. Sorry, Jake. That was a thoughtless thing to say."
"No, it's okay," Jake answered as he sat up in the chair. It seemed that nap time was over. "It's been a rough time for you. How are you doing?"
"I'm okay," she answered, by rote. Jake recognized it as a stock, practiced response; not a lie, but not the complete truth, either. She'd probably been asked the question a lot lately. He decided to let it ride. For now. "I came to talk to your mom about getting the kids back to school."
"My mom?" Jake asked. He marveled at his mother's ability to juggle so much, and to remain as positive as she was after all that she'd been through. Where did she find the time? And the energy? And the will? He smiled a little as he realized how much of his mother he had inherited, despite his mom's insistence that he was a chip off the old block. He decided that Gail Green needed to take a look in the mirror, because he was as much Gail Green son as he was Johnston's.
"What are you smiling at?"
"Oh, it's…nothing. My mom?"
"Yeah. She's going to help us organize things, work out a schedule, with Heather still gone. And another teacher was in Denver…" she paused briefly to remember her lost colleague. "Anyway, your mom is amazing with that stuff," Emily added affectionately.
"She is," Jake agreed warmly, smiling as he looked up to the back door where he knew his mother was working her magic with lunch.
"She sent me out here to tell you that lunch is ready."
Jake frowned. "Really? What time is it?" he asked as he pulled his wrist out from under the blankets. "Twelve-thirty?" he asked loudly, and with a hint of anger. "She's also very sneaky."
"She said you and your dad were out all hours last night," Emily explained, apparently now privy to the reason Jake was outside napping in the first place.
"It's not like we were out drinking," he snapped as he rose from the chair, draping the blankets into a large heap in his arms.
"She's just worried about you. I'm starting to worry about you, too. It seems we need you here, and in one piece would be nice."
"Does that surprise you?" he asked. "That I might come in handy around here?" He decided that the two hour plus nap had done him a lot of good; he felt - good, refreshed, too good to chastise his mother for letting him sleep longer than he'd asked. He'd give her a bye this time.
Jake and Emily walked together up the back steps of the Green house.
"We did okay without you for five years, Jake. But it's kind of heartwarming the way Jericho has welcomed you back, and how you've paid back her kindness."
"Well," Jake started as he let Emily open the door for him, "I don't know about that."
"You've been pretty amazing, Jake. You've helped a lot of people, you've held things together. You've saved at least one life, but I suspect that the count needs to go up significantly since you intervened with Roger. If nobody else has done it, I want to thank you," she offered softly.
"Thank him for what?" Gail asked as she entered the room and took the pile of blankets from her son. She pulled a chair out from under the table with her foot and placed the blankets on it temporarily.
"For being Jericho's own version of Superman lately," she replied with a bright smile.
"As his mother, I'd like to vote for someone else to take superhero duty for a while," Gail said, her lighthearted tone only barely hiding how serious she really was.
"Mom," Jake warned.
"We might be in trouble there, Mrs. Green. We sent a lot of our superhero stock over to New Bern." Jake looked at Emily with wide eyes. Once again, for the second time that day, she regretted something that she had said to a member of the Green family. She could see, based on the tortured faces looking back at her that Eric being away was hurting this family every minute of every day. She knew how that felt, her own pain at having to watch Roger leave town still fresh in her mind; she regretted not being more careful with her comments.
"I'm sorry," she said, her head down. "I'm, um, I have to get going." She needed to get going before she had the chance to offend Johnston Green. She looked up to both of them with an uncomfortable smile. "Prep for class," she explained. She looked to Gail. "Thanks for agreeing to help."
"Anything I can do, dear," she said. "Are you sure you don't want to stay for lunch?"
Emily could see that staying for lunch would just mean more uncomfortable moments for all of them.
"No. I really do have lots to do. Thank you for asking." She turned to leave. Jake stepped aside to give her a clear path to the door. "See you later," she said.
"Bye," Jake answered. He watched the door close behind her. He turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I don't think she realized…"
Gail interrupted him. "It's all right. There's a lot of us not thinking as clearly as we should. It's been a tough, stressful time."
"It has been that," Jake agreed.
"She's right, you know."
"About what?"
"About being the town's Superman," she said wryly. More seriously she said, "I may not like it, that your recovery took longer than it should have because you don't know when to say no…" she paused as her son gave her the 'pot calling the kettle' look. "Fine, point taken. But you have done a lot of good while you've been here. Your dad and I are very proud of you," she added as she took his arm and led him to a chair. "Sit," she instructed. She picked up the blankets and took them to the adjoining room. "Your father should be back any…minute," she called loudly, but quickly switched to a normal voice upon her return to the room as she saw Johnston standing just inside the doorway.
"She's not been talking at that decibel level all morning, has she?" he joked as he went to the sink to wash his hands.
"I don't know. I've been sleeping most of the morning," Jake replied, giving his mother a friendly glare of warning.
"I'm shaking in my boots, Jake." Gail turned to her husband. "Johnston, shut up and sit down," she commanded.
"Yes, ma'am." Johnston looked at Jake. He smiled and then sent his son a wink. Jake couldn't help himself and snorted out a laugh.
Gail Green turned around, finished wiping her hands and threw the towel over toward the sink on the kitchen counter. She looked from her husband to her son as she sat down. She shook her head as she looked each in the eyes.
"What?" the two Green men asked in unison. Gail rolled her eyes.
"Let's eat." As Jake sat with his mom and dad and enjoyed a simple lunch on a surprisingly quiet afternoon, he could imagine that things were almost back to normal.
The End.