Chapter 2 of Joy not dying, hope you like it.
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Joy awoke, she couldn't feel any pain; well that was a good start. She wriggled a toe, no tingling. She turned her head to where she thought she would see Lucien. It wasn't him it was Jean, his buttoned up, rigid housekeeper.
'Oh, Mrs MacDonald,' Jean smiled, 'how do you feel?'
'Where's Lucien?' Joy grasped at familiarity, 'he said...'
'I sent him home,' Jean declared, 'he needed sleep, food and a shower. Now what can I get you? Do you want a drink?' She finished sympathetically
'Umm...yes, please,' she accepted, knowing, even in her blurry state, that Jean was doing her best, and she was right, Lucien needed to look after himself.
Jean helped her take a drink of cool water and Joy found it refreshing, but what she desperately wanted was her teeth cleaning. She sucked her teeth; urgh, her mouth tasted awful!
'Would you like me to help you clean your teeth?' Jean offered.
'Oh, please,' Joy couldn't express her relief, she hated 'morning breath!'
Jean helped her clean her teeth, washed her face and brushed her hair, and, truth to tell, Joy was grateful.
'Thank you, Jean,' she smiled, 'you are so kind.' Her eyelids fluttered and she fell into a light sleep.
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Lucien appeared later that day. He had been given the updates on Joy's condition and he was pleased. He looked into the room and saw Jean straightening Joy's bedclothes and smiled. Joy was awake. He was not oblivious to the dynamics between the two and was happy to see Jean being so tender, as if administering to a child, which, to be honest, Joy was of the age to be. And that was when it hit him, Joy was young enough to be his daughter, was he being a 'sugar daddy'. Did he dare to hope she could be interested in him as a husband or lover.
'Well, hello,' he grinned, 'You look a lot better.'
Jean stood up and looked at him; she knew what was going on between them and, although she wished Lucien luck, she knew that Joy was not the one for him. She put it down to jealousy, but it was also survival. Housekeeper's positions were hard to come by these days, and she liked working for Lucien. It wasn't just being a housekeeper, it was helping him solve the puzzles, keeping him in line, he'd said, giving him a good talking to occasionally, there was so much more and she was not sure Joy MacDonald could do all of that. She had her reservations, Joy was far to nosey.
'She's had her teeth cleaned, and a drink,' Jean whispered, 'do you think I should get her things from her lodgings? She may need them.'
Lucien looked at her, she was so much more than his father had ever intimated, very wise and so very caring.
'That's a very decent idea, Jean,' he tried to sound like an employer, but sounded more like a friend, a very close friend!
Jean smiled and left the room.
Lucien went to Joy. He checked her vital signs and tickled her feet, maybe he shouldn't but it gave him comfort to know that her legs had the appropriate reactions He sat in the chair next to her bed and held her hand...
Joy turned her head towards him and gave a little smile.
'Hello,' Lucien whispered, 'How're you feeling?'
'No pain, so that's good, isn't it?' She looked for reassurance, 'but I'm sleepy, I keep nodding off.'
'Yes, it's good there's no pain,' he admitted, 'although you have been given analgesics, as we lower the dose we'll find out just how little pain you have. You seem to have the right reaction when I tickle your feet, so that's also good. No more pins and needles?'
'No, they've gone.' She sighed and her eyelids fluttered as she fought the wave of sleep that passed over her.
'Sleep,' he squeezed her hand, 'I'll stay here. Jean's gone to get your things from your hotel.'
'Oh, er...thanks, I think.' Joy looked a little worried that Jean would be going through her things.
Lucien didn't quite understand why she should be worried, 'Messy room, hey?' He hazarded a guess that she was like him, untidy, too busy reporting and investigating to worry about keeping things tidy.
Joy gave a weak smile in assent. Let him think that.
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In Joy's room Jean looked around at the clothes lying over the chair, a folder of papers tossed on the bed and an open suitcase. She sighed, even Lucien wasn't that untidy!
She folded the clean clothes and put them in the suitcase, with the folder on top. She put her toiletries in the bag and put than to one side; Joy would need that as well as a clean pair of pyjamas and the robe from the back of the door. She took the laundry and put it in her basket, she could take that home and see to it for her. She hoped Mrs MacDonald wouldn't think she had been too forward in doing this, but she reasoned that the young woman would not be back in the hotel for a while. So what to do with the room? Keeping it available would be expensive and a waste of money. The only thing she could do was pay the bill and take her things to the doctor's house for now. She was sure this was what Lucien would want, but did she dare use one of the signed cheques she carried from Lucien so she could pay bills when he was not about? To prevent her having to chase him for signed cheques for things like the rates and grocery bills he had suggested he sign half a dozen blank cheques and she was then free to pay bills when needed. He trusted her not to run off with his money in a fit of pique! She sighed, she'd take the chance and suffer the consequences later.
Jean took Joy's belongings to the house and put them in the spare room, she'd deal with them later. Now she had to get on with her housekeeping duties and prepare for surgery. Lucien should be back for his patients soon and she would volunteer to sit with Joy, if he wanted her to. Frankly she'd rather not, but if she was seen to deliberately try to ignore the woman she and Lucien would fall out, and she didn't want that.
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Lucien arrived in time to have some lunch before afternoon surgery and Jean told him what she had done. He was touched by her thoughtfulness, and agreed that she was right to pay for the room and bring Joy's things over. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask if she thought it would be a good idea for Joy to convalesce there when they released her from hospital, but thought better of it. He reasoned it might be a step too far for Jean and he valued her too much to have her fight her inner demons as regards his feelings for Joy.
'Do you want me to go a sit with her?' Jean asked as she cleared away the plates.
'No, that's alright Jean, but thank you for offering.' Lucien looked at her and smiled, 'I'd like you to stay and greet the patients as usual, please.'
Jean turned round and looked at him, there was something else he wanted to say, but was struggling to find the right words as usual. Whatever he said she would have to take in the spirit it was given.
'Er... Jean,' he stood up and went towards her, 'Thank you, I know it isn't easy for you. I'm aware you are not, shall we say, in favour of Joy, but she is my friend and I'd like her to be yours too.'
'I'm sorry Lucien,' she looked into his eyes, she thought he looked worried, but not about Joy, 'I find her a little forward, shall we say. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, but I was not brought up to call an older person by their Christian name unless invited to first. And I find it...' How could she phrase it, offensive? No, that wasn't it, '...just a little discourteous. That said, if you want her here to visit or to eat, I will be happy to accommodate her. It is your house, after all.'
Lucien squeezed her forearm, gently, she was such a good person, he was lucky to have someone like her in his life. Perhaps, if he hadn't met Joy...
He turned and went to the surgery to prepare for the afternoon of minor ailments and checkups, secure, for now, in the knowledge he had two lovely people in his life.
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Joy continued to improve in the hospital. Lucien visited her daily and stayed longer than the nursing staff would have liked, but he was a doctor and it was his prerogative to see to his patients as he saw fit. Jean, in her turn visited whenever Joy needed clean nightwear or replacement toiletries, or when Lucien was otherwise engaged with a case, but remained cool and in Joy's words 'buttoned-up!'
The time came when Joy was deemed fit enough to leave hospital, but where she was to go nobody could determine. The nursing sister suggested she go home, but it was a long journey and Nicholson and Lucien both thought it would be a bit of a strain for her, and anyway they needed to oversee her continued progress. There was a nursing home nearby where patients often went to convalesce, and it was determined they should look into that, initially.
Jean went to visit Joy one afternoon. Lucien had been called to a case on the outskirts of town so Jean thought she would take her some clean pyjamas and offer to take the others away for laundering. Joy looked almost pleased to see her, she couldn't get round Jean's attitude to her. She noticed she was kind, but stiff, a bit formal; however she had done an awful lot for her, for which she was grateful. Joy had asked her to call her by her Christian name,
'Thank you, Joy, ' Jean replied, not adding 'and you can call me Mrs Beazley.' It was too late for that!
'Jean,' Joy spoke, she heard Lucien and the nurses talk about the nursing home and wanted to know more about it. 'They are talking about sending me to a nursing home to convalesce. Do you know anything about it?'
'Yes, it's close to the hospital, quite nice and bright, but the residents are, shall we say, a little mature.' Jean couldn't let her think it was like a holiday camp, there were a lot of elderly patients there, it would drive her mad. She thought for a moment, she would have to grit her teeth and make the suggestion.
'Why don't you come and stay with us? I can make up the guest room for you, you would have a doctor on hand and we also have the district nurse lodging with us, so you would be well cared for.' Jean stood by the bed, her hands clasped in front of her, her nails digging into her palms, hoping she'd decline the invitation. There again she could keep an eye on her and Lucien. That sounds like a mother protecting her daughter from a predatory male, when in fact she was protecting Lucien from a predatory female! She mused.
'Oh Jean,' Joy looked positively delighted, just what she wanted, Lucien handed to her on a plate, at least that's what she thought, 'Thank you. Are you sure it won't add too much to your work?' What did she do all day, anyway? 'And won't Lucien mind?' It's his house anyway.
'Oh, I'm sure he'll be quite happy to have you stay,' Jean replied, glibly, as if she invited people over every day without asking him, when in fact, it was usually Lucien that invited people to dinner or to stay without letting Jean know first.
'Then I accept,' and Joy grinned at her again.
'What are you too plotting?' Lucien had just got back from the morgue, having finished his autopsy and the findings had been handed to Matthew.
'I've just suggested Joy stays with us while she convalesces,' Jean answered brightly.
Lucien raised his eyebrows, first at Jean calling Joy by her first name and then at the selfless act of asking the one woman in Ballarat she would rather run out of town, to stay with them.
'She can have the guest room, it has its own, admittedly small, bathroom so she won't have to climb the stairs at all.' Jean reasoned, 'She will have both a doctor and a nurse to see to her medical needs, and it's not really any more work for me.'
Jean put her hands in her coat pocket, she'd made her palm bleed digging her nails in and she couldn't let Lucien or Joy see what an effort it had been to be so darned accommodating.
'Jean, that's a splendid idea, ' Lucien felt like kissing her, but refrained, he'd probably get slapped, by both of them! 'You're quite right, of course, I don't know why I didn't think of it!'
At that Jean just raised her eyebrows, 'Of course you didn't Dr Blake,' she thought, 'but you knew I would, you just put me in the situation I couldn't avoid, and you'll pay for that, one day.' But it wasn't an unkind thought.
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So what's going to happen when Joy gets her feet under the table, eh? Next chapter brewing. Thanks for the reviews, especially from the 'I'm not a fan of Joy club!'