Chapter 9

"You know, I could get used to this," Priestly sighed.

He was in his customary position, propped up on the sofa, with Piper, Jen and Julia sitting on the spare cushions on the floor in front of him. Jen was sitting nearest to the arm rest where his head was and kept feeding him pieces of candy from the mountain they'd brought with them. Julia was busy putting the DVD into the player and Piper had his hand, which was drooping over the side of the cushions, in her grip, stripping off the multi-coloured patterns on his nails with cotton wool, before starting to paint them black, as requested.

"I've always wanted a harem," he mused aloud.

Tish smacked him upside the head as she walked over with a bowl of chips and dip from the kitchen.

"Hey!" Priestly exclaimed indignantly, wincing, "I'm an invalid, you can't hit me!"

"The back of your head isn't injured! And no more talk of harems. I don't share very well."

Priestly stuck his tongue out at her petulantly before settling back onto his cushions once more, grabbing the remote and starting the DVD. Tish settled herself on the other end of the sofa, lifting his feet into her lap to make the most of the space, gently massaging the soles through his socks. Priestly sighed softly in pleasure, relaxed and content, enjoying spending time in good company, with good food and a good film.

He fell asleep half way through the DVD, waking to find everyone had left, and Tish tiptoeing around the room, tidying away the empty candy wrappers. Smiling at her husband as he followed her movements with bleary eyes, she stopped cleaning and made her way over, helping him from the sofa to their bed, turning off the light and settling in beside him. Everything could wait until the morning, she mused as she lay listening to Priestly's breathing even out once again, thanking God that it sounded once again as healthy as ever it did.


Priestly woke with a jolt, breath coming in short, ragged pants, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Every night since the crash he'd dreamt of screeching tyres, shattering glass and twisted metal, him lying broken and alone in the cold and the dark. It was no mystery what he was reliving, but in his dreams Tish never came for him; he waited and waited for her, clinging onto consciousness as jagged pain tore through him, telling himself she would come, she would, but she never did. Every night he was left, all alone, hot agony and terror coursing through him, waiting for the pain to take over and the light to fade. As he worked to slow his breathing, wiping his hand across his face, he realised that the pain wasn't only in his nightmare; his ribs burned, lung protesting at being put through the stress of his rapid, shallow gasps. Gritting his teeth against the curling fire which licked its way around his chest Priestly carefully slid out of bed, doing his best not to wake his wife, to get a glass of water and take a couple of the pain relief tablets which he'd left in the living room the night before.

Mission accomplished Priestly made his way back to the bedroom, leaning against the doorframe to support himself, still tired by moving around on his own, body still protesting and aching. As he sipped the rest of his water he gazed sadly through the dim light, watching Tish as she slept fitfully, never seeming to be able to settle for a good night's sleep. She had kicked away the covers slightly as she fidgeted restlessly, hand reaching out to Priestly's empty side of the bed. A soft sound of distress escaped from her lips and she began mumbling something, clearly fighting against something in her dream, as she shook her head desperately, a tear leaking out from the corner of her eye, sliding down the side of her face.

Realising what was happening Priestly made his way back to the bed as quickly as he could manage. But before he was halfway across the room, Tish startled awake, sitting bolt upright, eyes wide, Priestly's name on her lips. She glanced around frantically, searching for her husband.

"Priestly?" she rasped out, as he finally made it to the bed and pulled her to him.

"I'm here. It's ok. You're ok," Priestly soothed, ignoring the flare of pain the position caused him, needing to comfort her and to take comfort from her himself, having her there with him, not abandoned.

Tish sniffed into his night-shirt, screwing her eyes shut against the lingering images and despair of her nightmare.

"I didn't…I didn't get there in time and you…you didn't…you weren't…"

"Sshh. I'm fine. We're both fine."

Priestly smoothed his hand over her back, calming her with the soothing action. Tish clutched him a little more tightly, wrapping her hand around his wrist has he held her, taking comfort in the strong pulse she could feel there. He was safe, he was alive; everything was ok.

Priestly carefully manoeuvred them both so they could both be comfortable and close to each other, hopefully being able to get some more sleep. He doubted either of them would though; physically he was healing well and Tish was the best nurse he could've asked for, but he knew that he, that both of them, still had a lot of emotional healing to do. It would take time and patience, but Priestly knew that they get through this and they'd be fine. They were together, whole and happy, and really that was all that mattered; these nightmares wouldn't last forever.


As it turned out they both did manage to fall back asleep, Priestly stroking his wife's hair as she slipped into slumber first, simply enjoying holding her in his arms, before he too dozed off.

Tish was busy with making breakfast in the kitchen as Priestly tried to get dressed by himself the following morning, his pride rebelling at still not being able to accomplish such a mundane task by himself.

"Dammit!"

Tish sighed to herself as Priestly's curse echoed through the apartment, putting down the knife she was using to cut up the grapefruit for them both.

"You losing a fight with your kilt again?"

"No!" Priestly protested petulantly, as if the very idea was ludicrous. There was a short pause before his voice rung out again, more sheepishly this time. "My jeans actually. The kilt claimed victory a long time ago."

Tish smiled as she wiped her hands on the tea towel.

"Give me a sec and I'll come and help."

She heard a loud sigh coming from the bedroom. Priestly was clearly frustrated at still needing help with everyday things like getting dressed. Tish was happy to help; she just wished Priestly would let her do so more often. It'd had been a couple of days after he'd been released from hospital when Priestly had started fidgeting, seeming to start to say something before frowning and stopping himself. She'd been worried that he was in pain or something, getting almost frantic when he wouldn't tell her. He'd eventually swallowed his pride and asked if she would help him with his hair. It needed washing and he was sick of the dull, natural brown. She'd laughed at him then, soothing away his frown with a soft kiss to his forehead, saying she'd be glad to.

They'd spent the rest of the morning in the bathroom, Tish experimenting with different colours and styles, and much to Priestly's amusement, she'd even dyed some temporary coloured strands into her own hair. She'd left the red dye firmly in the bathroom cupboard this time however; she wasn't sure she could deal with that just yet. Once Priestly had been happy with the purple spikes she'd styled, they'd moved into the living room, Tish putting on some of Priestly's music and proceeding to paint his nails with every colour varnish they had in the apartment as he'd sung along quietly, watching his wife's face scrunch in concentration, tongue poking out between her teeth slightly. It'd been a great day.

Smiling softly at the memory Tish made her way to the bedroom, seeing Priestly tangled in his jeans and belt, comical expression on his face. Tish choked out a laugh, clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound, not wanting to upset her husband but not being able to hide her mirth at the sight before her.

"Not a word!" Priestly threatened with a glare, his frustration clear in his tone.

Tish held her hands up in surrender.

"I didn't say anything," she protested.

"Well, good," he grumbled. "Keep it that way."

Tish walked over to her husband, steadying him before he overbalanced, tangled in the jeans as he was, before trapping his chin between her finger and thumb to make him meet her eye.

"And what if I wanted to say good morning to my super sexy husband and tell him that I love him very very much?"

Priestly's eyes widened slightly, frown melting away as he paused to think, pursing his lips as he did so.

"Then…then I would say, you have permission to say anything you want."

"Thank you," Tish smiled, leaning in for a chaste kiss, which caused Priestly to blush, before pulling back and beginning to help Priestly with his villainous trousers.


Chapter 10 of 11 coming soon. Reviews very much appreciated :)