Disclaimer: Not mine, capiche?

A/n: Thank you to those of you who reviewed the last chapter. It really motivated me to push through and get to the end of this story. This is the second to last chapter, but the last one is already written. I just need to polish it up and then I'll post it.

Please and thank yous in advance to those of you who review this next chapter. I really, really appreciate it.

One Thousand Paper Cranes

A story by Ryeloza

Part Six: The Pain of Cold November Days

Chapter Three

They spent a week together.

She cleaned up the apartment while he showered, inadvertently tripping over reminders of his loss as she went. Hospital bills mixed in with the mail and children's toys hidden in closets and pictures of happier moments. Every encounter was a hiccup that made her eyes fill with tears and the words not fair pound again and again in her head. She hurt for him—for how each of these things would only wound him tenfold when he stumbled over them. He'd lost a part of himself and that pain would be eternal.

That first day they drank together while he told her stories she'd never heard about his son. Their lives had been separated up until that point. His world and hers. Then he let her in: from the wonderful moment Charlie was born to the terrifying realization that he was sick to the acceptance that he was never going to get better. They cried. And they drank.

The next day she went grocery shopping and bought him real food. Whatever exorbitant amount of food came with a loss had apparently been delegated to Annabel, and a perusal of Tom's refrigerator had proved to be fruitless. He was still in bed when she returned from the store, but when she brought breakfast into his room he was lying awake, staring blankly at the ceiling. She forced him to eat the pancakes and sausage she'd cooked, but the whole time he didn't say a word to her.

He didn't speak all day. He never got out of bed. She spent the day worrying.

The third day was a Monday. After breakfast, she crawled into bed with him and lay with her head on his chest watching old movies all day. Black and white classics with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant—a marathon on the classic movie channel. She could hear his heartbeat as they watched: alive, alive, alive it reminded her with every beat.

She forced him to take a bath on Tuesday, ignoring his stubborn refusals as she coerced him into the tub. She sat on the edge of the tub behind him, her feet on either side of him in the water, tenderly washing his hair and running her hands over his chest. "You have to take care of yourself," she told him sadly. "I'm worried about you."

"It's not your job to worry about me."

She leaned down and kissed his cheek, ignoring the beard that was beginning to grow after not shaving for over a week. "Yes it is."

Wednesday she stripped the bed while he was using the bathroom and started the laundry. He threw a fit when he realized she'd destroyed the one place he'd apparently chosen to spend the rest of his life, but finally settled into an uncomfortable sulk on the couch. She spent the day paying his bills and doing chores and cooking while he watched sports. Finally that evening, he reached out and pulled her onto the couch with him, whispering quiet apologies in her ear and kissing the back of her neck. She'd reluctantly, if smartly, stopped him before it went any further.

The next morning, she woke up tangled between the clean sheets and Tom's arms, surprised when she rolled over and found him awake. She'd been up before him every day since she'd arrived and as she looked into his tired eyes she wondered if he'd slept at all that night.

"You have to know," he said softly as he laced their hands together, "that I'm going to be okay."

"Are you?"

"I will be. I will be okay."

Then he got out of bed and took a shower of his own free will. And Lynette knew without him saying it that it was a dismissal. She got on the phone, booked a flight home for the next day, and spent the afternoon making him a series of meals that he could easily heat up in the oven.

Friday he drove her to the airport and they kissed goodbye.