Footsteps in the Dark
Chapter 10 - Cat flaps
"Are you sure this is going to be ok?" Ruth asked Jay nervously looking up from the bottle of anti depressants she had been rolling between her fingers nervously.
"For the seventh time, Yes." Jay replied shaking his head.
"You will let me do what I want when I want wont you?" Ruth looked up at him.
"Unless that involves pills, wire or razors? Sure." Jay grinned slightly and Ruth rolled her eyes turning her attention back to the bottle of anti depressants.
"Your family defiantly doesn't mind?" she asked once more.
"I've told you a million times already of course they don't." Jay watched her fiddling.
"I don't expect anything from you." Ruth told him simply
"I wasn't going to give you anything other than a bed" Jay shrugged
"This doesn't mean we are in any form of relationship" Ruth pointed out
"Why would it?" Jay rolled his eyes
"You wont tell anyone at work?" Ruth asked looking back up at him nervously.
"Your not allowed back until you've been given the all clear by the Psych so why would it matter anyway?" Jay pointed out
"don't rub it in!" Ruth snapped
"I'm not." Jay smirked
"Why do you Nurses always take forever to do every little job?" Ruth sighed Irritably.
"We don't!" Jay protested.
It was two days later, Ruth was packed, fully dressed and getting fidgety as she waited for the Nurse to bring the discharge forms.
"Always said nurses were useless." Ruth said deliberately to annoy Jay
"Do you want to stay here?" Jay smirked
"Of course not!" Ruth replied with a sigh.
The Nurse finally appeared with the discharge forms and Ruth signed them all quickly, eager to leave even if she did have to go back to Jay's house. The taxi journey was silent. The friendly banter in the hospital room had finished the second Ruth signed the forms. Jay knew she was nervous, she was doing the little finger tapping he had noticed she did whenever she couldn't work out what to do with a patient. He smiled to himself. There were so many things he loved about Ruth, her little mannerisms were definitely up there.
"We're here." Jay announced as they pulled up outside the pretty well kept house. Ruth peered out of the window nervously taking in her home for the next few weeks.
Jay's family were obviously not rich but they were obviously not poor either. The four bed roomed house looked friendly and welcoming.
Jay paid the taxi driver and helped Ruth out before lifting her suitcase out of the boot. He slammed it shut and started to head towards the house. Suddenly he realised she had grabbed his free hand nervously. He smiled a little but didn't make a fuss as he led her up to the front door.
She let go as they reached the steps and he used his now free hand to pull his key out of his pocket and let them in.
"Jay is that you?" a kind voice asked from the kitchen
"Yes Nan." Jay replied as his Nan appeared from the kitchen
"You must be Ruth." She smiled kindly "You can call me Mary."
"Nice to meet you." Ruth said nervously taking in her pretty floral skirt, baking apron and crisp white blouse. She was quite a lot shorter than Jay and showed signs of once being a very beautiful lady. Her skin was slightly tanned and although her neatly tied up hair was greying it could easily have once been the same shade as her grandson's. The one feature that Ruth was immediately drawn too was her eyes, she had the same dark gentle eyes as Jay although hers lacked the sparkle of mischief Ruth had often spotted in his.
"Its nice to have you staying with us even if it isn't for the best of reasons." Jay's Nan smiled as Ruth gave Jay a death glare wondering what he'd been saying. "I've cooked us all a nice Roast dinner, I'm sure you need a good meal after all that hospital food!"
"You don't have to…" Ruth tried to protest
"Nonsense, It'll be ready in half an hour, Ellie is due back about then too." She told Ruth "Jay why don't you show our guest up to her room?" she added "and do something about your hair you look like you tried to come in through the cat flap again." she added with a scowl.
"Sorry…" Jay apologised as his Nan who headed back into the kitchen as he ran his fingers through his messy hair
"What did you tell her?" Ruth hissed angrily
"That you'd been ill in hospital." Jay shrugged "I didn't go into detail, I just said that you lived alone and needed some time to rest and get better."
Ruth's shoulders visibly relaxed.
"What did she mean about coming in the cat flap?" she asked curiously feeling a little bit more relaxed.
"I drank a bit too much on a night out when I was about eighteen and lost my key so when I came home I tried to fit through the cat flap, apparently Nan found me snoring loudly with my arm wedged in it the next morning…" Jay smiled blushing a little, Ruth laughed. "Here this is Leila's room." He added distracting her from his drunken antics, he opened the third door off the landing and flicked the light switch illuminating a pale purple room.
"Thanks." Ruth nodded
"You can leave your bag here and we'll go down to get some dinner, Nan's cooking is legendary." Jay told her
Ruth followed him silently downstairs and he pointed out a place she could sit at the table while he went to help his Nan serve the food.
Ruth examined the little dining room curiously, It was decorated with a pretty floral wall paper, there was a six person table with matching chairs, there was a old fashion dresser on one side of the room and a window with lace curtains at the other. The table she was sat at was covered by a simple floral print table cloth., Placemats neatly arranged, very far from her child hood home where a family dinner meant sitting in front of the TV with trays on your lap, the kitchen table would have barely sat her and Jonathon let alone all four of them. Ruth's thoughts were interrupted by a Pretty girl with long curly dark brown hair and eyes identical to Jay's entering the room.
"Hey you must be Ruth" she smiled "I'm Ellie."
"Nice to meet you." Ruth replied nervously
"Have you seen my idiot brother?" Ellie asked
"He's in the kitchen I think." Ruth replied
"Actually he's behind you." Jay's voice interrupted the conversation, Ellie hit him playfully across the back of the head. "Ouch!"
"Did you take my last galaxy bar?" she asked
"Might have" she hit him around the head again
"Will you two ever grown up?" Jay's Nan asked as she entered thr room rolling her eyes at the pair of them
"Sorry Nan." Ellie smiled taking her seat at the table as Jay placed one of the plates he was holding in front of Ruth.
Ruth wished her relationship with her family was a simple as Jay's, the arguments with her brother were usually over him stealing something or threatening someone he shouldn't have, not missing bars of chocolate. She looked down at the meal in front of her. The food looked wonderful, perfectly golden roast potatoes, perfectly cooked chicken with gravy, fresh looking new potatoes, hand peeled and chopped vegetables. Ruth wasn't sure she had ever seen such a well prepared roast dinner.
Jay sat down next to Ruth and his Nan joined them. They tucked in and Ruth listened to them talking, the subject switching from Ellie's A levels - which Ruth learnt she wasn't revising enough for, on to who was going to pick Jay's youngest sister, River, up from school later that day - Ellie finally took on that job, to Jay needing to fix the bathroom tap - which he had apparently promised to do a good month ago. Once the meal was over Ellie took the dishes out and Ruth excused herself to go and settle in to her new room. Jay followed her up and knocked on the closed door.
"Come in" Ruth replied looking up
"Its only me, Just let me know if you need anything ok?" Jay smiled
"I will, thanks." Ruth nodded "Oh and Jay?"
"Yeah?" Jay asked
"Thanks for putting me up." Ruth said bluntly
"No problem." Jay winked before shutting the door and leaving her too it.