52.
~ "He had a seizure." Tess said calmly. Her voice was a soothing whisper while Norma smoothed over Norman's feather like hair. Her youngest was dressed in Dylan's old pajamas and they were slightly too big for him.
"It was under two minutes so we didn't call an ambulance. He woke up slowly and I had to give him a bath. He went right to sleep after that." Tess explained.
"A bath? Why?" Norma asked.
"Most of the time, with a seizure, there's loss of bladder control. Happens in adults to. Nothing to be ashamed of and I've already told Dylan he's not allowed to make fun of his brother for it." Tess said in a strict tone that made Norma believe Dylan wouldn't ever mention Norman wetting himself again.
"Has Norman ever been tested for epilepsy?" Tess asked.
Norma looked at her sleeping son. He seemed so fragile and weak. He didn't even stir when she ran a hand over his cheek.
"No. He's never done this before." she admitted sadly. She felt like a terrible mother for enjoying the night alone with Alex while her son was suffering.
"Sometimes seizures with younger kids are common and they go away on their own." Tess said in her kind and gentle voice. "A child's brain is always growing and expanding and wires get crossed and fire incorrectly. It might never happen again but you should get him checked out."
Norma tried not to let Tess see her cry. Tried not to let Tess see the guilt and embarrassment that was tainting her cheeks at how she'd abandoned her children to have a romantic evening alone with her boyfriend.
"I'm sorry you had to deal with this, Tess." she breathed at last.
"It was no trouble, Norma. I can recommend a good doctor. Doctor Bloch is right here in town. He's the best pediatrician and in a town this small the only OBGYN. I hear he's delivered almost all the babies in White Pine Bay for the past few decades. He can recommend someone if it's serious." Tess said as Norma lifted her still sleeping son into her arms. She hadn't realized how heavy Norman had gotten over the past few months. Since Sam had died, her broken arm and Alex coming into their lives more and more, if Norman had needed to be lifted at all, Alex was always the one to do it.
"I've got him." Norma breathed as her youngest stirred fitfully.
~ "Go on. Rinse off all the mud." Sheriff Wilson said lazily aiming the garden hoes at Dylan's filthy feet and hands. The little boy excitedly jumping up and down in the grass as the Sheriff washed him off on the front lawn before sending him home.
"Here." Alex handed Dylan a dry towel. He grinned when enough dirt and grime had been kicked off that Norma might find the child acceptable to take a bath in her clean house. Maybe.
"Kids used to love it when we'd spray 'em down like this in the summer time. Tess made all of them strip down to their skivvies and we'd spray them down with the garden hoes. They'd play outdoors and come home caked in filth and we'd just spray them down and make them eat dinner on the back porch while they dried off." Tom admitted fondly.
The Sheriff shrugged as if the practice was not only practical, but something that was missing from the modern world.
"How I was raised." he said sadly.
Alex smiled and caught the towel Dylan threw back at him. He made a mental note to put some aloe on Dylan's nose tonight for the sunburn that had appeared across his nose and cheeks. The sudden crop of freckles making the child look more liberated than normal.
"Did you have fun?" he asked when Dylan redressed in the clean shirt and pants Norma had provided in an overnight bag.
"Yeah." Dylan said. "Sheriff Wilson's kids had an old fort and Norman and I played in there all morning. We gathered eggs and helped with the garden."
"Good to hear you helped." Alex told him.
He spotted Norma carrying her youngest protectively across the living room and towards the front porch. The little boy's body hugging hers so tightly, it was as if she feared he might be ripped away from her.
"It was just a small seizure, Alex." Tom told him again.
Alex nodded. Wilson had explained what had happened as soon as Norma had rushed inside. That it was nothing to worry about and that they should go see the local pediatrician soon.
"Don't let her worry too much." Tom warned. "Norma likes to worry. I can tell."
"You have no idea." Alex admitted before the screen door opened and Norma, a vision as always, swept outside holding her youngest.
"We need to go home and put him to bed." she said quickly.
~ "Doctor Bloch is a good pediatrician." Alex said once Norma had tucked her youngest into his own bed.
She couldn't focus on anything but Norman right now. She had even forgotten that Dylan had been dirty and sunburned. All she was concerned with was that Norman was safe at home and in his bed. That his dinosaur sheets were clean and smelled good and his favorite stuffed dog was close by.
She had even forgotten about the break in for the moment.
"Norma?" Alex asked when she had been watching Norman sleep for a while.
She looked up at him and realized she hadn't responded.
"What?"
"I said Doctor Bloch is a good pediatrician. He takes care of all the kids in town and delivered most of them. Including me." Alex confessed.
"Really?" Norma smiled and smoothed over her youngest's hair.
"You'll like him." Alex said.
"I guess I should call and make an appointment." Norma admitted.
"I would have but I don't have all of Norman's information." Alex admitted awkwardly.
Norma stood up and reluctantly left her youngest to sleep alone.
"It's ok." she whispered.
~ "What happened to the back door?" Dylan asked scowling at the broken window pane Alex had covered with cardboard that morning.
"Well, lets just say you don't want to lock yourself out of your own house and have to break in." Alex told him.
He glanced over in the kitchen while Norma was on the phone with the doctor's office. She seemed irritated and had all the important government issued medical cards out on the counter. Alex knew she was on government assistance for herself and the boys for medical care to.
"For just the doctor's visit?" Norma said in surprise. "Not for tests?"
She gave him a quick look and turned away.
"What's wrong with Norman?" Dylan asked.
"Nothing's wrong with him. He's just going to go see special doctor for kids." Alex explained easily. "Make sure everything is okay so your mom won't worry."
Dylan looked uneasy.
"You know how your mom likes to worry." Alex pulled Dylan into a slight hug.
"Yeah." Dylan agreed while Norma set up a time for Norman's appointment.
~ "I was thinking." Norma said after she'd accomplished her evening rituals of feeding her family and sending them to bath time and bed time. She felt a little better when Norman woke up from his nap and was back to his old self.
He had no memory of the seizure and Dylan didn't even tease him about it. When she told Norman he was going to see doctor Bloch tomorrow afternoon, Dylan wanted to go and see the doctor to.
"You have school tomorrow." Alex informed him. "I'm driving you. Remember?"
"Yeah." Dylan had sulked.
"We were going to meet your teacher." Alex reminded him.
"What if those other kids don't like me?" Dylan asked.
"How could they not like you?" Norma had asked in mild outrage.
After dinner was put away, baths were finished, dishes washed and Norma had come to bed smelling of soap and freshly washed hair, Alex pulled her bare foot close to him and kissed it.
Watching a smile finally bloom on her face after such a rough day.
"What were you thinking about?" he asked playfully.
He was enjoying the view of her wearing that delightful slip that perfectly matched her skin tone. That lace that hit her thigh in just the right way and how the color dipped into the hollow of her breasts as if begging him to run a hand over the fabric.
"I want to write a letter to Violet." Norma admitted. "To her adopted parents."
Alex wasn't prepared for that.
"Oh." he said.
"I don't want to try and get custody." she explained quickly. "I want to have a relationship with my sister. I'd like to meet her. I want to explain why I didn't know about her. Why she had to be in the foster system and why I'm not trying to get custody now."
Alex waited a few seconds before he answered.
"I think that's a great idea. We can go together." he said.
"Really?" she asked hopefully. Her eyes brightening and that blueness sparking with a brightness he'd never seen before.
"Of course." he said. "We can take a flight to Florida whenever Harman's want you to meet Violet and spend a weekend there."
"What if they don't want me to meet her?" Norma asked worriedly.
"They invested a lot of time and money looking for relatives for Violet. It's not like you're a psychotic serial killer. You're family and Violet had more family with Dylan and Norman now. She's going to be thrilled." He reminded her.
Alex felt his heartbeat increase slightly when Norma leaned into him. Her gaze growing intense as her hands cupped his face.
"You would do that for me?" she whispered. "Fly all the way to Florida with me and back to meet my little sister?"
"We can leave the boys with Tom and go to Disney World without them." Alex whispered menacingly. "Really rub it in when we get back."
Norma suppressed a laugh and Alex couldn't stop his hands from exploring the fabric of her night slip. It was every bit as smooth and beguiling as he imagined it would be. Not that she wore it for long.
~ Deputy Alex Romero spotted Rebecca Hamilton in her favorite cafe around lunch time.
Rebecca was a creature of intense habit and he knew her habits well. She walked to work from her new, expensive, but tiny apartment where she alone lived with a solitary cat. It was always coffee at the Brick House coffee bar at 7:30. Always the same blend. Always fat free. She read the paper alone until the bank where she was a teller opened at 8a.m.
Then she promptly went to lunch at the Royal Garden Cafe at noon sharp. She always ordered one of the soups and it was usually vegan. Alex hated the food there. It was over priced, strange, unsatisfying and he was thankful Norma liked to cook with meat.
Still, he went to the Royal Garden Cafe for lunch when saw the Ace bandage wrapped around Rebecca's right hand. It could have been carpel tunnel, or something easily explained away. Alex was willing to bet that she had some nasty dog bites on that hand. Bites that had gone deep enough to draw blood before she had gone into a rage at not being able to break into Norma's house. Instead choosing to trash her car as a sick consolation.
Alex held his own rage in as he thought about how was the best way to approach the situation. He couldn't just confront her. He knew she did it. Rebecca was always jealous. Even though she had never really wanted him, she didn't want anyone else to have him either.
She sat primly at the rustic bar by the window. Her gray suit dress perfectly complimenting her cat's eye glasses as she read a copy of Dorian Gray.
Alex ordered something called a black bean burger that came out too small for a real meal and with a side of chips he found flat and stale. He was thankful Norma had mentioned making some kind of pasta tonight so he wouldn't starve to death.
"Hey." he said casually sitting next to Rebecca at the bar.
She jumped at the invasion and he had to admit she looked fetching as ever with her hair tied back in a pony tail and her shoes matching her clothes to planned perfection. Still, when she saw him, he could see the guilt in her eyes.
"Hey." she said slowly. "Long time no see."
Alex was quite as he examined his meager lunch. No wonder Rebecca stayed so thin. Too thin, he decided when compared to the soft curves of a woman he truly loved.
"So, last night." he said casually. "Last night, you crossed a line."
"Excuse me?" Rebecca asked. Her expression looked ready to be shocked.
"You trashed my girlfriend's car and tried to break into our house." Alex said keeping his focus on the oncoming rain that was the hallmark of the approaching fall.
"What? I did no such thing! I was at Christine's party all night you saw me I was with-"
"Stop it." Alex warned.
"You saw me and I saw you with that trashy Bates woman." Rebecca sneered.
"Stop." Alex said with a sharpness even he wasn't used to. Suddenly he reminded himself of the Old Bear. Rebecca pulled away and he saw that her face look afraid.
"How did you hurt your hand?" he nodded to the bandage on her arm. "Dog bite?"
She smiled. It was a sinister and evil smile.
"I should sue you. That stupid dog of yours is a menace and needs to be put down." she said.
"Or maybe you shouldn't try to break into people's homes." Alex warned just as scathingly.
"Not your home, Alex." Rebecca reminded him. Her tone taking on the same infection as every horrible girl from high school Alex had ever known.
"My home. My family." Alex told her strongly. "Crime lab has your blood. I'll be sure to mention that I saw you with bandages on your wrist today. Jealous ex looks good on you, Rebecca."
She sneered at him.
"Good luck with that." she laughed. "Bob won't allow any charges to get very far and we both know it."
Alex refused to look at her. He'd known she saw Bob Paris occasionally.
"You know, I can't believe you would downgrade yourself like that." she sighed. "I mean, Norma Bates? Single mother of two boys. Both of them with different fathers? She's on welfare and is basically a glorified cook?"
Rebecca opened her book and casually found her place again.
"I don't know, Alex. It just seems like you could do better. I mean, everyone at Christine's party was laughing at you last night for showing up with her." she said. "Especially after you shot and killed her husband. What was it? A pity date?"
"Stop it, Rebecca." Alex snapped. "It's over. It has been for a long time."
"Don't tell me you're actually playing house with Norma Bates." she laughed. "You don't really think that's going to work do you?"
Alex tried to control his breathing. Tried to remind himself never to hit a woman.
"Just because I never wanted to stay with you?" he asked instead.
What he said, seemed to stab Rebecca like a dagger to the heart. He watched, almost painfully as the blood rushed out of her face and her wicked smile melted.
"What does she have that I don't?" Rebecca whispered angrily. Her feelings hurt by Alex reminding her that he never wanted her to stay the night. That he never wanted to make plans with her longer than a few hours into the future. That he could never stomach being with her at all unless alcohol was involved.
"You just like the helplessness?" she asked.
"No." Alex shook his head. He calmly wrapped up his reming vegan lunch and stood. "Norma wanted me." he told her.
