Chapter Forty-seven
Leo held the door open for Claire. "I don't know anything about retail. Are you sure this is viable?" Leo asked as he entered the empty store.
"I was looking at expanding my business before I met you if you're worried that I'm doing this as a way of keeping close to you without one of us having to commit to moving?"
Leo frowned and explained he hadn't been worried about that but asked if he should be.
Claire sat on one of three chairs left in the store by the previous owner and waited for Leo to join her. "No, you shouldn't be worried about that. Sam had been looking for retail property for me for a while before the accident. I don't know what we have or where it's heading but neither of us is ready to be making that sort of move." She turned to look at him. "Having said that, setting up the business here will mean I need to spend quite a bit of time in DC." She pointed upwards. "There's an apartment with the store."
Leo smiled. "I don't know where we're heading either but I have to tell ya, I'm enjoying the journey."
Sam had read the letter three times. He was surprised that the burn of anger he felt didn't lessen on each reading. Sam knew all about restorative justice. He had written comments for the President for the Colorado State Restorative Justice Council and he'd worked hard to help secure restorative justice pilot projects in the initiative. He was surprised then that his reaction to the request that he meet with Daniel Kelly, the man who had smashed into his car, was one of angry incredulity. He screwed the letter up and threw it into the trashcan.
"That better not be the first section that you said you'd have done by lunchtime," Toby said from the doorway.
"It's not," Sam replied as he picked up a folder containing the draft and held it out. His words were clipped and Toby was well aware of his barely contained anger. He didn't take the folder, making Sam look up at him.
"Anything I need to worry about?
Sam shook his head and thrust the file forwards. "Worry about this. If you've finished the second section you may need to change it if you agree with what I've put."
This time Toby took the file but he didn't move. "What was it then that's got you..." he waved his hand in the air, "bristling."
"It's a letter from a restorative justice organisation." He went over to the bin, pulled the letter out and handed it to Toby.
Toby rubbed at his brow, tipping forwards on his toes as he read. "It could help. I don't know, it could help you to-"
"Help me to what?" Sam asked taking the letter and throwing it back in the trash. "I couldn't care less how he feels. I hope he feels guilty. I hope he's painfully aware of the damage he's done and he's struggling to deal with it every single day!" Sam returned to his seat and sighed. "I hope he gets help with that but he sure as hell isn't going to get it from me."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay." Toby gestured to his office, "Now, get in there and write section two."
"You haven't started the second section?"
"I was waiting for you to inspire me with the first and then write it for me."
Sam rolled his eyes but he was smiling and Toby was glad to see no trace of his earlier anger.
They worked for three hours, finished the second section and made a good start on the end of the speech. Toby decided they deserved a break and it was over sandwiches and coffee in the Mess that Sam said, "You know, next week, it'll be a year since the accident."
"I know." Toby put his sandwich down. "Did you want to mark it in some way?"
A soft huff of laughter came in response. "A car wreck anniversary party?"
"If that's what you want."
Sam laughed again then realised that Toby was serious. If he said he wanted a party to mark the date that's exactly what would be arranged. "Thanks, that's weird, but thanks." He picked up his sandwich and Toby did the same and they ate in silence for a while. "I don't want to mark it. It's just another day, just another date on the calendar."
"Well, okay then." Toby said. He had finished his meal and waited for Sam to finish the few fries remaining on his plate. "I didn't know you had a cat."
Sam looked up in confusion. "Where did that come from?"
"I was just thinking about when you were first in the hospital. I went to see you and Josh was telling you that your mom was at your place and..." Toby rubbed at his forehead, "I didn't know you had a cat. I should have known that."
"I forgive you for not knowing I had a cat."
"Good." Toby stood and pushed his chair under the table.
Sam followed him out of the Mess. "I've forgiven you because I think you're using my cat as an analogy for generally not knowing things about me that someone who considers himself to be more than just a boss might reasonably-"
Toby stopped walking. Sam barrelled into him. "You see this is exactly why I don't do the sharing thing. I take a risk, expose my feelings, and then they're just laid out there for you to belittle."
Sam patted him on the shoulder. "Bruce Wayne said the exact same thing about The Boy Wonder."
Sam was reading when Josh entered his office. "I was thinking that-"
Sam's held his hand up to halt his words. He watched as Sam pulled his pad towards him, scribbled down a quote and then nodded.
"I was thinking that we could go for a drink tonight if you've got nothing else planned. Just a drink. You, me, Toby and CJ. A drink and something to eat. If you've got nothing else planned." He shoved his hands in his pockets in an attempt to make the question seem as casual as possible. Toby had told him about his conversation with Sam about the anniversary of the accident. They had both decided to leave it unless Sam mentioned it. Josh had decided though that maybe Sam didn't know what he wanted and at the very least, might not want to be alone tonight. He was pretty certain that his approach was casual enough to let Sam take him up on the offer or ignore the hidden reason for the question if he chose to.
Sam leant back in his seat and pulled off his glasses. "You're asking if I'd like to recreate the circumstances of the night I nearly died, to mark the anniversary?"
Josh smiled and shrugged. "Okay, I'll rephrase it. Would you like to A, go for a drink and pretend that tonight is just a normal, no near-death anniversary to mark kind of night or B, go for a drink and think about the miracle of the past year, your survival and to mark the anniversary of your near-death experience or c)…I don't know…just go home and wallow?"
"Or D, just go home, not wallow and then go to bed."
Josh nodded and took a seat. "D works as well."
"Darren called earlier. He also thinks I should go for a drink tonight. He was more intelligent in his broaching of the subject and the possible ramifications of it but to be fair to you, he didn't offer various scenarios after making the suggestion. He stood and walked over to the window. "Toby asked me a couple of weeks ago…what I wanted to do, if I wanted to do anything. I told him it was just another day on the calendar." He turned back to Josh. "It isn't though."
Josh shook his head. He knew all about anniversaries and trying to pretend it was just another day. He waited.
"I suppose they'll come a time when it is just another day but until then, well, I suppose we should mark it. Not the accident, not the night it happened but what's happened since. How everyone has…" He glanced up and was surprised to see Toby and CJ standing in the doorway. He smiled and continued, "How everyone has fought for me, believed that I'd be me again, not let me give up."
Toby cleared his throat. There was no meaningful response to Sam's words. He simply rocked forwards and backwards, cleared his throat and said, "Well then, get your coat."
Darren met them in the bar. The same bar as a year ago. CJ watched in amusement as Sam showed him the pictures he had taken of their mutual friend's damaged boat. She offered some lines for the lengthy email they then wrote about their friend's claims and the actual damage Sam had seen. After this Darren said he needed an early night and as Sam walked him to the entrance, Darren couldn't help thinking back to how he'd left the bar a year ago. He was happy to see Sam so comfortable with his friends. Finally, he could accept that Sam was going to be okay. Darren had needed to move on from the past year as well.
Sam returned to the table and watched his friends. Josh was trying to interrupt something Toby was telling CJ. She was waving her hand at him to shush, keen to hear the rest of the tale. Sam could tell by Josh's expression that the story was not a flattering one. He made a mental note to ask Toby to tell him later. Seeing Sam had returned, and keen to turn the conversation away from the embarrassing story, Josh held up his glass. "A toast to Sam's return."
"I only went to the sidewalk," Sam deadpanned.
"You know what I meant!" Josh returned before taking a sip of his drink.
"I do," Sam replied quietly and lifted his glass in the air. turned to Sam. "To being purposeful, appropriate and independent."
Toby raised his glass, "I'll drink to that. What does it mean?"
Josh grinned at Sam, "It's the level descriptor for the top of the Rancho Los Amigos scale, my friend." He stood and the others followed. The glasses chinked as they chorused the toast. Josh then pulled a worn piece of paper from his pocket. "Level 10," he said as he flattened the paper on the table. "Independently initiates and carries out steps to complete familiar and unfamiliar work tasks but may require more than usual amount of time and or compensatory strategies to complete them."
"I use Post-its and a flipchart. Also, I sometimes have a little stroll in the Rose Garden."
Josh continued, "Able to independently procure, create and maintain own assistive memory devices."
Sam held his finger up and then reached into his pocket pulling out the pen with the built-in recorder CJ had given him. He pressed the button and on hearing the recording of Josh's voice CJ burst into laughter. Toby had to tell her to shush so he could hear the recording of Josh admitting he was wrong. "How did you get him to say that?" Toby asked.
"I can't remember what he was wrong about, but he was and he admitted it and so I told him to repeat it and..." he clicked the pen and played the recording again. Josh made a grab for it but Sam pulled it away in time and put it back into his pocket. "That is going to come in very handy."
Toby rubbed at his beard to hide the smile that Josh's expression and CJ's laughter had prompted.
"I'm going to rise above it," Josh stated and returned to the scale. "Social interaction behaviour is consistently appropriate."
Sam frowned. "I'm not sure my social interaction behaviour was consistently appropriate before the brain injury."
"It's part of your charm," CJ said. She didn't miss the shared look between Toby and Josh. She assumed they too were silently celebrating the fact that Sam had used the term brain injury so casually. She couldn't remember him doing so before. They fell silent each thinking how far Sam had come.
The events of the night a year ago and what followed them, were not mentioned again. They talked about tomorrow's meetings and speculated on the exact nature of the lewd act performed by Charles Wendsworth outside a 7-Eleven. Toby drained his glass and stood, declaring the evening over before Sam and Josh's definitions of a lewd act were overheard by someone. They gathered coats and walked out of the bar.
They stood on the sidewalk. They had stood in a similar formation a year ago. Sam opposite Toby, CJ off to one side and Josh slightly behind Sam. "Right," Toby said in another attempt to end the evening.
"Right," Sam answered but no one made a move to leave.
Toby reached into his pocket and pulled out two cigars. "I've been saving these. I got them for State of the Union, afterwards but you didn't hang around. So…I've been saving them."
Sam nodded his thanks and took the offered cigar. "I haven't had a cigar since…well I can't remember when." He rolled it in his fingers and then looked up at Toby. "Thank you." He turned to Josh and CJ, "and you". He held out his hand to CJ and she stepped closer to take hold of it.
They stood like that for a while then Josh suggested they walk CJ home and share a cab from there. As one they turned and crossed the street. CJ kept hold of Sam's hand. Josh and Toby on either side of them. They walked together, slowly. The sound of their laughter grew fainter. They walked to the end of the street and then disappeared from view.
The End
My last fic ever- it's been a lot of fun. Thank you to those who joined me on the way.
