A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.
Chapter Summary: Louise visits the Willises before going to spend the day at the shooting range.
Chapter 4: Day Two
Saturday, November 24, 2001
"Oh Louise, I still can't get over this lovely Portuguese tea set you bought us," Helen said with a big smile as she, Tom, and Louise sat together at the Willises' kitchen table at ten-thirty that Saturday morning.
"Yes, it really is exquisite," Tom agreed as they all looked at it sitting on the table before them.
"But today is Aaron's and Adam's birthday. Why are you giving us a gift on our grandsons' birthday?" asked Helen.
"Well since we all couldn't make it down to Texas for their birthday this year, George and I mailed all their birthday gifts to Lionel and Jenny, just as you two have, and they gave our gifts to them this morning."
"Oh, have you already spoken with them?" asked Helen.
"We have," Louise told her. "George and I called them this morning to talk with them and wish them a happy birthday. And since Aaron and Adam already have all their gifts, I thought that today seemed like a perfect day to get something for the two of you as well. You've been George's and my best friends for so many years now. Every time we've needed you two over the years, you didn't hesitate to come running, no matter how obnoxious George might've been at the start," Louise said with a chuckle, and Tom and Helen laughed with her. "And I just wanted to give you a little something to show my appreciation and let you know how much I love you both," Louise told them truthfully. And naturally, they responded by getting up out of their seats and hugging and loving on Louise.
"We love you and George, too, Louise," Tom told her.
"We certainly do," Helen agreed. And then after they both returned to their seats, Helen said regretfully, "I so hated it that Tom and I weren't able to be there for the boys' eighteenth birthday, today."
"Don't blame yourself, Helen," Tom said kindly. "It isn't your fault that your cousin Laurel had that terrible accident a week ago."
"Isn't your cousin Laurel the cousin who lived on the same block as you when you were both kids?" Louise inquired.
"Yes, that's the one," Helen confirmed. "Laurel and I grew up together. She was my best friend when we were kids. We were practically like sisters. But like everyone else on both sides of our family, with the exception of Tom's Uncle Bertram, of course, Laurel chose to sever ties with me after I got married to Tom. But she never got married or had children, and now, at age seventy, she's all alone in the world. And when she reached out to Tom and me a few months ago and apologized to us and told us that she was living on the East Side now, we just couldn't turn her away. I had to open my heart to her again."
"Of course you did," Louise said kindly. "Didn't she slip and fall down the stairs in her apartment and hit her head last week?" she asked Helen then.
"That's right," Helen replied. "And sadly, she doesn't have anybody in the world but us. She's still unconscious, still in a coma, and the doctors don't know if she's going to pull through or not. It's still touch and go. And if something happens, God forbid, Tom and I should be here. We're going to the hospital to visit her later on."
"You two really are beautiful people," Louise told Tom and Helen with a loving smile. "And I'm proud to have you for my neighbors…and more importantly…I'm proud to have you for my closest friends." Louise managed to keep the torrent of her fierce emotions well-hidden from the Willises, but the fact of the matter was, she was fighting off tears in those moments.
"Believe me, Louise; the feelings are mutual," Helen said warmly, and then once again, both she and Tom were up out of their seats, hugging and loving on Louise. Then after talking with one another for about ten more minutes, and after telling Helen to keep her posted on her cousin, Louise returned to her apartment downstairs.
Later on that afternoon, unbeknownst to George, Louise went out to the nearest (indoor) shooting range to practice her shooting for a while. George, in the meantime, went downstairs to Charlie's Bar to watch a football game, along with (most of) the guys in the apartment building. And about three hours later, after the football game had ended, Sam Tomlinson, a tall, slim, black, eighty-five-year-old tenant with white hair and glasses, came into the bar, and he ran into George.
"Hey there, George," he said with a friendly grin.
George smiled in that moment and said, "Hey, Mr. Tomlinson. How you doin' today?"
"I'm doing great, George. Just great. How are you?" he asked George then.
"I'm doin' great, too," George answered with a smile.
"Speaking of doing great, your wife is doing great with her shooting practice. As a matter of fact, she's doing way better than great. Louise is amazing! She's an incredibly good shot. I sure was impressed when I ran into her at the shooting range earlier today."
"The shooting range?"
"Yeah. I go there from time to time myself to practice my shooting. In these crazy times, people our age can't be too careful. It's important that older people like us remain capable of defending ourselves. And it's even more important for people in Louise's condition to be able to protect themselves with a gun if need be. The good Lord blessed you with a very wise and strong woman, George. You should be very proud of Louise."
George smiled and said, "I'm always proud of Weezy. Always."
Mr. Tomlinson returned the smile then and slapped George on the back and told him, "It's good to see you again, George."
"Good to see you, too," George said quietly as he got lost in thought.
When George returned to the apartment a few minutes later, Louise was already there. She'd changed into a purple gym suit to wear to the shooting range, and she was still wearing it when George got home. And her hair was also slightly disheveled, which George noticed, and he knew it was probably from all her activity at the shooting range. In just about any other set of circumstances, Louise would've looked so adorable to him with her mildly disheveled hair, but not now. Now, he was worried.
"Hey, George," she said with a pleasant smile, and George smiled back and walked up to her and gave her a big, long kiss. "How was the football game today?"
"It was alright. We won," said George, but he didn't seem to care all that much.
"Oh, that's great. Congratulations, George. You know, I–"
"Why did you go to the shooting range today?" George asked Louise in the most serious tone.
Louise shrugged and answered matter-of-factly, "I thought it was a good idea. I haven't been in a long time. I thought I should probably get some good practice in; keep my skills sharp. And anyway, we both agreed a long time ago that it was important for me, as a disabled woman living here in a dangerous city like this, to have all possible options of self-defense available to me should I ever need them."
"I know, sweetheart. I know. It just worries me. I don't like the thought of you bein' around all those loud gunshots goin' off all over the place at the shootin' range. All that sudden loud noise all around you could be too stressful for your heart. You don't need to be around no shootin' range, Weezy. What you need is peace and quiet so you can rest. You need to be takin' it easy now. You know that."
Louise softly laughed at her husband's typical over-protectiveness of her, and she looked up at him and said, "Well George, first of all, we wear special headsets at the shooting range so that when we practice our shooting, it doesn't hurt our hearing. So all the loud noise that happens at the shooting range doesn't bother me at all. And second of all, you have got to stop treating me as if I'm made of porcelain. Yes, I had a heart attack earlier this year, but that doesn't mean I'm helpless, and it doesn't mean I'm an invalid. And I'm not going to let my heart attack keep me locked up in this apartment, just lying in bed all the time, wasting away in some kind of bubble. And besides, you know as well as I do that this crazy, violent city is a battlefield. Any of us can find ourselves in battle at any time, and we should be prepared to protect ourselves when need be."
George shook his head and said, "No, Weezy. All your battles are over now. You ain't never gonna have to fight another one. I'll take care of all the battles from now on, sweetheart, because you've been through enough. You just relax and lean on me. If you don't feel safe goin' out by yourself anymore, I'll go out with you wherever you wanna go from now on so you won't be alone. I'll carry the gun. I'll be your protection. And if any battle comes lookin' for us, I'll be the one to fight it now."
"That's very sweet and loving of you, George, but you can't fight all the battles for me all the time. That's not how life works in the real world," said Louise. And in was in that moment that George began to get a sense of what might be going on.
A few long seconds later, George looked at Louise intently and asked, "Weezy, is somebody threatenin' you?"
Louise then looked at George with a wry smile. "The only threatening going on around here is between the two of us, because I'm about to get out my gun and force you into our bedroom at gunpoint and make you spend the rest of the day making love to me," she teased.
"Now those are the kind of threats I like," George joked, and they laughed together. "But all kiddin' around aside, Weez, we have to think of your heart."
"I am thinking about my heart, George. We haven't made love since my heart attack several months ago, and right now, this is something that my heart really needs."
"Weezy, I am not risking your heart. It's already been through so much. We can't take any careless chances, baby. We just can't. Your health is too fragile."
"I know I've been through a lot, George, but it's like I said before. I'm not made of porcelain. I know that my heart attack really scared you. It scared me, too. But I need you to stop treating me as if I'm made of glass. And I need us to come together again. I need our bodies to come together again. I've missed you, George."
"Oh, Weez," said George in an emotional voice, and then after giving her a very long, passionate kiss, he pushed her wheelchair into the bedroom and made love to her.
Later on that night, after showering and changing into their nightclothes, Louise and George got into bed, and they were both quite ready to close their eyes and go to sleep. They weren't as young as they used to be, and understandably, the previous activities of the day had made them quite tired.
After giving Louise a big kiss for the night, George sweetly told her, "Goodnight, baby. I love you."
Louise smiled, touched George's cheek with her index finger, and responded, "Goodnight, sweetheart. I love you, too." And again, they kissed.
George then turned over and turned off the lamp on his nightstand as Louise grabbed her pen and calendar from her nightstand and marked off another day. In the following moment, she set her pen and calendar back on her nightstand, and then after shooting up a quick nighttime prayer to the Lord, she reached up and turned off her lamp and soon fell asleep all cuddled up beside George.