She walks back into the waiting room, and over to her sister's. "Come on, we're going back home."
"How's Wilson?" Ruthie asks.
"He's fine, oddly enough."
"Does his arm hurt?"
"Well, he's all bandaged up and in a sling, but he's going to be all right in time." She turns her head and stares directly at Lucy. "Time heals all wounds." Lucy stares back at her as Mary puts her arm around her. "Luce, what do you say we let Ruthie drive?" Mary asks.
Lucy laughs. "I'll drive."
They arrive back at the house at 2:50. Mary, Lucy, and Ruthie drag themselves up the stairs to the attic and crawl into bed. No one even notices they have come home, and, as far as Mary could tell, they didn't care either. Lucy falls asleep first, as Mary lies herself down. Just as she is about to close her eyes, to attempt to get maybe five minutes of sleep, someone taps her shoulder. She rolls over and sees Ruthie at the side of her bed.
"Can I get in with you?" she asks Mary. "I'm scared."
"There's nothing to be scared over. Kevin's gone and he's never coming back." Mary says, more for her own benefit than Ruthie's.
"I know, but I'm still a little leery."
"All right," Mary says lifting up the covers, "get in."
Ruthie crawls into Mary's bed and snuggles in next to her sister. Mary puts her arms around her, and says goodnight. Ruthie falls asleep in a heartbeat, but Mary has too much on her mind to be able to rest. She stays awake until 5:30 in the morning, thinking things through. The only decision she came to, though, was that she wished Wilson was lying there next to her instead of Ruthie. Still, it made her feel good to be wanted, even if it was just to ease her 12-year-old sister's mind.
Mary is awakened at 6:45 by the sound of the doorbell ringing. It rings three times before someone answers it. About 5 minutes later, there is a knock at the bedroom door. Mary gets out of bed and opens it to find her mother.
"Uh, Roxanne is here." She informs her. "She's downstairs. She wants to talk to you and Lucy."
Mary lets out a heavy sigh. "I have to leave for the hospital in, like, 10 minutes though. I told Wilson I'd be back at 7."
Her mother glares at her.
"All right, I'll wake up Lucy. Tell her we'll be down in 3 minutes."
Mary walks over to Lucy's bed, and shakes her until she wakes up.
"What?" she mumbles.
"Roxanne is downstairs. She wants to talk to us, so get up."
"OK." She says, rolling out of bed. She stands up, puts her slippers on, and walks to the door. "Wait, did you say Roxanne?" Lucy asks, just before she opens the door. Mary nods. "Oh god. I can't see her!"
"Yes you can. C'mon, it'll be good for you."
"No, it won't."
"So what, you're going to talk to her anyways." Mary says, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the stairs.
The two of them walk into the living room, and sit on the couch opposite Roxanne.
"I…I don't know what to say to you both." Roxanne starts. "I'm sorry."
"Its not your fault. You have nothing to apologize for." Mary says.
"I know, but apologizing still feels appropriate."
They are quiet for a little while. Roxanne and Lucy avoid eye contact, having no clue what to say to the other. Mary doesn't feel like she owes either of them anything, especially Roxanne, so she decides to keep her mouth shut.
"So, I, um, guess I should be going. You're probably really tired."
"Yeah." Lucy says, half-heartedly.
The three of them stand, and walk towards the door. Just before Roxanne is about to leave, she turns around to Lucy. "I know you don't like me that much, but if you want to talk, I'm here."
Lucy's face turns from angry to pleasant. "Thanks."
Roxanne leaves and Lucy and Mary walk back upstairs. Lucy gets back into bed, but Mary gets dressed. By the time she is all ready to go, Lucy has fallen back asleep. Mary closes the door silently behind her, and walks down the stairs to the kitchen. She sees her mother and father sitting there, drinking coffee.
"I'm going to go to the hospital now."
"OK." Her father says.
Mary waits for them to ask how Wilson is, or something like that. For all they know, he could have died. Yet, neither of them says anything else.
"Um, Bye." She says, a little angry, and walks out the door.
She arrives at the hospital, and walks back into Wilson's room.
"Hey."
"Hi. I'm sorry I'm late, Roxanne showed up on our doorstep, and I tried to explain to my mother that I told you I'd be back at 7, but she wouldn't listen to me."
"Mare, its OK, it's only ten past seven. Calm down."
"Sorry, I just feel really worked up. How's your arm?"
"Not that bad."
"Really and truly?"
"Really and truly. How are you doing?"
"All right I guess. I'm still kind of in a state of shock."
"And your arm?"
"Oh, its fine. The bullet just scratched me, not like it did to you."
"Yeah," he says, sounding sort of depressed.
Mary sits down in the chair next to Wilson. She takes his hand and stares adoringly at him. "So, when are you getting out of this joint?"
"Whenever the doctor says I can leave. Hopefully soon." He squeezes Mary's hand. "I just hope this doesn't ruin your Christmas."
"All I wanted for Christmas was to be with you, and you're here with me. As long as we're together I'll be happy."
"Same here." He replies. Wilson stares at Mary peculiarly for a few seconds.
"What?" she finally asks him.
"Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am. Really." She pauses for a second, and Wilson smiles at her. "OK, maybe I'm not fine, but I'm trying."
"Come here." He says, shifting to make room for her on the bed.
"Are you sure?" she asks apprehensively. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't hurt me, I promise."
Mary sits on the bed next to her beloved, and rests her head on his shoulder. He runs his fingers lovingly through her hair as he kisses the top of her head.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks her.
"No, not right now."
"All right, but we're going to have to talk about it eventually."
"I know, but I'm not ready yet." She says, snuggling closely into him.
Wilson wraps his arm around Mary. They both lay there in a half awake-half asleep state for over an hour. Just as Wilson is finally about to get some rest, he is jolted awake by pain in his arm. He lifts his head and looks at it, then looks down at Mary. He realizes she is crying, but trying to be discrete about it. He goes to say something to her, but stops himself. Instead, he rubs her back to comfort her, and decides just to let her cry.
Twenty-five minutes later, she stops herself. Mary picks her head up and kisses Wilson on the cheek, then lies back down on top of him. He says nothing to her, and just continues to caress her back softly. One of the reasons he says nothing is that he doesn't want to start getting emotional himself. He figures that one of them had to try and keep it together, and even though Mary's strong, she tends to loose it when something is really bothering her. Like when she wanted to stop using crutches after she was hit by that car, but was too scared to do so, for example. Wilson merely went to talk to her about it, and she just started crying out of the clear blue. She was the same way yesterday with Billy. As soon as they got back in the car, she just went nuts- totally ballistic. Wilson had to drive them back to the Camdens'. He also knows that Mary hates it when people rub things in her face. If he made reference to the fact that she is crying, forget about it. He'd get the cold shoulder for at least twenty minutes from her. Mary isn't one to swallow her pride when she is in trouble, especially emotional trouble. She'll never loose an argument- always right, never admits she's wrong.