"Daddy!" Delia yelled as she ran onto the porch and into his arms. Dr. Brown hugged his daughter and lifted her up so he was holding her. Nina walked to the door smiling.
"Hi sweetie," Dr. Brown said to his daughter. He turned to Nina.
"Hey thanks for taking care of her," Dr. Brown said. Nina waved it off.
"She's always welcome here. See you later Delia," Nina said waving to her.
"Bye Nina, bye Sam," Delia responded as Dr. Brown carried her down the stairs.
He carried her through the dug pathways and around to their porch. Ephram opened the door for them. Dr. Brown set Delia down and she ran over to Ephram and hugged him. The three of them walked into the house.
"Oh, it's cold," Dr. Brown said walking over and turning the heat up.
"It's good to be home anyway," Ephram said looking around with a smile. Dr. Brown looked at his son and smiled. Ephram hadn't done anything purposefully to put a smile on his father's face, but he put one there. Ephram called this place 'home.' Delia ran directly to her room to change her hat. Dr. Brown checked the refrigerator and picked out a head of lettuce that had gone bad.
"So how's Jig doing?" Dr. Brown asked his son. Ephram turned to him but turned away before his father realized he had looked up.
"Her fever was gone this morning," Ephram told him. Dr. Brown looked at his son in surprise.
"You got her temperature down from 102 within three days?" Dr. Brown asked him. Ephram glanced up at him and nodded. Dr. Brown smiled.
"That's really great, Ephram," Dr. Brown told him. Ephram looked at him again and his glare stayed this time.
"I didn't do anything, it was Jig's immune system."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that. There have been some interesting studies done about how simply having friends around can help people to recovery," Dr. Brown told him. Ephram frowned.
"I didn't do anything, okay?" Ephram told him and walked off to his room. Dr. Brown nodded his head, smiling, and continued to look through the refrigerator.
"I suppose I shouldn't even ask what the two of you did all of this time?" Edna asked. Edna and Jig were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. Irv leaned over Edna's shoulder and placed a dish of food in front of her, and one in front of Jig.
"Edna…" Irv told her warningly.
"What?" Edna asked and Irv sat down next to her after grabbing himself a plate.
"I slept most the time. I don't know what he did while I was sleeping," Jig answered her anyway.
"At least you're feeling better," Irv said and Edna agreed.
"Hey, I'm cold, I'm going to go get my sweater, I'll be right back," Jig said standing up and walking out of the room. Once she was out of ear shot Irv turned to Edna.
"Questions like that are going to make her think that you don't trust her," Irv told her. Edna sighed in anger.
"Oh, what do you know about raising kids?" she asked him.
"More than you evidently," Irv said taking a sip from his glass. Edna's frown greatened.
"Why would Kathy send her to me anyway? She saw how my kids turned out, why would she want me to raise hers?" Edna asked him.
"Because you're the only one who would take her," Irv answered. Edna sighed and nodded her head.
Amy just stood out on the sidewalk with her head facing the sky. Her eyes were closed and she was just breathing in the cold, clean air. Three days trapped inside with her family was dangerous to anyone's health. Mental health that is. Amy was just happy they survived it without killing and/or eating anyone of them. She opened her eyes and looked around her at all of the mounds of snow. How could two days of snow yield so much? Then again, this wasn't normal snow, this was Everwood snow. There's a huge difference. She also had to smile, thinking about all of the Pinecone editions lying under all of the feet of snow. Today's Pinecone was bound to be interesting.
Desi tightened the string around her waist, tugged on her swooping sleeves, and straightened her hair a little. She sighed confidently and rang the doorbell. After a few moments Edna Harper opened the door and glared at her skeptically.
"Hello, Mrs. Harper, my name is Desdemona Quin-"
"I know who you are," Edna told her sharply. Desi nodded.
"Yes, of course. Is Jig home?" Desi asked her. Edna glared at her again, this time just long enough to make Desi a little uncomfortable under it.
"No, she's out with friends," Edna said and closed the door in her face. Desi stood still and silent for awhile before turning around and walking back down the walkway. That did not go as expected.
"This is the single most horrifying moment of my life!" Jig yelled rubbing her gloved hands together furiously. Both Ephram and Amy had a hand wrapped around one of her arms and were nearly dragging her along a pathway that went through the woods. While Ephram and Amy were wearing jackets, gloves, long pants, and boots, Jig was practically wearing every piece of clothing she owned. Ephram and Amy had to laugh at her. Neither of them had ever seen a person so against going for a walk.
"It's just snow, Jig," Amy told her.
"It's frozen Hell, that's what it is!" Jig corrected her.
"You're a freak, Jig. Has anyone ever told you that?" Ephram asked her.
"Yes… Listen, you two can go for a walk if you want to, but do it together, leave me out of it," Jig said beginning to walk away. Ephram and Amy both tightened their grip on her. Jig frowned.
"Okay, don't…" Jig said and paused. After a few moments Jig bolted and sprinted away from them both. They took chase after her. Jig looked behind her to see how close they were, a smile on her face. She stopped running under a tree and waited for them to catch up. They did and paused to catch their breath.
"I can't run away, I'd get lost," Jig told them and the two smiled.
"You have a horrible running posture," Amy told her.
"I don't do it that often," Jig explained.
"Yea we know 'you spend too much time outside, you die,'" Ephram said holding his hand up.
"Die?" Amy asked a little curious. Jig nodded.
"One way or another. You either die of the heat during the day, or getting shot during the night," Jig said with a frown. Ephram sighed angrily.
"Oh who was it? Uh… Joe Frisco. He said that LA is "the only town in the world where you can wake up in the morning and listen to the birds coughing in the trees,'" Ephram said and Amy and Jig laughed.
"I haven't heard that one," Jig said.
"How do you remember that?" Amy asked him. Ephram shrugged.
"Genetics."
"I want that embroidered on a pill-" Jig started when there was a crackling noise coming from the tree above them. The three of them looked up and suddenly something fell down from the tree and into Jig's arms. She screamed as the dazed raccoon looked up at her. Jig immediately dropped the creature to the ground. It scattered away, unhurt by either fall. On its way into the woods, it turned back to look at them, and then ran away. Jig turned back to Ephram and Amy, a horror stricken look on her face.
"We're going home, now," Jig told them. They nodded.
Delia sat alone at lunch. It was too cold to eat outside so the school was eating inside. That meant she had to find a new place to sit. She had found one though, in the far back corner, under the broken light. There she sat alone, all alone. Since Magilla left, she didn't have any friends.
"I think you dropped this is in class," a girl said placing a pencil in front of Delia. Delia looked up at the small Japanese girl with black wire rimmed glasses. Delia looked at the pencil and wrapped her hand around it and pulled it closer to her. She had seen the girl around the class, she never said anything, returning Delia's pencil must have been brave of her.
"Thanks," Delia said softly. The girl nodded and they both fell into an uncomfortable silence. Delia noticed that the girl was holding her lunchbox in her hand.
"Do you wanna join me?" Delia asked her. The girl paused for a while before wordlessly sitting down across from her.
"Thanks…" the girl said.
"You're welcome. I'm Delia."
"I'm Murasaki," the girl introduced herself. Delia smiled, and Murasaki smiled too.
"Eleven colds, five sore throats, and one inner ear infection. I never had this in New York City," Dr. Brown said walking out of his office into the main sitting room. Edna chuckled.
"We do things big here in Everwood," she told him. Dr. Brown chuckled and shook his head as he looked over a few pieces of paper on a clipboard.
"How could you go from the battle field to a small town nurse, Edna?" Dr. Brown asked her.
"I could ask you the same," she told him. Dr. Brown laughed again.
"Touché," he told her and walked back into his office.
"Um, uh, Dr. Abbott, yo- your eleven o'clock is here," Louise said poking her head into Dr. Abbott's office.
"Thank you Louise, send her in," he said shrewdly. Louise nodded, retracted her head, and closed the door. A few moments later there was a knock on the door.
"Come in Tionè," he said. A tall, pretty Black woman walked into the room, closing the door behind her. Dr. Abbott stood as she entered. She stood at the door and waved 'hello' to him. He beckoned her to sit in the chair across the desk from him and he sat done as she did so.
"So, how are you feeling?" he asked her. Tionè moved her hands in front of her and he nodded his head.
"That's perfectly natural at this stage. Just eat some crackers and get plenty of rest," he told her. She moved her hands in front of her again.
"Yes, that's to be expected. Where's Earl?" he asked her. Again she moved her hands, longer this time.
"Oh that's alright, don't worry about it. I don't have another appointment until one. Thanks to that no good demirep…" Dr. Abbott told her and stopped himself before he went off on a tangent, "we have time before we have to do the sonogram."
