Dedicated to Skye McDaniel. For your love of your "namesake", your eternal encouragement, and supreme friendship. :huggles: Thanks so much for everything, sweetheart, and I'll see you at the meet!
Chapter Nine
The Workings of a Healer's Mind
Odd, wasn't it? How one could be so overwhelmingly tired, and not be able to sleep. How at first it seemed that the only release from the troubles of the day was the relief of sleep, and then, once darkness fell and weighed opressively on one's eyelids, sleep eluded all efforts.
Of course, when one's mind was overwhelmingly crowded with anxious thoughts about the conditions of various people, one's best friend among them, it did seem rather natural that sleep would prove elusive.
Or so Neal told himself, after innumerable hours of lying awake, listening to the watch call out the passing hours as he worried about Kel and the other invalids.
Under normal circumstances, he would have gone to talk with Kel. He would have banged on her door to wake her, no matter the hour, and though she might have been slightly perturbed at being roused in the middle of the night, she would have said something equally sensible and comforting, and Neal's mind would have been satisfied enough to let him sleep.
But not tonight.
Tonight Kel was indisposed, and this train of thought had lead Neal back to where he had started. Back to his earlier misgivings, and still far from sleep.
He supposed it was his fate to be cursed with a mind that needed to communicate its issues to others.
And that was how he found himself at Skye's bed-room door at two in the morning. Naturally, he hadn't thought about the impropriety of the situation until after he had knocked. Several times.
But he had done this with Kel, hadn't he?
But Kel was different, the repressed, rational part of his mind told him.
Well, it was too late now, wasn't it. The door swung open, revealing a disgruntled Skye.
"Whaa?" she asked tiredly.
"I…couldn't…"
At which point everything he had planned to say simply flew out of his mind and he was left wondering why he had never done this before. Apparently, it was not so very hard to sneak unnoticed into a woman's room in the middle of the night.
"Neal? What are you doing here?"
Skye's words forced Neal out of his reverie, and he realised that he nothing to say except, "Can I come in?"
Skye blinked several times, still appearing rather sleepy and confused, until understanding seemed to dawn. "Oh. Oooh. Um, yes. Come in."
It seemed to Neal that she had misunderstood his intentions, and he was about to correct her, when she kissed him.
It was quite a nice kiss.
No, nice was assuredly not the right word. Certainly, nice was something of an understatement.
Moreover, it was enough to make him forget his original purpose in coming to her room.
A/N - Huh. I think I've become something of a hobbit. 'Twas my birthday yesterday, so consider this my (somewhat belated) birthday present. To you. Hobbits do have lovely traditions, don't you agree? I do apologise for the shortness of the chapter, but, due to evil conniving teachers and their homework, my brain has been in overload recently, and this was the best I could do. And now, if it's not too much trouble, if you could drop in a little review? Please?