It took the guys a lot of effort to situate Race on the couch. Trish had succeeded in making it into a somewhat comfortable place to sleep. It was a large piece of furniture that usually could seat four or five people relatively comfortably so Race could be laid down flat. When Calyx had insisted that the couch be brought from her aunt's house Race had been the one to protest the loudest. It was ironic that it was now his bed until the doctor cleared him to move back to the barn.
When it was apparent that Race wasn't going to wake up anytime soon the guys began to head back out to the barn. Trish followed the boys out and into the barnyard. "What do you think you are doing?" She yelled at Mush as he was climbing the ladder.
"Finishing up on the roof." Mush said as he turned to look at her.
"You are climbing back up there? Race is in the house flat on his back because he fell off the roof." Trish protested.
"If we don't get that roof fixed we aren't going to have a place for Race to rest." Mush said as he climbed down the ladder and stood in front of her.
"But what if one of you get hurt?" Trish asked shaking a bit.
Mush gave her a cheeky grin "Then we get to have a night in the house."
Trish wasn't ready to come out of her funk and glared at him "Sure Race fell from the roof so he could spend the night in the house." Her next thought did cause her to smile a bit "If you all end up hurt then we'll know you're up to something."
Mush gave her a winning smile and started back up the ladder before stopping. "Are you sure you okay? You were the one to see Race fall."
Trish looked at him, shocked a bit at his concern. "I'm fine, or I will be when you guys finish with this roof."
"You sure?" Mush pressed.
Trish rolled her eyes and motioned to the roof. "This ain't gonna fix itself, Race is fine, I'm fine. Go work on the roof get it done so we can kick him out of the house without feeling guilty." Trish turned on her heel and stalked back to the house ignoring the looks that she had gotten from the other guys as her voice had raised.
Mush shook his head in confusion as he climbed the ladder to the loft. Jack and Kid Blink were there searching for something.
"You calm your girl down?" Jack asked.
"She ain't my girl." Mush said sulkily.
"Of course not you is just the one she is worried about falling off the roof." Blink teased.
"She ain't worried about any of us falling, she don't want us in the house." Mush explained. "What are you looking for?" He asked suddenly as Blink dived into a pile of junk.
Jack turned and with a lot of amusement in his voice he motioned to Blink, "His girl told him if he didn't wear a rope the entire time he was on the roof she wasn't gonna tend to any of his owies."
Blink stood up a three foot length of rope in his grasp. "This should do it."
"That piece of rope wouldn't keep an ant on the roof much less you." Mush said snidely.
Blink winked with his good eye. "She only said to wear the rope, not to tie it to anything."
"You are so whipped." Jack commented before he shimmied up the wall and onto the roof. The other two boys followed him up and soon the healthy six guys were working away at the roof again.
It had been a couple of days since Race's fall from the roof and the girls were finding out first hand how much he hated being flat on his back. One of the girls, no one would own up, had given him an old cowbell to ring if he needed anything. And he took advantage of it every chance he got.
By the third day of Race occupying the couch Saiorse was fed up. "What does a guy need to do to get service around here?" Race asked as she came into the parlor.
Saiorse glared at Race and snatched the bell out of his hand, "What do you want?"
"I'm bored." Race said simply.
"So you ain't seeing spots in front of your eyes? You donnae need to use the outhouse? You is just bored?" Saiorse felt her temper rise.
Race seemed to not notice the danger he was in simply nodded. "Yeah that's about it."
"Well you listen to me Racetrack Higgins the next time you ring this bell you better be dying or I am gonna bean you with it. Then shove it down your throat." Saiorse placed the bell just out of his reach and turned toward the door.
"I'm still bored." Race whined at her back.
She turned to face him her temper now flashing. "That's just too bad." She went and grabbed the bell, and stalked out of the room.
Race stared after her a look of total amazement on his face. She was ticked off he could tell, but he had no idea why. All he did was say he was bored. And he still was. He hated to be sick and being flat on his back when he felt just fine was the worst. Well, his ribs were still a bit sore, but that was it. And he still could feel the goose egg on the back of his head throb when he was tired but really that was all. And he was bored, he had counted all of the cracks in the ceiling plaster, there were twenty or so big ones and around fifty little ones. Those would have to be repaired; he could do that when he was back on his feet. That wouldn't be such a big fall, maybe only two feet.
He could handle that, maybe if someone would hold the stepladder. Yeah, maybe he could get Saiorse to hold the ladder for him. She was really interesting looking when she was angry. He wouldn't call her pretty; no, none of the girls who had come out were pretty in the usual sense. They weren't going to be on stage or anything. But there was something about Sairose, probably the way she carried herself. Race knew that she rarely got angry unless something really ticked her off, like the bell. He would just have to work on figuring out how to make her angry again, because she was actually pretty cute when she was angry.
A/N: Note of explanation you can climb the inside wall of a barn to the roof if the barn is built for it. Usually this means that between two posts a ladder has been fashioned, but depending on how old the barn is you can also use the holes in the wall as toe and hand holds. No of course I have never done this before in my life. (Trying to keep the innocent look on my face as I type.)
My best friend growing up lives on an acreage in the country that has a barn and a bunch of outbuildings and when you are the only girl with three boys you are expected to do certain activities or be left behind. And climbing on the barn wall was one of them. I never made it to the roof but we did manage to go around the inside of the barn, never touching the ground once.
So anyway I hope this wasn't too convoluted for anyone. I have had trouble making the story do what I want so I have just been writing and editing out what I didn't like. So as always if there are missing words give me a heads up. I hope you enjoyed this little arc, next chapter if Race is agreeable he will be back on his feet and back in the barn, and I'll move on to another couple. And maybe one day this story will be finished. I write way to much detail don't I? Please don't answer that. But do review.
