Blink 5/7
Chapter Five:
His homecoming is bittersweet. He's glad to be crossing the threshold of his family home again, but things look different. Familiar things that have been moved to new places even throw him off. He desperately wants to move them back to where he thinks they belong but chokes back that response and tries to embrace the way things are now instead.
He settles in to one of the wonderful old Stickley chairs and feels at home again, almost like his old self, until his father asks him if he feels like having something to eat. It feels odd to have to answer him in sign language. Though his genius, which apparently hadn't been affected by the stroke, made it easier for him to quickly learn sign language, his father and brother are still struggling to learn enough to understand him.
Amita, however, has thrown herself completely into that particular pursuit. She, more than anyone, has become someone he can really talk to. She seems different to him now though, more confident, less tentative. They can talk now as peers instead of as teacher and student, and Charlie finds he likes this new dynamic. She went out of her way to gather sign language reference materials that focused on math concepts so Charlie could communicate in his own preferred language in addition to his regular English signing. Both knew it would be a long time before he could work again, but she knew he'd be frustrated having to fingerspell all the math terms to her.
Charlie sits and stares out into the backyard. His father had wisely quashed Don's idea for a homecoming celebration, somehow knowing this would be a transition easier made quietly, on his own.
Still, Charlie feels a little flurry of happiness inside when his father announces Amita is there to see him. He smiles and embraces her as normal, but for some reason feels particularly glad to see her.
"I think I got you another P vs. NP convert today!" she signs and speaks simultaneously, knowing her signing will both help Charlie to learn quicker and make him feel more comfortable in conversation.
Student? Charlie signs.
Amita sits down on the edge of the coffee table in front of him and signs the word yes back. "He's fascinated with it. I think he's after the Clay prize."
Unable to laugh, Charlie simply flashes her a huge smile. Not if I win it first, he signs back.
"Mail call!" Alan's voice rings out as he walks back in the house. "Special delivery for Dr. Charles Eppes," he jokes, dropping a large envelope into Charlie's lap.
Charlie signs thank you and his father says, "you're welcome!" as he walks off and leaves the two of them alone.
The envelope really is special. The creamy ivory paper is heavy and expensive and the front is addressed in calligraphy to Dr. Charles Eppes.
He opens it and pulls out the contents, recognizing it immediately for what it is: a wedding invitation.
'Dr. Lawrence Fleinhardt and Dr. Laurel Wilson request the honor of your presence...'
The honor of his presence... Charlie is happy to be around at all for the ceremony. He's missed so much in the last seven months... He'd have been devastated if he'd missed such an important event in his best friend's life.
The reply card lists a spot for him to RSVP and to say if he will be bringing a guest. A date...
He looks up at Amita. "I got mine yesterday," she signs and says.
He nods and looks at her again, more closely this time. Their relationship has been so different since he woke up. She'd had months to get used to the fact that he was no longer her thesis advisor. He's had a little trouble adjusting to the new version of Amita as colleague instead of student. One thing hasn't changed though and that's how he feels about her deep inside. What have changed are the rules that previously kept them apart.
Larry had hinted that Amita had been devastated by his stroke, more than one would expect from a student. She had been a regular presence during his rehabilitation, visiting almost as often as Don had. Charlie finally began to see that she wasn't doing it because she felt bad that he was disabled. She'd really wanted to be with him.
He holds up the response card so she can see the RSVP portion.
"Yeah, I've got to send mine in," she says. "I'm bad about that, I'm sure I'll forget."
Charlie pulls a pen from his pocket and writes the number one and a question mark in the number of guests column and shows it to her again.
"You're asking me if you can bring a guest?" she says, looking confused and perhaps a bit crestfallen. "I'm sure Larry wouldn't mind."
Charlie shakes his head and points at her.
"Oh, you want us to go together! Sure, put 'plus one' down and I'll let Laurel know that counts as my RSVP since I'll forget to send mine in."
Flustered, Charlie shakes his head again and, not knowing the sign for the word he wants to say, he fingerspells the letters A-S M-Y D-A-T-E.
For a moment, he can't read her expression, and he wonders if he's crossed a line that wasn't meant to be crossed. She looks down for a few seconds, hiding her face behind the curtain of dark wavy hair Charlie had wanted to touch so many times when they worked together before. When she looks back up, she's smiling. "I thought you'd never ask," is her reply. Her smile mirrors Charlie's until she nervously looks away, feeling shy under his gaze.
Charlie reaches out and slides his fingers gently through her hair, encouraging her to come closer. She kneels in front of him, laying her hands on his knees as he smoothes her hair and caresses her face.
He senses that she needs to say something, and he encourages her with a glance that she reads perfectly.
"Charlie, when I found out..." Her face darkens and her eyes begin to fill with tears. "I cried so hard, I just couldn't stop."
I know, he signs. I saw you.
"Charlie, that's not possible. You were unconscious for seven months."
Not at first, he signs. Not looking forward to the amount of fingerspelling he'd need to do to communicate all that he wants to say, he pulls out his notepad and quickly writes, "saw classroom, saw students, saw paramedic, saw doctor, saw..." He stops at that point, sobering as he remembers the last thing he had seen before his old life came to an end.
He pauses for a moment then signs the rest. I saw you crying in Don's arms. I saw Don crying. That's the last thing I saw.
Amita can't hold back her tears any longer. "Neither of us could bear losing you, Charlie. We were both so lost... There was nothing that could console us, not even each other. We just both cried until we couldn't cry anymore."
Charlie feels her sadness and his own for having put those he loves through such grief. Having suffered through his mother's lengthy illness he can imagine how much worse it was for them to not even be able to talk with him as he could with his mother. To suddenly be told you could never speak with your loved one again... It seemed almost too painful to bear and yet they'd had to for the better part of a year. Even though Charlie couldn't speak himself now that hadn't stopped him from telling Don and his father how much he loved them his first day back.
He takes a deep breath and decides it's time to put the past behind him and do what he can with the life he's been given a second chance at.
Over now, he signs. Time to move forward.
"You're right," she says, looking up at him with a smile and wiping her eyes briefly. "Time to move forward."
Charlie draws closer to her and slips his hand behind her neck, leaning down as she rises to meet him in a kiss, warm and sweet and full of promise.
"We don't need words for this, do we?" she whispers, bringing her lips to his again.