Chapter 10
We are swimming with the snakes
At the bottom of the well
So silent and peaceful in the darkness where we fell
But we are not snakes and what's more
We never will be
And if we stay swimming here forever we will
Never be free
"Forgiveness", Patty Griffin
Calleigh entered Tim's room with a smile. "You about ready?"
"More than," he grumbled.
She laughed. "I know, I know."
"They said they'd be back in five minutes with the discharge papers. It's been fifteen," he complained.
"Well, you couldn't go anywhere until I got here anyway," she pointed out. "I'm your ride, after all."
"Mmm," he said.
"Want me to go see what the hold up is?" she asked.
"Please?" he said. She nodded and left the room.
As she neared the nurses' station, Angela, one of the nurses, looked up and said, "I'm coming, I'm coming."
Calleigh smiled. "I'm sorry, he's just…"
"Oh, I know. And we're about as anxious to get rid of him as he is to be gone," she joked.
"Can't say I blame you," Calleigh said, following the nurse back down the hall.
"All right, Mr. Speedle, here we go," Angela said, brandishing a handful of papers.
"Good," Tim said. "What's all that?"
"Your instructions, of course," Angela said. "Now, condition one of your release is that someone is going to stay with you. We've got that one met? Is one of your parents saying?"
"No, they went back to New York. I'm going to stay," Calleigh said.
"Ah! Sorry, I had down it was one of your folks," Angela said, crossing something out on her clipboard.
"I told them to go," Tim said. "They've got work to do. No sense in everyone losing money on this." Calleigh raised her eyebrows at him, but didn't reply.
"Alrighty, then, Calleigh is going to stay with you. Good," Angela said. "Condition two is that you're going to have the home health nurse come over three times a week for the next two weeks to take care of the IV antibiotics. It's all set up, you don't have to do anything," she said, handing him a sheet. "We did them this morning, so they'll come by on Wednesday, ok?"
"Fine," he said, taking the paper.
"Ok, these are your food instructions. Liquids only for two more days, then you can start with the soft stuff. Yogurt, ice cream, scrambled eggs, Jello, etc," Angela said, handing him another sheet.
"Joy," he mumbled, taking the second paper.
"These are your restrictions- no lifting anything over ten pounds, no strenuous activity, that sort of thing," she said, handing him a third paper. He sighed and took it.
"And now we've got your prescriptions. We're sending you with enough medication for 24 hours, so you have time to get them. If for some reason you can't get something from your pharmacy, call this number here, and they'll make arrangements for you," Angela said, holding out a small pile of prescription slips and a small bag. "And for the love of God, would you please take all your pain medicine? You won't get better if you're hurting all the time, you know."
"Yeah, yeah," he said.
"Alrighty, one last thing and I can sign you out. These are your follow up appointments. You've got one with Dr. Kellan, one with Dr. Barak and one with Dr. McCall," she said.
"Who the hell is Dr. McCall?" he asked, reaching out to take the last paper.
"Psych services," Angela said, briskly.
"When the hell did…" he trailed off after a look from Calleigh. "Fine," he sighed.
"Ok, then, Mr. Speedle, you're all set. Just sign here and we'll get you on your way," Angela said brightly, handing him her clipboard and a pen. He scanned the paper and scrawled his signature at the bottom. "Thank you. Get out of here, and never come back, please," she said, smiling.
"Trust me, I don't plan on it," he replied in kind.
"Good man," Angela said. "Good luck, Calleigh," she said, laughing as she left the room.
"Humph," Tim said.
Calleigh giggled. "Ok, bud, let's get you out of here."
The trip to Tim's house was uneventful. Calleigh noticed out of the corner of her eye how Tim shrank back from loud noises, especially when a car in the other lane honked its horn. She didn't comment on it, since she knew that would be the quickest way to put him on the defensive, but it bothered her. Something else to deal with, perhaps.
Tim looked relieved when they pulled into the driveway of his house. "See, it's still standing," she said, trying to be cheerful.
"Heh," he said, moving slowly to undo his seatbelt.
"Need a hand, or are you ok?" she asked as she got out of the car.
"I'm…yeah, maybe," he said, trying to get down from the jeep.
"Here," Calleigh said, offering him her arm. He still hissed with pain as he landed on his feet. "Maybe the jeep wasn't the best choice," she said, apologetically.
"No, it's ok. It's my knee, it's stiffened up from not being up and around so much," he said.
"Ah," Calleigh said. Danny and Melissa both had warned that was likely to happen. They also warned her not to ask about it, saying that it was a long story that Tim was unlikely to be interested in telling just then. So she didn't say anything, just followed him up the walkway.
Two cats came rushing towards the door as they opened it. "They missed you," Calleigh said, as Tim bent down slowly to pet them and then shoo them back.
He stumbled forward and slumped down on the couch, sighing as he leaned his head back. Calleigh smiled to herself as she shut the door behind them and put his bag on a chair. "What?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said, looking around. "My parents cleaned."
Calleigh looked around. The house didn't look any different to her. "How can you tell? Your house is never dirty."
"My house is never cluttered," he corrected. "It certainly does get dirty. I hadn't been doing much outside of dishes and the litter boxes lately. I needed to dust and mop and stuff."
"I couldn't tell," she said, sitting down.
"I could," he said.
"Fair enough. So your parents cleaned," she said.
"I'm still surprised they stayed here at all, actually," he said mildly. "Last time they came to Miami, they told me my house was a pit."
"Because it wasn't clean?" she asked.
"No, because it sort of was. A pit, I mean. I wasn't done with it yet," he sighed.
"Done how?" she asked.
"Fixing the remodel gone bad," he said, closing his eyes.
"I don't get it," she said.
"Mmm. The house was a bank repo. The people who'd lived here before used all their equity to do a major remodeling project and screwed themselves over with cost overruns and stuff. They got behind, somehow, and couldn't get caught up. So the house was really, really cheap because it was barely livable," he explained.
"So you bought it," Calleigh said.
"Yup."
"And fixed it up?"
"Yup."
"How did you afford it?" she asked. Tim had been living here for at least the five years she'd known him. She knew exactly how much money he made, and knew it had probably been even less when he'd bought the house.
"Did most of it myself, so just had to pay for materials" he said, sleepily. "Got a loan for some of it. I didn't do it all at once. It took like six years to finish."
"Six years?" she said, incredulously.
"Mm-hm," he mumbled. "I had the major stuff done within the first two years- the plumbing and the electrical. So it was livable, just not terribly comfortable. The rest of it just got done as I had time and cash. And you know, there was hurricane damage a couple of years, so that slowed things down some."
"Wow," Calleigh said. She looked around again. She'd always thought Tim's house was plain, but nice. She hadn't known how much work had gone into it, though.
"Mmm," he mumbled. She looked over at him. He looked no better than half awake.
"Sleepy?" she asked.
"Mm-hm."
"Come on, then, let's get you to bed," she said, standing up.
"'M fine here", he said sleepily.
"You'll get a crick in your neck," she said.
"'s ok"
"Come on, Tim," she said, reaching out for his arm. "Bed."
"Ok, ok," he muttered, letting her pull him upright, carefully. She maneuvered him through the hallway to his bedroom. "Ah, bed," he said, cracking an eye open.
"Yes, it's your bed," she said, amused. "Come on." She got him tucked in and looked at him as he blinked sleepily. "Need something?"
"No."
"Then go to sleep," she said, smiling.
"Be here?" he asked, his forehead wrinkling.
"Of course I'm going to be here. I'm not going anywhere," she said.
"Mm. Good," he said, as he closed his eyes. She watched him for a moment to make sure he'd fallen asleep and then gathered up the laundry basket on the floor of his closet. Laundry would give her something to do.
