Chapter 12
Cast me gently into morning
For the night has been unkind
-"Answer", Sarah McLachlan
Her cell phone's ring woke Calleigh up. She'd stretched out on the couch with a cat in her lap just to close her eyes a moment and had barely noticed she'd fallen asleep. The phone rang again insistently, and she reached out quickly to grab it before it woke Tim up. "Hello?" she said in a sleep roughened voice.
"Hey, sugar, it's me," Alexx's voice replied. "Were you sleeping?"
"Yeah, apparently," she said, struggling to sit up. She glanced at the clock; it was nearing 6. "What's up?"
"Not much, I just thought I'd call and make sure one of you was awake before I just walked in. I've got dinner," Alexx said.
"You do? What?" she asked, yawning.
"Chinese. I thought it might be worth it to get Timmy to go off on his rant about the lack of decent Chinese food in this city," Alexx said, laughing.
Calleigh laughed. "It probably would be. I feel bad eating in front of him, though," she admitted.
"Don't worry. I didn't get anything he likes other than Hot and Sour soup," Alexx replied. "I did, however, bring Cashew Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork."
"Mmm, yum," Calleigh sighed. "Where are you?"
"In the driveway," Alexx said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I could just get up and answer the door," Calleigh said, doing just that as she hung up her cell phone.
Alexx laughed as she handed her a large bag. "That might be easiest, yes."
Calleigh shook her head as she led Alexx back to the kitchen. "I don't know where my mind is, honestly," she admitted.
"You ok, honey?" Alexx asked, looking concerned.
Calleigh leaned back against the counter and sighed. "Yeah, I'm ok. I just feel bad- I kind of lost it and started crying on him."
"Oh, baby," Alexx said, reaching out to pull Calleigh into a warm hug. "It's ok, I'm sure he didn't mind."
"He didn't," Calleigh confirmed. "In fact, he told me I wasn't allowed to apologize."
"Well, you shouldn't apologize. It's been a very hard couple of weeks," Alexx said. "And you're stressed and tired. It'll be better now he's home. Do you want me to stay with him tonight?"
"No," Calleigh said, shaking her head. "I promised I'd stay."
"All right," Alexx said, nodding. "Is he asleep."
"I think so," Calleigh said. "Do you want to get dinner set up and I'll go wake him up?"
"Sounds good," Alexx nodded.
Calleigh nodded and went down the hallway to Tim's bedroom. "Hey, Tim, dinner's here," she said softly, pushing the door open. He was curled on his side, still asleep. "Tim," she said, a bit louder. He jumped awake, wide eyed. "Sorry, sweetie. I just wanted you to know Alexx brought dinner."
"Mmph. Not hungry," he said, rubbing at his eyes.
"Not even for Hot and Sour soup?" she asked. He stopped and looked at her. "I mean, I could eat all of it…"
"Maybe a little," he allowed.
She smiled. "Well, come on, then."
He levered himself up slowly out of bed and followed her down the hall to the kitchen. "Hey, baby," Alexx said, as he slumped into one of the kitchen chairs.
"Mmm," he said, still not entirely awake.
Calleigh chuckled to herself as she examined the pill bottles. She really should make a chart for this, she mused as she puzzled out what medicine Tim ought to get with his dinner.
Alexx set a bowl of soup down in front of Tim and plates of other things at the other two places. Tim tested the soup warily, then shrugged. "Is it ok?" Alexx asked.
"It's ok," he said, offhandedly. "There's no good Chinese in this town anyway."
Calleigh couldn't help it. She dissolved into fits of helpless laughter. Alexx wasn't far behind her, either. "What?" Tim asked, grumpily.
"I told you," Alexx said, gasping for breath. "I told you he'd start in on the lack of decent Chinese food."
"Yeah, you did," Calleigh said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Tim regarded both of them with his best "I'm surrounded by crazy people" look and went back to his soup.
"You want to know the funniest part?" Alexx asked.
"What," he mumbled.
"Your parents said the exact same thing," she said, still laughing.
Calleigh giggled as she sat down. "About the food?"
"Yeah," Alexx said. "It was amazing. I hadn't even said anything about it."
"Well, it's true," Tim said, looking at them. "There is no decent Chinese food in Miami."
Alexx and Calleigh carefully didn't look at each other, to avoid setting themselves off again. "Whatever you say, honey," Alexx said.
Calleigh just shook her head and kept eating. The food tasted pretty good to her. "Sometime you'll have to show us what real Chinese tastes like," she said, glancing at Tim.
He shook his head. "I don't know how to make it."
"Well, there's a pity," she said. "Maybe I'll buy you a cookbook. Keep you out of trouble," she teased.
He glared at her, but she just laughed. "I can keep out of trouble."
"Of course you can," Calleigh agreed, trying to hide her laughter at that idea.
He shrugged and sat back, obviously finished with the soup. Alexx glanced at the bowl and said, "Keep going."
"I'm not hungry," he said.
"I don't care," Alexx said, eyebrows raised. "Five more spoonfuls."
He sighed, but complied. "Happy?"
"Somewhat," she said. "You've…"
"Gotta eat, I know," he grumbled.
"Are you not eating because it hurts to eat or because you really just don't want to?" Calleigh asked.
He squinted at her, obviously not expecting the question. "Both?" he said, questioningly.
"How does it hurt? Does your mouth hurt?" Alexx asked. He squirmed, but shook his head. "Your stomach?" Alexx asked, again.
"Yeah," he admitted, not quite looking at either of them.
"Well, honey, why didn't you say so?" Alexx sighed. "Good God, child. A stomachache we can fix, you know that, right?"
He shrugged. "It hurts most of the time, anymore," he admitted.
Calleigh bit her lip. Alexx shook her head. "We've got to do something about that, then," she said. "Have you tried some antacids?" He shrugged again. Alexx sighed and got up to get her purse. She rummaged through it a second and came up with a foil packet of pills. "Here," she said. "It's Zantac. Take it and see if that helps."
He swallowed the pill obediently. Calleigh said, "We probably ought to let a doctor know about that."
"Yes, they can probably prescribe something better," Alexx said, nodding.
"I don't want more pills," he said, softly. "There's too many already."
"Honey, we know it's hard. But you have to get better. There will be fewer as you get better, you know that," Alexx soothed.
"I didn't say anything about my stomach for a reason, you know," he grumbled.
"What, you're a closet masochist?" Calleigh said. "I think that secret's out of the bag, there, Tim."
He tried to glare at her, but slumped back in his chair instead. "You're going to make me take more, too."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The psych guy?" he asked, accusingly.
"Ah," Calleigh said, nodding. She'd wondered how long it would be until they had this conversation. "Tim, I don't know what the doctor is going to say about that. I haven't talked to him."
"And neither have I," Alexx said. "However, you know full well that it would be a good idea. It was a good idea before."
"That…" he said, looking up at Alexx. "That was a long time ago."
"That may be, but I always thought it was a bad idea to go off the medication, Tim. I told you so at the time," Alexx said. Calleigh looked between them, confused, but a headshake from Alexx told her not to pursue it. It didn't surprise her- she'd always had a feeling that Tim wasn't exactly a stranger to mental health interventions of some sort.
"Honey, we just want you better", Calleigh said, after a long, tense moment. "If getting better means you take some medicines, well, that's a small price to pay, don't you think?"
"It's not ever going to be better," he mumbled.
"It is," she insisted. "It will be. It's going to take time, but it will be better, Tim. You just need to trust us," she said, plaintively,
He looked like he was about to make a retort, but stopped dead in his tracks, staring off at nothing. "Tim?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said, quickly. "Nothing. It's…ok, fine, whatever you say," he said, holding his hands up in surrender.
Calleigh and Alexx exchanged wary looks at Tim's abrupt capitulation. "Honey?" Alexx asked.
"It's fine. I'm tired," he said. "I don't want to argue anymore."
"Then we don't have to," Calleigh said.
"Ok, good," he sighed. "I'm sorry, I just…I don't even know."
"It's ok," Alexx said. "You're tired, you're sick, you're off balance. It's understandable."
"Yeah," he said. He played with the edge of the bowl for a moment, before looking up and saying "Thank you. I know this isn't…what you'd maybe like to be doing."
"Maybe not, but we're your friends. We want to take care of you," Calleigh pointed out.
"I'm just saying, I know I'm a pain in the ass," he said, almost quirking a smile.
"Yes, you are," Alexx said, amused. "But I think you're entitled at the moment."
"Besides, we can be pains in the ass too," Calleigh pointed out.
"Oh, I know," he sighed.
She laughed. "It's really fine, Tim. If we didn't want to be here, we wouldn't be, ok? So enough of that. We're going to get you better if it takes until the end of time, all right?"
"All right," he said, softly. "I…really do appreciate that."
"We know," Alexx said.
They were quiet a moment before Alexx clapped and said, "All right, then. What would you really like to do tonight, Tim?"
He blinked. "Um, I don't know."
"Oh, come on, I'm sure there's something you'd like to do. Do you want to watch a movie, play some games?" Calleigh cajoled.
"We could call Horatio over and make him play Trivial Pursuit with us," Alexx suggested. "Peter's got the kids, I don't have to be home anytime soon."
"Sounds good to me," Calleigh said, thinking that it would also wrench Horatio out of his head.
"I guess," Tim said, shrugging. But Calleigh could tell that the nonchalance was hiding actual interest in the plan.
"Then it's a plan. Calleigh, you call Horatio. I'll clean up the kitchen. Tim, you go find the board game, ok?" Alexx said, pushing away from the table.
Tim nodded, and pulled himself upright. Calleigh said, "You got it," and went off to find her cell phone. One night to not think was just what the doctor ordered, she thought.
End.
AN: Whew! That was quite a ride. Anyway, keep an eye out for "All These Things" which will likely answer a whole lot of questions like, "What the hell is up with Horatio?" and "Why is Calleigh such a good caretaker anyway?" and "What in God's name happened to Tim to make him this way, anyway?"
