"After you finish eating, you have to get to your homework. I called the school this morning. I explained to them that yesterday was your first day home, and due to some complications your homework won't be turned in today. They understood."
"Thanks Mom."
"Your welcome. Jill and Susan dropped off the stuff from yesterday, so you have two days worth of homework to do."
"Prue maybe we should give her a break."
"Piper it's alright. I want to get back to school as soon as possible, and I don't want to be behind when I do. It's not like I have anything else to do today."
"Fine, but if you start to get tired, you tell us."
"Don't worry. I will."
After breakfast was over, they cleared the table, and Phoebe helped get Nancy's books and papers from upstairs. Nancy spread everything out, and got to work right ways. She knew that even for her, it would take most of the day to get through all the material.
By 12:00 Nancy's eyes were becoming blurry. This time it wasn't from pain, but from looking at her books for the past four hours straight. Piper came out of the kitchen with Nancy's antibiotics, and some lunch.
"Tell you what, you deserve a break. Why don't we go each outside? Even at school you get a lunch hour?"
"Sounds good to me."
Nancy allowed Piper to push her into the back yard, and they settled in for a nice peaceful hour. Piper could tell that Nancy was getting tired, and prayed that Phoebe would be home before Nancy was due for another shot. Even after the night before, she wasn't ready to give her the shot alone.
Around 1:00 Phoebe came home, just in time to help with the shot. Once again, Nancy took it without argument, and remained fairly silent as Piper did her best to do it without Phoebe saying too much. Nancy wasn't about to pretend she wasn't tired, and asked to take a nap, so they got her comfortable on the couch, and she fell fast asleep. Around 3:00 she once again was awaken by the doorbell, moments later in walked Jill and Susan.
"We heard you came home yesterday. Welcome home."
"Thanks. I suppose you have more homework for me."
"Yep, sorry. At least tomorrow is Friday."
"I'm just glad I got caught up on everything this morning. Now I just have to do this stuff tonight."
"So when do you think you can come back?"
"Don't know. I still have to have pain shots every five hours. I think once I don't need them so much I can. How are you guys getting home, didn't the bus leave?"
"Yea, don't worry about it. My mom will pick us up after she gets off of work. We thought we could hang out until then, it that's alright."
"Fine with me. What do you want to do?"
"Homework. We have lots of it too."
"No problem. Phoebe or Prue?"
They both walked out of the kitchen, and over to the couch where Nancy was still laying down.
"Can one of you get my chair? We're going to do some homework, at the table."
Without giving a response Prue went to get the chair, while Phoebe helped Nancy to sit up. They then put her in the chair, and got her over to the table. Jill and Susan stayed out of the way; they felt a little uncomfortable about the whole situation.
"Do you girls want something to drink?"
They were snapped out of their daze by Piper's voice.
"Sure whatever you have is great."
They walked over to the table and took seats on either side of Nancy, and got to work. Nancy couldn't take the silence anymore; they had been sitting down for almost fifteen minutes, and hadn't said a word.
"Guys if my condition makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to come over anymore."
"No! It's not that, we just don't know how to react."
"Well I would say treat me like you did when you first met me, but that won't work."
Jill and Susan each looked down at the table with frowns on their faces. They only looked up when they heard Nancy snicker.
"Guys I'm only kidding. Listen, you can ask questions, or make jokes, it's alright. Silence is the worst thing you can do to me. I'm just like I was before, not too much has changed. I mean I certainly won't be shooting hoops anytime soon, but otherwise I'm the same."
They agreed to try and returned to their work. Several hours later they were watching television, when the doorbell rang again, and Susan's mother was there to take them home. After saying goodbye to her friends, Nancy went into the kitchen.
"Your friends gone?"
"Yep. I think they'll be studying here everyday for a while, if that's alright?"
"Sure, your friends are always welcome."
"Good. I ended up help Susan with her math. She's in my Algebra class, and is having trouble keeping up. Jill on the other hand can't stand History, and isn't doing very well. I'm trying to make it make sense to her so she won't flunk."
"That's great. I'm sure they appreciate it."
"It's nice to feel needed, and liked at the same time. Speaking of feeling needed, can I help with dinner?"
"Sure, why don't you make the salad? Then maybe you can help set the table."
"Sounds like a plan."
They got to work and started what they hoped would become a regular routine in the house. They talked, and laughed, and had a great time making dinner together as a family. It was even better when Piper returned home early from the club, and joined in on the fun.
They each knew they still had many more battles to get through with Nancy, and each other, but hoped with time and patience,
LOVE WOULD CONQURE ALL!