Ok, onward shall we?
It was shortly after nine when Liz pulled up to the main door of Arrow Health to let Allie off.
"Thanks for not tearing me a new one, Liz" Allie smiled, and leaned into hug the woman. "I don't know what came over me back there."
"I'm not buying that for a minute love," Liz chuckled, even though Allie's blue eyes were alight with the knowledge of her own mischief. She hugged the blonde tightly and kissed her cheek before pulling away. "You take care, Allie Novak. You're young and you're smart. I'm off on holidays after tomorrow and I won't be with you next week, so behave yourself! You just get yourself out of here in two weeks like you're supposed to, and stay out! I'll miss you Allie, but I don't want to ever see you back here, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Liz, loud and clear," she squeezed Liz's hand. "I'll miss you too. And thank you, for everything. I couldn't have done this without you, and ya never know, maybe I'll come back for a visit, yeah?"
Liz laughed wistfully at Allie's enthusiasm. "Allie, when you get out of here love, you just keep on going and never look back! You'll have better things to do than to come back here visiting. We'll keep in touch, I'll want to know how you're doing. But no visiting here! We can meet for coffee sometime. I'd like that."
"That sounds good, Liz Birdsworth! And I am so going to hold ya to it!" Allie finally broke eye contact with Liz. Eyes moist, but still smiling she finally made to open the door. She didn't look back, and Liz was grateful for that. It was always hard to watch them go; you couln't help but get attached. But Allie? Allie was special. She had wormed her way into all of their hearts, and was poised to leave soon with her own personal Arrow Health cheering section. "God bless you love, stay strong and go make a life of it," Liz whispered as she drove away.
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Linda Miles was on the security desk when Allie entered the building.
"Good evening, Ms. Novak" Miles deadpanned, like a right and proper security jockey on the night shift at a rehab institute in the middle of bloody nowhere after lock down.
"Ms. Novak?" Allie feigned indignation. "Are you shittin' me, Smiles? That's Allie to you! Thought we got past all that formal BS?! You know, DJ Alliecat, wiggity wack…" Allie waggled her eyebrows and mimed a few rap moves.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah Novak," Miles snickered. "Just sign in, will ya?"
"Well you're all kicks and giggles tonight, aren't you Smiles?" Allie grabbed the pen off the desk and took the sign-in chart from Miles; scribbling her name quickly, she handed it back. "Next week, I think you should sub for me at grief group, you've got the right personality for it."
Miles rolled her eyes. "Well, we can't all be as funny as you Novak," she quipped, putting the chart away in a desk drawer. "You're the last one in tonight. And now it's downtime for me."
"So what?" Allie asked, "nap first, then binge on the soaps? Nah, it's soaps first right? You can't wait, I can see it in your eyes!"
"Bedtime Novak," Miles announced with an amused smile, "and before you go, one of your friends dropped by earlier with some mail." Miles reached for the banded package, then handed it to Allie.
"Shit," Allie wisecracked, "more fan mail! If only I had time to answer it all!"
"Lucky you Novak, not many of us are so lucky to have the Electric Company as our number one fan." Miles did smile this time. "Right on top here, see? Want me to answer it for you?"
"Nah, I got this one Smiles," Allie waved her mail pile as she walked away. "Enjoy your soaps!"
Miles just snorted, and went back to her computer. Solitaire, Allie thought. Or Candy Crush. Yeah, Linda Miles whacking jellies. The image fit and Allie chuckled to herself.
Unbanding the smile pile of mail, Allie flipped through the envelopes on the way to her room. Electric, water, property taxes, a few addressed to the Red Right Hand, and one for Ms. Allie Novak from a Francesca Doyle with Melbourne Legal Relief. Allie mined her memory for a few seconds before deciding she didn't know a Francesca Doyle, and determined the letter could wait. So could the bills for that matter.
She dropped the mail on her desk, and grabbed her iPod and headphones. Flopping onto her bed, she hit her "9 lives" playlist and closed her eyes. She was going to allow herself a few minutes to unwind and ruminate before prepping for bed. Finally alone, she wanted to revisit her brief encounter with a certain red head that night; maybe rewind it a few times and try to catch any details she might have missed in the moment.
A WEEK LATER
The closer it got to 7 pm, Allie kept one ear on her conversation with Maxine and Boomer, and one eye on the door looking for Bea. She had prayed all week the woman would come back to group this week, and the anticipation had somehow fueled her with enough nervous energy and excitement to fly through her daily rehab machinations with impressive vigor and not a single complaint. Arrow Health's breakfast staff were probably the most relieved by this; Allie had a thing about eggs. They had to be poached to perfection. Too runny, too hard or too dry, and she would send them back to the kitchen every time, offering to cook them herself. This week, she is certain that on Wednesday at least, her eggs were overdone by a minute, maybe more, but she ate them anyway. She was pretty sure the entire kitchen staff had watched the CCTV footage afterwards with astonishment and no small amount of discussion after the nearly 11 weeks of hell she had put them through.
Allie smiled vaguely at something Boomer said, not really knowing if she'd heard the woman correctly, but she was definitely having difficulty focusing. Her knee was jumpy tonight, and she was having just as much trouble corralling her nerves physically as she was mentally. And then she saw Bea, in the doorway, an attractive blonde behind her, propelling her into the room with a hand at the small of her back. The redhead stopped to look back at her companion briefly, but the woman just smiled at her reassuringly and steered her toward the refreshment table.
"Excuse me," Allie said, patting Boomer's leg, and bounding to her feet. "I'll be back in just a sec ok?"
"Yeah," Boomer replied, "take your time."
"Nice chatting with you, Allie." Maxine added, and then Allie was off.
"Bea?" Allie shouted, then winced at how over eager she sounded, even to herself.
Hearing her name, Bea looked around until she spotted Allie moving towards them. She smiled in spite of herself. Yeah, the woman was every bit as adorable as she remembered.
"You came back!" Allie grinned upon reaching the two women.
"No choice really," Bea tilted her head back toward Bridget, clearly indicting the woman as her captor. "I tried faking a last minute fashion crisis, but the woman just threw me her girlfriend's shoes and jacket, and here we are."
Allie laughed. "Well, I do miss the leather jacket and boots, but no worries, you really rock the blazer and chucks look too." Allie winked, and though Bea looked down shyly, she was smiling, a little at least.
"Hi, I'm Bridget." An arm slithered past Bea's waist, hand extended. "Nice to meet you."
"Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too Bridget, I'm Allie. Bea and I met last week."
"Funny, she didn't mention it." Bridget smiled slyly as Bea subtly elbowed her friend in the stomach.
"What do you say I get you ladies both a cup of the most vile coffee you've ever tasted before the meeting starts?" Allie had her bearings back. Seeing Bea turn just a little bit flustered at her compliment gave her more confidence than she had been feeling up to now; well that, and knowing that Bridget had a girlfriend and was just Bea's friend. Because damn, she couldn't compete with that!
"Nah," Bea smiled, I'll just grab some water. "Bridge?"
"Water is good with me too, Bea." Bridget moved toward the table to open up some space between herself and Bea. "Allie?" Bridget asked as she began pouring water for herself and Bea.
"Sure, yeah, thanks." Allie responded, looking away from Bea and toward her friend. "Would you look at all that Styrofoam?" She gasped. Both Bridget and Bea raised their eyebrows, waiting for words of wisdom re said Styrofoam. "HCFC's," Allie explained, "hydrochlorofluorocarbons. You know, holes in the ozone layer and all that. I guess they figure the bereaved are too distracted to care about the environment..." Allie felt thrown off again; had she literally just made a fool of herself? The two women just smiled at her, Bridget handing out water poured into Styrofoam cups. Allie took hers quietly; she was done with environmental chatter for the night.
"So Bridget," she segued, "how exactly did you get Bea back here? Favours or blackmail?" Allie flashed a bold, cheeky-forget-everything-I-just-spouted-a-moment-ago-and-let's-just-go-with-this-shall-we grin.
"Oh, definitely blackmail." Bridget winked with a sly smile. Bea shot her an eyes-wide look of disbelief, but Bridget seemed more than happy to play. "I keep a dossier," she deadpanned, sipping from her styrofoam cup. I've known Bea here more than 30 years, so it's quite thick by now."
"Yeah?" Allie bluffed. "Chronological or thematic?" She asked, keeping her ball in the air.
"Oh definitely thematic," Bridget didn't miss a beat. "It's truly hard to compare one's high school hijinks to the types of judgment errors and/or simple, straightforward blunders we make as supposedly rational beings in a complex adult world. Wouldn't you agree, Allie?" She was quite blatantly amused by Allie, and they shared a conspiratorial grin.
"Oh yeah, for sure." Allie colluded. "In fact, I wouldn't mind a peek at that dossier of yours sometime. I think I'd like to compare the impact of a thematic collection vs. the standard chronological, which is how I have been compiling all of my dossiers for future blackmail purposes."
"Bloody Christ you two," Bea finally huffed, "I am literally standing right here!"
"Well Allie," play your cards right, and maybe Bea here will fill you in herself sometime."
With that bombshell dropped, Bridget walked briskly away to find a seat for herself and Bea, and left the two to share a few words before the group started. Still shaking her head, she chuckled. No wonder the young woman had made an impression on Bea the week before. She was quite literally shameless, but in a warm and non-threatening way. Yes, she certainly had appeal, and was also quite attractive Bridget noted. But, as Bea had pointed out on more than one occasion, she wasn't gay.
But nor was she categorically heterosexual, Bridget thought. Bea just wasn't a very sexual being period; something Bridget had witnessed about her friend through decades of friendship. Bea loved sparingly, with all her heart, and kept her body closed off. Bridget blamed Harry for much of that, but she also knew with all of her combined knowledge as a dear friend and trained psychologist that it would take the blunt force trauma of an Australian summer wind storm coupled with laser precision impact to even bounce off her friend's well thickened armor.
Allie was certainly a gale force burst, but whether she could navigate all of Bea's scars and still deal with her own was a question for another day. Today they were here for Debbie, a still raw wound for Bea that needed salve and healing. And while Bridget quite enjoyed Allie's quick wit and unbridled attraction to her best friend, she needed to keep Bea focused on the goal of grief support, and for tonight that meant keeping Allie at bay as much as possible. Allowing herself one last giggle, Bridget realized she couldn't wait to get home and share all of this with Franky.