Chapter 2
She was supposed to be here to run the Sanitarium.
But it feels so natural, watching her bustle quietly around the Clinic, rearranging and organizing and finishing little jobs he left in the middle, that it isn't long until he's forgotten that too.
And when her best friend, her Miss Dia comes, she works hard to get them used to each other, while Martha beamingly adopts the frail little dark-haired girl as quickly as she adopted Gina.
She's fit very well into his routine after all.
"Doctor, if you're looking for your appointment book, you left it in the supply closet."
He looks up from the task of turning his desk inside out, and stares.
"Don't be silly, Gina, why would I take it to the closet?"
She hesitates, looks away, clasps her hands behind her back and fidgets a little.
He tries not to notice the way the gentle motion pulls the fabric of her dress snug across her chest.
"I-I didn't really know. But I thought you must have a reason, so I didn't move it."
Shaking his head and tsking slightly, he hurries to the closet…
…and seconds later, hurries back with his appointment book.
"Okay, then," he mutters, shaking his head, flipping through the coil notebook as he settles back at his desk. The carefully drawn little grid with today's date shows the rest of the day clear. He gazes briefly outside, into the mellow light of late summer afternoon. "Gina?"
"Hmm?"
"We don't have any appointments scheduled for the rest of the day, and I think everything else should keep until tomorrow. Why don't you take the rest of the day off, go outside for some fresh air?"
"O-oh!" Her cheeks grow pink, and she looks like she might be trying to fight off a big smile. "Thank-you, Doctor, but I don't mind staying, if you'd like to keep working."
"Actually, I was thinking of going for a nice, long walk."
Her smile falters a little.
"Um, Doctor, you do remember that you made plans with Robyn for tonight, don't you?"
He stares blankly, feeling strangely as though he's done this before.
"If I had, I would have written it down. The evening is blank."
"Because you couldn't find the appointment book when she was here earlier," she finishes, hiding a smile.
He ponders this carefully, and dimly recalls Robyn hanging about earlier this morning, looking utterly bored at his explanation of the many uses of the roots he was working with, and trying to turn the conversation to the love lives of their young neighbours.
That was about the point that his eyes glazed over, although Gina's lit up with enough eager interest at who was happily in love with who.
It was an interesting sight, watching his beloved chatting happily with his nurse, watching him half-suspicious and half-triumphant out of the corner of her eye.
"Ah. Right. Thank-you, Gina."
"Of course, Sir."
It is several hours later, the world bathed in moonlight, before Alex finally hurries from the Clinic and down the cobblestone path past the Ranch, toward the little gray and blue farmhouse.
Without a blue-haired bespectacled little maiden to prod him to write down his date instead of wandering off to check the supplies, it took a horrified Martha exclaiming that he was going to be late, to make him put down the textbook and leap to his feet.
He drags one hand through his hair and shifts uncomfortably without the weight of his labcoat. Robyn, he knows, hates it when he wears the thing to see her, because I like dating a doctor, honey, but not all the time. I like dating just Alex, too.
Alex thinks that she might be missing several things about who just Alex is, but he's not about to correct her, when he's already nearly fifteen minutes late.
So absorbed is he in piecing together a properly contrite apology, that he utterly misses the farmhouse and wanders down over the bridge to the Workshop and the forest before he notices.
But now that he's noticed one thing, he becomes quickly better at it, and when a dark shape approaches Robyn's door, he notices immediately, and ducks quickly behind a tree to watch.
"Dan!"
He can tell, even from this distance, that her expression is a beaming smile of pure joy, the one he fell for but has almost forgotten because it's been a long time since he's done anything to earn it.
It's almost a shame, that she'll have to send the boy away in favour of existing plans, when he's just made her smile like that; Alex likes seeing that smile, even if it's not for him.
Dan isn't sent away; instead, is given a bearhug by a Robyn-comet, and led inside.
Apparently, she forgot about tonight, too.
He starts slowly back to the Clinic, because he's not in the mood for a walk anymore, thinking with a dry, bitter smile, that maybe it's catching.
Gina knows that she's being silly.
He's a doctor; he's seen many people, in many states of undress. Why on earth would he even notice that she's in her nightgown and her flimsy little robe is coming untied because when she woke up from a nightmare to notice his light still burning at the wee small hours of the morning, she hurried right over, too annoyed at his self-destructive habits to tie it properly?
He seems far more concerned, anyway, with whatever it is that's making him look so terribly despondent.
"Doctor," she calls softly, closing the door noiselessly and creeping closer to his desk. "What's wrong? Did—did something happen to Robyn?"
Alex laughs, head still bowed on his hands. Gina shivers a little at that laugh and abruptly moves her hand from its light touch at his shoulder.
"No, she's fine. It seems that I'm not the only one with a selective memory."
"Oh, no. She forgot about this evening too?"
He straightens up and smiles reassuringly at the pale little linen-clad shape that materialized behind him from out of nowhere.
"Something like that. She had other plans."
Her eyes transmit mute golden-brown sympathy, and he releases a silent, relieved breath, because if she knew everything she would be devastated and awkward and probably hugging and soothing.
"I'm sorry, Alex. I know you were looking forward to it."
It occurs to him briefly to wonder when exactly he gave that impression, between forgetting about it in favour of a walk and forgetting about it in favour of a book, but he hardly wants to point out to this soft-hearted creature, with her big eyes and tranquil smile and silky pale blue waves falling over her shoulders, his own shortcomings as a boyfriend.
When she begins gathering up the files he's been steadily ignoring for the last two hours, he forgets what he was wondering.
"Hey, wait a minute, Gina. What are you doing?"
She tries to fix him with a stern eye over her glasses, and achieves a kind of playful, impish pout at best.
"It's late, Doctor. If these things could keep until tomorrow morning this afternoon, they can wait until tomorrow morning now."
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep anyway," he sighs, sending her a pleading look and attempting to tug the folders back out of her hands.
"Then please try to relax, at least. Why don't you read a book instead? Or have some tea? Would you like me to make it?"
He means to refuse, but her eyes are wide and hopeful, and he finds himself smiling.
"Only if you'll join me for a cup."