Chapter 12 - Bittersweet moments
He slowly rotates his neck, making it cracking...He sighs, opening his eyes.
She's getting dressed, and to be honest, for his liking she's doing it too quickly.
He looks around, something is missing.
'Vicodin...'.
"It's on the floor".
He frowns watching her tie her t-shirt behind the neck, she smiles at him without a hint of malice. After all her paid hours are over...
"If you're looking for your phial, it's on the floor".
He leans out of bed while holding the sheet, when he sits again, he notices her green eyes on him. But she turns immediately, adjusting her stockings.
House gets up, slips his boxers on and retrieves his cane, leaving the room.
A glass of Scotch is one thing that binds pretty well with Vicodin, they seem made for each other. He sees her dwelling in the corridor, adjusting her earrings while she looks around.
She comes out from the kitchen. She approaches him. They exchange a brief glance.
"Why did you call me again? I thought you preferred Cassie...".
His shrugging is all she gets in response, as to say: None of your business.
She smiles, he doesn't reciprocate.
It's strange, usually she succeeds (with her regulars) to build a kind of fictitious conversation, but this is not the case. She turns to the door and winces, stopping, the light seems to moke her.
A skull, complete with a Yankee baseball cap, is above the library to her left.
"It's a bit macabre to have a skull in your house" and she feels him grinning behind her back.
"That is Eddy and he's been with me since college, and he's not a skull but a cross-section of the cerebral cortex and the dura mater, on the left side you can see his eyeball".
She turns to him, curiously, and smiles again "You're a doctor". He doesn't answer and she provokes him. "Good...I know how to call you then".
"I wouldn't do it If you want me to answer you".
This time she is the one who shrugs, smiling, going for the door "But somehow I've to call you in my dreams, no?".
He grins finishing his Scotch all in one gulp "Someone really believes you?".
"Someone...". He raises his eyebrows astonished. "Good night Eddy" she smiles "Doctor..." opens the door.
"Evy...".
"Get down right now, how many times must I repeat that If you fall down you'll crack your head? !".
Joshua smiles. His father, at the foot of the stairs with his kid dangerously poised on the handrail, mostly willing to slip up on the ground floor, finds that that smile has something arrogant and amused...It mostly recalls a grin.
"Dad!".
Wilson turns to him with the best responsible and threatening look a father can master "Move from there or you won't see your beloved Playstation again for a month!" he turns his weary gaze to the other pair of brown eyes "What is it, Jess?".
"When mommy will be back?".
Wilson takes a quick look at his watch "Soon, Jess...By the way, If you want to see her happy, I'd like you to do me a favor: Go to the kitchen and gathers everything, ok? Do you remember what you've to do?".
Jess nods obediently.
"Perfect, honey" he observes for a few seconds the kid hopping into the kitchen, then back again to his twin brother "What were we saying? Oh yeah. Joshua, be good, mom is coming and you know that If she finds you over there-".
He has no time time to finish the sentence because he's stopped by the familiar sound of keys at the door, followed by the heels of his wife. She enters with Katie in her arms and two shopping bags in her hand.
"Here you are...".
Lilian bends, allowing the little girl to slid down, leaving the shopping bags on the floor and then sighing loudly "Good God...I'm exhausted..." she runs her hand on her temples, massaging them.
Wilson approaches both, gently "Hey, welcome back home, girls".
Katie smiles toothy, and then runs away toward the kitchen.
Jimmy takes Lilian by her chin, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. She, still with eyes closed, seems to relax.
"Hard day?".
"Yes, darling, you can say it...I'm sorry for the delay, but I wasn't able to come earlier".
"It's ok" Wilson looks at her sweetly when suddenly he stops smiling seeing his son about to get a head injury. Jimmy needs only Lilian's expression to know it.
'Damn...'.
"Joshua, what the heck are you doing up there? !".
The kid smiles and then he throws himself down reckless in an American-Tv-Series style. He arrives on the floor and runs for his mother, smiling.
"Hi mommy!".
Lilian bends to stroke his hair, with her eyes that express a mixture of worry and disappointment "How many times have I told you not to get on the handrail? How many? !".
Joshua smiles, revealing a nice little hole due to the fall of a baby tooth "Mommy, today we make cookies, right?".
Lilian decides to let it go, sighing resigned "Yes, love, let's go to the kitchen...".
Joshua does what he's told, putting in place the hair that his mother messed, followed by the latter (which took the bags again) and his father.
The kitchen is perfectly organized, Jimmy is deeply amazed.
"Good job, Jess, you did great...Go to wash your hands so we can start".
He looks at his three children, close to the sink, incredibly silent. He cannot help but to fully enjoy that incredible moment of calm.
"So, guys, are you ready?".
The three are enthusiastic, they've that enthusiasm that only children are capable of transmitting, that parents cannot help but be infected.
The cookies thing is a tradition that Jimmy and Lilian have been respected since the beginning of their marriage, and that with the participation of their children is become anything but more pleasant.
Together, every second Monday evening of the month, they cook trays and trays of classic chocolate chip cookies, so many that they last for several weeks. They've always found it funny and one of the many ways to spend time together.
They begin to take all the ingredients and to knead, careful that the twins do not make a mess and that Katie doesn't hurt herself with some kitchen utensils.
But in the end, as always, Jess and Joshua end to throw flour, eggs, or chocolate cream at each other, with the result that Jimmy takes care of cleaning the floor and the walls and Lilian to bathe them. That evening, they start with the sugar.
"Jess and Joshua, stop it now, I don't want it to happen like last year!" Lilian stops to knead, worried.
"And two years before, and the year before that, and so on..." Wilson points out, murmuring.
The twins immediately stop laughing, frozen, waiting for their parents to focus on something else and then continue.
Lilian sighs while adding more water to the mix.
"So, everything good at school?".
Lilian is so tired that it takes a few moments to process the question of her husband and to answer "Everything as usual...More than anything else, the afternoon is always harder...".
Wilson tries to reassure her as he watches her "Tomorrow you don't have to go to the dentist or bring the twins to karate, so...".
Lilian frowns, thoughtfully "Yeah...".
There is a moment of relative silence between the two, with the inevitable sound of the laughters of the kids and the slurred words of Katie.
"You have a stain".
Lilian looks up, turning to Jimmy "Where?".
"Here".
"Here where?".
"On the cheek".
Lilian leans slightly to the left so that she can see in the mirror "But there's nothing...".
Wilson dips his fingers in the bowl of flour and then spreads the contents on the skin of Lilian "Now there is".
Lilian goes from surprised to amused within seconds "Hey, how dare you? !" she reciprocates but using the chocolate powder.
Wilson smiles "Vindictive, eh?".
Lilian approaches him "You've declared war, I won't pull back...".
He cleans her cheek softly with his sleeve, smiling "And how about a period of truce?".
"But If we haven't even...".
She's interrupted by a passionate kiss of Jimmy, who has surrounded her waist with his arms and taken possession of her lips.
"...Started to fight...".
They smile without moving.
"So, do you still want to continue this war?".
Lilian shakes her head, amused "But you know, maybe you're right, I wouldn't mind a lasting peace..." and this time she kisses him.
Thet stay like that, nose to nose, observing.
"You know, I'm really happy to...".
A sudden sound of broken china stops Wilson's speech.
They move a bit embarrassed, fixing their clothes.
"Mama, J bleak glass" Katie looks at her feet, serious.
Jimmy observes the glass scattered and the liquid chocolate spread on the floor. He looks around, looking for the twins that seem to have disappeared into thin air.
TBC...