Chapter 32
Quick apologies – so sorry this took so long to upload. My training schedule seems have gone mad these last couple of weeks as it's the 'winter season' – but still actually autumn. NHL season has begun – come on Canucks! Holiday season is also nearing which also means assessments for me. I've got my first ones in about two weeks as well – great. As my dad is away with work a lot atm, we have to spend loads of time with our grandparents, so I'm not at home. At this time I have quite a few friends with birthdays, so it-a be party time. It is the season of seasons. Anyway I'm sure it not bothers you.
Joey had been going to school now for a few weeks. Countless times had he told Tom and Sam that it wasn't a school he wanted to be at. But little did they listen. Instead, Tom had been more focused on creating a routine which would ensure either Sam or him were at home when Joey was. Although today both were at home in the morning.
It was a damp, dreary, dreaded, Monday morning. Sam woke to find Tom still in deep slumber. She decided against waking him. After she rolled over to see the digital clock, she saw it was gone 7:30, so went to check if Joey was awake. Clare would drive pass on the way to school, and everyday gave Joey a lift.
She peaked through the almost closed door of the teenager's bedroom, and found that Joey was not in there – just the dog, which followed her, but then she turned him back in the room, not wanting him to run around the place. But then she heard cluttering in the kitchen and took it as he was in the apartment and awake. Sam decided to go get dressed. She exited the bedroom a while later, dressed in skinny black jeans and a loose, low-cut, blue t-shirt.
Once she had entered the kitchen, she saw Joey standing by the cooker: his white shirt half tucked into his black school pants, his collar up and his black, grey and blue diagonal-striped tie slung underneath. Frustrated, he pushed his sleeves back up to over his elbows.
"What are you doing there?" Sam asked, walking to stand beside him.
"I'm cooking breakfast." He grunted.
"I can see. But, what are you cooking?"
"Pancakes – want one?"
"Yeah; go on." Sam went to go sit on a stool surrounding the little island.
After a few minutes, Joey had finished the pancakes, while Sam had gathered some plates and some other things to cover them with. Joey placed all the pancakes onto the centre plate.
"Sam, can you take Duke for a walk later?" Joey asked as he finished a mouthful of pancake, lemon juice and sugar.
"Sure. Don't forget you're going round your dad's this afternoon as neither Tom nor I will be here. And Ajit is coming back this evening from London, so he will collect you and bring you back here."
Joey nodded his head. Only a few seconds later a car horn was heard, which signalled Clare had arrived to take Joey.
Sam began to stand and said: "go on; I'll clear this up. Have a good day at school."
Joey bent to the floor to grab his bag, and made an inarticulate sound and gave a 'you-have-to-be-joking' look to Sam's day comment. He walked to the door, Sam following.
"See you later." Sam patted his shoulder and turned to close the door. On the side she saw Joey's blazer. "Joey! You've left your blazer... and keys!"
After a quick jog up the stairs, and taking his items, Joey went back to climbing down the steps. He opened the trunk door to the silver Land Rover and jumped in. Clare was driving and Rachel was in the passenger seat. In the three middle seats were Leah, Georgie and Mike. That left Joey in the trunk – on the fold up chairs - with Harvey. All the girls were wearing knee length black skirts; apart from Rachel who was arguing – or having a discussion – with her mother about the matter of having her skirt 'too short'. The three younger children had black, grey and green ties, whereas Rachel's was with yellow, and Harvey had the same as Joey – the different colour denoted the house colour.
Meanwhile at the apartment, Tom was just waking up. He groaned as his eyes opened due to the blinding light coming through a gap where the curtains should meet. After rolling out of bed and standing on his feet, Tom made his way down the hall. He could smell a hovering, faint smell of pancakes, which made him slightly excited that Sam had made him breakfast. Although his desires were short lived as he became disappointed when he walked into the kitchen; he only saw Sam sitting on the couch, watching television, with a mug of coffee.
"Morning," Tom spoke as he came to sit down next to her, his hands slapping onto the green and white checkered fabric of his pyjama pants.
"Good morning," Sam reiterated, putting down her coffee and sliding her hands against Tom's soft, grey t-shirt. She lent upwards to give him a sweet, lingering kiss to the lips.
"Hmm," Tom mumbled into her lips, causing them to vibrate in no discomfort.
"So... We have the morning off, and Joey's not here; what do you want to do?" Sam asked, teasingly.
With no more words spoken, Tom scooped Sam up in his arms and carried her back to their bedroom.
"I was thinking more coffee shop on the corner." Sam joked.
Tom gently pushed Sam onto the bed, and began to kiss her lips. Both lost in content with one another, they failed to notice the little pup tread into the room. Tom jumped back, Sam momentarily surprised, when Duke licked his cheek and ear. While Sam was laughing, Tom caught the dog, placed him outside in the hall and closed the door.
"Where were we?" Tom asked, in a mocking serious tone.
Around half an hour later, Sam walked out of the bedroom, dressed again in her clothes from earlier. "Duke!" She called. The pup came sliding across the laminated wood floor. "Tom, I'm taking the dog for a walk. See you in a bit."
A few minutes later, Tom, too, walked out of the bedroom in his red and black checkered boxers. He wandered to the bathroom where he had a hot shower. He spent about ten minutes before stepping out of the bathroom. He quickly donned a blue cotton t-shirt and some worn black jeans. Meandering into the kitchen, Tom made himself a cup of coffee and a slice of marmite toast. Once he had finished eating, he took his mug and continued to the lounge. When at the coffee table, he ducked underneath and brought out the laptop. Sitting down, placing his mug on the table, and opening the laptop on his lap, Tom began to search on the internet. After a few phone calls and some browsing around, he had his mind set.
Sam came back around forty minutes since she left. She let the dog off the lead, which then scurried off. Walking up behind Tom, who was watching some uninteresting program on the 60" flat screen television, she sat down on the couch next to him.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," Tom repeated. "Sam, what do you think about having our wedding in Sydney? And our honeymoon in Rome?"
"Are you serious?" Sam asked, suddenly sounding like a teenage girl. Tom nodded, which caused Sam to scream in excitement - a strange characteristic to anyone who knew her well.
After her 'moment,' Sam asked, "What about work?"
"I've already sorted that. We have two weeks off - for the wedding and honeymoon."
"And what about Joey?"
"Him and Aj might stay here, or go to dads - they won't mind." Tom seemed rather pleased with himself for sorting this all out. "All you have to do is get a dress and pick a design for the reception, Mrs. Kent."
At 12:30, after a quick sandwich for lunch, Sam and Tom left for work. They had decided to walk as: one, it'll take longer; and two, they were still thinking about how their wedding would work and how people were going to get there. Some of Tom's family was already in Australia, so that was easy; it was just Sam's family and the couple's friends that they had to think about.
Just under two hours into their eight hour shift, Tom got called into resus on a pediatric case. Just as he swung the doors open, Michael Spence casually walked down the stairs into the reception of the ED.
Carrying on to approach the desk, he said to Noel: "hey there, have you seen Dr. Kent anywhere? If not, what about Dr. Nicholls?"
"And who shall I say is asking?" Noel replied.
"Michael Spence, consultant on Keller ward." He announced.
"Oh, right." Noel mumbled, seemingly taken aback. "Dr. Kent is in resus with Dr. Nicholls. I will go in there to see if they can spare either."
"You do that; I'll be waiting here."
Ten minutes passed and Michael began to become impatient.
"What's up?" Tom asked as he came up to the desk. Michael said a quick "finally" in his head.
"I need to talk to you. Can we go outside?"
"Stop being cryptic," Tom sighed. "Noel, tell Zoe I'm on my break."
The two men exited the ED by the main entrance, making way for the incoming patients and paramedics. They went around the corner, stopping just before the turn that lead out to the main road.
"What's with the visit?" Tom said as he lent backward onto the building behind him, hands in his scrub pants.
Michael, also with his hands in his suit slacks, replied: "I had a call from Joey's school, because they apparently couldn't get hold of you, Sam or your dad. They informed me that Joey had been sent to the principal's office. And they've asked if someone will go in to speak with him."
"Great," Tom muttered. "Do you have any idea what Joey's done?" Michael just shook his head.
"Are you going to go in?"
"I'm going to go ask Zoe if I can. If not, can you?"
"Sorry, mate. I've got a full theatre list for the rest of the day. All I said was I would pass on the message." Before walking off, Michael said: "I've got to go."
After Tom had talked to Zoe, explained that he needed to go, and then her letting him go, and once he had spoken to Sam, he stepped into a waiting taxi. He had only grabbed his navy blue NHS jacket, so was still in his scrubs.
Once arriving at the apartment block, Tom paid the cabbie and hurried to the garages to get his car.
When he had parked the car, Tom walked into the old, church-like building. A mid-thirties woman sat at the visitor reception desk, her brown hair in a high bun and, to complete the stereotypical look, some purple rimmed glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose.
"I'm here to see the head master, a Mr. Trinder." Tom told the lady.
"Yes, you must be Dr. Kent. Mr. Trinder can see you now, so if you follow me." The lady replied before leading Tom around the corner, her heels clapping against the stone floor and echoing off the dark, solid wood panelled walls. They reached a door, wooden, matching the walls, which she opened. There was also a small silver plaque engraved with 'Mr. M. Trinder, Head Master.' "Mister Joey Kent's brother is here to see you, sir. Should I ask the boy to come in?" Her tone made Tom think; it was too abnormal for his mind to process, monotonous as it were.
"Please, Lynda, send the boy in." The tall, elder man waved his hand as to dismiss the receptionist. "Take a seat, Dr. Kent, please." Before Tom sat down, the man lent over the desk, buttoned his suit jacket, and shook his hand. Tom accepted the handshake with a fake smile added.
Unbuttoning his jacket, the elder man sat again, and so did Tom. "Why was I called in?" Tom asked, trying to keep a polite forefront.
Before the man spoke, Tom looked around the room. The walls were still wood panels, with a pointless ledge half way up. Directly behind the dark oak desk was a bay window, the only producer of light it seemed - apart from an unimaginative, grey lamp. The head master's desk was piled high with neatly arranged, stacked papers and books. A black computer and keyboard was placed just to the right of a leather mat - that was positioned in the middle of the desk. The teacher had a black swivel chair while only two standard grey chairs were opposite.
"Yes, about that. Joey has recently been rather disruptive during class. I have had multiple emails and talks with many of his teachers, if not all. His form tutor and the head of year have attempted to talk to him, but to no avail. This is the third time Joey has been sent to my office, so I called you in." He paused for a couple of seconds to let Tom process every detail. "I understand your brother died. Might that be the reason for Joey's behaviour?"
"It could be. It will be a year ago on Friday. I didn't really acknowledge the fact it might affect him this much. I'm sorry you have had to deal with this. What is going to happen now?" Tom replied, knocking himself for being so selfish and nonchalant.
"I am granting him authorized leave. I have some work from his teachers for the rest of the week, which I will send you via email. He will be off school for the next four days, and then it is the half term." Mr. Trinder explained.
"Thank you, sir." Just as Tom said this, Joey was ushered in by the receptionist.
"Ah, Joey. Take a seat please." Joey grunted and slung himself onto the chair beside Tom. "I was just explaining to your brother about what is going to happen." Mr. Trinder told Joey all he had just said to Tom.
Before they left, Tom had forced Joey to say sorry to his head master; even though it wasn't exactly in the best way it could be said. Walking out the building, Tom said to Joey: "what were you thinking? Couldn't you have just said something?"
"You wouldn't have listened," Joey said, refusing to look at Tom. "For all the time I've been at that school, I have asked to move, but you have not listened. You don't even seem to care that Benny was killed. Unless I move schools, I might take dad up on the offer of living with him. At least he will listen."
"Joey..." Tom attempted, but Joey had already rushed to the car, waiting for the doors to be unlocked.
They got back to the apartment, where Tom noticed he had several missed calls and messages wanting to know where he was, so he had to go. He told Joey to get on with his work and the Ajit would be back soon.
Practically running out the door, Tom almost forgot to shut it. Joey shuffled into the lounge and threw himself onto the cream couch. "I ain't doing any work right now." Chuckling to himself, sounding a little tipsy, he turned on the TV.