Parables (Shiva x MrAdam)

[Shiva the Cat]

The sun was just beginning to sink behind the western hills when the runner stopped at a bend in the road, leaning on a wooden fencepost as she tried to force her heaving breaths to slow over her chapped lips. The wide spot along the shoulder might have resembled a scenic overlook if sightseers ever bothered to drive out to this part of the county, but most of the trucks and SUVs that passed by every five to ten minutes contained people who'd grown up in that part of the world, rarely ever traveling any farther. The runner herself was an exception.

Maybe that was why she looked down with such awe at the little farm nestled between the gently rolling ridges, just beginning to change from the green of summer to a lively autumnal gold. She could hear a creek winding through the shade behind the barn, and somewhere an impatient cow was inquiring about dinner. A gentle smile crossed the woman's small, heart-shaped face, and a passing thought made her wonder what she should do for her own supper. Hannah would be home tonight, even though Jake probably wouldn't. Takeout wasn't really an option in the small town a few miles back down the road, but maybe they could pick up some pizzas...

Shit, I need to pick her up the runner suddenly realized, pulling her phone out of the tight pocket that hugged her lean, graceful, albeit rather short legs and seeing it was nearly six o'clock. Hannah had asked her to pick her up at the clinic at six thirty, and it was at least three miles back home.

Turning back in the direction she'd come, the runner took off again, her jet-black ponytail flying like a banner behind her as her brown eyes narrowed in determination to beat the clock. It was funny; until she'd gotten out she never used to be late for things. As a teenager and young adult, her schedule had always been packed full with activities and familial commitments, and then after things had all changed seven years ago her life had become even more regimented. Lights on at seven, out at eight, meals and exercise times not just set in stone, but engraved on her very soul. Even now if she dared to sleep in an extra hour, or stay up just a little bit later, she felt an anxious thrill running up her back, and even as she loved it she couldn't help but wonder if she would be caught and punished all over again.

Running helped with that. She'd been pale as a ghost when she'd first moved to Brighton Falls, but Hannah had encouraged her to get used to the town by taking runs along the various country roads. In no time her skin had darkened to a healthy golden brown, and the soft layer of fat she'd picked up over her years of limited activity had melted away, leaving the woman's five-and-a-half-foot frame as fit and flexible as it had ever been.

If only the boys back in the city could see Lea Barsotti now...

But no, that was the whole reason she was in Brighton Falls in the first place. Five hundred miles from any city of significance, with less than ten thousand inhabitants, surrounded by farms and ranches as far as the eye could see. There was absolutely no trouble Lea could get into out here (unless maybe horse rustling made a comeback), which was why the judge had agreed to release her to Hannah Owens' custody. Hannah was a nurse, and her husband was a successful contractor and all-around upstanding citizen, and neither of them had any ties to the Barsotti family besides Lea. Hannah's mother and Lea's had been sisters of course, but the former had passed away of breast cancer shortly before Lea had gone upstate, and being an only child Hannah clung mostly to her husband's family these days.

Lea still wondered why Hannah had been so quick to vouch for her to the judge, and give her a place in her home even though they'd barely spoken in the decade prior. Maybe it was because Hannah had always wanted a sister, and Lea was the closest she would ever get. Or maybe it was the fact that even though they'd been married for fifteen years and Hannah adored children, she and Jake still hadn't managed to have any of their own. Well whatever it was, Lea wasn't about to exacerbate the situation by leaving her only friend in the world waiting for her in a parking lot.

Jake and Hannah lived in a remodeled farmhouse on the outskirts of town, down a dirt road that was just a little too long to make walking into Brighton Falls reasonable. It was quarter after six by the time Lea pounded up the stairs to her little apartment above the garage, peeling off the lime-green spandex and letting the sweat-soaked garments fall in a heap on the floor as she ducked into her tiny bathroom. There wasn't enough time to let the shower water get hot, and she let out a little yelp as the frigid drops hit her unremarkable chest.

In less than two minutes she'd scrubbed off the worst of the dirt she'd picked up the road, and in five minutes more she was back outside, dressed in a pair of jeans that were somewhat the worse for wear and a dark green hoodie with the words “Linford Nursery” emblazoned across the back above the faded image of a sunflower. Her hair was still mussed and her face, while clean, was utterly devoid of makeup, something that even now made Lea feel naked even as she found herself in that condition more and more often. But it was going to be at least a fifteen minute drive to the clinic, and she knew better than to get caught speeding.

Not that the truck she'd inherited from Jake was even capable of going over sixty without falling to pieces. The rusty dark-blue pickup was older than Lea herself was, and how it kept running after all these years she hadn't a clue. But it was reliable enough for country driving and the insurance cost almost nothing, which was a relief considering she'd probably be out of a job by the end of autumn. This wasn't the time to worry about that though.

In the end, Lea was late, but only by five minutes. Still, when she saw Hannah standing outside the clinic, chatting idly to a rather good-looking man, the apologies were already tumbling over her lips.

“I'm so sorry,” Lea panted, slamming the truck door behind her and going to join Hannah at her side. “I was out running, and I lost track of time--”

Good old Hannah. She only laughed and patted her cousin's arm, and while her hazel eyes lingered on Lea's face for a moment, they quickly shifted back to the man beside her. “I told you she'd be here soon or later,” she chuckled, pushing one of her chestnut curls back behind her ear. “Lee, I don't think you've had a chance to meet my boss yet, have you? This is Dr. Meyer. Tom, this is my cousin Lea. She's the one that moved in with us a couple months ago.”

Lea was hesitant to offer more than a muttered “hello.” She knew Jake and Hannah had been relatively discreet about where she'd been prior to coming to Brighton Falls, and while she doubted she would have told Dr. Meyer the whole story, it had become a force of habit for Lea to search strangers' faces for any sign that they knew what she was. In doing so, her dark eyes fixed just a little too long on Dr. Meyer's, and it wasn't until she heard her cousin speak again that she realized she'd been staring.

“Say Tom, I was thinking...” Hannah began, her voice light and casual, which was a sign to those that knew her best that the nurse was up to something. “Jake's going to be working late out at the Wilsons' place—he's redoing their kitchen while they're on vacation, it's going to be gorgeous—but what would you say about joining Lee and me for some burgers and beers down at the Old Mill for dinner?”

Now Lea's eyes were flashing towards her cousin, seeming to ask What the hell do you think you're doing? She almost never went out in public with Hannah and Jake if she could help it. Everyone in town knew them, which meant whenever they saw the couple sitting down at one of the restaurants in town at least five people had to come over and say hello. Which meant that sooner or later would come the awkward introduction for the city cousin and the subsequent whispers that would linger all night. But Hannah only smiled innocently back towards her cousin, though for a moment Lea could have sworn the nurse's dark brows raised slightly in Dr. Meyer's direction. Oh no...oh no, she wouldn't.

Yes, she would.

“Come on, Tom,” Hannah wheedled. “It's got to be more fun that sitting in that empty house of yours, cooking for one again.”

 

[MrAdam]

Tom should have seen this coming. This was a pretty safe part of a pretty safe town, but it could be isolated and it was getting late. So of course he would wait outside for a few moments with Hannah, one of the nurses, until her ride arrived. She kept him talking about plans for redeveloping the reception area and waiting room to make them more friendly, and then although the battered pick-up was familiar, its driver was not. He had assumed her husband Jake would be collecting her, and... rewinding the conversation in his head... she had let him assume that... but hadn't actually said it. She was waiting for her "ride home", not "waiting for Jake."

He hadn't even suspected when it was Lea, not Jake, who emerged from the pickup. He was thinking more about what she'd said about being out running, and wondering whether he'd seen her out and about, along the road, in the park, or along one of the trails. He hadn't suspected even when she introduced them. He'd tried to be friendly and put her at her ease and said that he was pleased to meet the mysterious cousin at last. This immediately felt like the wrong thing to have said, though he could not put his finger on why.

Probably she was just shy. She seemed shy. She was also very, very pretty. Casually dressed, messy hair, dark eyes looking up at him... appraisingly, he thought... perhaps wondering what to make of him... or perhaps she had seen him out running. Something.... something about her looked troubled. Or perhaps that was just his imagination... Hannah had been a little vague about her cousin and the reasons for her visit. Bad break up was his best guess. Whatever it was, he hoped she was okay. He wondered if he could help. He wondered if he was just wondering that because she was pretty.

He was only human, but he strove to be better every day.

Those five words - "Say Tom, I was thinking" - were enough to tell Tom exactly what she was thinking. It wasn't the first time she'd pulled this kind of thing, and she wasn't the only one in the community - in the congregation in particular - who'd tried to set him up with someone. What was that line from one of those old English costume dramas... something about everyone thinking that a single man with good prospects must be in want of a wife.

Dr Tomas Meyer tried to live a good, upstanding, moral life according to the Lord's commandments. He was active in the church and active in the community, and used his training and his position as a general practitioner to do what he could for the community he served. But he was not perfect, he knew. Far from it. He was prone to vanity, to being over-concerned about his status in his community and in the congregation. Caring too much what others thought of him. He was prone to egotism. It came from a good place.. he wanted to help others. His talents and his job meant that he often could. But it led him - if he was not careful - to set himself above others and seeing himself as superior to them. The sin of pride. He was the one to help, not the one to need help... not to seek it, not to accept it when offered, and to feel affronted at another's impulse to help him. Even when misguided or unwanted, they came from a good place, and it was a sin to put someone off helping others by treating them or their gesture with disdain.

He should not feel resentment at people who wanted for him the greatest happiness-es of companionship, of comfort, of love, and perhaps of family. He should not. But he did.

He was only human, but he strove to be better every day.

The truth was that relationships had not worked out well for him. They tended to end messily, and with him wracked with guilt. From high school and prom night and Sammie and wild days at medical school with Kim that still left him deeply conflicted; the baffling car crash of a relationship Lucy; and then his weakness... falling for someone he was not free to fall for.... the reason why he had left his old practice and moved far away. Was God trying to tell him something? Was his role to help and guide others, but remain himself alone. Or was that his pride again.... what could be more arrogant that to assume that he was so special?

Either way, he liked Brighton Falls. He liked the people, liked the town, liked the church, liked the pastor, liked his colleagues, liked his life. It would such a pity to ruin everything and have to move on again. But he should graciously accept the kindness and support of others as graciously as he offered it. No man is an island.

Tom saw Lea tense, or thought he did. It was Hannah, not her, trying to encourage him to accept the invitation. He didn't think she knew anything about it and suspected that she was at least as reluctant as he was. So he wheeled out his excuses about not wanting to intrude, but he already knew he had lost. This was just going through the motions. Because dinner out did sound better than eating at home... and because Lea was very, very pretty. He agreed to join them - he had a few things to finish up, but promised to meet them at the Old Mill.

He was only human, but he strove to be better every day.

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea's face blossomed in relief at Dr. Meyer's hesitance to join them, and while Hannah's expression did darken a little, she was ultimately undeterred. "Okay, but if you think I won't come looking for you in an hour..." she warned, the rest of her threat cut off by a sharp jerk on her wrist. Her cousin's dark eyes were flashing in anger as she muttered a distracted farewell to the doctor and dragged the nurse back to the truck. Once they were both inside and on their way out of the parking lot, the dark-haired woman finally let her righteous indignation free.

"Are you fucking nuts? Inviting him to dinner?" Lea snapped as the truck rumbled back towards "downtown": a collection of dozen buildings from the time of Brighton Falls' founding, including the Old Mill Restaurant, which was the most popular dining establishment on Main Street.

"What? He's a nice guy. And he's sin-gle!" Hannah replied in a merry sing-song tone, staring wide-eyed out the window as if she hadn't gone down this same street every day for the last fifteen years. "Besides, you can't complain. I saw you staring at him, you looked like you were ready to eat him up with a spoon." A sweet little chuckle tumbled over Hannah's plump lips. "You know, I was waiting for the two of you to cross paths ever since you came to town, but I guess Tom just never has a reason to go out to the nursery, and you...well, you never go anywhere. But maybe he can change that?"

Lea rolled her eyes at the idea. "Yeah, I'm sure he's just jumping for joy at the idea of dating a convicted felon with mob ties. Come on, Hannie."

Now Hannah's face was serious as she looked back at her cousin. "I didn't breathe a word of it, Lea. To anyone. It's not my business to share any of that, and you know I'd never betray you that way." Her shoulders relaxed as her smile returned. "For all Tom knows, you're just the cute new girl in town. And he could use a new girl just as much as you could use a new guy."

"Uh-huh," the driver replied, utterly unconvinced. "And there isn't a single woman in Brighton Falls who would have him so far? What, is he a drinker? Wife-beater? Or does he just have a bunch of child support payments that he can barely keep up on?"

Hannah looked appalled. "Absolutely not! He's a good man, Lea!" she insisted, wondering when the younger woman had become so cynical. Before she'd gone away the nurse had casually followed her on social media, and had noted a constantly shifting parade of young men in always hanging around in photos of her cousin; all of them handsome but many with a rather unpleasant cast about their facial features. Friends of Bobby and the other boys probably, and Hannah felt quite sure she could categorize most of them in the unsavory buckets Lea had dared to set near the doctor.

"Most of the single women in town would kill to be with a guy like Tom," the curly-haired woman continued as they parked in the public lot at the end of the street. "But he's always so focused on his work, and I don't think he would feel right about dating a former patient. Most people in town go to him for their GP."

"I see," Lea stated, climbing out of the driver's seat and pausing to smooth her hair in the rearview mirror. She wasn't exactly dressed to the nines, but while she always preferred the way she looked with a flawless face of expensive makeup, her natural beauty was enough to make her stand out among the other citizens of Brighton Falls. The tired, annoyed expression on her face did diminish her looks somewhat though. "So I should date a workaholic who never has time for me? What, is this a long con to get me to divorce him so he can get half of my exorbitant paycheck?" It was a sarcastic comment of course; the nursery barely paid above minimum wage.

Her cousin let out a huff. "I just want you to be nice, Lee. It'd be nice if you could give Tom a chance; I think you two could be good for each other. But if not, at the end of the day he's still my boss. Please don't get me fired."

That finally cracked a smile on Lea's face. Putting an arm around Hannah's shoulder, she gave her an affectionate little squeeze. "I'll behave, I promise. And to be fair, I'm not exactly faulting your taste." She paused a little bit, recalling the way Dr. Meyer's eyes had locked with her and sent a little shiver of delight down her back. "He's pretty good-looking, for a country guy."

After a bit of waiting, the hostess at the front of the remodeled-gristmill-turned-restaurant was able to escort them to a table on the back patio, near the water wheel dipping steadily into the gently meandering Brighton River below. She would have no trouble identifying Dr. Meyer when he arrived; the middle aged blonde was one of his many admirers and looked at Hannah's cousin with more than a little suspicion as she left them behind. The waiter was much more amenable though, and the two women had barely had time to browse the menu when he returned with a beer and a glass of water, garnished with a lemon wedge.

"You can drink, you know," Hannah remarked as she raised the beer to her lips. "Your P.O. said it was fine as long as you didn't try to drive after. One beer wouldn't hurt."

Lea shook her head. "It's fine. Better not to take any chances, right?" Although she spoke with a tone of casual caution, the truth was that after finding out The Old Mill's wine list consisted of exactly two vintages--House Red and House White--and their spirit list was even more of a joke, she didn't see any point in drinking anything hard. In another life she'd been partial to Dom Perignon, Clase Azul, and wines older than her grandfather, but she'd gone so long without alcohol that anything less than the finest quality disgusted her. By contrast, the water in town was a million times better than the vaguely chemical-tasting swill that came into the prison, and Lea couldn't seem to get enough of it.

Crappy wine list aside, at least the food at the restaurant was good, though Hannah insisted they wait until Dr. Meyer join them before ordering. "He'll be here soon," she insisted, glancing towards the door.

"Okay, but if he doesn't show in the next twenty minutes, you're buying me dessert too," Lea teased. "I could really go for some of Mona's bread pudding..."

 

[MrAdam]

Tom retreated to the relative safety of his consulting room. There was little doubt about it - Hannah's cousin did not look happy about the arrangement, and looked relieved when she thought he was going to be able to decline. Perhaps - what was her name? Lea, that's it - had a better way of extracting herself from Hannah's Machiavellian match-making machinations, but Tom had felt unable to find a good enough reason to decline without resorting to an outright lie. Which - as Hannah knew full well - he would be very unlikely to do. Especially as - as he now recalled - she had also subtly established earlier in the day that he had no plans for that evening. Sometimes you just had to hold your hands up, admit that someone has run rings around you, and admire the sheer artistry of it. He was just glad that Hannah (mostly) chose to use her powers for good.

Lea, though... was that the look of someone who had likewise been outmaneuvered? While Tom would give Hannah top marks for deviousness, he was less convinced that her judgement was always correct. She'd seemed shy, wary... and... she had looked relieved when he tried to make his excuses, and perhaps even angry or upset when he'd failed to extract himself... or chosen not to extract himself, she would probably suspect. Not only would it be super awkward for the three of them to go for dinner when one of their number desperately did not want to be there... it would also be... well, it would be wrong to put her through that. To inflict his presence on her if she didn't want it. Even if it wasn't his fault, he still had a choice and therefore it was his responsibility.

He picked up his phone and sent Hannah a text:
"U sure about this?" he typed
"Absolutely : ) " came the reply, straight away.
"If L isn't up for it, I understand. I'll say something came up" he responded.
"No. U. Won't. : ) " she texted back, and then "No XQses Doc!!!!"
Tom winced a little at the multiple exclamation marks.
"It'll be fun" Another message. And another: "Trust me"
Tom sighed. "Fine"
"Don't u like her? "

Tom paused, uncertain how to reply. He pictured them in the car on the way to the Old Mill, Lea driving, Hannah in the passenger seat. In his mind's eye he could see Hannah grinning to herself, delighting in the mischief of her little games.... and possibly reading out the next message that he sent.
"He thinks you're really pretty"
"He thinks you're lovely"
"He's looking forward to getting to know you"
"He thinks you have nice eyes"
"He thinks you might need a hug"
"He thinks you seem really nice".

All of those things were true, but he couldn't text her any of them. After starting and deleting a few messages, he settled for:
"With you in 20"

Tom busied himself with tidying up his desk, finishing up the last dregs of his paperwork, and finally shutting down his computer. He went through one last check of the practice building before locking up for the night.

He sat behind the wheel of his car - a small navy-blue SUV that had seen better days - for a few moments, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, catching his own reflection in the mirror.

You've got a hot date tonight, Tom, he told himself, so try and be happy about it.

Yeah, that's a good point, he smiled. Better than his empty house, some underwhelming pasta dish and a night in front of the TV and some light study.

What was the worst that could happen? It might be a bit awkward, but... he could usually draw people of themselves, couldn't he? And Hannah could talk the hind legs off a donkey. As long as they didn't lapse into work talk, or into parochial town talk, it would probably be fine. And if it didn't go well, at least it would put Hannah off pulling this kind of thing again... for a while, anyway. The unknowable factor was Lea, of course. He wouldn't ask what brought her to Brighton Falls, and he wouldn't ask too many personal questions. He could ask her about running and talk about routes. Could her ask her about work? Maybe... bit more risky, that one. But he could phrase it carefully.

And what was the best that could happen? They might actually hit it off. And she was very, very pretty. He bet she had a lovely smile. He'd love to see it. If they did hit it off, though... Hannah would be insufferably smug of course... until they broke up, which would probably make it impossibly awkward around the surgery, and then.....

Stop. Just stop. You've barely exchanged ten words with the girl and you're already planning not only your life together but your eventual messy break-up and associated professional ramifications. What is wrong with you?!

Tom smiled again at his own ridiculousness and slowly pulled out of the parking lot. He was going to be on his best charming behaviour, he was going to treat Lea with kindness and consideration, and respect the possibility that she might have more reasons than resentment at her cousin's machinations not to want to be there. He was going to be nice. Being nice was what he did best.

* * * * * * * * * *

The hostess greeted Tom on his arrival at the Old Mill, and tried to show him to the table on the rear patio. He waved to Hannah as he entered the restaurant - Lea wasn't looking in his direction at that moment - and started to move towards them. Although it was still relatively early - early enough to secure a prized table by the river - there were other diners already in, perhaps enticed by an early bid special menu. He exchanged greetings, a smile and a wave with one table and moved easily on, following the hostess. A second table took a bit longer, greetings, an update on symptoms - good news, some warm words, a prompt to return if the symptoms returned and to finish the medication. The third table longer still.... a question, an attempt at deflection and advice to make an appointment, another question, a reluctant and slightly guarded answer, an admonition from the patient's wife to her husband about bothering the doctor when he's out for dinner, assurance that it was fine, a repeat of the encouragement to make an appointment, a repeat of the worry about the symptoms and some more background information, some provisional reassurance, another repeat of advice to make an appointment, and finally... an extraction. The hostess hovered awkwardly, holding the menu, unsure how long to wait for them to finish and if he really needed showing to the table.

Tom smiled his apologies as he sat down, looking slightly embarrassed at the delay. Tom was tall and broad shouldered, probably a shade over six foot tall. As his surname suggested, he was of German or central European descent with neat dark blonde hair, cut sensibly short, and kind-looking soft blue-grey eyes. He was clean shaven, striking, handsome, with high cheekbones. He carried himself with an air of confidence, assurance, and no little charm. He dressed well, though perhaps in the clothing of someone ten years older. Tweedy jacket, crisp white shirt, sensible navy blue tie loosened a little around his neck, black suit trousers and polished black shoes. He wore a small, silver Christian ichthys fish symbol badge on one lapel, and a medical association badge on the other.

He mumbled his apologies and said that they must be starving. Tomas belatedly realised that the hostess was still waiting to take his drinks order, and asked for a diet coke. As he turned back towards the table, he felt Hannah's eyes on him, expectant. Insistent.

"So... Lea." he began, "A fellow outsider! How are you finding it in Brighton Falls so far?"

 

[Shiva the Cat]

As the two women waited for the doctor to join them, Lea was relieved that the conversation had shifted somewhat to more mundane matters: how their jobs were going (Hannah's great, hers mediocre), what the weather would be for the coming weekend (sunny, followed by a coldfront), what movie they wanted to watch when they got home (something with Fred Astaire). The evening was still warm and the pleasant sound of the waterwheel was enough to lure the dark-haired woman into a false sense of security, and she'd almost forgotten about their other companion when suddenly Hannah's face lit up in front of her.

Instinctively Lea's shoulder's tensed as she sensed a presence behind her. One hand gripped the edge of the table while the other closed tightly around her water glass. A primal instinct in the back of her mind told her that she could smash the latter and slash for his neck before making a break for the door, and she had to force a deep breath into her lungs in order to calm down enough to realize there wasn't any danger sneaking up behind her. It was just Dr. Meyer, his broad form looming against the party lights that illuminated the patio and casting a shadow over their table. From the corner of her eye he looked like he could have snapped the short woman in half, but as he sat down the look on his face was much less threatening, although Lea could pick up a slight sense of bravado as he greeted them.

Still, sitting next to him she couldn't help but feel underdressed, even for a small-town bar and grill. Lea had always had an eye and passing interest in fashion, and there was no denying that the jacket and tie suited the doctor well. Across the table, Hannah waggled her eyes at her cousin even as she rolled into a story about one of Jake's latest projects. He dressed up for you the nurse seemed to say. After all, she had come right from the clinic still in her scrubs, but even these were still relatively clean and neat compared to Lea's dusty jeans and oversized sweatshirt.

Not for the first time since coming to town did Lea suddenly wish she had access to her old wardrobe. She could recall a stunning black Christian Siriano dress that would have brought the good doctor to his knees; a fitting punishment for someone who made a woman that used to attend every Fashion Week dressed to the nines feel like a scrubby farm girl in a crappy little burger joint. But like all the rest of her assets the dress had been seized and either sold to pay off her lawyers, or even more likely it had been given to one of Bobby's dumb floozies as a gift. Either way, it was going to be thrift stores and hand-me-downs for a while until she could get her finances back in order.

"So... Lea," the doctor broke into her bitter reverie and nearly made her choke on the ice chip she'd been aggressively crunching between her teeth. "A fellow outsider! How are you finding it in Brighton Falls so far?"

Swallowing the slush and turning towards him with a bewildered gaze, it took a moment for the question to register in the woman's mind. "Oh! It's uh...it's nice," she finished lamely, taking another sip of water. Of course, the town lacked the excitement of Vegas or New York, and its quaintness couldn't live up to the villages she'd visited in Tuscany and Provence during her summer vacations growing up, and the weather was nothing compared to the family villa on Grand Cayman, but it did have a certain prettiness about it.

Thankfully at that moment the waitress returned to take their orders, and once her drink was refilled Lea saw a sudden opening to turn the conversation away from herself. "You're an outsider too then? Where are you from?" she asked curiously, tilting her head in such a way that her ponytail took on an almost canine shift of puzzlement. It seemed bizarre that anyone would ever choose to relocate to Brighton Falls. Hannah had only moved to the village because Jake's family was here, and had been almost since the town's foundation. That seemed to be the case with most families in town, which only added to the mystery of how the doctor had ended up there.

"I don't mean to be rude," Lea continued after their food had arrived. Curiosity had still fixed her dark eyes on the doctor's face, occasionally letting them drop to observe his hands as well. "But what in the world would ever make you move to a place like this?" As soon as the question had left her lips, she immediately regretted it. After all, she could hardly question Dr. Meyer's presence in the town without having to justify her own.

But as always, it was Hannah to the rescue. "Lea's a city girl. Born and raised in Newport," the nurse explained quickly, her voice still light and present despite the annoyed look of warning in her dark brown eyes. "She's still getting used to small-town life. But everyone needs a fresh start sometimes, right?"

"Yeah, definitely," her cousin agreed, pushing her fork around the salad on her plate before stabbing forcefully into a mushroom as she tried to recall the other explanations already floating around town about why she'd moved in with the Owens family. "Uh...boy trouble," was all she could think of for justification, and before she could be forced to elaborate she shoved the mushroom into her mouth, ending the account then and there.

In truth, 'boy trouble' was not wholly inaccurate when it came to Lea's decline over the past seven years. If she'd just stayed away from Antonio, and guys like him, and guys like her dad and brothers, maybe she never would have gotten into any of this mess. As she nibbled at her salad, the convict couldn't help but wonder what would her life have been like if she'd gone after someone like Tom: a seemingly nice, clean-cut Christian guy who probably wouldn't say boo to a goose. Well the sex would probably suck, and she probably would have ended up in a town like Brighton Falls, with a few kids clinging to her ankles while she balanced PTA meetings and church fundraisers, but compared to what she had been through, would it really have been so bad?

It was probably a moot point now. In a couple years she'd be thirty, and even if she did find a guy willing to overlook her past, the odds he'd have enough money to provide for kids weren't great. If Lea had any kind of employment history she might have been able to make enough money to take care of them herself, but not at fifteen an hour doing seasonal work. Sure, she had a college degree that might have helped things out, but what good was a BA in Art History when the nearest museum was six hours away?

"How's the salad, hon?" Hannah asked, dragging Lea back into the conversation. With a smile and a wink, the nurse glanced across the table at Tom. "All about the rabbit food, this one. I say she could use some more meat on her bones, but then again she always was skinny as a rail when we were kids. What do you think, Tom?"

Lea's gaze could have chilled the burger on Hannah's plate right back into its original freezer-burned state, but the curly-haired nurse barely seemed to notice, only sipping daintily at her beer as she wide eyes waited innocently Tom's answer.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom was of the opinion that sentences that started with phrases like "I don't mean to be rude" or "with all due respect" or (worst of all) "I'm not racist, but..." tended to lead to places which cast doubt on the authenticity of their opening disclaimer. He'd told her that he was from New Franklin originally, a town which made Brighton Falls look like a bustling metropolis by comparison.

"I can see why it must seem sleepy and boring here for you after the bright lights of Newport" he said, reaching for empathy, "When I went from my small town to the sprawling metropolis for medical school, it... well, I'll be honest, it was amazing. There was so much to see and do, so much hustle and bustle. You could, like, pick up the phone and have pretty much any kind of cuisine you wanted at pretty much any hour of the day. And it was nice to be anonymous... where I'm from, everyone knew everyone... anything we did would get back to our parents. You ever tried to buy beer with a fake ID from the grocery store when one of the owners was your mom's maid of honour and the other was your dad's cousin? And the people! In the city, I mean... like, it wasn't as if I'd never been to a big city before I went to Medical School, but honestly... I don't think I'd even knowingly met an actual flesh-and-blood Canadian before, never mind people from all other the world. And.. yeah, I can see if you're used to city life, it's very different here, and probably not in a good way."

"Even if you like small towns it feels like.... " he paused and puffed out his cheeks, "trying to watch Game of Dragons or whatever it's called starting from season eighty-four and trying to pick up what's going on or who is who or who is related to who or who is divorced from who or who isn't speaking to who about something that probably no-one knows or can remember. And it's not so bad here, but in some places, even if you settle down and have kids, only their kids will be regarded as proper citizens rather than outsiders."

"For me", he continued, "I just found big city life too much, in the end. It was amazing for a time, though... for an adventure. I didn't think I ever wanted to go back. After graduation I got a job at a busy downtown clinic, which was a great job... should have been a great job. But there were about eight or nine of us there, plus locums and maternity covers and what have you... I never really got to know my patients... more often than not I'd only ever see them once. I learned a lot, but... it wasn't what I wanted. And I didn't like commuting, and I didn't like my crummy apartment. Makes me sound very shallow and materialistic, I know. Ungrateful. And I was all those things. But i didn't feel like that clinic was my calling. Some of my classmates were talking about sticking it out a few years, paying down some debt, saving some money and moving further out. I thought... why not just go now? And move much further out? Plenty of jobs, and I've got debts to pay!"

"I couldn't go back home. Both my parents are doctors too, and I could just picture my patients looking at a kid they remember dropping a big catch in a little league final, and going 'nah, is your mom in? Can I ask her instead?' Also, they're still a way off retirement, and a community only needs so many doctors. So.... yeah, a false start or two... one town where things didn't really work out.... then I moved here."

He glossed over a fair bit of detail there, especially his "false start", but he was aware that he was talking about himself a lot. Tom's natural inclination was towards modesty - he'd rather hear about other people than talk about himself. Talking excessively about oneself was to presume that you were the most interesting and important person in the room, which was vanity, and also a character trait that he associated with people he didn't like much... the narcissist, the braggart, the self-obsessed. But he'd learnt that excessive modesty, of being unwilling to talk about himself, not being open, was a vice too, and being open about his own life encouraged others to be open too. It was possible to do this without turning conversation back to himself, or trying to top every story or anecdote, or answer every story with an example from his own life.

'Boy trouble' he just glossed over with a sympathetic nod and a little grimace. He was tempted to admit to 'girl trouble' being the reason for his 'false start', but the truth was that it was not 'girl trouble' but 'Tom trouble' - the problem was with him, not her. Also... 'boy trouble' could cover a wide range of situations from a bad breakup, a cheating partner, or something much more serious, perhaps even domestic violence or something similar. He wasn't going to ask. It wasn't his place to ask.

When Hannah asked whether Lea could 'use some more meat on her bones' he was halfway through a sip of diet coke and almost choked on it, taking a few seconds to cough and recover his equilibrium... and buy himself a few seconds to think about how on earth he was supposed to respond to a question like that.

"Hannah" he started, "No. Seriously... just... no. You are awful. How am I supposed to respond to a question like that?"
He ran hands through his hair in a gesture of amused exasperation, a smile playing on his lips, just enough to keep it light.
"That's an absolute humdinger of a hospital pass to throw to me. What am I supposed to do with that? More to the point... poor Lea... it's bad enough that you ask her to pick you up from work, ambush her with an evening-ruining unexpected and unwanted dinner with some dull-as-ditchwater country doctor, but then you invite this virtual stranger to comment on whether he thinks she needs more 'meat on her bones' or not?"
He shook his head, chuckling. He was genuinely thrown by the question but did not want to create a scene or be too rude or dismissive to Hannah, so he hid his genuine annoyance behind mock-exaggerated annoyance. It was the curse of being a Doctor... suddenly he was thinking about girls and young women with eating disorders that he'd seen in his surgery, and how often it was because of friends and family who felt they had license to comment fully and frequently on their weight or what was on their plate. Someone else might have just been able to laugh and say she was perfect how Lea was. But it didn't sit right with him... he had no reason for thinking that eating disorders were an issue here or even that this was a regular pattern of behaviour. But... even if prompted by a blood relative, this didn't feel like a question that a gentleman should answer. Lea was not a piece of meat.

"I mean... you wouldn't ask Lea that about me, would you now?"
He put his cutlery down on his plate, shifted his chair back, and stood up. He slipped his jacket off and over the back of his chair.
"I sometimes think I could afford to lose a pound or two" he said, patting his stomach and staring down at it critically, before turning sideways to show the profile view.
"But if I do, I find the weight comes off my face too, my cheeks get a bit sallow... drawn, you know? You want to ask Lea what she thinks I should do? Run a bit further, skip donut Fridays? How much meat should I have on my bones?"
He sat back down again.
"Of course.... I expect what you're fishing for - in your chronically unsubtle way, Hannah - or what you want to prompt me to say... is that I think poor Lea here is beautiful. Well, of course, I do, because she is. It's not going to be a matter of dispute or debate. I mean, I have eyes."
"Hannah, listen... it's great that you've introduced us to each other, even if you've done a bit of strong-arming and indulged in a bit of skullduggery. I know it comes from a good place. But we're here now, the three of us... you've got what you wanted, you've made it happen, so let's just have a nice dinner and enjoy each other's company without.... I don't know. That is, if I've not made things terminally awkward and ruined things forever?"
"Sorry, Lea."

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea had to give Hannah credit, on paper Dr. Meyer was exactly her type, or at least the type her PO would have preferred she associate with. As she listened to Tom's explanation of his past, there was no hint of any kind of "family business," or ill-gotten fortunes, and his opinions of urban living were positively quaint. The only thing that surprised her was that he wasn't a native of Brighton Falls; the more he spoke the more he seemed to fit right in to the peaceful, pastoral little corner of the world. A shame, considering Lea herself couldn't wait to escape the village and start over...well, anywhere really. Probably not Newport of course, but she still had ten months before probation was up to make her decision. And build up her bank account, if possible. Either way though, she was looking forward to the day when she could walk down the street and just utterly disappear into the crowd, never to be troubled with questions or judgmental stares again.

She wished she could have disappeared even faster at Hannah's teasing question about her appearance, and her fork cluttered indignantly onto the plate. "What the fuck Han?" was all she could manage to spit out, but her cousin only stared innocently back at her, keeping purposely silent so the doctor would be forced to stumble over some kind of answer. As he did, Lea's face grew redder and redder, and after a few moments all humor in the moment was past.

The dark-haired woman was angry. Not just embarrassed or shy, but enraged with flashing eyes and a white hand that had suddenly dropped the folk and clenched around the wood-handled steak knife that was a part of every place setting at the restaurant. Hannah jerked her head back sharply, suddenly seeing a stranger across the table from her. Not the skinny little girl she had babysat as a youth, but someone that had been broken and reforged as something sharper and more dangerous over the last seven years. It was only thanks to her nurse's training that she kept a cool head and took another sip of her drink, casually letting her eyes drop back to her plate.

"It was just a joke," the curly-haired woman said finally, setting her mug back down. "You two have that in common as well; no sense of humor." Raising her eyes, she offered a playful little smile at the doctor. "Tom, if you think anything other than that Lea is the prettiest girl in town--after yours truly, of course--I'd recommend you go see the eye specialist over in Harperstown. And I had every intention of asking Lea the same thing about you until she damn near choked on an ice cube just now, so I might as well keep my mouth shut." As if to emphasize the point, she began to nibble on a french fry as daintily as possible, avoiding both of their gazes.

As quickly as Hannah had been able to rouse Lea's ire, the gentle tones of her voice also soothed her back into realization of what she'd almost done. You fucking idiot she cursed silently, referring to herself more than her cousin. She'd had a few talks with a therapist ever since her release--another condition of her parole--and the convict knew it wasn't necessarily the words that were said that could put her into such an aggressive state, but moreso just the air of the situation. Back in prison all-out brawls could break out over the slightest offenses, even those much less than Hannah's little "joke", and Lea had been forced to physically defend herself on more than one such occasion. Out here in the real world, especially in the gentility of Brighton Falls, her logical mind knew the worst that would probably happen would be a whispered "Well I never!" from somewhere, but instincts were hard to overcome.

Hoping Tom hadn't noticed, Lea gently nudged the knife away from her plate and picked her fork back up. It was only as she stabbed into a cherry tomato with as much delicacy as she could muster that she realized he had called her beautiful. A delayed blush washed over her cheeks as she swallowed, but as she did she wondered why the sentiment affected her so much. Was it just because she knew at that moment she still felt like a scrubby weed freshly plucked from a rose garden? Or was it something in the way those gentle gray eyes had fixed on her with delicate sympathy; not for any of her real troubles, but just as someone who knew Hannah and her antics and had probably suffered them in his own right.

"Well for what it's worth, Doctor," Lea said finally as she met his gaze. "Hannah does know the kind of men I find attractive." A beat, as she let him process the remark. Unless wine was involved, members of the Barsotti family rarely spoke their gentler sentiments aloud. "And I guess I can't be too offended at her antics; I've had to deal with them my entire life. You'd think I'd be used to it after twenty-ei--"

"Hush now! You don't want him to know my real age, do you?" Hannah teased, giving Lea a playful little shake on the shoulder. In truth they did appear close to the same age, thanks to Hannah's lucky genes that made her look five years younger and Lea's ordeal that had seemed to age her five years of her own. Still, when a little giggle passed over the younger woman's lips it did bring a new light to her face that seemed to restore some of her lost youth.

"Let me guess, she turned 30 again last year, didn't she?" Lea grinned at Tom, even going so far as to slip him a little wink.

The rest of the meal went by much more smoothly, and Hannah made up for her earlier remarks by offering to cover the bill entirely. Lea was more than happy to let her cousin do the honor, even though the Old Mill was affordable enough even for her own meager wages. It was dark by the time the trio had left the restaurant, and just chilly enough that the younger woman was actually grateful she'd worn something as warm as her hoodie. Still, she knew Hannah's living room would be much cozier, especially once they got the fire going and turned on one of the old black-and-white movies they loved, and she was more than ready to end this whole awkward affair.

Her cousin, on the other hand, had other ideas. "You know, Tom, Lea's a runner too. Maybe next time you find yourself out near our place, you could knock on the door and ask her to join you. If you can keep up with her, of course."

This time, Lea was ready for the remark. "Oh, don't bother. I go at kind of weird times. I start work at dawn and sometimes I'm not done until after dinner. You'll probably have a hard time catching me."

Was it just Hannah's imagination, or was there something more than mere dismissal in her cousin's voice? Especially when it came to the subject of getting caught. Raising an eyebrow ever so slightly, she looked from Lea to Tom, curious how he'd respond to the challenge.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom noticed Lea's flash of anger, but was preoccupied with his own pantomime of a response and was committed to it. It seemed better to plow on with regardless... his milder reaction probably the best chance of everyone saving face and continuing to enjoy the meal without the awkwardness becoming terminal. He did wonder at her anger - Lea had obviously been unhappy at being manipulated into going to dinner with him in the first place... perhaps she thought that message had been received, only for Hannah to double down on the disrespect... offering up her body as a subject of discussion. There was something else to this, though... some history, some other element that he wasn't aware of. Perhaps after her 'boy trouble', Lea had been adamant that she felt disinclined to get straight back on that particular horse and Hannah had repeatedly refused to take the hint. Or perhaps there really had been an eating disorder at some point.

Either way, he was amazed by Hannah's sheer chutzpah. This was all her fault, and yet she just sat there as if butter wouldn't melt her in her mouth, munching on a french fry which wouldn't melt either. With such an air of wounded innocence. Conversational ju-jitsu... use the weight of your opponent's outrage against them and sit there, shamelessly, playing the wounded party, blaming them for a lack of a sense of humour.

He wasn't sure how much to read into Lea's remark about Hannah knowing the kind of men she found attractive. She was probably just being polite... echoing what he'd said. And then... not being too offended at her antics. Yeah, I can see why she thought about introducing us, so I don't mind. You're in the same suburb as my type was what he heard. And then... speculation about Hannah's age. Which... yeah, even he knew it was an old fashioned thing to think about, but he still thought that a gentleman never asks a woman's age or joins in speculation. But the cousins seemed happy enough joking about it, so he joined in with a non-committal smile in response to Lea. Lord, that girl has a lovely smile. Her whole face lights up. He wished she would smile more often.

All this felt like a peace declaration, or at least an armistice. The elephant in the room had been gently but firmly ushered out back into its more usual habitat, with only a few incidents along the way. To Tom it felt like everyone knew that Hannah's matchmaking had misfired, but that no-one had been seriously trampled by the elephant, and so they may as well enjoy their dinner. They could all find each other pleasant company, or pretend convincingly enough. Tom tried unsuccessfully to pay for dinner, but was outmaneuvered again.... he couldn't insist without seeming overbearing and trying to pull rank and status, which was not a price worth paying. He could get the next one, Hannah said. As if there would be a next one. Unless she had another hot cousin she'd been keeping secret.

Hannah tried one final time, in the car park. Mentioning the running, one final throw of the dice. Tom didn't mind the insinuation that Lea might be faster than him - considering his build, and her build, she might well be. Perhaps he couldn't catch her. Hannah might have caught an element of challenge in her final words, but Tom didn't get past her first words.

"Oh, don't bother".

That stung. More than he was expecting. Partly the offhand manner, partly the transparent evasion of the claim to run at 'weird times'... in other words, I'll make sure I'm never in. Don't call us, we'll call you. Tom felt like he had when he was the square kid at the summer camp disco, or in his first year at college, being laughed at by the much cooler kids.... sniggering at him from behind their hands... exotic, impossibly sophisticated other-worldly beauties dismissing him with a condescending remark and leaving him feel doltish and slow. Funny how some of these feelings never leave you. Even when you're a fully grown adult and a doctor. And you know those kids were just from a slightly larger small town.

He felt disappointed in Lea. He felt they'd established that, no, this was not one of Hannah's best notions. He didn't think she had to belabour the point... perhaps Hannah deserved to have that door firmly slammed in his face, but Tom wasn't sure that he did. He'd been nothing but civil. At least he hoped. He'd got the message, and that was fine. He couldn't disguise the look of hurt and disappointment on his face, which took him a moment too long to rearrange into a more non-committal expression.

He was tempted to just bid his farewells, jump back in his car and drive home to his cold, empty house. But that wasn't the Christian thing to do. Whatever else had happened, Lea was new in town, and seemed lost and lonely.

"If you ever fancy it" he began, cautiously, "there's a few nice trails through the woods above the falls. I go running there sometimes of a weekend if we get the weather. It wouldn't be just you and me" he said hurriedly, "nothing like that... there's a group of us that go. Meet at one of the car parks, pick a route. Or we'll bring two cars... leave one by the peak and race up, or one by the bottom and race down. Or do an out and back... depends on numbers, the weather, and our mood. Just let me know... or if you prefer, do you know Katie who works at the pharmacy? Hannah can introduce you if not... her and her boyfriend Will are there most weeks, I'm sure they'd give you a lift if you wanted."

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea could appreciate the fact that Dr. Meyer hadn't once fallen for any of Hannah's traps, not even this last desperate attempt that would have utterly ruined her one escape from all the stress and anxiety of her current situation. It wasn't that she minded the idea of a running buddy exactly; in fact it could be downright helpful on those occasions when she'd taken a wrong turn or two down one of the dirt country roads and ended up utterly lost. But she needed someone would not just keep up with her, she needed someone who could really understand why she was running--and what she was running from. As far she was concerned there was no one in town who met this much harsher criteria, not unless she told them everything about the past few years, and she wasn't ready to do that just yet.

Especially not to someone like Tom, and especially not if he was gonna bring all of his friends like it was some kind of Labor Day barbecue. But before she could offer an all-out refusal, Hannah and her flawless sense of timing yet again jumped in with her own opinions.

"Oh that sounds lovely! I think even Jake and I might have to get in on that, if you don't mind of course, Tom. We might not be runners, but Jake grills a mean burger and I can keep the sangria cold for when you get back," she added with a wink. "Besides, you'll need a judge to see who finishes first, right?"

"Yeah, sounds fun," Lea said through a gritted-teeth smile, knowing she had absolutely no intention of following through with the plans. However, his mention of going up to the falls did strike one small note of fancy within her; pretty scenery was always one way to get her out of the house, albeit alone.

After a few more moments of excruciating small talk, the two women made their farewells, but not before Hannah pressed a tightly-folded piece of paper into Tom's hand. When she had managed to write Lea's phone number down no one could have said for sure, but at least now the doctor wouldn't have the excuse of ignorance when it came to reaching out. "She prefers texting," the nurse whispered to the doctor before darting down the street after her cousin, who seemed all too eager to escape like a thief in the night.

"Well now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Hannah asked when the pickup was headed back towards the outskirts of town. "He's nice, right?"

"Ha," Lea remarked, gripping the wheel a little tighter than necessary. "He probably thinks I'm a freak. Do me a favor: next time you want to fix me up with someone, walk home, all right?"

Hannah waved off the remark as she rolled down her window, taking the scent of a late summer evening in the country. "He doesn't think you're a freak. Rude, maybe, but not a freak," she let out a little sigh. "And if it's any comfort, I'm pretty sure Tom's as pissed at me as you are. If he doesn't ream me out first thing Monday it'll be a miracle. It was worth a shot though. You know, I sometimes think he's almost as lonely as you are."

The truck was silent for several moments. But just as they turned into the long drive leading to the farmhouse, Lea paused and glanced at her cousin. "I'm not lonely, Han. I've got you, after all."

The nurse chuckled. "Honey, even I don't think I'm enough. But since getting a straight man to sit through Top Hat is damn near impossible, I suppose I'll have to do. For now."

*****
​

If she took nothing else away from the awkward dinner at the Old Mill, Lea at least had to give Dr. Meyer credit for recommending the trails above the falls. On her next day off, she rose shortly before dawn and drove out to Brighton County Park. The main parking lot was deserted except for a maintenance truck, and the only other creatures she saw as she began to jog along the pine-shaded path was a startled doe leaping away into the brush. The gentle breeze murmuring through the trees overhead reminded the runner of the sound of the sea, but as the cobbled path gave way to packed earth and the ground began to rise, the murmur grew into a roar.

Lea had never actually seen Brighton Falls (the falls, that is, not the town). In fact, her only experience with waterfalls of any kind were at a distance from a spa in Yosemite and a roadtrip to Niagara with her grandmother as a child. The little river tumbling over the shelves of rock were hardly impressive in comparison, and yet when the trees finally parted to reveal the vista, the woman felt her breath catch in her throat. There was a fenced-off overlook up ahead where she meant to pause and catch her breath, but her brow eyes were so focused on the view that she didn't notice the tree root rising out of the ground until her shoe had collided with it.

Sensing the fall that was to come, she turned her body slightly, but the arc of the root had already trapped her foot. Her ankle wrenched sharply as she plummeted to the ground, taking a face-full of fallen pine needles in the process. Wincing, she tugged her bad foot free and glanced downward, already feeling the tell-tale swell of a sprain beginning. Thankfully she hadn't taken any other damage as far as she could tell, and after a few moments she managed to pull herself up to her good leg and limp towards the spit-rail fence at the edge of the cliff.

With surprising flexibility, she managed to raise her wounded left leg up to almost a 90-degree angle, letting it rest on the fence as she took several deep breaths. It was a slightly awkward position with her legs spread so wide and sweat dripping down her bare stomach beneath her sports bra, but as far as Lea knew she was still alone.

Then again, the sound of the falls easily masked the footsteps approaching from down the path.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom was no more keen on Hannah's suggestion that Lea was... although he should want to share and he should want to bring people in and he should be inclusive, he wasn't keen on his running training session turning into a picnic. Or a competition, for that matter. This wasn't about winning or losing, but about trying your hardest, being better than you were last year or last month or last week, and doing the best with your God-given gifts. It was such a privilege to have the health and the fitness and the time and the space and the energy to go and run, especially in such a beautiful place. It felt like a form of meditation... a form of prayer.

If you said that you prayed... that you talked to God. That was fine. If you said that God talked back, that was probably a sign of mental illness and was not fine. But... Tom didn't know if God spoke to him... he never heard another voice in his head... just his own, and sometimes thoughts and ideas would come to him. Who put them there? How did they get there? All he knew is that if something was troubling him, whatever it was always felt better after a run. Sometimes an answer would come to him at point where he only had the energy to think about the running... and then, unbidden, a way forward seemed to open up.

But the conversation did turn his thoughts back to something he had considered a few times before. Something that was a community event - a short run, or a medium length walk... something for everyone, not just fitness fanatics or keen runners. Something to get people out of the house, into nature, fresh air in their lungs and raise the pulse rate a little. There was the occasional community fun run, but perhaps something more regular. Something to bring people together, increase community interaction, improve health and quality of life. Could he do it as a medical or health intervention through the medical practice, or should it be a social and spiritual and well-being and community outreach event through the church? He wasn't sure yet.

Once home.... to an empty house... he found himself feeling less ill-disposed towards Hannah. Yes, it had been clumsy, inappropriate, unfair, and generally poorly done, but it came from a good place. And, she was right - about him, anyway. He could do with someone in his life. If he was to build a life here... or anywhere, really... he would be better with someone to share it all with. People weren't supposed to live alone in empty houses like this.

After a number of false starts, he texted Hannah:
I'm really flattered that you think I'd be worthy of your cousin. That's no small thing. I think she's lovely, but I don't think she's ready to let someone new into her life just now, and even if she were, I don't think I'm the right person.

That would do. He was pleased with that. Gracious, yet pretty definite. This would be the end of it. He spent a further ten minutes starting and deleting a text to Lea... first apologising for the awkwardness, then just saying it had been nice to meet her, and then apologising again, and then bitching about Hannah's meddling ways, which he deleted immediately, surprised at himself. No, there was no good message to send to her. Best just to let sleeping trainwrecks lie.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Over the next few days, Tom had largely put the whole sorry episode out of his mind. The lingering sense that he should try to meet someone to share his life with hadn't left him, nor the sense that he should be doing more to put himself out there to be open to serendipity. But he was also aware that it was a poor idea to force things... better to be more or less content alone than share unhappiness. A run would ease his mind, or at least give himself something else to think about.

So he headed out early in his SUV, heading for the smaller and lesser known parking area by the Falls themselves. He was never quite sure whether this was technically a public car lot or not - it was probably meant for maintenance or forestry service vehicles. Tom only knew about it because Will and Katie had shown him where it was. No-one had objected to them using it, but they tended only to use it when the woods were quiet. Hopefully no-one minded a few extra cars, parked carefully and tucked out of the way.

Heading for the Falls meant he was closer to the top of the steeper climbs, and he felt in the mood to hurl himself up some steep trails at top speed until his lungs burnt and his thighs cried for mercy. The first hill sprint had felt great... gulps of air as he slowly jogged back down. He'd started to feel it on the second, but powered on through. It felt like it hurt, but he could push further. The third... last one before his first proper rest... first half felt very strong, making him think he was holding back, so he pushed himself up the rest and paid for it in the last third. He emerged gasping onto the main footpath. He gave himself a few minutes, then the same again. Another rest, same again.

Then almost collapse at the top of the trail. Almost wheezing, he took a minute or two to catch his breath before turning to jog the short distance back to his car. As he broke into a gentle trot, his legs still felt like jelly, but it was good to get them moving, even slowly. He knew from experience that he'd feel better as he jogged off the lactic acid.. he'd feel better by the time he reached the car. Only....

As he rounded a corner on a trail... drenched in sweat, yellow fluorescent technical t-shirt that was a souvenir from a half marathon event a few years back, black shorts, orange sweatband on one wrist, running watch on the other... he saw another runner with her leg up, resting on the fence post. Tomas didn't recognise her at first.

Normally he would just acknowledge the presence of other runners but generally let them be... with women he was especially careful to give them their space and not intrude. He wouldn't hurt a fly, but they didn't know that, and he was aware of how he could appear to others, especially if he'd been running hard. But something about her body language.. the angle of her leg, the tension in her muscles, that particular part of the trail. Some instinct told him that she wasn't simply stretching.

He ran down the trail towards her, stopping short.
"Hey, you okay there?" he asked, coming to a halt. Only then did he recognise her. He was pleased to see her, but not pleased that this might be awkward. He was not pleased that she might have hurt herself, but pleased that if she had, he was here to help. It was ambivalent to see her.

"Oh.... sorry Lea, I didn't recognise you in your running gear". He winced inwardly. Why did he say that? Why did he have to draw attention to...
"You okay?" he continued, "Just having a stretch, or...." His voice trailed off, pretty sure that she wasn't just stretching. "What happened?"

 

[Shiva the Cat]

It's nothing, Barsotti. Walk it off...

The voice of her old gymnastics coach echoed through Lea's mind just under the sound of the waterfall, but no matter how loudly Coach Kubík might have cursed her out in her mind, there was no denying the swelling purple flesh around her ankle as she pushed her sock down to examine it. The woman groaned. She'd fucked up enough landings in her life to recognize a sprain, although she hadn't had one this bad since the state tournament back in college. See what happens when you don't pay attention? Coach Kubík added smugly in the back of her mind as the runner looked around desperately for some bit of loose fabric she could use to compress the swelling.

If she was expecting to see some conveniently placed towel or scarf draped over a tree Lea was sorely disappointed, but the figure approaching her did give her a new infusion of hope. It was brief, however, and died as soon as she recognized the face of Dr. Meyer. Fresh color infused her cheeks as she forced what she hoped was a smile, but with teeth gritted too tightly and the corners of her mouth held back rather than up.

"Hi, Dr. Meyer," she returned the greeting, immediately lowering her raised leg but bracing herself against the fence rather than putting any weight on it. Even lowering it though sent a fresh ache through her leg though, and any mirth she'd been faking at his approach immediately faded back into pain. "Just turned my ankle on that root over there. Guess I wasn't watching where I was going well enough." Lea tried to laugh a little, but doing so threatened to throw her off her carefully maintained balance, and her grip on the splintery wooden rails behind her tightened.

Letting the joke go, she tried instead to focus on the man's figure before her. He seemed different in the quiet of the woods than forced into an awkward dinner in a crowded restaurant, and despite being drenched in sweat Lea still had to admit he looked good. If the marathon shirt on his chest wasn't enough to tell her he was used to these clearly dangerous treks through the forest, the toned muscles of his bare legs made it very obvious that the doctor was an athlete. Lea's brown eyes continued to travel upward towards his hips, but before they could linger too much in a rather obvious area she quickly turned to face the waterfall again, her thick ponytail whipping behind her as if she were trying to swat a fly with it.

Seven fucking years without a man, plus change. Lea never considered herself a woman totally driven by her desires, but ever since she was fifteen she'd always had a steady boyfriend (although that position had featured several different occupants) and enjoyed all the perks involved therein. Antonio had been the last man she'd slept with, and that was the day before the Savoir job, which was the start of all this mess. Oh, she'd noticed several specimens around town since coming to Brighton Falls, but she wasn't about to draw attention to herself by breaking up someone's marriage, and most of the young single ones, like Bobby at work, reminded her a little too much of golden retriever puppies to be really taken seriously.

Dr. Meyer though...

Before her thoughts could linger on the idea too long, Lea accidentally shifted herself enough to send another bolt of pain through her ankle, and she couldn't stifle the little grunt of annoyance that escaped her lips. Looking back over her shoulder, she began to raise her wounded leg again to give it proper elevation. "Say, um, Doctor. I really hate to do this to you; I know it's your day off and all--" Which explained why Hannah was currently home making waffles hopefully, in anticipation of her cousin's return. "--but would you mind just taking a quick look at this? I think it's like a mile or two back to where I parked, and I just want to make sure I'll be able to make it back okay. And if you happen to know of any fallen sticks or anything by the side of the path, I'd appreciate that too."

Quite a sight that would be, a short, thin, normally-spry young lady in what should have been the prime of her life leaning on a walking stick as she limped back down the mountain, but it was better than sitting up here waiting to be eaten by bears. Or worse: spotted by even more people.

 

[MrAdam]

"Call me 'Tom', please.... no need for formality.... yeah," he grimaced in sympathy, "these trails can be a bit treacherous. Of course I'll have a look."
He knelt down on the trail in front of her, both knees on the ground and sitting back on his heels. If someone had told him after that meal that one day he'd be kneeling in front of Lea by the waterfall, he wouldn't have believed them, nor thought that this was what they meant. The thought tickled him.

"Put your foot here if you can" he said, patting his thigh and slipping into practiced medical patter, donning his calm, soothing bedside manner like a long white coat. "I'm going to roll down your sock a little more, if that's okay, just to get a better look". He folded her sock down as best he could, and gently stroked her ankle bone through her sock.
"Hmmm... I think that's what known as a classic sprain, Lea, I'm sorry. You probably already know this, but people get sprains and strains mixed up.... strains aren't so bad, but sprains need careful handling. The only good thing about a sprain is that it's not a more serious sprain or a break."

"I'm going to take your running shoe off now, if that's okay, Lea. I'm sorry, this might hurt a little, but I'll be as gentle as I possibly can. What sort of run were you on today? Just an easy run, or a bit of speedwork?". He asked a question to distract her while he worked to loosen the laces and slip her shoe off her foot with a minimum of discomfort.

"I need to make sure that it's nothing worse than a sprain" he explained, "If it were worse you probably wouldn't have been able to stretch your leg up like you were, up on the fence. But I need to know whether I'm taking you home or taking you straight to ER."

As he spoke he freed her foot from the shoe and slowly, gently, and methodically started feeling his way around her ankle, checking for swelling and deformity.

"Oh, and I am taking you home. I'm not leaving you to limp 'a mile or two' back to your car with just some random sticks for support. If you do that, you'll make it much, much worse. I know it probably feels like it's not that far to the parking lot, and it's not.... if you're running. It feels a hell of a lot further if you're limping. You'll cool down quickly, and you can never rule out an ASR - acute stress reaction - what most people call 'shock', but which isn't really. Also.... I mean, it's safe round here and all, but I'm not leaving you alone in the woods like this."

'Like this' covered a number of factors... that she was injured and therefore more vulnerable, but also that she was wearing. Which was... perfectly acceptable for running, but which would certainly draw the eye and perhaps attract unwanted attention. Though... such ne'er-do-wells tended not to be up and about at this hour, and tended not to choose the Falls and the surrounding trails for their activities.

Inspection complete, he nodded in satisfaction.
"Classic sprain" he announced, "it's so classic that if I medical students, I'd call them in to take a look at a perfect example of the genre."

"So... your options are... (a)... you put your arm around shoulder and I take you back to my car. It's in a maintenance car lot and is much closer. I drive you home, make sure you're okay, and then bring Hannah out to pick up your car. Or (b) - as (a), except I carry you back to my car. It's not standard medical practice and not part of the usual service, but as you are apparently 'skinny as a rail' I should be able to manage it." He smiled, hoping it wasn't too soon to be joking about their somewhat awkward shotgun 'date'.

"It'll take the weight off your ankle and you won't have to walk. One arm under your knees, one under your back... put your arms round my neck for support if you like. Option (c) is I make a few calls and we get some people out here with a stretcher, but that could take a while as it's not an emergency as such."

 

[Shiva the Cat]

"Tom, huh?" Lea mused, a mirthless grin slowly crossing her face as he knelt in front of her. "I though one of the reasons people went to medical school was so that they could use the Doctor title whenever they wanted. I know if I was smart enough sit through all that schooling I'd even make my mother call me Dr. Lea at least. But then again I was an art history major, so what do I know?" She tried to force a chuckle but only managed a grimace, and immediately decided the best thing to do was shut the fuck up before she embarrassed herself even further.

After uttering a noncommittal grunt of assent to letting him remove her sock, the woman slid her torso lower while raising her bad ankle up onto Tom's leg. With some of her weight resting on him now, it was surprisingly easy to keep her balance, although the feeling of his skin against hers, even just for a moment, was enough to threaten to throw her off again. Shutting her eyes, Lea took a deep breath through her nose and let it out from between her parted lips, trying to force her racing heart to slow before he could undoubtedly feel her elevated pulse. His touch was so gentle, and his voice reassuring as he explained the difference between sprains and strains, although she found it impossible to focus on the words behind the rushing in her ears.

He's a doctor. Doctors help people. He would do this for anyone. The words repeated themselves like a mantra in her mind. Against all odds, Lea actually found herself wishing Hannah was there to diffuse the tension with some wicked insinuation or awkward remark. Anything to take the attention off of her. Even the pain as Tom unlaced her shoe and slid it off, like Cinderella in reverse, was enough to momentarily kill the impure thoughts beginning to boil over in her brain.

"What sort of run were you on today?"

Lea's eyes snapped open. Had he asked her a question? "What? Oh, just a normal kind, I guess," she stammered, immediately turning to look back towards the falls. "I remembered what you said about this place at dinner the other night, and I thought I'd check it out. I don't run competitively or anything like that though. I just run...well, to run. Gets me out of the house," the woman finished weakly, capping the sentence off with another half-smile. But before another silence could descend on them, the idea of turning the conversation back towards her savior struck her as brilliant, and with a renewed sense of bravado the runner faced him again. "You though, you must do marathons and things like that, huh? That's cool. Did you ever do the one in Newport?"

A strange light washed across her face, and something in her smile seemed to grow a little stronger. "I used to live in this great apartment off of 18th Street. Top floor, amazing view, swimming pool on the roof...and I remember one time sitting out on the balcony during the marathon, watching all the runners coming towards me like some kind of wave. Thousands of people, all blending together into a faceless mass roaring towards the finish line. It was kind of terrifying, honestly--I was seeing this guy at the time who had this obsession with zombie movies and it put some weird ideas in me--but at the same time it was kind of beautiful. Just people being together like that, all working towards a common goal and having a blast." A soft, warm, genuine chuckle tumbled over her lips. "I bet there were more people in the race that day than in all of Brighton Falls."

She would have been content to live in that memory all day long, but Tom easily smashed it with the mention of one little word. "Whoa, no ER for me," Lea said quickly, the reverie utterly evaporated. "Look, Mr. Linford's a good guy, giving someone like me a job and everything, but even he can't afford to give his people health insurance. If I have to go to the emergency room now you might as well take me out to pasture and shoot me, for all the good it would do. I can't handle that kind of debt." Not without going to Mom and Daddy at least, which was still forbidden for the next ten months.

Thankfully, it looked as though Lea's meager bank account would be safe for the moment. "Look, as long as you promise we aren't going to the hospital, I'll go wherever you want, however you want. That AS-whatever thing doesn't sound too great either, so whatever we need to do to avoid that is fine by me."

For one mad moment, she almost considered taking Tom up on his offer to carry her, just to see if he could do it. Just to see what it would feel like to be held in those strong arms of his. He's a doctor. He's Hannah's boss. Don't be an idiot, Barsotti. Lea swallowed hard, then smiled again. "Well, if you don't mind that I probably smell like someone who's been running in the woods, I don't mind leaning on you if you think we can manage. I'll even let you drive me home, although you know I can't promise Hannah won't make you stay for breakfast. She does make good waffles though."

Rising slowly back up, and taking care not to put any weight on the bad ankle, Lea raise one arm to wrap around Tom's shoulder, but immediately realized that with their differences in height it was going to be a challenge. "Okay, well, that's not going to work," she giggled, letting her arm drop until it was circling around his waist. "Um, is this okay?" the woman asked, suddenly feeling the color rushing to her face again at this close proximity and the feeling of his hard torso beneath the shirt. "I think I can balance okay like this, but if it makes you uncomfortable..."

 

[MrAdam]

"I've run it a few times" he said, "Funny to think that you might have seen me that day... in the distance... tiny little zombie ant of a runner. That close to the finish, I'm usually gone... can't see anyone or anything except the road in front of me and perhaps the finish line by that stage. A... friend once came out to cheer for me at the finish of a race.... and for a few other work colleagues, and I just ran straight past her. Didn't see her. She'd been there really early to get a good spot, so I never heard the end of it."

Not just your friend.... your girlfriend. Your partner. Why didn't you just say that?

"Amazing view from those apartment blocks, though... if those are the ones I'm thinking of, towards the finish."

Top floor, rooftop swimming pool, that part of the city.... expensive, very expensive. Yet now she was here, in Brighton Falls, without medical insurance, and working at a wage that probably paid only minimum wage and all of the pot plants she could carry. And even that... she'd implied that she was lucky to have that... 'someone like me', she'd said... why wouldn't any employer want to employ Lea? He didn't know much... didn't really know anything... about her, but she'd be good in sales, wouldn't she? Lovely girl like her? Tom tried to put the pieces together... presumably the 'boy trouble' and 'money trouble' were linked.

Had she been dating some rich asshole who'd mistreated her? Tom started imagining some pudgy exec, maybe ten years older than her, controlling her through money, treating her like a poessession. He was picturing some terrible human being laying off half his workforce while on the phone on his rooftop pool terrace, while lovely Lea looked on, powerless but disapproving. She was lying on a sun lounger, wearing just a bikini and sipping a cocktail. Reduced to decoration. Or had he been some entitled blueblood asshole who was Mr Perfect in public and a nightmare behind closed doors - some kind of modern American Psycho. Was he physically abusive? Did he hit her? Or was it all emotional - gaslighting and manipulation? Tom found himself getting angry at people who existed only in his imagination for their imaginary crimes, which was never sensible. Whoever he had been, at the very least, Lea had had to come here to put him behind her... or perhaps even to escape him. No wonder a sudden blind date with a country doctor was not what the, er, doctor ordered for her. He tried to clear his head, especially of that image of Lea on the sun lounger.

"I'd love to say that taking you home is motivated entirely by Christian duty, but if I'm honest, Lea, I'm hoping that Hannah thinks that rescuing her cousin is worth a waffle or two!"
Tom smiled his warm smile and looked at Lea fondly. Truth was he enjoyed her presence... her company. She was very pretty, obviously, but he also enjoyed the sound of her voice.
"And if you think you smell bad after a run, I must absolutely reek." He pulled at his sweat-soaked top with a look of distaste on his face. "Besides, everyone knows that men sweat, while women only 'perspire'."

Tom felt a little foolish when - after a bit of awkward dancing around each other - the height difference meant that her arm around her shoulder was not going to work. He should have realised this, but he was a general practitioner, not a field medic. Her cute giggle, her arm around his waist, her blush, and..... well... the revealing nature of her running gear.... inspired all manner of impure thoughts that he tried to put out of his mind. He had no objection to her arm around his waist, but he was less certain that it would provide enough leverage.

He held out his forearm for her to take, a little like a romantic hero in a costume drama, and braced his elbow against his slide for a bit more stability.
"Try putting your weight on my arm. Hard as you like, you won't hurt me, it'll just press my arm downwards."
They tried a few experimental steps.
"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you?" he asked. "I mean, my SUV isn't far, but it's not near, either. Or I can leave you here and go and get it... I might be able to drive it a little closer."

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea had to smile at Tom's appreciation for her cousin's culinary skills For all her faults, Hannah was an excellent cook. "You think she'll stop at two? My dear doctor, you know she'd consider herself an abominable hostess if she didn't try to stuff at least half a dozen down your throat," she chuckled as she tightened her grip on his waist. "I was hoping to get in a least two or three more miles this morning just to make room for them myself. I guess the trip from the parking lot up here will have to do though." She was about to start planning out when she could attempt the trail again, when alarm suddenly flashed across her face and she gazed upwards into Tom's eyes, her own full of fear.

"How long do you think I'll need to stay off this?" the runner asked, gesturing vaguely downward towards her swollen ankle. "I have work on Monday, and I have to be on my feet most of the day. Or well, my knees at least." New color rose to her cheeks as she realized the slight innuendo that had slipped in. "I'm a nursery tech," Lea added quickly, turning her face straight forward and willing herself not to look at the doctor. "I handle planting, watering, trimming...other various plant-related activities, you know, out at that place on Highway 4? But I've only been there a little while, and I haven't earned any sick days yet. Please tell me I'll at least be able to wobble my way in there when the time comes."

Not that she thought Mr. Linford would actually fire her as long as she called and explained the situation, but a day's pay was a day's pay, and she was never going to get out of Hannah and Jake's garage until she could save up enough for an apartment. And her time was running out as it was; in the fall the Linfords always let their nursery techs go until planting could start up again in the spring. Until Lea could line up another job to work over the winter, it was crucial she pick up as many days as possible out at the nursery.

Her thoughts were so distracted she hadn't realized that her own short legs (or leg really, considering one of them was doing nothing but hanging limply beneath her) had fallen out of rhythm with Tom's longer strides, and it was only due to his own firm grip that she kept from faceplanting yet again and humiliating herself further. Grunting in frustration to herself, Lea was at least grateful at the gentle tone in his voice as he offered to carry her, and as she thought about the long road back to the parking lot she decided it was best to just give in now, before things inevitably got worse.

"I guess we could try it, if I'm not too heavy for you," she admitted, reaching upward and gripping his shoulders to pull herself up and hopefully ease his efforts of lifting her. It was a good thing the prison food had barely been edible half the time; Lea had gained a little weight during her time there, but not nearly as much as she would have if she could have stomached more than a few mouthfuls at a time. She'd always had the petite body of a gymnast as a teenager, and the constant outdoor activity since her release had slimmed her back down to her playing weight, minus the toned muscles in her arms. Not many places to practice rings or bars out here, after all.

"I feel a little bit like Marianne Dashwood," Lea remarked in an attempt to once again lighten the mood and move past her own awkwardness. She shifted her body somewhat in the hopes of making herself a little easier to carry, and tightened her grip on his shoulders. "You strike me as more of a Colonel Brandon than a Willoughby though. Then again I don't suppose you've even read Sense and Sensibility. Kind of a girly thing, isn't it? Don't think I've ever met a guy who was into Austen." And if Tom was, then maybe he really was as perfect as Hannah claimed, though the wounded woman still had her doubts.

If he really was though...maybe this was a sign. Maybe things were finally going to turn around for Lea Barsotti. After all, Marianne went through hell with a lot of people calling her out on her bad decisions, and sure there had been consequences, but in the end she'd gotten her happy ending. Wasn't it Lea's turn now? She'd paid her dues and done everything anyone had asked of her since: get a job, get healthy, stay out of trouble. Dammit, she deserved a guy like Tom, if not Tom himself. Didn't she?

Not without going through a few more rings of fire apparently.

They were three quarters of the way back to the parking lot when the sound of voices suddenly made Lea turn her face farther down the path, a mistake she immediately regretted as she saw the quartet of hikers--two men and two women--approaching. They weren't anyone she knew well enough to greet, but the faces were vaguely familiar, and it was obvious by their expressions that they knew Tom and were astounded at the sight of the town doctor carrying a woman down a mountain.

"Everything okay here?" one of the men asked as the group came within speaking range, and it took every last bit of Lea's resolve to offer him a sheepish smile, rather than hiding her face against Tom's face in embarrassment. But as much as she wanted to make some kind of lighthearted remark to dispel the hikers' worries and send them on their way, the words wouldn't come, leaving the doctor to explain the situation and hopefully arrange a quick escape.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom grimaced in response to Lea's question about healing time.
"In magical medical fairyland where your health is the only consideration, you should keep your weight off it for at least two weeks, possibly longer - depends how bad it is. No running for a couple of months, and even then, only a gradual return. In gotta-pay-the-rent-inequality-corporate-dystopiaworld... maybe a week, if you've got no other option. Although.... " he considered, thinking, "we have some data entry and data checking work at the Medical Center because the migration of the new patient records system didn't quite go according to plan. It's really, really dull work - I'm sure Hannah suggested it to you, but I'd prefer to be working a nursery in the open air too. But at least you can do it sitting down. It's confidential medical information, though, so we'd need a records check before you could start, so that would take a few days, perhaps a week to come through. Maybe it'll take too long."

Having offered to carry her, Tom had a moment of doubt about whether he'd be able to do it. Lea was short and slight, he was tall and reasonably strong... people did this sort of thing in the movies, how hard could it be? Truth was, he wasn't sure because he'd not practiced. It wasn't like he was a firefighter who trained for this sort of thing. Please God, don't let him fail to pick her up, or have to put her down after five or ten humiliating hesitant steps... or worse, still drop her.

He needn't have worried. If anything he over-compensated, and end up scooping her off her feet... foot... with far more momentum than was necessary. But once her weight settled in his arms and he became used to it, he started to carry her slowly but steadily towards his SUV.
"Austin?" he asked. A beat. "Austin, Texas?"
He let that hang for a moment.
"No, I know who Austen is, but you're right. I've not read any of her books, but I've seen some of the films... mainly picnics, guys walking half naked out of the water, and people being rude about each other in very polite language. I saw most of a TV series adaptation on BBC America or PBS or somewhere like that. I don't remember much about it... think it had that guy who played Sherlock in Elementary as the heroine's brother... no... her sister's brother-in-law... and she's busy trying to set everyone up with everyone else, only she's terrible it it. Bit like Hannah, but without the compulsive cooking. I'll be honest, I started watching to laugh at it, but I kinda got drawn in. Because... because everything's so repressed and everyone needs to be married straight away and because of money and status and land, the stakes are really high. Back then, they got one shot at it. One shot. Are the books any good... I mean.... obviously they are, or they wouldn't be being made into films and TV. Have they aged well... or do you need a bunch of reference books or wikipedia to read them today?"

This seemed a safe enough topic of conversation to allow them to pretend this wasn't weird. And then it got weirder still. Four Hikers. And not just any four hikers.

"Oh.... hello Reverend. Everything's... uh.... under control. She's... ah... taken a bit of a tumble over a tree root. Classic sprained ankle" he hurriedly explained.
"Good of you to give her... a lift home" drawled Ryan, grinning. Ryan was married to Lucy, the daughter of Reverend Noah, the pastor at the church that Thomas attended, and his wife Catherine. Tom liked Ryan - he had a sly wit and a dry sense of humour and was always good company - and he liked him more because was able to say something that filled the stunned silence and made things a little less awkward. Lucy deliberately made things worse.
"Who's your ladyfriend, Tom?" she grinned, a twinkle in her eye, convinced they'd stumbled across some delightful secret rendezvous. There was precious little gossip around at the moment, and this was gold.
"She's not my-" Tom began, before thinking better of it, "This is Lea. She's Hannah's cousin - you know Hannah, one of the nurses at the medical center - come to stay with her for a while. Lea, this is Reverend Noah, his wife Catherine, their daughter Lucy and her husband Ryan."
"Don't you work at the Nursery, Lea?" blurted Lucy, "Yeah, I thought I recognised you from somewhere!"

The Reverend himself was trying to think of a way to lend aid, as was his Christian duty, but was handicapped by not knowing where to look. The girl was virtually half naked, and very, very pretty. God forgive me. He was also fully cognisent of the full force of his wife's barely concealed distaste bubbling up next to him. The eruption would come later.
"You've hurt your ankle, dear? Oh, you poor thing" Catherine said to Lea, tone full of condescension, "it really is much too dangerous to run up here, especially dressed like that. You'll catch your death of cold." The fact that Tom had obviously also been running did not seem worthy of comment.
"Is there anything we can do to help? Practically, I mean" asked the Reverend, his gaze fixed firmly on the floor in front of Tom's shoes.
"No, not really, Reverend. Unless you've a stretcher somewhere."
"No, but we probably have a blanket somewhere for the young lady" said Catherine, fixing Tom with a disapproving glare, clearly disapproving of the jezebel in his arms and fearing for his mortal soul.
"Thank you, no. I wouldn't dream of ruining your picnic - I've got a towel back at my SUV. Probably the best thing you can do is excuse us... the sooner we can get back the better."
"Of course. God be with you both, and may He grant you a speedy recovery, Lea" said the Reverend gazing off into the middle distance a foot to the left of where Tom and Lea were standing.
"Nice to meet you, Lea" said Lucy, with a grin.

With a wave, they turned to move on. Not a moment too soon. Tom started striding faster to cover more ground, and a silence fell for a few moments. And then Tom started laughing.
"I am. So. Sorry!"

 

[Shiva the Cat]

"Oh that's okay, really," Lea cut off Tom's suggestion about the job as quickly as she could. Without realizing it, the arm around his neck tightened as well, as if she could choke the idea out of him. It wasn't just fear of what might turn up in the background check that disturbed her (After all, a smug voice at the back of her mind piped up, if Tom saving you becomes a regular thing, he's going to find out the truth sooner or later), but the idea of being locked in a room in front of a computer for eight hours a a day reminded her way too much of what things had been like in state.

"Believe it or not," the injured woman continued with cheerfulness firmly injected into her words. "I actually really like working for the Linfords. I know I don't look it right now especially, but I'm pretty outdoorsy. Plus I like plants better than I like most people, and I think they like me more than most people do too," she added with a more genuine chuckle. It was true; plants didn't give a fuck about your past or future, and they didn't even require the kind of work that animals did, though Lea always had a soft spot for cats as well. For plants though, if you just gave them plenty of water and light they'd be happy enough, and despite the price she might have paid in soiled clothes and manicures she was happy to continue the long days digging in the dirt under the summer sun.

Tom must have believed her insistence in the meantime, considering he immediately dropped the subject and was happy to pick up the brighter topic of Lea's literary interests. Her smile brightened even further at the doctor's admission of at least a passing acquaintance with Jane. "Right? Compared to the troubles of today I know all of that marriage stuff seems so petty and small, but still...everyone wants a happy ending, right?" Turning her head slightly, her eyes locked with Tom's for a moment, and she could feel fresh heat rising into her face as she pretended to catch sight of a chipmunk along the path. "I mean, it wasn't like a girl could go down to the nearest office building and find a job back then. She needed to marry well if she wanted to take care of herself. And if she was an only child, or even if she didn't have any brothers, then there was the family to consider..."

Something grim curdled Lea's dreamy expression. She'd been lucky enough to have four brothers, and yet, now that she thought about it, had she ever dated a guy who wasn't connected to them somehow? Antonio had been Bobby's right hand man after all, and Daddy had dropped more than a few hints about how nice it would be if he could marry into the family to help out with things. So what if Lea didn't exactly love the guy?

The arrival of the hikers prevented her mind from wandering down that dark path any further, and although her face was burning all the darker through the impromptu introduction Tom made on her behalf, by the time Lucy spoke up she had at least regained enough sense to hold out a purposely-limp hand in greeting and return a simpering smile.

"That's me. Let me know if you're in the market for a bush or two. I'd be happy to hook you up when I'm on my feet again," she added with a slightly mischievous twinkle in her eye. But while Lucy seemed perplexed as she tried to determine whether or not there was an innuendo slipped somewhere in Lea's words, the older woman in the party seemed much less impressed. For her, the only remark the injured woman could think of was "I'll be sure to bring my parka next time."

It was only after they had all parted ways that Lea realized she might have further embarrassed Tom with her tone, especially since he obviously knew the older gentleman in a religious sense. "No, I'm sorry," she replied, her gaze much softer now when she met his again. "That was inappropriate of me. I hope I didn't get you in trouble." But judging by the warmth in the doctor's laugh, it didn't seem like too big of a concern. "You have to give me a little bit of a pass, you know," she continued, responding with her own barely-stifled giggles. "I'm Catholic, so it's not like I need to face those people again. Unless I get excommunicated, I guess."

And at least she could take some comfort in knowing she wasn't that far gone, despite all she'd done.

The rest of the walk was thankfully uneventful, though once they reached the SUV Lea assumed was the doctor's, it did beg the question of how to juggle her into the passenger's seat. "I think you can set me down here," she suggested, resting one hand against the locked door for balance. "I'm sure I can hobble my way in. Then I'll give Hannah a call to let her know to set one more place for breakfast. Unless you just want to ditch me at the end of the drive and let me crawl back to the house. That's probably the only way you're going to avoid getting dragged inside."

She paused as she leaned heavily against the side of the vehicle, then gripped the end of her ponytail in one hand and began to twist the end around her thumb. "I'm really sorry for fucking up your morning, Tom. I'm sure this probably wasn't how you wanted to spend your day off. But I really, really appreciate your helping me out like this. And I promise, I am going to find a way to pay you back for all this. You can bet money on that," she added with fresh resolve as she looked up into his face, her jaw set almost with defiance. After a moment though it passed, and she relaxed into another mischievous grin. "Of course, it might just be me finding an excuse to keep Hannah out of your hair, but I'll figure it out somehow."

 

[MrAdam]

"You're Catholic," Tom smiled, "You should have told them that... it would either have made everything ten thousand times worse or it would have explained everything, I'm not sure which! And no apologies necessary... I'm sorry for the... indignity of it all. Lucy and Ryan - the younger two, they're all right, really. So's the Reverend, he's just a bit... unwordly. I couldn't figure him out at all when I first moved here and joined the congregation, but I think he's just one of those shy, slightly awkward types. You don't tend to think of ministers being shy, because they're up there at the front and at the heart of everything. His wife..."

He paused, considering.
"She was really rude to you. Disrespectful. And I think you were well within your rights to give some back... wearing a parka next time..." he repeated, "the look on her face... and did you notice Ryan trying not to laugh? Some people somehow manage to be committed Christians without a commitment to the Christian virtues of love and compassion. I'm sure there will be a bit of gossip for a while, and the Reverend or his wife or one of the elders will probably want to have a talk with me. But... I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to have done wrong. I was merely following the example of the Good Samaritan, was I not? What should I have done? Maybe left you by yourself and come back later with that parka?"

"I should just accept that conversation with all due humility, but - God forgive me- I'll be very tempted to ask them to explain what exactly their worry for my mortal soul consists of... make 'em squirm a bit. Or... it might not come to that... there might just be a bit of side-eye and whispering for a bit, until the rumour mill turns once more and it's someone else's turn. Seriously, though. I apologise on their behalf. There's no excuses for her behaviour towards you".

Perhaps it was because he was carrying her in his arms, but he couldn't help but feel protective towards her and feel annoyed and insulted on her behalf. And it was probably a good thing that he wasn't Catholic, because if he were, he'd have to take his impure thoughts to confession to receive absolution.

The odd thing about it all, though, was how - encounter with the Reverend and his family aside - natural this all felt. Or at least it did to him. If you'd have told Tom when he was setting out for his run that it would finish with him having to carry the girl he'd met on that excruciatingly ill-advised impromptu dinner date a few days previous back to his car, he would have anticipated nails-on-blackboard level of excruciating awkwardness. But in reality they'd chatted about Austen, admired the scenery, and he'd enjoyed her company.

As they rounded the path towards the little packed earth clearing when he'd parked his SUV, the dull ache in his arms started to grow more insistent. You're not really tired, arms, he told them, it's just that we're nearly there. Don't let me - or her - down now. Just a little longer. Tom tried to subtly pick up his pace a little as they approached, his arms burning as he carefully set her down on her feet... foot.... by the passenger door of his SUV. He headed round to the trunk, stretching his arms out when he thought she couldn't see because of the angle of the car. He popped the trunk and picked up a couple of towels - one slightly faded bath towel and a hand towel.

He returned to her side and held the bath towel out to wrap around her.
"Keep you warm" he said, while toweling the dried sweat from his own run off his face, and quickly wiping his limbs, suddenly aware that he must reek.
"No apologies necessary" he said, waving a hand, "it's not like you bust your ankle on purpose. I'm just glad I was here to help. You'd have done the same for me.... I mean, you'd probably have had to drag me down the trail by my other ankle, but you know what I mean."

When she mentioned paying him back, he almost - almost - blurted out the worlds 'come out for dinner with me'. But he thought better of it. It wouldn't be right to try to leverage this into making her agree to have dinner with him. It might be less awkward without Hannah around, granted, but it could well be that their easy conversation and shared laughter out here, when they were forced together, might not continue to an occasion where he was forcing them together. And... none of this had changed the fundamentals... Lea was here because - at least in part - of some unspecified 'boy trouble' and he doubted she was any more in the mood to invite any more such trouble any time soon, and certainly not with a boring country doctor with judgy, sneery friends.

But... she'd brought a bit of adventure, a bit of glamour, a bit of very minor scandal into his life. Reminded him of what it felt like to feel. And probably earned him a free breakfast. What was not to like?

He helped her into the passenger seat as best he could, fussing a little, and making sure he closed the door even though she'd be well capable of doing so. He rounded the SUV and slipped into the driver's seat and starting the ignition. Music blasted out a top volume for a few moments before he could find the volume control to turn it down.
"Sorry" he said, "That's my running psych-up playlist. I should really have a calm-down playlist, but I've never got round to it. Is there anything you need to pick up from your car before we drive back? I can bring Hannah out later to pick it up."

Although he was no longer carrying her, for some reason Tom found himself driving extra carefully on the way back to Hannah's house.
"We'll get something cold on that ankle when we get you back" he said. Then: "Do you think Hannah is going to be insufferable? About all this, I mean. I don't mind... her cooking is worth it."

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea was quite pleased with herself at maintaining her one-footed balance so well, but when Tom wrapped the towel around her she could feel a little quake rising up through her ankle and knee. She knew the warmth of the sunbleached terrycloth was probably just from sitting in direct sunlight in the back of the SUV, but it sure felt an embrace settling around her shoulders. Graciously, the injured woman began to towel off the sweatiest parts of her, but the idea that she needed the towel for warmth was laughable. Ever since the doctor had first lifted her into his arms she felt as though she were on fire. It wasn't until the air conditioning was blasting as much as the music that she felt she could finally relax into the passenger seat.

"I'm good, I never bring much when I run," she answered, taking her phone out of the elastic armband around her bicep. Other than a few bucks zipped into the pocket of her leggings next to her keys, the only things of value still in her truck were a drugstore pair of sunglasses and an insulated water bottle that would probably be lukewarm by the time Jake or Hannah got around to picking it up. Lea prayed it would be the latter. Jake was always busy out in his shed on weekend mornings if he wasn't on a job, and would be more than content to leave his guests to their own devices. Hannah, on the other hand...

"She'll probably freak out a little bit," Lea acknowledged, turning her face to watch the wooded hills slip past. "But she's a nurse, after all. Once she sees there's no serious damage, I'm sure she'll calm down. And of course, you can do no wrong in her eyes, you know that? Hannah really admires you, Dr. Meyer." She used his title with just the slightest note of teasing in her voice, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile as she did.

"Hannah's just overprotective when it comes to me," the runner continued as they turned onto the main road back to town. "Sometimes it can be annoying, but sometimes I'm really grateful for it too." Lea's stomach flopped a little as she thought of where she would be now if her cousin hadn't opted to take her in. She might still be on probation of course, but most likely in some filthy halfway house on the outskirts of the city, far from the green beauty of Brighton Falls.

"She's an only child, did you know that? She lost her dad when she was really little, and her mom could never bring herself to remarry," Lea turned back curiously towards Tom. "Her mom and my mom were sisters. I grew up with a bunch of brothers, but my mom wanted me to have some good female influences in my life too, so she would send me to go stay with Hannah and Aunt Rachel for a few weeks every summer growing up. They spoiled the hell out of me." Now the smile was back in full force as she remembered trips to the beach, amusement parks, and even just the little things like baking cookies in Aunt Rachel's old Victorian house on rainy days. "And even with the age difference, Hannah was never too cool or too busy to hang out with me. This one time when she was in college, she even let me come stay in her dorm room with her. Who in their right mind does that for a ten-year-old kid?"

It certainly was quite the experience, made all the more bittersweet as Lea though how few time she and Hannah had seen each other after that. By her own teenage years, the younger girl had gotten so busy with gymnastics, and friends, and boys, that she only rarely thought of her older cousin until Aunt Rachel had finally died ten years ago. Lea had gone to the funeral of course, and sent the appropriate number of texts and sympathy cards, but her dad had already put her to work by then, and her time was even more limited. Why, the very day after they had scattered Rachel's ashes at Silver Bay, Lea was drinking champagne in first class on a plane to Brussels to "acquire" a De Heem for the family collection.

And Hannah had been alone.

The guilt was so heavy on Lea now that as she thought of it, she almost forgot the pain in her ankle. "Hannah is a really, really good person," she murmured, more to herself than to Tom. "I don't deserve to have someone like her in my life, but I'm really grateful that I do."

The gratefulness lasted the full ride back to the Owens' house, and even through Hannah herself stepping out onto the porch in surprise, wiping her floury hands on her pink floral apron as she bounded down the front steps. "Tom! This is a pleasant surprise. What brings you...Lea?" Her hazel eyes widened even further, but then immediately retracted into amused slits as a smile spread across her face. "Well well well. You know, if you two wanted to see each other, you didn't need to keep it a secret. I certainly don't mind in the least. I was just--oh honey, what in the world happened to your ankle?"

As soon as Lea had opened the door of the SUV to hobble out, Hannah spotted the swelling above her bare foot, and all hints of smugness were gone from her face. In a flash she was in full nurse mode, ready to support her cousin under the shoulder (a much easier task than it had been for Tom, considering the two women were about the same height) as she looked back towards the doctor. "I assume you checked her out already? A sprain?" she asked, helping Lea towards the house.

"Jake! Go get my medical kit!" the nurse called out to her husband once they were inside. "And put a shirt on, we have company!" She added as an afterthought before turning back to Tom. "Do you think we ought to have her on the couch, or in bed? Her room's all the way out there," Hannah inclined her head out the window towards the detached garage, particularly towards the stairs leading to the apartment above, which of course would be quite convenient for anyone wishing to visit the invalid while avoiding the main house.

Naturally, Hannah assumed Tom could read all of these thoughts after working together for so long, but perhaps even her skills hadn't quite evolved to that point.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom listened to Lea talking about Hannah and their family. He knew very little of that information - except that Hannah was an only child. Or perhaps he'd just assumed that, as she'd never mentioned siblings. For someone he thought he knew reasonably well, he realised that he knew relatively little about her, or at least about her background. As he thought back over their conversations, he realised that she'd not said much about it and he - not wanting to pry - had never asked. Hannah was very skilled in steering conversations and conversational spotlights away from topics which she did not want to discuss. Like many good nurses, she was chatty, interested in people, good at getting them to talk and to open up without seeming to pry or overstep the mark. She.... somehow...... she got away with a lot. Like that match-making stunt she'd pulled, which seemed to Tom to be less misguided than he'd thought at the time, at least from his perspective.

Tom frowned when Lea said that she didn't deserve someone like Hannah in her life. This was the third time she'd said something like that... something negative. She'd also said that plants liked her more than people did, or something like that. She'd said that Mr Linford had been good to give someone like her a job, but hadn't explained why that might be. It didn't really occur to Tom that there might be a specific, concrete reason for any of this.... he took it either to be a display of excessive self-deprecation as a verbal tic or habit, or - more likely - the symptoms of lowered self-esteem, perhaps related to the 'boy trouble' or the surrounding malaise of having to come here and start again.

He couldn't let it pass unremarked... he wasn't about to tacitly agree with her negative view of herself. She seemed perfectly lovely to him, and had no idea why she wouldn't deserve the kindness of others. But equally, this wasn't the moment to push her on the issue... it would have felt intrusive, presumptuous.... too personal a question to ask at such slight acquaintance. Though probably Hannah would have known a way to manage to walk that particular tightrope and make it look effortless. So he settled for a hasty token protest... Oh, I'm sure you do... but didn't push the point and let it drop immediately. The moment he had, he thought he should have said or done more. Too late now, though.

"We're not-"
.... were the only words that Tom managed to get out of his mouth before Hannah flipped between delight at the apparent success of her matchmaking to concern at her cousin's massive, swollen ankle. He nodded.

"A sprain. A classic of the genre"

"It doesn't matter too much" he answered, "as long as Lea gets plenty of rest, keeps it elevated, and gets something cold over the ankle to reduce the swelling... not directly on the skin, of course, and not for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time... you know all this, of course" he tailed off, remembering he was talking to a nurse.

"I guess" he continued, not divining anywhere close to the depths of Hannah's secret meanings, "not having to climb the stairs would be a definite advantage, so if there's a way to stay on one floor for a few days, that'll certainly help."

Tom watched Hannah help her cousin towards the house, feeling a bit useless. For a moment he considered offering to carry her again, but what had seemed permissible when they were alone... or not so alone, as it turned out... in the woods seemed much less so in front of her Hannah. And if he did carry her, no doubt Jake would appear and there would be more spectators. Better to leave this one. So he hovered behind, before finding something useful to do in the form of picking up Lea's other sneaker from the footwell of his SUV and carrying it towards the house. Tom felt awkward, and under-dressed. And over-odoured.

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Hannah clucked a little at Tom's diagnosis, then raised an eyebrow as she looked from the doctor to the injured woman. "And how, pray tell, did you end up with such an injury?" she asked with a note of teasing in her voice. "Getting into some 'gymnastics' again, Lee?"

"I tripped. Running," Lea cut off quickly, scowling as the nurse gingerly placed a stack of pillows under her swollen ankle. "I was just lucky that Tom--I mean, Dr. Meyer--" Something about using the doctor's given name in mixed company made her stomach jump strangely, and the woman pointedly avoided his gaze as she spoke. "--Came along when he did, otherwise I'd probably still be stuck up there next to the falls." Letting out a little sigh, she relaxed back against the couch as Hannah continued to tuck pillows around her. "By the way, my truck is still up there. I don't suppose you could run up there and get it for me today?"

"In a little while," the nurse replied, just as a short, broadly-built man in a plaid shirt walked into the living room carrying a small black box. His green eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the woman on the couch, and his small mouth quirked curiously in the nest of his neat brown beard.

"Whoa, what happened here?" Jake asked as he approached the couch. Noticing his wife's boss standing protectively nearby, he nodded genially to the other man as he handed the medical kit to Hannah's expectant hands. "Morning, Tom. How's things?" he added politely in the low, sweetly-toned voice the nurse had fallen in love with almost fifteen years ago. "Can I get you a cup of coffee?"

"Oh yes, Tom, you're already here, you should stay for breakfast at least," Hannah chimed in as she began to wrap an elastic bandage around Lea's ankle. "Jake honey, can you grab me an ice pack from the freezer as well? And a glass of water for Lea. You want some aspirin for the pain, hon?" She looked curiously back towards her cousin, who shook her head in answer.

"That's okay, it really doesn't hurt that bad now," the injured woman repeated, though her words were suddenly drowned out by a low grumble from her stomach. Blushing a little, she offered a sheepish smile to her cousin. "Breakfast would be great though. I didn't get a chance to eat anything before I went up to the falls."

Hannah beamed with pride in her cooking as she rose back to her feet, satisfied with the work she'd done on Lea's ankle. "You got it, sweetie. Let me just go find that breakfast tray and you can enjoy it right here on the couch. And this afternoon, Jake and I can move some of your things into the guest room. That way you won't have to deal with stairs for a few days."

Lea opened her mouth, ready to protest against the idea, but the the warning look in the nurse's eyes immediately shut her up. And besides, Tom was right there. What kind of a message would it send to take advantage of his kindness all morning, but then immediately contradict his own suggestion? "If you say so," she sighed eventually. "But I'm sure I'll be fine in a day or two."

"We'll see," Hannah answered with pursed lips. Looking back towards Tom, trying not to wrinkle her nose as she suddenly realized his workout had been much more intense than Lea's, she inclined her head towards the staircase leading to the second floor. "If you want to go freshen up while I fix breakfast, Tom, you're certainly more than welcome. You remember where the bathroom is from last time? And if you'd like a fresh set of clothes, just let me know, I'm sure I've got some of Jake's castoffs around here somewhere." Though whether the shorter, wider man's clothes would fit the tall doctor was a very good question.

"You just relax in the meantime, and I'll bring you a cup of tea," the nurse continued, looking back towards Lea just as Jake returned with not only the promised ice pack and water, but the breakfast tray as well. After settling the patient in with all of these, the Owenses excused themselves separately; Hannah to the kitchen to finish breakfast, and Jake back out to the shed to continue work on whatever project was currently occupying his time. Before Tom could accept Hannah's offer to go freshen up though, Lea glanced back up at him with an awkward smile.

"What a morning, right?" she mused, reaching for her phone and pretending to be fascinated with the first social media app she could touch.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom greeted Jake with a smile and readily accepted his offer of a coffee. When Lea optimistically expressed her view that she'd be fine in a day or two, Hannah expressed scepticism. Tom caught Hannah's eye and gave his head a subtle shake, accompanied with a little grimace. No chance, unfortunately. Though he held off saying so out loud.

Tom was pretty sure that he had some spare clothes in the back of the SUV. He usually kept some tracksuit trousers and a sweatshirt in a duffel bag in case he was cold after a run, or had a longer drive to get back. He probably had a race souvineeer t-shirt in there too - he usually had one in case it was a bit cold for a vest. It wasn't exactly a suave ensemble, but it would do.

"Yeah", Tom answered, "Not the morning I was expecting. Or what you were expecting, I'm sure."
He thought about the way that Hannah had fussed over Lea, and what Lea had said about Hannah earlier. It was great that Hannah - and to a lesser extent, Jake - were around to look after her... both in terms of the specific ankle sprain, and more generally in terms of.... well, whatever the specifics of the boy trouble were. But it must be a bit suffocating, he thought, especially if Lea was used to city life. In terms of getting out of the house, she had her work, which she said she had enjoyed. She could borrow the truck, or she could go for a run. It probably wouldn't be that long before she could be back at work in some capacity... doing something. Similar with driving. Running, though... not for a good while. And depending on how important to her running was, that would be tough.

For Tom, running was a bit like prayer. Like meditation. A chance for some space, for some peace and quiet, to calm the mind through exertion of the body. When he was doing less intensive sessions than that morning, it allowed his mind to wander, for him to lose himself for a time. And in that peace, in that space... sometimes the answers he was looking for came to him. How often had the answer to a problem he'd been mulling over all day suddenly pop into his head about four miles in? Or the knots of a problem start to untangle as each mile passed. When he couldn't run, he was a worse Doctor. A worse Christian. A worse person.

"I'm really sorry you hurt your ankle, Lea" he said, his tone serious. "Is..." he paused for a moment, perhaps weighing up whether to say what he was thinking, before deciding that he would risk it. He continued, in a lower, almost conspiratorial, tone. "Is being laid up like this going to drive you mad? Is Hannah fussing over you going to drive you mad? And if so... is there anything I can do? Or do you have enough phone-related distractions available to see you through?"

 

[Shiva the Cat]

Lea was trying her best to avoid Tom's gaze, but the gentle tones of concern in his voice were impossible to ignore. Ever since she'd arrived in Brighton Falls the convict had been skeptical of Hannah's endless praises of the doctor (not even the Pope could be that perfect), but when she looked back up into his eyes she had to admit she was beginning to understand why her cousin thought so highly of him. It wasn't just a casual, professional concern she saw their, nor were there any suspicious fears that Lea might turn the doctor's kindness back on him via any kind of malpractice suit. Tom genuinely seemed to care about what happened to her.

When was the last time someone other than Hannah had felt that way?

She had to fight the urge to touch him, to pat his hand reassuringly or touch the side of that handsome face of his. After having his morning run ruined, the last thing Tom probably wanted was a freeloading patient to come on to him. Instead, Lea managed to keep her resolve enough to smile and shake her head, and after a moment her face illuminated with an idea.

"It's not that big of a deal, honestly," she remarked, pulling up the browser on her phone. "This isn't even the worst injury I've ever sustained. I was a gymnast in high school and college--I even almost qualified for the Olympics once--and I took a pretty good share of hits doing that." Holding up her phone, Lea passed him news story with a picture of herself a decade earlier, dressed in a sparkling amethyst leotard and holding herself in a perfect handstand on a high bar. Her arms had been much more sculpted in those days, and her brows were knit with an expression of intense focus she hadn't displayed in years. "Pretty cool, huh?" Lea mused, a note of wistful pride in her voice. "Too bad about forty-five seconds after that picture I royally fucked the landing. Dislocated my right elbow and crushed my forearm, and there went any plans for Olympic glory. I never qualified for anything higher than state after that."

Which wasn't to say her gymnastic skills were never put to use again, as the security footage at the Royal Museums in Belgium could attest.

Shrugging, she took her phone back. "So yeah, a little sprain is nothing. As long as I don't lose my job, it won't kill me to stay inside a few days. Plus once I get my hands on some crutches, I can at least go sit outside and read or something. Maybe I can squeeze a little Austen in this afternoon," she added with a wink. "Either way, don't worry too much about me. I've been in worse situations. And you've already done way more for me than I deserve."

Lea paused, then took a quick breath to steady her racing heart. "I'll find a way to pay you back for this, Tom. Somehow. You have my word on that."

Before she could say any more Hannah had returned, and with some very mother-hen-like clucking she shoved the doctor in the direction of the stairs, insisting he at least rinse off before she would serve him one square of her waffles. "And hurry up, or there won't be any left for you!" the nurse teased, although by the time her boss emerged again she had magically provided even more bounty than Lea had expected.

Hannah had set up a card table beside the couch, along with three folding chairs. With the keen eye of an experienced homemaker, the nurse had set and decorated the table as prettily as for any dinner party, and in addition to a steam stack of waffles she had provided a heaping bowl of fluffy yellow eggs, a plate of perfectly fried bacon, and an assortment of fresh fruit, including berries from her own garden and some early apples from the trees behind the house.

"It'll be a cold day in you-know-where when anyone says Hannah Owens is a bad hostess," the nurse said with a grin as she poured Lea a cup of tea. "Although maybe when Lea's feeling a bit better, you might give her cooking a try, Tom. She'll never match my waffles of course, but she makes an amazing lasagna."

"That was one time, Han," Lea protested. "Plus I think the only reason it was so good was because Jake knows how to grow decent tomatoes."

"Hey, don't look at me," Hannah's husband held up his hands, one of which still gripped a piece of bacon. "I barely touch them these days. That's all you, Lee."

And so the meal continued, as the morning aged into the early afternoon, heating the living room enough that Jake had to open the windows to let the fragrant late-summer air circulate through. After everyone had eaten as much as they could possible handle, the Owenses easily cleared away the remnants of the meal, leaving their guest and the wounded woman alone in the living room again, albeit only momentarily.

"I think you'd better try to get some rest now, honey," the nurse remarked as she adjusted the couch cushions, then shot a knowing glance towards Tom. "Of course, Dr. Meyer, you're welcome to come back and check on her tomorrow if you want..."

"That won't be necessary," Lea cut in quickly before Tom could say yay or nay to the matter. "But um...if it's okay with you, I'll text you later? Just to give you a status update. And only if you want me to. I know you're super busy, and I wouldn't want to intrude."

Hannah had opened her mouth to say something like 'Of course he's not!' but the look in her cousin's eyes was enough to make her shut it again and quietly excuse herself from the room, with only a mumbled "See you Monday" to her boss.

In the meantime, Lea held her phone out to the doctor, inviting him to add his number to the contact she'd just created. It felt less presumptuous than simply asking Hannah for his information, and besides, if he put in something fake at least Lea would know where she stood with him.

 

[MrAdam]

Tom had been impressed by Lea's sporting pedigree... very impressed. He'd told her that he'd never met anyone who'd even got close to making the Olympics squad. He winced in sympathy at the account of her injury, his medical mind processing the likely trajectory from the high bars that would cause such injuries. It was a distraction from trying to decide how closely he was allowed to look at college-aged Lea in a spangly leotard. Probably no more closely than now-aged Lea in running gear, he reminded himself. But he didn't dwell on the injury, and instead repeated how impressed he was to meet someone who got that close and who performed at that kind of elite level. He'd asked her to tell him about it sometime, sensing that now probably wasn't the moment.

After returning from a quick shower, now wearing dark sweatpants and a trail race souvenir t-shirt. Tom sat down to breakfast with the Owens. His feet were bare and his hair still damp, unkempt and brushed only with his fingers. Lea's injury aside, there were definitely worse ways to spend a morning off. Clumsy matchmaking attempts aside, he had a lot of time for Hannah and a lot of time for her cooking. He'd found Jake harder to get to know - at first he'd thought him a bit cold and a bit stand-offish, thought Jake didn't like him for some reason. But soon Tom came to realise that he was probably just quiet, and perhaps took his time to warm to new people. Tom found himself picturing the four of them sat there eating breakfast - only he and Lea were a couple and had just got back from an injury-free run together up in by the Falls. It was a nice dream, and a much more appetising prospect than a bowl of cornflakes and a couple of slices of toast by himself in his kitchen.

He'd given her his number and encouraged her to let him know how she was doing. It might be useful to see what her ankle looked like when the swelling had gone down from trauma swelling to cushioning and protecting swelling. He'd suggested it, and then added that he hoped it wasn't too weird a suggestion.

* * * * * *

He was just turning out of the Owens' place when the next song on his playlist started. Tom had never really listened to the lyrics that closely before, but found himself smiling to himself. He thought he had set his running playlist to a random shuffle rather than to dramatic irony, but... these algorithms these days, who knows? He listened through as he drove home, and as the final almost-preposterously-bombastic strains faded away, he pulled over by the side of the road and skipped back to hear it again. He caught himself 'air singing' along - the car karaoke version of air guitar... the kind of air singing that someone indulges in when completely alone in their car, singing along to a song where they don't really know the words and have some excess emotion and energy that they're not sure what to do with.

No one plans for an accident
And I'm sure that I'm unprepared
No one plans for an accident
Oh I know I've no idea

If I could make it right
I'd make it right now
If I could make it right
Oh, I'd make it right now
I know I have to leave
But it hurts so much
Just knowing that my love
Might never be enough

The last lines got somewhat carried away, of course. He'd stayed for breakfast, which had been great, but he had plenty of things to get on with. As for 'love'.... he wasn't in love with Lea, though she was very pretty. No, he thought... but he was enjoying the possibility, however remote, that something might happen between them. It had been a while since he'd felt that about anyone and welcomed that feeling. She's just out of some 'boy trouble', he reminded himself, whatever that means. Hannah had ambushed her with a blind date she didn't want and wasn't ready for, and Lea had had little option but to be nice to him after the escapade up by the falls.

Chicks dig free medical advice, dude. Tom smiled as he remembered Marco's drawled, ironic words, delivered to him with a couple of pats on his shoulder as he'd stood alone watching the girl he'd been talking to earlier in the evening kissing the face off an engineering major on the other side of the room. He missed Marco, and resolved to drop him a message later that day. At Medical School they'd had absolutely nothing in common... more than that, they'd both been brought up to believe that people like him summed up everything that was wrong with America. But Tom couldn't help but be drawn to Marco's sly wit, and Marco found himself admiring Tom's wisdom and fundamental decency.... even if he did found his naivety hilarious.

Tom decided to just enjoy this for what it was... the frisson of a possibility, and the slight tingle of the kind of early stage crush that he ought to have grown out of by now. Nothing wrong with that. And so what if he did check his phone more often that day? And so what if he did reply to her messages, and the pictures of a much-less-swollen ankle straight away? But nothing much more came of it, and he struggled to think of a pretext to send her any more messages. He couldn't keep enquiring about her ankle... it was a classic sprain, not a rare tropical disease.

During the following week he asked Hannah about Lea once or twice, but they didn't see much of each other during the following few days. One of the other Medical Centre doctors was married to one of the nurses, and they'd taken some time off to travel to their youngest daughter's wedding. Although they were able to get a little extra temporary staffing, it left them short staffed at a busy time of year, especially as another of the nurses wasn't yet well enough to return from sick leave as expected. Although he didn't set out to avoid Hannah, he also thought that she didn't seek him out - no sly comments or insinuations, or worse, the faux naive questions. Perhaps Lea had told her to back off, perhaps she'd got the message, perhaps she was bored with meddling, or perhaps she was just too busy.

So it came as something of a surprise when Lea sent him a message saying she'd got something for him to say thank you. He sent her a message to say aww... you shouldn't have... and his home address, though he was sure she could get it from Hannah. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, so he tidied up a little and made sure he was wearing smart chinos and a nice shirt, rather than the old running gear he often wore around the house.

 

[Shiva the Cat]

The two weeks following Lea's injury had gone much better than she ever could have expected. Mr. Linford was not only understanding and insisted she take the first couple days off to recover, but once she was able to maneuver around surprisingly well on the crutches, he asked if she had any interest in working in the family flower shop on Main Street.

"The pay would be the same, and I'd need you to work a little later in the evenings, but no more getting up at the crack of dawn to spread fertilizer," he'd chuckled. And what was more, if Lea did well in the store, he would even consider keeping her on there permanently. His daughters, who usually manned the store under the watchful eye of the imposing Mrs. Linford, would be returning to college in the fall, which meant the 60-year-old matriarch would be left to handle things on her own. Unless, of course, her husband could persuade her to take on an assistant.

Lea had met Mrs. Linford on a few occasions, and while the thin, silver-haired florist with the grim mouth might have intimidated a lesser woman, she was still nothing compared to some of the guards the convict had known. The injured woman accepted the offer immediately, with the understanding that she wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the money, but would instead be kept in the back room of the shop, learning the fine art of floral design.

It was an interesting gig. Lea had never had much talent for actually creating art, although she was well versed in color theory and could immediately conjure to mind the floral still-lifes of Renoir and Manet, and yes, even fucking de Heem. She might not have known the actual name of all the flowers she was using to recreate those paint-and-canvas masterpieces, but Mrs. Linford was quick to drill them into her mind, while her daughters were kind enough to show their replacement the best way to cut and arrange the freshest blooms.

After she'd started to get the hang of things, Lea considered gifting an arrangement to Tom as a small thank-you for rescuing her from the mountainside, but somehow the idea of gifting a man flowers after he'd given up a medical bill seemed laughably small. After all they'd be dead in a week, no matter how pretty they might look sitting in the glass-paned cooler in Linford's Flower Shop.

Maybe she could buy him something? Ah, no. She'd had to use a considerable amount of her savings to buy some clothes suitable for working in a shop rather than a field, and the rest had to go towards her deposit on an apartment, if she could ever save up enough.

She was about to give up hope one afternoon when she was sitting on Hannah's back porch, watching the apple trees beginning to drop their first fruits, when suddenly an idea occurred to her. The next morning Lea immediately called Mr. Linford, asking if Fred was still out at the nursery. Linford had laughed and said "Of course," then asked if Lea wanted to come collect him, per their agreement earlier in the summer.

Fred wasn't a person, but a homely little sapling of a Braeburn apple tree that had been sitting in a pot near the back of the nursery with all the other irregular plants for months. Despite his tags proclaiming first twenty-five, then fifty percent off, not a single person had been interested in his drooping boughs or dull leaves. No one except Lea, that is. She'd taken quite the shine to the poor little tree, affectionately naming him after Fred Astaire and giving him particular attention in pruning and watering. And the efforts had paid off, improving the tree's sturdy limbs and helping him grow into a slightly larger pot, but even so poor Fred had been left behind throughout the summer planting season. But Mr. Linford had promised that if no one else purchased him before the season had closed, Lea could have him for free, and since the nursery would be shut up in a couple more weeks, he saw no reason she couldn't take him now.

At least Tom will get some use out of him down the line Lea though affectionately as she carefully lifted the pot into the bed of her truck, laying the tree down between some bags of potting mix she'd borrowed from Jake to help transplant Fred into his new home. Assuming Tom would even want him.

As Lea drove towards the doctor's house (announced, of course, though Hannah had suggested she simply stop by and surprise him), she could feel her heart picking up speed with every mile. It was like the fear she felt any time she saw a cop, and would flash back to feeling the handcuffs clapping on her in the middle of the airport, with dozens of shocked and scandalized eyes staring at her. Would Tom hate the gift? A tree was kind of a weird thing to give someone, but who didn't like apples? And even though Fred wouldn't be ready for fruit for a year or two yet, there would still be sweet blossoms in the spring, and Braeburns were damn near impossible to kill.

Swallowing hard, Lea began to blast her music in an attempt to drown out the second thoughts swirling through her mind. It only half-worked, but at least later she would be able to feel embarrassed about announcing her presence to the entire neighborhood rather than worry about what Tom might think of being gifted an apple tree. By the time she pulled into his driveway, she was feeling as anxious as she had prior to a big gymnastics meet, or one of her father's jobs. The worst he can do is say 'no thank you,' she reminded herself as she stepped out of the car, dressed as usual in functional clothes, albeit nicer ones that he'd seen her in before. Her new, albeit thrifted, denim shorts nicely displayed her legs, and she'd knotted up the dark blue linen button-down to reveal just a hint of her flat stomach. As long as she rolled up her sleeves she'd be ready for some planting, with her hair already tied up in a pineapple on the top of her head.

Hands shaking a little, she approached Tom's front door and rang the bell. She did manage a smile when he finally answered, but the first words came out of her mouth entirely unbidden.

"Hi! So quick question...do you like apples?"