Staying Grounded [BXB]

Eyes Forward

CRAIG:

I've waited outside the vets for a full twenty minutes — and started to worry — when Sebastian finally appears, carrying Dobby out in much the same way I'd cradle my sleeping brother.

Jumping out of Roxy, I hurry around her to open the curbside back door. "How's the patient?"

"As well as can be expected," he says, his voice sounding a little strained. Smiling his appreciation as I step out of the way, he leans into the car and settles Dobby on the blanket laid out across the rear seat. "He'll still be feeling the drugs for a little while yet."

It wasn't until Sebastian called me this morning that I realised just how anxious I'd been to hear from him. And when my taxi service was requested for the trip from vets to farm, Alex has since told me that my grin looked ridiculous. But now that I'm here, and he's here, and this is happening, I can't deny feeling more than a little on edge.

I also can't deny the slight twinge of disappointment in my chest when, instead of moving to the passenger door, he slides in the back beside his dog. "Homeward, Driver," he says with a smirk.

Poor Dobby has a plastic cone around his head — protecting the dressing on his left hind leg — and he looks so totally out of whack, but he still makes an effort to thump his tail at the sound of Sebastian's voice.

I shut them in and circle back around to the driver's side, slipping into my still-warm seat behind the wheel. "Y'Sir."

There's instantly a weird tension in the car that I don't know what to make of. Or maybe I'm simply imagining something that isn't even there. It's only been two days since we were last here, bringing Dobby in, but the undefined shift between us in that time has me questioning... well, everything.

His eyes catch mine in the rearview mirror as I start the engine and move Roxy out from the curb. "And how are you, Craig?"

"I'm tip-top, Sebastian. So gracious of you to ask."

"You're most welcome."

My attention holds on him for a brief moment longer before shifting to the road. I've no clue what he's thinking. He could very well still blame me, but, "I'm just glad it's all worked out okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You've no regrets, then?"

I frown. "Aside from wishing I could've done something more..." Or better yet, prevented any of it happening in the first place.

"Seriously, Craig, turning your whole life upside down seems like plenty enough to me."

When I glance at the mirror again, he hasn't stopped watching me, and it dawns that we're perhaps not reading from the same page at all. "Oh."

"You didn't show up for work yesterday, and you also didn't call to let me know. So, I wasn't sure—"

"I wasn't sure if you'd want me to."

An alarmed yip from Dobby as I break at the traffic lights has me cursing myself. I need to drive with more caution. The slight jolt doesn't appear to have pained him, though.

It's a little after three pm, and to my left, Yoverton Community School is letting out for the day. Groups of kids in uniform cross by in front of me, chatting and laughing and revelling in their freedom. They look so young; it feels like a whole other lifetime ago that I was one of them, making plans with Alex for a kick-about in the park.

Sebastian leans forward, taking hold of my seat. "I don't like how we left things. I should have thanked you, and I didn't. But everything you did — and everything you were willing to do —" his fingertips skim my shoulder, "truthfully, it meant more to me than you could know."