✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

127. Intermission

After a couple of days, the doctors said that Spike was healing pretty well, and he could go home if he wanted to. He'd need an adult to take responsibility for managing his access to the painkillers; because once they gave him pills, they needed to ensure that he wouldn't take too many. That was a cause for a cynical laugh; it was hard to imagine any of the adults in his family being responsible if they had access to any kind of medication. Tess sent a message, and before too long Ffrances came to sign the forms. Spike was disconnected from the last of the tubes; the nurses on the ward could give him pills if he was struggling with pain, and Ffrances had a pack with his name on for once he was out of the hospital. Whether that was in her office, or actually finding somewhere to live.

Tess wasn't looking forward to that conversation; but she knew it was her responsibility. She'd told Ffrances that she would take care of it.

"Okay," Tess said again, and looked down at her hands. Ffrances was there with them in Spike's room, holding all the papers that needed to be signed. "There's no benefit to staying in here. I'm going to talk to Gabby, see if you can stay with us. If not... we'll come up with another plan."

"You think she'd let me stay?" Spike asked, seeming surprise. Tess was confused for a second, until she realised that she hadn't told him before what she had in mind. She hadn't wanted him to worry about it. "I mean, she's trying to get over her prejudices, but I think she still doesn't like me that much. She didn't want me to come over while she was actually there."

"I think she'll object," Tess said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "But I think she'll accept it. Eventually."

"You can stay at my place tonight," Ffrances offered. "I think Gabby will do what Tess tells her, but it might take some time to persuade her. She said she's got something for me tomorrow, she's set up some kind of romantic lunch thing. So unless there's anything unexpected, you two can handle moving in during the day tomorrow. While we're both out of the way. Does that work for you two?"

Tess nodded. She was pretty sure she knew what Gabby was planning. They'd talked about it briefly the last time Tess had actually been at home; although she was surprised to hear that it was available already. She was less confident that Gabby would agree to her plan, but she knew that Gabby was trying really hard now to convince Ffrances that she had turned over a new leaf after some disagreement; so there was a better chance than there would otherwise have been.

"That's good," she said. "I guess you haven't got much stuff, have you? Will you be okay picking up your possessions from home? I mean..."

"Shawna and Nik won't be there," Ffrances filled in. "Technically I shouldn't tell you this, patient confidentiality and all. But they picked her up from the house, said they wanted to test her and make sure she's following the programme. And they might have mentioned that there was a chance of something going down in the next few days that she'd be better off staying out of. She agreed to sign herself and Nik into the Family Crisis Center for two weeks. Hopefully that will be time enough for the police to get themselves sorted out."

"They said if I'm not comfortable going back to that house, I could have a police officer go with me when I go to pick stuff up," Spike mumbled. "Probably a good idea, but that would mean Duke knows for sure that it was me who... You know."

"How about Adam?" Tess suggested. "I haven't spoken to him much, but I understand his duties here include like medical orderly type work. There's situations where a nurse or orderly can go with someone to make sure they're settled in okay, isn't there? Like when somebody's injured and needs help rearranging stuff at home to not present a hazard while they're on crutches."

"Not a good example," Ffrances said with a smile, "but I think that works. Actually, Adam normally works in the psychiatric unit. But we can send him home with a patient to make sure that the home is somewhere conducive to healing. Can even get him to drive a patient home, if there's reason to believe they might not cope with their home environment. Doesn't have to be one of our patients."

"Would it be disruptive if we asked to do that this afternoon?" Tess asked. "I think you said Duke does that quad-racing thing thursday afternoons."

"Hanging out at the track, selling contraband, and ripping off anybody who's dumb enough to believe he's a bookie," Spike concurred. "He'll probably be out most of the afternoon."

"Right. Then Adam can go to Raybridge with you and get any stuff you've got there. A few boxes go to Ffrances's house if there's stuff you want to have with you. The rest... take it to that big parcel place in Raybridge, right? Behind the old post office. You can drop boxes off there for next day delivery. Then you're at Ffrances's house. In the morning... Ffrances, will you be going to Gabby's before your date? You've not got space for luggage in your car anyway, so it doesn't make that much difference if Spike has to get the bus over. Then when you and Gabby are enjoying your lunch date – I'm kind of jealous, you know? – While you're out, I'll finish shifting my stuff back from the spare room to the nursery, Spike arrives, we get you set up in the spare room, then at some point during the afternoon a bunch of parcels arrive. I can help you unpack, we get your room properly set up before Ffrances and Gabby get home."

"Nice plan," Ffrances said. "I like the way you present it to Gabby. It's probably better if she agrees in advance. But if she comes home to find that Spike is already living there, and we tell her she has to live with it, I can't imagine her objecting."

"I'm going to talk to her first," Tess said. "I'm going to go see her now, tell her in person. Then I'll give you a call to let you know the plan is on."

There was no objection to that. All the wheels were in motion now; Spike was going to be moving in tomorrow. The only thing Tess couldn't predict was how many compromises she would have to agree with in order to get Gabby's permission. And as she boarded the train to Upper Ashfields, she was practically shaking. But somehow, her feelings right now were somewhere between nervousness and excitement. This was a challenge she could face; something she could do to make life better.

And that was exactly what Tess needed to make her feel alive. She was confident she would learn that her cousin wasn't a total monster.

Author's Note: This book and My Cousin's Keeper are now, between them, longer that The Lord of the Rings. I have no idea how this happened; I never expected it to be so long. But I hope you're still enjoying them!