"Regan, have you been to the hospital?" Sam said softly as he remembered Gray's face. Seeing Regan's face he remembered Gray's injuries. His face was a mess when they found him unconscious and his cheek was fractured. "Your cheek is very swollen."
Regan nodded. "Yes. I did. Sam, I am ok." This is exactly what she had tried to avoid. She could see Sam's concern, his anxiety, his distress. Regan said, "Xrays showed it was fine. Honestly, Sam, I am fine. No damage."
Loretta said with uneasy, "The side of your face..." only for Regan to interrupt her statement.
"Don't worry about the bruising, Loretta." Regan looked at Loretta and then at Sam. "It will be gone within a fortnight. It will disappear in due course."
"Yes, but it looks ...."
"It is just a shiner, Loretta." Regan interrupted again. "We checked at the hospital. The bones around my eyes are intact. My left eye's muscles were just fine. Just bruising. A normal shiner!"
Obviously Regan's statements were not easing their concern as Sam continued with the same concern, "But the side of your face is really bruised. The swelling beneath your eye...."
"I know." Regan interrupted seeing Sam's concern in his eyes. Clearly her first idea, to hid away until she could use makeup to mask the bruise, was the best. Now, she was having to deal with their worries and their palpable anxiety, when all she wanted was to eat and go to bed.
"The side of your face looks painful." Sam sighed as he recognised that his anxiety was taking over when he knew he should his focus on Regan's wants, not his.
"I know. Not sure how, but I guess, because I turned my head, his fist caught my cheek and jaw. It could be worse!" She put the ice down and reached for her chopsticks. Hopeful if they saw her eating, they might believe she was ok.
"How?" Gray grunted and again reached for the ice package. He picked it up.
"His fist could have connected with my nose!" Regan said with a rueful smile. Her eye tracked Gray as he got to his feet. Now what, she wondered when he came and sat beside her. Not exactly sitting beside her, more like he had enveloped her. One leg was stretched out behind her chair and his other leg was parallel to the side of her chair.
"What are you doing?" Regan reared back when he reached forward towards her.
He held up the wrapped ice, "I am going to hold this to your cheek because you seem keen to avoid applying it to your face!" He kept moving forward, while she continued to inch backwards while she remained on the chair.
"I am not avoided the ice-compression." Regan glared. Which was a feat, given she only had one eye to convey that defiance.
He snorted. "Any excuse and you put it down." He inched his chair closer.
"I can't eat and hold that to my cheek." Regan grumbled, when he hemmed her chair between the table, his chair and his feet.
"Fine." Gray narrowed his eyes. "You eat. And I will hold the ice to your cheek." He braced his forearm around the back of her chair and used his other hand to hold the wrapped ice to her cheek.
Loretta and Sam shared a look. Sam gestured using his head nodding towards the door.
Loretta shrugged and her eyes asked Sam a question. Sam nodded firmly and used his head to gesture again at the door.
"What? Are you kidding?" Regan protested, as she watched Gray's actions. "I can hold the ice to my cheek without your help, thank you very much!"
"Stop grumbling! Just eat!" Gray muttered and kept his hand, holding the ice package, on her face. She attempted to move away. "Regan! You are being stubborn! Just eat!" He groused. If she leaned any further she would fall off her chair. "You are about hurt yourself!"
"No. I'm not." Regan growled at him. "I told you, I can hold the ice to my cheek without your help, thank you very much!"
Sam said, when Loretta remained on her seat. "Lore do you have that cold-compression?"
"What cold-compression?" Loretta's forehead beetled with a frown. Is that what Gray is holding? Ice wrapped in a tea towel? Loretta wondered silently.
"The one we used with Gray." Sam moved his head again and nodded towards the door.
"Oh, yes, vaguely." Loretta mumbled. "I remember we put something into the freezer, can't remember what exactly, but we used it on him, back then!"
"Yes, exactly. Some artificial thing. We used it with his bruises." Sam got to his feet.
Loretta frowned again, "That was ages ago, granddad. And we probably didn't bring it...."
"Yes, we did, Loretta!" Sam said firmly and rolled his eyes when he realised that Loretta did not understand his plan. Obviously he was going to be blunt. "Loretta, please can you check your stuff. And I will check my stuff. It might be in my stuff or yours. So check! Tonight would be best!"
"Oh"
"Come one. We should check." Sam said with emphasis in his eyes.
"Oh, right, ok." Loretta got to her feet. " But, honestly, granddad, I don't think we have it."
Sam said firmly, "Maybe, but we can check, can't we, Lore!" Sam looked directly at Gray. "We can leave Gray to hold the ice to Regan's cheek and while Regan eats we can check our stuff for that artificial thing!" Gray rolled his eyes. Loretta continued to frown, so Sam added, "And if we can't find it, Lore you can get a towel, run it under a tap. And I will find a sealable bag."
"Why?" Loretta questioned.
"We fold the damp towel, put it in the sealable plastic bag and we leave it in the freezer."
"ok."
"Regan can retrieve it from the freezer when she needs a cold compression. Obviously if we find that artificial thing, it would save us this hassle." Sam said as he ushered Loretta out of the kitchen.
Regan watched Sam and Loretta's exits.
Gray rolled his eyes and murmured, "My family being subtle."
"Subtle about?" She looked over at Gray only to find that he had moved closer.
"Nothing." He said more loudly and pointing at the bruises on her face. "Are you taking anything for this?"
"No. It is just a bruise." She mumbled.
"Not sure you will sleep easily with that bruise throbbing. I assume it is throbbing right now."
"Yes, as bit." She admitted.
"You need alcohol!" Gray announced as if he was offering a drink at a social event. "Here!" He reached for her hand and put the icepack into her palm. "Hold this to your cheek for a minute. I will be back!" He said and got to his feet.
"What?"
"Just getting alcohol for that bruise."
"Alcohol? Is that what you did with your bruises?" Not the normal practice.
Gray chuckled. "I wish! I could not get to my feet and they would not bring any alcohol to me!" He smiled, and Regan was surprised by the power of that smile.
Regan reminded him. "Of course they would not give you alcohol. You would be on power analgesics."
"Yes. But they could have offered! Or check if it was possible with the stuff I was taking." He smiled again as he remembered the times when he really wanted a beer, or whisky! "We need research on the merits of adding alcohol to western medical treatment for your welfare, actually mental health, during your convalesces! They could, perhaps consider it alternative therapy or complementary therapy!"
"You would end up a drunk!" Regan said decisively. "Or you would become an addict to analgesics and alcohol! And for your information, there are heaps of articles on that!"
Gray grinned. "Well, good job you are not taking analgesics! So no chance of you ending up an addict." His grin grew. "So, brandy or whiskey" He asked.
"Neither." She said firmly and tried to ignore the wattage of his smile. "I am going to eat, shower and go directly to my bed. I can assure you that I will sleep without alcohol in my system." Probably have a dream about you, and that miss-kiss, she thought in her mind.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Regan snorted.
"What about hot milk?" He folded his arms and kept his smile.
"Yes, please. A better idea!"
He chuckled. He headed for the fridge. With his back to her, he said, "Look, I know you went to your place on that hill because you didn't want to upset us. But for the record," he looked over his shoulder, and said firmly, "don't use our previous experience to influence your welfare and safety." Their eyes met.
Disengaged, she lowered her head.
Gray rubbed his forehead as he closed the fridge door with the milk carton in his other hand, "Sorry. That sounded discourteous. Sorry. But I do appreciate your thoughts today, because you wanted to protect us, but going to your place when it is practically going to be dark by the time you get to it and with one eye practically shut, that is bloody stupid!"
Regan rolled one eye and put the ice package on the table.
"Put that back on!" Gray said firmly. He left the carton on the counter and headed for the pantry. He lowered his tone, "Look, I get it. You thought about us. Thank you. But thinking about us, should not leave you in a difficult, perilous, spot. Do you get that?"
"Look, this is my place. I eat there often!"
"Fine, but not because of us!" He gestured at the ice pack and quirked an eyebrow, because she had not returned the ice to her face.
"Fine." She retorted and reached for the ice pack.
While he retrieved the cocoa from the pantry and resumed preparing the milk, she finished eating the noodles. He started to warm the milk by putting it in the microwave. She ate. In silence. Notwithstanding the microwave's hum, bell and stirring in the cocoa into the milk.
She got to her feet.
"What are you doing?" He glanced over his shoulder, thinking she was leaving the kitchen
"I have finished." She put the ice package on the table and reached for her takeaway container. She flicked the pedal to her bin and scrapped the food into the bin. Was pleased to hear the snap of the lid when it shut because it echoed her feelings. She walked past him and towards the sink. She opened the tap and rinsed the container, before she added it to the recycle box. "You do remember this is my house, I don't need your permission to do anything!"
He put the cocoa tin back in the pantry and he snorted! Albeit laced with a chuckle he said, "Yes, we have already rehearsed this situation, in a different guise. I think," He glanced back, "around this time yesterday, you told me, we don't need your permission to do anything! I assume the same applies to all in this house!"
She remained standing.
"Are you going to sit?" Gray nodded at her seat.
"Isn't my hot chocolate ready?" Sulking, she folded her arms in front of her.
"Yes."
She shrugged. "Great. I will drink it at bed."
"Have you always been this ....?"
"This what?" She snapped.
Gray said softly, recognised that Regan had reached the end of her tether, "I am having a hot chocolate too, thought you could stay."
"Why?"
He said with a gentle chuckle. "Who knows!" He smiled, "In any case, Granddad and Lore are looking for a cold-compression for you."
"Oh, yes, I forgot that." She resumed her seat and Gray put the mug in front of her. He took the seat across for her and put his mug on the table.