GOING HOME

By late afternoon when the doctor came around to check on Robert's progress again, he was told he could be discharged. "But I want you to rest up the next several days, ok. Let your wife here take care of you."

Robert's lips twitched as he listened to the doctor, but he merely nodded and glanced over to where Julie sat in the recliner.

She was still slightly mortified that he knew what she'd done, but his look bore only humor in it. He was looking himself again now that the cannula had been removed. She hadn't liked that on his face. He was so vital a man that having that in place disturbed her.

When the doctor had gone, she asked quietly, "Will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Let me take care of you."

He sat up straight in the bed. "Do you think I really need all that much taking care of?"

"The doctor said...."

"He did, true, but then he thought...."

"I know what he thought, but, still, you shouldn't be on your own. Not quite yet."

"You would worry about me?"

"I would." In fact, her brain had been most uncooperative the last hour, writing scenarios of him collapsing, unable to breathe, and all alone in his house. The sight of him doing just that in her front yard would not go away. Most of her life, her adventures, her drama, had been all in her head, which she then put down on paper. But Robert, well, he brought it all right there, right into reality, and though she loved it, she was still getting used to the fact of it.

"My house or yours?"

"What?" She'd been distracted a moment by her thoughts.

"You wish to do this taking care of me at my house or yours?"

"I...I get a...choice?"

"Would you like one?" His lips were twitching again.

Her mind raced, running scenarios of her in his home, him in hers. "Does it matter to you? You have a preference?"

"I am quite open at the moment."

"Well, I do have a guest room...and...and I know where everything is in my house...so I...so I could, um, probably take care of you more easily, um, there. If...if you're sure that would be all right?" 

"I would need to pick up some clothes, a few other things, but it sounds manageable." 

Just then the phone beside Robert's bed rang. It was Maximus, wanting to get his phone number so he could contact him in the Glen. Robert started to give him his home phone, then realized he wouldn't be there to answer it. "Just a moment," he said, putting his hand over the receiver, "what is the number at Rose Cottage?"  She gave it to him and he passed it on to the General.

"Now we've done it," she sighed.

"He knows."

"You're sure?"

"Quite sure."

"Is...is that all right? That he knows I'm not your...your...wife?"

"It would be inevitable, given time, would it not?"

"I suppose so. It's just I feel so awkward about it." Then she remembered what had happened in the ER waiting room. "His wife, she knew my name. I met her while you were still in the ER and she recognized me, said she'd read my books."

"It would seem our cover has been blown, if only with the Meridiuses."

"Will...will they...talk about it?"

"The General seems a most discreet man."

He began to push back his sheet. "I think I am supposed to be getting dressed."

"Oh! Um, yes, well, I'll just...just...go get a cup of tea...or something."

"Not terribly wifely," he smiled, swinging his bare legs over the side of the bed.

She got quickly out of the chair, trying not to stare, and hurriedly pulled his clothes from the closet. "Ooo," she sniffed, "They smell like smoke!"

"They seem to be all that is available, however."

She brought them to his bed, laying them beside him. "I'll wash them when we get home."

"Home," he repeated, looking up at her through his lashes.

She blushed furiously. "I'll...I'll be back shortly."  Then she was out the door. Halfway down the hall she leaned against the wall. "What are you DOING, Julianna?"  But she knew quite well. She was living one of her stories.