Chapter Twenty Two

Elise couldn’t explain it, but she felt weird.

Weird on a number of levels, actually.

The rest of the evening before had been uneventful – Elise had happily reunited with Betsy, had put together a simple dinner for the three of them, and then had retired early to her room, claiming exhaustion from her drive, which wasn’t entirely untrue.

But it was also that she felt she was suffocating from the nerves of being in such close proximity to Tucker.

Was he really going to kiss her on the beach, or had she read that siutation entirely wrong?

Maybe she should have waited, waited to see what he was going to do, but as was the case her entire life, Elise chose retreat instead of risking being hurt.

She’s run away like a coward.

But now she couldn’t stop wondering if he really was going to kiss her, or was just, you know, being a friend.

A friendly friend.

God, she felt like an idiot.

And something else, Elise thought, putting a hand on the stair bannister to steady herself as she descended the stairs. She felt almost… dizzy. Or lightheaded, or something.

Shaking it off, she joined Betsy in her little girl pink bedroom, and the two of them got to work on multiplication tables, Elise occasionally stopping to refill her coffee cup with additional caffeine, thinking perhaps she was just overly tired and it was making her nerve endings jangle and go dizzy.

After working diligently for several hours, Elise granted Betsy a “play break”, and the little girl happily gathered up a rash of supplies, proclaiming that she was going to go “bug hunting” outside in the yard. She was determined to catch a butterfly, and Elise hoped she would.

Elise smiled at Betsy’s enthusiasm and squeaks of delight outside as she tidied the table where they had been working, stacking papers and tucking pencils back into Betsy’s zippered case.

As she walked towards the kitchen, though, she stumbled, and then abruptly sat down on the nearest sofa arm, suddenly afraid she was going to collapse.

Her vision… her vision was… sparkling, flashes of stars in front of her eyes, and a tinge of blackness sauntered around the edges.

It didn’t hurt, but it was scaring the hell out of her.

“Betsy?” Elise called tentatively, but got no reply. “Bets? Come here, please!” she said, her voice more urgent now.

She wobbled, and then sat herself down on the sofa fully, using her fingers to try and probe her temples, trying to see if she could rub the stars away.

“Betsy?!” Elise tried again, but received no reply, assuming the girl was too far out of earshot.

She heard a door open and heavy footsteps, even as her vision continued to tunnel, to go darker and darker, until she only had a narrow scope of vision in both eyes.

“Elise?” Tucker asked, his voice full of concern, emerging from his office at the sound of her calls.

She looked up at him, her eyes panicked and her skin a ghostly white and he lunged for her, putting his hands on her shoulders as she swayed unsteadily. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”

Elise shook her head, scared. “It’s only happened once before… I think, I think I’m having an aura.”

“What is that? Some sort of religious conversion?” Tucker asked, confused. “An aura?”

“It’s a precursor to a migraine – a bad one. I’ve had migraines, but I’ve only had a couple of auras, and this one… Tucker, I can’t see.”

He didn’t even register that she’d said his name in fear and confusion, just that she was scared.

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “It’s okay. Let’s get you into bed and get some pills into you. Do you have a prescription? Is there something I can get you? What do we do?”

Elise nodded. “In my purse, upstairs, I have medicine. But, I can’t… I can’t see, Tucker,” she said, a tear sliding down her cheek. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

“Nothing to see but a scruffy old man and a perfectly kept house. C’mon, let’s get you to bed,” he said, is voice full of command, hiding the fear he himself felt. He helped her stand, then with a hand on her back and a hand on her arm, gently guided her up the stairs as though she were truly blind, and into her bedroom.

She stumbled towards the bed, laying down on her right side, pillowing her head against the down cushion. “Oooh….” She moaned pitifully. “It’s starting now. It’s starting to hurt. Oh my god…”

Tucker watched, helpless as Elise cried, her eyes squeezing shut in agony. He wasn’t sure what to do – he didn’t have much experience with migraines, and certainly not one as frightening as this.

Darkness, he remembered. Darkness and quiet was good – he hustled to the window and closed the drapes hastily. Then he turned to the bed and without thought, tugged Elise’s shoes and socks off and threw them to the side, then unsnapped and unzipped her jeans, pulling them down her strong legs and tossing them into the corner, even as he pulled the quilt up over her hips, not registering any sort of pleasure, more a concentration on making her as comfortable as possible.

“Where are your pills, sweetheart?” he asked gently. “What should I look for?”

“In a zippered pocket inside my purse, it should be called some sort of triptan, I think…” Elise whispered. “And, can I have a Mountain Dew or something with a lot of caffeine? That sometimes helps…”

Tucker nodded, racing downstairs to the fridge filled with various sodas, grabbing the bright green bottle and running back upstairs. He found the pills where she had said in her purse, and helped her sit up and down the pill and a healthy swallow of the sugary drink. “What else can I do?” He asked, feeling helpless, his eyes locked on Elise’s pale, pale face, the pain of the headache clearly etched on her features.

“Will you stay with me?” she asked softly. “Just for a few minutes. I’m… I’m scared. I’ve never had my vision completely disappear with a migraine before. It’s…”

Tucker didn’t hesitate, but instead, toed off his own boots and then slid under the covers beside her. She slid nearer him, pillowing her aching head on his chest, her fingers nervously plucking at the buttons of his flannel shirt. He carefully slid his arms around her, gently pulling her close, and then dropped a kiss onto the part of her hair beneath his chin, as though he could somehow will the pain away from that spot.

She sighed once at his touch, gave one more small moan of pain, and then minutes later, she was asleep, her breathing deep and rhythmic, and seemingly as peace, much to Tucker’s relief.

Tucker remained still, terrified of jostling her or waking her until, seemingly of their own volition, his eyes closed and he slept, waking only once when he felt an additional weight on the bed and noted dimly that Betsy had climbed in the other side of the bed and snuggled herself against Elise’s other side.

Just like a real family, he thought sleepily, falling back into slumber without a second thought.

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