Butterflies

Home

"Goodbye everyone!" Shawn called as all of the kids came rushing over. 

"Aww! Why do you have to leave?" Caleb groaned. Shawn chuckled and pulled him into a hug.

"Because, Buddy, we have to get back to work." he said sympathetically. "But don't worry, we will see each other again soon."

"How soon?" Caleb questioned. "Like tomorrow?"

"No, not tomorrow. We will see each other at Christmas which isn't too far away and you know you can call me anytime." Shawn smiled.

"Fine" he shrugged and backed away so the other kids could come in for hugs too. Within minutes, we had said our goodbyes and finished packing the car. 

"We will see you both soon." Shawn's dad called as we hopped in the car. 

"Drive safe!" his mom chimed in and we both waved as they became smaller and smaller in the distance. Soon enough, we were on the highway headed back home. We spent the first half of the trip discussing our families and how we wanted everyone to meet.

"My mom would absolutely love all of the kids." I smiled. "She always wanted to have a big family."

"Well, I think that can be arranged" Shawn nodded. "We should have your mom visit soon."

"I'll text her" I replied. As I pulled my phone out of my bag, it began to vibrate and I saw Abby's face pop up on my screen. I immediately accepted her call. 

"Hey girl!" I exclaimed. 

"Rachel! How had the trip been?" she practically yelled into the phone.

"Amazing!! I have so much to tell you! Shawn and I are actually in the car coming back now." I replied.

"Oh great! Tell Shawn I say hi" She said. I pulled the phone away from my ear and turned towards him.

"Abby says hi" I chuckled. His eyebrows perked up and he leaned over to my phone.

"Hey Abby" he chuckled before leaning back to focus on the road. 

"Anyways, whats up?" I asked her. 

"I may or may not have gotten two exclusive free passes to that new spa they built downtown!" she squealed. My jaw dropped, not expecting to hear those words come out of her mouth.

"Shut up!" I yelled. Shawn looked at me with a curious face, probably confused as to why I was screaming.

"I know! They gave them to me at work. It includes free massages, manicures, facials, and some other stuff I don't even know how to pronounce." she laughed. 

"Girl, thats amazing!" I responded. 

"Yea, so I was thinking girls night tomorrow night?" she said which made me smile. I looked back towards Shawn who was focused on the various cars around us.

"Babe, do you mind if Abby and I have a girls night at our place tomorrow night?" I asked sweetly. He smiled and nodded his head, knowing that I'd love some girl time. 

"It's a yes!" I chimed.

"Yay! I have to get back to work now but I'll call you when I get home. We can plan everything." she said. We both said goodbye and quickly ended the call.  

"Whats all this excitement about?" Shawn chuckled. I filled him in on everything Abby had told me and our plans for the following day. "Oh nice. You two are going to love that." he replied once I was finished. 

"It's been so long since I've had a girls night. I can't wait." I smiled. 

"Well, you definitely deserve it." he chimed. He grabbed my hand as I blushed. His eyes focused back on the road as we merged off of the interstate, getting onto the exit that took us home. I turned up the radio and began to sing, feeling happy at that very moment. I was so distracted that I hadn't noticed Shawn missed our street until we were far past it. 

"Babe, shouldn't we be taking a left here?" I asked, noticing he was in the lane to turn right. 

"We aren't going home just yet." he said. He continued to drive until I saw my office building in the distance. I wasn't going to say anything because maybe we were just taking a different route but he pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Dr. Finn's car. 

"Shawn, why are we here?" I questioned. He turned the car off and turned towards me with a concerned expression on his face. 

"Rach, you know why we are here." he said.

"If this is about my jaw then I'm fine. I told you it doesn't hurt anymore." I said, caught off guard. 

"Something about that makes me not believe you." he said. "You've been holding your cheek all afternoon."

"I have?" I said, thinking back to the beginning of our car ride. Oh fuck, I guess I had been doing that and hadn't noticed. He's right. "Well it doesn't hurt now so lets just go home." I begged. He shook his head and slipped out of the car, coming around to my side and opening the door. 

"I made an appointment for you to get it checked out. Please, just do it for me." he said with an innocent smile. 

"Fine" I replied but I wasn't exactly happy. I hopped out of the car and he threw his arm over me, pulling me into his side. 

"Thats my girl" he smiled. We made it through the doors to the office and Shawn signed me in. It felt weird being a patient and not just going back to set up my exam room. Dr. Finn quickly came out and called my name.

"Hey Rachel, it's just going to be me today since I had a free moment. Plus, this shouldn't take long. You two can follow me" he smiled. I grabbed Shawn's hand and followed Dr. Finn back to an exam room. Dr. Finn closed the door behind us and quickly plopped down on a stool next to me. "So, what seems to be the problem?" he asked. I wasn't in the mood to explain everything so I just looked over to Shawn.

"Her jaw has been hurting her for a few days now. Every time she touches it she winces and she hasn't been eating much either. It's on both sides and she's convinced that it will go away on its own. I had to practically drag her here today because I think its more than that." he said. Dr. Finn nodded and turned towards his monitor to review my file. I gave Shawn an evil eye for throwing me under the bus like that. 

"Well, let me have a quick look and I'll try to find whats causing the pain." Dr. Finn said. I felt the dental chair start to lower until it became parallel to the floor. Shawn took a seat in a chair next to me and Dr. Finn rolled up right behind my head. He directed the light right onto my mouth and grabbed some tools from the tray. "Open for me, Rach."