Somebody That I Used To Know

It's Okay

"It's okay," a soft voice says. "It'll be over soon."

A tear drops onto the blanket, then followed by one more.

"I told you, it'll be okay. There's no reason to cry."

The heavy, pained sound of breathing gets louder.

"Daddy?" Lily whispers, sitting on his back.

Tom quickly gasps and sits up, tossing Lily onto the other side of the bed. "Ow," she groans.

"Lillian-" Tom exclaims and picks her up. "Oh, darling, I'm so sorry. I am so unbelievably sorry. You scared me though dear."

"It's okay. Did you have a bad dream?"

"I did." he sighs. "I had a really scary dream but you know what? I'm all better now. I have you here, my little love, and I'm so much better."

"Good. Mummy sings to me if I have a bad dream."

"Does she? I'm sure that helps."

"Do you need me to sing to you?"

Tom smiles and kisses Lillian on the tip of her head. "No, darling, don't worry about it. I love you very much. What did you come upstairs for?"

"Mummy sent me to come wake you up."

"Okay, dear. I'll be downstairs in a few minutes then."

"I can wait for you."

"Oh, thank you but Daddy's a bit slow nowadays. I'll be there soon, go tell Mummy."

Lily smiles and skips downstairs, her hair swinging behind her. Tom softly chuckles and groans as he stands up, holding onto the side of the nightstand. He slowly makes his way to the stairs, one small step at a time.

"Do you need help?" Molly asks, running from the counter to the stairwell.

"No, no, I'm fine." Tom says and reaches the last step. "Oh, I need to sit down."

Molly grabs a chair and sets it closer to Tom.

"Darling... what in the world am I doing to do with a chair in front of the stairs?"

"It'll help you. Just sit down and when you feel week again, walk to the table.

Tom groans and continues to slowly walk to the table. Molly pulls out the chair and he takes a seat, holding above his hip to get and relieve the pain. "Thank you."

"How do you feel?"

"I'm good." Tom replies. "It doesn't hurt too bad."

"Do you remember what Dr. Bettany said? If you need the pills-"

"Suddenly you're okay with me taking high levels of pain killers?"

"When it's supervised by me and your health is at sake, yes, darling, it's okay."

"It won't be that bad."

"Dr. Bettany said that the pain is going to start getting worse a few days after your first physical therapy appointment. You're not-"

"Used to using the bone and it's such an important part of walking. I've heard this all before, dear."

"I think we should get the pills just in case. He's seen people get this surgery before and he says the pain can get really bad when you're walking on it again. You can't just sit down though, you have to walk, which makes the pain worse."

"No, I'm not risking it."

"Risk what?" Lily asks. "My pills for my arm helped me. They helped you too."