The Ocean On Their Shoulders

Chapter 24

Resentment, it plagued her the further the week went on. Bitter about the fight, confused about the situation, relieved to know that Frank was alive ; it all jumbled her thoughts and continued to tug her away from resolving anything with him - needing to just...understand everything. But, she honestly just wanted things to return to normal.

~*~

It wasn't James at the front desk this time, but the kind woman on the other end of the line still asked if Jane would like to leave a message. Guess Ann wasn't home. Jane hesitated for a second, wondering if it would be easier to just go down to the Drop instead. However, to not waste any more of the woman's time, she said yes and was put over to Ann's voicemail box a few seconds later.

"Hey, Ann -" She began after hearing the droning beep. "I'm sorry I missed last week's dinner. Things have been rather...hectic recently." She paused to chuckle to herself. "I know you're getting tired of hearing me use the same old excuses, I don't blame you. I - um - I've been a pretty shitty friend recently." There was another pause as Jane struggled to gather her thoughts. "Although, if you'd like, we could have brunch up at the Tea Garden sometime. In Arcadia? As an apology for missing out on the last dinner...I do miss you, Ann. Call me soon. Bye."

She returned the phone to the receiver with a heavy sigh. However, about a couple of seconds later, the phone started ringing, and she didn't waste a moment picking it up.

"Hello, Ann?"

"Ann?"

"Oh, sorry, Brigid. I was expecting someone else."

The hum reverberated on the other end. "Do not apologize, it's alright. I wanted to call and let you know that Jack will be ready to pick up tomorrow morning. I wish to keep him overnight to see if his nightly medication dosage needs to be increased or not."

"Yes, that's fine. How'd he do?"

She could hear Brigid talking to someone in the background before hearing her voice again, albeit a little faint. "He is alright. His checkup was normal and growing as he should. I have some dietary changes, otherwise, he should be okay to continue his routine as before."

Finally, some good news. And it wasn't like she was expecting his monthly checkup to go horribly. Just with everything else going on, it was nice to have some normalcy.

"Sounds good. I'll be there to pick him up tomorrow morning."

They hung up after a quick goodbye and Jane was left to stand there in silence again, cursing at her motherly instincts for making her as emotional as they had each hour Jack wasn't here at the complex. Taking a break from the labs today, Jane had instead filled her time off with cleaning just about anything and everything. Christmas was also just a couple of weeks away, and she even ventured out to get some decorations and a plastic tree - which Reggie was able to help her carry back. Earlier this morning after breakfast, she spent a good hour or two decorating the tree, and yet she couldn't bring herself to find any sort of holiday joy.

The loneliness was suffocating.

Deciding to use the silence to her advantage, Jane took to the living room to read more of a new book she had just started, a perfect distraction. And over the next couple of hours, she found herself molded into the armchair she sat in with a blanket thrown over her shoulders and a cup of tea off to the side. The rumbling and whistling of the ocean off to her right proved to be some very much-needed background noise as she flipped page after page of her book, daydreaming of the male protagonist and his kind words, his trust, and affection showered on his lover.