Remember Me- an Alias Grace Fanfiction

Part 18

A knock at the door woke Grace the next morning.
"Come in," it was likely Susan.
In walked the young girl with a plate of fruit. Grace sat up in her bed, attempting to flatten the nest of hair on her head.
"I felt terrible about not preparing your breakfast or your bath yesterday so I thought I could do this for you." Susan said as she approached the side of Grace's bed, setting the plate on her lap.
"This is wonderful, Susan, thank you."
She made a small curtsy and left the room, shutting the door silently behind her.
Grace set the plate to the side and got up from her bed, bringing it to the vanity desk. She dressed herself and ate the remainder of fruit before brushing her hair and collecting the plate and walking down the steps to return it to the kitchen.
She held her breath, anticipating the presence of Simon upon entering the room. But when she looked through, it was empty. Her chest deflated and she felt a small pang in it when she realized she would rather he have been there.
She cleared her throat, brushing off the thought.
When she leaves the kitchen, she hears a creaking ahead in the floorboards. She looks in the direction and sees Simon's doctor.
"Goodmorning, Grace," he says awkwardly with a hesitant smile.
She smiles back, "morning, doctor. Where are you off to?"
He chuckles, "nowhere, just getting myself some breakfast."
"Oh, yes of course."
Obviously he needed to eat. She left him to walk to the kitchen and continued to the stairs where she sat in silence. Of course he ate, why did it surprise her so much? Somehow, it had never even crossed her mind that he was also living in this house and needed things that sustained human life. Had she been so self interested that she hadn't even acknowledged him being in this house? She had been so lowly about the fact that she was alone in this large estate when all along this man has been locked up in here for God knows how long. Maybe she had better become more friendly with him, she hadn't even attempted to before.
A few minutes had passed and the doctor emerged from the room beside Grace.
He jumped back slightly, "Christ!" He placed a hand to his chest, "you scared me, Grace."
"Oh, I was only sitting."
He gave her an odd look before continuing and turning down the hall, out of sight.
Grace sighed and picked herself up off the steps and went up to her room. Soon she would be meeting with Simon. She wondered how it would go today. He had been acting so strange the night before and even earlier, which was not unlike him, but Grace never became accustomed to it anyway. She'd always felt that they understood one another to a degree that no one else on earth would be capable of deciphering. But just as her own mind confused her, so much of Simon made her question his meaning. She sat in front of her vanity mirror, fidgeting with her hair to make a braid. A strand grazed her hand and she recalled how Simon had tucked it behind her ear. It sent a shiver through her just to think about but she shook her head. She'd already promised herself not to associate with him other than their sessions but it was becoming so difficult even just less than a day in. Memories flashed through her in a rush and she blinked to make the stinging subside.
It was time to meet with Simon and Grace began her descent to his study. She knocked on the door and heard him answer.
"Come in, Grace."
When she opened the door he was already sitting on one of the couches, waiting for her. His gaze trailed her as she walked to the couch opposite from him and sat down. She glanced down to his hands, then up to his arms, his neck— and his face. He wore that same look from dinner, his eyebrows furrowed and his lip in a slight frown.
She clasped her hands together, "Shall we begin?"
"Yes," he nods in a clipped tone and picks his pencil off of his notebook, preparing for her to speak.
She can't think of how to start. She'd told him all she had from their first sessions, she'd told him all about her life. Would the details do any good? She had to count on that, but this time she could not withhold anything that preceded those sessions.
She takes the letter out of her pocket and begins. Again. "I was born in Ireland..."

"...And that is all we spoke of during our first session, sir."
He peered at her from his notes, "okay."
Grace ignored the urge to remain in her seat, standing and collecting her papers from the side table.
"I will see you later?"
She glanced toward him and nodded, his eyes following her as she walked toward the door.
She reaches for the doorknob but is cut short.
"Grace," Simon lifts himself off the chair with his crutches, making his way toward her. She feels a breath caught in her throat and fights herself not to run out of the room right then because this situation could potentially make everything so much more confusing and difficult. Why was he walking toward her? Why did he have to say her name?
"You forgot this," he holds out a piece of paper. Grace takes a closer look, recognizing it as one of the pages of her letter. She must have dropped it in her haste.
She quickly grabs it, panic rising in her chest at the thought of him reading the unfiltered words she had written in such a harsh way so long ago now.
"Thank you," she turns to leave again and he does not stop her this time but his expression is almost reason to.
When she shuts the door, her feet guide her to the library she had found only a few days prior. It is just as spacious yet crowded with books, as she remembers it being. She sighs, taking the crumbled piece of paper from her firm grasp and flattening it on a nearby table end.
An excerpt pops out at her.
What did you say?
She clears her throat before folding it back into the envelope with the rest