Meryl and Don: An Unforeseen Journey

Chapter 70

Meryl didn't sleep all night. She hated sleeping apart from Don; though she didn't want him to know, at least not right now. She had no idea what happened to him but he was never heavy handed with her like he was the night before. She began to think Dr. Shafer was right and that scared her. She really didn't want space from him; not after everything they had gone through. But maybe she was depending on him too much. Even though she didn't want space from him she also was too angry at him to let him in their bedroom. Then she began to worry about his health. She now understood the phrase, "I love you but don't like you very much at the moment." Because that is exactly how she was feeling about him. She went from being worried about him to being angry at him to being worried about him to being angry at him. She didn't sleep at all. Part of the reason she didn't sleep was that she was angry at her husband, part of the reason was she missed him and part of the reason was she was scared. Once Henry woke up and was hungry she knew it was time to face him.

***

Don didn't sleep at all. He didn't know what happened to him, but he snapped. Actually, he did know what happened but he had to protect her and not let her know. It wasn't just the fact that sleeping on the hardwood floor in the hallway was incredibly uncomfortable, but he was worried about his wife and son. He was brought out of his thoughts when the bedroom door opened. He noticed how shocked she was to find him there as he sat up and was the first one to talk. "Hi."

"What are you doing there?" Meryl asked stepping over him. "It's not good for you or your recovery."

Don got up and began to collect his blankets and pillow. "I didn't want to be too far away."

"Well, we were perfect." Meryl lied.

Henry was reaching out for his father. "DADDY!"

"Hey there, buddy; I missed you and Mommy." Don said with a kiss to Henry's head.

If Meryl was honest with herself, she found it incredibly sweet that he slept in the hallway in front of their bedroom door in case they needed him. She was still too mad at the moment. "Well, you know who to blame for that."

"Meryl..." Don began turning sad eyes to her.

Meryl tried to stop herself from welling up in tears. "No, don't, I can't right now." Meryl said taking Henry back in her arms. "I'm going to go make breakfast for Henry. Join us or not; I don't care at the moment."

Don sighed as he watched his wife and son walk away. She was hurt and he didn't blame her. He knew she said she didn't care if he joined them but he saw the exact opposite in her eyes. He needed to fix this. He couldn't let this cause a rift between them. Even if it meant telling her what he was really going through and how he was really feeling; he knew he needed to fix what he fucked up.

***

After putting away the blankets and pillows, Don went to take a shower and then went to join Meryl and Henry for breakfast. When he walked in and saw that his wife and son were enjoying breakfast he let himself smile just a little bit when he saw she had a plate of food sitting at his spot at the table. "Thanks for the food."

"You're still healing and need to eat." Meryl said turning her attention back to her son.

Don knew he was getting the cold shoulder so he decided he needed to try to put an end to this. "Mer, about last night...I'm sorry."

"You're sorry for telling me what to do? For telling me how I need to heal? For being a jealous ass?" Meryl whispered.

This wasn't going how he had hoped. "All of it. I'm not jealous; but he shouldn't have been looking at you like that especially because of WHY we were there."