A Picture says it All (Benedict Cumberbatch FanFiction)

Chapter 16

A/N: Sorry guys for the delay, I had some internet difficulties, I then decided to make some tweaks to the chapter while waiting so this is a particularly long chapter, well at least for me it is J

Lisa and her parents spend the rest of the day with her grandfather in hospital; he will be released as soon as the doctor’s were sure he was stable enough. Lisa was sitting in the chair next to his bed reading while he was taking a nap. Her parents were in the family room, with some other members of the family that has come from all over the country. Lisa could feel her phone vibrate, it was her boss, and she looked over at her grandfather before answering. “Hallo this is Lisa.” She could hear her boss on the other end still finishing a conversation. “Yes, yes Lisa this is Peter, how long before you can come back? There are some assignments that you need to cover.” Lisa got up, starting to pace around the room, “Peter, yes, I understand, I need to be here until at least Wednesday, then I can head back.” She could hear the change in his voice, she knew he was getting annoyed, “This is truly irregular, and I might have to get another photographer then.” Lisa felt betrayed, when she remembered about her work laptop. “Peter, I send my memory card back to you, there will be the photos of the Malaysian trip, and on my computer you will find a file with some extra work I have done.” Peter cleared his voice, “Yes that will work goodbye.” The line went dead and Lisa just shook her head in disbelieve, sometimes Peter was extremely rude.

Lisa turned around to find her grandfather looking at her, concern in his eyes, she could see the wrinkled frown on his forehead, “You know it’s rude to eavesdrop?” she said smiling, walking over to his bed, sitting down gently at the foot end of the bed. Pops shook his head “My sweet girl, I am so sorry, are you in a lot of trouble for coming?” Lisa felt the tears well in her eyes, she could see her grandfather was truly worried about her, “You should never feel sorry, I would come running no matter where in the world I am, you know that.” Lisa leaned forward, hugging the old man, listening to his breathing as he held her close. After a while he held her at arm’s length, “Now tell me about this boy who stole your heart, will he go fishing with me?” Lisa couldn’t help laughing at the image that popped into her head, Benedict and her grandfather standing on the shore of a great big dam, the sun rising in the distance, both of them bathed in the warm orange glow. “I hope so pops, I really do.” The old man chuckled to himself, leaning back against the pillows; his eyes closing slowly, Lisa knew he would be asleep for a while again. After taking a quick look at her watch she realised that almost 8 hours has passed and Benedict will be landing soon. She sends him a quick text.

*Hope you’ve landed safely, I miss you so much; don’t have too much fun without me. Lots of Love, L*

***

Benedict couldn’t sleep on the flight, the turbulence was a nightmare, and his mind kept going back to Lisa, wishing he could be with her, he knew that he had many fans looking forward to meeting him, but he just had this feeling that he needed to be with Lisa right now, to support her, she sounded cheery when he spoke to her over the phone, clearly her grandfather was on the mend again, but he would rather have been there with her. After a while he started reading through a couple of scripts Karon had pushed into his hands just as he went through the check-in gate in the terminal, she always did find the most cunning ways of pushing work his way, without seemingly forcing him to do something. She was always like a mother hen at the airports when they parted ways, checking a million times if he had everything, she reminded him of everything he would have to do before she joined him again, and he reminded her of Lisa’s memory card. He got a slap on the shoulder for that one, Karon needed no reminders, he was sure she was super woman.

When the flight landed a few hours later, he made his way to the baggage claim trying not to draw any attention to himself; he quickly placed his favourite cap on his head, slipping on the new pair of sunglasses. He then grabbed his bags and made his way to the waiting car outside, he felt relieved that there didn’t seem to be any fans or paparazzi waiting for him. He leaned back in the comfortable leather seats of the car, relaxing at the thought of having a few days off before the weekend’s comic con. Karon was in London, so she couldn’t suddenly bring up engagements. He switched on his phone, seeing there were a couple of missed calls from his parents, and the one text that made him smile. He quickly sends one back to her.