Bonds of Blood |A Heartland Fanfic

Chapter Eleven

In the privacy of their bedroom she rolled her shirt up and twisted cautiously. It was vain, but she wanted to see what the damage was, what her husband had seen that had made him scared to touch her. There was minor bruising around each spot, but the sites were only covered with band-aids, she had been assured the scars would be nearly invisible when they healed.

In time there wouldn't even be a mark to remind them of this and given Jack's reaction that was a relief. She glanced back to see her husband standing silently in the doorway, there was something she couldn't place in his gaze. He turned away and she sighed moving to sit on the edge of the bed; Lisa didn't understand it.

This was when they could breathe, the family knew now, and they knew the process; they could maintain it. Katie was getting what she needed and seeing the poor little girl in that bed reinforced that it needed to be done.

Jack came back with her prescription and a glass of water, she took the pills without argument this time. She had not missed the point Georgie had gotten the doctor to confirm, as long as she was on these meds Katie's transfusions would be on hold. She needed the break, her body needed it right now, but it wouldn't be too long.

As her husband sat beside her she cast a glance his way before sliding her hand up his thigh and moving closer. After a long moment his arm slid around her shoulders, when she rested her cheek against his chest he lowered his chin onto the top of her head; this was right. But on any other day at least this would have been the easy thing for them.

"Why don't I start a fire and we'll get something to eat?" Jack rose quickly and offered her a hand.

…

As he knelt to build the fire he kept an eye on Lisa, she dismissed her discomfort as stiffness, but he saw it in her movements. He knew all to well about stiffness, he was reminded every time his arthritis acted up.

He and Georgie had both noticed as they rode home, in retrospect they should have taken her truck; his suspension had bounced them around. Georgie had tried to give her space by pressing into his side and chattered to distract them all but something else continued to weigh on his mind.

The relief he felt made him feel sick, he wanted Katie home where she belonged and to have the treatment she needed. But every step forward for Katie took its toll on Lisa.

Seeing Katie alone in that room today he had not been thinking about what his wife was going through, she had promised they would do this together, but he had left her alone. His choice to tell Georgie had forced her hand on a day when she should have been resting, and still she looked to him to tell her what the doctors had done to her; she reached to him for comfort.

It had struck him as Lisa's doctor had reassured Georgie that Katie was getting what she was needed while Lisa healed; his mind had been following the teen's when it should have been on his wife.

As she curled into the couch he watched, she wanted him to hold her but there were more and more spots where he didn't want to make contact; she was uncomfortable enough. But as the fire began to crackle he rose, he could hear Georgie talking to her dog and a moment later Remy came racing in, going first to Lisa before turning to him; whining for something.

"I already fed her." Georgie leaned over the back of the couch, glancing between them. "I made supper, it's just sandwiches but…"