"Mom!" Cheyenne shrieked as she knocked into her mother, colliding hard with her as she hugged her tight, taking no care that her mother was injured. Reba inhaled sharply, then groaned, a new pain making itself apparent in her lungs as her ribcage protested her eldest daughter's panicked embrace. "It's ok, Cheyenne. I'm ok," Reba reassured her, though she was lying.
Jake, in his typical fashion, stayed quiet but squeezed his way between his sister and his mother, clinging to her legs. "Kyra told me you were never coming home," he cried quietly into her knees, his little arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Even that hurt, but she didn't care.
One eyebrow crept up Brock's forehead as he stared down their middle child, seated on the couch, arms crossed. It was typical for Kyra to terrorize both her siblings, but as far as Brock was concerned, she'd gone too far this time.
"Kyra, really? You did-" Reba silenced by putting her hand in the air.
"Later, Brock. Please." As Cheyenne released her mother in favor of the phone she heard ringing upstairs, Reba picked Jake up, cradling him awkwardly on the one hip that wasn't sore. "I'm home Jake, and I'm not goin' anywhere, you understand me? I had a little accident and the doctor and your daddy took care of me, and I'm back now." Jake threw his arms around her neck and nuzzled his face in her collarbone, his tears soaking the rim of the sweatshirt she was still wearing. His words, muffled, barely made it to her ears.
"Did you break your teeth?"
Reba narrowed her eyes and stared at Brock for a moment in confusion as she shifted their son to the front of her body and walked carefully down the two steps that led from their foyer to their living room so she could sit on the couch with him. Maybe that wouldn't be so hard on her hips and her back and her, well, everything. "No, why?"
"Then how did daddy fix you?"
Both Reba and Brock laughed, then Reba groaned in pain again as she plopped as delicately as she could with a forty pound kid in her arms on the couch opposite Kyra. "Your dad didn't fix me. He just helped me some, that's all, and he's going to be helping me a little bit more for the next couple weeks."
As Reba tried to explain what had happened to Jake without really telling him anything at all, Kyra rolled her eyes and lifted herself off the couch, stomping up the stairs, making a spectacle of the fact she was leaving the room. After a moment, Brock took her place on the couch and tugged on the hem of Jake's t-shirt sleeve. "Hey buddy, why don't you go upstairs and get a few things together for when grandma and grandpa get here so I can get your mom settled down here?"
"Ahhhhh Dad do I have-"
"Jake."
It only took one word from his mother before Jake straightened up, crawled off her lap, and nodded. With a downtrodden "yes ma'am" he was up the stairs, stomping just like his sister.
"Those are some well behaved kids we raised," Brock laughed as he relaxed into the couch, resting one arm against the back.
"Yea, well, I blame all those parts on you," she muttered as she tucked her feet under her, sun into the pillows, and closed her eyes, "I'm exhausted. I don't want to play this game with Kyra being mad at me and the world today."
"I'll take this round. I'll talk to her tonight, okay?"
A thousand thoughts went through Reba's head at once. If Brock was going to talk to her tonight that meant he'd be at his house. If he was at his house, that meant she'd be alone. She didn't want to be alone. But she didn't want anyone else with her. Unwillingly, Reba's eyes shot open, and she reached for his hand. "It'll be fine. Mom can talk to her. I thought you were staying here."
"Reba, honey, I am," Brock reassured her as he intertwined his fingers with hers, then used his other hand to rub her arm. "I'm just going to take the kids over to my house and make sure they're settled. I thought if your parents came over here they might not leave."
Reba thought about offering to go with him, but nodded her head instead. "You're right, if mama comes over here it'll be like a Broadway production trying to get her to leave. It'll give me a chance to get a shower and get this pirate patch off my face while you're gone." She didn't like the idea of it at all, but she wasn't about to admit out loud how much she needed him. She'd lost a lot in the last twenty four hours, but not her mind.
As Reba sat there, contemplating how she'd get through even an hour alone, Brock watched her. For so many years she'd been the rock of their family. It had been as simple as making lunches for their children, scheduling their after school activities, their carpools, their play dates, and as complicated as holding his practice together, and then their entire marriage. She'd done everything and he'd ignored it. Now, in the blink of an eye, the tables were turned. Reba had never seemed so small or so fragile before last night. Sure he'd seen her scream and cry- he'd seen her give birth three times, which had almost made him scream and cry. But this was different.
"Reba, you can come with us if you want to. I just didn't know if you'd want to, you know, deal with Barbra Jean and your mom and dad and... I know it's a lot and you're still feeling a little shaken up."
"A little shaken up," Reba laughed quietly, trying not to turn her sudden anger on him, "yea, I guess you could say that." She took a deep breath, trying to reset her mood. "I'm going to... take a shower. And then I'm going to re-bandage my arm. Then I'm going to put on the biggest pair of your old sweats I can find and I'm going to order a pizza. By then, you'll be back. We'll eat, we'll make up Cheyenne's bed for you, and we'll be so exhausted it'll be lights out by 8:00. No problem, right?"
Brock could tell her emotions were starting to surface again, but he opted to let it go. That was the way Reba was; things didn't get talked about until Reba was ready to talk about them. "Right."
Brock squeezed her hand and nodded, then rubbed his thighs. "Alright, I'm going to get the kids rounded up so we can get this over with. I'll see you in a little while, Reba."
As Brock disappeared upstairs, Reba nodded. It still hadn't hit her. "Right." She muttered, wondering when it would, as it began to to scratch at the back of her mind.
