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☾ 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑅𝑇𝑌 𝑇𝑊𝑂
"You're early."
Those were Michael's firsts words of greeting to his sister as she entered his hospital room, chuckling a chocolate bar she'd stolen from Isaiah on her way out. Anna shrugged, shoving him further across his bed so she could perch on the side.
"I asked someone to drive me. People are kind here, many of the boys in the betting den offered."
Michael grimaced at that last part.
"I don't know if that's good or bad," he said, shaking his head. "You're fitting in well."
"It's all I could ever dream of," she said, laying her head against the bed, making him shuffle his legs again.
It really was all she'd wanted: to find a home. A real home. But she wouldn't mention the fact that she still felt that something was missing. She still dreamt of other places, as she had in Australia of home and Polly. She missed Josephine and Will- not enough to ever even contemplate leaving her mum- but enough to have the hole in her heart be prominent.
A knock at the door startled them both. Michael pushed himself up, sighing softly as he pushed his knees from the bed. Anna helped him to the chair as the nurse pushed her way through the doors.
"Mr Gray?"
"Yeah, send him in,"
The nurse paused, red lips rolling over each other. "It's your mother."
"Oh, fuck..." Michael said, eyes snapping to Anna. "I thought you said she wouldn't be coming until later?"
"She told me herself that she wasn't- not until the meeting," she said.
But the woman that pushed through the doors was not Polly. Anna had a feeling she knew exactly who she was by the look on her face: she was sad, her eyebrows furrowed and lips pulled into a straight line.
"I read about it in the paper. I have a right," she said, trying to contain the wobble in her voice. "I'm your mum as well."
Michael didn't say anything as he stared at the table, jaw set.
"Do you want me to go away?"
"Yes," Michael breathed.
The woman didn't move for a second, realisation settling in. She looked at Micheal as if he was a stranger, as if she didn't recognise the man he'd become. Anna supposed in a way that he was a different person. If the stories of events past were enough to go against, he'd been reborn as soon as he'd been allowed into the family again.
"I'll just leave these," she said finally, placing a paper bag on the table. "They're from our orchard. You used to love these."
