Private Lives

“Spencer?” Her voice was calling to him from the kitchen but he couldn’t seem to get up. He was lying on the couch with his head under a pillow, a migraine thumping around inside his skull.



“Spence, you here?” He heard what sounded like her putting down a bag in the kitchen. And her heels clicking along the stone floor to the door of the living room. Looking around she knew exactly what was wrong the moment she found him lying with his feet elevated in the pitch black.



She walked back into the kitchen and kicked off her shoes before fishing around for his tablets and filling a glass with water. She walked quietly back into the room and knelt down beside him, “I’ve got your tablets.”



“I’ve taken some,” He grumped.



“Liar,” she slide the pillow from off his face and laid a cold flannel over his forehead. He let out a breath and in the almost pitch black she saw his lips curve into a smile.



“What did I do to deserve you?”



She pressed a kiss to his lips, “Just being you did the trick.” She took his hand, palm up and placed his tablets there, closing his hand into a loose fist, “You take them and then go and get into bed, I’ll be in after I put the shopping away.”



By the time she checked on him he was already dozing and when she lay down beside him he pulled her against his chest.



“Do you feel sick or is it just the pain in your head right now?”



“Just pain, it’ll go when I’ve slept for a while.” He brushed his nose though her hair, smelling the shampoo he’s washed it with only this morning, remembering the events that took place before then caused him to harden against her leg.



“Sleep,” she replied with a giggle. “You’re the Doctor, order yourself.”



“Will do,” he mumbled, as she turned onto her other side and pulled his arms around her body. “Hannah, can I ask you something?”



“You know you can ask me anything,” She replied quietly.



“Will you stay with me?”



“I am,” Her grip on his arm tightened.



His hand found hers, touching the ring he had given her, “You want to be here with me right? I didn’t just drag you across country on a whim?”



“No, I wanted to come and be with you,” She replied, against her better judgement she continued, “What we had before was too shirt lived, it felt wrong for it to end as it did.”



“Normally I stumble and fault my way through conversations like this but I just want to say that you are the reason I’m happiest now then I’ve ever been.” Spencer’s arms held her back against him with more certainty, “You don’t see me as a freak, some nerd who talks too much. You see past that and you still want to be around me even though I am a freaky-”



“You’re not a freak, Spence,” Rolling in his arms she cradled his face in her hands. “You’re intelligent and if people really listened to you they’d realise you’re funny. So what if you’re really intelligent? That can’t be anything but a plus right?”



“It intimidates most people.”



“Not me,” She kissed his lips and then his nose, “I’m average intelligence and I think that what you have is a gift.” She giggled, “Plus I’ll never be stumped by an annoying crossword with you around.”



“Do you miss England?” He asked, after a short silence as his hands on her lower back stroking patterns that morphed into writing formulas.



“Not as much as I thought I would.” She began stroking one finger down his nose to the tip and then jumping back to the top to repeat. “When I moved over here first off I wanted to get away and do something different. Whenever I think of going home I think of having to go back to the way I was.”



“Not necessarily,” He replied, his voice very sleepy now, “We could go back for a holiday. Could be nice.”



“We?” She kissed his lips gently, “You wouldn’t mind rainy old England and travelling to the middle of no where? That’s where I lived by the way.”



“No, it’d be nice.” He replied, she watched as the slight crinkles by his eyes relax and his breathing deepened. She’d been around children enough to know that stroking his nose would send him to sleep, no matter how much his brain was working away. That was his problem, he thought everything through and then again until he became tied in his own analytic knots. He’d do it about the simplest things and the biggest, forgetting the things in the middle, such as not wearing an ugly brown tie with a light pink shirt, she thought as she gently loosened the knot and pulled it apart. Removing it she slid from his embrace and laid it on the chair on her way out of bedroom.



She looked around the open plan living and dining room, she was awed at the organised nature by which he lived. If it weren’t for the books strewn around in the strangest way it could be a show home. Slowly she ran her hand over the back of the couch before throwing a leg over and sliding to lay on her side.



She picked up his cordless phone and typed in a number. The ring was hallow but it didn’t take long for someone to pick up,



“Maria Cobble.”



“Hey Maria, it’s Hannah Jacobs.”



“Miss Jacobs! I was waiting for your call. Want your update?”



“As always. How are things going?”



“Perfectly, Jessica’s doing just fine. Happy as ever.”



“That’s good to hear. Did you get my cheque?”



“I did, yes. How much longer will you be on this trip Miss Jacobs? There’s no problem I just like to estimate a time frame when taking care of such a small baby.”



“I’m afraid I don’t know myself.” Hannah sighed and rolled onto her back looking at the dark ceiling. “I won’t be much longer though, I miss her.”



“She misses you too.”



“Kiss her for me will you. And tell her…”



“Yes Miss Jacobs?”



“Tell her, her mummy loves her.”



“I tell her every day. Goodbye Miss Jacobs.”



“Bye.”