Making Plans

Who: Danny and Janey
Where: The Village
When: afternoon

Danny had had a long chat with the doctors, given strict orders on both his and Janey's health and how to take care of themselves. They both needed exercise, too much sitting, too much waiting to heal had done their injuries good, but not their muscles. The doctor had suggested a leave of absence away from work, which Danny was still considering without actually considering it. He'd nodded diligently and helped Janey into the car from her wheelchair out of the hospital. For both of them they were just relieved to be out of that dark place that held nothing but bad memories.

He drove in silence for a little while, not thinking about where he was headed until the pulled his truck up to a stop near the edge of the woods outside of Bedlam. He wasn't even sure how they wound up here, but there they were. "Let's take a walk," he said, getting out of the truck, ginger with his arm.

Janey hadn't been near Bedlam since a few weeks ago--had it really been only a few weeks?--when she'd helped provide tea for the search parties. So much had happened since then. Oddly enough, she couldn't even remember what they had been looking for, but she didn't let it bother her too much. Her favorite nurse, Susan, had come in that morning before Danny had arrived to take Janey home, looked into Janey's eyes and said sternly, "Now, you take care, okay? Go easy on yourself." Janey had nodded with a little laugh, but she knew Susan meant it. She'd taken to Janey quite fondly in a way that had made Janey miss her mother more than she had in years. She'd even been dreaming about her being there to take care of her. Maybe she should bake Susan a nice pie or something, when she was feeling a little better.

Even though she knew she had to sit up, and walk, and everything the doctors said, those things still hurt to do. To climb out of the truck, she had to move carefully, not pivoting at the waist but rotating her entire body until her feet were dangling towards the ground. She tried not to let the pain read on her face as she moved. The last thing she wanted was Danny feeling sorry for her.

Danny came around her side of the truck, offering her his good arm to help her out of the truck. He was there, ready to support her, helping her down and then giving her something to lean on once they were clear of the truck. Reaching behind him with a foot he kicked the door shut. "Ready?" He asked before moving forward.

They had practiced walking, she and Susan. The first time Susan had offered, Janey had laughed. She'd broken her ribs, not her legs! But sure enough, it was different. If she walked at a certain angle the pain was less, and she could lean more towards Danny so that he could support her. But she was afraid to put too much weight on him, and besides, she supposed she'd have to get used to the pain for when he wasn't around.

Janey shivered a little. The sky was grey and heavy above them, and the wind had a bite to it, but it felt good to be out, breathing real air instead of the inside of the hospital, which had felt canned, sterile, and suffocating. "As much as I can be."

Danny let her lean on him, she wasn't on the side of his hurt shoulder. He guided them forward, following a little path and though he wasn't sure where he was going, just that he was headed the right way. "How are you feeling?" he asked after a few steps.

"It feels great to be back in the real world," Janey replied, smiling. "Though I think I probably could've used a few more days off my feet--I get tired so easily." Even as she said it, though, Janey realized she didn't feel tired right now as she'd expected she would. In fact, there was a strange new energy moving her along.

"I think the real world enjoys having you back," Danny commented, leading Janey down a path that seemed far more familiar than it should have been. He'd never been this way before, but instead of being hesitant or cautious he felt assured that he knew where he was headed.

"There's more to the real world than just you," she teased. But she wouldn't have minded if it weren't true. In fact, despite her discomfort, she felt more content than she had for a long time, walking between the trees along the little path, a light mist hanging in the air. She felt as though she and Danny were in their own secret, mystical world.

"Is there? I wasn't aware," Danny teased back. As they continued on the path widened, no longer just a little trail in the woods. In fact, it looked well used and as if either nature had grown around it or things had been cleared for it.

"Do you know where we are?" Janey asked. "I don't want to stumble onto the grounds of Bedlam by mistake." She didn't think they were headed in the right direction for that, but then again, she didn't know what else was out here.

"No, but Bedlam is off that way," Danny said nodding off to the west of where they were headed. "I think we're fine."

As the path grew wider, the trees dispersed, and Janey could tell that the path was well-known and well-traveled. The soil, though damp, was solid beneath her steps, packed down with the weight of so many footsteps before hers. Up ahead she could see a clearing, or maybe the edge of the woods, and in the fog, the hazy outlines of buildings.

Once they grew closer to the clearing, Danny felt a little more at ease, the urge to sneak a drink was dwindling. "Look at that, the village." It made sense that it was there, even if Danny thought about it, he wasn't sure he'd ever been there before.

Janey nodded. As they entered the village, everything felt familiar, as though she'd been there millions of times in her life. It was an eerie feeling. She studied the cottage nearest to them, and caught the gaze of a tiny, blond-haired boy peering over the windowsill. She gave him a smile, and he grinned back, revealing a snaggletooth. Janey laughed and leaned closer to Danny with a contented sigh. "It's so lovely here," she said dreamily.

Danny nodded, admiring the little cottages and stepping easily along the street. Looking ahead he spotted a sign for the local pub, but the urge to hurry in wasn't there. Something else did come to his mind, something that made far more sense here than in in the city. "Did you think any more about adopting?"

"A little," Janey admitted. This was an understatement. She'd had so much time in the hospital to do nothing but think, and that, combined with the strange dreams she'd been having lately of so many children, meant that she'd thought a lot more about it. And she'd realized something. She did want to adopt, and not just to satisfy that deep longing she had to be a mother. She felt pulled, even moreso here than she had when thinking about it in the hospital, to do something to help a child--to, perhaps, save a child.

"What were you thinking?" Danny asked. He'd never thought of it before, but he had a feeling now of missing a child, like there should be one around full time. Visits weren't enough. He blinked a little, trying to figure out where the thoughts came from, what child didn't visit enough. Maybe he was thinking about his nieces and nephews.

"Well, it's strange...It's always been a question of wanting motherhood, and it still is. But more than that...I really want to help a child. You know, get them out of a bad situation or something," Janey explained. She wondered how Danny would react to the idea--in her mind, it made it more likely they'd be adopting an older child, or at least not a newborn infant. Which would make the whole parenting experience different than they'd imagined.

Danny thought about that, thinking that he wasn't sure if he wanted to miss out on every moment of childhood again, but he wasn't sure why he felt like he'd missed out on something before. Still, helping a child was having a child in the house, which he definitely felt like he was missing even though he wasn't sure why. "Whatever would make you happy baby," he finally said, knowing that that was what really mattered.

Janey's face lit up. "Really? Well, I guess before we jump in to anything we both should take a little more time to recuperate," Janey admitted, although she hated the thought of that. She hated the feeling of having nothing to occupy her time--usually it ended up with her feeling lonely. But that didn't make sense. How could it, with Danny in her life and by her side? For a moment she looked at him quizzically, trying to process how the two could ever go together, but as soon as she looked at him she was able to shrug off the impending cloud of loneliness that had been hovering over her. Besides, there's always the church to keep me busy, she reminded herself, though the thought wasn't as comforting as she'd expected it to be.

"Right, having both of us back up and running would be helpful. We aren't much up for chasing after a young person at the moment." There was always plenty of work to do, which hit Danny now, that sense of stress with work even though it didn't make sense. No, he'd been by the station this morning and caught up on what needed to be done. He was ahead of things. The village itself was small and while they were talking they'd managed to cover plenty of ground in it. Reaching a turning point, Danny turned them in a new direction starting back towards the way they came.

Once Danny was back at work, Janey would want a child more than she already did. She would want someone to keep her company. Even now, things seemed too quiet, like something was missing--the flurry of little hands and squeaky voices she was accustomed to in her dreams. "Do you mean you'd be willing to try, though?" she asked, biting her lip in anticipation. Even though Danny had said he'd do whatever would make her happy, she still hadn't quite believed he might change his mind on this issue. But suddenly he seemed so warm to the idea.

"I think so," he said carefully, not entirely sure why, all of a sudden, he did think so. There was no denying the feeling though, that it would nice to have someone look up to him, someone there. Shaking his head a little he leaned in to kiss his wife's temple. "I think so yes. Someone to read to. Or read to me." Another thought that made sense but at the same time didn't.

"We could teach her to read together. Or him," Janey said thoughtfully. She liked that thought--of changing a child's life and being the one to mold them into a new little person. Of having some sort of impact on the world, even if it were through just one little life.

"That we could," Danny mused as they walked. The idea fit, someone else in their lives, a chance at something normal, a life outside of work. All the thoughts, they all seemed to fit and not fit at the same time, though Danny stuck with them, holding on to the few that felt right, even if they were new. "That we definitely could."