Friends

Kaylee giggles even more at Trey, although she does obediently settle down, knowing she'd get into trouble if she made too much of a commotion. Working on her fries again, she watches her mother and Trey intently. 

Cindy offers Trey a smile, knowing that it must have been hard for him to apologize. She certainly hadn't expected it either. "I understand. If I was in your shoes, I probably wouldn't have been much different. I just wish things hadn't turned out like they did." 

Leaning back and sighing, she reverts back to his other comment about Derek. "Your father... was a jerk, I'll admit. Boy I didn't see it at the time. But... if I'm going to be completely honest about the whole thing, I really didn't give him a chance either since he didn't know I was pregnant. He'd already dumped me so... I figured he wouldn't want anything to do with me anyway. I should have at least tried though. That was my fault." 

Taking a bite of her sandwich again, she reaches over and wipes Kaylee's mouth and gives her something to drink so she would remain satisfied. 

"Then when Jason was a child, he was abducted. It was about a year before he was found and I just about went crazy. I'd worked so hard at being a mom, that to have him ripped away from me like that... it wasn't fun. I guess..." She chuckles softly...sadly. "I guess when I found out about you and realized you didn't want to see me, it felt like my child was being torn away from me all over again." 

Pausing, her eyes linger on the table before finally looking up at her son again. "I'm sorry that I never knew about you. I know it's hard to believe... it's hard for me to believe too. But I had no insurance and was clueless about having a baby at all, so I never did what I should have - going to the doctor and such. When I did go, it was too soon to tell I was carrying twins. You and Jason came along early too. Jason was small, so I'm sure you were too. I just... had no idea." 

Tears form in her eyes once more, and she tries to keep her emotions in check. "Thank you... for letting me know you a little better, despite all that. I... I hope we can be friends."

Eric always hated being poked and prodded - by a female doctor, no less. But if it had to be anybody, at least it was Angel, and he trusted her. It never was comfortable though. Wincing a little as she runs her hand over the bruise, he bites his lip. He wasn't one to complain unless something really hurt... and this really did. Tundra would be hearing from him quite soon.

Heat and ice. "Yeah, okay." As Angel goes to the cabinet, he get his clothes readjusted again. He knew that tomorrow he would be even more sore, so he wouldn't ignore her orders.

Accepting the bottle of pills, Eric looks it over before glancing up quickly at Angel's extra instruction. Was it just a passing comment, or was it that obvious that he was feeling miserable? He shakes his head and stands up, giving Angel a faint smile. "Never can pull one over on you, huh?" He sighs, but nods. "These are for my leg. Got it. If I need something for here..." He taps his chest. "...I'll go for a talk over a cup of coffee instead."

Starting to leave, he pauses at the door, glancing over his shoulder. There was a part of him that did want to talk. But he wasn't ready yet to verbalize what he was thinking, let alone explain what had happened in the barn. "Thanks, Angel. If my leg gets worse, I'll let you know."

Exiting the office, he almost runs into Luke, both trying not to stumble down the couple steps.

"Whoa, sorry," Luke apologizes.

"My fault. Wasn't watching where I was going." Eric rolls his eyes. "Story of my life."

Luke furrows his brow. "What?"

"Nothing. Catch you later."

"Well are you..." Too late, Eric was walking away. Luke shrugs and continues his route into the office, leaning heavily on his cane. Spotting Angel, his eyes light up. "Hey, sweet thing." He grins and makes his way over to her slowly so he can give her a one-armed hug and a lingering kiss.

He hadn't seen her yet today, even though it was the afternoon. It had been one of those days that he'd been unable to get up out of bed this morning. He'd slept through lunch, though knew Angel had probably checked on him. He'd eventually woken again though, and managed to get his legs working enough to take a shower, get dressed and come over here. It was only maybe once a week that he had these bad days...maybe twice a week sometimes... so he tried not to let it bother him. It did though. On the inside. But he at least had gotten pretty good at hiding it... from everybody but Angel, that is. He still tried to though, just for good measure.

"So... now that the day is half gone..." He sits on the corner of her desk and gives her a sheepish glance. He knew it wasn't his fault he hadn't been able to get up earlier, but he still hated it and felt like he'd completely wasted a whole day. "Is Eric okay? I 'bout ran into him out there and he didn't look too happy."

Dylan finally looks up at Dan and gives a little nod. "I think so. I mean yeah. I'm just..." He shrugs. "At least I'm not puking my guts out anymore, right?"

It was a lame attempt at humor and he knew it. Even his lips didn't want to smile. Maybe it was because he was trying to hide the fact that even though he was thanking Dan for keeping him alive... at the moment... maybe on the inside, he felt... dead. His body was healing. The cravings were subsiding. His fever was gone. But deep down...

"I, um... I gotta go study. I'll prolly see ya later."

Jason purses his lips in thought, understanding what Katie was saying. He'd known they both felt like this... but they'd just never talked ab out it. 

"Yeah... It's... been kinda quiet for me too." He leans down to kiss the top of her head.  "I'm sure it'll pass though, eventually. We just gotta get used to it."

"Tomorrow." Zach nods. "Then tomorrow it shall be." He quirks an eyebrow. "I'll just have to call my boss and tell him I'm taking the day off whether he likes it or not because I have more important things to attend to." 

Taking a sip of his cherry coke, he gives Beth a silly grin. "Actually I only work part of the morning tomorrow, so that works great. How about....."

His sentence drifts off as she moves on to a customer, and he holds that thought until she returns. "...I meet you for lunch at noon, then head to the shelter?"