A Fluffy Tale (12 page)

He returned to find Zachary lost in thought
and the kems rolling around on the grass, a third creamy coloured one who’d
appeared from somewhere, joining in the fun.

“Here you go.” He opened the bottle of
orange juice, since Zachary was still one-handed, and passed it to him. Zachary
accepted it without a word. Julian sat on the grass and opened his sandwich
pack. He thought it best to leave Zachary alone for a bit. It had been a rough
day for everyone.

He finished his sandwich and set the pack
on the grass, lying down on his back, head pillowed on his arms so he could
watch the kems playing. Pyon immediately had to investigate and Linis strolled
over too, though with much more dignity. Their new friend wandered off but Pyon
didn’t notice, far too fascinated by the crinkly sound the plastic sandwich
pack made and the way it moved when he batted it. Linis yawned—this wasn’t his
thing at all—and then to Julian’s surprise, he walked over and up onto Julian’s
stomach, where he perched, serenely surveying Pyon’s antics.

“Well, your highness. Comfortable?” Linis
stared back with his great golden eyes as if to say Julian was a peasant and
should be grateful to be so honoured.

Pyon spotted Linis’s long tail draped over
Julian’s side—and pounced. Julian suddenly found his stomach had become a
battleground for the two kems fighting for dominion over Linis’s appendage,
bouncing up and down on him like he was a fleshy trampoline and paying
absolutely no attention to either of their humans. Julian was too amused to
seriously try to stop them, and rather amazed at the dignified Linis getting
down and dirty with Julian’s impolite little kem.

He glanced over at Zachary—and found the
man watching it all with a rather sad look on his face. “He’s never done that
with anyone else,” Zachary said wistfully.

“He does, you know. He plays with Nuji and
Leo all the time. Maybe you…maybe if you gave him the opportunities?” He was
trying to word it in such a way that didn’t make it sound like ‘if you weren’t
such an antisocial bastard, your kem would have more fun’ but he suspected he
hadn’t succeeded.

“I’ve tried to give him everything he needs
and what he was missing was company. What a boring life for him.”

Julian sat up, and the kems toppled off his
stomach, only to take their mock war to the grassed area. Pyon, smaller and
faster, was getting away with murder.
Cheeky
brat.

“No, I don’t think it has been, honestly.
It’s just that he’s been under a lot of stress and he turned to us for help.
Look, he’s going back to you already. He likes Pyon. He loves you.”

Linis jumped up onto Zachary’s lap and made
it very clear that he wanted a cuddle and his host’s attention. Pyon played a
little longer with the plastic packet before Julian got up and took the litter
to the bin. Then Pyon climbed up his leg and also demanded a cuddle. It had
been a tough day for the kems too.

Julian picked up a chair from the canteen
and dragged it over. Zachary petted Linis absently, his eyes lost. “You’re kind
of looking at this backwards, you know,” Julian said.

“In what way?”

“You think me being around means there’s
less of Leo and Linis for you, but there’s more. More people and kems for both
of you.”

Zachary gave a one-shouldered shrug. “And
when I'm better?”

“Up to you. Leo says he’s going to live
here now. I’ll want to be in touch with him wherever he ends up.”

“Here? Where?”

Damn, Leo hadn't told him. Julian smiled.
“Oh…he bought an apartment in your building. On the floor above you.”

“He
what
?!”

“Shhh.” Julian waved at him frantically,
looking around to see if hospital security was curious about the shouting. “You
heard me. He wanted to be close to you and he doesn’t drive. It’s a good
location. You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to, but considering the
tantrum you just threw, that’d be a bit stupid.”

“Did you put him up to it?”

“Zachary, your conniving old great uncle
runs rings around me. I just trail around behind him making fish impressions.”
He demonstrated and raised a small smile in his companion. “He wants to spend
the rest of his life close to you. Why is that a bad thing?”

“He didn’t before.”

“He wanted to. You should ask him about
your grandparents, I think.”

“Sounds like you and he have done little
else but discuss me and my private affairs.”

“Strangely enough, that’s what happens when
you have to look after someone who nearly
died
.
Mr Ledbetter, you’re being a prick. Again.”

Zachary nodded, as if that was fair
comment—Julian had expected him to go off about it. “Hey, that wasn’t a
serious…you don’t have to let me insult you. You can argue back, I won’t walk
off unless you get really nasty.”

Zachary looked up. “But I will and you
will.”

“I’ll come back. Until
Linis says not to. He’s a smart little guy, your kem.” He reached down
and stroked Linis’s exquisite fur. The kem trilled and arched into his hands.
Julian looked up and found Zachary staring. “Okay?”

“Okay.” His voice wobbled a little. He
wasn’t as calm as he’d like Julian to believe, but Julian didn’t want to shred
all Zachary’s defences—just the ones which were
getting in the way of his own happiness.

“Great! So, let’s go pester Leo. He’s bored
stiff and it’s been all of eight hours.”

Zachary managed a smile. “It was lucky the
car ran over me and not him.”

“You have a very strange definition of
luck, Mr Ledbetter.”

And just like that, Zachary stopped making
it difficult to organise his return to the apartment. Part of it was because
Leo would live there too for a bit, since it made sense that if they were
hiring full-time attendants, they should keep an eye on Leo as well and take
the strain off both of them. But part of it seemed to be that Zachary accepted
the good will behind the arrangements. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic, but that
was a lot more than Julian expected from anyone having their home turned upside
down, and facing weeks and weeks of disability and painful rehabilitation. But
he was cooperative about decisions, and offered opinions when asked, and made suggestions
when it was appropriate. Leo was amazed—and grateful.

Julian was grateful too because it took a
lot of stress from Leo, and that made Julian a lot less worried. Having both of
them poorly made for extra running around. Leo had almost daily doctor’s visits
for checkups the first week after he was allowed out of hospital, and the
doctor had insisted he cut down visits to his nephew to once a day, so Julian
had to make up the shortfall—but he didn’t mind in the least. He felt needed
and respected, and for the first time in his adult life, like he actually made
a difference to someone who wasn’t related to him. That the office had covered
his absence so easily was kind of insulting, but not that much of a surprise.
But if he stopped helping Leo and Zachary, it would hurt them a lot. He wasn’t
exactly irreplaceable, but he was more than a convenience. He found he liked
having that kind of responsibility, and wondered how he’d replace it when
Zachary was fit and could do whatever Leo needed doing.

Release day didn’t go completely smoothly.
Julian absolutely forbade Leo to be involved at all, and told him to stay in
the apartment and rest while he settled Zachary in. It turned out to be a wise
decision. There wasn’t an out and out disaster—just lot of small irritations.
The building manager had locked the service elevator, so Zachary had to wait in
the car for nearly an hour before the man was found. A couple of the doors
which they thought would be wide enough for the electric wheelchair, weren’t,
and had to be removed from their hinges. Zachary realised he wouldn’t be able
to cook in the kitchen after all, despite the ramp allegedly making this
possible, and that meant he’d have to rely on his attendants or Leo or Julian.
That was the closest he came to losing his icy coolness, after so long being
preternaturally patient with all the annoyances. But Leo saved the day by
sweeping in with an airy insouciance, ordering an exquisite and healthy meal
from a local restaurant while declaring he never cooked at home, and that
Zachary should enjoy the luxury while he was around. The attendants were given
two hours off while Leo, Julian and Zachary had their lunch.

Since Leo looked rested and was at his most
charming and amusing, the food was good, and Linis and his two friends decided
that the modifications and hoists were all specially installed kem toys,
Zachary’s ill-temper slowly melted away under the relentless barrage of things
not going wrong and the playfulness of the kems. He even allowed himself some
cheesecake.

“Full of eggs, don’t you know?” Leo said,
grinning at his nephew. “Good for recovering patients.”

“Full of fat and sugar, Uncle Leo.”

“So? You’re skin and bones, Zachary. A
little of what you fancy…”

“A
little
,
yes.” He glanced sideways at Julian, before adding, “Uh…but thank you for the
meal.”

“Not at all. Thank you for letting me stay.
Julian, I'm afraid our next task is organising the removal of my worldly goods
from my old place, to here. I’ve decided maintaining the old apartment as a
pied-a-terre is just too self-indulgent and I want my books.”

“
My
next task, Leo,” Julian said firmly.

“
Our
next task.”

Julian looked at Zachary in surprise. “What
do you mean?”

“I want to help. It’s only my leg and arm
that have been damaged, not my brain. Frankly, I could do with the activity.”

“Very well,” Leo said, clapping his hands
together, “my two favourite young people can take this tedious task away from
me with pleasure. I’ll assign myself to kem sitting. Zachary, your help with my
legal affairs would be appreciated too. They’ve appointed some fellow down at
your firm, but he’s not got your brain.”

“Of course, Uncle.”

Julian cleared his throat. “Uh, Leo…maybe
with Zachary back home and with the live-in helpers
and everything…I could go back to work now. I can still help you in the
evenings. Zachary’s secretary is supposed to be coming around to help him ease
back into things, and she could—”

Leo turned to his nephew. “Zachary? What do
you think?”

“I think Julian accepted a responsibility
and he should see it through to the end.” Julian started to seethe at the cool
remark, but then Zachary added, “Linis doesn’t like my secretary. He likes you.
I trust Linis’s opinion.” And he smiled a little, the tired, drawn smile of a
man who’d had a hell of a day but who’d managed to stay calmer than anyone
could have reasonably expected.

Leo beamed and patted Zachary’s hand. “As
you should, my dear boy, as you should. I'm sorry, Julian—Messrs Clarke, Saxony
and Markham shall just have to do without you for a while longer because
I
don’t intend to do without you.”

Pyon, sitting on Julian’s shoulder,
squeaked excitedly and then decided to rearrange Julian’s hair in a bout of
frenzied hair licking that made him fall off his perch. Julian caught him and
laughed. “Okay. I didn’t want to go back anyway.”

“Then stop suggesting it and fetch our boy
his pills. Now, don’t give me that face, Zachary, or I’ll ask that beefy Mr
Sanet to administer them rectally. The doctor was quite happy with either
route.”

“Uncle Leo!”

Julian just cuddled Pyon and grinned to
himself. He doubted Leo would carry out the threat but was it bad of him to
want to see him try?

~~~~~~~~

“You want me to take over?”

Zachary’s lip tightened, but then he
nodded. “Sorry. This is a lot harder than it looks.”

“I know it is,” Julian said, putting his
hands on the push handles of the wheelchair. He waited for Zachary to get his
arms safely tucked in, and then he started to push. Personally, he thought
Zachary should have stopped a while ago, but the man was so determined to build
up fitness. He’d graduated to crutches just two days before but he wasn’t
allowed to bear weight yet. His healed arm was so weak that he had to be
careful with that as well. Wheelchairs would be a part of his life for some
time yet, much to Zachary’s chagrin.

But it could be worse. At least the hated
attendants had been banished for all but an hour a day to help with bathing,
and it had been agreed just that morning that even that assistance could be
dispensed with in two or three days. Zachary could now go to the toilet more or
less unaided, get in and out of the wheelchair without needing to be lifted,
and sit in a normal chair as long as he liked. Julian chafed along with him at
the tiny, slow steps of progress, but at least there
was
progress. Zachary wasn’t independent yet, but it wouldn’t be
long.

Today, Leo had chased them out of the
apartment to get some fresh air without him. A friend, coming through on a
flying visit, wanted to take him out to lunch, and Leo insisted he didn’t need
a bodyguard for a few hours. He looked well, and the doctors thought he was no
more at risk now of a stroke than he had been—it wasn’t nil, but all
precautions had been taken. Zachary had insisted, however, that the man wear a
medical alert around his neck when he wasn’t with someone else, and Leo,
realising the necessity and the reassurance value, had agreed without the
slightest argument. The two of them had come to an understanding that wasting
time in futile bickering, was something neither of
them could afford any more. That realisation might have come late but it wasn’t
too
late, much to Julian’s profound
relief.

So they’d taken themselves, belatedly, out
to the country park for a picnic—the longest expedition Zachary had had since
he’d left hospital. Up to now, they’d made do with Twyford Park, which was
better than nothing, but the routine of physiotherapy appointments and other
commitments, had stopped them organising something that involved a longer
excursion. But finally, finally, they’d cleared a whole day, Leo was safe and
had plenty to amuse him, the weather was warm and beautifully autumnal, and
Zachary was now mobile and free enough from pain to really benefit from a
longer trip.