Rory

by Saskia Walker

  He went around Rory’s bike, checking it.

  Sky watched while Rory threw some tools in his motorbike pack. He handed her a spare helmet. She pulled the helmet on, and he did the buckle up under her chin.

  He smiled, and then closed her visor. When he climbed onto the bike she got into place behind him. He liked the way it felt, with her close against his back. He rested his hands over hers for a moment when she locked her arms around his chest.

  “That’s it, stay close,” George said, nodding at her, “tuck your legs in behind his. He’ll freeze, but he’ll block out most of the chill factor for you.” George grinned.

  Rory rolled his eyes.

  George patted him on the shoulder. “Safe journey, son.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The cold kept Sky on the edge. Keeping in mind what Rory’s boss had told her, she huddled behind Rory, alternating between holding the grip bars and wrapping her arms around his broad chest. She had her eyes closed a lot of the time, her thoughts fretful about what lay ahead. Guilt swamped her. She’d been in London for months. She should’ve gone back home for a weekend.

  It was hard to find the time though, between shifts and working toward college. Keeping up with her art was important if she was to secure her place next term. She spoke to Nan every other day and she never mentioned illness or feeling unwell. That was just like her though.

  Sky’s Nan was her anchor in life. The one she’d been able to turn to when her mum got flaky. When she would disappear to festivals for days at a time, or was tripped off her head, or running off to distant shores with Rory’s dad. It terrified her to think of life without her Nan. The very notion made her feel cold and alone, it represented a life she didn’t know was worth living.

  The heat from Rory’s body kept her focused. Thank goodness he’d been able to take her. She’d have been in a terrible state on the train, at least on the bike flying along the motorway it felt like they were going to get there quicker.

  He made several stops to refuel and on one of them made her have a hot soup and eat a sandwich. She took the opportunity to ring the hospital and ask what her grandmother’s condition was. She was told Nan was stable. The sense of relief she felt was huge, leaving her limp like a dishrag. She noticed there was a text message from her sister, Rowan, who was already at Nan’s bedside.

  “When do you think we’ll get there?”

  Rory took a gulp of coffee then looked at his watch. “An hour, maybe less. How you feeling?”

  “Better, thank you. Rowan is with her. The soup helped a lot, you were right.”

  As they closed on their destination, Sky assisted, pointing directions over his shoulder. Swinging into the car park, he drove into a bay occupied by bikes, and rolled his into position alongside them.

  Sky took off her helmet and shook out her hair as she unzipped her jacket and looked around.

  “You’re pale,” Rory commented, with a frown.

  She nodded but glanced away so he wouldn’t look at her puffy eyes.

  Securing the bike, he reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

  “Are you going to grab a coffee at the café or something?”

  “No, I’m coming in with you.”

  That felt good.

  He smiled. “I haven’t come all this way to stand by like a chauffeur, madam.”

  “I didn’t know if you’d want to. I mean, Rowan will ask questions.” She stared at her feet for a moment. She’d thought about it on the journey. “They’ll want to know why we’re together. I’d understand if you didn’t want to deal with it.”

  “Hey,” he whispered moving in against, “We’re together. I’m not going to hide.”

  Sky had to swallow back the urge to cry on his shoulder. Overwrought and fretful, hearing him say the words she’d wanted to hear for so long—that they were together—made her knees go weak.

  He lifted her hair free untangling it with his fingers, watching it as it blew out in this the breeze from the North Wales coast. “Unless you’d prefer they didn’t know—”

  She quickly shook her head.

  He gave a slow smile. “I intend to be right there with you. You’ve got nothing to hide, Sky, but I respect your decision if you don’t want them to know. Be sure.”

  His expression softened.

  She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. “No, I’m good.

  “Okay. Let me get this bike locked up, then we can get in there and see what’s happening.”

  Moments later they were walking through the entrance doors, seeking signs to the wards. Rory headed over to a reception desk to get guidance. When he turned back, Sky seemed frozen to the spot, staring up at the information boards. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “It’s just this place, I hate it.”

  “I hate hospitals too. Reminds me of my mum, how bad it was at the end.”

  Sky stared over has shoulder down the long corridors. “Reminds me of my mum too, being here with her.”

  She hadn’t meant to mention it. It was a big mistake to have done so.

  He stared at her for a long moment, as if about to ask more. Thankfully he didn’t.

  “Come on, the stroke unit is just along here.” He put his arm around her as they set off and she leaned in against him.

  “Thank you Rory, for coming with me.”

  He squeezed her. “I care about you too much to have done anything else.”

  ****

  “Don’t worry its not as bad as it looks.” Rowan, Sky’s older sister stood up from her chair by the bedside to hug her. “She’s sleeping. It’s the medication they had to give her to suppress the symptoms.”

  Sky clung to her older sister, peering over her shoulder at their grandmother in the hospital bed. Nan looked frail. It didn’t help that the hospital gown drowned her. Her silvery white hair spread out on the pillow around her, her face pale. It tore Sky apart to see her this way.

  Rowan spoke quietly. “They only allow two visitors at a time, you go and sit with Gladys and I’ll grab her a cup of tea.”

  “Thanks Rowan.” She stared at her sister’s familiar face and noticed she’d lost weight and changed her hair color. It was vibrant red. When she’d left it had been copper toned.

  Rowan squinted at her. “How did you get here so quickly?”

  “I got a lift.” She nodded vaguely to the entrance to the unit, where Rory sat in the corridor.

  Gladys, Nan’s sister and their great aunt, sat on the other side of the bed. “You’re a good girl, you got here very quickly.”

  Sky skirted the bed and stood behind Gladys. While embracing her, she put a big kiss on her great aunt’s cheek.

  The nurse came to look at the drip and the various paraphernalia that Nan was attached to. Gladys gestured at Sky. “This is Doris’s other grand daughter, Sky.”

  The nurse didn’t look as though she had time to meet and great relatives, but nodded and smiled at Sky while she went about her business.

  Sky nodded at the nurse self-consciously.

  “Your grandmother is doing very well.”

  Sky found it hard to imagine it, seeing her so groggy and wired up.

  “It looks worse than it is,” the nurse added, gesturing at the drip. “We’re keeping her hydrated. It was caught early, at the transient ischemic attack rather than a full on stroke. A mini-stroke. It’s a warning sign, if you like.”

  “That’s better than expected?” Relief began to creep over her but she could still scarcely breathe because of the tension in her chest.

  “We have a lot worse ladies on the ward, look around you. “

  Sky didn’t want to look around her but did. A couple of the ladies were sitting in chairs, dressed, but didn’t seem to know where they were and looked very frail. Another young woman, no more than her own mother’s age was in one of the beds, with her husband at her side holding her hand. The woman was trying to speak and was upset because she couldn’t. The husband looked so distressed on her behalf,
that

  Sky had to turn away.

  Gladys patted her arm. “She’s been awake in the last couple of hours and she was talking. Believe me, it’s not holding her back, so don’t you worry.”

  The nurse nodded. “She had a scan within an hour. As far as we can tell very little damage, we’re just taking precautions.”

  Sky still felt heavy with fear, with guilt, with desperation to hear her voice. All through the journey—clinging to Rory while he forged a fast path through the heart of England and into Wales—she’d thought about what it might mean, and she’d vowed to move back, to help her Nan.

  Gladys yanked her arm. “Look.”

  Nan’s eyelids flickered open. She stared around at them, fuzzy-eyed. When her gaze reached Sky, her lips parted. “Sky, my precious girl, is that you?”

  Sky burst into tears. “It’s me Nan, I’m here.”

  Nan reached out her hands and Sky leaned in and embraced her.

  “So good of you to come and see me. I’ll get better even quicker now.”

  Sky wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “I’ll move back home, Nan. I shouldn’t have moved away.”

  “Don’t be silly love.” Nan grasped her hand. “A couple of weeks ago Gladys and I decided to move in together. There’s room at her house for Rowan and the baby too.”

  “Oh, okay.” They got on well, but it never occurred to her they might one day move in together. “I suppose it makes sense.”

  “That’s what we thought. It’ll half the bills. Now, tell me about you. Did you get the train?”

  “No, Rory brought me. You remember Rory don’t you?

  “Of course I do. “ Nan smiled. “I wondered how long it would take you to track him down.”

  “It wasn’t like that.” Sky blushed. “We bumped into each other in the city.”

  “But you hoped you’d meet him again, didn’t you?”

  Did I? She’d gone to London for a better life, for more opportunities and to maybe study part time at one of the world famous art schools in the city. Perhaps she had always been looking for him when she scoured the crowds in the city, in the transport system or when a motorbike shot by on the street.

  “Don’t look so embarrassed, sweetheart. You thought of nothing else after he’d gone, didn’t you? All that rebellion you had, it was fuelled by emotions, and we knew that.”

  “Yes, but it was Mum I was annoyed with, back then. She left us.” Sky frowned, confused. “She abandoned me and I hadn’t even finished school!”

  “She didn’t abandon you, you had us. You liked living with me and Rowan. It was Rory you were most upset about.”

  “I did like living with you.” Part of her wanted it again, the sisterhood of her Nan and Rowan.

  “You followed your heart.” Nan yawned.

  Sky felt as if she’d been slapped. I can’t be that hooked on him, surely? It made her want to run out into the corridor and tell him to fuck off and go back to London and leave her alone.

  She was already feeling out of her depth and afraid—afraid to be with him, afraid to be without him. It wasn’t right to invest in a man. She only had to look at Rowan to know that, for a fact.

  What have I done?

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Rory sat in the hospital corridor, thinking about Sky.

  When she took her helmet her eyes were red rimmed and puffy. It troubled him to imagine her doing the journey alone, upset and in tears. He had to be with her. There hadn’t been a moment’s doubt for him, not a decision to make. He’d done it on instinct. Because he cared about her. A lot.

  He’d been surprised how familiar the journey felt, and the surroundings, once they entered Cadogan. Before they took off for London he’d spent a lot of time riding around the area—often to get out of the house because Sky was there, setting off fireworks in his mind and body. It seemed odd that they came back together. Or maybe not?

  The general hospital was familiar too. He’d had to go there himself once for a busted rib—courtesy of his dad. It wasn’t dad who took him though, it was Draco and Sean. They insisted he get it checked out, when they saw he was in pain. While the three of them waited for the x-ray results, they talked about their dreams of leaving for London. It became a serious plan. The three of them made a pact.

  When they’d hit the road they’d all three consciously split with the town, and their parents. Departing on their bikes with only a backpack of kit, they’d left for freedom and adventure. Draco had given the place the finger as he left, vowing he’d never come back. Rory had glibly agreed. It’d been an immature reaction and it embarrassed him to even think about it now. Of course he’d have to come back one day. His dad wasn’t going to live on a beach in Thailand forever.

  Restless, he stood up and peered out the window, glancing at the hospital grounds. This was where Sky had been born. Most of all the hospital surroundings made him think of his mother. Back in Dublin, she’d died in the Oncology ward, slipping away unexpectedly, clutching his hand and whispering incoherent words.

  Surreal, a different hospital and a different land, and yet undeniably familiar. The very nature of the place crowded his mind with memories.

  “Rory?”

  Snapping back to the moment, Rory turned toward the voice.

  Rowan, Sky’s sister, was coming toward him.

  “Rowan, hello. How’s the patient?”

  Rowan came right up to him and stared at him with intense scrutiny.

  “She’s going to be okay, thank goodness.” She paused, and continued to look into his eyes. “So, how long have you and Sky been seeing each other?”

  “We bumped into each other on the tube, just a few days ago.” It was the truth.

  “Coincidence, huh?” She didn’t look convinced.

  Rory nodded.

  Her eyes bored holes into him. Eventually, she broke into a wry smile. “No need to look so shifty.”

  Rory’s instinct was denial. He didn’t want to appear shifty. “I’m not. We get on well. It’s not against the law.”

  “No.” She looked almost wistful. “I’m glad you got together, I told her she shouldn’t follow you to London but she wouldn’t listen.”

  He shook his head. “She wouldn’t have known where I was, it was chance.”

  “She hoped though. I hope you look after her.”

  “I intend to.”

  “Good. I appreciate you bringing her.”

  “Unfortunately we have to head back later today. Her supervisor is a cold-hearted bitch, only gave her today off, even though it was a family emergency.”

  “Nice.”

  “She needs a better job.”

  Rowan nodded, seemingly impressed. “How’s Sean?”

  “He’ll be out for Christmas. I’m hoping to set him up with a job at the bike shop where I work.”

  She didn’t respond for ages. “Come on, you better go in and speak to Nan. They allow two at a time so I’ll wait here with Gladys, while you take a turn with Sky.”

  Rory wasn’t sure he wanted to go in there. Partly because it would make him think of this mother again. Partly because Nan was a bit of a scary lady and he didn’t have the first idea what she would say when she saw the pair of them standing together at her bedside.

  “Don’t look like that,” Rowan said with a soft laugh. “You know what she’s like. She’d be annoyed if she knew you were here and didn’t say hello.”

  “True.” Rory opened the door.

  Rowan waved to her great aunt and held up the cardboard cup of tea. As they exchanged places Gladys nodded at Rory and looked at him with curiosity. “Rory Rattigan, what a hero you are, getting her here so quickly.”

  Hero? Rory almost laughed aloud. It was the last thing he expected her to say. And it was pretty damn far from what he felt, with the dubious legacy of his hacker days hammering close at his back.

  He moved to be at Sky’s side, and rested his hand on shoulder.

  Nan was barely awake but peered at hi
m anyway.

  “Hello, Nan,” he offered.

  Nan smiled. “Rory Rattigan. More handsome than ever.”

  Rory was used to them chasing him off from Sky, this was too weird. She was a woman now, an independent woman, not a crazy kid, that’s why.

  Sky looked up at him gratefully. “Nan’s going to be okay, and she’s going move in with Gladys, Rowan too.”

  “That must be a huge relief.” She squeezed his hand.

  Nan lifted one hand and gestured at Sky. “Have you heard from your mother at all?”

  Rory felt her tense. “No, she’s still in Thailand. I’ll contact her if Rowan hasn’t already. We’ll let her know you’re going to be okay.” She seemed awkward. “Rory got me here as quick as he could,” she added, in an obvious effort to change the topic.

  “Thank you lad, you were always a decent lad.”

  Rory shrugged it off, but it meant a lot to him.

  They spent the rest of afternoon visiting time with Nan, then said their goodbyes and took their leave. As they left the ward, Rory noticed Sky was still shaky. He expected her to be happier, relieved that things weren’t worse than they could have been.

  “Weather looks grim. We might have to break the journey.”

  She nodded vaguely, staring down the corridor.

  He followed her gaze. She was watching a woman in a wheelchair being pushed along by a porter in uniform. The woman was fearful looking and had a drip attached to a wheelchair. She scratched her skin nervously and didn’t appear to know where she was.

  Sky turned away. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

  With that, she took off like a bird in flight.

  Astonished, it took Rory a moment to realize what was happening.

  He didn’t catch up with her until she was at the bike stand.

  She put out her hand for the helmet.

  “Wait, talk to me.”

  She shook her head.

  Thunder rumbled overhead, black clouds scuttling in from the Irish Sea.

  If they started their return journey now they might be able to stay ahead of it. He handed over the helmet. “We’ll get on our way. We can talk when we take a break.”