Page 112 of Come Back to Me

Bast spins on his toes and hollers, “Jamie, go and get her pills!”

Jamie, who’d dumped the tools he was working with when Bast dropped to his knees, takes an edgy step back before he rushes into the house.

“Now they want to drug me!”

Tee snags a firm hold of Elena’s shoulders, catches her eye, and sings a lilting tune that’s half-fisherman’s ballad and half-Viking saga.

Elena jolts back in surprise but her mouth works. Then, Tee repeats a line of the lyrics twice, and the third time, Elena sings it too.

Her expression, while not lucid, is far better than it was before. That wildness in her eyes fades as she and Tee sing along together.

When Jamie rushes to the car, he drops the bottle of pills in Bast’s hand.

But it’s Tee, though she continues with the song, who holds out her fingers for the bottle.

“I need one of these for a terrible headache, Mrs. Frobisher,” she excuses. “Can I have one?”

Bast goes to complain, but Jamie kicks him until he shuts up.

“They’re drugs, dear,” Elena whispers. “You can’t trust these boys. They’re terrible.”

I see Bast and Jamie freeze at her words, but Tee holds out her hand for the water Jamie’s also holding.

“No, see, Mrs. Frobisher? It’s headache medicine. I don’t know about you, but on these hot days, I always get a headache. Don’t you?”

Elena blinks at her, then her fingers drift to her temple. “You’re right, dear. I-I do have quite a headache.”

Tee pops the bottle, scans the front of it, and retrieves two. “One for you and one for me,” she offers, palm outstretched

Elena hesitantly selects a pill, but she watches Tee like a hawk.

“Is this wise?” I hiss in Bast’s ear.

“No,” he grunts.

Dammit.

Tee pops the pill into her mouth like she’s not about to swallow what could be poison to her, then she takes a swig of water and gulps.

“There. Twenty minutes and it’ll be all better. Take yours now, Mrs. Frobisher. Then we can sing again.”

But Elena’s wise to these tricks. As a nurse by profession, I figure it makes sense that she would be.

“Pop your tongue, dear. Let me make sure you’ve taken your medication.”

Tee shoots me the swiftest of glances before she opens her mouth.

Whatever she doesn’t see has Elena humming happily and popping the tablet too.

Then, Tee sings that same ditty, and slowly, gradually, eventually, Elena sags against the backseat.

She’s not asleep but she’s...

“God, I hate these meds,” Bast rumbles, the despair in his voice hitting me on the raw.

“You should have told me she was this bad,” I rasp, as bleak as he is.

“You were fighting a war, Code. What good would it have done, you being distracted?”

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