Page 9 of Counted

He closed his eyes again, and this time he fell asleep.

When Jude next came to awareness, it might have been minutes or hours or days later. He had absolutely no sense of time passing.

But someone was moving near him. He could feel it. He reached out blindly to check, and his fingers brushed against soft fabric.

Eve. Eve’s skirt. He knew that was what he felt. He held on to it, gripping the fabric in his hand. “Where… goin’?” he managed to mumble.

“Go back to sleep.” Her voice was quiet. Soothing but not sweet. “It’s late. I’m just heading home.”

“Late?” He blinked, levering himself to a sitting position. For a few seconds, he had no idea what day it even was. His hair wasloose, getting into his face, and he was having trouble dragging his eyelids open. A throw blanket slid down his body as he sat up. Someone had clearly covered him in that since he hadn’t done it himself. “What time is it?”

“It’s almost ten. I need to get back home. I have to start packing so I can move my stuff over tomorrow and Wednesday morning.”

Finally the dark fog in his brain began to dissipate. “Tomorrow. Wednesday morning. You’re moving in with me.”

“Yes. And I also need to pack for our trip this weekend. And have that meeting with you and your priest tomorrow morning. So I better get back. I was going to leave you to sleep on the couch, but since you’re awake, why don’t you go upstairs to your room?”

He blinked a few times. He did his best to puzzle out what she might need him to do upstairs, and he couldn’t think of anything. She sounded like it was a good idea, however, so he saw no reason not to go along with it.

He stood up. Was momentarily dizzy but got his bearings after several seconds.

“How’s your head?” Eve asked, waiting as he steadied himself.

“It’s…” He took a breath and let it out. Realized with a wave of relief that his headache was almost gone. “It’s better.”

“Okay, good. Then let’s go upstairs.”

He still had absolutely no idea why they were going upstairs, but she left the library and walked down the hall to the back stairs, so he went with her. On the second floor of this wing was his suite and another one that adjoined it that had always stayed empty.

“This will be your room,” he said as they passed the door, pleased his brain was working well enough to remember that.

“Yes. Nancy’s already fixed it up for me. I’ll start bringing my stuff over tomorrow afternoon. It will just be clothes and personal items, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

He nodded since that all made sense.

They ended up in front of the door to his room. He blinked at it. Then turned and looked at Eve. He should ask her why they were there, but he didn’t want to embarrass himself by not already knowing.

“There’s no reason for you to sleep down on the couch in your clothes. Why don’t you take your clothes off, brush your teeth, and go to bed?” Her tone was conversational rather than coddling or maternal, so he wasn’t offended.

But it seemed very important for him to tell her something. “I don’t sleep naked.”

She gave a choked little giggle. “Okay. I didn’t mean to imply that you did. I just meant you should get ready for bed.”

Her warm amusement penetrated the remaining haze in his mind. Rubbing his face, he muttered, “What the hell is even wrong with me?”

“I’m guessing you’re still kind of drugged from the pill.”

“Oh. Yeah. That’s what it is.”

The realization was a relief. It wafted over him with a deep assurance. He wasn’t actually losing the power of thought or suffering new brain symptoms from the tumor, which the doctor had said was a possibility.

He was simply still affected by the medication.

That realization cleared his mind even more, and he remembered something else. “I was supposed to write this evening.”

“I know you wanted to, but it’s already late. You’ll have some of tomorrow and most of the day on Wednesday before the wedding with nothing to do, so you can write then.”

He nodded, thinking it through. “Yeah. I guess so.” He was already upstairs. Standing in front of his bedroom. He opened the door and stepped in. “Okay. I’ll just go to bed then.”