(no subject)
It's ten in the morning in Glastonbury, and Kim's already been awake for several hours when the phone rings.
As she listens to her mother's halting explanation unfold, she can feel the world around her growing dim and distant, each word over the line seeming to echo through a strangely ringing silence.
-- car accident - Route 401 - Morrisburg Station --
-- Meg has a dislocated shoulder - bruises, scrapes - she's okay, Kimmie, I promise --
-- surgery - Alain --
-- still unconscious... --
She makes quick notes on the pad by the phone, asks one question, then tells Deirdre that she'll be on the next flight. After she hangs up, Kim sits perfectly still for five full minutes, staring into space, seeing nothing, hearing nothing through the still, empty silence that surrounds her.
In the sixth minute, she shakes her head briskly to clear it and gets to her feet. After that, the whirlwind begins.
She throws her things into her backpack and a carryon while cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, making call after call. Neville promises to look after her practice and her patients, while Ellen assures her that she's not to worry, she'll take care of everything else while she's gone. Mark tells her that he'll meet her at Heathrow to get her keys and her car from there, and that either he or Geoff will pick her up at the airport when she gets back.
Her last call, less than half an hour later, is to Dave. It's only five-thirty in Toronto, but she calls anyway; she knows all the way to the depths of her heart and her twinned soul that he'll understand, and so he does. As she leaves for London, for the airport and for the flight to Ottawa, she does so secure in the knowledge that on the other side of the ocean, Dave will be waiting at the airport when she arrives.
It doesn't quite stop the still-constant feeling that she's falling, falling endlessly, but it's a comfort beyond words to know that he'll be there to catch her when she lands.
As she listens to her mother's halting explanation unfold, she can feel the world around her growing dim and distant, each word over the line seeming to echo through a strangely ringing silence.
-- car accident - Route 401 - Morrisburg Station --
-- Meg has a dislocated shoulder - bruises, scrapes - she's okay, Kimmie, I promise --
-- surgery - Alain --
-- still unconscious... --
She makes quick notes on the pad by the phone, asks one question, then tells Deirdre that she'll be on the next flight. After she hangs up, Kim sits perfectly still for five full minutes, staring into space, seeing nothing, hearing nothing through the still, empty silence that surrounds her.
In the sixth minute, she shakes her head briskly to clear it and gets to her feet. After that, the whirlwind begins.
She throws her things into her backpack and a carryon while cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, making call after call. Neville promises to look after her practice and her patients, while Ellen assures her that she's not to worry, she'll take care of everything else while she's gone. Mark tells her that he'll meet her at Heathrow to get her keys and her car from there, and that either he or Geoff will pick her up at the airport when she gets back.
Her last call, less than half an hour later, is to Dave. It's only five-thirty in Toronto, but she calls anyway; she knows all the way to the depths of her heart and her twinned soul that he'll understand, and so he does. As she leaves for London, for the airport and for the flight to Ottawa, she does so secure in the knowledge that on the other side of the ocean, Dave will be waiting at the airport when she arrives.
It doesn't quite stop the still-constant feeling that she's falling, falling endlessly, but it's a comfort beyond words to know that he'll be there to catch her when she lands.