I just really love Forever okay. Anyway I own nothing, obviously. (You know I'm not sure why people do that. Like of course you don't own this, if you owned this obviously a few thing would be a bit different but you know...) Enjoy!
It had been a fairly quiet evening. Abe had cooked dinner, as usual. It had been delicious, as usual. But nobody had died thankfully, at least not recently enough for Henry to be in the morgue right now. For now he was sitting at his desk reading an old book he had found in his desk drawer. Abe had gone to bed an hour ago. He had just put the book down when the upstairs phone rang. He rushed to go answer it so it would awaken Abe.
"Hello?"he answered quietly.
"Oh hey, look at you. You actually answered the phone,"Jo's voice said jokingly on the other end. Henry rolled his eyes.
"Did you need something or did you just want to see if I'd answer the phone?"He said this very sarcastically but he was smiling as he did.
"Well,"she hesitated. Patiently, Henry waited. Sighing before she continued, she said, "I kind of slipped in the shower and now my arm really hurts. I think I broke something,"she sighed again."But the thing is I'm not really clothed, I mean I have a towel wrapped around me but-"
"You wanted me to come look at it?"Henry interrupted, but got to the point of the conversation.
"Will you? Please?"
"Of course,"Henry assured her. Would there be an instance where he would have said no? Probably not. "I'll be needing your address though,"he added. He quickly jotted it down as she recited it to him. "Okay, I'll be there in about twenty minutes."
"Okay, I'll be here." And with that she hung up.
Grabbing his old medical bag, he threw on his coat and scarf and went to get a cab.
Henry had been wrong, it hadn't taken him twenty minutes; it had taken him ten. Quickly, he jogged up to her door. It was already unlocked, Henry debated whether or not he should knock. If he knocked, she would have to get up and answer the door. She did of course know he was coming over though. Finally, Henry just quickly knocked on the door and stepped inside. It was too cold to be waiting outside anyway. "Jo,"he called. He had never been in her house before. It was nice. It, of course, was not filled with antiques and such like Henry and Abe's but it was nice. Very...comfortable. He liked it.
"I'm in here,"she called from what seemed to be the kitchen. Walking in he saw that it was in fact the kitchen. Jo was sitting on a barstool now fully clothed in her pjs rather than wrapped in just a towel, she was cradling her left arm.
"I see you got some clothes on,"he commented.
"Yeah, I figured it would be better if I was wearing more than a towel when you got here."
Setting his bag down on the counter he motioned if it was okay for him to touch her arm. She nodded yes. "Where does it hurt exactly?" He asked prodding at the very inflamed area around her elbow.
"Right there,"she hissed at him when he touched her elbow again.
He quickly apologized, before continuing, "Can you move it?"
"I can a little but it's hurts a lot,"she told him.
He nodded. It was probably just a sprain then. "Okay. One to ten scale, how bad is the pain?" He sat down on the barstool next her and started digging through his bag.
"Maybe a five".
He looked back up at her. "Well, I think it's just a sprain. But if you want I can help you get some clothes on and we can go get X-rays."
She almost cringed. Then shrugged her unhurt arm. "I trust your judgment on this."She sounded just the slightest bit unsure. Not that Henry blamed her, he was by most people standards quite odd.
Henry smiled at that. "Okay, well I'm going to wrap it up,"he held up the white bandages he had. "And then I want you to keep some ice on it."
As he carefully started wrapping the bandaged around her elbow she said, "I'm sorry I called you about this."
He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
She shrugged her good arm. "I don't know. Just because. I mean." She sighed before starting again."I called you because you were the first person I could think of to help me in this situation. And I shouldn't have asked you to put down whatever it was you were doing at home to come bandage up my arm. And-"
"Stop right there,"Henry interrupted her. She frowned. "It's fine. I promise. I wasn't doing anything anyway. And why shouldn't you have called your friend who just so happens to have been a 'real doctor' as you put it." He said, trying to get her to smile again. It worked.
"You know what I meant,"she said stubbornly, but a second later she smiled again.
"Okay,"he said put the last few ice cubes into the bag."You should keep this on there for a little while and take some Tylenol. That will defiantly help." Gently, he pressed the ice pack to her elbow, although she still flinched away from the cold. "I'll check on it tomorrow. I'm sure we'll see each other."
"Probably,"was all she said. She hated to admit it but she didn't really want him to go. She had started to hate coming home after her husband had died. There was never anyone there when she got home. There was never anyone to talk to. She had thought about getting a pet but had thought better of it.
They sat there for a few more minutes, Henry gently holding the ice pack against her elbow and Jo trying to think of something to say.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I guess I should be going." He thought he saw a trace of disappointment on her face.
"Oh,"she took the ice pack from him and set it on the counter. "I'll walk you to the door then."
Slowly, they both made their way to the front door and stood there for a few seconds, neither quiet knowing what to say. "Thank you, again."Jo finally broke the silence.
"It was nothing." He looked at the door. "I guess I should be going,"he said for a second time.
"Okay." Opening the door for him, she realized how cold it was. She hoped Henry got a cab quickly. "See you tomorrow." He nodded to her as he started walking down the steps.
When she closed the door again she felt maybe the tiniest bit less lonely knowing she had Henry as a friend. He was willing to do this sort of thing for her, with no complaints. She smiled to herself, he was very kind. She would have to find some sort of thank you gift for this. Maybe a scarf, he liked scarves.
When Jo handed him the small flat how the next day he raised an eyebrow. "What's this?" He shook the box.
"A thank you gift. Open it,"she urged.
Henry frowned. "You didn't need to do this. I told you-"
"Just open it, Henry."
Henry rolled his eyes but lifted the lid of the little box to reveal a blue scarf. He smiled. Of course a scarf, what else? "Thank you,"he told her sincerely.
She smiled,"I knew you liked scarves."
"I do,"he admitted while wrapping the new scarf around his neck. He held his hands out, "well?"
"It looks great." She reached up and readjusts it with her good arm.
"How does your arm feel?"he asked looking at her left arm which she had been keeping close to her body.
"Better since I got some advice from my doctor."She nudged him playfully.
"Oh, I'm your doctor now am I? The other day I wasn't even a real doctor and now I'm your doctor?"he said playfully, knowing this conversation was going to go on for a while.