Toni watched Mason walk away still in shock by the kiss on the cheek. There was nothing even remotely erotic about it but it felt nice. Toni closed the door, locked it and set the alarm before checking on Jamie, he was lying on his side sound asleep. Toni stood by his bed and watched him for a few minutes before going to her own room. She had been in the process of packing her personal belongings and decided to see how much more she could get done before morning. Her goal was to stay up as late as she could, take Jamie over to her parents and then she would sleep during the day in preparation for her shift that night.
As she packed, she found a box that was full of cards from James. She almost put them away and decided to read them. Most of them were typical James, cards that he thought were funny and were meant to make her laugh or smile. A few of them were serious and flowery revealing the romantic that he kept hidden except for special occasions.
Toni found herself teary eyed but not overly sad and to her, that meant progress. That she could laugh again and work again all indicated that she was healing. She put the cards back in the box and put them in her suitcase, she couldn't bring herself to throw them away. Her thoughts went to Mason; she wondered how his wife or significant other had died and how long ago she passed.
She didn't think that it was that long ago but maybe she was wrong. At any rate, she didn't know him well enough to ask. Toni packed until three before deciding to call it a night, she was tired and the first night of work after being off for a couple could be rough.
******
Mason drove home in a good mood; Toni hadn't slapped him when he kissed her cheek although to be fair, he hadn't given her a chance to react. He wondered how she would act around him at work which led to another issue, Joyce. He had no doubt that the hospital wires were burning up and that by the time he and Toni got to work, the rumor mill would have them married with a baby on the way.
When he got home, Mason turned on his laptop to see what was happening over the weekend that Toni and Jamie would enjoy. There was another ball game but he didn't think that Toni would enjoy it although Jamie would. The problem was finding activities that had evening hours. After searching for almost an hour, he came up with miniature golf, a movie or a kiddie arcade. He decided to present the choices to Toni and let her choose what they were going to do, he had no real preference.
It was still relatively early and he was almost sure that Ethan was still up, now would be a good time to find out how he told Katrina that he was a vampire. While he knew the story of how they met, he had never heard how he broke the news to her. Ethan answered on the first ring.
"How's the dating thing going?" Ethan asked.
"Slowly." Mason replied. "How are Katrina and the girls?"
"They're all good, we're in the process of trying to decide whether to home school the girls or not. I think that they need to go to school but Katrina isn't so sure." Ethan said.
"There are pros and cons to both." Mason said. "What are Katrina's concerns?"
"I think that most of it has to do with her own experiences but you didn't call to help me figure out the education plans for the girls, so what's up?" Ethan asked.
"How did you tell Katrina that you were a vampire?" Mason asked not beating around the bush.
"Are things that far along?" Ethan asked surprised.
"No but I just want to be ready."
"Good idea, as you know, I didn't have that luxury." Ethan said. "I had to just spit it out because I was leaving to see Eustace. Needless to say, she didn't take it too well."
Mason was silent for several minutes before he spoke, "I'm not sure of how Toni will react."
"But you have the opportunity of getting to know her before you tell her." Ethan said.
"True." Mason conceded, "I suppose I'll know when the time is right to tell her."
"I think that most of our mates already know on some level that we're different but they don't know in what way. Just take your time and do as you always told me....."
"I know, follow her lead." Mason finished for him
Mason could hear the girls calling for Ethan in the background.
"I'll let you go; I can hear that you're being paged." Mason said.
"No problem, I'll talk to you soon." Ethan said and hung up.
Mason sat at the table for a long time after talking to Ethan; sometime soon, he was going to take Toni out without Jamie. They had to start spending time together and if they were seen outside of the hospital, then so be it but he was going to have a talk with Joyce about her contributions to the rumor mill when he saw her next.
******
Toni had just gotten back from taking Jamie to her parent's house when the phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and groaned she really wasn't in the mood to talk to Gina but decided to get it over with.
"Morning Gina." She said politely.
"Morning Toni." Gina replied but didn't say anything else.
"Did you want something?" Toni asked.
"Yes, I was wondering about that disc that you mentioned. I would like to see it."
"No." Toni said not offering a reason.
"But you said that you would show it to me." Gina said.
"I know I did and I've changed my mind. That disc was James' last gift to me and I don't have to show it to you or anyone else." Toni replied.
"I'm entitled to see..."
"You aren't entitled to anything." Toni interrupted. "You only want to see the disc because you think that I'm lying to you and to be honest, I could give a fuck whether you believe me or not. I want you to listen to me carefully because I'm not going to repeat myself. I loved James, I will always love James but he isn't here. He died and before he died he gave me one last gift, he gave me his blessing to love again if I chose to. I know that to you it would be a betrayal if I found someone else to spend my life with, but all that matters to me is that James would understand and would want me to be happy. Oh and one more thing, if you ever pull a stunt like you did last night in front of Jamie, I'll kick your ass."
Toni slammed the phone down now too agitated to sleep. She took a hot shower, climbed into bed and read until she fell asleep. She woke up around four to the smell of cooking food and Jamie lying on the bed looking at her.
"Gramma says supper is almost ready." he said.
"What time is it?" Toni asked.
"I dunno." Jamie said.
Toni looked at the clock; it was only four, why was her mother cooking so early? She had another hour to sleep. She crawled out of the bed, went into the bathroom closing the door behind her. Toni looked in the mirror and grimaced at the dark circles under her eyes, she had only been asleep for three hours when she was woken up. She turned on the shower and began to mentally prepare herself for a long night, she gave thought to skipping supper and sleeping for another two hours but that would mean that she would miss supper with Jamie and that was unacceptable.
She took her time letting the hot water wash away the rest of her sleepiness. Never one to get dressed for work before she had to, Toni threw on her sweats and went into the kitchen.
"Mom, why are you here so early?" Toni asked.
"I told you." Ben muttered.
"Oh shush already!" Barbara said scowling at him. "I thought that maybe I could make dinner without waking you up. We were in the area and instead of going all the way back home, we came here." she added.
Toni didn't quite believe her but let it go, she was up to something.
******
Mason was up and dressed two hours before he had to be at the hospital. He got the coffee ready to brew and packed a lunch for two. While he rested he decided to ignore the rumor mill, if people thought that he and Toni were a couple then so be it, it might even help in the long run and keep any other interested males away although he hadn't heard about anyone sniffing around her.
An hour later, he was sitting in the office waiting for Joyce, he had moved into another office the week before and was much happier not hearing Joyce's incessant chatter about who was doing what and with whom.
"Mason! What are you doing here?" Joyce asked. "Miss me?"
"No, but I do want to talk to you." he replied.
"Sounds serious." Joyce replied.
"It is, please sit down."
Joyce raised her eyebrows at Mason's tone but sat down.
"Joyce, I want you to stop spreading rumors about me and Toni." Mason said.
"I...."
"Don't bother to deny it." Mason said cutting her off. "I heard the comments as I walked down the hall and the only place that the information could have come from was you. I don't care what they say about me but I do care when the gossip is about Toni."
"If there's nothing between you then why do you care so much?" Joyce asked defensively.
"Are you so bored with your own life that you have to interfere with the lives of others?" Mason asked ignoring her question. "I'm only going to say this once more, stop spreading rumors." he said and stood up to leave.
Mason went to his office knowing that the rumors wouldn't stop but he worried about Toni more than he should have, had he heard about the talk that she had with Kim or the way that she had dealt with Gina, he would have realized that she didn't need that kind of protection.
******
Toni parked and headed to the doctor's sleeping room that she would be using that night. She was grateful for her foresight in not scheduling her nights together. After tonight, she would off for almost a week and a half and she could hardly wait. She put the lunch for two that her mother packed in the fridge and laughed, Barbara was still trying to play match maker between her and Mason. After her talk with Gina that morning, Toni couldn't bring herself to be mad about it.
Toni put her stethoscope around her neck, checked her pockets to make sure that she had several pens and headed out to report. She was well aware of the looks and whispers as she passed by and assumed that Joyce had been at work. It frustrated her that adults acted like teenagers with the he said/ she said gossip but had decided it wasn't worth getting upset over, as long as there were institutions and people, there would be gossip and the rumor mills that would run nonstop.
It turned out to be a rather busy night with Toni admitting three patients with chest pain, two drug overdoses, two hip fracture patients and one burst appendix. It was past three before she made it to the doctor's lounge carrying the lunch for two. She found herself disappointed when Mason wasn't there but settled down to eat and browse through a magazine that someone left on the table.
