The night morning after Marcus flew back was difficult. I didn't want him to leave, though I was feeling more hopeful with the new plan of action. But Coop could only stay a couple nights before he left to start his internship, and Marcus wouldn't hear of anyone outside of the family watching the pups. I didn’t push him about asking his brother when he didn’t volunteer him as an option.

Mama and I had been watching some reruns of one of those singing reality shows, critiquing everyone's song and dress choices. The show was long since over, but neither of us had been into it when it was on, and the hospital cable choices were pretty miserable. 

"Mrs. Daye?" Dr. Kuyper stepped in with an expectant expression. He was about the only doctor in this whole ordeal who didn't make me want to shake him and tell him to dumb things down to pure English. "Oh good, your son is here, so I can tell you both."

Everything slowed down around us. Mama and I shared a hopeful, terrified look. She'd been on the antibiotics less than twenty-four hours. She hadn't had any more episodes yet, but she'd gone days without having them before.

Dr. Kuyper took a deep breath and smiled. "The tests came back with strong indicators for Lyme."

It was as if the room breathed a collective sigh of relief. "So what now?" Mama asked.

"You'll stay on the antibiotics, but you can transfer to a hospital closer to home. You can even continue the IV antibiotics at home if you'd like, but that's something you can discuss with your local doctor. We'll put together your files and send them with you when you transfer."

Mama clenched my hand, tightly, tears brimming in her eyes. And then my vision was blurring. Damn it. I stood to thank the doctor, to shake his hand, and he came up for Mama to give me a hug.

"You hear that, Mama? Next week, you'll be home."

Mama swatted my shoulder. "Now, don't get getting your hopes up yet. It's not a sure thing. We have to wait and see if what the next doctor says. You know, I never would have thought of Lyme. I never really left the hotel."

"Well, I may just have to lock you up like Rapunzel in a tower to keep you safe." 

Her eyes were glinting with a true happiness that had been fading the longer she was in the hospital. "Oh, hush you. Go tell Marcus now. And tell him that just because I'm not dying doesn't mean he's getting out of letting me read his next book early."

I kissed her forehead, for the first time, not worried that something terrible would happen between me leaving and returning. "I'll do that."

It took several rings for Marcus to wake up and I realized it was just past nine in the morning. He would have been up once this morning to walk the dogs, but normally he fell back into bed after that. This was worth waking him up for. When he answered, he sounded just as sleep rumpled as I expected.

"It's Lyme." I didn't have to temper my excitement anymore. "They're planning on transferring Mama back home."

Marcus was awake immediately after that. "That's amazing, babe!"

"We'll be home soon," I whispered.

"That's something we need to talk about." Marcus's voice was hesitant. "I've been thinking about this a lot, and I didn't want to burden you with this before I needed to..."

I had a brief moment of fear that Marcus was about to break up with me, that he had decided after all this stress, it just wasn't worth it. I wasn't worth it. I could barely breathe. "Just tell me, Marcus."

"We're going to need a bigger house."

My breath wooshed out of me in a sudden, dizzying rush. "Is that it?" I said laughing.

"Hear me out. We hardly have enough room for all the animals as it is, and that's without two full grown men. And even if your Mama does get to go home home soon, she's going to need assistance. Live in assistance. There's no room for her in our house, and definitely no room for us in her house.

My heart was swelling with relief that Marcus wasn't actually thinking about leaving me, and on top of that, the way he kept saying "our" was twisting my insides up in the best kind of way. But this whole idea of buying a house... neither Mama or I had that kind of money. And I knew what Marcus wanted to say... I knew why he had been hesitant—he knew I didn't like the idea of him just buying things willy nilly, especially for me, no matter what kind of money he had.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking a house big enough for both of us, the five kids, and an in-law apartment."

That sounded amazing. 

"And I know what you're going to say, and I've been working on some plans and looking at houses. Mostly dreaming, but there are some realistic options out there for us."

"Thank you," I said.

"Is that a yes?" Marcus asked hopefully.

"That's an I'll think of it. But thank you for everything. For loving me, for loving our babies, for loving my mama. For being you."

After talking to Marcus, I sat with Mama and we researched everything we could, writing down a list of questions for Dr. Kuyper next time we saw him. One of the nurses came in to switch out Mama's IV with a new bag, and I took a selfie to send to Coop and Marcus. Marcus responded with a picture of him snuggled in bed surrounded by all the animals except for Whisper—Blubby in the background. They're excited too!!!!!

They looked like the lazy bums they were. 

When Dr. Kuyper came in to check on Mama before his shift ended, he took the time to answer all of our questions. There was still a chance the antibiotics wouldn't work if the Lyme disease had progressed far enough. Or they could just take a long time to work. There could be other complications. All of that sat like expectant stones in my gut, but just the fact that we had a possible solution instead of nothing was enough to keep me buoyed throughout the day. I had a fucking good feeling about this