She looked at me questioningly, and it took me a minute to figure out why. When I did, I caught her hand again and held it. “Don’t worry, Jenny’s looking into classes for the rest of us so we can understand you.” She sighed and looked away from me. “Hey, really, it’ll be just fine. We’ll just all have to get used to it, but it’s not a big deal. You’re still here, that’s all I care about. You can draw me stick figures on a notepad and it’ll be just fine.”

She still wouldn’t look at me, and I sighed. She couldn’t exactly tell me, but I sensed that she was feeling guilty about the entire thing. That was just the kind of person she was, and it was the way she’d felt when we’d brought Kallie home from the hospital. I’d tried to talk her out of feeling that way back then, and it hadn’t worked, but I had to try again anyway.

“Listen to me, okay?” I started. She must have heard the seriousness in my voice, because she turned her head and looked at me. “I just want you to focus on doing what you can to get better. It won’t be all the way, and that’s fine. It’s not like you could have controlled having the stroke, so I don’t want you feeling guilty. So we’ll have to change some things, big deal.” I stopped for a second and squeezed her hand. “All that matters to me is that you’re with me. None of the other stuff is important. We’ll work it out.”

There were tears in her eyes as she nodded. Still, she gestured toward the hallway, and it took a little while for me to understand what she was getting at. “The nurses?” I asked finally, and she nodded. “Baby, it’s okay. We’ll only need one for the big stuff. You can tell me about the other stuff. It’ll all be okay.”

Alice didn’t look like she believed me, but I didn’t really have time to reassure her any further because Gemma walked in with our juice. I told her I could hold Alice’s for her so she didn’t have to stick around. She looked like she was going to say something, then she looked at Alice and nodded. I think she guessed that Alice would be a lot less embarrassed by me holding her juice for her than needing a nurse to do it. Gemma said she’d come back to check things before too long, and I thanked her as she walked out the door.