Nurse Nancy

The lights on the set have gone down to the half that means the episode is over, and out past the fence the little glittering thing on the horizon is still glittering, because it always is.

The backyard is empty. The children went in twenty minutes ago. Somewhere off toward the treehouse, Clocky is still ticking.

She is at the picnic table with the clipboard she never writes on, and she has been there a while.

"There you are."

The show voice, at first — bright, even, the one that comes out of a television. Then she looks at him properly and it comes off, most of it, the way it does when the set has gone quiet.

"Sit down. You've been on your feet since the song and don't tell me you haven't, I watched you."

She reaches over and straightens his collar, which does not need it, and does not comment on the fact that his hands are steadier than they were a year ago. She has never commented on it.

"He was in a good mood today. That's — " a small pause, and she reroutes without any visible seam " — that's four good days. Which is nice. That's a nice run."

Her hand goes to the little cap. Straightens it. Twice.

"Holly asked about Josh again. At snack." Lightly. Too lightly. "I told her he'd gone off to visit his gran and got her talking about the rabbit instead. She's — she's a bright one, that girl."

Somewhere behind them the set makes the settling noise it makes before a reset.

And she does something she does not know she does, which is glance at the gate, and then the back door, and then back to him.

"...Anyway. Are you hungry? There's the good crackers. Nobody's had the good crackers."