Touched by You

I'm really surprised Michael told his parents. But since he did, I'm glad that they believed him and accepted Sydney, even though the story probably does sound insane to them and a normal person would've thought both were crazy.

Chris
 
Sydney's right, it's a good thing they came up with something to explain how they meet, because people will have a hard time believing them if they tell them how they really met :P
 
Chapter 17

Though Sydney was concerned about having Michael has her partner at work, she quickly discovered her worry was unfounded; they worked perfectly together. She’d always thought working with someone she was in a relationship with had disaster written all over it, but, as it turned out, their personal relationship only made them better colleagues at work. They knew each other well and could thus play to each other’s strengths and weaknesses when dealing with clients. After only two weeks, they’d practically become the stars of the office due to their working ethics and attitude.

During those two weeks their personal lives were going just as well. Even though they spent the entire day together, they still wished to spend time together in the evenings instead of spending time apart. Of course, they spent the day physically together in the same office for the most part, but they would never talk about their personal relationship at work. Here and there they asked about dinner plans, but for the vast majority of the time it was strictly work discussion only when at work. This not only helped to separate their personal and work lives, but helped them not get to the point where they were entirely sick of each other after spending essentially fourteen hours a day together and sometimes even twenty-four hours if Michael spent the night at Sydney’s.

Of course working in close quarters had caused a handful of tiffs between the two of them. Most of those were from stupid ‘you’re invading my space with your felgercarb’ type arguments, though there was one true argument they had. Sydney did not wish to accept a client that Michael wanted. She felt the client was irresponsible and would end up not delivering payment to them, whereas Michael felt they should give the client the benefit of the doubt. This argument had escalated into Sydney accusing Michael that he was too casual about his amassing hospital bills and in turn Michael accused Sydney of being too strict with her money. After their argument, they didn’t speak for half a day until they finally made up, both of them apologizing for what they’d said. Aside from the occasional arguments, things between them were better than either one of them could have ever imagined.


One Saturday, Sydney was spending some time cleaning up the bathroom in her apartment, one of her least favorite tasks. She had made plans with Michael for that afternoon, but they were spending the morning apart. As she thought about what the two of them were going to do the next day, she couldn’t remember if they’d said they were going to meet at one or one thirty, since both times had been discussed when their plans had been made. Deciding it was best to call and ask rather then argue with herself in her mind, Sydney reached for the phone. Michael didn’t have a cell phone (he was going without every expense possible so he could devote as much free cash to the hospital bills as possible) so Sydney called Eric’s apartment.

“Yello,” Eric answered in his usual tone.

“Eric, it’s Sydney. Is Michael there?” she asked.

“Mike? Uh no, he’s not…I think he said something about going to the hospital…”

“HOSPITAL?!” Sydney screeched, her tone turning frantic. “What do you mean hospital?! Is he alright?! Why would he go to the hospital?! Did he say anything about a couch?”

“Sorry Syd, I really don’t know but I gotta go – I got a date here and she just invited me into the shower. YAY!” he said excitedly.

“No, Eric, wai-” but Sydney cut her voice off when she heard the dial tone on the other end of the phone meaning Eric had hung up on her.

Sydney slowly released her grip on the receiver, letting her wrist fall limp. The receiver slipped from her grasp onto the floor at her feet, landing with a soft thump on the carpet. Of course this meant the phone was not hung up properly, but Sydney didn’t even seem to notice; her mind was spinning. Michael was at the hospital. What did that mean? Did he wake up with a terrible headache? Was he having complications from his brain surgery? Was he relapsing into his coma? Was it even possible to relapse into a coma?

All these questions drove Sydney practically insane as she paced her apartment, debating whether she should rush down to the hospital or wait until one o’clock (or one thirty) to see if Michael contacted her. She practically wore holes in her floor from the circles she was walking around all her furniture. Every time she shut her eyes, horrible scenarios of Michael’s brain being cut open and chunks being removed filled her minds’ eye. All she could do was wonder what she’d do if that really happened.


When at one-fifteen there was a knock at her door, Sydney practically jumped out of her skin. She rushed over and opened it quickly to find Michael smiling, just as calm as ever. “Oh thank god,” she sighed as she fell into his arms.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Michael asked softly, hugging her tightly. Though he was glad to see her too, her reaction obviously displayed that there was something more wrong.

“Eric said… you were at… hospital,” Sydney managed through the tears of relief forming in her eyes.

“Yeah, he said you sounded a little freaked on the phone. I just went down to make sure they’d accidentally put an extra zero on the bill they sent me and thank god they did – I nearly had a stroke!” he laughed, trying to lighten the mood. Sydney obviously did not see the amusement in this. “Hey, Syd, come on… what’s wrong?” he asked as he pulled back some of the hair from her eyes, trying to see her face properly even though it was mostly buried in his chest.

“I was just…I just thought that maybe something had happened… that you had a relapse or something, I don’t know… I was just scared something happened to you and I … and I wouldn’t get to…,” she let her voice drift off.

“Aw Syd, honey, I’m fine,” Michael said, pressing a kiss into the top of her head. “Remember? I promised – no more couches.” This managed to make Sydney smile, but only for a moment. She lifted her head up and gave him a soft kiss before nuzzling her face against his. Upon feeling the wetness on her cheeks Michael combed his fingers through her hair. “Hey, this really upset you, didn’t it?”

She nodded her face against his before pulling back enough to look at him. “Would you mind if we stayed in this afternoon instead of going out to the mall?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “Of course not. What do you want to do instead?” he asked. Her answer came in the form of a sense-shattering kiss as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled her body close to his.
 
ohhh are they gonna do what i think they are going to do

felgercarb
theres only one more chapter to go
NOOOO
 
I had a feeling it wasn't something too serious, otherwise Michael would've called her or at least have Eric drive him to the hospital. Which begs the question, how did he get to the hospital? He doesn't have a car and paying a cab would be spending money he can't affort to lose.

Chris
 
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