Work Text:
As soon as the first few notes of a very familiar ringtone started playing just as she finished cooking dinner, Kate knew that she would be spending yet another evening by herself, and she couldn’t ignore the swell of disappointment it brought her.
Still, she did her best to hide it as she hurried to turn off the stove and picked up her cell phone where she left it on the kitchen counter, plastering a smile on her face despite knowing no one would see it. “Hi Harvey!”
“Hi, honey,” her husband sighed from the other end of the line.
There was a clear exhaustion to his voice, and she could practically see him at his desk in the clinic, glasses discarded amid the paperwork that littered its surface and his tie undone around his neck. His hair was probably a disheveled mess from him running long fingers through it as he poured over patient files and reports, returned to its natural, fluffy state that he fought with every morning to comb down and control. With another little burst of disappointment, Kate had to fight just a bit to turn her attention back to the conversation at hand.
“How was your day? Everything good at the clinic?”
“As fine as it could be, I suppose: luckily just regular appointments for the most part.” He sounded hesitant, the kind that made him draw every word out as if it would help him avoid the inevitable as long as possible, and Kate knew well enough he was trying to work up the courage to tell her the real reason he was calling. “I’m really sorry about this…”
“It’s ok,” she sighed, sinking into one of the kitchen chairs, sparing him from having to tell her for the third night in a row that he would be spending the night at his old apartment. He’d be working on reports and files late into the night and have to be up bright and early the next day to do it all again, and they both knew it made more sense to just stay in town instead of walking back and forth from the farm. "I understand."
It was hardly a surprise at this point: Harvey had been working late almost every night for the last two weeks as cold and flu season had gotten into full swing. Most of the year, his clients were limited to the other residents of Pelican Town, a manageable group for a small-town clinic. But being one of the very few doctors in the valley meant his client base nearly tripled in size whenever sickness was going around like wildfire, and that handful of weeks each year inevitably brought stress and chaos with it.
This year had been especially busy. A nasty strain of some respiratory infection had been spreading through another little community further down in the valley, and Harvey was the only doctor close enough to treat them. He’d had to open the clinic early every day to keep up with all the appointments, some days even closing well past his regular hours to fit them all in. Maru helped as much as she could to try and make the workload more bearable, but as much as they all knew Harvey would never turn away people who needed him, he was reaching the point where it was starting to take its toll.
“Your schedule will be back to normal in another week or two, same as every year,” Kate reminded him gently. She remembered all too well trying to organize times to be with Harvey at the same time last year, when they were just engaged, and finding time and time again that their schedules just wouldn’t line up. It was nearly two and a half weeks before they finally managed to get lunch together, and Harvey was so exhausted by that point he spent half the time trying not to fall asleep.
“I know, but it’s the first year I’ve had to juggle this while being married,” Harvey admitted, then added with a wry sort of chuckle, “and as strange as it sounds, I’d like to spend time with my wife.”
“Well now you’re asking for too much,” she tsked, drawing forth a warmer laugh from him that made her chest ache both with love for him and the desire to just have him next to her, to see him for more than a couple hours a day, if that.
As if he could read her mind, he sighed into the phone a moment later. “I’ve just missed you lately. It’s like we’re in completely different towns. I haven’t gotten to hug you or touch you in days.”
She shared the sentiment. For the first few days that he was gone more than usual, it hadn’t bother Kate very much. With winter right around the corner, she was too busy trying to harvest the rest of her crops still in the fields and get the coop and barn ready for the cold to spend long enough in the house to really realize she was on her own. But by the second week, it had started to set in just how lonely it was in the old farmhouse with Harvey working late and leaving early. She’d gotten used to his presence permeating everything around her once they started living together—the smell of his cologne lingering on his clothes and his coffee in the kitchen; the clicking, popping static of his old CB radio waiting to connect to a pilot passing overhead; the warm, all-encompassing joy she got just seeing him in their kitchen or bathroom or bedroom, existing alongside her, proof of how lucky she was to have married such a wonderful person. To have that presence suddenly disappear, even as temporary as she knew it would be, was still like a hole in her heart.
Kate brushed back the brown braid that had fallen over her shoulder. “You’re right, it sucks, and I miss you, too,” she admitted finally, some of her attempt at positivity falling away as she leaned against the kitchen table, “but I knew what I was signing up for when I married the town doctor. Besides, we both know if you stuck to your normal hours, you’d make yourself sick worrying about whether someone needed you and you weren’t there.”
It was the thing she loved most about him—his undying passion and determination for helping people. She would never have him any other way, even if it meant feeling like passing ships in the night a few weeks of the year. She could handle that for the sake of Harvey being Harvey.
“You’re right, as usual,” Harvey relented. “I should probably finish up these patient logs so I can get to bed early. I’ll try to be home tomorrow night, I promise.”
“Don’t worry if you can’t, Harvey, really. I’ll survive. Just don’t overwork yourself.”
“I won’t. Good night, Kate.”
“Good night, love.”
The line went dead, and Kate found herself alone once again in a now silent home with a meal that she had been hoping to share.
So went the dance they’d been in the last couple weeks of fall. She’d be busy around the farm or out in the forest or doing whatever little errands she had agreed to run, and he’d be holed up in the clinic doing check-ups and prescribing antibiotics and cough syrup, and they’d be lucky if they managed to see each other at lunch. Kate knew it wasn’t going to last forever, that in another week or so he’d be back to his regular schedule, and they could finally settle into their routine once again, but the meantime felt like it was moving at a snail’s pace, leaving them both tired and disappointed and Kate with no idea how she could help.
She was staring absentmindedly at the soup pot that was beginning to cool on the burner, contemplating whether she should attempt making progress on one of the various hobbies she hadn’t had time for for most of the season or just flip through movies on TV while she ate like she usually did when on her own, when she was struck with the sudden, most obvious thought in the world—so obvious that she wanted to kick herself for not thinking of it sooner: if Harvey couldn’t come home to her, there was no reason why she couldn’t go to him. At the very least, she could make sure he ate something better than whatever microwaveable meals he had squirreled away in his apartment fridge.
After reheating dinner she quickly secured it in a few leftover containers and wrapped it all in a spare scarf that would keep it warm on the brisk walk into town, putting it carefully in a tote bag along with some bread, butter, and a few other ingredients before she slung it over her shoulder. At the last minute, she grabbed some bowls and silverware and added them to the bag—she couldn’t remember how well stocked Harvey had left the apartment when he’d moved to the farm for good, and she’d rather be safe than sorry.
“Keep watch over the house, Ren!” she called to the gray tabby cat lounging on the back of her couch, his ear barely twitching in his deep sleep as she stepped out into the dark autumn night, taking care to lock the door behind her. Then with an energy she hadn’t felt in weeks, she all but skipped down the path to Pelican Town.
--------
The streets were quiet by the time she arrived in town, not all that surprising for nearly 9 at night but still something she had never completely gotten used to after leaving Zuzu City. She’d never miss the constant bustle that came with living somewhere that big, more than happy to trade traffic noise for the sounds of crickets and birds—plus a sky she could actually see the stars in. But even so, she’d gotten accustomed to the city’s ever-present hum, and the still silence that seemed to blanket Pelican Town after sundown always made her hair stand on end a bit.
The clinic door was naturally locked, and it took some careful balancing for Kate to fish the spare key out of her coat pocket without dropping the food in the process, but finally she managed to undo the latch and slip inside without any catastrophe.
The waiting room was dark, but through the open doorway leading further into the clinic, a faint warm light illuminated the hallway. She followed the light to where it poured forth from Harvey’s office, accompanied by soft jazz music from one of his favorite radio stations. As much as she didn’t want to startle him by being too quiet as she approached, there was a part of her that didn’t want to announce herself just yet either, curious about seeing her husband as he was when no one was around, and she carefully peeked through the doorway.
Harvey was somewhat hunched over the desk, chin resting in his hand as he filled out some file or report, another stack of papers and folders next to him. His jacket was thrown over the back of his chair along with his tie, sleeves of his dress shirt pushed up to his elbows. As some jazz singer crooned over the small radio he kept on his bookcase, Harvey hummed along with a voice she so rarely got to hear sing, soft and a little shaky but still warm and pleasant. Again, she was nearly crushed by the weight of just how much she loved him.
As gently as she could, she tapped her knuckles against the old oak door, but it still didn’t stop him from jumping nearly out of his seat at the sudden sound, his pen clattering out of his hand with a few gasped curses. He spun around, wide-eyed, but froze when he finally saw her in the doorway, shock melting into surprise.
“I’m sorry!” Kate quickly exclaimed with a wince. “I should have said something when I came in, but I was kind of hoping to surprise you. I didn’t think I’d scare you so bad.”
“What are you doing here?” he asked, confusion creasing his forehead, though he stayed planted in his chair, still rattled from her sudden appearance.
After hearing how tired he sounded over the phone, Kate could finally see it in person, too: his whole body was tense, deeper than just from her startling him. His hazel eyes didn’t hold the brightness they usually had, and he had the shadow of a beard where he’d been putting off shaving for the last couple days. He looked worn out and haggard from nearly two weeks of trying his best to keep up with the health of almost everyone in the valley, and it made her heart squeeze painfully.
“I finally realized there’s no reason I can’t come meet you at the clinic and bring you dinner and spend time with you here if you’re too busy to make it home,” she explained, quickly crossing the room and holding out the bag out for him to inspect. “I’ve got wild rice soup and bread and a few other things I grabbed and thought we could just eat dinner here, together.”
Harvey said nothing as he glanced down at the bag, still warm from when she left the house, his brows still furrowed. As seconds kept ticking by, Kate started to worry that her attempted surprise might have been a bad call—he was stressed, and busy, and probably running on way too few hours of sleep, and maybe her interrupting him without any warning was just another inconvenience stacked on his plate that was already piled too high. Maybe she should have just stayed home.
But before she could say anything, he set the bag carefully on the floor and took Kate’s hand in his own, pulling her closer until he could wrap his arms tight around her waist, resting his forehead against her stomach with a deep, weary sigh.
“You’re too good for me,” he murmured against her coat.
The slightly embarrassed relief from having her anxious fears easily quieted had her sighing too as she draped her arms over his shoulders.
“Too late to return me,” she laughed softly, carding her fingers through his hair, brushing back some of the auburn strands that had fallen behind his glasses. “I guess you’re just going to have to accept that I love you and want to take care of you. Do you have time to take a break?”
Harvey’s jaw tensed a bit as he looked back at his desk, and now that she was closer, she could see that while he’d finished most of the stack of paperwork already, there was still another handful of folders left to sift through. The temptation of a warm meal and the reality that he still had more work to do that night were weighing against each other, at odds between his duties as a doctor and his wants as a very tired man.
“Tell you what,” Kate said, interrupting his struggle, “you keep working for a little bit while I go upstairs and unpack all this.” She cupped his cheek in her hand as she pulled back enough to kiss his forehead, feeling him relax ever so slightly. “If you’re not done by the time I get everything set up then I’ll come down and get you.”
Harvey turned his face into her palm, eyes slipping closed like he would be content to stay that way forever—not that Kate would have minded it—but eventually he pulled away with a nod, a little more energized than before.
“I think I can finish the rest of this in another 20 minutes,” he said, casting her a soft smile as he turned back to his desk, “now that I have a little more inspiration.”
Kate left him be and headed for the stairs up to his old apartment. It was times like these she was grateful that Harvey had been his own landlord when he lived above the clinic and could choose not to rent it out again right away, leaving it open for him to use after work during busy weeks. Another, maybe more selfish reason she was glad for it was the little memento it still was of the days before they were married, even if those days were less than a year ago at their latest. She liked to look at the window where he had told her about his model plane hobby for the first time, the little table they had had so many talks sitting around, his old bed they had barely managed to share, and think about where they were now after all of it.
She got to work unpacking the food, immediately vindicated in bringing dishware when her search through the cupboards turned up little more than some spoons, a couple mugs, and a plate—something she might need to talk to him about when flu season had blown over, she thought. It proved he wasn’t exactly eating well whenever he stayed there after work.
When dealing with dinner took less time than she thought, she looked around for anything else she could do to give Harvey a little more time to get through patient reports. Searching through the cupboards again, she noticed a few packets of the herbal tea he often drank to help him wind down at night pushed toward the back of the shelf. She also managed to find the old kettle he’d left behind, and after cleaning away a bit of the dust that clung to it, Kate set it to boil on the stove.
By the time she heard footsteps ascending the stairs about 10 minutes later, the tea was steeping, and she was in the process of changing out the sheets on his old twin bed with a clean set she found in the bathroom, figuring he hadn’t had a chance to do it himself in some time. Harvey huffed out a fondly exasperated sigh when he spotted her.
“Honey, you don’t need to do that,” he protested.
Kate just shrugged and continued replacing one of his pillowcases as he moved to stand behind her, hands coming to rest on her shoulders and his chin atop her head like a puzzle piece finding its perfect fit.
“I want to do things like this for you, Harvey,” she said, leaning back to catch his eye with a smile. “We’re supposed to support each other. You’d do the same thing for me if I was in your shoes.”
Harvey’s gaze softened, and as Kate turned so he could pull her closer, her eyeline landed on the shimmering blue seashell resting against his collarbone. During the day it was usually hidden by his shirt and tie, but in the evenings, when he could finally set aside a bit of his professional, careful, doctorly image, she was as free to admire his pendant just as she admired the true Harvey that came out when they were alone: relaxed, playful, and loving.
He reached down to pull her into a gentle kiss, and the soft little sigh he made against her mouth sent pleasant shivers across her shoulders. They’d shared countless kisses before, but each one still left her as breathless and buzzing as the first. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, content in the comfort of his embrace.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she whispered against Harvey’s cheek, giggling at the disappointed frown he gave her after she pulled away. “Come on, if we wait much longer the food will go cold and your tea will over-steep.”
He perked up at that, looking back at the counter with renewed interest. “You made me tea?”
As they sat and ate and talked, Kate was almost amazed at how little time apart it took for them to crave each other again. She knew a few days of short, scattered phone calls and texts and brief moments together wasn’t really much of an absence, both of them within a 10-minute walk of the other the entire time, but even still, not knowing how long they would have before they were both called away again made her feel like every second they could spend with one another was a precious thing, at least until things were back to normal. And with how Harvey hung on her every word, one hand always reaching for hers on the table, she wasn’t the only one of them who felt that way.
By the time they were clearing their dishes from the table, nearly every sentence from Harvey was interrupted by a wide yawn, his movements and gestures more sluggish. More than once, Kate caught his eyes drooping as they put bowls and spoons in the sink.
“You should really get some sleep,” she finally told him, laying her hand on his arm to steer him away from the kitchen and toward his bathroom. “I’ll finish this, go get ready for bed.”
But Harvey didn’t budge, instead taking her by the hand before she could turn back to the sink.
“No, I- I want more time with you before you go back home,” he said, spinning the shell between his fingers as a faint blush colored his face pink. “I just… Yoba, it’s been torture not being able to come home to you the last few days, and I don’t want you to go yet.”
She smiled up at him—as always, enamored by him, even in his anxiousness—and leaned into his side. “I don’t want to go either,” she sighed, running her thumb back and forth over his knuckles where he still held her hand. “I can stop by the clinic tomorrow and try to steal you away for a bit, if you want?”
He rested his head on top of hers, and as the silence stretched on for another beat, Kate swore she could hear the gears turning in his head as he fidgeted with her fingers, worrying his cheek between his teeth.
“I know you’re just as busy as I am, but would- I mean…“ He stammered a moment, his blush deepening as he tried to push through to what he was trying to say. “I don’t sleep as well when you’re not next to me. Can… would you stay? Spend the night with me here instead?”
Kate would be lying if the last few nights alone in their bed hadn’t been rough for her too, missing the comfort of his warmth and his arms around her. As busy as she’d been on the farm lately, the promise of sleeping next to him again was extremely tempting, and doing a quick mental check of her to-do list, all she really needed to do the next day was get the last of the crops out of the ground and feed the livestock and Ren. A bit of a late start in the morning wouldn’t hurt.
“Do you have extra pajamas?” she asked, and the relieved, almost grateful grin that bloomed across his face was enough to kick up butterflies in her stomach.
They got ready together in front of the tiny mirror in the bathroom, having to lean around each other to get to the sink without bumping heads or blocking one another, laughing together the entire time. When they finally crawled beneath the old quilt on Harvey’s bed, it was another struggle to squish onto the twin mattress without one of them falling off, the blanket ending up tangled around their legs and torsos.
“I forgot how difficult it is to get two people in this bed,” Harvey chuckled softly, wrapping arms around her to pull her flush against his chest, “but I have missed having an excuse to hold you this close.”
“Please, you cuddle up to me all the time at home,” she pointed out, reaching up to pluck his glasses from his face and set them on the nightstand next to her.
Harvey just smiled at her sleepily, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Thank you for coming to me,” he whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you too. Sleep tight, love.”
With the familiar, sorely missed embrace of him enveloping her, as Harvey’s breath evened out, Kate soon followed, drifting into her most restful sleep in days.