The Ranch

“Like a new woman,” Zoe said, almost sorry she told them. She wondered if she shouldn't have said she had AIDS, but the cat was out of the bag now, and it meant a lot to her to have them support her. “I'm sorry I was so much trouble yesterday.” Tanya wanted to tell her how sorry she was that Zoe had pricked her finger the year before, and contracted AIDS, but she didn't.

“Don't be silly.” Their eyes met and held and they each knew what the other was thinking. There was real love there, and compassion and caring. They were the kind of friends that came along once in a lifetime. “We want you to take care of yourself. Stay in bed today, get lots of rest. I'll come back at lunchtime to see if you need anything,” Tanya said as she put an arm around her. She was surprised to realize that under the flannel nightgown, Zoe was incredibly frail, even more so than she looked. There was barely any meat on her.

“Do you want us to stay with you?” Mary Stuart asked generously, and Zoe told her that she didn't.

“I just want you two to have a good time. You both deserve it.’ I They'd all been through rough times in different ways, death, divorce, all the trauma of which life was made and that challenged one's very survival.

“We all deserve a good time,” Mary Stuart said, “so do you.”

“I just want to get back to work,” she said, she was beginning to feel really guilty for being so lazy, and a second week away seemed absolutely sinful. But she knew she needed to recover from the little episode she'd just been through.

“Be a good girl and be lazy.” Tanya wagged a finger at her, and a few minutes later she and Mary Stuart left for breakfast.

Hartley inquired about their friend, and they sat and talked quietly about her over breakfast. They thought she was very brave, and Tanya was grateful that Sam was being so supportive.

“He must be quite a man,” Hartley said admiringly when Mary Stuart told him of Sam's reaction when Zoe told him. They still hadn't said she had AIDS and they didn't plan to. He thought she had cancer.

“She might recover,” he said hopefully, but it was obvious that he thought it was unlikely and so did they. “I knew another couple who did something like that, got married in the face of a terminal prognosis. They were the most remarkable people I ever met, and probably the happiest, and I think she lived a lot longer because of it. He just refused to let her go, she fought valiantly, and I think their love added years to her life. I've never forgotten them. I don't think he ever remarried when she died, he wrote a book about it, about her, and it was the most touching thing I've ever read, I cried from beginning to end, but I can't tell you how I admired him. He loved her more than any man could love a woman.” There were tears in Mary Stuart's eyes as she listened, and she wished that more than anything for Zoe.

Sam called Zoe that afternoon, and they talked for a long time. He wanted her to promise him, seriously, that they'd get married, and she was still accusing him of being crazy.

“You can't propose to me,” she said, touched and flattered and moved to tears by what he was saying, “you don't even know me.”

“I've known you for over twenty-two years, I've worked with you off and on for five. I've probably been in love with you for the last twenty, and if we both were too dumb to see it then that's not my problem. You're so busy taking care of everyone else all the time, Zoe, you don't even see what's happening right next to you. I want to be there for you,” he said, and his voice was warm and gruff and sexy when he said it.

“You already are there for me, Sam,” she said softly, He was amazing.

“I'll be here for you as long as you want me. Besides, we haven't even had our first date yet.”

“I know. You haven't even tasted my lasagne.” There were so many things for them to do, so many things to discover about each other.

“I'm a great cook. What's your favorite kind of food?” He didn't know things like that about her, and he wanted to know them all now. He wanted to spoil her, and be there for her, and take care of her. He wanted to make history, and have her recover. But if she didn't, he'd be there for her too, until the bitter end. He knew now, to his very soul, that it was his destiny, and nothing she could have said to him would dissuade him or change that.

“My favorite kind of food?” She was smiling at his question. She almost didn't remember that she was sick. She felt better today, and she was so happy. It was all about now, about just being there at this very moment, and not worrying about tomorrow. “Actually… I think, takeout. You know, fast food, you stick it in the lab closet and eat three mouthfuls between patients.”