“Maggie?” Evan walked into the private room for hospital employees. There he found his wife making herself coffee, and reading something on her phone.
“Evan? How’d you get up here?” Maggie asked. The floor could only be accessed with a special key. Or by taking the backstairs, but again the stairwell was normally locked.
“I picked up a few tricks from Spencer.” Evan said, holding up lock picking set.
“You’re kidding right?”
“I learned a long time ago, but I’m out of practice. Swiped this from Spencer a year or two ago. No wonder she was always able to sneak out so easily.”
“She still sneaks out. Just is a bit more creative with how she makes her escape. Could become an escape artist if she wanted to.”
“Spencer a stage magician? Sure.” Evan laughed. The idea of Spencer standing on a stage entertaining tourists at some sleepy casino reduced him to hysterical tears and laughter.
“Sorry. Anyway, you said you wanted to talk to me about something important?” Evan asked once he’d calmed down some.
“Yes. About Spencer. I know you don’t think there’s anything wrong, but I was talking Francis earlier and…”
“Not this again Maggie. Listen, if Spencer doesn’t want to talk about what happened, why force her to?” Evan sighed. He really didn’t understand why his wife was pressing the matter. Sure, Spencer kept a lot of her feelings bottled up. But she wasn’t mentally unstable or anything like that.
“Because it’s not normal for her to keep all that inside. If I were her, I would have spent the first week holed up in my room crying.”
“Well, Spencer isn’t you.”
“I know. She’s more like you in that regard. It can’t be good for her not to talk. Keeping silent, for so long, I don’t want to see her falling to pieces one day.” Maggie said.
“Are you thinking of switching fields? Maybe playing doctor is getting boring and you want a change of pace by playing shrink for a while.”
“I seriously hope that was a joke. A very, VERY bad joke.” Maggie said.
“Well, Spencer certainly didn’t get her sense of humor from me,” Evan said, sighing a bit, “Look, if you’re really that concerned then sure have Spencer talk to someone. Francis is definitely the best person to do so. She and Spencer might not be too close, but at least they know each other. More so than some other random shrink would.”
“You wouldn’t be too upset if I asked Eric to go with her a few times? Spencer feels comfortable around him. Plus, Francis thought it would be a good idea to read those files you gave him.”
“Do you really think subjecting Eric to all that therapy stuff is a good idea? The files were one thing. Listening to Spencer unload all that baggage, assuming she unloads anything, is another.”
“It’s up to Eric. If he thinks he can handle it, I think it’ll be good for both of them.” Maggie said.
“Are you planning on telling his parents? You can’t just send their son off to a therapists without letting them know what’s going on.” Evan said.
“If Eric agrees to go, then I’ll tell Martha and Will.” Maggie nodded in agreement.
“On a cheerier note, Jonathan called earlier. Said Elle managed to get your parents on the phone. They’ll come up for Thanksgiving and stay with Elle and Jon until new year’s.”
“Wow, I wonder how she roped them into that.” Maggie said. Her parents had retired to southern California after their daughters had grown up. They so rarely left, and more often than not the Lawsons would go to them for Christmas and the like. Of course the only family Evan had left was his father, who was content to eat a can of beans and watch ESPN all day. Guy took the “lone wolf” thing to a new level.
“Well, better them than us.” Evan said.
“Evan!”
“Oh tell me I’m wrong Maggie. You know what your parents are like.” Evan groaned.
“Ya, I guess… Still, it’ll be nice to see them again. What about Mike? Did you talk him into joining us for the holidays?”
“What do you think?”
“He said he’d rather run through a mine field naked?”
“Close enough.”