trashchildren | For Joan

"I will," he answers. "See you in the morning, yeah?" Hopefully they won't actually need anything though. They could all do with some very uneventful days.

He lets the door stay cracked open, before he crawls in next to Joan. He doesn't cuddle up too close, wanting to give her room, but he does drape his arm gently across her stomach.

He sleeps pretty soundly probably desperately needing it, but he wakes up a couple times, and makes sure Joan is doing alright. He finally gets out of bed around seven, carefully sneaking out of bed, and heads to the living room to find Sherlock.

For most of the night Joan sleeps peacefully. Sometime in the early morning she twitches in her sleep for a few moments, but it passes and she continues sleeping.

Sherlock is asleep on the couch, in his clothes minus his shoes, a cushion under his head.

Ted heads over to him, and knocks gently on the table. "Hey, Sherlock?" he says softly, trying make sure he doesn't think there's anything wrong.

He does not do what Joan would, waking him up in some ridiculous way.

Sherlock opens his eyes, blinking for a moment, then pushes himself up to sitting.

"Ted," he says, rubbing his eyes. "Everything all right?"

He assumes the man would be more panicked if something was seriously wrong with Joan.

"All good in the hood," Ted nods. "She's still asleep, but the grocery delivery gets here soon, so I gotta pack that away, then make breakfast, and I thought you might like to sit with her in the meantime."

It's probably not necessary, given how she's calmly slept all night, but if he's going to be busy for more than an hour, well. It's for their own reassurances too.

"Certainly," Sherlock nods, getting up from the couch yawning as he heads to the bedroom. Joan is still sleeping peacefully, so Sherlock carefully sits on the bed to watch over her.

Ted goes to do morning hygiene and grooming - he's only gotten to shave every other day or so lately, and it's one of those things that helps him feel a lot more human. He does remember to take his pain meds this morning, at least.

The groceries arrive shortly after he's finished, and the delivery person helpfully agrees to carry it all the way into the kitchen for him. Ted thanks him and starts unpacking everything.

He's been looking up recipes for easily digestible healthy smoothies, since he figures that's both easy and yummy, so he starts preparing some of that for all of them, for whenever Joan wakes up and gets hungry.

At some point when he's making smoothies, Sherlock enters the kitchen.

"Watson is awake," he tells Ted. "She needs to use the toilet, but she doesn't want my help."

"Oh, sure!" Ted answers immediately, quickly washing his hands and grabbing his crutch before heading to the bedroom.

"Good morning!" he greets Joan perkily, going to give her a morning kiss, happy to see her awake.

Sherlock has helped Joan sit up, so when Ted comes in she's leaning against the headboard, surrounded by a nest of pillows. She smiles happily as she sees him.

"Hey," she says, happily kissing him back.

"Should I grab the wheelchair and we can mosey on over to the bathroom?" he offers. He doesn't know how urgently she needs to go, but he figures he should probably wait to blather on until that's done.

"Yes, please," Joan says. She's grateful to Sherlock for his help, but just doesn't feel comfortable being naked in front of him, or going to the bathroom.

Sherlock is waiting respectfully outside the door with the wheelchair, having anticipated the need.

"Oh - Perfect, thank you," Ted says as he encounters Sherlock with the wheelchair.

Ted can at least help Joan into her wheelchair without too much trouble. He just needs to make sure to put his weight on his good leg as he puts Joan's arm around his shoulders and lifts her over. It's just a bit easier with two people helping.

Joan does her best to help him, but it's not a lot, which frustrates her a little. Still, she's more comfortable with Ted doing this than Sherlock, so she's only a tiny bit embarrassed. Not enough to not let him help her into the bathroom.

"Can I have a moment?" she says once he's helped her onto the toilet.

"Of course. Give me a shout," he says with a cheerful smile as he heads outside.

He knows how frustrating and embarrassing this part was for him, and it must be worse for her. Now of course, being on the other side of it, he doesn't find it remotely embarrassing.

When Joan is done and has flushed, she looks at the wheelchair for a long moment. Maybe she can do it herself. It wouldn't be too difficult, would it? Just to get from the toilet to the chair? Pull up her bottoms herself? She can do it, can't she?

And she almost tries.

But she knows it's her pride talking, and that it would be way more embarrassing to have to go back to the hospital because she tried to be tough and fell and broke something.

"I'm done," she calls.

Ted returns and smiles. "I was thinking, if you want to take a shower, we could grab a stool you could sit on and we can shower together," he suggests. "Not necessarily now, we can eat breakfast and stuff first, but later if you want."

He knows she hasn't actually showered since before the gala, and can't imagine she feels great.

"That sounds amazing." She does feel pretty icky, and she's sure there's still gunk on her chest from where the electrodes were. A nice hot shower with Ted there sounds perfect.

"Alright, ready?" he asks, helping her switch back over to the wheelchair then letting her wash her hands.

"I've been making smoothies for breakfast," he says. "Just need to finish them." He couldn't very well use the mixer was still asleep after all.

Again she tries to help as much as possible and is barely able to hold on. It's a really good thing she didn't try to do it on her own.

"That's great!" she says as she washes her hands. "Sherlock will like that, too. Well. As much as he likes anything."

"Hey, as long it's nutritional fuel, right?" he says with a chuckle.

He waits until she's done, then grabs the wheelchair. "Alright, Watson caravan taking off," he says playfully, wheeling her back. It may be obvious that he's more used to taking care of sick kids than sick adults, based on his positivity and silliness levels. Then again, those are usually pretty high anyway.

The good thing about the wheelchair is he can put his weight on it instead of using the crutch, as long as he doesn't go to fast.

"Exactly," she chuckles with him.

When he wheels her out so playfully, she can't help but laugh, absolutely delighted. She can intellectually understand how Ted might be too much for some people, but she cannot help but be cheered up by his positivity and silliness. She's so lucky to have him.

Heck, his constant optimism was too much even for his wife. He gets that not everyone works the way he does. But it's so ingrained in him.

He wheels her out to the living room to where Sherlock is sitting. "Watson caravan now arriving at Holmes Station," he says cheerfully. "Hey, do you wanna move over to the couch, or stay in the chair?"

He imagines the couch is somewhat more comfortable, but if they're going to shower in a but, it does require even more lifting around.

Joan grins. Even Sherlock lowers his head to hide a half-smile. Joan sees that and her grin widens as her heart warms. He even got Sherlock to smile in spite of himself. That's an accomplishment.

"Staying in the chair might be easier," she says, having the exact same thought about the shower. They're going to have to be lifting her a lot. Might as well cut down on it when she can. And the chair isn't too terribly uncomfortable as long as they're not out here too long.

"Alrighty," Ted answers, and leans down to plant a kiss on the top of her head with a soft 'mwah'. "I'm gonna go finish breakfast," he says, carefully limping towards the kitchen. (And that's the downside to using the wheelchair for support. Suddenly he will be somewhere else without a crutch.)

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