Kyle took care of things at home, he was clearly exhausted when I saw him on Monday morning. Then out of nowhere, Lucy shows up, and immediately attaches herself to Kyle. Kyle smiles at the sight of her, the kind of smile that says it all. The kind of smile that says I love you, even to just be around you. Lucy was frustrated with Kyle having never responded to her texts or phone calls, but she put on a smile because she loved him anyway, probably just as much as I loved her.

Kyle tried to stay attentive to what she was saying, but you could see his eyes were struggling to stay open. This is where I took my que to give Kyle a well-deserved break.

"Hey guys," I said waving at them as I walked across the hall to them. "How y'all doing?"

"Great!" Lucy said excitedly.

"Fine." Kyle said with as must enthusiasm as he could muster.

"Jeez Kyle, you look exhausted have you slept a wink in the past three days?" I said concerned.

"Actually, no, not really." He said in his usual low scruffy voice.

"Kyle, why don't you go to the nurse and tell her you have a headache, she'll let you rest for a little while." I told him.

"That sounds like a good idea, I'll see ya later Cutesy Lucy." He told Lucy, then looked me in the eyes, and gave me this look saying how grateful he was to get some sleep. "I'll see you around Kevin, thanks for the tip." Nodding he left.

"He's off." Lucy said shortly.

"He's exhausted, couldn't you see that?" I said. "Wouldn't you be if you got no sleep for three days?"

"Yeah, I mean there's something else though, he would stiffen whenever I touched him, and whenever I said how I loved him and all, his...his hand shot up." Now she was starting to shake a bit. "This isn't him, I feel like I'm talking to a completely different person. Did I do something wrong? Did I say the wrong thing? Did I hurt him? Did I do something to him? Did—" She was crying hard now.

"No, no, no, no, and no. You have done nothing wrong. You can see he's exhausted, give him a day or two, he'll be back to normal in no time, you'll see." I said holding her again.

In between heavy gasps of air, she whispered, because if she spoke normal, she would have started sobbing once more. "How do you know? How can you be so sure?"

"I just am. If you want, I'll go talk to him after he gets some rest." I said, trying to reassure her, I knew she was hurt by his actions, but I knew Kyle, he wasn't the kind to do that intentionally.

"W-would you?" She asked, more hopeful now.

"Of course." I told her. She smiled, a genuine smile, that made me happy.