Stella was understandably worn out from all the business with her parents. She'd spent so long putting it aside, or at least keeping it locked down very deep, that any time she had to deal with them it hit a lot harder. This time—after meeting with a void disappearance case worker who had helped her with the whole custody thing with Zeta—Stella was knocked out like she had a bad flu all weekend, and not much better by Monday. I was just starting to get ready for work and saw she was in no condition for maintaining order in a library. Her hair was all mussed up, she had heavy bags under her eyes, the works. For some this wouldn't be anything concerning, but for Stella it was clear she needed more time to rest.
“Gimme maybe five more minutes,” Stella said, barely lifting her head up to talk.
“I can type up the email saying you can’t make it,” I said.
“Noooo,” she whined, sitting up. "They're gonna be mad if I take a sick day. I’m not even sick.”
"They won't care, and you have sick days for a reason," I said. "I'll take the day off too if you need someone."
"Don't do that," Stella said. She sighed, rolling onto her back. She thought about it as she rubbed her forehead with her palms. "Can you email them?"
"Absolutely," I said.
As I typed up an email on Stella’s laptop, she fidgeted with her blanket.
“And...could you stay?” Stella asked. "Please? Sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for,"
I didn't mind taking a day off, especially for this. I could use the extra rest, but that was just a bonus as my priority was obviously helping Stella through this. The first step of that was making her breakfast and getting her to eat something. I didn't go for anything fancy, just some toast.
"I'm not super hungry," Stella said.
"You should at least have breakfast," I said.
I somehow managed to coax her out of bed to the living room, where she sat with a couple blankets around her shoulders like a big cocoon.
"It's weird, I don't even feel that bad this time," Stella said. "Emotionally, at least. I know my parents are running around doing something, and Mom could be close. But I talked with Emeryn, we have all these people helping, I feel a lot safer. But still. I feel like I got run over by a bus."
"It's kind of like if you put a big dam up behind a raging river," I said. I didn't want to remotely sound like I was grilling her so teacherly metaphor was what I went with. "When that dam breaks, it messes everything up, right? You're rebuilding it now, but there's still a lot of intensely fast river that you're still catching up with. Then when it surges, that’s going through a dam that isn’t even put together yet. It's no wonder it's knocked you out so bad. Mental health and physical health are linked, after all."
"That's a good way to put it," Stella said. "I'm glad I'm dating a teacher."
"And I'm glad I'm dating a librarian," I said.
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