(no subject)

Okay. I'm too tired to know which way is up.

I checked my phone at lunch break, to see if I'd missed any calls while it was on silent. There were two. Even as I was looking at it, a third came in.

My mam ... it sounds like a stroke. It sounds like she had a stroke. She's in A&E now. My sisters are with her, my Dad. She's ... apparently it isn't serious? Maybe? Nobody knows. She'd come back on the way down in the ambulance, she was lucid and present and had gotten some motion back. Mostly. That's ... that's good, right?

I'm waiting on a call. They'll ring me when we've gotten information.

I just ... Um. I just panicked all over my boss. Ran home. Realised when I got here that I've no way of getting anywhere else, since the hospital is 45 minutes away by car and I've got a pair of feet. I've just panicked on top of half the class, left work, and now ... I can't do anything. I don't know anything.

Um. I don't like today. I don't want today. Make it go away.

ETA: Okay. They don't think it was a stroke, apparently. Or, I don't know, only a minor one if it was. She's more or less okay, but they're keeping her overnight to be sure.

*slumps* I'm going to sleep for a week. Or, okay. Until 8am tomorrow, when I've got to get up for work. But. I'm just ... She's mostly okay. Apparently she's mostly okay.

More on Barbara Hambly

Re-reading parts of Those Who Hunt The Night for distraction purposes. I still think one of the things that really gets to me is that Asher told his wife she was in danger. In Chapter Four, basically immediately after he knew himself. Literally the first chance he got where there wasn't a vampire looming over him, he went and told her.

The hero's loved one is threatened to ensure his obedience, and he doesn't hide this from her, he doesn't distance himself from her, he doesn't lie and cause relationship strife on top of the already fairly stressful situation, he doesn't spend half the book trying to keep the secret, he doesn't try to keep her ignorant of the danger she's in. Instead, he goes home and he sits down and he tells her. Not even in a 'leave me, it's too dangerous' or 'I'm sacrificing myself for you, make it worth it' sort of way, but sitting down and laying out the situation and discussing between them what to do about it. Not just what he's going to do about it, but what she's going to do and what they're going to do about it. Risks and probable death and all.

When was the last time I saw that in a story? Have I seen that in fictionland any time recently? I don't know why it's catching me so strongly, but it is.