The Onion
Maybe it was because she was tired. She had been tired for the past five years- raising triplets was no easy feat, and it certainly kept her and Ben on their toes.
But this week had been particularly taxing on the both of them- work was crazy, the kids had each had their own problems that came with kindergarten, and it had just been a whirlwind.
Leslie was chopping an onion when it happened. An onion of all things. All it took was for her to be thinking about a meeting coming up, and then to yawn- for her to lose concentration for one second, when the knife slipped and it was buried deep in her finger.
She hissed in pain, and already blood was starting to pour out in a rather alarming amount.
“Shit,” she whispered. She turned around. “Ben?”
Ben looked up from the rice he was draining. “Yeah?”
“I cut myself.”
Ben dropped the pan and hurried over. “Shit, that’s a lot of blood Leslie. Are you okay?”
“Uhh…”
She felt quite light-headed, if she was honest. Which was stupid, because it was just a tiny cut.
Ben must have caught on, because he quickly grabbed Leslie’s shoulders as she staggered, and kept her upright.
“We’re getting you to the sofa,” Ben told her, but his voice sounded far away.
Leslie didn’t register the journey from the kitchen to the sofa. The next thing Leslie was aware of was being plonked down by Ben, who looked at her in worry, his hands on her face. Leslie had her eyes shut, and she looked really pale all of a sudden.
“Are you okay?” he asked quickly.
“Yeah,” Leslie tried to reassure him, keeping her eyes shut. “I think I just- I was so tired, and-”
She felt a pressure on her finger- he was holding a tissue down on it. Which was good, because it was stopping the bleeding, but bad, because the pain made her feel nauseous.
She just kept her eyes shut.
“The kitchen is a mess,” she said weakly. “The kids-”
“The kids are upstairs,” he assured her. “They won’t see it.”
It being what looked like a murder scene in the kitchen. She swore she had just nicked her finger, why did her body have to make such a big fuss?
“Ouch,” Ben muttered. “That looks bad.”
Leslie opened one eye, and saw that Ben was inspecting her finger with delicate hands. Over the years they had seen to all sorts of injuries their children had gotten up to, but it had never been her.
“Sorry,” she managed. “And for- for collapsing like that, that wasn’t cool.”
“Hey,” Ben said slowly, looking at her. “Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s never happened before.”
“I think you’re right about being tired. Maybe your body just timed out for a second. It has been crazy lately- I fell asleep in a meeting yesterday.”
Leslie snorted. “That’s adorable. Not like my thing.”
Ben just smiled, and when he removed the tissue again, the bleeding had stopped. Leslie still felt a bit nauseous, so shut her eyes again, taking even breaths. But the next thing she knew, Ben was putting a soothing cream on the cut, and then he was wrapping a plaster around it and kissing it softly.
“All done,” he told her.
Leslie smiled at him. “You’re my hero.”
“You’re my hero,” he replied. “Are you okay now? Do you need a drink?”
“I’ll get one in the kitchen,” Leslie replied. “I should probably clean up the disaster scene I caused.”
“I’ll help you.”
Leslie stood, appreciating how Ben's hand was on her back, but she assured him that she was fine now. She got a drink, already feeling better, and then the two of them cleaned up the mess.
“I guess we need a new onion, huh,” Leslie pointed out. “That casserole can’t make itself.”
“We could just order takeout,” Ben replied. “The kids haven’t had one in a while, and we could do with some junk food to perk us up.”
Leslie grinned at him. “Ben Wyatt, I fall more in love with you every day.”
They kissed softly, and then Leslie was shouting up the stairs. “Kids! Who wants takeout?!”
The chorus of delighted responses was enough to make the two of them laugh out loud.