¶Chapter Song~Another Love¶
¶By-Tom Odell¶

"No! This is wrong!" Arthur yelled aloud.

"Daddy! You ok?" Cora's worried voice made him realize that he was still holding her, "Do you too get bad dreams like Mom?" She inquired holding his cheeks.

"Look at me, Daddy. I'm here. You are not alone." She said and hugged him tightly.

His mind was still not able to process but as Cora hugged him, he realized that he was in that chair only with Cora on himself.

"It's ok baby. Let him have some water." Hailey's voice alarmed him.

As he looked up, he found Hailey standing in front of himself with a glass of water.

He looked away immediately as her face was reminding him of the weird dream he just woke up from.

"Dr. Miller, are you fine?" Hailey inquired stepping closer.

As she came close her presence made him uneasy, he could feel her strongly. Just like the dream. He could feel her warmth.

"No, it's ok. I am good." He screeched getting up from his place to walk away from Hailey. He placed Cora at bed, "Cora, baby... Daddy needs to go right now. You sleep now, I'll see you in the morning." He tried to get out of the room, tucking Cora in her bed.

"But Daddy it's already morning, see..." Cora held his hand before he could step away, to make him realize that the sky was changing hues, from dark to crimson with streaks of yellow and blue.

It was the dawn.

"It's ok Cora, he must be tired. Let him go." Hailey tried to convince Cora to leave his hand. Arthur was standing silent looking away just to avoid looking at Hailey. She held her hand to release his. Her fingers brushed with his hand. It gave him a feel of the dream.

How he was able to feel her in that dream! He should not feel so vulnerable to such a dream.

As soon as Hailey pulled Cora's hand back, Arthur dazed out of the room without looking back.

"I think he has dreamt of some ghost," Hailey mumbled to herself. "Or maybe that Lily."

~~~~~~~~

"You are looking weird Arthur."

"What! What's that mean now?" Arthur replied absent-mindedly to Luke's comment?

"I mean, you are sitting blank for the past half an hour. You haven't picked even a single file, haven't replied to any of my words, even you didn't stop me when I lit my cigarette in front of you." Luke waved his hand to show off the cigarette.

Arthur looked at him blankly as he hadn't seen or heard anything from the last half an hour; even since morning. His mind was still unable to understand how he saw such a dream.

"What's wrong Arthur? Is there anything bothering you?" Luke inquired with concern.

"Yeah... It's just..." Arthur tried to make some sentence, spinning a pen in his fingers speculating if he should share it with Luke or not.

"I'm listening," Luke assured him with gravity. "Please, just say She is not the reason behind it." He whispered making an annoyed face.

"She! How you..." Arthur's eyes went wide with shock as if Luke had caught him red-handed committing some heinous crime.

"God Damn!! How can you still be stuck at Lily?" Luke stood up in annoyance.

"Lily?" Arthur's face shown more shades of confusion than before.

"What? Isn't it about Lily?" Luke's facial expressions shown some relief, then a devilish grin, "oh, oh... I'm happy to see that finally there is some lady who pulled you out of Her zone and compelled to think about h
Her." Luke air quoted the word 'Her' both of the times.

Arthur looked at him re-analyzing his idea of shearing the dream, "I was talking about Cora. I was thinking about her."

"Damn! Dude, you just killed my excitement."

"You made high hopes, that's not my fault." Arthur smiled cunningly at his success to hide the fact from him.
"I was thinking about Cora, she wants her father so desperately that she has assumed me her father. What if she gets to know that it's not the truth? What if that Adam used it to come back in their lives?"

Luke paid attention to his every word, giving him a scrutinizing look.

"What? Stop giving me that look, Luke."

"No, I was just wondering if that thought was related to Cora or Adam, or... Hailey?"

Arthur got choked on the water he just gulped in, "what the hell is wrong with you Luke? Here I'm concerned about Cora and you are taking it don't know where!" He groaned amid coughs.

"Ok, ok, I got you. Relax! And about Cora being desperate for a father, let me make it clear for you. She is not desperate to get a father, She chose you to be her father." Luke concluded his words, looking into his eyes with confidence.

"But that doesn't make any change Luke, I'm not her fath..."

"Good Morning Boys, ". Mr. Jones energetic voice interrupted their serious conversation.

" Very Good Morning Sir, " Arthur replied with a perfunctory smile. While Luke just looked around   "Morning."

"Arthur, we will talk about the thing later. I'll take your leave. See you in the evening." Luke got up to leave, totally declining Mr. Jones's presence in the room.

"Luke, I think you should stay for a while. I need something to talk to you since you are looking after Cora too." Luke nodded only as since Mr. Jones had married Lily, he started to have a grudge against him.

"Arthur, you are looking awful! Haven't you took a nap or what? I think you need to take a shower first then only we can sit and decide a date for the surgery, over a cup of hot chocolate." Mr. Jones said almost rebuking Arthur.

Arthur got a smile to see such authority in his tone, "Sure, I'll see you in a few minutes." He turned toward the small restroom attached to his cabin, "Luke, mind your tone with him, Ok." He directed Luke almost mumbling.

Luke just looked at him and almost groaning and immediately shot a fake smile at Dr. Jones.

"God! I have to make it fast!" Arthur exhaled to himself.

"Take your time, Boy." Dr. Jones commented from behind.

As Arthur left, both men stood awkwardly looking at each other. Mr. Jones took a step towards Luke as if he had something to know from him but Luke refused to give attention. He went for the intercom at the table and placed an order for two coffee.

"I guess, I just said about Arthur's favorite hot chocolate." Mr. Jones pointed out taking a chair in front of the table.

"I heard you but thing is, he doesn't take it anymore. Even he doesn't like sweets anymore. The Arthur, you knew has gone long ago." Luke said as if taunting him for not being there when Arthur needed him most.

"Luke, I knew you were there with him. I tried to contact him but he just went into that shell. He just cut me out of his life. I don't know why but I know he didn't want me in his life." Mr. Jones let out his thoughts, "I was relieved that at least you were with him." His voice sounded concerned. More personal than formal, like in older times.

"I couldn't be you for him," Luke replied blankly.

"I know but what I never knew is, why his marriage broke? What hurt him so bad that he couldn't get back to life?"

"It's not worth discussing now.  I'll suggest not to talk about that woman as finally Arthur is moving on. He has forgotten or at least trying to forget that pain." Luke made his mind to stick to Arthur's guidelines.

"I can see it. You are right. Even I intended to talk to you about his upcoming life only, not past." Mr. Jones smiled at Luke.

That smile of the old man made Luke suspicious regarding his intentions, "I hope you haven't come with some prank or plan for it. As if you have, I'm out of it. I don't want to be kicked out of my job and lose a brother." Luke declared.

"Come on! Don't tell me, don't you want to see him happy?"

"I do want it but not over my dead body. You can't imagine how many times I have tried to set him up but the last I tried to match him up with a sister of my female friend, he threatened me with clenched fists. I love my face and job both." Luke concluded thinking about his last attempt to be the cupid for Arthur, years back.

"No, I'm not asking you to set him up. I'm just asking your opinion about the girls I have found best for him." The eyes of the old man shone with excitement.

"What do you mean by Girls?"

"I have analyzed it all. And what I got is that Arthur pushed those gloomy shadows of past back after meeting Cora, and he loves her like she is his daughter. I can see she loves him the same." Dr. Jones kept saying while Luke's eyes were getting wider with the thought of where Mr. Jones was about to end up.

"Her mother is a single mother and as I get to know that man is trash. So, why can't we think about it?" Mr. Jones concluded his thoughts with a big smile.

"What should we think Sir?" Arthur's voice almost scared Luke.

He was shocked to hear it from Mr. Jones.
How he couldn't think about it? Meril talked about them to him so many times. He facepalmed himself in mind to realize that Meril said the same thing whenever she discussed them, wherever she compared their situation. Even just a night before she might have been appreciating them as a family only.

"Luke, what happened? Why are you standing there so silent?" Arthur's voice broke his inner consultations?

"Yeah, no... Nothing. I was just thinking about something. Mr. Jones just reminded me of it." Luke finally made a sentence pushing back his thoughts and sat at the next chair to Mr. Jones.

"Oh, and what it is?" Arthur inquired casually as he got busy instructing the boy came with their coffee.

"Let's just talk about Hailey," Luke whispered to Mr. Jones.

"What?" Arthur thought to hear something, not clear enough to make sense.

"Nothing, just a thought now. You will get to know if it works." Mr. Jones replied this time to close the topic.

"Yeah sure." Arthur smiled extending his hand to place a cup of coffee in front of Mr. Jones, "Suger, one and a half."

"And yours, two." Mr. Jones added sugar to his black coffee.

"Ahm. I don't take sugar." Arthur murmured with closed eyes, feeling sorry for his black coffee.

"I assumed it when you gave me the creamy worthy one and kept the black for yourself." Dr. Jones placed his palm on his hand at the table before placing his cup in front of him, "life keeps changing and so does our taste too. But that doesn't mean that you should fill your life with bitterness." He smiled at Arthur.

"So, how's Hailey?" Mr. Jones inquired suddenly diverting the talk.

Arthur's hand got shaken at the sudden mention of Hailey as her face in that dream appeared in front of him again.

"You ok Arthur?" Luke inquired to see his facial expressions changed.

"Yeah, I'm good. She is good too but why you asked me about her?" Arthur replied and inquired at the same time.

"Just casually, you might have met her." Mr. Jones replied observing him.

On other hand Luke's mind was racing at lightning speed, linking words, expressions, and reactions of Arthur.

He punched Adam for Hailey, though Cora was the first reason but Hailey was the one Adam just pushed away.

He loves her daughter like she's his daughter. Her daughter Cora loves him like he is her father.

He apologized to Hailey for his wrong words, he hardly does that.

And most importantly, he was thinking about some girl though he said Cora, but his expressions didn't match up with his words.

Luke got a mischievous smile, "Mr. Jones, I think you were correct about the operation. I can see hope."