As the Darkness Approaches the Light

Chapter 5

The rest of January and February were long.

January is usually joked about as being the longest month of the year, but it especially felt this way for Caroline and Noah. They kept up with Chris and Ricky whenever they could, but the four of them were all so busy that it was difficult sometimes. They pretty much all absorbed themselves in their work to distract from how much they missed each other.

It was especially difficult for Caroline, because she couldn't understand why she felt so strongly about a guy she'd only been on four dates with. It had always taken her a longer time to really learn to like and trust people she was dating - maybe because it'd always been so hard for her to be able to trust people, it was harder for her to let her guard down. But with Chris, she felt like she could let go and be herself, at least a little bit.

Meanwhile, Caroline felt like she was really excelling with her work at the University. It seemed like her students had figured out how to work with her being blind and she was getting along with the few regulars that began coming to her office hours. She was also developing great professional relationships with the other teachers and researchers in the psychology department. Caroline's class was held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and she held office hours every day, but spent the majority of Tuesdays and Thursdays on her research in the psychology lab. It usually entailed studying the behaviors of young children whose parents had volunteered their child to take part in the project.

Some of it was triggering for her, but she did her best to work past it.

Chris was usually good at putting his personal life aside when it came time to really start writing an album, but he also took Caroline's feelings into consideration and was able to maintain a good balance of putting in good work while not getting too distracted in a way that would result in completely throwing Caroline aside. He didn't want to do that either; Caroline made him so happy.

While the priority was writing, his personal life did come up once in a while with the people he was working with and he mentioned that he was dating someone again - which usually resulted in a bit of teasing from those he was friends with. They became a lot more interested though when Chris mentioned that she had a PhD, and even more interested when Chris mentioned she was blind.

"You took a blind girl ice skating?"

"Hey, it was really fun!" Chris defends.

It was interesting; Chris noticed that a lot of people, even his close friends, questioned Caroline's capabilities. Why would you watch movies with a blind girl? Why would you give a blind girl flowers? How is she able to teach or do research if she's blind? Chris supposed he could understand where they were coming from and was happy to explain what Caroline was really like to them, but it turned out there were a lot more people out there that were subconsciously ableist than he would've expected. Maybe that was just because he knew Caroline and what she was capable of. Nevertheless, it bothered him, and it bothered Ricky too; Ricky often spoke up in Caroline's defense if someone were to say something that made it seem like Caroline was incapable, and Chris really appreciated him doing this.

March 1st was Caroline's 30th birthday.

She sat in her office, typing to work on her computer working on her research project, when she hears a knock on her open door.

"S'cuse me, are you Dr. Caroline Heights?"

Caroline turns to face the door, "Yes, that's me, can I help you?"

"I've got a delivery for you."

Caroline furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "A delivery? Do you by chance know what it is? I'm sorry, I'm blind." She gestures to her cane and all of the braille objects in her room.