it's late and she didn't hear the footsteps of a little six year old at the door. she had been staring at the floor, drinking wine in her own misery, for god knows how long. she looks at the girl, that is now scratching her eyes, clearly still half asleep. she quickly checks her face with her hands, looking for traces of tears or those general swelling marks of when you cry too much. all good.
perhaps she had stayed there much longer than she thought.
"hey sweetie. what happened?" she puts the glass, almost empty now, on the table. the little girl curls up in her lap.
"i had a bad dream."
she strokes the blonde hair, and gives her a kiss on the forehead. "it's okay, i'm here."
"why are you up so late, mommy?"
she spends a long moment thinking. part of her doesn't know, either. she's still in those morning clothes, now all crumpled. appart from the shoes, dropped somewhere near the couch, she could have just arrived. she just couldn't believe that day. between the promotion and frasier's news, she was just clueless, totally lost.
"mommy was at uncle frasier's house, sweetie. he..." she swallows. she wishes she didn't had so much wine for that conversation. but she wishes she had more wine to help her get through the sentence without breaking. "uncle frasier's leaving seattle, alice."
her eyes pops up, suddenly awake. "forever?"
god, she couldn't do this. specially not in front of alice. the thought of start sobbing in front of your six year old daughter was just.. no, she couldn't. "yeah", only a thread of her voice answering. "don't worry, he'll come back to visit us", she hears herself saying, more of a hope than an actual statement. she needed to believe that he would. that he wouldn't leave her and all his past behind, like he did with Boston. that his family mattered to him. that she mattered to him.
the girl stays quiet for a moment, digesting the news. "will he bring me a present when he comes back?"
roz laughs, snorting a little. she hugs her, thinking how much she loves that kid. alice was everything to her, specially right now. she looks at the watch. 3 in the morning.
"jesus!" she shouts, getting up. "alice, you need to sleep!"
she runs with the girl on her arms, and puts her in bed, giving her a kiss in the forehead.
"mommy?"
"huh?" she mumbles, concerned about getting up in 4 hours to go to a meeting, being still half drunk from all the wine. still appalled from all the events. still crushed. 'great way to start a new job, roz', her mind keeps saying.
"i will miss uncle frasier."
the words hit her like a train. she sighs loudly, pain exploding in her chest. she couldn't deal with that, not at that time. she simply holds her daughter's hand for a minute.
"me too, alice. me too."