She remembered the first Saturday she walked in and found them. Just a couple of weeks after the birth of their daughter, Regina (Reggie, for short), it was a scene that would continue for always or so it seemed. She found out he'd been getting up every morning & checking on the baby, without waking Alex. Saturday, at 6 AM, Reggie caught him. She never cried, just reached out and that was all it took.
He picked up the baby and headed to the living room, to his overstuffed leather recliner. His one piece of furniture he had cajoled Eames into keeping when they combined households. She hated it - until that Saturday. When she finally got up, wondering why Reggie hadn't cried, she had memorized the sight. There they lay, completely reclined in the chair, sound asleep, the baby's small, bald, head tucked under his chin, his big hands anchoring her to his chest & her feet covered with a blanket. Where once would have been a beer bottle, now sat a baby bottle and where the television remote resided, was now a baby's toy.
It was shortly after the first time he realized Eames knew what went on Saturday mornings that Bobby changed jobs. The FBI had been after him for years to profile for them. They didn't work Saturdays unless it was an emergency and this new found time with Reggie was just too precious. What could she do? She figured, as Reggie grew up, the early morning times would stop…but they didn't. They evolved.
When she was a toddler, it was chocolate milk and cartoons. As a grade schooler, it was Saturday morning movies and milk shakes. As a young girl, Alex was sure Reggie wouldn't want her Dad involved to that degree, but, once again, she was wrong. As a pre-teen, it was their time to work through everything from school schedules to puppy love to first crush. The recliner was confessional. It was laughter, it was tears, it was conspiratorial whispers. Whatever arguments and teenage disagreements occurred during the week, they were forgiven Saturday morning in that chair. He was never critical or condescending or parental during that time, he was just there and Reggie (and Alex) knew it.
By high school, the Saturday mornings in the chair had become more serious conversations, usually over something frozen from the Starbucks down the street that Bobby would leave and go get at 5 in the morning…just because his girls liked it. The topics covered boy friends, assignments, her first failing grade and, the inevitable, college. Alex could never quite stop the giggle that would come from seeing Reggie, her long legs draped over her dad's lap & the arm of the chair, arms around his neck, forehead to forehead, like the first time he held her in the delivery room.
College brought a slight change to the routine. While the conversations weren't face to face, the phone rang every Saturday at 6 AM. Those times when she was home on break or for the summer, you knew exactly where to find Bobby and Reggie on Saturday morning. What kept that poor chair from breaking with all that size was a miracle.
Finally, the day came when the Saturday routine DID change. Aside from the first time she found them, this was one of Alex's most cherished Saturday memories. That morning of the day when Reggie became someone else's best girl. As Alex came round the corner from the bedroom, there they sat…a tangle of legs and arms, both trying desperately not to cry and both knowing neither could stop the inevitable. All Alex could do was back out of the doorway, her own eyes glistening with tears.
After that morning, Bobby had done the 6AM Saturday for so long, he didn't know anything else. He was still there, just in case the door opened or the phone rang. Occasionally, it did, because Reggie knew he'd be there as long as she wanted and he was able.
Two years after that last regular Saturday, the door to the Goren's apartment silently opened. Bobby was grinning like a kid with a new toy and the excitement was palpable. It was 6AM, Saturday and Dr. Reggie Goren was on her way to work, but not before she dropped off something at Mom and Dad's. Alex could only stand in the doorway and watch as the cycle repeated itself and Saturday's started again, this time with Grandpa's best girl.