Chapter 2 is short but kind of sad as well.


Two

Don't Stop Counting.

Declan was peering out the window, they were in Italy for a couple of days and his father and Lauren were in the garden, he was supposed to be taking a nap but the sound of shouts out side his window had woken him. He saw a bunch of men in black suits putting Lauren in a car. He started crying.

"Lauren! Lauren!" He shouted banging his tiny four year old hands on the window and crying a screaming for his father and Lauren. Louise rushed in and picked him out of bed.

"Declan, Declan its okay." She whispered stroaking his curls, but she wasn't what he wanted. He wanted Lauren to come tuck him back into bed, and his Da to come read to him. Still he clung to Louise sobbing and crying.

When he saw Lauren a few days later she looked different. She knelt to him. "Declan I have something to tell you okay?"

"What is it Lauren?" He asked, hugging her tightly.

"My name isn't Lauren okay? My name is Emily." She whispered.

"Emily?" He frowned. "Why?"

"Because Dec, you and I are going to play a game. Its kind of like hide an seek only we're going to hide you and Louise and me from your dad okay?" She whispered pulling the small boy into her lap.

"Okay La- Emily!" He grinned. "Where will we hide?"

"We're going to go to Boston you remember where it is right?" She asked.

"I remember!" HE grinned, she'd played a game with him a couple of weeks ago, where she would say of a city that was important and he had to find it.

"Okay so we're going to hide there and then Washington DC. Okay?" She smiled standing up and putting him on her hip.

"Okay when will Da find us?" He asked.

"Well your dad has to count for a long time okay?" Her voice had changed, she sounded like she might cry.

"Okay." He whispered, laying his head on her shoulder and falling into a deep restful sleep. When he woke he was on a plane, his head resting on her chest, she was reading to him softly.

"Hey, we're here." She whispered when she saw he'd woken.

"Okay." He yawned, she stood up and carried him off the plane. "What can Da stop counting?"

"In a long time." She whispered, and she was right his dad didn't stop counting for a long, long time.