The Morning After
- Mike -
Mike was in heaven. Nothing could have made this moment more perfect. He had woken up this morning in THEIR bed. In THEIR room. In THEIR house. When he rolled over, there was she was, his Scar, facing him with her eyes closed. He slowly lifted his hand and gently brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. His eyes swept over her face, taking in every detail. Of course things had changed. She wasn't the person that she was seventeen years ago. She was better now than ever.
Pressing a quick kiss to her forehead, he lifted her arm and slipped out of bed. Crossing the room, he opened the dresser and pulled out a pair of pj pants and slipped them on. Lifting his head, he watched her in the mirror as she mumbled and clung to his pillow. As she settled back down, it took all of his will to not crawl back into bed with her and spend the entire day there. Once he was sure she was asleep again, he made his way into the bathroom and closed the door silently. Turning to face the mirror, he touched his face in wonder. Just yesterday he had been staring into the eyes of his seventeen year old self. Turning on the tap, he quickly splashed water on his face and dried it. Opening the cabinet above the sink, his breath seemed to be sucked out of body as he took in the sight before him.
It was like he never left. All of his things were exactly where he had left them. When Scar kicked him out of the house months earlier, he barley had time to grab an extra suit from the closet. Just a couple of weeks ago, he had watched as she threw his things through the wood chipper, in some kind of attempt to purge him from her life. He could remember cursing her while out buying new socks and underwear.
He gently picked up his razor, a father's day gift from Maggie when she was five. He remembered unwrapping the boxed set and Maggie's huge eyes staring at him. It was one of those moments that had always stuck with him. Sitting in bed, his daughter sitting on his lap, pointing to each item telling him about what each one did. It was clear to him that she had been coached about the purpose of the gift. His eyes had locked with Scar's over Maggie's head, and she gave him that smile that lit up the room. She held a dozing Alex in her arms and was rocking him back and forth.
Nothing could touch that moment for him. They were so young, with two small children, but she had saved and worked hard to get him a special gift to mark the day. The razor felt heavy in his hands as his thumb brushed over the engraving on the handle.
For the best father ever. Father's day 1994.
He placed the razor back on it stand and grabbed his toothbrush from the cup next the sink. Making quick work of cleaning his teeth, he made his way back into the bedroom. He paused at the foot of the bed, and looked down. She had moved over to his side of the bed and was curled around his pillow. Smiling to himself, he grabbed his robe from the back of the door and headed towards the kitchen.
Padding his way down the hall, he stopped for a moment at both Maggie's and Alex's door. They had heard the two of them trying to sneak back into the house around 5am. Unfortunately for them, both him and Scar had still been a wake, and heard the two of them as they giggled after tripping over the hallway carpet. Laughing to himself, he was almost grateful that the two of them had blown their curfews and stayed out most of the night. It gave him more time to reconnect with Scar without costing them years of expensive therapy bills. Whistling to himself, he continued towards the kitchen, planning on coffee and food.
He made his way around the kitchen as if he never left. Everything was in the same place it had always been in. He grabbed two mugs from the top shelf, left to the sink. He flashed to when they had been moving in, and remembered unpacking them and purposely placing them somewhere where Scar couldn't get at them without help. 'If it wasn't for that, Alex might have never been', he chuckled to himself. Grabbing the can of coffee, he grabbed a spoon from the drawer to his right and started scooping coffee into the machine. Filling it with water, he hit the button on the side and heard the sound of the machine gurgling to life. Bending down, he grabbed a cutting board from the cabinet by the sink and headed to the fridge to find something to eat.
The characters are not mine. I'm just borrowing them!
Thanks for all of the kind words.