I've struggled writing this chapter…as emotional as last chapter was, I wanted this to be a bit happier, despite the fact that Mike is very much so in the grieving process, even though he doesn't realize it. Please, please review!

Chapter 12

Mike woke up to Emma jumping on his bed and giving him a kiss on the cheek, "Hi, daddy! I love you!" He could hear Hannah laughing from the doorway, and so he gestured for her to come in. He had had a rough night filled with dreams and nightmares, alike, of Christine and Lucas, and Emma telling him that she loved him made him smile and laugh. Hannah had sat down next to him and gave him a huge smile, and for a change, her dimples were showing. As badly as he was hurting and as angry as he felt…seeing the girls smile at him and seemingly happy made his day instantly brighten.

"I love you both too. Hannah, are you feeling okay, no oxygen on?" He brushed a hand over her cheek, partly being affectionate, but also to check for a fever, and thankfully her cheek was a normal temperature.

"Yea, I feel okay but I am ready for my bath. We read your letters, I love you too…and we all know Emma loves you!"

Emma was practically jumping up and down on his stomach, he had no idea where she got her constant flow of energy, it was like someone was sneaking her sugar. Hannah was much more subdued but she was laughing at Emma's theatrics.

"Can we have chocolate chip pancakes? I know we're supposed to eat gross food, that has no taste, but there are so many yummy things downstairs to eat. You always made us chocolate chip pancakes the first morning you came home from work…and Hannah wants some too…PLEASE!"

Mike just laughed and when he looked at Hannah she was nodding her head too. He couldn't tell them no, it was a tradition after all. He would let Christine sleep in and made the kids chocolate chip pancakes, sausage links and orange juice before the virus. He wasn't sure he had the ingredients though and told the girls as much.

"Oh yea, Uncle Tom just come in. He brought the stuff; he remembered you talking about it before and thought we needed them. He's already left for work. So you can't say no!" Emma was grinning from ear to ear. Mike just laughed and looked at the clock, it was 7 am. It was just one more thing to thank Tom for. He just couldn't believe he had slept through Tom coming in.

"Ok, ok. I'll make them! Emma, why don't you go ahead and get dressed, maybe Hannah would help you? Hannah, you can stay as you are until Mallory gets here for your bath. She's due at 9:30. I'm just going to shower and shave and I'll be downstairs. And don't answer the front door unless it's someone we know."

Mike had always been a bit strict with the kids, to the point that he would have never allowed them to jump all over his bed like Emma had. They had plenty of fun, but his Navy life sometimes bled over to his parenting skills. It was always one of his and Christine's arguments. She would remind him that they were not sailors, just kids and they would end up resenting him if he tried to treat them like they were in the Navy. It now had him reevaluating the way he parented the kids. He had a second chance with the girls but it hurt his heart that Lucas had only known him as the strict, uptight dad. While he was determined to be more fun, affectionate (because he had never been overly affectionate before), less strict and regimented, the girls still did have to have some ground rules. He was fairly well known with the media and he wouldn't put it past them to approach him at his home, plus he was certain that he might still be on what was left of the Immunes' hit list and occasionally an associate of Shaw's would make noise against Tom and he. He didn't want the girl's exposed to that.

The girl's made short work of their requested breakfast. He had already decided that unless it hurt their stomachs, he didn't care what the girls ate. They needed to gain weight. Both girls weighed signigantly less than what they should at their age. One of the days that Sasha had brought Emma to see Hannah and him at the hospital, Rios had given Emma a checkup and fortunately the only health issue he had to worry about where Emma was concerned was the malnourishment.

Mallory came in a little earlier than planned as she had worked the overnight shift and wanted to give Hannah her bath before she went home and went to sleep. She wisely ignored the remnants of the pancakes and visited with Mike and the girls until Hannah was ready to go take a shower. He and Mallory had decided to use his bathroom, simply because the shower had a bench and there was a huge bathtub that was never used. It was easier for both Hannah and Mallory.

Sammy had left his extra soccer ball with Mike because he and Sammy frequently played soccer and Mike had gotten tired of breaking into Tom's garage to get one. He had a key to their house but he didn't like walking through their house to get a ball, so he would just break into the garage using the side door. He decided to take some time with Emma and kick the ball around with her, even though it was only in the backyard, she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, however she did get chilled and seemed to have run out of energy, at least for the moment.

It helped Mike to hear the girl's laughter and see their smiles. He used to think he had to spend a fortune to make them happy but it was really as easy as kicking a soccer ball around with Emma. One of the things that Mallory had warned him about was that parents that had a critically ill child (he didn't like to think of Hannah as critically ill), tended to neglect the other kids and they also forgot to stop being the caretaker when the sick child just wanted a mom or dad. It caused resentment on all fronts. She was concerned about him getting something she called "caretaker's syndrome," and it could cause him to resent and even sort of hate Hannah for being so sick. He couldn't imagine feeling anything like that towards Hannah. It was his job to care for Hannah, and he loved her.

As far as Emma was concerned, he knew it was going to be a challenge to balance Hannah's constant needs and Emma's feelings. She said she was fine with him taking care of Hannah and more or less leaving Emma to her own devices, but Mike was certain that there would be a time that jealousy would rear its ugly head. It was going to be even harder when Mike went back to work and the girl's went back to school.

When Mike and Emma came back in, Mallory hollered for him to help. Another one of the blisters had broken and stuck the bandages to Hannah's skin and Mallory had contended with that but there was another blister that looked like it was about to burst and so she needed to drain it so that it wouldn't cause further skin issues. Hannah didn't want to take any pain medications and so Mallory needed her essentially held down because if Hannah moved at all while Mallory had the scalpel in her hand…well that didn't need to happen.

Mike tried holding her like he had in the hospital and rocking her back and forth, but when that didn't work, and she was still moving around too much, he more or less just pulled Hannah onto his lap and bear hugged her from behind to keep her from moving too much despite how inappropriate it might look since Hannah was already a teenager. It must have been incredibly painful for her, because while she didn't cry, she left fingernail prints in both his forearms. He could deal with that but it was pure hell for him because once Mallory was done and was bandaging her feet, Hannah just started sobbing. She had barely acknowledged any pain but for some reason, today was just too much for her. Mallory was concerned that she would choke herself crying and so she gave her a pain shot. Rios had prescribed them for when it was a danger for Hannah to swallow water but she needed pain relief, and it didn't take long for Hannah to fall asleep. For whatever reason, they had done the bandage change on Mike's bed and so he just left her there and carried her oxygen in and hooked it all up to her.

It was in moments like that, that Mike felt like an even more horrible father. He had a dead son, a critically ill daughter and another daughter who he was scared to death would get mad at him. He had never felt so overwhelmed and exhausted. Mallory understood enough, and left him to watch Hannah sleeping. She had pretty much cried herself to sleep in pain and it broke his heart…again. She was tough as nails but she had to have been in horrendous pain for her to cry like that. He just wished he could do something to take it away. He would trade places with her in a heartbeat.