It's the weekend. A week's gone by and he's survived. When he enters the kitchen early on Saturday morning, he finds Ellie and Tom huddled close together at the kitchen table. Fred waves at him from his high chair. He ruffles the younger boy's hair.
"Hello!" Fred says.
Ellie and Tom turn at the sound. "Oh, brilliant," she says. "You're just in time."
"In time for what?"
"We're painting today. Tom was just helping me pick out the colors." He joins them at the table, where the entire spectrum of the color wheel is laid out in paint samples.
"Painting?" he says.
"Yeah. These clean white walls aren't very 'us,' are they? Time to liven them up!" She elbows Tom, who gives a half-smile.
"Okay," Hardy says.
"What's your favorite color?" she asks him.
"My favorite..." It takes him a moment to realize what she's asking. "Blue," he says.
"Oh good. Tom's too. So, blue living room it is." She and Tom smile at each other. "I'm leaning towards more of a teal for the kitchen, what do you think?"
"What's teal?" he says.
She raises two incredulous eyebrows at him. "Maybe we'll just leave you in charge of Fred."
"It's this," Tom says, holding out a sample of bluish-green.
Standing up, Ellie begins directing. "Right, well, we've got a long day ahead, so let's get to it. Tom, you need to go get dressed. Alec, you need to eat. Fred? What do you need?"
"Put me down, Mummy!" Fred says, squirming in his chair.
She lifts Fred out and they watch as he waddles swiftly toward the kitchen door. "I'll catch him," Tom says.
Ellie turns to Hardy. "I'm going to go get him settled. Do you want to stay here with him? Or we can all go."
"No. You and Tom go on, the two of you. Fred and I'll stay here."
She nods. She hasn't said much about the talk she had with Tom, and he doesn't want to pry. All he knows is it must have gone well, because Tom has been spending time outside of his bedroom voluntarily.
Before they leave, they settle Fred in front of some cartoons. While they're gone, Hardy does as much as he can to get the living room ready for painting, though it proves difficult since he can't lift more than ten pounds at a time. He manages to sort of kick and drag boxes out into the hall.
When they get home, Ellie scolds him for exerting himself too much, but follows up with a half-hearted thank you for clearing the room. She takes command of the situation, assigning everyone specific duties for the day.
Tom is excited to work on the ladder, so he gets the top half of the walls. Ellie is skeptical about anyone else's combination of attention to detail and patience, so she will handle the trims and corners. Because it involves the least amount of stretching, Hardy is tasked with using the paint roller on the bottom half of the walls, and also handling Fred, who has been given his own Fred-sized paintbrush. Better to let him feel included than have him go rogue, Ellie explains.
Personally, Hardy thinks there might be too many people involved in the project. He's about to say so out loud, but he rethinks it when he sees the look she gives him.
The painting goes smoothly...sort of. Everyone has little blue marks on their trouser legs where Fred stood too close to them with his brush. Tom is a bit overzealous with the paint roller, so there are intermittent blue stripes along the edge of the ceiling. Ellie steps backwards into the paint tray and spills the wet blue stuff everywhere. It could have been contained by the sheet and newspaper she put under it, were it not for the toddler in the room, who manages to step in the puddle. He tracks several tiny blue footprints across the carpet before Hardy can catch and lift him. But grabbing a child weighing two stone causes his body an alarming amount of stress, and he and Fred are both banned from helping after that.
By the evening, the painting is finished. The second coat is drying. He puts himself in charge of having takeaway delivered while Ellie cleans up the mess from the paint. When she's done, she finds him in the kitchen and he can't help a smirk. She is covered in blue paint. There's a war stripe under her eye, a dab across her chin, several marks on her shirt and bare arms. One foot and ankle are dyed from when she stepped in the tin. All ten of her fingers are covered completely.
"Rough day?" he says.
She tilts her head. "No. I had a lot of fun, actually. In the old house we were constantly putting off everything. Nice to be accomplishing something for once."
"Good," he says.
After dinner, she hugs Tom tight, thanking him for being so helpful all day and excusing him to his room and video games. Hardy follows her back to the living room and keeps her company while she arranges things and finishes the last bit of unpacking. He catches a few wistful moments when she picks up something or other, frowning as she tosses it into a box marked "donate," but she never breaks.
In the morning he finds everyone in the living room again. Fred has spread his toys everywhere, and is playing with them happily. Ellie is sitting with Tom on the couch, an arm around him, as they watch the younger one. When she notices him hovering in the doorway she motions him over, and he joins them, taking in the view. The room is completely unpacked, boxes nowhere to be seen. Familiar elements of the family cover the shelves. Morning sunlight is streaming in through large windows, illuminating everything. The new paint glistens. The blue color is crisp and fresh. It's a vibrant transformation. Tom laughs at something Fred does, which makes Ellie laugh as well. She hugs her son tighter to her with one arm, and rests her other hand on Hardy's leg. The gesture is so natural, like her hand belongs there. In fact, looking around the room, he's sure everything is where it's supposed to be.
As he surveys his surroundings, his eyes are drawn inevitably to Ellie. Bathed in the morning light, her face is soft, her eyes sparkling. The hard lines and dark shadows of the past few months are fading. She's healing.