A little on the short side...but glad to have it written. My hard drive pretty much crashed on my old computer and I ended up just getting a new computer altogether. The bad news is that I lost everything that I had written for this chapter and other things that I had been working on. Yet, it's hard to believe that in just two chapters from now, this story will end. If fifty plus chapters won't be enough for you... there will be a sequel in the works for more crazy adventures to happen.


When Gillian returned, she also expected to see Cal sleeping on the couch. Instead she found it empty—leaving her to question what had taken place during the short time that she had been gone. She then stepped into the kitchen after seeing the light on; hoping that he had gone in here to eat something, but instead she walked into a different scenario.

Emily was standing on the side of the kitchen island, rolling out cookies and placing them on the cookie pan. Sophie was standing on a chair nearby, working on her own dough. When she noticed Gillian walk in, Sophie proudly held it up for her to see.

"Cookies?" Gillian gave her a soft smile, while pretending to gobble up her dough.

"It was a way to keep her busy until you got back. She was starting to get a little sad when she realized that you weren't here." They both looked over at the little girl, who was clearly trying to figure out more ways to play with her dough. "We just started about a half an hour ago."

Gillian nodded her appreciation, running her fingers through Sophie's blonde hair."And your father-"

"He's upstairs." Emily hesitated, finally deciding to tell her. "Something about the medicine kicking in and the couch no longer being comfortable enough." A pause followed as her eyes flickered over to the overturned, white prescription bag. "He did it for you, you know." The tension in the air seemed to shift at the revelation, and Gillian sucked in a deep breath. Emily, however, seemed to be on the other side of the spectrum; a twinkle in her eye that said she was aware of something that Gillian wasn't.

Then it dawned on her as Emily turned to put the cookies into the oven, that she might have something to do with him taking the medicine. At some point, Emily had agreed with her and Cal being together—even though they weren't really together. Besides him professing his love for her at the hospital and the mere thought that she needed him too—Gillian was unsure as to just how that could be accomplished.

"How long ago did he take it?"

"About an hour ago—just before Sophie woke from her nap." Emily called over her shoulder; the oven closing with a slight thud behind her. "I didn't actually have to say much, you know. He likes to be strong, but he knows that you were right..and I think he wants to spend the rest of his life with you . . . he just doesn't know how to say it."

"He actually said that?"

"In not so many words. Actually, he didn't have to say anything."

"I'm going to check up on your father." Gillian excused herself, while taking Emily's revelation into thought. By the time that she had walked to the stairs, she felt quite overwhelmed with that bit of knowledge. By the the time that she gotten to the end of the hall, she managed to compose herself a little. And when she walked slowly back into the room, she couldn't help but sit on the edge of his bed.

She sat there quiet for several minutes before his eyes fluttered open. It was clear that she didn't mean to wake him, but she her body was stiff and she couldn't seem to move away from him.

His voice was groggy as he called out to her. "How long have I been asleep?"

"About an hour."

He sat up with a groan, then sank back down into the pillow. "You're bothered about something, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting on my bed."

"It didn't stop you from doing the same thing a couple weeks ago." She reminded him firmly, taking his hand and pressing her fingers against the radial artery in his wrist.

"Good point." He paused collecting his thoughts. "What's the diagnosis, doctor?"

She finished taking his pulse before answering. "Sometimes medication can cause complications."

"This one hasn't apparently." He guessed as she released his arm. With her help, he was able sit up comfortably against the pillow for a few minutes; adding for effect when he noticed the lack of humor in her expression. "Yet. You were saying something about why you were bothered."

"I never did." She countered, giving him a look, as if to say "You're doing it again."

"Ah, well. . . I couldn't read your mind even I could." She wasn't going to give him the pleasure of telling him that he was, so she stared past his shoulder. "Is it something I said?" She shook her head, but stayed silent. Finally after a few minutes, he reached up and touched her cheek. "Want to talk about it?"

She shook her head, letting out sigh. "Not right now." Standing up to leave, he grabbed her hand.

"Remember when you said that you would keep me in the loop?"He paused, letting his concern trail off, as she broke physical contact and walked out of the room. It was then that she realized that she could have a few minutes to herself, since Emily and Sophie were still downstairs. She returned to the guest bedroom, but couldn't catch her breath as she quietly shut the door behind her.

It took several minutes before she even moved from the door, and laid down on the bed. She was exhausted, but continued to stare and listen to Sophie and Emily interact downstairs, until she could no longer keep her eyes open.


"Dad. . . what are you doing up? You're supposed to be in bed." Emily exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen.

"I'm not an invalid. . . I can walk. Where's Gillian?" Looking around, he finally found what he was searching for and snatched up the pill bottle, from where it was sitting on the side counter.

"You can't take that for another three hours." Emily warned him. "And I thought Gillian was with you."

"She was. She came upstairs looking upset—then I fell back to sleep, courtesy of these." He shook the bottle as the pills rattled around inside.

"She actually looked upset when she walked through the door."

"Why? What happened?"

"She didn't actually say that anything did happen." Emily shrugged as she helped Sophie off the stool to wash her hands. "She got a phone call saying that Sophie's bed had arrived, then left and came back. Did you look in the guest bedroom?"

"Of course I looked in the guest bedroom."

Emily thought about her whereabouts. "What about my room or the attic? I never heard her leave, so she's got to be around here somewhere."

"I already checked your room, but not the attic. Thanks, Love." And with that, he retreated back upstairs.