Part Thirteen

Sydney makes her way into the house, juggling Gracie, her diaper bag, and a bag containing the purchase she'd made that afternoon. "Mike?" she calls. Hearing no answer, she makes her way through the house to the family room. The sight that greets her is one of the sweetest things she's ever seen.

Her husband, her son, and her oldest daughter are all sound asleep, Mike and Emily on the couch, Jack on the floor in front of them. She has half a mind to grab her camera and capture the moment on film; unfortunately Michael begins stirring almost as soon as she enters the room.

"Hey," he says sleepily.

"Hey," she responds, going about the business of depositing her belongings on the floor and freeing Grace from her carrier. "Tire the little ones out, did you?"

"Oh," he says, a bit sheepishly, doing his best to sit without disturbing Emily. "I don't think they got much sleep last night, either."

"That, or you kept them out at the pond until they were too tired to walk," Sydney chides, laying Grace down in her playpen.

Michael smiles. "We had a great time, Syd, I wish you could have come. I can already tell Jack's going to be a great hockey player, and Em-- well, she mostly hung out making snow angels, but she had fun."

"Good," Sydney says. She picks up her shopping bag and extends it toward him. "Here, I bought you something."

"Really?" he says, eyes lighting up like a little boy's as he accepts the bag. "Wow, Syd, thanks." After sorting through a mountain of tissue paper, he extracts a dress shirt in a gorgeous shade of green. He doesn't own any shirts that color, and she thinks it'll go great with his eyes. "It's beautiful," he says, pulling her towards him for a kiss. "Thanks, baby."

"You really like it?" she asks with a smile, settling herself onto his lap.

"Absolutely. It's great."

"Good," she says with a sigh, snuggling against his chest. "Thanks again for making me breakfast this morning. That was really sweet."

"You're welcome," he says with a smile. "So how was lunch? Is Kerri okay?"

"Oh, I think she will be," Sydney says, not really wanting to go into details. "Hey, you're still up for going out for pizza, right? Do you want to go soon? I'm starving."

Michael glances at his watch. "It's only like four o'clock, Syd."

"I didn't eat much lunch," Sydney says with a shrug. "What did you guys have?"

"Peanut butter and jelly," he says with a smile. "How about we go in an hour? I need to--"

He is cut off by the sound of the ringing phone. He reaches for the phone on the end table; Jack and Emily stir but don't wake up. "Hello?…oh, hi, Mom."

"Shit," Sydney mutters. "I was supposed to call her."

Michael smiles. "Yes, Mom, she was just about to call, she had lunch in the city with a friend today…Kerri Weiss…for a wedding or something, I think." He listens for a moment, then places his hand over the phone. "She says if I ever do to you what Eric did to Kerri, she'll kill me."

"Oh, I promise you I'd kill you before she got the chance," Sydney says with a grimace.

Michael laughs and takes his hand away. "She said she'd kill me first, Mom." He smirks, then puts his hand back in place. "She says, Good girl."

"I always liked your mother," Sydney says, nuzzling his neck.

"I don't know, let me ask her," Michael says, then turns to Sydney once again. "She wants to know if I've been neglecting you."

"Yes, baby," Sydney says, beginning to kiss a trail down his neck. "I insist you give me some close personal attention immediately."

"Syd," Michael groans, then takes his hand away. "I'm doing my best, Mom…fine." He holds the phone out to Sydney. "She wants to talk to you."

Sydney rolls her eyes, then takes the phone. "Hi, Marguerite. I'm sorry I didn't call you back."

"That's quite all right, darling," Marguerite says. "How are you?"

"I'm great, Marguerite." Michael begins kissing a trail down her neck, and she bites her lip to keep from gasping. "Your wonderful son made breakfast for me this morning, then he spent all day with the kids."

"Good," Marguerite says approvingly. "Now what are you doing tonight, dear?"

"We were going to take the kids out for pizza, but it looks like Michael wore them out today."

"It's good for them," Michael murmurs into her neck.

"Well, have fun whatever you decide to do. Could you put my son back on the phone?"

"Absolutely," Sydney says, handing the phone back to Michael.

"Hi, Mom. Hey, I wanted to ask you-- I'm taking Sydney away for the weekend on Valentine's Day, we were hoping to fly you out to stay with the kids. Would you want to do that?"

Sydney settles against Michael's chest, but not before she sees him smile. "Great. I'll book the flight, then…I don't know. We talked about Vermont, but I'd sort of like to go somewhere warm."

"You, the hockey fan?" Sydney asks drowsily. Suddenly, she feels the events of the night before catching up to her, and she's not so hot on the idea of going out for pizza, herself.

"Syd's falling asleep on me, Mom. I'd better go…okay…okay…me, too. Goodbye."

"Syd?" he asks after a moment.

"Hmm?" Her eyes have fallen shut, and she's feeling comfortable enough curled against him to doze off.

"What do you want to do about dinner?"

"Sleep through it."

"Okay." Gently, he lies back down, her resting against him, Emily curled up in front of them, Jack on the floor, Grace in her playpen.

Her last thought before dozing off is that she bets she could sleep through the night, just like that.