Chapter 28

When Jack woke up, he found that he and Laura had shifted positions; he was now on his back, while she was curled on her side with her head on his chest. He looked at the clock and then quickly extricated an arm to turn off the alarm with less than a minute to spare. Slowly and carefully, he slid out from under Laura, not wanting to wake her.

He took a quick shower and emerged to see her sitting on the edge of the bed, brushing her hair. "Good morning," she said a little uncertainly when he came in.

"Morning," he answered in a neutral tone. He looked at her for a moment, thinking about Twilight. Had he told her about it, back when he blindly trusted her? He was pretty sure that he'd mentioned something about it, but couldn't remember how much he'd told her. He mentally berated himself.

Irina noticed Jack watching her out of the corner of his eye. She could tell that something was bothering him, and that it had to do with her. She debated whether to mention it, but decided to wait until after Sydney was off to school. Instead of speaking, she grabbed her crutches and went into the bathroom. She gave herself a quick sponge bath, thinking as she did so that she was going to go crazy without a real bath or shower for the next three months. She'd been fastidious about cleanliness from a young age, despite the fact that most of the people around her when she was growing up could go weeks without bathing and not give it a second thought.

Finished, she went back to the bedroom wrapped in a towel, only to find Jack gone. She quickly dressed and pulled her hair into a ponytail, thinking that she would have to tackle washing it in the kitchen sink later, then swung herself down the hall to Sydney's room. She pushed open the door to see that Sydney was just finishing getting dressed. "Morning, Mommy!" Sydney called when she saw her. "Daddy's downstairs. I told him I wanted two French braids in my hair today, but he said you could do that while he cooked breakfast."

Laura smiled and maneuvered herself over to the bed. "Bring me the brush and the hair ties," she said, wondering if "cooking" meant that they'd all be having cold cereal. Jack was an adequate cook, but he didn't like it. Apparently, though, the prospect of trying to braid Sydney's hair made even cooking seem appealing to him. She braided Sydney's hair, then sent her daughter ahead while she made her way carefully down the steps. At the age of eight, she'd tried to go down the steps in their apartment house too fast on crutches and had fallen down the stairs, ending up stuck in bed with a broken arm in addition to the broken leg. She had always had a strange fondness for the memory of that particular broken arm, the only broken bone in her childhood not caused by her father.

When she reached the kitchen, she was surprised to find that Jack had made eggs and toast. He surprised her further by smiling at her when she came in. "Milk or orange juice, Laura?" he said as he carried a bowl of scrambled eggs to the table, which Sydney had just finished setting.

"Juice, please," she answered. "Can I help with anything?"

"No, Mommy, sit down," Sydney said. "I told Daddy we should be nice and do stuff for you since you have a broken leg, and he said I was right."

"That's very sweet, Sydney, thank you," she said, smiling at Sydney and then at Jack. He was obviously making more of an effort to be nice to her in front of Sydney this morning, and she was glad.

Jack and Laura focused the breakfast conversation on Sydney, and she chattered happily throughout the meal. When they finished, Laura followed Sydney to the door and made sure she met up with the kids across the street to walk to school. Jack came up behind her as she closed the door behind their daughter. "Laura, can you come into the living room, please?"

She could tell from the tone of his voice that he was worried about something. "What's wrong, Jack?"

"Nothing's wrong, just something I need to talk to you about." Wondering what was going on, she followed him into the living room.