Chapter Twenty-Nine: Monday, January 2, 2006, Glen Oak

"Mom?" Lucy found her mother in Simon's bedroom just…standing there. Staring. There three empty boxes sitting on the bed and a large, packed suitcase. "Are you okay?" She'd come over after lunch to help Mom pack Simon's things.

"No! I'm not okay!" she sobbed.

Lucy crossed over to her and wrapped her arms around her mother's shoulders. "Your father was supposed to bring him home, not…." She shuddered.

Not ask us to pack up his stuff and bring it out to him. "I know. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"It's not Dad's either," Lucy told her. "Simon's an adult. He can do what he wants."

"Even when it's the wrong thing?"

"Even then."

"Oh, Lucy." She held on tight. "Have I told you recently how proud your father and I are of you."

"I love you, too, Mom. Come on. Let's get this stuff packed up."

"I only hope it's temporary," Annie confided. "I hope he comes to his senses and comes home before…before he does something really stupid."

….

New York City

Simon parted ways with his father at the subway station, with Dad headed in one direction, and Simon in the other. He tried not to think about what Mom and Dad must have talked about on the phone when Dad called to update her on the situation. He didn't want to think about what Dad was going to talk about with Matt and Sarah, either.

As the subway car wheezed to a stop, he adjusted his grip on his shoulder bag and pulled his suitcase along behind him towards the door. This was it. He was home.

Even in the dark, the neighborhood seemed quiet. Lights were on. Walkways were shoveled and salted. Snowmen stood sentry in several yards—several of them in Samantha's. He smiled as he trudged up the steps—and the door opened. It was Caroline. She took his bag and set it on the sofa while he got the door; it looked like she'd been there for a while, at least if the homework sprawled out on the coffee table was any indication. Instead of her school uniform, she had on the cable knit sweater he'd seen several times already, a long skirt, and legwarmers.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close.

"You have no idea how much I needed this," he murmured. He held her back, held her right, kissed the top of her head and then laid his cheek against it. She smelled of patchouli and leather. He closed his eyes and let her arms ground him back into himself.

"Did things go badly today?"

He smiled. "I suspect you've already heard the good news."

Caroline drew him into the kitchen, snagging the little teapot sitting next to her books on the way. "You start at Henry and Lin's on Thursday and at the school for the deaf on Monday. As a teacher's assistant." She grinned happily at him over her shoulder, as she made a fresh pot of tea and got down a second mug for Simon. "What's the bad news?"

"My mom is flying in tomorrow with some of my stuff. Which I know sounds like good news."

"But you're dreading seeing her because of what you know she has to say about us."

He nodded. Then, "Hey, where is everyone?" It was past what he expected was a normal dinnertime for a household with young children and he'd been led to believe—and seen himself—that the house tended to be a little chaotic.

"Zach usually stays late after school on Monday and Thursdays tutoring, and he said he had some errands to run on the way home. Samantha took the girls to ballet and dinner out tonight. Kipper went to visit my grandfather."

"It sounds like they wanted to leave us alone on purpose."

She smiled. "They'd never admit to it."

His family would have never done something like that.

"I got you a housewarming gift," Caroline told him. She carried the teapot back into the living room; Simon followed.

"You didn't need to get me anything."

She handed over a small, CD size- and shaped-parcel, wrapped in plain brown paper. "It's nothing special."

"Yes, it is. It's from you." He tore open the paper carefully to find two CD's. One was Loreena McKennit, whose music Caroline had introduced him to, the other was a selection of classical music including Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Greig's piano concerto in A-minor, his Ballade in G-minor, Barber's Adagio for strings, and Clair de Lune by Debussy. "Thank you," Simon told her earnestly.

"If you really want to thank me, you can help me with my math homework! Some of these story problems are going right over my head."

Simon laughed. "Show me what you're struggling with, and I'll see if I can help you figure it out."

They sat down together on the floor and Simon realized all over again how everything he'd told his father was the truth. Being with her, being together like this, close—touching—it was better than anything he'd ever felt before, with anyone. Of course, he looked forward to the day when there was more between them. A wedding ring. Children. Their own place somewhere. But as long as he had this, right here, right now, he was happy.

Caroline looked over at him. "What?"

"Nothing. Just…enjoying the moment." He brushed a stray curl behind her ear, and she blushed. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

….

Glen Oak

Lucy came down the front stairs a few hours later to check on the twins (she'd called Kevin to ask him to pick them up from school; Mom was in no condition) while Mom headed down the backstairs to start dinner. It was going to be a left-overs night for sure.

The twins were in the living room, watching Mr. Rogers on PBS. Sam clicked off the television as soon as she came into the living room.

"How come Mommy's sad?" David asked.

"And why is she packing up Simon's things?" Sam wondered.

"Well…." Lucy sat down in the armchair across from them. "Mom is sad because Simon is moving. And that's why she's packing up some of his stuff, so she can take it out to him."

"Isn't he coming home?" asked Sam.

"Doesn't he love us anymore?" David wanted to know.

"Of course, he loves you. And I'm sure he'll be home to visit, just like Matt comes home to visit."

"But Mary never comes home to visit," David insisted.

"Yeah, Mary never comes home," Sam echoed.

"Mary's life is just a little complicated right now," Lucy promised them.

"What about Simon's life?" asked David.

"What if it gets complicated, too?"

"I guess we'll have to wait and see. And in the meantime, you two and Ruthie are going to spend a few days with Kevin and me. It'll be fun." She hoped.

Ruthie came in the front door.

"Hey," Lucy greeted her little sister with a smile.

"Yeah. Hey."

"What's wrong?"

Ruthie just shook her head. "What's right?"

Lucy did her best to smile. Ruthie was still smarting over the fact that Martin and Meredith were still dating and Mom and having Dad so focused on Simon wasn't helping. "I've got an idea, why don't we take the boys out for pizza?"

"You guys go," said Ruthie. "I have homework."

"I could help?"

Ruthie just shook her head and ambled up the stairs in the same miserable funk she'd been in all Christmas break.

Ruthie managed to get all the way up to her room without running into anyone else.

Not that there were many people left.

Mary had gone to Buffalo. Then New York. Then London.

Now Chicago.

Ruthie flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

Matt and Sarah moved to New York.

And are probably going to stay there.

They were graduating in May and would be starting their residencies soon.

And now Simon.

Tears stung at her eyes.

Simon was moving and not just a few hours away to Northern. He'd promised he wasn't leaving any time soon. He wasn't going to move. He was just going to New York to visit.

But now he was moving there. Dad had gone to try and stop him but it was never going to work, Ruthie could have told her parents that, not that they ever listened to her. And now Mom was going too.

Ruthie wiped the hot tears away form her cheeks. She pulled the CD player off her nightstand, slid on her headphones, and turned on the music, volume at ten.

Martin had gotten Meredith a ring for Christmas. Not an engagement ring or anything like that, but still. A ring meant something. Something serious. Even Simon hadn't gotten Caroline a ring. He'd given her earrings. Her birthday gift was a bracelet.

And she got him a book.

Ruthie didn't understand how a book compared to jewelry, but Simon said it was an antique book or something.

When had Simon gotten interested in books?

Happy hopped up onto the bed and put her head on Ruthie's stomach, and Ruthie reached down to pet her. "At least you're not going anywhere." Ruthie sighed. She supposed it would be her leaving next, and she wanted to leave, to be out on her own—she was just tired of everybody leaving her.