"Daddeee!"

"Hey, princess."

Sydney closes her eyes and smiles at the familiar sound. It's Tuesday evening; they arrived back in New York the previous night, and Michael went into the office today like always. It is nice to have things more or less back to normal.

"Today Mommy and Gracie and I looked at wallpaper," Emily chatters away as Michael carries her into the kitchen. "Mommy didn't like any of it, though. She wants to paint Sam's room instead."

"This soon?" Michael asks with a frown, putting Emily down and kissing Sydney's cheek. Emily immediately runs off toward the backyard to see what Jack is doing. "But Syd, I thought we were going to wait till we found out the sex of the baby. Maybe paint the walls blue?"

"Oh, Michael, blue walls would be so gloomy," Sydney says dismissively. "Here. Taste. I used that new Szechuan sauce, do you think I should add more?" she asks, feeding him a spoonful of the rice dish she is preparing.

"Damn," Michael says, nearly spitting out the mouthful. "That's spicy. No, Syd, you definitely shouldn't add more."

"Oh," Sydney says with a frown. "If you think it's too spicy, the kids definitely will. Maybe if I add some more rice, that'll soak some of it up."

"Maybe."

Sydney laughs at the expression on his face. "Or maybe we should heat up a frozen pizza instead. Sorry, babe."

"No big deal," he says with a grin. "But, hey. Maybe completely blue walls would be too gloomy, but maybe we could find some nice wallpaper with blue in it. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"But we won't know the sex of the baby for awhile, and I really want to get started," Sydney frowns, walking to the fridge and taking a frozen pizza from the freezer. "And anyway, Michael, I found this paint in the most gorgeous shade of yellow, it'll make the room look so cheerful. And I thought we could tear up the carpet and strip the floor down to the hardwood, wouldn't that be gorgeous? We should really think of tearing up the carpet in more of the house, actually."

"Not our bedroom, please," Michael grimaces. "I like putting my feet down on carpet in the morning."

"It was just an idea," Sydney says with a shrug. "But the carpet in what will be the new baby's room is really tacky, it has to go one way or the other. Anyway, how was work?"

"The place didn't fall apart while I was gone, if that's what you mean," Michael says with a grimace. "Though I had a stack of paperwork a mile high on my desk this morning. Oh, before I forget," he says. "We're invited to this gallery opening thing on Friday. The artist is the daughter of a client." He pauses, looking suddenly hesitant. "It's probably not that important that we go."

"It might be fun, though," Sydney says, slipping the pizza into the oven. "I hope you're not starving to death. This takes twenty minutes to cook," she says, examining the cooking instructions on the back of the box. "Probably longer, since I didn't preheat the oven." She glances at Michael. "What, don't you want to go?"

"Only if you do." Michael looks terribly uncomfortable. "And buy a new dress, if you feel like it. Not that you need to, you have lots of nice things, but if you want one--"

"Michael, what's gotten into you?" Sydney asks, aghast. Then suddenly, she knows. "Michael, please don't tell me you're still letting what my father said bother you."

"I shouldn't be dragging you to those things all the time, though." Michael looks absolutely miserable. "I was supposed to take you on a quiet night out, just the two of us last Friday, and I took you on that sty trip to California instead."

"I wanted to go on that sty trip to California," Sydney says with a half-smile. "It's not your fault that everyone in Los Angeles who has a problem with me chose this weekend to let me know."

"Well, they don't see you that often." Finally, Michael cracks a smile, too.

Sydney turns off the burner that has been heating her spicy rice concoction. "So I was thinking today that I should call and smooth things over with your mother, but every time I started to I realized that I'm still really pissed at her."

"She didn't mean for things to happen the way they did, Syd," Michael says, his smile fading.

"But she still doesn't even get that she did anything even a little wrong." Sydney shakes her head. "It's not her place to invite my father to dinner, and it's definitely not her place to pursue an argument with him right in front of the kids. Jack's going to hold a grudge against my dad forever, you realize this, don't you?" Sydney crosses her arms and leans against the fridge.

"Maybe he should," Michael says with a shrug. "I know you feel like you're too hard on your dad sometimes, Syd, but you're actually really forgiving, considering."

Sydney sighs. "You know, I've known for years what he thought of me, but now that he's actually put it into words, proved exactly how little he values me and what I do, I think it's going to be even harder for me to be around him. There are just some things you don't say, you know?"

"I know, sweetheart." Michael wraps his arms around her comfortingly.

"And he's made you feel guilty about something as small as asking your wife to be your date at a gallery opening," Sydney says, tears springing to her eyes.

"Syd, I--"

"Don't, Michael," she interrupts firmly. "Don't ever feel guilty for anything. I don't want anything to change between us, okay?"

Unfortunately, she is afraid that things already have.