"Who the hell's car is that? And why is Sanderson on the couch? Also, who the fuck bought low fat ice cream?"

I glared at McKnight on my way through the kitchen, without a word I opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. I needed something to drink. With Diana still asleep and my brother in the shower, not to mention Sanderson sound asleep I had a moment for breakfast.

McKnight watched me, "Hoot?"

I twisted the cap off and closed the door with my foot, "My brother's."

"Your brother?"

I nodded and drank half the beer on the first drink, I'd need some Tylenol to go along with it. My head already pounded at me. I dug around the top of the fridge and found the little bottle.

Upstairs the water stopped.

I decided I needed at least three, I downed them with the rest of my beer and threw it away.

"What's wrong?" McKnight asked me, watching as I went back to the fridge on the hunt for food to counteract the beer, "Is Diana pregnant?"

Pregnant, I wish. I shook my head and pulled out a leftover steak.

McKnight watched me toss the container in, hit a few buttons, then the old appliance radiate my food to life. "Did you two break up?"

I shook my head and closed my eyes, in a whisper I told him, "She found a lump."

That was all I needed to say.

When I looked back at McKnight it looked as if someone had punched him in the gut. His eyes were wide, terrified. "When?"

"Last night," I told him.

The man that had always been strong, fearless, simply fell back against the kitchen counter. I watched his world slowly fall apart.

"Did she call a Doctor?"

I nodded, "Noon. Today."

McKnight nodded he took a breath that sounded like a gasp. "Noon?"

"Yeah."

I watched McKnight stand and walk to the stove, he pulled a packet of cigarettes from the decorative oven mitt on the door and used the stove the light one. I didn't say anything. But took out my steak when the microwave dinged. I did pull the smoke detector from the ceiling and opened a window.

I ate the steak but didn't taste any of it. I hadn't tasted my beer either, a sick feeling was stuck in my stomach.

McKnight smoked his second cigarette when Albert came down the steps, strolling into the kitchen with a freshly shaven face. His dark brown eyes looked from McKnight to myself. He had cut his dark hair but it was still long, long enough he had it in a short ponytail.

Dressed in blue jeans and a denim shirt I introduced him to McKnight, "This is my brother, Albert. Albert, this is Diana's father Danny."

The two man shook hands and McKnight gave my brother a cigarette, my brother who had quit smoking a year ago. He pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit the tobacco filled paper.

"Didn't your wife make you quit?"

Albert nodded at me, "Yeah, but she ain't here Hoot."

McKnight looked between us, "What do you do Albert?"

My brother looked to him and spoke without a care of McKnight's rank, "I'm a cop."

"Really? You have your tin?"

Did he have his tin? That and his cuffs and gun, like all cops.

Albert pulled his badge from his back pocket that was attached to his gun, which he set on the counter, dismantled it, and tossed the badge to McKnight to inspect. He then looked to me, "So you gonna feed me?"

I thought about flipping him off. But Diana's feet hit the floor above our heads. McKnight quickly put his cigarette out and gave Albert his badge back while I walked to the freezer on the hunt for waffles.

"Is that a glock," was McKnight's next question.

Albert handed him the gun without a word. While McKnight inspected it I pulled the yellow Eggo box out, opened it, and put four frozen waffles in the toaster, while I finished my steak.

Some noises came from the living room so I shouted, "You want some waffles?"

He groaned from the living room, "Good God, what the hell time is it?"

All three of us checked out watches.

"10:30."

"10:28."

"10:36."

I peeked out of the kitchen into the living room at him, he sat up, hair sticking up in every direction. "Naw. I have to go woo my insane wife to the brink of sanity." Sanderson then looked up at me, "Did I hear your brother in there?"

From the kitchen Albert shouted, "Mornin Jeff!"

Sanderson groaned and then fell over, "I need a cat scan."

"The couch ain't that bad," I spat back, then ducked as he threw a beer bottle at me. Well if you slept on that then you would have a problem. But I caught the bottle and headed back in the kitchen.

I pushed the handle down to cook the waffles as my brother reassembled his gun, and McKnight called someone to cancel some meeting or tried to, when he got off the phone he was not happy. He slammed the phone on the receiver and turned to me, "I want you to call me as soon as she gets done."

I nodded and watched as he walked out of the kitchen, heading upstairs to see Diana.

A area of the house he usually avoided.