- 6 -

I walk back towards the waiting area and I see a brown haired man in his late twenties in a wheelchair and a brown haired women with chunky blonde highlights and a tattoo on her arm. I hear the women laugh at something the man has said and it makes me smiles as I approach them. "Hey." I casually say. Kevin's face light's up and he puts his arm around my waist and pulls me down into his lap. I'm laughing so hard by now and Kevin gives me a huge smile and says "hey" before he pulls me into a huge hug. I tightly wrap my arms around his neck. He pulls away and because I am so deep in his lap by now, Lily helps to pull me up. She laughs as she hugs me. I hug her back and I pull away a moment later.

"Hey kiddo. How are you?" Lily asks me. "Seeing everything that's happened over the past night, I'm pretty good over all. You?" Lily smiles and says "I'm pretty good. He makes me happy, so it's all good." Lily smiles at her husband, and then back up at me.

"You missed me Joan?" Kevin says, grinning at me. I lean down and kiss him on the cheek. "Yeah, I have. What has it been, Christmas since I last saw the 2 of you?" Lily looks at Kevin, hoping he'll help her remember. He doesn't, so she looks back at me. "Um, yeah I think that was it." She replies. I let out a small laugh. "I was going to grab Adam and I some breakfast in the Cafeteria. Interested?" I ask. "Yeah, I'm starving." Lily says. I nod and they follow me down the hall to the Cafeteria.

The Cafeteria is fairly empty and it smells of grease and coffee. I spot Grace and Luke sitting at a table towards the back.

I grab a tray and go up to the woman behind the counter. "I'll have 2 sides of scrambled eggs, 2 sides of hash browns and toast please." I say. "Are you sure that's what you want?" I close my eyes tightly, wishing I were anywhere else right now but here. I re-open my eyes and look at the woman across the counter from me. She looks to be in her mid 70's and has long gray-white hair pulled back into a hairnet and she's wearing glasses that are hanging on a chain around her neck.

"Oh god, it's you. Your smile's so fake just to let you know." God smiles at me with that old woman sweetness and says changing the subject "Are you sure Adam should be eating that?" "I don't want the lecture right now." I reply. God looks at me again and I sigh. "Why shouldn't he be eating this?" I ask. "Because his immune system can't handle food that heavy right now. Try yogurt or something like that." God suggests. I snort. "Okay, then you suggest something." I say. God looks at the yogurt sitting in the cooler. "Buy him that Joan."

I glare at her as I walk over to the cooler and take a yogurt out and put it on my tray. I look at her and ask sarcastically "Is this okay or should I get peach?" God shrugs. "It's your choose," she says. "Of course it is." I mutter under my breath. "You happy now?" I ask. "Yes. Go pay for your food Joan." God says handing me my plate of food. "This is ridiculous." I say. God gives me a wave and I slowly walk to the cashier. I shake my head and walk over to pay the cashier for our food and a cup of coffee for me.

"Hey Joan, could you grab a couple packs of salt for me?" Lily calls from the table. I walk over to the condiments counter and grab napkins, forks, some salt and a spoon for Adam. I walk over to the table and sit down. Lily reaches out her hand mid-chew and I give her the packs of salt.

I eat my food and I start to poke at my eggs, 5 minutes later. Realizing what I'm doing, I push my tray of food back from me. The eggs were cold by this time anyways. I take another sip of my luke warm coffee and I can barely swallow it. Cold coffee is so gross. I grab for my tray and stand up.

"Where you going Girardi?" Grace asks me. "I'm going to give Adam his breakfast." I reply, indicating to the Yoplait yogurt that I'm holding in my hand.

I say bye to everyone and head back to the waiting area and down the hallway to Adam's room. He has the back of the bed up half way and he's sitting up. "Hi." He says in his soft voice when he sees me. "Hi, I have food." I say as I cross the room to the bed and I sit down beside him. "Thanks." Adam says as he reaches for the yogurt container and the spoon. I watch him eat for a minute, and then I rise and walk to the chair by the door and grab the bag that I'd brought with me from home.

"What's that?" Adam asks, seeing the bag immediately. I bring it over to the bed and open it, showing him his sketchpad and a pen, our twin I-pods from our wedding and my laptop. "Cool." Adam says, returning to his yogurt. I flip over the I-pods to see which one is which. I reach over Adam and put his sketchpad, pen and I-pod on his bedside table. Adam finishes and puts the empty yogurt container on his bedside table.

Turning slightly towards me, Adam smiles sweetly at me. I smile back, and then quickly turn my head to the door to see Glynis and Friedman standing there. Friedman was holding his left hand and seeing me looking at him oddly he says "I hit it against the door frame." I hear Adam start to snicker beside me and Glynis looks at him, surprised.

"What?" Adam asks. "You seem to be in such a good mood, seeing what you've been through." Glynis replies. Adam grins at me. "Cha, well I've had some help."

Adam looks back at Glynis to see Friedman looking between the 2 of us very suggestively. "I see what's going on here. Joan's been giving Adam some sugar." he says. Because Adam and I can't reach him, Glynis smacks him over the head for us. "No! You can't do that!" Friedman says, irritated. Adam and I laugh at him.

"So besides the obvious, how are you both?" Glynis asks, sitting down in the chair beside Adam's chair. Friedman drags the chair by the door over and sits down beside Glynis. "We're doing pretty good. Work is going good for me, keeping busy. Iris came over to my office yesterday and we looked at the pictures that she'd taken at our last interview. They came out pretty good and she seems to really enjoy being my photographer." "Is she full time?" Glynis asks. "Yeah, she is. She has been since November."

"How about you Adam?" Glynis asks. " Iris and I will hopefully be getting our own wing at the gallery that we show our work at and we're both really looking forward to that. Besides that, I haven't been up to much. Just working mostly." Adam replies. "That's great Adam. When will you be getting the wing?" Glynis asks. "Hopefully by mid March. At the latest, early April." Adam replies.

"What have you 2 been up to?" I ask. "Working mostly. Not too exciting next to the 2 of you." Friedman says. "Friedman!" I say accusingly. Friedman quickly covers his head. "No hitting!" he says, defensively. Glynis looks over at him and rolls her eyes at her boyfriend. "What?" he asks. Glynis rolls her eyes at him again, and then looks back at Adam and I.

"Hey!" Luke says from the doorway. "Lukey G! What have you been up to dude? Friedman says, rising from his chair and going over to greet Luke. He gives him a very "manly" hug. Grace comes into the room behind him, eyeing her fiancée very oddly.

"Hi Grace." Glynis says, moving slightly towards her to give her a hug. "If you hug me Figliola, you will be in serious pain." Grace says, edging away from her. Glynis seems to have thought about the consequences of hugging Grace and she chooses not to hug her.

"Feeling better Rove?" Grace asks Adam. "Cha, totally." Adam replies. Grace snorts slightly at his answer.

Grace sits down in Friedman's now empty chair. She looks over at Luke and Friedman who are by this time deep into "Science talk". She rolls her eyes, then looks back at Glynis, Adam and I.

"So." Glynis says trying to strike up a conversation. "What do you think your doing?" Grace asks her accusingly. "Oh, I'm sorry Grace. I forgot that you don't like interacting with other people." Glynis says. "Stop talking so importantly." Grace replies.

Adam and I just look back and forth at each other. I decide that this conversation thing should be attempted once again.

"This probably is an odd question, but do you ever worry that when Friedman's 80 that he'll be flirting with women that are like 20?" I ask. Glynis sighs, and then replies, "You know Joan and I worry about that every single day." "You're not worried now?" Grace asks as she raises her eyebrows. "Well, yeah I'm worried about that too." Glynis says. I laugh for a moment, and then stop because Glynis looks at me funny. "Anyways..." Glynis says...