Kit was about to draw the blade across his flesh when a hand on his own stopped him. This hand was as familiar to him as his own and he didn't know why it was here. Something stopped him from turning around to see the face of the owner of the hand but he could lift his head to look in the mirror of the cabinet. As clear as day the person's reflection stood behind his own and watched him in the mirror. Her sky blue eyes were laced with tears and her lips were parted slightly as if on the verge of saying something but no words left them.
"Robyn," he whispered transfixed by her image in the mirror.
There came no reply from his companion and when he blinked she was gone. Awed by what he'd seen and felt he returned the blade to the packet and put it back in the cabinet. His pain was gone and things seemed clearer somehow. It was as if the rest of his life had been mapped out for him and he'd been given a new reason to live.
A knock on the bathroom door brought him back into the real world and he answered the muffled enquiry made by the person who had summoned him. Looking into the mirror again he saw nothing but himself and a small portion of the room behind him. Satisfied that his visitor was gone he walked over to the shower and turned off the water. Taking a towel from a hook on the wall he dried himself off and wrapping the towel around him went to change his clothes.
Sportacus woke up when he felt a light touch on his shoulder. Looking round he saw Greta kneeling down beside the bed. He smiled when he saw her and sat up while being careful to not wake the soundly sleeping Robyn. When Greta motioned for him to lean close to her so she could whisper in his ear he heard her say that Robbie was making lunch and that she'd take over the watch. Sportacus didn't object to lunch and getting up from the bed stretched and walked downstairs.
"Good sleep?" Robbie asked with a slight smile when Sportacus walked into the kitchen.
"I guess. How did you know I was asleep?"
"I went up to check on you and Roby when I woke up and you were sleeping like a baby. You must be getting old if you've started taking afternoon naps."
Sportacus chuckled and pointed a threatening finger at Robbie, "I'm not old and you can talk. You always take afternoon naps. This was a one off."
Robbie snorted in response. He'd caught Sportacus sleeping during the day more than once. There'd been a time when the whole family had gone to the cinema to watch a movie and Sportacus fell asleep and snored most of the way through it. As a joke he, Kit and Robyn had left him in the cinema when the movie finished and Sportacus had come back home two hours later. He'd made some sort of excuse for taking so long to come home and had never admitted to falling asleep.
Both men ate their lunch in comparative silence. There was no need to talk any further while they were eating. Without talking they ate their lunch faster and ten minutes later they were cleaning up their plates. Robbie washed them while Sportacus dried them.
"Did you notice Robyn's tattoo on her shoulder?" Sportacus asked looking at Robbie curiously.
"It's taken you this long to notice it? She's had it ages, ever since she and Kit went to the Greentown Gardens. They went snail racing and lost. I don't suppose you noticed that she's had her nose pierced too?"
Sportacus looked at Robbie open mouthed, "No I haven't. How can you be so casual about it? Doesn't it bother you?"
"How can you care so much about it? Robyn's not a child anymore and I'm happy for her to do what she wants."
"First a tattoo then she gets her ears and nose pierced, where is it going to end? When are you going to start caring?"
"Can you just remind me of something?" Robbie asked heatedly. "Who's Robyn's father here?"
"That is unfair! I think you forget that I was her father for fourteen years! How long have you been around? Don't you dare dictate to me what Robyn can and cannot do! I brought her up while you were dead which makes me more of a father to her than you ever were!"
Robbie's temper flared at Sportacus' words and his face went red. He clenched his fist and was just about to land a blow on that smug moustached face when something hit him on the head. The same thing hit Sportacus and both men turned around to see who their attacker was, it was Greta and the weapon she'd used to hit them was a frying pan. They could see she had it poised ready to strike them again and the backed down from the argument. The first hit had been hard enough to knock sense into them and if she hit them again it would be a knock out blow for sure.
Kit arrived downstairs to see Doctor Cole running around like a headless chicken. It took his host a couple of minutes to register his presence and when he did he was greeted with a sympathetic smile.
"I'm sorry Kit. I can't take you to see Robyn today after all; I've been called into the hospital. There's been some kind of mass accident in Crazytown and its all hands on deck. It seems some medium security patients broke out of the safe house and have been running riot. I hope you don't mind." Doctor Cole apologised.
Kit waved a dismissive hand, "It's fine, really. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No. Apparently it's quite the battlefield out there. It seems the patients have collectively decided that everyone they see is an alien and they've been trying to eradicate them. I can't say it'll be very nice and you're better off here. I don't know when I'll be back but there's food in the fridge and drink where you need it."
Kit nodded and watched as Doctor Cole left the house. Dejected he sat on the stairs, he'd come round to the idea of seeing Robyn and now he couldn't. It appeared that nothing was working his way recently and that he was doomed to be forever alone for his sins.
After ten minutes of sulking he stood up and went into the living room to see what he could find to do. He checked out the TV first, there was nothing on that he wanted to watch. Underneath the TV on its corner stand there was a multitude of videos. A lot of these videos were of English movies. This hardly surprised Kit as he happened to know that the good doctor was Welsh and had spent his childhood living in London before taking up medical studies and eventually ending up in Greentown.
Looking through the doctor's videos Kit settled on one called 'Carry On Abroad' which looked like it would be a good laugh to watch. His suspicions were confirmed and for most of the hour and a half the movie was playing he'd been laughing out loud.
When the movie was over he decided to make himself an early dinner. It was by complete chance that he noticed a photograph stuck on the door of the fridge which showed a much younger Doctor Cole with another man. Kit guessed that the photo had to be at least thirty years old and it appeared to have been taken on a beach somewhere. The two men were standing close together and both were smiling. Looking closer at the photo Kit was sure that he could see love in both the men's eyes. Were they in love with the person taking the photo or each other? This was something that he would definitely have to ask Doctor Cole about when he got home.
Robbie and Sportacus sat at opposite ends of the dinner table in silence. Both wanted to break the silence but were waiting for the other to speak first. They'd both been hurtful with what they'd said, Sportacus more so than Robbie, and wanted to apologise. They were aware of Greta acting as mediator and knew she wouldn't hesitate to use the frying pan if they started arguing again.
Impatient with the two men's inability to decide who would speak first Greta stood up, "Why doesn't the person whose name comes first alphabetically speak first?" She suggested.
It took Robbie a few seconds to work out that his name came first in the alphabet and he cleared his throat before speaking. "I'm sorry Sportacus. I know I should care more about what Robyn does, I've been giving her too much freedom."
"No, you're letting her be independent. I'm being too strict. Her tattoo's nice and you can hardly see her nose piercing." Sportacus replied.
"That's no excuse. I should have drawn a line with the tattoo."
Greta rolled her eyes and hitting the table with the frying pan she nigh shouted, "Will you two stop arguing like you're married? You're driving me crazy! Can we focus on what you said after Robbie told you about Robyn's nose piercing?"
Both men looked at Greta bashfully and then Sportacus turned to Robbie, "I shouldn't have said what I said about being more of a father to Robyn than you ever were. I didn't mean to say what I did. It was wrong and I'm sorry."
"It's true. You have been more of a father to Robyn than I have been. You've always been there for her and I haven't. When I should have been there I wasn't and there's nothing I can do to make up for that. I'm a bad father."
"No, no, no, no. You're a good father. You've made up for not being around and Robyn loves you. You couldn't help not being around and look at this way; I did all the hard work for you."
Robbie shook his head, "It's not like that. You don't just add water and bang, ready made daughter. All brought up and ready to be given back to daddy."
Yet again Greta frying panned the table, "Will you two stop blaming yourselves? Robbie, you are a good father and I should know. Yes you missed fourteen years but you still cared even when you couldn't do anything. You have always been her father. Sportacus, I hate to say it like this but you've been more of a mother to Robyn. You've brought her up, yes, but you've mothered rather than fathered her. Robbie is her father and you are her mother."
Sportacus looked at Greta blankly. She'd just called him a mother.
