When he woke, the house was quiet and so Jack decided to venture out of his room and into the sitting room. The wall clock told him it was way too early for anyone to be up so he sat down on the couch, resting his foot on the footstool and leaned back against the cushions. He allowed his eyes to linger around the room, noticing details he hadn't seen before, pictures decorated the room and he smiled slightly when he saw a copy of what had once been a family favourite picture of himself with Terri and Kim, taken before things started to go down hill.
He sighed slightly as he noticed a painting presumably created by Angela framed on the wall and thought back to Kim when she was that age, but the memories were a distant blur so he instead turned his attention to the thoughts which had been keeping him up. He thought about Heller, and Palmer, and then Tony too, as he realised with a guilty conscience that he shouldn't have shut the man out as he had done.
He spotted a phone on the wall and stared at it, unable to look away. Grabbing the one crutch he had been leaning on throughout his journey from his bed to the couch Jack slowly made his way to the phone and reluctantly dialled in Tony's number. It went to automatic answer machine and Jack felt relief sweep though him before he left a message.
"Hey its Jack," he said, trying to sound cheerful but he couldn't break through the dull edge to his voice. "I'm sorry I haven't called or… anything. I know you wanted to see me.. before…" he said, searching for words, "but I'm better now so maybe we can talk?"
He held the received in his hand for a few moments wondering what it was he actually wanted to talk about. Jack made to move away but the phone slipped from the receiver and clattered against the wall, the sound made Jack jump and he dropped the crutch too, it banged against the laminate flooring loudly.
"Damn it," Jack snapped, before slowly leaning down and grabbing his crutch for support, and then the phone too which he was careful to replace in its holder. As he made his way back to his room, he stopped suddenly at the soft sound of footsteps padding against the floor. Jack tensed up, realising he wasn't in the right frame of mind to speak to anybody, but hen he saw the little girl in her pink pyjamas plodding down the stairs he watched her carefully as she trotted right up to him.
"What are you doing?" She asked sleepily, rubbing a hand against her eyes to wake herself up.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," he said softly, "go back to bed."
"Are you a burglar?"
Jack looked at her strangely, "I'm Jack," he said, feeling stupid the moment he said it.
"I know that," she said obviously, "but the noise you made which woke me was like a burglar." She stared up at him expectantly.
"Oh," he said, "I dropped the phone," he said, suddenly feeling the need to explain himself.
"Did you talk to your friends?"
Jack grumbled a "yes" in response, wondering where the questions were coming from.
"I'm not allowed to use the phone, especially not in the night time."
"Well," Jack replied, thinking hard, "you will do when you are older," he finished lamely.
"How old are you?" She asked again, showing no signs of going back upstairs.
"Too old to remember," he said and the little girl started to laugh loudly.
"Shhhh!" Jack cut in, "you don't want to wake your mum and dad do you?"
Angela looked up at him again now giddy and shook her head as she tried to stop laughing.
"Come on," he said, slowly walking towards the stairs, "time for bed."
"But its almost time for morning!"
Jack saw that she wasn't wrong but asked, "you can tell the time? How old are you."
Angela smiled cheekily, "I'm too little to tell the time but its getting light in the garden."
Jack found himself unable not to smile as he against realised she was right, it was getting light out.
"Well you can't stay up on your own, if you sleep then morning will come even faster."
"I don't want to."
"Tough," Jack said, as it dawned on him that this was the first conversation he had had with the child. "Come on," he said, as he stood by the staircase. "Off you go."
"Okay," Angela said sadly, "but will you carry me?"
Jack chuckled again as he looked down at the bandages on his foot and wondered if it was do-able.
"I don't know if I can carry you," he said, "but I might be able to come up with you."
Angela screwed her face up, "it that because of your poorly leg?"
Jack nodded and was pleased to see the little girl climb the first few stairs and then look back at Jack who was trying to manoeuvre his way up the first step with his crutch and the use of the banister. "I'll race you!" She said, and then bounded heavily up the stairs shrieking with laughter as Jack struggled to make his way up.
"Shhhh!" He said, laughing too as she reached the top step and then bounced back down to him in a rush, eager to show off. She giggled again, "you're too slow Jack," she said as she started to bounce back up a few steps and back down, "you can't catch me!"
Jack was half way up the stairs when she stopped by him again and laughed. "Angela you don't want to wake your parents up do you?"
She continued to laugh, too excited to calm down but then both she and Jack were silent when they saw the landing light flicker on and a tired looking Kim stood at the top of the stairs with her arms folded, ready to tell Angela off and send her back to bed. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the two, Angela clinging to Jacks crutch, trying to look serious and not laugh because of the trouble she knew she was in, and the startled look on Jacks face; the two looked as though they had been caught steeling cookies from the biscuit tin.
"Who on earth is making all that noise?" Kim asked, playing the role of the tired mum down to a tee.
"Me and Jack were just playing catch," Angela said, before giggling as she took off again up the stair and into Kim's arms.
"It's too early," she said to the little girl as she watched her father make it to the top of the stairs with some effort. As she snuck a glance at him she could see he was tired, but he looked calm too, more caml than she had seen him since his return.
"It was Jack who woke me up!" Angela said, shifting the blame.
"Okay," Kim said, "lets get you back in bed." As Kim escorted the child back to her room Jack sat down on the top step of the stairs and looked down into the dark house, smiling as he heard Angela trying to bargain with Kim to stay up longer. After a few more minutes it turned quiet and Kim surfaced from the room alone and sat down next to Jack on the stairs.
Kim looked up at him and Jack smiled, "sorry to wake you up, Angela's right, I accidentally woke her."
"It's okay," Kim said, "its nice to see you look so… relaxed."
Jack nodded his head lost in his own thoughts again. "I think I'm going to back to bed. I'm tired," he admitted, "these stairs took some climbing," he added, and again Kim felt better to hear him mention his injury so light heartedly.
"You need a hand getting back down?" She asked, wondering how he would respond to her offer.
"That," he said as he pulled himself upright and held out his arm to her, "would be fantastic."