Don soon followed me into the kitchen.

"You know, we're on the same side here" I remarked as I got a couple of slices of Canadian ham, onion and mushroom pizza.

"And we both care about Dad, right?" He sat down next to me.

"Of course!."

"He really needs his routine to get through this" he told me seriously. Don's eyes had the look of concern.

"You think so?"

"That's one of the reasons he spent hours cleaning up"

"That makes sense" I remarked. "I had figured that maybe new scenery would do us both good, but if it'll be better for him, I'll stop insisting on going to a hotel." It's a good thing Don pointed that out!

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"I'm sure Dad will be glad to hear that." Seems like she does care, in her own weird way. Dad's need for routine had developed over the years, and became really obvious when mom got sick, as well as when she passed away. It kept him going.

"Where's Charlie?" she asked.

"He called Dad" I told her vaguely. The truth was that at the field office, this morning, my brother told me that he had an urgent job to do for the NSA. When he called Dad, my poor brother only had time to offer an excuse and briefly express worry about the robbery.

"Nat! You're home! How was work?" Dad's voice surprised us as he kissed Natalie.

"I'm glad to be home" she smiled and continued. "I was thinking that maybe we should stay here for the night"

"Really?"

"Yeah..."

"Trust me, it'll help" he assured her, and then offered "Would you like me to warm up the pizza?" Typical Dad, always the generous guy.

"It's okay, babe. Pizza's fine"

"I'm glad you two realize that you're both on the same side!" Dad beamed at us. He hated to see the people he cared about arguing.

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It pleased me to see the two of them getting along! Tensions had flared between those two last night. Hopefully, this cease fire would last longer than the last one, and turn into friendship.

Eventually, it got late, so Donnie had to go. Deciding to call it a day at eleven and go to bed, I asked Nat, who watched TV "Aren't you going to sleep?"

"In a bit" she promised.

We kissed each other goodnight and I went to bed.

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While I knew we had someone protecting us, I still didn't feel secure enough to go to sleep. Little noises bothered me, and even at midnight, I felt wound up. Rocko and Layla stayed in the living room with me. Before I knew it, the time was two in the morning, then suddenly, I heard Alan's voice.

"Nat? Why didn't you come to bed?" he asked, then said, "Come on! It's six thirty. You should be dressed by now! Chop! Chop!"

"I'm the boss!" I groaned. "Ten more minutes"

"Nat.."

After some more nagging, I got up with a whimper and began my morning routine.

"I waited for you for an hour last night!" Alan said as I brushed my teeth. He was already in his work suit.

"I couldn't sleep!" I told him.

"Watching TV isn't gonna help you ." he pointed out and looked at his watch. "I gotta go to that meeting. Try not to be late to work" With that he left after giving me a quick kiss.

I arrived to work five minutes late. Thankfully, I had ten minutes before my first appointment of the day.

As the morning progressed, I realized that Alan's birthday was in three weeks! I kind of thought about a lovely weekend trip, as his birthday fell on a Friday, but then remembered he'd want to be with his sons on that day. So, I called Don, and asked him if he wanted to arrange something with me for Alan's birthday.

"We'll need to talk to Charlie. He'll wanna be a part of this" Don said after agreeing.

"Of course. Want to meet at lunch?"

"Sure...I'll call Charlie."

"Great!"

"How are things at work?"

"Good..busy" I told him.

"Well….I ..gotta go, I'll call you later?"

"Sure..."

With that we said our goodbyes and hung up. I hoped that the truce between me and Don would actually last.

TBC