4 Years

Court had been hectic lately. And not the usual hectic where a strange or oddball cases would surface and cause some sort of antic. The docket had been serving up some pretty heavy cases. Harry and Christine would come home exhausted and feeling down almost every single day. Low energy was not something Abby took to well. She missed her mother's stories and crafts and the fun games she'd play with her father. Slowly, those activities turned into early naps and bedtimes, looking at picture books herself instead of snuggling with Christine and listening to her read aloud as she did the character's voices… The pom-pom animals and popsicle stick puppets turned into coloring books, and make believe games and hide and seek turned into television and 'I Spy'.

Meals were different too. Christine had never had the time to make Sunday feasts every day, but she always made it a point to prepare decent home-cooked meals for her family. Well, they too diminished and were replaced by sandwiches and frozen dinners. Abby didn't have as many complaints about the food though, at least the frozen dinners usually came with some kind of dessert. What bugged her most was the lack of attention from her parents. 'I'm bored' became one of her most used phrases.

Noticing how work was starting to negatively affect his family (especially Abby); Harry decided that they were due for a vacation. His initial idea was Disney World… It would have been perfect: Christine would be able to wear a tiara and play in the castle, Abby would be able to meet all of her favorite characters and princesses, and he himself would be able to wear his Mickey Mouse ears without people giving him strange and funny looks. Sadly, that trip would have to wait until both Harry and Christine could get a week off at the same time. Instead, they went away to Nantucket for a weekend.

By noon the next Saturday morning, the ferry dropped them off at the docks. Abby was thrilled by her first boat ride—she never wanted it to end! Christine was just relieved that she hadn't become fussy or bored. Harry on the other hand was seasick almost the entire time. Stumbling off the boat, he clutched Christine's arm. Once they were on solid ground he quickly found a bench so he could sit. Abby hopped down from her mother's arms and rushed over to her father with concern. "Daddy, are you okay?"

"I'll be… fine." Feeling like he was going to be sick again, he hoisted himself up and rushed around a corner. "I will be in a moment anyway."

As bad as Christine felt for her husband, she couldn't help but chuckle. "Come on Abby, let's go find some water for Daddy."

Eventually, Harry's stomach settled and he felt good enough to walk around the island. But the minute Abby discovered the beach, Christine and Harry knew that they wouldn't be allowed to leave any time soon, so they found a spot and settled.

Spring wasn't quite over yet, so it was too cold to swim (much to the little girl's displeasure), so Harry suggested that they all make a sandcastle.

"But we don't have a bucket and shovel." Abby reminded. With this, Harry decided to go back to the shops and see if the toy store they'd passed had anything. While he was gone, Abby chattered away to her mother about her plans for their 'masterpiece'.

"I want it to be big enough so that I can fit inside of it!" she exclaimed. "I'll be just like Cinderella." She smiled as she referred to her favorite Princess.

Happy to see that her daughter had both her and Harry's imaginations, she felt bad having to say, "Well, I don't know if we have time to build you a proper castle today, but perhaps we can make plans and build one next time."

"But that will be forever!" Abby said as she threw her hands up dramatically.

"Not necessarily, we can always go to the beach back home. We could go once Summer begins. That's right around the corner."

"No it's not, it's forever away." she protested.

Not wanting a struggle on the first relaxing day (more or less) in—as Abby would consider it—forever, Christine decided to simply conclude the conversation by saying, "We'll do our best to make one today, alright?"

Once more Abigail's hands flew up in the air, "Yay!" she cheered.

Until Harry came back, Abby was busy making the 'blueprints' for her castle in the sand using a piece of driftwood she'd found as a pen. However, she did take a short break to play with (or rather scare) the seagulls that had gathered along the shoreline. Christine marveled at the sight of her daughter's energy and laughter. She'd been so down lately due her and Harry's exhaustion from work. She hadn't discussed it with him yet, but she started to wonder if they should hire a nanny for Abby…

Before she could torment herself with the idea of somebody else watching her child grow up any longer, Harry returned with his arms full of pails and shovels. "Jackpot!" he shouted as he started down the beach.

For the rest of the afternoon, the family worked on their—or Abby's—castle. Abby had informed Harry about her plan to make one just like Cinderella's. Noticing his wife's concerned look worrying that their daughter had gotten her hopes up too high; Harry came up with a plan. He suggested that Abby focus on getting sand and water, and to help Christine build up the walls while he worked on the doorway and the posts. By sunset, they had made a castle for Abby. It wasn't exactly how Abby had seen it in her mind... There wasn't a roof, and the only parts that were taller than her were the posts, but it would do.

Knowing that they couldn't very well tear the little princess away from her palace so soon, Harry and Christine decided to watch the sunset on the beach. What a beautiful one is was too. The sky was a glorious shade of pink and orange and the light clouds made a beautiful quilted pattern. And let's not forget how the sun seemed to sink right into the ocean as its reflection made the water sparkle.

Later that night at the hotel (after they had to drag Abby away from the beach and after a whiney dinner and after a tantrum at bedtime), Harry and Christine finally had some time to put their feet up and enjoy each other's company. Though, Harry was sensing something troubling Christine.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

Lifting her head off of his shoulder to look at him, she answered, "Yeah, why?"

"You seem preoccupied with something." he observed.

"Oh… no, I'm okay."

"You're lying."

Having no energy to bicker about this, she said with a sigh of defeat, "How do you always know?"

"Are you really asking that question?" he smirked.

Rolling her eyes, Christine responded, "We've established many times before that I'm not the greatest liar in the world, but what on Earth have I done this evening that'd let you know I have something on my mind?"

"Easy: you're my wife. I know all of your moods, all of your expressions, and all of your nervous habits."

With a look of confusion, she interrogated, "What do you mean nervous habits?"

Harry chuckled, "Well for example, on and off tonight you've been pinching the palm of your hand." Looking down, he then pointed to the hands in question, "Kinda like that."

Noticing he was right, she abruptly stopped. Before she could think of a defense, Harry went back to his initial question. "Come on, what's buggin' ya?"

Giving in, she answered, "Alright… I really hate myself for this, but… I've been wondering if maybe we should hire a nanny or something. I mean, I guess we kind of have one now for when we're at work—or a couple of them I suppose—but I'm wondering if maybe we should find someone who can live with us. Work has been interfering way too much and I don't like the effect it's having on Abby at all."

"Oh Christine," he reacted. "I don't want a stranger living with us! I don't want someone 'sharing' our child. It isn't right!" Harry, by now, was standing up and pacing in front of the couch."

Standing up as well, Christine took her husband's hands and sympathized. "Believe me; I don't like the idea either. I just don't know what else to do. I mean, I know that we've always managed to balance both work and home, but the way the docket has been, I don't see it calming down anytime soon."

Seeing how truly distraught his wife was at the predicament, Harry cooled off and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "We just have to work something else out. Maybe we could cut back our hours."

Rolling her eyes, even though Harry couldn't see her face, she replied, "That isn't realistic, Harry. When we got married we had to promise that our home life wouldn't disrupt our work life."

"That was before we had a kid."

"Children most often come with marriage."

Pulling back, he sighed, "I guess you're right. But what else can we do? The only alternative is one of us quitting. I don't think that's fair to either one of us."

"Well what else can we do?"

Shaking his head, he answered, "I don't know."

The two of them shared a sad look before Christine said, "I guess we should just sleep on it. No sense in ruining our vacation. The answer will come to us eventually."

The next morning, Abby was the first to awake (as usual). She burst into her parents' room, hopped onto their bed, and started singing until they agreed to get up and make her breakfast. Despite how tired they were (seeing as they had had a very hard time trying to get to sleep with so much on their minds), Christine and Harry were happy with the exhaustion since Abby was clearly ecstatic about a real breakfast with her mom and dad. Usually breakfast consisted of toast and maybe eggs. This morning, it consisted of pancakes (which Harry had turned in to fun characters and shapes), eggs, and bacon. Thank goodness they'd chosen the hotel by the grocery store!

The day continued to be as fun as breakfast. They went swimming at the pool and Abby got some more swimming lessons from Christine. It wouldn't be long until she was swimming on her own. She even jumped into the water! As long as Harry was there to catch her that is. After the pool, they sat out in the sun to rest while Abby ate her snack. After they'd gone back to their room to change, they took a tour of the island. That was certainly not Abby's favorite activity. They tour bus was hot and stuffy and she had to sit the entire time while some guy babbled about the history of the island. Boring! After the tour they went to a sandwich shop for lunch.

Making sure that she'd like their next activity, Abby insisted they return to the beach. Thankfully, her parents didn't have any objections. However, when they arrived, they weren't greeted by the castle they'd worked so hard to build yesterday, but rather a big pile of sand. It hadn't been the tide that knocked it over. Clearly somebody had come along and destroyed it with their feet.

"Where's my castle?!" Abby cried.

Harry crouched down to be eye to eye with his daughter as put his hand on her should, "I'm sorry, kiddo. It looks like someone wrecked it."

"Why?" Abby questioned with tears in her eyes.

"I don't know darling'…"

"That was mean."

Christine chimed in, "It was… but you know what the good thing is?"

Rubbing an eye, Abby asked, "What?"

With a wide grin, she answered, "We get to make a bigger and better one now."

Like magic, the little girl's tears disappeared and her eyes lit up. "Really?!"

Without waiting for confirmation, Abby took the buckets from her father and immediately got to work. Standing up, Harry informed, "You know we're gonna be here all day now, don't you?"

With a giggle, Christine nodded, "Yes, most likely."

Before going to join their daughter (whom had already started collecting water), Harry wrapped his arm around Christine and pulled her close as they watched Abby running back and forth with the tide. "We're gonna work something out… I promise."

Looking up at him knowingly, Christine wondered aloud, "Like what?"

Kissing her forehead, he answered, "I don't know yet, but neither of us are going to miss watching her grow up."