Day 5- Alternate Universe

Carly woke slowly, rolling over to lay directly in the path of the morning sun. Today was Sunday and she had absolutely nothing planned. No work, no appointments, plus she had gotten the okay from Mac to turn her comms off for the day. She was halfway back to sleep when the child monitor next to her bed crackled to life with her son talking to himself.

She laid on her back for a moment just listening to him chatting away. She thought of how different things were now as opposed to how they'd been when she first arrived here in the 21st century. Her first few months were one hell of an adjustment. The man with whom her host lived with was an abusive drunk who showed no mercy towards his girlfriend.

Carly won't lie, It was a struggle for her not to kill him in his sleep most nights. He may have thought he had everyone else around them fooled, but Carly saw the looks on people's faces when he was in their presence. Most of them didn't like him any more than she did, they were just better at hiding it. The few friends that he did have overlooked or enabled his behavior. She supposes it was easy enough for them to do so, after all, they got to drop him off with her then head home. They didn't have to deal with the sloppy drunk who would yell at her for any little thing, or threaten to take the baby away from her.

Carly hated him.

She hated how he always seemed to just slide right out of trouble. She hated how he looked at her, like she was a piece of meat that belonged to him. She hated how he didn't really give a damn about Jeffrey Jr., yet would use him as a prop whenever the mood struck him. She hated how he was somehow always in her space, yet when she really needed his help, he was nowhere to be found.

She knew his sobriety kick wouldn't last long, and sure enough, a little over a month after he quit drinking, he went out with some of his cop friends. They told her it was in honor of someone's promotion, but Carly didn't give a damn what it was for. All she cared about was he got extremely drunk and tried to drive home in his condition.

It would be the last mistake he ever made.

When she got the knock on the door, she opened it to see the guilt-ridden faces of his supposed friends. She's sure her indifference to his death was a shock to them, but she didn't care because she was finally free of that albatross around her neck. The sympathy for her loss came pouring in, and Carly wanted to choke each and every single person who went on and on about what a good man and father he was.

In penance, or in order to ease their own guilt, they managed to keep the fact that he was driving drunk under wraps, and so Carly was able to receive survivor benefits. The first thing she did was take her son and move to a different home. There was no way she wanted to stay in that dreary little house with all those bad memories.

She purchased a small two bedroom house near the garage, and set about making it her own. Trevor proved he was just as handy with a tool set, and spent many nights helping her fix the few things that didn't work as well as it should. Marcy brought David over, and they, along with Philip, took part in painting Jeffrey's room. Since none of them could agree on a theme, and Carly was sure they would be moving later on once her son got older, she let them each do a wall in the style of their choice.

Marcy chose a soothing underwater theme that he decorated it with fish of every species. 'It will invoke calmness, and allow him to sleep better' she argued with David. He had scoffed and replied that all boys love race cars, so he painted a racetrack along with all types of cars.

However, if Carly had to choose a favorite, she'd go with the jungle motif that Trevor and Philip did together. They picked the biggest wall and filled it with all sorts of animals and vegetation. They even painted a tree that spanned from the ceiling all the way down to the floor with monkeys swinging off the braches.

The first time she brought her son into the room he made a beeline for the wall with the huge tree, much to Marcy and David's disappointment. There were many times that Carly would lay him down for a nap or for bed and he'd face the wall and start babbling as if he were talking straight to the animals. Mac and Katherine had contributed a mountain of stuffed animals, and his favorite seemed to be a plush lion that roared when a paw was squeezed.

She heard the sound of the roar over the baby monitor and smiled to herself, she never would have thought her life would have ended up like this. She's broken out of her musings by the door creaking open and feeling the bed dip.

"You want me to get him?"

"Nah, he's having fun with his lion." She rolled over to face the man who had become something of a permanent fixture in her house lately. "Why are you up so early anyways?" She watched as Philip flushed in embarrassment, and she laughed. "Again? Seriously?" She buried her face in the pillow to muffle her laughter.

"I don't know why this is so funny to you. I've done research, babies die every day from crib accidents." He tucked a lock of hair behind his ear, "I'm just making sure he doesn't become one of them." He said defensively.

Carly felt her heart skip. She loved it when Philip was protective of her son. When he first began spending the night, she would wake to find his side of the bed cold. Inevitably she would find him sitting in silence just watching Jeffrey sleep. He had gradually weaned himself off the habit, but if the team had a particularly bad day, she knew she would find him there if he wasn't in bed.

Carly's laughter tapered off, "You know I don't mind if you're protective of Jeffrey," She reached a hand over to pull him closer to her, "but I think we could be using the little time we have to ourselves to do more adult things."

Philip frowned before her meaning dawned on him. "I think that is an excellent idea." He leaned over to cover her mouth with his.

All that was heard after that was the soft babbling of a baby to his stuffed lion over the monitor.