Sunday, December 21st 1997

"You're running low on food," Raj said, grabbing a carton of milk from the all but bare refrigerator and closing the door. He walked back to the kitchen table, sat down and picked up Lucy's glass to pour milk into it before handing it back to her and setting the carton down. She thanked him quickly before taking a big gulp. "Did Maria not send over groceries for the next two weeks?"

"I told her not too," Daniel said. "We're leaving on Tuesday, so I thought we could just order food so that things don't go bad while we're gone."

Raj nodded. "I see."

"We still need milk though," Nina said, picking up the carton and giving it a little shake. "This is almost empty and it's the last one."

"We're leaving in a few days, do we really need it?" Daniel said.

"Yes," Nina said with a frown. "How am I supposed to have my chai without milk?"

"You could drink it without milk," he suggested. She made a face and he laughed. He looked over at Minerva. "Do you take milk in your tea?"

"I do," Minerva said with a smile.

"That's now two people. And how is Lucy supposed to eat her morning cereal without milk?" Nina continued. "That's three people. We need milk."

"Fine, I'll go out into the cold and get milk," he said with a sigh.

"I can go get some before I leave for London," Raj said.

"No, that's alright," Daniel said. "I don't want you to waste your time leaving and coming back."

"Do you have to leave today, Uncle Raj?" Lucy said. "Why can't you stay one more night?"

"I think it'll be easier for me to go tonight, Princess," he said, tousling her hair a little bit. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she said, though she sighed. "You're coming back tomorrow, right?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "I have a late phone meeting with people in China. The time difference makes meetings hard."

"Wow, a meeting with Chinese businessmen," Nina said.

"Yes," Raj said with a small smile. "I doubt it will be very exciting though. My meeting will go late and then you all leave on Tuesday so I won't come back until you all do. I'll see you as soon as you return though."

"Promise?" Lucy asked.

Raj smiled and nodded. "I promise."

"Okay," Lucy said. She looked over at Daniel. "I need stuff from the store too."

"Oh?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "What do you need?"

"I need chocolate!" she said with a little smile. "Or you could just get chocolate milk! Or just one of those little chocolate Santas. I like those too."

Nina and Raj laughed but Daniel rolled his eyes. "Lucy, don't we have chocolate?"

"No, you ate it all remember," Lucy said.

"I did not."

"You did, I saw you. I saw the wrappers on the table in the living room after you watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," she said matter-of-factly.

"I remember. You were snacking on candy all through the movie," Nina said with a laugh.

"Chocolate helps the emersion of that movie," Daniel said defensively. "How can you watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and not have chocolate with you when you do it."

Minerva smiled. She watched Lucy stick her tongue out at her brother, who just stuck his tongue out back at her. Her children were a lot older but they were still children.

"I think that if you eat all the chocolate, you should have to replace it," Lucy said, picking up her empty plate and walking towards the sink to put it down.

"Thank you, Lucy," Nina said with a smile.

"Well," Raj said, getting up and picking up his plate too. "Thank you for dinner, Nina. It was wonderful. I should really get going now."

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay a little longer?" Nina said as he walked over to put his plate away and picked Lucy up, tickling her a little.

"No, I do have some work I would like to get done at home," he said.

Daniel, Nina, and Minerva got up as well and walked Raj to the door. Daniel brought his briefcase down for him and he put on his coat. He said his goodbyes and kissed Lucy on the forehead before heading out. When he was gone, Daniel began getting on his coat as well so he could go get milk.

"You coming?" he asked, looking up at Nina.

"I'll come if it makes you stop whining," Nina said with a smile.

"Great," he said smiling now.

She grabbed her coat as well and started putting it on as well. "While we're out we could get ingredients for cookies too," she said. "Instead of chocolate. What do you think, Lucy? Do you wanna make Christmas cookies?"

"Sure!" Lucy said.

"Then tonight we can eat cookies and watch Die Hard!" Daniel said.

Nina frowned. "I wanted to watch a real Christmas movie."

"Die Hard is a Christmas movie," Lucy said.

"See!" Daniel said very childishly. "It's the best Christmas movie, right Lucy?"

"Right," she said with a smile.

"Lucy, you don't have to agree with everything this idiot says," Nina said with a roll of her eyes.

"I think she does. I think those are the rules," Minerva said with a smile.

"Yes. They are," Daniel said.

"No, I just like Die Hard," Lucy said.

"I still can't believe he let you watch Die Hard," Nina said with a shake of her head. "You are not old enough to watch Die Hard."

"What is this movie rated?" Minerva asked.

"R," Nina muttered.

"It's a Christmas movie," Lucy said with a smile. "It's okay. It's tradition."

"Yes, we always watch Die Hard," Daniel said.

"How old were you when this tradition started?" Minerva asked.

"Well, Lucy didn't see it till last year but I was nine when the movie came out and I've watched it every Christmas since then," Daniel replied.

"Oh! I remember this movie now," Minerva said. "It's the policeman movie, right? With the terrorists?"

"Yes!" Daniel said.

"You let her watch it when she was five!" Minerva exclaimed, giving Daniel a shocked look.

"That's what I'm saying," Nina said.

"Hey, Lucy might have been five technically but according to the school she had the mental age of a ten year old which is a year older than I was when I watched it so it's okay," Daniel said with a smile, looking over at Lucy. "You weren't traumatized by it, were you kid?"

"No," she said. "I like Die Hard."

"Me too. It's my favourite Christmas movie," Daniel said.

"Mine too," she replied with a smile.

Minerva rolled her eyes remembering the movie. She had watched it with Jay. It had been his favourite Christmas movie too. He and Daniel had watched it every Christmas, though she did not always attend these screenings. She remembered the swearing, the guns, the explosions. She could not believe that Daniel had let his five year old sister watch this movie.

Eventually Daniel and Nina got their shoes on and headed out. Minerva made herself a cup of tea and walked into the living room where Lucy was sitting now. It was the first time she had been left alone with her mother. It felt strange still. She knew what Daniel had said about not pushing people away but she still felt awkward and weird around her mother. Lucy sat in the living room with her textbooks out. She decided that the best way to avoid conversation was to make it look like she was busy. She pulled out her homework and pretended to do it while watching TV.

"I don't know how much you'll get done with that thing on," Minerva said softly.

Lucy looked up at her and then back down at her book. "I can manage."

"Right," Minerva mumbled. She looked Lucy over. She knew that Lucy wasn't actually doing her homework. She was a teacher after all. She had encountered her fair share of students trying to pretend they were doing something when they were actually goofing off. "So, how is school going?"

"Fine."

Minerva sighed. She wanted Lucy to talk to her but she didn't really know how to get her to do so. She knew that Lucy didn't like her very much right now and she understood why but at the same time it still hurt. She decided to try again. "I work in a magic school so all the kids can do magic," she said. "A couple of years ago four students came to Hogwarts and they were the biggest troublemakers I had ever had to deal with."

Lucy looked up from her book. "What did they do?"

Minerva smiled. "So many things," she said. "One time they cast a spell on the whole castle to make everyone, students and teachers, have reindeer antlers and red noses. This was around Christmas."

Lucy smiled and put down her book. "Really?" she said, sitting up a bit and moving a little closer to her mother. "What else did they do?"

"Another time, they turned an entire corridor into a corn maze so students were getting lost trying to get to their classes," Minerva replied. "They were always out of bed at night. They didn't seem to care about any school rule. They wouldn't let a class go by without doing something, whether that be releasing a horde of pixies or setting off a bunch of fireworks or just interrupting the lecture. They were very... wild."

"Wow," Lucy said. "What were their names?"

Minerva thought about if she should tell her or not. She decided that she might as well, they weren't in school anymore anyways. "Their names were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," she said. "You've met them but I don't know if you remember. They were probably the most troublesome boys I've ever taught."

Lucy vaguely remembered their names. She recalled her parents talking about them but didn't really remember what they looked like. "Are they still in school?"

"No, they graduated last year," Minerva replied with a smile. "I still see them far too often though."

"Why?"

"Well, they do some work with me now so I have too," Minerva replied.

"Oh," Lucy said, looking away.

Work that you chose over me. Lucy didn't have to say the words for Minerva to hear them in her mind. She sighed. She wished she knew what she could say or do to make the pain of her leaving go away but she knew that there wasn't. Only time could heal this wound. She just had to get through however many days, months, or even years it might take for Lucy to fully trust her again. She wished she could skip ahead to when things were okay, back to normal again, but she couldn't. These were the consequences to the choices that Minerva had made. She couldn't blame anyone else for them. Whether she made them for the right reasons or not, the consequences of them were there for her to deal with.

Lucy threw her book down on the table and sat up properly. She looked out the window at the snow falling outside. She got up to get a closer look. "I don't want to do my homework right now," she said, resting her arms on the window sill and leaning her chin on top of them. She watched the snowflakes fall slowly outside and sighed. "I'm so bored."

"It's only been a couple minutes," Minerva said with a smile. Lucy shrugged. "Well, I can tell you more about Hogwarts if you like."

Lucy looked back at her. "I know about Hogwarts," she said. "I know that you also teach classes like Herbology and Astronomy and Potions and Charms. I don't really know what the difference between Charms and Transfigurations is though."

"Well, transfiguring something changes the object itself while a charm changes what that object does," she explained. "Charms adds something new to the object whereas a transfiguring spell changes the object into something completely new."

"That sounds cool," Lucy said. "I wish we would learn stuff like that in school. We just learn like math and stuff. The teachers go so slow! Class gets so boring. I get that other students may need more help but I don't think we need to spend like a whole week on one topic."

Minerva smiled. "Well, not everyone else has a photographic memory," she said. "You learn a lot faster than most students."

"I have to reteach Anne most of the stuff we learn in maths," Lucy said with a smile, walking back to the couch and sitting down. "She's not very good at math."

"I'm not very good at math either," Minerva said with a laugh.

"I'm pretty good," Lucy said proudly. "I'm pretty good at school, really. Other kids don't like that. They think that because I'm small I should be with the other little kids learning the alphabet or something but I took a test and it said that I belonged in this year not that one. Nina says they're just jealous but I think that maybe they're just stupid."

Minerva laughed. "Well, I think you did prove that you belong in seventh year," she said. "It doesn't really matter what the other kids think."

"Yeah..." Lucy mumbled. "I just wish... I don't know. Nevermind."

Minerva frowned. "What is it?"

"It's nothing," Lucy said quickly. "But yeah, my favourite subject is probably science or history. I like both. I wish they offered magic classes at my school. I've read a lot about Charms and Potions and Transfiguration in the magic books in the library. Charms is super easy but Transfigurations is harder. I can't try making potions though because I don't have any of the weird ingredients you need to make them."

"Transfigurations is a lot more complex than Charms. It takes a little more time to get right," Minerva said, allowing the subject change. "If you ever want help with something, I am always willing to help. I can also get you some of the more up to date textbooks that we use at Hogwarts now if you'd like."

"Really?"

"Sure," Minerva said with a smile.

"That'd be awesome," Lucy said. "Astronomy sounds really cool. I wish they offered that at my school. We're doing some space stuff later this year but I doubt we'll go into a lot of detail."

"Daniel really liked space as well, if I remember correctly," Minerva said.

"Yeah, he said he used to want to be an astronaut but then never went into it. Apparently it's really hard to become an astronaut but I bet Daniel could do it. He's awesome. He could do anything," Lucy said with a smile.

Minerva smiled too. "Yes," she said, "he probably could do anything."

"He's doing business right now, like Dad." Suddenly Lucy's smile faded away. She looked down at her hands. "He was supposed to go to America to study. He wanted to go to Harvard but he didn't because of me."

"It's not your fault," Minerva said softly. She reached out and took Lucy's hand. "Besides, if he had gone to Harvard he would never have met Nina. Then you wouldn't have met her either and that's no good, is it?"

Lucy looked back up and smiled a little. "Yeah, that's true. Nina's pretty awesome too," she said. "She used to live alone on the university campus before she basically moved here. Her flat was pretty small but she said it had character."

Minerva laughed. "Well, you have to start somewhere."

"Yeah, I guess. Now she stays here all the time but they still haven't said official that she's 'moved in'," Lucy let go of Minerva's hand and put air quotes around moved in. "Apparently it's a big deal but she already stays here like every night."

"I think that officially moving in would be getting rid of her other flat, right," Minerva said.

"Maybe. I don't know," Lucy said, she said with a shrug. "Do you like teaching?"

"I do," she replied. "I like passing on what I know to the next generation."

"How long have you been teaching?"

"Twenty seven years now."

"Wow, that's older than Daniel!"

"Yes, it is," Minerva said with a smile. "I've been teaching for a very long time."

"Have you ever done anything else?"

"I used to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I worked there for two years before deciding that I didn't really like it and deciding to apply for a teaching position at Hogwarts."

"Wow," Lucy said. "Why didn't you like it?"

Minerva shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't a bad job. It just wasn't for me. I wasn't very happy there and the people weren't that nice, to be honest."

"They were mean?"

"Some of them were... a little, erm, high and mighty. They thought they were better than everyone else," Minerva replied with a smile. "But it's okay. Hogwarts is a lot better. Everyone at Hogwarts is very professional."

"What's your favourite subject?"

"At Hogwarts?" Minerva said. "Transfigurations, of course."

"No," Lucy said with a laugh. "I know that! I mean of the others."

"Hmm, I think potions," she said. "Though I would ask you not to tell Professor Slughorn that. He teaches portions at Hogwarts and if he found out that I said that he would never let it go."

Lucy laughed. "He really likes potions?"

"He does," Minerva said with a smile. "He also likes being right. He thinks that potions is the best subject, which it's not. Transfigurations is, of course. If he found out that I said that he would take that as evidence that he was right."

Lucy smiled. "Well, I don't know how to make potions so I can't say if one is better than the other," she said.

"Well, I can tell you Transfigurations is better," Minerva said making Lucy laugh again. Minerva smiled. "Though, there is some overlap between Transfigurations and Potions. Some procedures in Transfigurations require a knowledge in Potions."

"Like what?" Lucy asked.

"Hmm... like becoming an Animagus," Minerva said. "Do you know what that is?"

Lucy nodded. "That's when you can transform into an animal," she said. She pointed at her mother. "You can turn into a cat. I remember."

"That's right," Minerva said with a smile.

"Can you do it now?" Lucy asked excitedly. "Uncle Raj isn't here anymore so we can do magic again!"

Minerva nodded. She put down her now empty teacup and transformed into a cat. Lucy got up quickly and raced over to the armchair Minerva was sitting on.

"Wow!" she said, picking Minerva up and sitting down on the armchair. Minerva meowed in protest but Lucy ignored her. She hugged her tightly and petted her head. "I always wanted a cat but no one else did. Daniel said they're messy and they leave fur everywhere."

Minerva struggled and got out of Lucy's grip. She hopped off of her lap and turned back into a human. She gave Lucy a look as she fixed her bun. Lucy laughed.

"Do you like being petted?" Lucy asked as Minerva walked to sit down on the couch.

Minerva laughed. "Not really," she said, "but if it makes you feel better then I don't mind."

"I think," Lucy said matter-of-factly, "that you're lying and that you actually secretly like it."

Minerva gave her a look and Lucy laughed. Minerva would never admit it but she did kind of like being pet while in cat form. Only by specific people though. Lucy was okay and Daniel and Nina were probably safe but anyone else most likely would have gotten a scratch for trying to touch her.

Lucy pulled her knees up and looked over at her mother a little uncertainly. "Um, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," Minerva said.

Lucy paused for a moment, debating if this was a good idea. She knew what question she wanted to ask next but she wasn't sure if she should. What if she didn't get the answer she wanted? What answer did she want? Lucy wasn't sure. She took a deep breath before deciding to just do it.

"Is this like a permanent thing?" asked Lucy. "Are you really going to stay with us forever now?"

Minerva gave her a smile. "Yes. I'm here to stay, I promise."

Lucy nodded. She wasn't sure if that's what she wanted but for some reason she did feel a little better. She slid of the chair and sat down on the floor in front of the coffee table. She pulled the textbook she had thrown on there earlier close to her and opened it up again. "I have to do my homework now," she said. "Daniel said I have to finish it before we go to Scotland."

"That's a good idea," Minerva said. She watched Lucy pull out her worksheet and start writing the answers to her questions onto it for a second before getting up, picking up her teacup and leaving for the kitchen to get herself another cup of tea.

Monday, December 22nd 1997

"Here comes the sun, do do do do

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right," Lucy sang quietly as she watched the clean laundry fly out of the basket Nina had brought to her room and hang themselves in her closet.

"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun, and I say

It's all right."

Minerva heard the singing and smiled. She walked towards Lucy's bedroom. She saw the clothes flying past. "Doing your chores with magic?" Lucy was sitting on her bed. She looked up at her mother and nodded a little. Minerva smiled. "Wow, I was never able to do this kind of magic when I was your age. Most children's magic isn't that strong yet."

"I - I've been practicing," she said quietly.

"That's good," Minerva said with a smile. "May I come in?"

Lucy thought for a moment before nodding. Minerva walked into the room and sat down on the bed beside her. Lucy was looking down at her feet, not making eye contact with Minerva.

"What were you singing earlier?"

"Here Comes the Sun."

"I used to sing that to you when you were little," Minerva said. "I don't know if you remember that."

"I remember," Lucy mumbled, still not looking up.

"You have a nice voice."

"Thank you," she mumbled, playing with her fingers nervously.

Minerva sighed. She had thought that yesterday they had made a lot of progress. Nina and Daniel had come back a little while after Lucy had finished her homework and they had all gone into the kitchen to make cookies. As soon as Nina had returned Lucy had forgotten all about Minerva. She stood on the stool in the kitchen and helped Nina measure out ingredients while Minerva and Daniel sat at the kitchen counter. While they were watching the movie, Lucy had snuggled up close to Nina and afterwards it had been Nina who had put the girl to bed again. It seemed that there was no more job left for Minerva to do.

"So, are you ready to go to Castletown?" Minerva asked. "We're leaving tomorrow. Your nani, aunt, uncles and cousins are very excited to see you again."

Lucy nodded again, standing up. The clothes had finished hanging and folding themselves and now all that was left was the empty laundry basket. Lucy kicked the basket out into the hallway before pointing to her bag in the corner. "I'm already packed."

"That's good," Minerva said with a smile. "Are you excited to see everyone again?"

"I don't know," Lucy whispered, still not looking at Minerva. She shrugged and looked down at her bag.

"It's okay to be a little nervous."

Lucy looked up quickly and shook her head. She crossed her arms and said, "I'm not nervous."

"Not at all?" Minerva asked with a smile. "You don't feel even a little bit nervous?"

Lucy let her arms fall to her side and sighed. "Okay... maybe a little bit. Like the teeny, tiniest amount."

Minerva smiled. "It's okay to be nervous."

Lucy walked back to the bed but didn't sit back down. She picked up the small box that was sitting there and moved to put it away.

"What's that?" Minerva asked.

Lucy looked at it and shrugged. "My box of important things."

"Important things?" Minerva asked. "Like what?"

Lucy took a deep breath before walking back towards the bed again. "Do you want to see inside?"

"I would love to," Minerva said. "But only if you're comfortable with showing me."

Lucy nodded and hopped up on the bed. She sat down cross legged in front of Minerva and set the box down between them. Minerva copied her. Lucy slowly opened the box and looked inside. She pulled out an envelope and opened it up. Inside were a stack of postcards. She held them out for Minerva to see.

"Dad brought me a postcard from every new place he visited when he went away for work," she said softly as Minerva flipped through the postcards. She saw pictures of cities in America, France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, China, Singapore, and many other countries.

"I remember that," Minerva said with a smile. "I'm glad you kept them all."

"I'm going to visit all these places when I'm older," Lucy said.

"That's nice," Minerva said, giving her the postcards back. Lucy put them away and then pulled out some photographs.

"That's my friend Anne," she said, handing Minerva a picture of herself and a blonde girl with blue eyes standing together in what looked like their back garden. "She's my best friend."

"She must be very nice then," Minerva said.

Lucy nodded. "She's the only one at school who actually talks to me like I'm not a baby," she mumbled. "Everyone else is mean."

"Mean?"

"Nevermind," Lucy said, taking the picture back. She handed Minerva another one. "That's my Dado with Captain America! He was a soldier and he and his friends got captured by Nazis and Captain America saved him!"

"Yes," Minerva said with a smile, looking down at the black and white photograph. Jay's father looked so much like him.

"Daniel said that we owe Captain America our lives because if he hadn't saved Dado we would never have been born!" Lucy said. "Isn't it so cool that he met Captain America?"

"Very cool," Minerva said with a smile.

Lucy took the picture back and handed her mother another. "That's me at my first dance recital," she said. "You're there too."

"Yes, I remember that night," she said. She looked at the happy faces of Lucy, Jay and herself. Daniel wasn't in the photograph because he was the one taking the picture. His little thumb over part of the lense was proof of that. "I was so proud of you. Do you still dance?"

Lucy nodded. "I got moved up in dance too," she said. "My teacher, Ms. Jade, says that I'm one of her best students."

"That's wonderful," Minerva said. "I can't wait to see your next recital. I've really missed seeing you dance."

Lucy showed Minerva a couple more photographs and then pulled out a smaller light pink box. She opened it and inside was a large bundle of letters. "These are letter that my Dadi and Dado wrote back and forth when he was fighting in the war," she said. She held them delicately, not wanting to damage them in any way. She untied the blue ribbon around them and showed her mother. "They really loved each other. They got married because they loved each other, not because their parents wanted them to. That's called an arranged marriage. Daniel said that's really rare for India, especially at the time."

"Wow," Minerva said, taking the letters from Lucy. She looked at the soft, delicate writing that must have been Marie Collins's and the bulky, all uppercase writing that must have been Jamal Collins's. She had never seen these letters before. Jay had never shown her. "Have you read them all?"

Lucy nodded. She reached over and picked two out from the bundle. "These two are funny," she said. "They're trying to decide Daddy's name."

Minerva smiled and took the letters from her. She opened one of them and read through it. Marie told her husband all about her day, life in England. She talked about her neighbours and how helpful they were with her pregnancy. Apparently she hadn't had to make dinner for herself in a very long time. Her writing was very stream of consciousness. She wrote about whatever came to mind. Finally she got to the baby's name. It took her six different names to land on Jay. She went through each name thoughtfully and very logically. Each name had its own pros and cons. Jamal's letter was almost the opposite of his wife's. His was abrupt, to the point and definitely not as flowery. It was still gentle though. Still just as loving. His thoughts were concise and he commented on everything his wife brought up. Every point she made, he acknowledged. The letters were very complementary to one another. He agreed that Jay was a great name and kept calling the baby that throughout the rest of the letter.

"Dado wasn't there when Daddy was born," Lucy said quietly. "He died but Dadi didn't know." She pointed to the last few letters in the bundle. "She kept writing to him even though she didn't get anything back. She told him about Daddy and how he was doing. Then she stopped when she found out that he was dead. They gave her back her letters when they told her and the last one from him isn't finished because he never got a chance to finish writing it."

"Wow," Minerva whispered. She put the letters back in the envelopes and the envelopes back in the bundle. She wiped the tears that had crept down her cheeks away quickly before handing the letters back. "I would love to read those all, if you'd let me."

Lucy put them back in the box and looked at them a little uncertainly. "Um," she said, not looking up at Minerva. "You'd give them back?"

"Of course," Minerva said.

"And you'll take good care of them?"

"Of course."

Lucy nodded and handed Minerva the box. "Be careful," she said quietly. "They're very important. I don't want anything to happen to them."

"I'll keep them safe," Minerva said, taking the box from her gently and setting it down on the bedside table to take with her later. "Do you have anything else in there?"

Lucy pulled out a small black leather bound book. "I have Daddy's journal," she said. "He wrote everything down."

Minerva smiled and nodded. "I know," she said. "He was always writing in that thing at the end of each day."

"He wrote about me and Daniel and you and Uncle Raj and everyone at his work and even Aunt Amelia and Nani and all them too sometimes," she said. "He thinks the way you sleep on the window sill in your cat form when it's sunny is funny. He drew pictures too."

Minerva smiled and took the book from her. She felt the tears fill her eyes again as she read some of her husband's writing. She saw the small sketch he made of her laying on the window sill and smiled a little.

"I cry when I read some of that stuff too," Lucy said quietly. She moved so she was sitting beside Minerva now. She flipped the pages and stopped at a drawing of a baby in a rectangular box. "That's me."

"That's when you were first born," Minerva said with a smile. She flipped through the pages and saw more drawings of Lucy, Minerva and Daniel. There was a drawing of Raj that looked like Jay had drawn during a meeting. There was a drawing from the day Lucy had put a bunch of flowers in Minerva's hair and from the day Daniel scored the winning goal on his football team. Jay drew a lot of pictures. Nearing the end of the journal there were mostly only drawings. Each drawing was dated a day that Minerva knew he was in the hospital for. There were a couple passages here and there about Lucy or Daniel but mostly it was just drawings. He didn't mention the hospital or the treatments once. He drew pictures of flowers people had sent him or of Lucy sitting on the floor surrounded by books working hard on her homework or Daniel asleep in a chair with his head tilted back and his mouth wide open.

Minerva sighed and closed the book. She handed it back to Lucy but Lucy told her she could read it too and give it back when she was done. Minerva smiled and thanked her.

"That's everything," Lucy said, closing her box of important things. "Daniel has letters that Dad and his mum wrote to each other when she was going to school and Daddy was in London. They're a little silly too."

Minerva smiled. "I'll bet," she said. "I think they were only about eighteen or nineteen when they met."

"Did you and Daddy write any letter to each other?" Lucy asked.

"No," Minerva said with a sigh. "We weren't apart for a long period of time like that."

"Yes, you were," Lucy said with a frown.

"Oh, well, I guess we were," Minerva said. She had suddenly forgotten her two year absence. They had been apart for a long time and if they hadn't Jay may still be here now. She could imagine him snatching his notebook back and telling them off for looking at it while they laughed, showing her his parent's letters himself, collecting more postcards for Lucy, drawing more sketches of the three of them. Minerva took a deep breath and shook her head. She closed her eyes and did her best to keep the tears back. "It - it was just too dangerous for us to be sending each other letter then."

"Dangerous?" Lucy said with a frown. "Why was it dangerous? What do you mean?"

"Nothing, nothing," Minerva said quickly standing up and wiping her face. She picked up the box of envelopes and notebook before darting towards the door. "Thank you for showing me your things, darling. Please excuse me."

Before Lucy could say anything Minerva was out the door. She walked briskly across the hall and into her own bedroom, closing the door of behind her.

Lucy frowned and got up. She put her box away and walked towards the hall. She put her ear to her mother's door and heard the sound of crying. She pulled away quickly. She remembered Daniel had said that she was hurting like they were. She hadn't really believed him but now she really thought that Minerva was.

Lucy sighed and walked back to her bedroom. She really hoped that things got easier. For all of them.