That morning I woke up with Alexis laying completely on top of me. After I shifted Alexis to the middle of the bed and covered her back up, I went downstairs and started worming up some brown sugar oatmeal and placed a couple slices of bread in the toaster. As I was getting out a butter knife and the small tub of butter Alexis came downstairs rubbing her eyes. "Morning Alexis." I say as I collect the toast and butter it. "Morning Kate." Alexis mumbled around a yawn. "So I was thinking, since it's all cold and rainy out today and it just so happens to be Saturday; how would you feel about staying inside today and playing games maybe even do a little runway show?" I ask as I set a bowl of oatmeal and slice of toast in front of her. "Really?" Alexis exclaims as she starts jumping up and down in her seat. "Sit still and eat your breakfast, but yes I think we can pull it of." I say with a smile before I take a bite of oatmeal. "Can we play some music while we play runway?" Alexis asks hopefully. I don't see why not, it might even make it more fun." I say while finishing my oatmeal. As I take the used bowls over to the sink, Alexis ran upstairs to change into a costume. Sitting on the arm of the couch waiting for Alexis to come back down while Kids Bop played through the speakers of the CD player, I held my phone at the ready to take as many pictures as I could for Rick, when suddenly the door opened and Martha walked in suitcases in hand. "Kate I'm ready!" Alexis called as I heard her running to the top of the stairs. Snapping my mouth shut I turned and started taking pictures of Alexis as she came down the stairs dressed like Hermione from Harry Potter. When she reached the bottom of the steps and started walking around with one hand on her hip, the other down by her side as she held her nose up in the air; that's when she noticed Martha standing by the door. "Grams!" Alexis called as she ran over to Martha with a giant smile. "Oh Alexis sweetheart I've missed you." Martha exclaimed as she twirled Alexis around in a tight hug. "When did you get here?" Alexis asked excitedly. "Well my plane arrived three hours ago, so I went and picked up my clothes from the cleaners, then came right here." Martha said as she put Alexis down. As Alexis caught Martha up on everything we had been doing for the past four weeks, I turned of the music and went in the kitchen to give the two of them some privacy.
I was humming to myself as I started getting everything out I need for baking a lemon cake and ginger snap cookies, when Martha sat down at the breakfast bar. "Do you usually bake when your stressed?" She asked with a grin. "No I'm more likely to go of to the gym or the shooting range." I say as I begin mixing two eggs into the cake batter. "How's your father doing?" Martha asks as she handed me the measuring cup with the 1/4 cups of vegetable oil. "He's doing as well as can be expected, he wont allow me any ware near him; says that I need to start living my life." I say dryly as I mix in the oil. "Can I put sprinkles in it?" Alexis asks as she slid a chair next to me. "Sure why not, might make it more fun." I say with a smile as Alexis runs over to the cupboard and grabs all the sprinkles she can. "Lets use the Elsa ones Kate!" Alexis says happily as she hands me everything before climbing onto the chair to help stir the batter. "How about we use the pretty pink and purple ones?" I ask holding them up. "Okay, if we use the Elsa ones on the cookies." Alexis bargained. "That sounds perfect." I agree as I pour in half the container of sprinkles. "That's to much! We need them for other things!" Alexis says trying to get the sprinkles from me. "I'll tell you a little secret, there is no such thing as to much when it comes to sprinkles." I smile as I tap her nose causing Alexis to giggle. "Has Richard called lately?" Martha asked as I let Alexis stir the cake batter while I put the oven on pre heat. "He called last week, said that he got there safe and sound but might not be able to call for awhile." I state as I pull out the cake pans and spry them. "How has everything been around here?" Martha asked while watching Alexis with a fond smile. "Well let's see, Alexis had her first dance lesson, and we had a movie night." I explain as I take the bowl of cake batter from Alexis and pour it into the cake pans, then hand Alexis the spoon to lick clean.
When the cake and cookies were done baking, Martha had sent me out so she could spend time with Alexis. I had gone to see dad, only to be told that he was sleeping and didn't want to be disturbed; so now I'm at the gym. "Good morning ma'am, and welcome to Fort Marshall Family Gym." The pretty blond behind the front desk greeted as I walked in. I continued onto the women's locker room completely ignoring him not really in the mood to talk to anyone. It took me a moment to find my assigned locker in the maze like locker room. Leaving my purse and jacket and a change of clothes in my locker, I took my phone and plugged in my headphones as I walked over to the last treadmill by the wall of the gym. As I lost myself in my run, for the first time since I moved here with my father, I actually had time to myself. While 80's pop music rang in my ears I started thinking about what I was going to do once my dad passed away. Do I stay and see how things go with Rick, or do I go back to the NYPD? Do I transfer to the local police department down here and make a new life for myself? Of course I couldn't think to far ahead what with Rick being deployed, so I made the decision to talk with either Claudia Joy or Denise as soon as possible. With that in mind I finished my run, then spent a few minutes with a punching bag, before I got a quick shower and left the gym looking for some advise.
"I'm sorry Kate, but we can't help you." Claudia Joy apologized as she handed me a glass of iced-tea. "I know if you would like to, Roland would be the best choice to talk to." Denise explained while she iced a sugar cookie. "I don't like shrinks, they ask to many questions I can't answer." I state after taking a sip of my iced-tea. "What do you mean?" Claudia Joy asked as she placed the finished cookies in tins. "They always want to talk about how I dealt with my mothers murder...Did I cry, were there people there I could talk to, what did I feel." I explain without looking up at them as I watched the condensation streak the glass. Unable to find the right words there only response was to put down what they were doing and take one of my hands. "I mean I was nineteen when she was killed, my dad turned to whiskey, my friends didn't know how to talk to me anymore, and the rest of my family went back to there own lives. Me...well I went of the rails for awhile. Nothing too bad, parties, drinking, ridding my Harley without a helmet." I list of as I blink away the tears not wanting to cry in front of them. "What happened to change your behavior?" Denise asked kindly as she and Claudia Joy sat down next to me. "I Came home drunk from a party one night, only to find my dad passed out in the kitchen. So thinking he had just drank to much again, I went and got a shower, when I went to make myself a sandwich before bed my dad was still there in the same spot. I didn't think to much about it, it had happened before, I ate and went to bed. Only I woke a coupe hours later with a headache, and when I went to get some Advil from the kitchen I saw my dad was still laying there. That's when I knew something was wrong, he always woke up and made his way to sleep on the couch, so I poked him with my foot in his arm and I got nothing. So I bent down and tried to shake him awake, but again nothing, that's when I noticed his lips were turning blue. I called 9-1-1 and he was admitted to the hospital that night, later he was put in rehab to get sober." I disclosed for the first time. Nobody said anything, we just sat there holding hands as I tried not to cry; because for the first time since I learned about my dads illness I was starting to realize that sooner or later both of my parents were going to be dead and I was going to be alone.