Chapter Thirty

"Where is she? We're going to be late," she checked the time for the tenth time in the last two minutes.

"Just give her five more minutes, she'll be here," Will was sipping his coffee calmly, reading the newspaper, while Diane was already tensed and it wasn't even seven yet.

Emma's new morning routine was to wake up to her own alarm clock, get ready on her own and meet them at the breakfast table. It had worked well for more than a week now, but Diane had a feeling that something might have gone wrong this morning, she should have been with them already.

"I'll go and check on her," she stood up, but before she could move away from the table Will grabbed her arm.

"We can wait five more minutes, can't we?" he asked with a smile she could hardly say no to.

"I guess so. Then I'll go check on Nat first."

"You have already spent enough time with him this morning. You even woke up an hour earlier, please don't do it again."

"That was the responsible thing to do, he's still not well and it's bad enough that I can't be with him all day, what's one less hour of sleep?"

"It's a lot, I think I need triple coffee this morning."

"Stop complaining and let me go," she looked at his hand still holding on to her arm.

"Fine, the five minutes are almost up anyway," he pulled back his hand, but she didn't move away.

"Then you got what you wanted," she smiled at him, "Five more minutes with me alone, which you could have used more wisely, if I might add."

There was no reaction on his side, he already had the newspaper in his hands again. Only when she tried to take a step aside she felt his hand on her arm again and this time he did not just grab it, he pulled her closer, until they were eye to eye, their lips only a few inches away from each other.

"More wisely?" he whispered.

"Yep," she replied in the same tone.

"What did you have in mind?"

"I'm not sure," she smiled, resisting the desire to show him what she meant, it was his turn.

"Then let's see if I can read your mind."

"Let's see," she looked deep into his eyes until she felt the soft touch of his lips on hers.

o-o-o

Another five minutes later she was practically running up the staircase and into her daughter's bedroom, just to find her still in bed. The girl's eyes shot open as she entered the room, she obviously hadn't been asleep anymore.

"What's wrong?" she rushed to the side of the bed, fearing she might have gotten sick as well, even though she didn't look like that.

"I think I'm sick," she replied slowly.

Diane put her hand on her forehead, but it didn't feel like she had fever.

"Are you sure? You look perfectly healthy to me."

"I'm sure, my throat hurts," she tried to cough a little, which didn't sound serious to Diane, so she suspected, that it was probably just an act. But even though they were already terribly late, she decided to play along a little.

"Let me have a look," she suggested and turned on the light, "Open your moth."

She checked her throat, which seemed all right.

"I have a tummy ache too," she added.

"Really? Could it be because you've been up for a half an hour, but still haven't had breakfast?"

"No, I'm sick. Can I stay at home?"

"Are you really sick or just want to stay at home?"

"I'm really sick," she nodded.

"Then I will call the doctor, but if she doesn't find anything wrong, I'll be…" she didn't finish the sentence, just looked at her. She wasn't angry with her for trying to play sick, maybe she just needed some attention, envied it from her brother, or simply had some other reason why she didn't want to go to school.

Emma looked at her for a few seconds before she turned her head away.

"Tell me what's wrong, you don't seem sick to me, but if you really are…"

"I'm not, I'm sorry, I just wanted to…"

"Stay in bed and skip school?"

"Yes," she turned her head towards Diane again, she was obviously feeling guilty for what she'd done.

"You know there will always be days when you don't want to get out of bed for whatever reason, it happens to all of us, but if you act up on this wish, it will be your loss. You might miss something if I let you stay in bed today and you will never know what you've missed."

Emma smiled at her. Other mothers might have already yelled at the misbehaving kid, punished them for wasting their valuable time in such a childish way. But Diane had always believed in the power of reason, that it was never too early to teach her daughter a lesson when she needed one.

"Not to mention you have to keep in mind that just because you are a girl it doesn't mean you have to be weak. Being strong means facing every day, whatever comes. You'll thank me one day for not letting you stay in bed today, even if you don't understand it right now."

"Nat is weak because he won't get out of bed?"

"Well, he's only four, he's still allowed to be weak once in a while. But you remember the last time daddy had some fever, he behaved worse than a child."

"You said daddy is the worst patient ever," Em chuckled.

"That he is."

"Are you dishing me?"

Diane turned around to find him at the door.

"No, I'm just teaching my daughter a lesson."

"Is everything all right? We only have ten more minutes."

"I only need five to put on my clothes," Emma practically jumped out of bed and Diane couldn't have been more proud of her.

"I'll be waiting," Will replied and walked away, leaving them alone.

Diane watched Emma change into her clothes, then combed her hair and they left the room five minutes later hand in hand.

"I want to be just like you when I grow up," Emma said as they walked down the stairs and Diane felt like the happiest mother in the world.