As I laid there on my side, I adjusted to the morning light that was filtering through the blinds. My mind was spinning just as quickly as the the dust particles that were fluttering down around me. I said a prayer of thanks that I was alive. Yet, my heart still felt heavy and worn.

Maybe that heavy feeling was because I had an appointment with the therapist this afternoon. I knew that I would have to talk with her about my life, my friends and my family. Kevin would be home on the first flight home and I knew that we needed to talk. Sophie was leaving for school. Life seemed like one giant mess right now.

"Good, you're awake." Kevin leaned against the side of the door frame. I hadn't heard him walk up the stairs, or realized that he had been standing there.

"Kevin-"

"Don't get up." Looking at the alarm clock, I watched as he walked across the room and sat down hesitantly on the edge of the bed. "Look Key, I'm sorry about the other day."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not." Looking frustrated, he stood up and looked out the window. "I don't know what I was thinking." Shuffling over to him, I silently took his hand. He wrapped his hand tightly around mine. "I love you, Key. I don't know what I would do without you."

"I..love you too." I choked as he leaned and kissed my lips. Absently, my arms wrapped around his neck. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." He wrapped his long arms around my waist, gently kissing her forehead with an unspoken love of tenderness.

Playing with the buttons on his uniform, I placed my hand on his chest. "I know you just got home, but would you mind taking Sophie to the airport?"

His eyebrows furrowed in concern. "If you don't feel up to it, I'll take her. I don't have to debrief until this afternoon."

"Thank you." Sitting on the edge of the bed, I suddenly felt drained as I scrubbed my hands tiredly over my face. "Get some rest. I think it's time I have a talk with our daughter."

"You should have seen the look on her face-" He turned back around to face me. "She called herself stupid."

"It was a stupid thing to do." He stated harshly, then softened his words. "But she is far from stupid."

"I don't think she believed me when I told her that. Maybe she'll believe you." I shrugged, laying my head against the pillow. My eyes felt unbelievably heavy from just waking up a few minutes ago.

"Maybe." He called over his shoulder, before leaving the room. I heard his heavy steps trodding down the hall towards the guest room. He knocked and I heard a faint can I come in? The door closed. I could only imagine the conversation that was going on between father and daughter. Despite nothing going right lately, I hoped that he would break through to her. Sophie had made a mistake, but that didn't mean she didn't deserve to be happy. As her mother, I knew that I couldn't make her see that-but maybe he could.

That was my last thought as my eyes slipped closed. When I awoke again, I was quite disoriented as I realized that my phone was ringing shrilly, over and over again. It took me a moment to pull myself up off the bed and dig through my purse. "Hello?"

"Jackie? It's Denise. Did I catch you at a bad time?" I looked at the alarm clock, figuring that I had already missed Kevin and Sophie taking off for the airport, since her flight was supposed to take off in less than twenty minutes from now.

"Denise-of course not. Any news about Claudia Joy?"

"Yes." Denise sighed through the phone. "That's actually why I'm calling."

"You know I've never done well with suspense."

"Well, I won't keep you in suspense any more. I was just calling to let you know that Claudia Joy is awake, and the doctor's think she's going to make a full recovery."

"I think that's the best news I've heard all week." Pressing my left hand to my chest, I couldn't help but smile in relief. Somehow hearing the news had lightened the apprehension that I had been feeling lately. The unspoken love of friendship can do that to you.

"Tell me about it. Frank practically scared me to death when he told me that there had been complications during her surgery."

I smiled right along with her. "Does Michael want us to do anything? I assume because she was in a coma that they'll be keeping her longer than a week?"

"They might. It all depends on if there are any complications, and how her doctor feels about releasing her by the end of a week."

"I see. Anything we can do?"

"Frank says when Michael isn't at work, he's been spending all his free time at the hospital with Claudia Joy. They'll probably welcome some hot meals when they finally both make it home, but for now I'm sure they'd appreciate our prayers."

"I'm sure we could think of something by then." Reaching into my purse, I grabbed my lip gloss out of my purse, and paused before putting it on. "And done."

"Knowing us, I'm sure that we could think of plenty of things to make so they wouldn't go hungry for days." We both couldn't help but laugh. Besides, it was true. Between all of our kitchens, we could think of at least a dozen meals each that would fill up the Holden's refrigerator and counter. "I'm sure they'll love whatever they can take."

"I'm guessing visiting is out of the question?"

"It is until they decide to move her down from the ICU-which I'm guessing will be soon, if all goes well."

""Let's hope that for both hers and Michael's sake, it does."

"I couldn't agree more." Denise stated happily. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay."

"So you told me last night. Now is it because of Kevin or Sophie that you couldn't sleep?"

"A little of both, I suppose. Kevin just got home from DC. Sophie still looks at me like I've grown horns. Kevin just took her to the airport, so I'm guessing she's already on her flight home." Glancing at the clock, my heart sunk a little at the fact that I hadn't been able to say goodbye to her.

"It can be hard being the parent sometimes. I figure that Molly won't talk back to me for at least another couple years. Jeremy on the other hand, was a beautiful angel who just couldn't stop talking." We laughed again-although those laughs were mixed with the painful reality of being a soldier's mother and wife.

"Patrick was the same way. He never stopped talking."

"And what about Sophie?"

"She likes to fight me every step of the way. She has Kevin so wrapped around his finger, that it drives me crazy when she just sits there and manipulates me."

"I've found that it does get better. When they finally do turn to us for help, then we gladly give them advice. Whether they want to hear it or not." Making my way down the hall, my heart sunk further as I opened the door to the guest bedroom.

The bed had been made perfectly, which made it feel she hadn't been here at all. The only thing that made it so, were the white curtains fluttering through the open window breeze. She had always loved the fresh air and was always opening windows wherever they moved to.

"Jackie?"

"Yeah, sorry...Denise, I'm still here."

"You should call her."

"Excuse me?"

"Sophie. You should call her when she gets home. It might make you feel better knowing that you told her what you wanted her to know."

"I will."

"I should go, but let's meet up later and talk. Something tells me that I'm going to look forward to catching up with everyone. It seems like there's been a lot going on lately."

"There has. Let me know when you feel up for it and we'll get everyone together." I added with somewhat forced enthusiasm. I didn't want Denise to feel like she needed to fix everything, especially when she should be focusing on recovering.

"Sounds good. We'll talk later then?"

"Yeah, we'll talk later."

"Okay. Bye, Jackie."

"Bye." Dropping my hand to my side, I took one final glance at the guest room where Sophie had slept and padded back down the long hall. The narrow space seemed longer than usual as I walked downstairs to make myself some tea. I half-expected it to be empty, but I noticed Kevin and Sophie silently sitting at the other end of the dining room as I passed.

"Why aren't you at the airport?"

"That's something that we should discuss." Kevin stood, pulling a chair out next to him on the other side of where he was sitting. I sat down, noticing that Sophie was keeping her eyes on Kevin. "Go ahead." He gestured to her. At this, Sophie lowered her shoulders; now looking slightly uneasy at having to tell me the news, she finally met my gaze.

"I don't want to go back to school next semester-"