Chapter 2: A Period of Mourning

A/N: I realised I haven't been keeping track of the kids ages. I have worked out that Harry is 6 in this story, and Alex is just over a year, but with advanced language skills as previously established in "The Story".

So, in the pouring rain, Richard unloaded his children and dragged them back into the airport. The most logical explanation was that Snoof had been dropped somewhere in the foyer. A florescent pink elephant should not be difficult to spot. There was no sign of it when he glanced about, so he headed over to the security desk in the hopes that somebody had picked it up and handed it in.

"No, I'm sorry Sir," the guard told him. "We haven't had anything handed in today."

Alex was still whimpering and Harry had just gone silent, though anyone who looked at him would be able to tell the boy was miserable. "Would all lost property be handed in here?" Richard asked desperately, wondering if there was some other desk where Snoof might be waiting for them.

"No, Sir, this is a small airport. It would all come here."

That was rather what Richard feared. He couldn't believe he had fallen at the first hurdle. If the toy wasn't anywhere in the lobby, and nobody handed it in, there was only one explanation. "I'll need to check the CCTV to see who stole it," he told the guard seriously.

"Sir?" She was frowning at Richard, clearly not understanding his request.

Richard shifted Alex at little, she was getting quite heavy to be carried for so long but he couldn't put her down when she was this upset. "Look, clearly somebody has stolen Snoof…"

"SNOOOOF!" Alex wailed again, perhaps mentioning the name had not been a good idea. Richard had to walk away for a couple of minutes whilst he calmed the toddler down. Harry sat on a bench and informed him sternly that he would be waiting there until Camille's return. Since the bench was only fifty metres from the desk, Richard decided to leave him there for the moment rather than argue about it.

"Right," he began again. "If the object of our search is not anywhere in the foyer and has not been handed in, clearly somebody stole him. We can find out who using the CCTV!"

"You think somebody stole a fluorescent pink elephant? Who would do that?" The guard's incredulity was not what Richard needed right now.

"Well, I don't know, perhaps somebody thought it was a rare collectable!" He received a single raised eyebrow at this suggestion. "Fine, maybe it wasn't stolen. Maybe another child picked him up!" Yes, that seemed like a slightly more logical explanation.

"In which case I am afraid the – uh- object of your search could be headed to the other side of the world. I am afraid I can't justify releasing the CCTV footage to you over a misplaced toy. I mean, are you sure your daughter even brought it into the airport?"

"Of course I'm sure!" His voice had risen now, which only made Alex cry harder. "Look, she is really upset, can't you check for me?"

He was sure the woman was moved more by the girl's tears than his own plea. With a small sigh she said, "Not immediately Sir, but we do review it at the end of every day and I will ask the guard doing so to keep a look out for the item in question."

"Thank you," he told her sincerely.

Now, he just had to convince Harry to get back into the car.

Richard managed to get Harry back in the car by promising he could stay up and watch a DVD. He wasn't proud of himself for using bribery, but he was holding Alex and too old to pick Harry up as well, he needed him to come willingly. Alex had been reduced to just silent tears streaming down her face now, which was somehow more heart-breaking.

By the time they got in it was tea time. Richard had had grand plans of cooking some nutritious meal from scratch, but was rather hampered by the fact his daughter was clinging to his leg and crying intermittently. If he tried to put her in the high chair, she just started screaming, and he began to fear the neighbours would be reporting him for abuse or something. So he picked her up and headed to the freezer – hoping against hope there would be a frozen pizza or something equally easy to cook within it. He smiled in relief when he found it was stuffed full of Tupperware – he suspected Catherine to be the guilty party. If things had been going to plan, the discovery probably would have annoyed him, but now he selected some sort of stew, bunged it into the microwave and thanked his lucky stars Catherine had been so thoughtful.

At the table, Harry began to wolf down the dinner whilst Richard attempting to get him to eat it at normal speed. And also get most of it into his mouth as opposed to his lap. Alex normally just ate food with her fingers, but needed a heck of a lot of help. However, Richard's main problem was that Alex wouldn't touch her food.

"Come on, Baby 2, don't you want some…um, some sort of French Caribbean stew?" He had tasted it, it wasn't spicy or anything, and normally Alex was quite a fan of Catherine's cooking.

"NO!" She said with surprising firmness. "SNOOF!"

"He's not here right now," Richard said, still hopeful they would find the toy eventually. "Starving yourself is hardly going to bring him back!"

"NO!" Alex said again. To be fair, his argument probably was a bit beyond the logic of a 13 month old.

"Please, Alex, just have a spoonful for Daddy?"

"NO!" Alex only knew 8 words (10, if you counted Snoof and Poofs), which Richard had been assured was incredibly advanced for a 13 month old child. Unfortunately, the word 'yes' was not yet in her vocabulary and as a consequence she sometimes say 'no' even as she happily grabbed for whatever she was being offered. On this occasion, Alex's emphatic refusal was enough for Richard to realise she really meant it.

"I don't think she is hungry, Daddy," Harry offered. "Can I have some ice cream?" Richard turned to his son and realised in the 2 minutes he had been trying to convince Alexandra to eat Harry had managed to scoff his entire dinner. Richard wondered if he should get out the indigestion medicine now.

"Maybe you should let your food settle a bit," he attempted to suggest.

"But I'm still hungry!" The boy complained.

"That may well be because you ate so fast your stomach hasn't realised it is full yet. Besides, you know the rule, no desert until everyone has finished their meal!" A rule Camille created and that Richard wasn't willing to break in her absence, he feared her too much.

Harry looked resigned and then began to enthusiastically encourage Richard to eat. Richard thought this might get Alex to eat as well so did as instructed, every now and then trying Alex with a spoonful of food, but she refused it point blank, still asking for Snoof. Having finished his own dinner he got Harry some ice cream and, desperate, offered some to Alex but she wasn't interested in it either. He eventually concluded that she would eat when she was hungry. Knowing his luck, about 3 am.

Harry wanted to watch Postman Pat, which was ok because Richard had only seen that one 14 times instead of the fifty odd times he had been forced to watch every other DVD in Harry's rather limited collection. He sat Alex on his lap and prayed she would either fall asleep or ask for food. Harry sat with the fur ball in his lap, as he felt that Mrs Poofs would appreciate Jess the cat. Mrs Poofs appreciated being petted and food, however she seemed to have endless patience with the children and though she tried to slink off on several occasions she reluctantly allowed herself to be retrieved each time. In the three weeks since her arrival, she had settled in rather well. Richard suspected Harry or Camille might be sneaking her scraps under the table though, she was looking rather fat.

Alex didn't fall asleep, but Harry did about 2 minutes after his normal bedtime. So much for being allowed to stay up late. He hustled the sleepy boy into bed. Now it was time to convince Alex to sleep.

"Time for bed!" He said brightly.

"No, Snoof."

"Alex, he isn't here right now. Maybe he will be here tomorrow." She started to cry again.

"No bed!"

"You have to go to bed, you need to sleep," Richard practically pleaded. First refusing to eat, now refusing to sleep. He took her into her bedroom, hoping she would settle down when surrounded by her other many hundreds of stuffed toys.

"No." She said as soon as they walked into the nursery.

"Alex, I need to sleep and I can't sleep until you sleep."

"No."

"LOOK HERE!" He cried enthusiastically, grabbing the nearest toy in order to divert her attention. "It's OWL! I think wants a cuddle in bed with Alex."

"No."

"OK, how about Piggles?"

"No." The reply was a little more mumbled, and he realised that she was actually quite sleepy despite her protests. Richard was not willing to offer her the entire menagerie of toys, so decided to try just putting her down in the cot with Big Ted and seeing if that worked. She didn't try to stand up, so that was hopeful.

"Night, night Alex!" He kissed her on the head and backed quietly from the room. Leaving the door open a little, he paused to see if she would start to cry, but it all remained blissfully silent. With a sigh of relief, he resolved to call the airport first thing if they didn't call him first.

When the crying started, Richard felt he had only been asleep for ten minutes. He had waited up to hear that Camille had landed safely. He opened his eyes and shot a look at the bedside clock, which confirmed he had actually only been asleep 7 minutes. He stumbled from bed into the nursery, where Alex had pulled herself to her feet and was wailing. Bending over, he picked her and rested her on his hip.

"Oh, Baby 2, what's the matter? Do you want some food?" He was sure the screaming must be hunger induced from her earlier refusal to eat. He therefore made his way into the kitchen and grabbed for a banana, something he could mash up one handed.

Alex accepted a couple of spoonful's before she started crying and asking for Snoof again. Richard abandoned the banana and took her into the front room. He walked up and down, jiggling and generally attempting to sooth her. Eventually he gave up and took her into the bedroom with him, where she promptly clung to Camille's pillow and went to sleep. He tried not to take any offense that her absent mother's pillow was more of a comfort than him.

Richard was glad Harry had miraculously slept through Alex's tears the night before, but it did mean his son was far more alert than him at breakfast. Richard had slept badly, as he woke frequently terrified Alex would fall out of bed or he would roll over and crush her. He didn't want to put her back in her own cot though, in case she woke up crying again. Alex was as subdued as him, and not interested in breakfast.

Whilst trying to make Harry's sandwiches, aware that they really needed to set off on the walk to the school within the next 5 minutes, the phone began to ring. Richard, despite claiming not to be superstitious, crossed his fingers and answered.

"I'm sorry, Inspector Poole," the familiar voice of the security guard was telling him. "The CCTV footage seems to show your daughter didn't actually have the toy you spoke of when she entered the lobby. I did go and have a look around the car park for you but no luck I'm afraid."

Richard sighed, "No, it's okay, thank you so much for looking. If it does turn up please let me know." She promised to do just that.

Richard was certain that Alex was too young to have understood the conversation, but from her high chair she still gave him a look full of hope and asked quietly, "Snoof?"

"I'm sorry, darling," he said. "It seems Snoof has gone away." He expected her to start screaming, but she just looked down at the table of her high chair and remained silent.

At the school gates, the spies Camille had bribed descended on him. And not one of them failed to notice how miserable Alex was. He patiently explained the loss of the toy, but one mother was a little incredulous at his explanation.

"Why it is so strange to see her so subdued, she is normally such a happy baby! If I didn't know better, I would say she was mourning."

That comment alarmed him, and as soon as he was free from the gates he pulled out his mobile. "Hello, yes, I need an emergency appointment with the doctor. No, not for me, for my daughter, Alexandra Poole."

"Now what appears to be the problem with young Alexandra?" Dr Johnston asked at lunch time, the earliest appointment Richard had been able to secure. The receptionist had been a little suspicious at him wanting an emergency appointment for a child that had no temperature or sign of infection, and he was reluctant to tell her the entire story. However he did mention Alex had been failing to eat or sleep and that seemed to do the trick – probably along with the general panic in his tone.

"I think she has childhood depression," Richard said firmly, sitting down and putting Alex on his lap.

Dr Johnston blinked once and then, after a long pause, said, "Well, childhood depression is very unusual in children under the age of 5. There could be other explanations, exactly what sort of symptoms does Alex have?"

"Well you see she is mourning. The depression is related to that," Richard supplied.

Dr Johnston gave Richard a look full of sympathy, "Oh, I'm sorry Inspector, have you lost a close family member?"

"No, no it's not that," he admittedly reluctantly, staring to feel that he may have overreacted. "She, um, she lost her favourite toy…"

"And you think she's mourning that loss?"

Richard just nodded in reply, then in a rush hurried to explain, "But she isn't eating much and slept really badly last night and she's so…subdued."

Dr Johnston seemed to take his time considering how to reply, "Have you, um, considered perhaps buying Alex a replacement toy?"

"Isn't that like buying an identical hamster if it dies?"

"I don't think the situations are exactly comparable," he explained patiently. "Besides you needn't pretend it is the, uh, lost toy. She is young but would probably realise. You could make up some provenance of the toy that relates it to the lost one though."

Richard was a bit dubious, "You think that would be enough to comfort her?"

"I think she's 13 months old. They are generally quite easily distracted at that age. However if it doesn't work, and she continues to refuse food, I am happy to see you both again."

Well, it was worth a try. If it worked, he wouldn't even have to tell Camille that he had briefly thought he'd permanently damaged their daughter.

Pushing Alex along to the toy shop, a small miracle happened and she fell asleep. This saved Richard a lot of hassle because he now didn't have to come up with a plan to distract her whilst he made the actual purchase. He had no idea if she had the cognitive ability to figure out his buying the toy in the shop would mean the story he was planning to tell her wasn't true. He had no idea if they had the cognitive ability to understand the bloody story he was planning to tell her. But he wanted all bases covered just in case.

The shop did not have any pink elephants, only normal looking grey ones. This actually secretly pleased him, because Richard felt that soft toys should be largely biologically accurate. He had been overruled by Camille though when Harry was still a baby and had been given a purple sparkly lion. Richard had thought it an abomination but Camille had liked it and so, apparently, had Harry – so the toy had stayed.

Back at the house, once Alex had woken, Richard placed her in her high chair and made sure he had her attention. Camille would probably be about ten times better at this.

"Right now, Baby 2, I would like you to meet, um Sniff," it wasn't the most original name choice, but at least with an elephant it made vaguely more sense than Snoof and he wanted something familiar sounding. Richard held up the new cuddly elephant in front of her, and she stared at it obediently. "Sniff here is the big brother of Snoof, who has left to go join the circus. But Snoof didn't want you to be on your own, so Sniff here has come to live with us."

Alex continued to just stare at the toy, when he was really hoping she would reach for it. He still had one trick up his sleeve. "Say hello to Alex, Sniff!" He squeezed the elephant, which let out a rather realistic trumpeting noise. The baby immediately brightened and reached out for the toy, snatching it from him and squeezing it herself to achieve the same result. Then she held the toy close to her and giggled. Richard thought it might just be one of his favourite's sounds ever.

After two hours of Alex was squeezing the elephant every 2 minutes, he also had a new lest favourite sound…