"Hey Bren" I say shaking her as she's crying out softly in her sleep.

It takes a few shakes, but then her eyes start to open and the crying stops as she looks at me. I'm still her safety net after everything that's happened. "Jase" she cries my name softly and tears start to fill her eyes.

"Hey, hey it's okay, it was just a dream."

She shakes her head, "I don't wanna die…I don't wanna die Jason."

"It's okay" I whisper and move into her bed, the bed I'd left three and a half weeks ago. I take her into my arms and she buries her face in my chest, her entire body wracked with tears.

I hold her like that until her tears stop and she falls back asleep. I kiss the top of her head, "It's gonna be alright." I know I'm saying the words to myself, but I need to say them. Remind myself that it is going to be alright, for at least a awhile. Holding her close I slide myself into a more comfortable position and follow her into sleep.

"Morning," she wakes me up with that tiny little murmur and pressing her hand on my chest to rise, she pushes back a tumble of curls that fall forward again without pause.

"Morning" I say rubbing my eyes, remembering how I got into her bed again.

"I had a nightmare?"

I nod, how couldn't she remember that? "When they'd come back?"

She looks at me sheepishly, "The first night without you."

I sigh, if I hadn't been up late doing paperwork… "Bren, remember that whole partners in this speech?"

She laughs standing, nice to know even though things had been awkward between they hadn't been awkward enough for her to stop using my underwear as her pajamas. "I'm 27 Jason, I should be old enough to handle sleeping on my own."

"Yet you aren't, so give it up"

She laughs…I thank god this baby has made her laughter return. I wouldn't have been able to survive knowing I took that away from her. "Do we have anything for breakfast besides from cereal?" she calls over her shoulder walking into the bathroom.

"I thought you said you could eat Trix everyday for the rest of your life."

"Well apparently I thought I was going to die a hell of a lot sooner than I am."

I think about our cupboard for awhile, it's been pretty lacking for the past few weeks, "I think you bought pancake mix. Do you have any idea how to make pancakes?"

"Jason" she says walking back out, "It says just add water, how hard can it be?"

Decently hard it turns out, this is apparently why we both have eaten frozen waffles and more recently the pancakes they've come out with for our entire adult lives. We managed to get the measuring and mixing down, we've proven pretty successful with that in all of our past endeavors too. It's just the not burning or leaving raw part we had some issues with. Of course the first ones came out perfectly, then we burned the next group and we ended with the slightly raw ones which we popped in the microwave to finish cooking.

"We're never telling Sonny about this" she says hitting 30 seconds on the microwave.

"All those times you told me not to listen to Sonny about your skills in the kitchen.

Brenda makes an offended face and waves one of the burnt ones in the air, "I did not do this alone."

"You were supposed to tell me when to flip it."

"It went from white to black in a matter of three seconds, that was so not my fault, you were in front of it." the microwave beeps and Brenda takes out the plate.

"And you were talking."

"We're fighting again." she says shaking her head sitting down in the breakfast nook.

"More like bickering." I smile, I know what she means, we're back to normal or at least closer to it.

We divvy up the food, burnt one tossed to the side, we spilt an equal share of normal cooked and microwave cooked ones. She refuses to even think about taking all the good ones for herself and I can't help but make a mental comparison to Carly and think of how she would have more than happily accepted all the good ones and any fight she would have made otherwise would have all been for show.

She takes a bite and makes a face, "Maybe we should take some cooking classes before the baby comes."

"They can't be that bad"

"Try the microwaved ones" she says flipping hers to the side to reach a normal one.

The mix of mush and hardness is difficult to describe, but it kinda of makes me think this must be what Michael's paste tastes like, I grab the syrup and drown my pancakes in it, "Maybe you should check into those classes today" I say forcing myself to take another bite.

She laughs as she imitates my actions.

Hey for all of you still reading, thanks!