Oops - this is the right chapter! - sorry.
...
Marissa opened her eyes and stretched. She looked across the bed to Bianca. Her girlfriend's back was turned to her but she had a hunch they weren't alone.
She sat up slightly and peered over her girlfriend's slumbering form, to confirm her suspicions.
Yep, there was Miranda fast asleep, curled up against Bianca, her fist tightly grasping the front of her mother's nightgown. Marissa wasn't surprised… Bianca's eldest always seemed to end up in bed with her mommy no matter how determined she was to be brave and sleep alone in her own room. But at least when her mommy was there she could sleep.
Marissa got up, letting them both rest a while longer. Bianca needed the sleep almost as much as her daughter. Instead Marissa padded down the hallway to check on the other kids. She could hear the faint hum of early morning cartoons coming from the direction of AJ's room.
She found AJ and Gabby sat on cushions in the playroom watching 'My Little Pony'.
"Morning." said Marissa, peering around the door frame.
"Morning" said AJ, quickly turning off the television and beaming at his mother. But he didn't move from his seat on the floor.
Gabby however got up from her cushion and hurried forward for her morning squoosh.
"Have you been awake long?" Marissa asked; her question directed at AJ as she knelt down to give little Gabby a big hug.
"Not really." said AJ. "Gabby came in about ten minutes ago. She wanted to play with her doll-house."
Marissa pulled away from the cuddle to address the youngest Montgomery.
"Did you wake up AJ?"
Gabby nodded guiltily.
"M'anda wasn't in her room and I wanted to play!"
"So you'd thought you'd play with AJ instead."
Gabby's nod was much more enthusiastic this time.
"He's my big brother!" she said happily.
"Yes he is." said Marissa with a laugh, pulling her into another quick hug. "Well, what do you say we let Miranda and mommy rest a little longer and we three get dressed and go downstairs and make breakfast."
"Animal Pancakes?" Gabby asked eagerly.
"I don't see why not." said Marissa, "Although nothing too complicated this time... horses are hard."
Gabby hurried off towards her bedroom but Marissa paused when she noticed a little worry in AJ's expression as he watched her.
"Baby…"she began, but then she caught herself, "…Buddy, what's wrong?"
"Is Miranda going to be okay?" AJ asked.
Miranda knelt beside her son.
"With you looking after her I think she'll be fine."
AJ nodded, and then swallowed nervously.
"If daddy does win at the trial, I really won't have to live with him, will I?"
Marissa put a comforting hand on AJ's knee.
"That's right, you wouldn't even have to see him if you don't want to. I am your legal guardian, remember. And I will do whatever you want."
"Okay," said AJ nodding his head in understanding. "Um… mom, can I have a snake pancake?"
"We can but try." she said, with a happy smile. If AJ was asking about food that meant he was going to be okay.
Then Marissa remembered Gabby. She had better hurry after the little girl before she started calling out for help with getting dressed, waking her mommy in the process.
…
The pancake making had been a lot more involved this morning than usual. This was partly due to the great debate between Gabby and AJ of whether strawberry or chocolate chip ones were best. But as it turned out they had no chocolate chips left after the last batch of pancakes and there were only two strawberries left in the fridge, the kids had to settle with blueberry ones anyway.
The second problem was that Marissa let Gabby and AJ give her a hand with making the batter. This meant that by the end there was a lot of lumpy batter on the side, the floor, on clothes and in hair, but not much left in the bowl. So after mopping up the worst of it, Marissa was forced to quickly whip up a second batch of pancake mix which she poured the remains of the kid's mixture into as well - after passing it through a sieve. While the batter stood, Marissa then took the kids upstairs to get washed up and dressed for a second time this morning.
…
Gabby was tucking into her second bunny rabbit pancake and AJ was now tackling the elephant that had evolved from his mom's failed attempt at a snake, when Bianca and Miranda appeared in the kitchen.
"Good morning." said Marissa, briefly leaving the frying pan to steal a quick kiss from Bianca. "We thought we'd let you sleep in."
"Thank you." said Bianca. Once Miranda had crept into her bed it had actually been a restful night for both of them.
Miranda silently took her seat beside AJ.
"We're doing animals again, what do you want?" Marissa asked addressing her son's birthday-twin.
Miranda looked thoughtful for a moment, happy that a fuss wasn't being made of her spending yet another night in her mommy's bed.
"Can I have… um… a horse?"
Marissa laughed.
"Nothing like a challenge." she said with a laugh. She served her latest animal pancake onto AJ's plate… this time it was at least vaguely snake-like… although possibly it looked more like a worm.
"I don't know why you do this to yourself." said Bianca filling a glass of water from the bottle in the fridge. "They used to be perfectly happy just eating the round ones."
"Like I said, I like challenge." said Marissa carefully dribbling pancake mix into the hot pan until she had a fairly recognisable three legged animal shape that if you squinted could be a horse.
Bianca awkwardly carried her glass back to the table, manoeuvring on one crutch and dragging the other, and started setting up her bank of pill bottles.
"Aren't you supposed to do your exercises first?" asked Marissa, flipping Miranda's pancake with care, in fear that one of the legs could come off.
"We already did." said Bianca giving her eldest a wide smile.
"She did them all properly." said Miranda, sitting up her seat. "I made sure and did the counting!"
"We really did." said Bianca at Marissa's doubting frown. "Cross my heart."
Then Bianca noticed Gabby wearing a big pout.
"Mommy!" she moaned. "You said I could do the counting!"
"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry. I forgot. You can do the very first morning when we get back, okay?"
"Cross your heart?"
"Cross my heart." said Bianca motioning across her chest.
…
Marissa served up the last pancake to Miranda, the little girl happy that it looked much more like a horse than the last one.
Just then there was a knock on the back door.
Bianca had finished her own heart-shaped pancake and looked up surprised as Erica and Krystal came in together.
"Mom?" she gasped. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong." said Erica. "We have something we wanted you to see."
She pulled out the copy of the Inquirer the editor had sent them last night.
Bianca unfolded the paper but she quickly closed it again when the kids bent closer to look. She didn't want them seeing the pictures of Marissa's bullet wound or her own battered face that she'd caught a glimpse of. Especially not Miranda.
"Did you see the headline?" Erica asked, coming to stand behind her daughter's chair. "That's another blow to JR's lawyer coming into the trial."
Bianca nodded… anything that would help to keep JR away from Marissa and AJ was a good thing.
While Erica and Bianca were talking, Krystal slid up to stand beside her daughter. She handed her a brown envelope.
"We were also sent this. You might want to destroy it?"
"What is it?" Marissa asked peering into the top of the envelope.
"Everything the papers had on that video."
"Oh." said Marissa, quickly closing the envelope again and holding it tightly against her chest. That video had been the most hurtful thing JR had ever done to her; made worst by the fact that it affected Bianca as well.
"Thanks Krystal." she said giving her mother a grin. "You and Erica have been amazing through all this."
Krystal gave her daughter a strange look, but then continued.
"Well we aren't done yet. We're coming with you."
"You're coming to the trial?" asked Marissa.
"We have decided that we need to see this Carol woman face to face so we can tell her exactly what we think of her."
"I feel sorry for her." said Marissa, still smiling at her mom.
Then she caught Bianca trying to draw her attention.
"Have you told her the good news yet?" Bianca called over from the breakfast table.
"What good news?" Krystal asked.
Marissa suddenly felt guilty. She hadn't told her about her memories returning. She should have called her mom last night as soon as it happened; only now mom was also Krystal and their relationship had been very different - which made things a little strange.
AJ however was too excited to hold back.
"Mom has her memory back! She's her again!"
Marissa grinned awkwardly and tried to explain.
"It happened all of a sudden last night." She said. "I found the music box Bianca brought me and…"
She didn't get a chance to finish her tale as her mom drowned her out with a delighted cry and engulfed her with a happy hug.
"Sweetheart, that's amazing news!"
…