Bobby woke a few hours later, still alone in the room. He got up, staggered a little, and woke up some more. He went looking for Alex, finding her asleep in Maggie's bed. She was laying on her side, back toward the door. He sat on the edge of the bed and rested his hand on her hip. Her breathing told him he'd woken her. He leaned in and spoke two words to her. "Forgive me?"

Slowly, she rolled at the waist onto her back, looking up at him. "I always do," she answered simply, but her tone was clipped and cool. She would forgive him, but she wasn't quite ready to do so just yet.

"I'm sorry," he reiterated. "I-I was wrong."

"I know you were," she answered, then rolled back onto her side.

When she made no move to continue talking or to get up and join him in their bed, he sighed softly. He leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her temple, then he left the room without saying any more and went downstairs. He poured himself a glass of whiskey and sat on the couch, turning on the television. He began to flip through the channels.

An hour later, Mike sat down on the couch by him. Neither of them spoke at first while Bobby nursed his third drink. Or maybe it was his fourth. He'd lost count. Bobby feigned interest in the television, which played a documentary on the gunfight at the OK Corral. Mike made no pretense about trying to watch the show; his attention was on his friend. Only a few minutes passed before Bobby quietly said, "I'm sorry."

Mike nodded. "Yeah, I know." He paused. "Did you really think pushing us away was the answer?"

"I thought...I thought I was doing the right thing. I guess I didn't really think it through. I kind of, uh, panicked."

Mike nodded. "Yeah, you kinda did. I have never been so pissed at you. Right now, you need the people closest to you. I mean, if anything happens to you, yeah, it's gonna hurt, but there's no way around that. Now is not the time to withdraw. I get what you were doing. Maybe Alex will understand when she calms down. But the kids? They wouldn't understand—not for a long time. The most important thing you can do right now is spend time with them. When you're gone, you want them to look back and remember what a great man you were. You don't want them looking back and seeing a void where you should've been. It'll hurt like hell for all of us when the time comes, and nothing's gonna change that, but what will make a difference is what they remember. They need to remember you, man, and not your absence."

Bobby scratched the back of his head and rubbed his neck. "Yeah," he agreed. "Uh, do you think she's gonna forgive me?"

"Of course she will. She always forgives you. That's what love is."

"But she's going to hold a grudge over this."

"She sure will. It's what she does. But she'll get over it. How quickly she does depends on you."

Bobby picked up his glass and drained it. He was restless and unsettled. "I don't know what to do," he murmured.

"First, you may want to go easy on the booze. She thinks your drinking is out of control."

"She does?"

"Yeah, well, she wasn't there the last time you fell apart. She has no idea how bad it can be. I don't think you want to show her, either."

Bobby looked at his glass and grunted. "I need...I need to go for a walk."

"It's three in the morning."

"And?"

"And it's cold as hell, still raining and windy and probably icy."

"So?"

"So—you're gonna get pneumonia. Even worse, I'm gonna get pneumonia because you don't need to be wandering out in the cold alone right now."

Bobby scoffed at Mike's prediction and stood up. "I need to think, and I think best if I'm moving."

"So why can't you move around in the house?"

"I'm feeling claustrophobic and I need to get out of the house. You don't have to come along. Go back to bed."

"'Back' infers I was there in the first place." He sighed. "Ah, screw it. I'd rather face the ice outside than the ice in here if Alex gets up and finds you gone and me not."

With a smile, Bobby teased, "You're afraid of my wife."

"Damn right I am, and if you had any sense, you'd be afraid of her, too."

"When have I ever had any sense?"

"Hmpf. True."

Bobby got up and walked to the front door with Mike a few paces behind him. They grabbed their jackets. Mike also pulled on a hat and gloves, and they went out the front door into the stormy night.

Alex woke early, just before seven. The house was still wrapped in a cold, rainy, windy storm that was coating the world around it in ice, and she was glad to be indoors. She was glad Bobby had come home, too. She felt better, ready to talk to her husband and forgive him for his stupidity. Part of her still slipped into an angry snit when she thought about it. How could he believe his best course of action was to drive her away, children and all? Didn't he realize the repercussions of his actions? Not only would she hate herself for letting him do it, once she realized what he had done, but the children would hate her as well. She didn't even want to think about how Maggie would react. The only time she had ever seen her sweet, beautiful daughter truly, violently angry was when she attacked Frank with her little crutch for hurting Bobby, oblivious to any potential risk to herself because she perceived her beloved daddy to be in peril. Maggie had always defended her father, always sought to explain him, because, remarkably, she understood him. She would never forgive her mother for letting him drive them away.

Surprised to find the couch empty, less surprised to find an empty glass tumbler on the coffee table, she grabbed the glass and carried it into the kitchen. Setting the coffee on to brew, she gave herself time to chase away her anger again. Beyond the anger, though, she felt compassion. The truth of his condition had to have come as a shock to him. When Bobby was overwhelmed, he seldom made smart decisions. She wondered when he would have come to his senses, if he ever did. Maybe he'd needed her and Mike to get angry with him the way they had in order for him to see reason. With Bobby, she never knew. As easily as he was able to slip in and out of the minds and motivations of others, he was able to remain closed off to reciprocation. Reading his mind and motivations was difficult, if not impossible for most people, even for those who knew him best. She and Mike had both been caught off guard by his attempt to drive them away.

Her anger gone, at least for the moment, she went in search of her husband. He wasn't in the family room, so she went upstairs and began checking the bedrooms, starting with theirs. He wasn't there, nor was he in Tommy's room or Harry's room. Mike's room was empty, too. She looked out the window at the driveway, but Mike's car was still there. After checking all the rooms and finding them empty, she began to worry. Where could he be?

She retrieved her phone and called his cell, but it rang in the living room. Dammit. So she did the next best thing and she called Mike.

Mike was still wet and unhappy. After walking in the storm for two hours, they found their way to the Wal-Mart on Cross Bay Boulevard. Mike spent the next two hours following Bobby around Wal-Mart. For the twentieth time, they meandered from the toy section, through the lingerie aisles and the kids clothes, over to electronics, auto, sporting goods and hardware. Bobby also liked the garden center, which was currently decorated for Halloween since few people needed fertilizer, hoses and vegetable seeds in October.

Bobby became more animated as he sobered, but he didn't say much. As they browsed through the Halloween section again, after mostly silence between them, Bobby suddenly asked, "Are you sure you forgive me?"

"Me? Yeah, I'm sure. I wouldn't have spent the past four hours wandering aimlessly around Ozone Park and Wal-Mart in an ice storm if I was mad at you. I'd be in bed asleep."

"What about Alex?"

"What about her? I haven't seen her since about ten last night."

"Do you think she's still mad? Are you sure she's gonna forgive me?"

Mike hated seeing him so uncertain, but Bobby had no real experience with love in a committed relationship. Sure he loved Denise, but his love for Alex was something he had never before experienced. His relationship with Denise had always been very different than his marriage. "My opinion hasn't changed since the last time you asked me. Alex has a huge capacity for graciously forgiving your stupidity. Can we go home now?"

"You never had to stay with me."

"Says you. I told you, I don't want to face her alone. She'll have me drawn and quartered if I leave you alone out in this weather."

Mike's phone rang before Bobby could reply and he fished it out of his pocket. Looking at the display screen, he wasn't surprised. "Guess who."

He answered the call as Bobby attempted to wander away. "Hello," he said as he followed his friend.

"Where are you?" Alex asked.

"Wandering around the Wal-Mart on Cross Bay Boulevard."

"Why?"

"Why not? What else is open at five in the morning? It beats wandering aimlessly around Queens in an ice storm."

"How is he?"

"Worried. Kinda moody."

"Drunk?"

"Not so much any more. Funny how two hours in the cold, rain and wind will sober a guy up."

"Will he talk to me?"

"Hold on." He smacked Bobby on the shoulder and held out the phone. "It's for you."

After a brief hesitation, Bobby took the phone. "Hi," he said.

"Hi, yourself. What are you doing out in this weather?"

"I needed to think, and everything was starting to close in on me in the house. I had to get out for awhile."

Alex realized it would have been a lot easier if she'd gotten up and moved into their bedroom with him when he woke her during the night rather than hanging on to her anger a little longer and remaining in Maggie's bed. He would have come back to bed with her instead of dragging Mike out into an ice storm. On some level, she knew that, yet she allowed her anger to remain.

"Come home," she said. "The kids are going to stay at Reggie's until the storm stops and the roads are cleared. We need to talk."

He hesitated. That could go either way for him.

"Bobby," she said softly. "You can't stay at Wal-Mart indefinitely. Come home."

The soft tone of her voice won him over. Maybe she had gotten over it. "Okay," he said.

"Do you want me to come to get you?"

"No. The roads are bad. We'll be home in a little while."

"Be careful. I'll see you soon."

He grunted and ended the call, handing the phone back to Mike. "Let's go," he said.

"Finally."

"She wants to talk to me."

"Do you blame her?"

"I guess not."

Mike followed him to the store's exit. The storm had gotten worse. They stepped out into the icy rain and wind, and Mike pulled his coat closer. "How did it get colder when the sun came up?" he muttered.

Without replying, Bobby hunkered against the wind and started for home.

Alex was waiting for them in the living room. She braced herself against the cold blast when they came into the house, then turned to look at them. She shook her head slowly. "Go get changed and warm up," she instructed. "Coffee's hot."

Mike shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks to the coffee. I've been up all night, so I'm gonna take a hot shower, call my wife and hit the sack."

"Thank you, Mike," Alex said sincerely.

He waved his hand and hung up his jacket. Then, after clapping Bobby on the shoulder, he went up the stairs.

Alex approached Bobby as he hung up his own jacket. He was cold, wet and shivering. His jacket had been inadequate protection against the cold and wind. "You should take a hot shower, too," she said. "You're going to get sick."

He looked at her, his warm dark eyes worried. She touched his cheek tenderly. "You big oaf," she whispered with deep affection.

"I'm sorry," he repeated to her. "I-I didn't know what else to do."

"Because talking to me about it never occurred to you."

"Uh, no."

She tugged on his shirt and he leaned down for a kiss. Then she slid her hand into his and led him toward the stairs. "When are you going to learn?" she muttered, giving his hand a squeeze.

She knew that he needed reassurance because that was normal for him when she was mad, a product of his difficult upbringing. But this time, she needed his reassurance just as much, and that was fairly new for her. Halfway up the stairs, she stopped and turned to him. He leaned against the wall as she slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. She didn't stop until another shiver assaulted his muscles. She pulled back a little. "Come on. We'll both take a hot shower and then I'll keep you warm in bed."

He grunted softly, pulled her against him and resumed their kiss. With a soft laugh, she pulled away, grabbed his hand again and continued up the stairs.