morning light
Who: Danny
Where: His apartment
When: Early morning
He hadn't slept well. Just moments of unconsciousness with flashes of dreams. Tears, he remembered tears from his dreams. Just as the sun started to come up he gave up on sleep. Rubbing his face, he slowly got up from his recliner. His back would ache from sleeping sitting up, but the lack of sleep would make the impending day harder than the backache. Stretching a little to shake off the sleep, he moved down the hall, headed towards his and Janey's bedroom.
The sound of soft breathing stopped him at the doorway of the guest room. Janey was fast asleep in the rocking chair she'd pulled up close to the bed. The chair itself had been a gift, something he'd found during one of her unsuccessful pregnancies. How could he not remember which pregnancy that was?
The girl, DG or whatever it was Janey had called her was curled tight under the pile of blankets. Her hair was matted against her head from sweat, but in the pale light she looked a little better. Even in the mounds of covers it was obvious how small she was. Danny's chest tightened a little but he wasn't sure why. It bothered him that this girl didn't have a home, it bothered him that his wife didn't have a child to care for, and it bothered him that he was feeling all of those things.
Leaning on the door frame, Danny rested his head against the wood as he watched his wife and the young girl sleep. This whole thing was ridiculous, but still he felt that pull, the pull to take care of both of them. He felt the same thing with Cheyenne, despite how she felt about him. He felt it with Ki even though she kept telling him not to. As weary as he was, Danny pushed it aside, knowing he had a full day ahead of him.
Moving away from the guest room and back towards the kitchen where he dug into the fridge for breakfast food as well as starting another pot of coffee. Cooking wasn't his specialty but he'd helped his mother enough to remember how to make eggs and bacon. Hopefully by the time his girls woke up, he'd have something edible for them to refuel with. He shook his head a little at that thought, at already thinking of the small girl as "his." Of course he had no claim to her, but now that she was under his roof he couldn't help but think of her that way. He stopped again, pressing his head against the cool metal of the refrigerator. After a moment to slow his breathing he leaned back opening the freezer and pulled out a bottle of vodka hidden in there and dumping some into an empty mug.
It was going to be a long day.