Brick by Brick

Part Three

Chapter Three

Sammy's weeks were pretty much all the same, moulded around the needs of a fourth month old baby. A few mother and baby groups, walks in the park and long lonely evenings in front of the TV. That pretty much summed up her life. And when she was waiting on news, on knowing what Joel had found out, waiting to know what was about to happen to her life...then it was the worst form of hell.

The spring weather hadn't been kind, and her usual late afternoon trip to the local shop for some provisions had ended with her having to run back from the park in a rush to beat the sudden downpour.

"April showers in March?" She half exclaimed, half questioned no one as she burst into the foyer of the apartment block that housed her home. Shaking her wet hair, she peeled the rain covers from the pram and smiled at Eleanor, as usual she was unfazed by the weather, wrapped up in her quilted snow suit she was fast asleep, warm and completely dry. Which was more than could be said for her, the mother.

As she moved towards the elevator in the corner, Sammy unzipped her soaked fleece and slipped her arms out of it, but the t-shirt she wore underneath was equally as wet. Groaning and fighting off the shiver, she was relieved when the doors to the lift opened and she pushed Eleanor into the carriage in front of her.

Just as she pressed the button for the tenth floor, a hand slipped between the closing doors, causing them to reopen. And she almost swallowed her tongue at the sight of Joel stood there.

"Hi." He offered awkwardly as he stepped into the contained space beside her.

She merely smiled, then watched as he repeated her act of pressing the number ten button.

"You find anything out?" She finally mustered as the illuminated red number in the car highlighted that they were climbing rapidly to her level.

Nodding he waited for her to exit the car, "can I come in? I won't be long."

"Of course."

She was still wet from the inclement weather, so once she'd opened the door to the apartment, she turned to him, "I just need to change."

He nodded, "do you trust me with Eleanor?" He nodded in the direction of the pram and she sighed with relief.

"Of course."

Rushing to her bedroom she stripped out of the t-shirt that she was mortified to see was almost transparent, and pulled on a thicker knit sweater. She was towel-drying her hair when she walked back in to the lounge and almost froze to the spot at what she saw. Joel, confidently carrying Eleanor around the room, was stopping at various pictures either wall mounted or sat on shelves, to point out 'her daddy', then he stopped at the window to point out the high roof top that represented the school they'd both gone to as teenagers. Her heart physically pained, those were the things Marcus should be pointing out to his daughter, but that would never happen.

As if sensing her, Joel turned around and looked a little embarrassed, "sorry, she woke, and I couldn't resist getting to know her."

It was such a lovely thing to say, such a sweet thing to apologise when he was actually helping her that she couldn't help but smile. "She likes you."

"You think?" He smiled down at the baby, then looked up to Sammy. "She's so like Marcus, eyes, smile...dimple...it must make things so hard. It must be difficult."

She shook her head, "she makes it easier to remember him, I still miss him, I still hate that he's not here for everything she does, her smiles, her laughs, the way she wriggles and giggles. But there's a certain smile that she gives me...and that's him. And I cry, but it's a happy tear, you know?"