Dark Days

For The Kids

©JRF2016

Darrick walks in the front door with his arm around Becky, more like he was holding her upright than a couple so deep in love they can't keep their hands off each other. He walks her over to the couch and helps her sit down as everyone looks on. Braylon and Sophia are toddling all over the living room as I take a seat next to Becky. "How are you doing?" I ask Becky but I already know the answer. Becky smiles at me and simply responds, "Fine." Her head was pounding. It was always throbbing here lately. It never went away and there was nothing that even alleviated it. Mason went outside with Gracie as the adults sit around in silence until Becky finally speaks. "Rachel," she says weakly, "Darrick tells me you've been tracking the days." I look at her a little confused and shake my head. "Can you tell me what the date is today?"

"I'm thinking it's somewhere around the end of October," I tell her, "Kind of hard to know the exact date though." I look up at Reid as he stands next to me with a hand on my shoulder. He squeezes a little as our eyes lock. "Why?" I ask when I finally looked back at her. Becky looks up and starts to speak when Mason runs back in and squeezes himself in between his parents. "Momma, you sure you're okay? Maybe we should take her back home." His concerned eyes drift from Becky to Darrick.

"I'm fine Mase. You need to be a kid and go have some fun." She smiles down at him before placing a light kiss on the top of the boy's head but he refuses to leave her side.

"Looks like a couple of someone's are ready for a nap," I say standing up and walking over to the twins who have sit down on the floor and are about to fall over. I scoop Braylon up. "I'll come with you." Becky offers as she stands on her shaky legs. Darrick and Mason both jump up to object, "I'm fine. I will be okay. If I get tired I'll rest. I'm sure Rachel will help me if I need it." I smile and nod as she walks up and picks up Sophia. When she walks back by her boys she rests a hand on Darrick's arm and gives him a reassuring smile.

I walk up the stairs, one arm wrapped around Braylon and the other around Becky, guiding her up as she cradles my daughter. Once we were in the room, alone and we had lay the sleeping babies down Becky begins to speak again. "Mason," she starts, "I worry about him growing up around all this." She pauses as she sits down on the bed. "This mess, there's not ever anything good happening in this messed up world, nothing to allow them to be happy, normal kids." I nod as she turns her head to look at my sleeping babies with a heavy heart. She has a point and I've been thinking about it a lot lately myself, even though Gracie seems to have adjusted and right now the twins are too young to know any different. They seem to be happy, normal kids, but for how long? Eventually they will have to grow up and learn how to survive in this world on their own. "Birthdays," she speaks again pulling my attention back to her, "Mason's is in October thirty-first."

"By my count Braylon and Sophia are close to a birthday too, their first," I stare at her, "I remember doing that, a birthday, for Gracie. Seems like ages ago now. I wanted to do something to bring some happiness, to make her feel like a normal kid too."

"So, you know where I'm coming from. You understand?" I nod to her with a growing smile on my face as well.

"I do," I say, "We should do it, for all of them. It'll be good for them."

Later that night as I follow Reid up to our room I ask him, "So how'd it go with Rose?" Reid looks back at me as he reaches the door. He sighs and then pulls me into his arms, hugging me tight. "She was angry," he tells me, "She was screaming at us. She said she wished she never met us, that she had never invited us in." That was most of it, the rest didn't matter. I then tell him about the plan that Becky and I had devised this morning. "Remember the look on Gracie's face when we gave her a birthday party," I say as I rest my head on Reid's chest, "They need something normal. They're just kids and they have to grow up way to fast in this new world. I know Sophia and Braylon are too young to remember anything but we should really do it again for Gracie, and for Mason with everything he is going through right now, he really needs this." Reid lays there stroking my hair as he listens to me. "I'll have to go on a run." Reid sits up and turns me to face him.