Amazing

Garret didn’t move or respond to Maggie when she came to tell him goodbye. He heard her, he just… couldn’t. The words, “I love you,” went straight to his heart though. But instead of enjoying it, all he could think was here was this young woman who hardly knew him, who couldn’t even function on her own in life without help, and even she cared about him more than his own parents had.

The sound of the door closing signaled he was alone again, and he felt the stuffed animal at his back. Bringing it around so he could see it, his fingers ran through the fuzzy softness. Such a strong trigger went off in his mind, he had absolutely no warning that the tears were going to start again. Pulling the bunny in close, he just held it like he’d held his teddy bear all those years ago…like he’d wanted to and cried for when he’d had nothing to comfort him at night.


With Nate and Maggie now gone, Laura decided to get some laundry done. She knew Garret had some she could wash as well, and quietly approached the bedroom door. Before knocking though, her ears picked up the softest sound of muffled sobs that simply broke her heart. There was no deadly assassin here today. There was just a little boy who had never been allowed to grieve. She was no psychologist, but if she had to guess, she’d probably say that as a child, Garret had not ever been allowed to express his fear and sadness over losing his parents – it was the Agency after all. Without that, though, the pain never went away or was faced or worked through. It had just been buried under a whole lot more junk the Agency had piled on. Until now. Maybe Justin had behaved inappropriately, but perhaps good would come from this after all.

Wiping away her own tear, Laura turned to go gather some different laundry. She’d come back in a while when she thought Garret was sleeping so she wouldn’t bother him…

Most of the day was similar. Laura left him some lunch, but again it went untouched. He was drinking water, thankfully, but that was it, and he still hadn’t spoken one word to her. Keeping in touch with Nate, she assured him she was fine, and he didn’t need to rush home. She was worried about Garret but as long as he was hibernating, being here alone with him wasn’t really an issue. This evening, she’d fix supper as usual, and they’d all just function normally until Garret was ready to join them again.


The evening air was just a bit chilly, requiring a jacket, but it wasn’t bad. Nothing could ruin this anyway, even a snowstorm. Chance walked up the steps to the front door and rang the doorbell. He adjusted the bouquet of flowers to make sure they all looked right, then waited. He hadn’t told Destiny he was coming home – he hadn’t had any contact with her in weeks, and it was driving him mad. Things had been going pretty well between them though, so he hoped his surprise presence would be a good thing.


Turning quickly at Adison’s comment, Kirk’s face was just inches from her. There hadn’t been as much teasing in her voice as he’d expected with that last statement, and for some reason it struck him just a little differently tonight. “You’re…pretty amazing yourself,” he responded softly. His eyes roamed her cheeks…her eyes…her lips…back up to her eyes. Had he leaned in closer? What was he thinking? Closing the gap, he placed a loud kiss on her cheek, “Mwah!” and slid off the counter, stuffing the last bite of cookie in his mouth. “Hark!” He held a hand to his ear. “I hear the final scene of the movie. Last one to the couch has to do the dishes!”