Chapter 9

Bryan awoke with a start. It was still dark, but he could feel a small body wedged under his arm. Silver was still lying with her head on his chest, but the sound of snoring came from behind her somewhere.

He reached up and managed to get his fingers around Silver's phone. He flipped it over and slid it down the headboard toward him. With it firmly in his hand he touched the screen, lighting it. The clock said 4:35 AM. The light showed him that the child on his side was David. The snoring behind Silver sounded like Alex. He sat the phone down face down to cover the lit screen, snuggled Silver a bit closer and closed his eyes.

Silvers arms closed a bit tighter around him and she began whimpering under her breath. He reached up and caressed her cheek, causing the whimpering to cease. He brushed her neck under her ear with the back of his hand and after a moment her breathing got deeper and she moaned slightly under her breath.

"That's a better dream," he whispered. He couldn't see her expression but he was sure she wore a satisfied smile. He lay there, surrounded by sleeping family, wondering what to do next.

For reasons he could not actively pinpoint, he planned to call the school that morning and tell them that three of the kids had pinkeye. That should buy them at least a few days.

But what did it buy them time for? He wished he knew. There were two loads at the storage unit. He felt that he needed to retrieve them as soon as possible.

He wondered absent-mindedly if there was any point to try and talk Silver out of going to work. He knew she wouldn't stay home. She was a workaholic, and if he was going to be busy she would rather be busy as well. She was also incredibly hard-headed when it came to her safety and well being. He had dragged her many times to an emergency room because she had let something health-wise go too long.

"She's going to work armed then," he thought. He went through his mental checklist of firearms to send with her and settled on a Glock he had in his nightstand.

Silver stirred a bit, nuzzling his chest with her cheek. He ran the fingers of his free hand through her hair. "You poor sweet hard-headed thing you," he said. "You've gotta fall in love with the likes of me, and here you are."

"And here I am," she replied sleepily. "Happy, safe, and in love. I'm such a poor hard-headed thing." She yawned. "You should be nicer to me so I didn't have to say poor me."

He laughed. "Good morning beautiful."

"Mmmmmm," she replied, her smile apparent even in the darkness. "Can I keep you?"

"You'd better," he replied.

"I want to keep the kids home from school today," he said.

She said nothing for a moment. "I'm not sure why, but ok."

"I can't really tell you for sure either. I've just got a gut feeling."

She ran her fingers down his chest, tickling. "You wanna get rid of the kiddos for a little while?" she asked.

Without speaking Bryan gently shook David. "Hey dude. No school for you guys today."

David yawned. "No school? Why?"

"I think one of you has pinkeye." Bryan said. "You're all contagious."

"Oh," the boy said.

"Why don't you go back to your bed? You can sleep in if you want." The boy said nothing but got up and walked out the open French doors in the darkness. Silver was having a similar conversation with Alex, who shortly got up and traipsed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Alone in the darkness, Bryan and Silver clung together. She began kissing his neck, starting just below his ear and began kissing lower and lower until she disappeared beneath the blanket. She stopped at his midsection, using her lips in ways that were still deemed illegal in the Bible belt. After a moment she reappeared and lay down next to him, flat on her back. "Take me," she whispered. "I need you."

He rolled into position, his body responding to her arousal and invitation. He kissed down her chest, peeling the blankets back to expose her body to the open air. Her skin seemed to respond to the cool air, but he noted that it could have been arousal as well.

Kissing further down her body, he made his way to toward her center. She let out a deep sigh as if she had just been relieved of a large burden when his lips touched her. She stretched, relieving the tension from her still sleepy muscles, willing her senses to awaken. Her breathing began to get shorter and faster. Taking his cue he slid silently yet rapidly up her body.

Their bodies joined into one in a flash of intense fire. They kissed, lips meeting though his were still damp. He reached under her shoulder blades and gripped her shoulders, using them as leverage, holding himself tightly against her.

Their embrace broke as she cried out, followed by the spasms that followed. They both collapsed together in a heap, used up, satisfied, and happy.

She sighed peacefully and snuggled back on his chest.

"I needed that," she said. "That was ... wow."

"Yeah," he panted. "That was nice."

She shot him a look in the darkness. "Better be better than nice," she said with disdain.

"Oh it was," he said. "Just wait until tonight."

"Is that a threat?" she teased.

"That's a promise."

They lay there for a moment, letting their pulses and breathing slow to a reasonable level.

"I want to go to work today," she said. "I'm not sure why you are keeping the kids here, but I still want to go to work."

He said nothing, put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "I want you to take the pistol from the drawer," he said. "Just in case..."

She reached for her phone and eventually found it in the darkness where Bryan had moved it. "Ugh," she said. "Time to start another day..." She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him tight. "But honestly I don't want to be anywhere but right next to you."

"I agree," he said. "But I have a lot to get hauled here from the city before the sun sets."

"Ahhhhh," she groaned. "Fine ... Let's get up."

She rolled out of bed and walked across the room, walking through the open doors. A bit of light falling across the doorway from a glowing computer screen illuminated her naked form as she walked away. For a moment he considered following her to the shower to act upon the sudden rush of blood, but decided to instead save it for the evening when he could make good on his promise.

Instead he listed to the shower run for a minute and then got up himself. He turned on his bedside light, pulled the pillows off of the bed and straightened the blankets. He replaced the pillows and sprayed his chest and Silver's pillow with his cologne.

He wandered into the office, opened up his computer and started a routine which he ran every week. It would go out to the websites that he frequented and download them in their entirety, making a local backup on a hard drive in another part of the house. He wasn't due to update the sites until Sunday, but with the volatile nature of some of their content, he thought best to check them out and get current copies.

The sound of the shower turning off drew him away from the computer. He stalked silently into the dressing room and found her in her chair, working on her hair already. She gazed at him in the mirror and smiled.

"Did you think you would sneak up on me and scare me?"

"Actually," he said. "I was just trying to sneak up and cop a feel." He winked, smiling wickedly.

"You are such a perv..." she grinned, then muttered under her breath, " ... just one of the many reasons I love you."

He grinned. "I see we're in a good mood this morning," he chided. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"You were there," she said. "If you didn't notice, then we really need to talk."

"Well I will have to pay better attention next time," he said. "Let's have a redo and see if I notice this time." He grinned.

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Keep up that attitude and I'll just get a boyfriend that does notice."

"And lose this?" he turned around, shook his behind at her.

"Oh yeah," she said dryly. "I couldn't live without that..."

She looked into the mirror at the tired looking eyes. "You know here we are in the biggest financial disaster in our lifetime and you're shaking your booty at me..." she ran her fingers through her still damp hair, shaking it up a bit to get an idea of how to style it. "Do you take anything seriously?"

He stopped smiling, the resolve and worry showing in his expression for the first time. "I'm afraid to," he said quietly. "I would rather be able to laugh. It's a lot easier on the soul to laugh through a crisis than to cry through one." He paused reflectively, " ... not that I won't do that at some point, just trying to keep a positive spin going, if for nothing else than the kids' sakes."

She nodded reflectively. Looking in the mirror, she began to blow dry her hair. Bryan took the moment, free from conversation, to gather clothes for the day. He slipped his jeans on, was buttoning and zipping them when he caught her eye in the mirror. She was looking at him as she usually did, except that the mischievous grin was missing.

Her eyes darted back to what she was doing and she acted as though she had never raised her eyes to him. By his reckoning, her actions were a sign, and not a good one. It was a sign that he recognized from their earlier days together when money had been tight and she would sit and stew about where the next meal, next tank of gas, next light bill would come from.

She would look at him hopeful that he had the answers, then when noticed her eyes would dart away as if she hadn't looked at him at all. He knew what she was thinking. She had always had issues putting faith and trust in another human being, and though things had been tough, he had never let them fail. They had never missed a meal, had the electricity shut off, or been unable to go somewhere because they could afford no gasoline. There had been one year when Christmas for six children was very sparse, but in the end they did alright.