*Updated on February 26, 2015*
Dedicated to:
@fabnewtmas
@obsessive15
@Shatoo123
@arushigarg123
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Thomas" POV:
About an hour later, Tommy had woken up and was starting to jump around in his cot a little. Skylar had yet to wake up, so I figured I might as well get Tommy some breakfast and change him into his clothes. Luckily, I had been over here often enough to know where to find everything.
I carried Tommy down the stairs, and pulled out a couple boxes of cereal. After putting him in his high chair and putting some dry cereal on the tray, I got a bowl and milk for me. Tommy was mostly silent as he ate, except for the occasional shouts. Thankfully, I was used to them by now.
Ten minutes went by and Tommy and I had finished our breakfast. I let him out of his high chair to walk around while I put my dishes in the sink and put the milk back in the refrigerator.
Tommy began pulling on my jeans, trying to gain my attention.
I looked down at him, and he stretched his arms up toward me as he balled his hands into fists, and then stretched his fingers out repeatedly.
“Want me to pick you up?” I asked, raising my eyebrows slightly. Tommy nodded his head, keeping his arms up. “Alright. Want to go play with your toys?” I asked as I bent down to grab him. He nodded his head a second time, and I began walking back toward the stairs.
Once I arrived at the play room, I decided I should check on Skylar again. I set Tommy down and watched as he walked to his rug and plopped down in the middle with a car in each hand. After making sure he was settled, I went back to Skylar’s bedroom.
The door creaked a little as I slowly pushed it open. Skylar was still in bed, but due to the fact that her back was facing me, I wasn’t positive if she was asleep or not.
“Skylar?” I whispered, hoping to get a reply from her. All that I got was silence. I thought about walking to the other side of her bed just to be sure she was still asleep, but decided against it after a minute or so.
I returned to the play room to find Tommy with a book in his hands, turned toward me. I looked at the cover, and noticed what book he was holding. I remember it from my childhood. The famous Dr. Seuss’ “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”. Before I could say anything, the toddler walked over to me, and grabbed my hand from my side. He led me to the rug in the middle of the room, and pulled down to get me to sit. It wasn’t long before he let himself fall back onto my lap and began turning the pages of the old story. Once on the first page, he turned to look at me, waiting for me to read for him.
“Alright then. One fish two fish, red fish blue fish.” I decided to take the book into my own hands, and turned to page while Tommy admired the pictures.
“Black fish blue fish, old fish new fish. This one has a little star. This one has a little car. Say! What a lot of fish there are.” When I turned to the next page, Tommy began giggling and pointing at the illustration on the bottom left corner. There was a yellow fish with a red Mohawk.
“Does that fish look funny?” I asked him. He nodded his head and covered his still giggling mouth with his little hands.
“Yes. Some are red. And some are blue. Some are old. And some are new. Some are sad. And some are glad. And some are very, very bad. Why are they sad and glad and bad? I do not know. Go ask your dad.” I gripped the edge of the paper, and began to flip it over to continue the story, before Tommy stopped me. He put his finger on the last word of the page, and I realized what had caused him to do so.
“Daddy?” Tommy said in a questioning tone, turning his head to look me in the eyes.
“What? I’m not daddy.” I said, hoping he would let the subject go. Unfortunately he didn’t.
“Where’s daddy?”
I didn’t know what to say without raising more questions.
“Daddy’s away for a little while, but he’ll be back soon.” Luckily, he lost interest in the subject and turned the page to let me know that he wanted to keep reading.
“Some are thin. And some are fat. The fat one has a yellow hat.” The picture of the fat fish earned a few snickers from Tommy, therefore earning a few from me. The kid’s laugh was contagious, not to mention very adorable. His laugh would brighten the mood of any bad day.
“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere. Here are some who like to run. They run for fun in the hot, hot sun. Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! Oh my! What a lot of funny things go by.”
When we got to the next page, Tommy pointed to one of the strange animals and began repeating, “Ella-pent” over and over again.
“Close enough Tommy.” I laughed, as he turned to me with a grin on his face.
“Some have two feet and some have four. Some have six feet and some have more. Where do they come from? I can’t say. But I bet they have come a long, long way.” I had just barely finished the page when Tommy grabbed the book from me and closed it. Crawling out of my lap, he grunted with the effort and proceeded to put the book back in the basket.
“Hey! I wasn’t finished with that!” I laughed, rising from my spot on the rug. “What about the rest of it?” I asked. Tommy turned toward me with a smile on his face, and shook his head. He walked toward the toy shelves and stretched his arms up. Right. Snacks.
“Really? You’re hungry already?” I joked, striding over to retrieve the bag from the top of the shelves. As I let Tommy pick out his snacks and begin eating, I decided to check my phone. There was at least one text from each of the cast members, all wondering if Skylar was okay.
I quickly sent a group text to all of them, letting them know that Skylar was still asleep, and that she seemed fine. I looked back to Tommy, a bag of cheerios in his hands, sitting on the rug. I couldn’t help but think about what had happened earlier.
He thought I was his dad.
He has gone nearly two and a half years without his dad being here. It’s just him and his mum. What was he supposed to think? I mean, I suppose I have been over here quite often, but it still saddens me to think that he doesn’t know his own father. And, with the situation his dad’s in, the boy may never know his father.
I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for Skylar. She’s had to raise a child on her own, not knowing if her husband was even coming back in the end. Not just that, but as far as I can tell, she doesn’t have any relatives close by to help her through it all.
She’s alone.
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I had just put Tommy down for his nap, with some helpful instructions from Carli, when I checked the time on my phone. 2:20pm and Skylar was still in bed. I was beginning to get worried, and decided to text Kaya.
*ME: Hey, Skylar is still asleep. Should I be concerned?
After sending the text I quietly walked over to the side of Skylar’s bed. Her cheeks still had tear stains on them, and the slight frown remained. I studied her beautiful features for a few minutes, until my phone buzzed in my pants pocket.
*KAYA: She’s been asleep for nearly twelve hours! Of course you should be concerned! Nobody is that lazy, especially if they have a child to tend to!
As I read through the text over and over again, my worry grew deeper. Kaya was right. I hurriedly went to my phone’s contacts and scrolled down to Kaya’s name. I hit the “call” icon and stepped out into the hallway while I waited for her to answer.
“Thomas, what’s going on?” Kaya asked in a hushed whisper after answering my call.
“I don’t know what to do. Please come down here. You know her better than I do, I think you should be the one to wake her up and talk to her.” My voice came out a little shaky, and it was obvious that I was nervous. Not to mention neck-deep in worry.
“Hey, calm down. I’ll go ask Wes if it’s alright for me to leave. Just stay calm.” I hear muffled talking as Kaya discusses things with our director. About thirty seconds later Kaya puts the phone back to her ear. “Alright I’ll be over there in about twenty minutes. Why don’t you go ahead and wake Skylar up and let her know that I’m coming, because if she doesn’t want any company you’ll just have to deal with it on your own.
“Okay, fine. Just a minute.” I hold my phone to my chest as I reenter Skylar’s bedroom. I slowly make my way to the side of her bed, so that she is facing me. I gently shake her shoulder to try and wake her, but with no success. I try shaking a little harder, but get the same result.
My face goes pale and I begin saying Skylar’s name while shaking her shoulder, as my worry begins to drown me. Then the realization hits me, and my heart falls to the floor.
No.
With trembling hands, I bring my phone back to my ear.
“Kaya?” I say, my voice even more shaky than before, as tears threaten to fall from my eyes.
“Thomas, what’s wrong?” Kaya asks, and I hear her get into a car.
“She’s not breathing. Skylar’s not breathing.”
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- Jaws :)