9:

Chris looked at his exhausted wife and thanked his lucky stars that she was sleeping. They had been home for three days and it seemed like she hadn’t slept at all. The babies had day and night reversed, and even worse, every night Lance had called him from a different bar. Zahra refused to pick him up, Justin and Sugar had the ringers turned off, JC wouldn’t answer the phone, and Joey was too busy feeling sorry for himself. So it fell to Chris to pick up his drunken friend at 3 AM and take him home.

He was starting to worry about Lance.

Joey was . . . well, Joey was Joey. He was miserable, but he was still Joey. Chris had faith that Joey would make it.

And what was up with JC? He’d been acting really weird lately, even before the inevitable breakup with Amanda.

Then there was Justin. Something was off there. It was like he didn’t think he was a real man anymore, and Katie spent her nights drinking with Lance.

Chris shook his head and tried to block out the thoughts. It was very rare that Alex and Alan slept at the same time. He was hoping he would be able to get a quick nap in. He stretched out beside Heather and closed his eyes. Not more than two minutes later a short, sharp cry summoned him to the nursery across the hall. Alan needed changing. Chris picked up his infant son and glanced across the hall into the shadows of the master bedroom. At least Heather was still sleeping. Alex woke up, and Chris changed her as well before retrieving two bottles of milk and sitting down in the rocking chair with a baby in each arm.

Heather opened her eyes and blinked into the dark room. She knew Chris wasn’t there. She also knew that it was after 2:30, which was a feeding time for the twins. She looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly 5 AM. "Might as well get up," she muttered. She stood and stretched before shrugging into her robe and padding into the nursery. She stopped in the doorway, a beautiful smile brought to her face by the sight before her. She crept back into the bedroom for the digital videocamera Chris had bought her right after they had found out she was pregnant.

When Heather returned, none of them had moved. Chris was sitting in the rocking chair, a baby in each arm. His head was resting on the back of the chair and his mouth was slightly open. Alan was sleeping peacefully for the moment (though she knew he would wake up soon) and Alex was calmly studying the stubble on her father’s chin. Heather taped them until Alex began to kick her tiny feet and Alan woke up crying, his little face all red and scrunched up.

 

It had to be true. Justin didn’t want to believe it, but there was no other explanation. Katie was avoiding him. She wouldn’t even sleep in the bedroom now. When this had first started, he had pretended he didn’t know, hoping it would just go away. But the truth haunted him.

He had first started to consider the possibility when he was released from the hospital. Then, with time, Sugar had changed towards him. She was no longer the same girl he had fallen in love with. In truth, he wondered if what they had was enough for her anymore. After all, she had left him once and though she said it was because she thought he deserved better and could never love her, he had to wonder . . .

Yes, that was it. He didn’t deserve her, of course. And now she must have realized that too and didn’t want him anymore. He couldn’t even walk on his own. She had gotten quiet, then taken to avoiding him and hitting the bars with Lance. She had been sleeping on the couch for the last three days. She was distant. Was she thinking of leaving him again?

 

Sugar stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She stood before the mirror, wiped the steam off with one hand, and studied her reflection critically. There were dark circles under her eyes. She hadn’t been sleeping very well lately. She was too worried. She didn’t know what drove her to go to JC, or even what happened. All she knew was that she went out drinking with Lance and she woke up almost naked on JC’s couch. She had grabbed her clothes, stepped over a naked JC, and run. She was glad he didn’t live far from the house she shared with Justin, and she considered it a miracle that no one was out at that time of the morning.

What happened that night? Well, it wasn’t hard to figure out <i>what,</i> but how had she ended up there in the first place? She had to have been really drunk. Of course the hangover she had suffered after she took the time to let that register attested to that anyway. She had never been that drunk before. Usually, she got a little buzzed and went home to Justin, wishing he would at least hold her.

Now she knew for a fact that all those months ago she had been right. Even though it was in his grief over her absence that Justin had wrecked that car, she had done the right thing. She didn’t deserve Justin. It would have been better if she had never come back. But she loved him. She realized then who the only person that could possibly understand her was. She dressed quickly, pulled her hair back, grabbed her coat and keys, and ran out to her car.

 

Justin watched her go and sighed, feeling the tears well up in his eyes. She hadn’t even said good-bye. Sugar always said good-bye. There was only one time she hadn’t. Remembering that and thinking it might be happening again, this time for good, Justin cried out in pain. He couldn’t hold that much grief inside him.

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