Like a thousand times before, Zac came into the house to find Gina sound asleep in a chair next to her oak table in the kitchen, her face plastered to its surface, a stray hand stretched out across it as if searching for another hand to hold. It amazed him that she refused to lock her doors at night, even after losing her husband. But of course, no one had come into her home and taken Taylor, killed him...it was everything outside these walls of Gina's that had been his undoing. He took in a deep, sharp breath to steady himself as he crept up behind her sleeping figure.

"Gina", he whispered, reaching his hand across her back to nudge her awake. As she stirred, he smiled and pulled up a chair in front of her. "Gina," he said jauntily, "I told you that if you were going to cook breakfast for me to just keep it simple...I don't want you exhausting yourself over Belgian waffles!"

Wiping her eyes, Gina mumbled a bemused "Hello". Zac stood and reached into the cupboard for a glass as Gina finished shaking all of her senses awake. "You didn't drive here in the rain, did you?" she asked, turning toward him.

"Nah." He said, taking a sip from the glass of orange juice he had made himself. "It's barely even drizzling now." He paused. "So how...uh, how are you, Gee?"

A weary sigh slipped through her smiling lips as she brushed her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. "I'm doing alright."

"Yeah? Pretty rough storm we had last night, huh?"

"Mhm..." Gina said distractedly as she began to make her way toward the fridge for her own glass of juice.

As she neared him, Zac turned to place a strong hand on Gina's shoulder. "I mean, it didn't drive me to hiding in my kitchen or anything like that, but...my kitchen has windows."

Turning to look at him with her sleep-dulled eyes, she saw that his were similarly dark and puffed. "Yeah." After another awkward pause, Gina continued. "Listen, Zac...I know I haven't been around the family much lately, and I don't mean to neglect anybody, I really don't, but...it's just been really, really hard, Zac. And I know it's been hard for you guys, too, so I...I just thought it would be better if I didn't come around all the time to remind everybody of...of what we lost." She took her seat at the table again, nervously running her hands over it, allowing the smooth texture to soothe her, numb her.

"Well that's not why I'm here...exactly." He said, following her down. He ran his hands through his dark blonde hair just as Gina stroked the table, the rhythm coaxing him into finishing what he had come to say. "We all miss you, Gina. But more than that...I miss Taylor. And sometimes it seems like, I don't know...it's like nobody else wants to admit it or talk about it. They don't even want to talk about him at all. I guess I just thought that if I came here, things would be different. You loved him...you're not afraid of him."

"No..." She shook her head solemnly. "I'm not."

Zac continued, "I just want to remember my brother, you know what I mean? I want to talk about old times with him, and you, and all of us together and just think about him smiling chasing us around in the yard with his face all sunburned and--"

"Zac." Her voice was calming, level and even as she moved the focus of her hands from the table to his rough, tan arms. "I understand."

His voice, now the voice of a strong, sturdy man, dropped down to a barely audible whipser that cracked as it stretched in and out of his normal vocal range. "I can't remember what his face was like on those days, Gina."

"I know...I know." Gina rose to cup his head in her arms, resting her chin on the top of it as she hugged him. Then, releasing him, she said, "How about we have some coffee first, and then we'll talk about it?"