#through adhd and sickness and sleep deprivation you too can write like you'll die if you don't—don't try this at home i don't recommend it

[allatariel]

Bill got up and retrieved something from his desk. “I think this gift from Tyrol’s deck crew might have had something to do with it,” he said as he returned to his seat, resuming his prior occupation massaging her foot after he handed her the item in question, a familiar family photo in an unfamiliar engraved frame.

This photo was special to her. It had been taken on their second wedding anniversary, within a week after Bill’s one thousandth Viper landing. Bill and Laura stood together before his old Viper Mark II, each holding a squirming year-old baby, J.J. in his arms and Edie in hers. In front of them stood Zak between Lee and Kara, the former with an arm around each of the latter, both proudly holding a helmet each, all broad grins and gangly, eight and ten year old limbs. It was the first day she had felt truly happy after her mother’s passing earlier in the year.

She had a framed print in her office at the Ministry of Education. Bill had also had an unframed print here in his quarters, that he had mentioned to her having mysteriously vanished sometime around her last visit.

“What a lovely gift. I wonder wherever in the world they found it?” She questioned in an exaggerated tone, knowing exactly when she’d handed it over to Specialist Prosna with the condition that they keep her involvement between them.

That earned her that familiar stern look again, the one that could halt the flow of excuses from a teenager’s mouth in mere seconds. And while she was focused on his piercing navy eyes, Bill casually tickled the sole of her foot. Laura promptly dissolved into a fit of giggles.