New Beginning: Tortured by the Past, Haunted by the Future

The Next Morning: Chapter 29

The Stokers:

Amy reaches over for Mike and realizes that he isn't there, so she pushes the covers off of her and swings her long, lean legs off of the bed and plants them on the floor.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she stands up, sliding her feet into her slippers and heads down the hallway to the twin's room.

Looking in each their rooms, noticing that their beds are empty. So she heads downstairs, where she hears Mike talking to Katherine.

"Katherine, that's a good girl. You ate all your eggs and drank all your juice." Mike says to her as he takes her plate and cup off the table and puts them in the dishwasher. "Why don't you go watch TV with Charles but be quiet, mommy is still sleeping. She didn't have a very good night."

"Ok daddy." Katherine says climbing down from the chair and bumping into Amy on her way into the playroom. "Hi mommy. Daddy said you were sleeping."

"Hi sweetie. No I just woke up." Amy says bending down to hug her daughter. "Where's daddy?"

Katherine hugs her mother, than points to the kitchen before running off to the playroom to watch television with her brother.

Amy stands up and watches her race away before walking into the kitchen.

Mike is loading up the dishwasher when he sees Amy out of the corner of his eye.

"You know that frying pan doesn't go into the dishwasher because it will get ruined." Amy says walking towards him, taking the frying pan out of the dishwasher and starting to wash it.

Mike smiles at her and says, "I'll do that. Why don't you have some coffee and sit down. I just made a fresh pot."

Amy smiles, "You are too good to me. What did I ever do to deserve you?" She says, walking to the cabinet, grabbing a mug and going to the table to sit down and have some coffee.

Mike smiles, kisses her on the lips and says, "You deserve it Amy and I will do anything for you. I love you so much."

Amy begins to feel a little guilty but pushes those feelings to the side and says, " I love you Mike. Don't ever forget that." Pausing for a second before saying, "I'm going to give Tracie a call today and see how she's doing. Or maybe I'll stop by there instead on my way to see my editor." Amy says to Mike.

Mike nods his head, "I think that's a good idea. I didn't know you where going to see Jack today."

"I didn't know either until last night when I was checking my email. He says he has a story for me, so I'm going to go talk to him about it today. He mentioned it was about sex trafficking so I'll talk to him and find out all of the details." Amy tells him and than takes a sip of her black coffee. "Are you going to be able to handle the twins on your own?"

Mike laughs, "I'll be fine. I'll take them to the beach or maybe to SeaWorld. We will be fine."

"Michael, I don't think the beach would be a very good idea with twins but SeaWorld on the other hand, might be a good idea." She pauses, taking another sip of coffee. "Why don't you see if John would like to go with the girls'?" Amy suggests.

"That's not a bad idea. I'll give him a call in about an hour." Mike says to her.

Amy thinks to herself that she really needs to tell Mike everything about her childhood before he finds out that her brother contacted.

Mike looks at Amy and sees that look on her face, waiting for her to say something or anything to him about what is going on with her.

The Gages