Halcyon

Rough Waters

Jack has had a tough day at work once again, he arrives home earlier than normal to a very quiet house, he realises that Nikki must have taken Poppy to the park after collecting her from school. He sighs and places his work bag down and walks into the lounge and looks around before walking to the sideboard and grabbing some paper and a pen from the cupboard. 
He had never felt like this before there was an overwhelming rush that he was letting Nikki and his daughters down, he just wanted the pain of what he was feeling to stop. 

He knew he hasn't been fair to Nikki at all recently he hasn't treated her the way he should be treating his wife to be, neither was he giving her the attention that she craved from him the most. 

Jack takes a deep breath as he sits himself down at the kitchen table with the pen and paper before him, he begins to write and looks down at his phone at his lock screen of Nikki with Poppy and Maddison. He sighs and flips his phone over so he can't see the photo of the three of them looking extremely happy. 

He explains to Nikki in this note that he feels helpless and that Nikki would be better off without him in her life, '... I've never stopped loving you Nikki, don't ever feel like this was your fault in any way, everything recently has pushed me to this point. Be Happy Nikki, be happy without me weighing you down, I've realised the only way to win is to not play... I love you Nikki, my Nikki with the two 'K's' and the heart above the 'I'...'  

Jack places his pen down and folds up the paper before standing up and opening the cupboard next to the refrigerator, as he does so he notices something standing out at the back of the cupboard which has clearly been hidden by Nikki in the past day. 
He pulls it forwards and reads the words 'Clear Blue Pregnancy testing kit' he holds his breath and then notices the box is untouched and may have been brought for the sake of it, anyway, there was no chance Nikki is pregnant at the moment due to their being literally no sexual activity between the pair. 

He grabs the paracetamol tub and sighs before sitting back down and emptying the tub onto the table and looking at them, he picks one up and looks at it closely before putting it in his mouth and sighing. 

Before he can do any more, he hears the front door click open and the sound of footsteps heading in. "Daddy! Daddy! I'm home!" Poppy shouts as she runs through to the lounge, Jack quickly gathers the paracetamol together and throws them in the bin before grabbing the note and shoving it in his back pocket. "Daddy!" Poppy smiles.

"Hey, kiddo!" Jack smiles as he wipes his cheek. 
Poppy skips over to him and wraps her arms around his legs, "I've missed you, Daddy," Poppy grins cheesily at her father. 

Jack smiles and places his hand on her head as he looks down at her with a smile, Soon Nikki walks into the kitchen and heads straight for the cupboard Jack has just been in, she rummages through the cupboard before turning to look at him, "Do we actually own any paracetamol in this house" She speaks. 

"What do you mean?" Jack asks as he looks her up and down and watches as she raises her hand to her head.
"I have a splitting headache and I feel sick" Nikki huffs.
"Have you eaten?" Jack asks trying to act like nothing ever happened just. 
"Yes... probably coming down with something" She huffs as she walks off and leaves Jack standing in the kitchen with Poppy. 

Jack lifts Poppy up and cuddles her tightly, "Thank you" He whispers as he pulls his daughter into a tight hug, Poppy just hugs Jack back and doesn't say a word to him as she doesn't understand why he said 'thank you' to her in the first place.