The Perfect Family

Chapter 16: Emilie

4 days later...

"Hey, its okay. Shhh.. Maddox, everything is going to be okay. Mama and Papa can still see you. Its not forever" I say, attempting to comfort a disstressed toddler at 3am, fearing that the others might wake up.

"What happened?" Jack asks as he emerges from the bathroom.

"Separation anxiety" I answer simply. We both knew this day would come. There is no hiding it from him.

"I'm sorry, bud. But mama and papa have to do this. We'll be back soon, and mama's right. We can see you every day. We can still read to you every night. Nothing is really going to be different" Jack attempts to assure him.

When he finally stops crying, Maddox looks back and forth between Jack and me, he appears to not believe us when we say that nothing is really changing. We then decide to show  him how it works.

"Em, can you grab the iPad?  Its on your side" Jack asks.

"Sure" I respond. As I do so, I grab my phone as well and turn on Skype.

"Watch this, buddy" Jack says as we attempt to call each other.

"See? You can do this with Riley" I say as he comes over and looks at my screen.

As we let Maddox analyze the unfamiiar form of communication, he begins to calm down and he eventually falls back to sleep with my phone in his hand.

"Finally" I sigh as I return from putting Maddox back to bed.

"At least we found the solution ahead of time" Jack responds.

Since we're up already, Jack and i see no point in falling back to sleep and checking that we have everything, so we just stay up and double check that we don't forget anything.

Two hours later, Kyson wakes up crying because he is wet. I pick him up out of the co-sleeper and begin to debate about changing him into his outfit of the day. But then I realize that it might be a little early. I'll just do it before we leave.

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"Jack, do you have everything?" I ask as Jack comes down with the last of the bags and I am fedding Kyson at 6:15am.

"1, 2, 3. Yeah, looks like it" Jack responds as he counts the bags.

"Great. Riley should be here soon. Traffic just looks brutal right now" I say.

"Hopefully we'll be able to avoid it" Jack jokes as we both realize the irony of the situation and laugh. New York is the city that never sleeps. The city that is always active.

At 7:00am, Riley arrives with her own bags.

"Hey" Emilie says as she hugs her and helps her with the bags.

"Hey, sorry I'm a little late" Riley says as she sets the bags down and takes a seat next to Kyson and resumes feeding him.

"Oh, that's okay. But we have to get going right now. Tell the others we'll see them when we can" Jack says as we rush out the door.

"Bye, baby" I say as I quickly kiss Maddox's chipmunk-like cheeks and follow Jack as he runs out the door.

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The flight to Vancouver brings out a lot of mixed emotions for Jack. He is overwhelmed and amazed at the fact that this is actually happening. We have been up in the air for a few hours, and he beginning to get a little nervous. Even though I am half asleep, I  can sense that Jack is a little disstressed.