Audrey and Niall (this is background):
There was a time when her parents loved each other, Audrey was sure of it. She remembered the days when her mother's hair was effortlessly curled, her eyes bright with joy and love, hands gentle when she picked her daughter up just to balance her on her hip, or when the little girl grasped onto her mother's hand, holding it tight as they rode the elevator up to her father's office.
Those were her favorite days when she visited her father in his office. His face would light up when she came barreling towards him, his arms open wide as he bent down to sweep her up and around in the air as her mother watched, happy smile on her face.
Sometimes they would work together. Her mother sat on the couch and shuffled through papers while Audrey sat on her father's lap while he typed away at his keyboard, pausing every now and then to nudge her softly, making sure she was still awake. She would often doze off to the sound of him tapping at his keyboard, or if he was talking on the phone, just listening to his voice and feeling his chest rumble against her made her eyes droop, arms curling around his side, cheek pressed against his button-up shirt.
She wasn't a kid who needed to be running around to be happy. She seemed to understand the concept of just being with people. She was quiet most of the time, her loud giggles coming at the appropriate times- usually during lunch when she and her father would play with their food. Airplanes, kites- she especially liked the trains.
Trains were special to her because after her mother would leave the office, usually when she was sure Audrey was asleep in his lap when the day was done father and daughter would walk hand in hand down to the subway station- not the same as a train but pretty close. They went on trains, too.
Those were weekend trips, usually Sundays.
She spent Saturdays with her mother while her father was working upstairs and then Sunday morning while her mother slept in the two would head to the train station, no particular place in mind, unless she had a request- then he would do his best to research beforehand.
Depending on the place they could do a number of things. The museum, a garden, a pastry shop, a sports store, she did always like going to the pet shop in the mall. He always found it fascinating how she was drawn to the boys section in the department stores. She didn't want anything to do with the color pink, not to mention flowers or kittens. She liked to get dirty, she liked trains and cars. She liked baseball. She liked dogs.
They did a good amount of talking on their trips, too. She would tell and ask him all sorts of things, like where do words come from, and trees, how did trees get here?
"Why are there so many? Why do some have fruit? Why do some smell bad but still look pretty?" She'd tell him about her dreams, and about how she kept a dream journal. She'd tell him about how she beat the boys at school at dodgeball and could do more flips on the monkey bars than anyone.
And when the end of the day came sometimes he'd look down to find her attached to his leg. Or her fingers would slip from his hand because she was falling asleep. More often than not he would end up with Audrey in his arms, her cheek against his shoulder, her nose pressed against his neck, sound asleep. He could hold her with one hand while the other held the days findings, whether it be a souvenir or a new pair of high-tops, or crazy socks.
Once home he would set the bag on the counter for them to go through the next day at the office and then he would make the climb up the stairs and to her room, gently waking her because
"time to clean your teeth kiddo" which basically meant that he did all the work, then he'd get her changed into her pjs and tuck her in. Sometimes if she was awake enough she'd ask for a story, but she was usually out before he even pulled the covers back, little body sprawled out on top of the spread, making him work twice as hard to pick her up and move her to tuck her in.
"Sweet dreams, Audrey rose."
