.i.

She woke to the midmorning sun shining beaming down warmly on her in the familiar master bedroom. Inhaling deeply she let out a happy sigh. There were a couple more minutes where she luxuriated in the warmth of the covers and starfished on the large bed. Through the sheer, billowing curtains she could see breakfast laid out on a table on the porch that led out from the bedroom. She sat up quickly, suddenly acutely aware of the rumbling in her stomach. Pausing only to pull on an oversized t-shirt that was on the floor, she made a beeline for the eggs and bacon. It was no long before half the heaping plate of food was devoured. At that point, Ben came up behind her with coffee in hand.

“Good morning, lazy butt!” He leant down and gave her a tender kiss on the lips. She smiled into the embrace.

“You like my butt.”

“I like you butt better when it doesn’t sleep half the day away.”

“What, it’s like 10 o’clock.”

“Twelve.”

“What ever. The day is still young.”

“I’ve been up since eight.” He shrugged, taking the seat across from her so his attention was split between watching her eat and admiring the picturesque view of the wooded glade spread out before them. “It gave me time to cook breakfast.”

“Mmm I could get used to this.” Agatha licked her fingers loudly before starting on the bowl of cut fruit applied with liberal amounts of whipped cream.

“I figured I’d spoil you since it’s one of the last real breakfasts you’ll have at home.”

She set down her fork and leveled a serious gaze at Ben, all the smiles faded from her demeanor.

“I’m coming back.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“We’ve talked about this already.”

“You’re going into the badlands. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You’ve seen the news. The ground’s still not stable, all the major cities have turned to anarchy with death and disease running rampant.”

“That’s what’s on the news. My sources tell me things are calming down as more people are getting out of there. That’s exactly why I’m doing this anyway. Besides, it’s not like I’ll be alone out there.”

He averted his eyes, instead focusing on the trees around him. These were the forests he’d grown up with. It had been something else convincing her to move out here with him. It was so far from ‘civilization’. It left him with a worrying hole in the pit of his stomach to see her go.

“Yes. I trust some beefcake military jocks to look after you.” He rolled his eyes.

“I can handle myself. This isn’t the first stupidly dangerous thing I’ve done.”

“Don’t go.”

“This could make my career. And then I wouldn’t have to work as much.”

“What ever.” Ben stood to head inside but she grabbed his arm.

“That was the deal. There’s no work out here for me. I wasn’t cut out to be a housewife.”

“I know.”

“Right.”