"I'm home!" I skip in through the back door, backpack swinging off one shoulder. My hair is dripping a little from the light drizzle of rain outside.

"Hey, little girl." John is at the kitchen table doing some kind of paperwork. He jumps up when he sees me and runs over to give me a hug. "How was school?"

"Okay. How was work?" My backpack is now abandoned on the floor.

"It was good. We got a new waitress today, named Abi. She's super sweet, but I don't think she's ever so much as strapped on an apron before today. She's a klutz like you."

Alex bursts in through the front door and crushes us both in a hug. "Hello, husband. Hello, mini-me!"

"I'm not mini-you. If anything, I'm taller than you now." I stretch onto my tiptoes.

"No you're not." Alex puts a hand on my head and squishes me back down.

"Yes, I am." I push against his hand.

John laughs. "No, you're not."

I jump into the air. "Yes I am, yes I am!"

My shoelace is untied, and I trip over it and fall on my butt. John pulls me up, grinning. "I've got dinner almost ready, and I just finished filling out the health insurance forms for this quarter." The oven beeps, and he turns. "There we go, it is ready!"

I walk over and grab plates and forks as John takes a tray out of the oven. Setting the table is my job- I'm not allowed to help John make dinner anymore since the Unfortunate Lasagna Incident of last month.

"Play ball!" Alex crows, then throws a napkin at me. I use a plate as a shield to block it, but it slips out of my fingertips and smashes on the floor.

John sighs. "I'll go get the broom. Kathryn, carefully pick up the big pieces and put them in the paper bag. Alex- just don't touch anything."

After a few minutes, we're all settled down at the table. We're having breakfast for dinner, so there are pancakes and bacon and eggs. Alex says grace, and then we dig in.

"That's a lot of syrup, Dad." I gesture to Alex's pancakes, which are drowning in maple syrup that he bought on our trip to Canada.

"I'll share with John." Alex takes a bite of pancake.

John does, indeed, dip a strip of pancake in Alex's syrup. "So, Lexi, how was work?"

"Oh, it was great. I finally got Jefferson and Madison to agree to meet with me about my plan. I think I've really swayed Washington, too."

"I got the date for my opening night of Cinderella!" I'm busy cutting my scrambled eggs into tiny pieces, because I like tiny food.

"When is it?" John addresses both of us.

"June sixth at seven," Alex and I respond simultaneously. We look at each other and laugh.

"I'm really excited to go to your opening, Kathryn." John smiles. "Hopefully, Alex, you can reschedule your meeting so we can both be there for her."

Alex looks a little sheepish. "I already rescheduled two debates and opted out of a crisis meeting for our Canada weekend and our New York trip. Unfortunately, I can't skip this. If I do, I'll never get this done."

"Please, Dad?" I wouldn't normally ask, but this is kind of important to me. My opening night is always a big deal, and this is the first one I'll have with them.

"I'm sorry, honey. I'll come for your Saturday show, but this is really important." Alex is pushing his food around on his plate.

I shove my own plate away. I'm not hungry anymore. John sees my expression and turns to Alex. "Alex, this is really important to her. Can't you take one day off?"

"I have to get this plan through Congress." Alex's fingers are clenched so tight around his fork that his knuckles are turning white.

"Is that all you care about?" John stands up. "It's all you've been talking about all month. No, 'Let's do family stuff!' No 'Hey babe, want to watch a movie?' All that matters to you anymore is your government plan."

Alex jumps up so fast, his chair shrieks across the floor. "John, you don't understand. I've been working on this for months!"

"So has our daughter! Let me remind you, we have one of those!" John clenches his fist.

I stare down at the table, focusing hard on the pattern in the wood. I don't like it when people involve me in fights. It used to happen a lot with one of my foster families, and every disagreement would turn into a shouting match about me.

"Let me remind you, I'm the one who makes most of the money in this house! You have fun at your diner, but I'm the one who's pulling all the weight of the family." Alex's eyes are shining, and he looks mad.

"The diner isn't just something I do for kicks, you know! I'm not making some piddly little amount, either. My job helps too!" John's face is getting a little red.

"I need the full support of this family! Politics isn't easy."

I want to scream at them to stop, to remind them that I'm still here, but my mouth won't open. Of all the times to keep it closed.

"Neither is parenting- something you would know if you tried it once in a while!" I've never seen John this angry before. He was always the more even-tempered dad, but now he's finally had it.

"I can't stop until I get this plan through Congress!" Alex is more volatile emotionally, but he doesn't get this angry either- not at John.

"Well, you can do it alone!" John opens the back door and storms out into the yard, slamming the door behind him.

"Daddy!" I jump up and run towards the door. I need to call him back into the house.

"Relax, Kathryn." Alex's face is flushed, but he manages a little smile. "Your father's just being histrionic. He'll be back in any minute. Sit down, finish your dinner, and then we'll see."

"I'm not hungry." The argument has sent my stomach churning, and now I just want to curl up into a ball.

"Neither am I." Alex eyes his plate of pancakes, gone cold now with the syrup congealing, almost mournfully. "Come on, let's read before you go to bed."

I trek upstairs to my room and grab A Great and Terrible Beauty from my nightstand. It's our latest bedtime story choice. I found it in our library, and Alex thought it looked interesting. The only thing I can think about right now is John.

Alex tries to text him, but John's phone chirps its little message noise from the counter. We start to read, trying to concentrate, but neither of our hearts are really in it. When Alex gets to, 'I wonder how many times each day she dies a little', his voice breaks and he starts to cry. That's all it takes to tip me over the edge, and I hug him, crying too.

"Let's see if he took his car," I suggest, wiping my eyes.

"Good idea. He sometimes walks into the woods at the edge of the property when he needs to think." Alex stands up and hugs me. "Go put your jacket on, Kathryn, it's a bit cold out still at night."

I shrug on my hoodie and then splash some cold water onto my face at the kitchen sink. Alex is still wearing his suit, so he takes my hand and we walk outside, holding flashlights. The rain is coming down much harder now, and there's thunder. Where there's thunder, there's surely lightning, so I grip onto Alex's hand much tighter. John's car is still in the driveway, and it's empty and locked.

"Look!" Alex gestures at a footprint beside ours, from Converse like mine, only much larger. There's a second one, a third, a whole bunch, leading through the mud towards the forest. The rain pouring down is beginning to erase them.

I turn my flashlight towards the thicket of trees. "Come on, Dad, before they get washed away."

We walk through the woods, calling out every few steps. The forest is kind of scary at night, and I'm glad to have Alex with me.

"Daddy? Are you out here?"

"John? I'm sorry."

"It's scary in here." My flashlight shakes a little.

"I know, honey." Alex squeezes my hand.

"Also, my sneakers are all wet."

"Aren't you glad I made you wear a jacket?"

A tree branch falls down on the path in front of us, and I scream, practically jumping onto Alex. It's probably just dead wood, but I really don't like lightning, and that's what makes tree branches fall.

We're pretty deep into the forest now, and still no sign of John. Any footprints that might have existed once are one hundred percent gone now. I'm cold and wet and terrified.

"John, baby, where are you?" Alex's voice sounds as desperate and panicked as I feel.

I hear something faint off the path, and put my arm in front of Alex. The sound comes again.

"Here..."

To say that Alex leaps into action would be an understatement. He goes running off the side of the path, and it's all I can do to keep him in my sights. I follow him down into the gorge and gasp at what I see.

John's leg is pinned under a huge fallen branch. He's dirty and soaking wet, and there's a little cut on his chin.

"Kathryn, come help me!" Alex is tugging on the branch, but it's not really a one-person job. I grab the other end and, together, we heave it off. John sits up, with some difficulty. He rubs his leg, then throws himself onto Alex for a hug.

"Oh, Lexi, I'm so, so sorry!" He starts to cry, in wet, messy sobs. "I shouldn't have- I stormed out and then- lightning made the branch fall- I love you so much."

Alex is crying, too. "I love you, too. I shouldn't have said what I said, either. Is your leg okay?"

John doesn't answer for a moment. He flexes his foot, bends his knee, and then nods. "I'm going to have quite a bruise tomorrow, but it's not broken."

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call Jefferson and reschedule. Family always comes first, no matter what." Alex reaches out and pulls me into the hug. John winces slightly when I accidentally kneel on his leg.

"Can we do this at home?" I wipe a lock of soaked hair out of my eyes. "It's cold and wet and dark out here."

John laughs, then slowly stands up, and the three of us begin the walk back towards home.