Burn Me Away

It had been four days since their brief conversation about Craig in his upstairs hallway and four days since he offered to give her a set of ears to listen if she ever needed to talk about anything. She wanted badly to take him up on the offer. Something about him seemed to put her at ease and seemed to be a good listener. However, he was a terribly busy guy. He left early in the mornings and returned late in the evenings at the soonest after spending all day at the studio or doing interviews or whatever it was that he was being pressed to do for either band.

Finally there was a morning when they didn't wake up to find his bedroom door wide open, car keys gone, and an empty coffee mug on the counter. That also happened to be the morning that Maddie beat both of them to greet the morning sun. She tiptoed through the house in her footie pajamas softly. First, she walked downstairs for a little unsupervised exploration. Looking up at the pictures he had taped to the fridge and hanging on the walls she giggled. Creeping back up stairs she scanned both ends of the hallway with her little three year old eyes. Glancing, at the door her Mom always pointed out as Corey's she grinned when she saw that it was still shut. She scurried in that direction reaching up for his doorknob and stifled a squeal when it turned and unlatched. Poking her head in first, she looked around and saw him sprawled out on the bed with one leg hanging out from underneath his comforter and his mouth agape as he slept.

"Cowey?" She whispered but he didn't respond. "Cowey, wake up." She tugged at his long reddish hair. He merely batted her hand away in his sleep but never opened his eyes. She had one last resort. She pulled herself up on the bed and began to jump up and down singing his name over and over and over throwing in a "Wake up." occasionally.

"What in Judas fucking Priest?" He mumbled finally setting his head up as his tired eyes struggled to focus on the small child jumping on his mattress. "Maddie?"

"Cowey! You're up!" She squealed as she landed her last jump and flopped down to sit.

"Well, yeah, because you're jumping on my bed." He rubbed his eyes and looked at the alarm clock on his nightstand. "How long have you been up?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"You don't know how long you've been up?"

"I can'ts tell the time."

"Oh, well, okay. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Do you gotsa go work today?"

He sighed, "I guess not."

"I want you to make me breakfast. I hungry."

"Breakfast?" He moaned.

"And then I want you to play wif me."

"Why can't your Mom-"

"Pweeeaasseeee?" she asked cutting him off and poking out her bottom lip in a pout.

"Okay, Okay. Let me get dressed." He moved from his bed and into this bathroom shutting the door behind. When he emerged, he'd thrown on a t-shirt and some basketball shorts. "Ready?" He asked jutting his hand out for her to take. Instead, she flew to him and sat down on his foot wrapping her legs and arms tightly around his leg. "Uhh, what are you doing?"

"We goin' downstairs. silly. Let's go!"

He just shook his head and began the trip down the steps with her still attached to the bottom of his leg.

"You know you're a lot heavier than you look." He told her and she just laughed. He got to the kitchen and bent down to pick her up and set her on the barstool. "What do you want to eat?"

"Cookies!"

"Nice try. But you gotta get up pretttty early in the morning to trick me like that." She furrowed her brow. "How about Cap'N'Crunch?"

"Ewwww."

"Eww? What's wrong with you?"

"I want toast."

He nodded, "I think I can handle that."

"and eggs. and bacons."

His eyebrow arched, "You're pushing it."

"I just really hungwee, Cowey."

"All right." He gave in and pulled out the bread, eggs, and bacon to begin preparing her food.

Upstairs, Courtnee finally stirred and decided she'd wake up her daughter. When she opened the door and saw that the bed was empty, she immediately panicked.

"Maddie! Baby, where are you?" She called as she flew down the staircase stopping at the sound of giggling and dishes being clanged around in the kitchen. Turning the corner, her eyes grew wide when she saw the little girl at the bar watching him as he cooked. "There you are."

"Mommy! Cowey's making me breakfasts." She howled.

"You were still here? She didn't wake you up, did she?'"

He nodded and laughed as he fished the bacon out of the frying pan and put it on a plate. "It's okay. I needed to get up anyway."

"I went in his woom and jumped on da bed!"

"Maddie! You're never to do that again! You don't barge in someone's room. That's rude."

"It's really okay. Don't be too hard on her." He assured her and offered a dimpled smile. "You hungry? I can make you a plate."

"Umm. Sure." she nodded then turned to the refrigerator to pull out some orange juice.

"Mommy, Cowey's gonna play wif me today!"

"He is?" She nodded frantically. "Are you sure he doesn't have to go work today?"

"Yep! He said didn't hafta."

"Yeah, I think I'm just gonna sit around here for today." He confirmed.

"Oh, really?" She asked. "That's nice. You've been working hard the past few days since we've been here. I was wondering if you were ever going to give yourself a break."

"I don't know how much of a break I'll have. I think she's going to wear me out." He said smirking and glancing towards Maddie.