Morningstar Manor

Visiting hours were almost over. Bridget was going back to work on Monday after taking a week off, so she had stopped by a few hours earlier to spend some time with Phin.

"What else do you want me to bring the next time I come?" she asked, looking down at the little list she'd started writing before they'd been interrupted by a nurse who was checking on Phin's status.

The kids were coming in to visit Phin today. Phin was not happy about this, but it had been over a week since the last time they'd seen him. So Bridget put her foot down and said they had to come by. The kids had been prepped at home that their father wasn't in great shape and Bridget went to the hospital early to prep Phin. Neil would be coming not too long after that with Penny and Jeth in tow.

"It's going to be all right," Bridget assured, frowning down at Phin.

Phin was having a nightmare, caused by the effect the pain medication and constraints were having on his limbs, making them feel heavy and weighed down. He'd started gasping for air and the various heart and blood pressure monitors started going a little haywire and even set off a minor alarm on the heart monitor. He struggled to move but was weighed down by the neck brace, the harness his leg was in, the IV line in one arm, the heart monitor on his finger, the sling his arm was in and the blankets tucked around the rest of his lower half. Oh yeah, and he was constricted from the pain he was in too.

( Phin babbles, Bridget is still worried, yup that about wraps it up. Kinda unfinished for now. )

The doctor and various nurses were speaking quickly about Phin's condition and calling for other doctors as they ushered Phin into an empty room and started working on him, shining lights in his eyes and trying to get answers out of him as they worked around him. Grace kept Bridget in the hall with her even though there was a clear view through the room's windows. "Do you have anyone who can come and stay with you in the waiting room? Anyone at all you want me to call for you?" Grace asked Bridget.

( More Pandadrama. Phin goes in for operations and Bridget worries a lot. )

( Summary: Frustrated Phin keeps a crew on to work at night so he has something to do in his restlessness. There's a collapse at the site that traps Phin under a mountain of debris after sending him falling two stories. Phin's construction partner goes to retrieve Bridget since Phin's asking for her. Panda sappiness ensues. )

As soon as Phin and the kids were gone, Bridget marched over to the bar in the kitchen to grab her phone. Her younger brother Brad lived about forty-five minutes away, so she wanted to make sure he was actually home before she went storming over there.

( Currently unfinished, but the main gist is already here. )

The kids were bouncing all over the place. They were always like this when Phin was on his way over, and it still didn't stop being depressing. Bridget tried to distract and exhaust them with a game of crawling tag around the apartment, but as soon as there was a knock at the door, the twins forgot she existed and went dashing for it, shouting about their daddy.

Bridget sighed and moved to her feet to join them. "All right, all right, let me get through so I can actually open the door up." She double-checked through the peephole that the visitor was indeed Phin, and then turned the locks to open the door.

( Did he use the baseball bat? )

Phin had no idea why Bridget had finally agreed to meet with him and he was completely nervous about it. He would've rather met her at one of the apartments but he'd take what he could get. So he'd met her at the Rec center after hours and she'd led him to one of the basketball courts. He remembered when he used to actually coach one of the basketball teams here, which was how he'd met Bridget in the first place. He missed the coaching...and y'know, when Bridget actually liked him.

He fiddled with a basketball for a couple of minutes before he took a long shot from his spot and barely managed to make the shot. He turned toward Bridget and slipped his hands into his jean pockets as he looked at her. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to start or not. "So Neil and Layla are on the waiting list for the building?" He wondered if his confidence was ever going to return again when he was in her presence or if it was jut permanently wiped out from here on out regardless of what happened to them in the end.

Phin needed a blue print from the apartment in the Manor. That's what he'd called on Friday morning to tell Bridget anyway. Really, he just wanted to go over there to get a chance to talk to her. He'd agreed to come over after the kids were asleep, though, to avoid getting them all wound up and having them ask that he stay for dinner or bath time or bed time or all of those. That part had been rough to agree to, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He'd almost expected to get an angry call or voice mail from her after leaving that present for her on her birthday but he hadn't heard from her. Now, standing in the hallway facing the door to the apartment which held his family, he was zoning out.

He had already knocked on the door, loud enough to be heard but not enough to disturbed the kids since they were no doubt asleep by now. But now he was staring at the numbers on the door and thinking about how much he missed being near her. Her missed touching her, kissing her, hell he missed fighting with her in the sense that he knew he'd wind up sleeping on the couch for a night or two but eventually they'd figure it out. Now it was just him, alone in his shitty temporary apartment most nights except for when she let him have the kids for a night here or there. Carter was pissed at him because he kept clocking in overtime shifts. He had nothing else to do why not work? They received bonuses for being ahead of schedule and he knew that some of the workers were struggling financially so he figured it was a win-win situation. The bonuses and payments were starting to pile up in their joint bank account, and Phin figured it hadn't gone unnoticed to Bridget since she'd gone on a birthday buying spree. His mind was roaming through a random batch of memories from their first few months of dating as he continued to zone out.

Time for a work out before having to get ready for work. Andy gritted her teeth and turned up the speed on the tread mill to a slightly faster walk.

It hurt but it has to hurt to be good, right?

Phin was definitely sure that giving Bridget a present would backfire, but he wasn't going to skip her birthday. He didn't want her to chalk it up as another thing he'd forgotten. So he'd spent a week figuring out a good gift for her. He'd decided on a netbook and then had gotten one with all the bells and whistles. He'd remembered hearing her complain about carting her laptop around and he remembered Billie saying something about her complaining she was having trouble with it recently after Billie had been babysitting. So it seemed like an appropriate gift. Once he'd picked out the one he thought was the best, he'd gathered up accessories like a wireless mouse, a couple of jump drives that held about a dozen gigabytes each, a case, and a few other necessities.

After he'd gotten everything, he put it in a gift box and wrapped it up. He bought a card and wrote a short note. Billie said you were having trouble with your laptop and I know you hate lugging it around, so I thought this might be useful. I had them print a gift receipt if you hate it or just don't want it so you can bring it back. Whatever the case, Happy Birthday, Bridget. After he read what he'd written, he hesitated before signing his name with the word 'love' in front of it. He handed it over to the mail room clerk who nodded and started writing up a slip to put into the Panda's mailbox. Phin turned around and headed out of the Manor through the lobby. He missed te Panda apartment, and he missed his family more than that.

She hadn't done this in a while. She'd been busy first, with work and planning break-ins then after that disastrous night with Avery she hadn't felt much like it and now the new job kept her fairly busy, but today was Friday. Tomorrow Jazz had off, and she saw no reason why she couldn't spend some quality time in the gym.

She brought down some cds with her and before long quiet music was drifting down the hall as Jazz danced gracefully to the beat, working off bottled energy and the calories from the take out she'd indulged in.

The kids were with Phin for the weekend, so Bridget was left all alone. Two days and one night of freedom and she had no idea what to do with it. She was too agitated after seeing Phin to concentrate properly, anyway. Just hearing his voice made her want to punch something. So she finally settled on the most logical activity in her current state: going down to the gym and hitting the hell out of the punching bag. She'd imagined that thing looked like Phin for years.

Bathtime for the twins was always much easier when she had more support, but Bridget got used to doing it on her own even before she kicked Phin out of the apartment. It still took forever, though.

"Hey, no splashing," she reminded Penny with a cringe after some soapy water beaned her in the face. She dried her hand off on her leg and lifted it up to wipe off her face.

After leaving his voicemails for Bridget he stopped outside the apartment door. Then he knocked on it, waited a minute and knocked again. After one more minute, when there was no answer, he pulled out his key and unlocked the door. The fact that the chain lock wasn't on just solidified the fact that she wasn't there. And that meant the kids weren't here either. His shoulders slumped a little as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Then he headed into the living room and to the computer desk with the box he'd brought with him to pack up some things.

The whole thing was entirely depressing, especially with all the family pictures sitting all around the desk. Phin was completely lonely in his shittyass tiny apartment, hardly getting to see the kids at all. At least before he could go into their rooms and watch them sleep. Now he didn't even have that. He had phone calls and occasional visits that never felt long enough. He felt restless and the only thing he could do lately to occupy his time was stay at the Kobol site and work. They were almost five weeks ahead of schedule at this point. That was massive. Phin was lost in thought, so he didn't hear the door opening. He hadn't remembered to lock it behind him either. Whoops.

( Voicemail #1 )

( Voicemail #2 )

Bridget had two brothers, one older and one younger. The three of them all got along fairly well, but Bridget was undoubtedly closer to her older brother Neil. The two of them were more the thoughtful type while their younger brother Brad was more...not. So it stood to reason that Bridget turned to Neil during her current crisis. Thankfully he was around to take the time to do so.

She lucked out traffic-wise and ended up at Boston's Burgers early. It was a little restaurant a few blocks from the Square that the two of them had discovered when Bridget first moved to the City. There were TVs set up throughout the place usually set to whatever sports event was happening at the time. But the weather was pleasant and there was outdoor seating, so Bridget requested a table outside where the only entertainment was people-watching. She sat back in her seat and messed around with her cell phone as she waited for her brother to show up.

Bridget's mother wanted to come with her to drop off the kids, but Bridget knew it would be best for all involved if she did it alone. So she drove them over to Phin's new building and loaded them up in the double stroller. They were beyond excited at the prospect of seeing their dad, which just made Bridget all kinds of miserable. She managed to keep her voice light and happy as she talked to them during the elevator ride up, but it was exhausting.

When they finally got to the door, Phin could probably hear Jeth calling his name from the hallway. Bridget frowned as she stepped forward to knock.

Luckily, Phin had been unable to sleep on Wednesday night so he'd spent most of the night rearranging and cleaning his temporary home. Bridget was coming Thursday night to look at it and he wanted it as perfect as possible. He wasn't sure he would be able to handle it if he had to go another week or more to see the kids if she disapproved. He couldn't do this 'only talking to the kids on the phone' thing. It was driving him nuts and they kept asking when he was coming home, which made him have to lie to them constantly.

He'd been late getting home so he rushed though a shower. By the time he'd finished drying off and changing, he'd decided that if Bridget denied him to the chance to have the kids with him for the day, he was showing up at the Manor apartment. His name was on the lease. He was allowed to be there, damnit. He managed to finishing pulling a comb through his still wet hair as the knock came to the apartment door, since Phin had at least had the foresight to give Bridget the key code to get in the door downstairs.

He headed to the door, unhooked the chain, flipped the lock and pulled the door open as he took a deep breath. He pulled the door open and then promptly let out all the air he'd inhaled as his shoulders fell. It'd been awhile and he'd forgotten exactly how beautiful he'd always thought she was. So he wound up stupidly staring at her for a good minute or so before he managed to blink and clear his throat before he stepped back to let her in, forcing his eyes down to his shoes. This gave her a nice view of the small welt on the left side of his jaw by the back of it.

Phin was exhausted. He'd spent a few nights sleeping in his trailer before he'd found a small one bedroom apartment to rent temporarily. It was a far cry from their Manor apartment but at least it had a bed instead of a couch. He hadn't seen the kids since Thursday morning when he'd said goodbye. He'd talked to them on the phone once so far and he felt like shit. He hadn't really been sleeping either, for obvious reasons.

So Sunday morning, before noon but late enough that he knew everyone would be awake, he called the apartment phone. He held out little hope that Bridget would answer, if she was there. He was pretty sure she'd ignored some of the other calls he'd made when he'd wanted to talk to the kids, since obviously he new she wouldn't want to talk to him. So now he waited anxious while the phone rang, just so he could at least talk to the kids. He was planning on asking Bridget if he could pick them up or if she could drop them off, even for a few hours. He didn't want to be alone anymore and he wanted to see the kids when they were awake for once and not when he was saying goodbye to them.