Morningstar Manor

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.

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.

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'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.

Bridget went back to work, but only to tell her boss that there was a family emergency and she had to leave. She picked up the kids from the daycare, much to their delight, and brought them home. She wouldn't have been able to concentrate at work so this was a wise decision.

She kept busy once she got home, changing into some lounging clothes and going overboard playing with the kids. She took them for a walk, she chased them around in the garden, she put together puzzles, and tickled them until they were totally exhausted. It would have been a nice afternoon if, in the back of her mind, Bridget wasn't thinking nonstop about what Phin may have -- probably -- did.

( More setup )

Early in their relationship Bridget used to stop by Phin's construction sites a lot for surprise lunches and fooling around and things like that. She liked seeing him in his work element and thought he could really wear the hell out of a hard hat. But since the kids were born, she'd stopped coming by so much. She didn't really know why. It just happened.

But on Wednesday afternoon she had the urge to see him, so she decided to forgo lunch with her work friends and stop by Phin's site. He'd given her some pleasant surprises lately, so she figured she should pay him back. Plus she wanted to see the job that was taking up so damn much of his free time, partly out of pure curiosity and partly to see if it really was the reason why he was never home anymore.

She parked on the side of the street and walked over to the site. She said hello to a few of the employees she recognized and found out Phin was in the trailer. She located it and picked up her step as she headed to the closed door, hoping he hadn't gotten his lunch yet. She opened the door right away and when she looked inside, she stopped in her tracks and arched her eyebrows.

Phin had worked on a Valentine's Day present since the week before the New Year. It was rather elaborate and with his shitty memory it had taken great effort to keep on top of it and still keep it secret. He'd managed to wrangle Billie into babysitting over night and on Valentine's Day no less. He'd woken Bridget up around eight-thirty after making pancakes for everyone for breakfast. The kids had given Bridget her Valentine's Day present - some very sappy ceramic hearts complete with one toddler hand print each with their name etched around the edge of the hear and the year and each painted by its respective toddler - and then he'd told her the plan. Part of the plan anyway. He'd gone to clean up and get the kids set up in the living room and left Bridget to pack for a two day, one night trip. He told her it was to New York City and they were leave at eleven to catch a 12:25pm flight to Newark.

After Billie showed up, they cabbed it to the airport to catch their flight. Less than an hour after take off they'd touched down, retrieved their bags and went outside, where a limo driver was waiting with a little card that had their last name printed on it. The limo drove them to the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. After checking in, they were shown to their room. Phin tipped the bellhop - were they still called bellhops? - after their luggage was left in the bedroom and he shut the door behind the guy. Then he turned around, rested his hands on his waist and arched his eyebrows.

"How am I doin' so far?" He asked

The Panda Super Bowl Twin Birthday celebration was in full swing. Both of Bridget's parents came down from New York to visit, as did her brother Brad (from a few towns over) and her brother Neil (and his girlfriend; they lived about twenty minutes away here in the City). On Phin's side of the family they had his dad, his brother Dante, and his sister Billie, and her boyfriend. Not to mention Phin's partner Carter and his wife.

So it was a full house at the Pandapartment. The game wasn't starting for another couple of hours, so the twins were getting plenty of attention from various family members who hardly got to see them.

Bridget had been running around for a while, making sure everyone was accommodated, but once things were settled she chilled out. She was sure that the beer she was pulling out of the refrigerator would help that out further.

The kids' birthday was coming up soon, on February second. The Pandigeashiks usually had a Super Bowl party with their families, so for the past two years they had been combining the two events to save everyone some trips. This year was no exception, and Bridget was currently deep into planning mode. There were still some things that needed to be taken care of, and she hoped to do that before the weekend hit. One of these things involved calling her husband during her lunch break.

She tapped her pen impatiently on her desk as she waited for him to (hopefully) pick up.

The week before Christmas, the twins had gotten their very own brand new toddler beds complete with bedrails that could be flipped up into position after the kids were asleep to keep them from rolling out of bed. It had taken a few days to get the kids used to them but they'd been learning how to climb out of their cribs already, which Penny was apt to do in the morning and Jeth at night so they'd figured beds were in order. Bridget had been the one who wanted them ordered by Christmas though. The kids seemed to like them and they even had little stools to help climb in and out of bed with.

That was a pre-Christmas, Christmas present apparently, but the kids didn't understand that. Anyway, after a long day, the kids were finally asleep in their new beds, it was past midnight and Phin and Bridget were wrapping presents. The previous Christmas had been a test run. The kids hadn't even been a year old and had been more into the boxes and wrapping paper then their presents. This year, Bridget had gone even more overboard with present buying. Phin wondered what their credit card statements were going to look like. They were spread out in the living room and hall, trying to be quiet and trying to keep an ear out for whether or not the kids were awake as they assembled and wrapped all kinds of toys from,Baseball tees, to a wagon, to a teeter totter, to chairs for their rooms, and tricycles, stuffed animals, choo-choo toys and soccer stuff for Jeth, baseball stuff and dolls for Penny, new clothes and pajamas, tables and chairs for both the kids rooms and lots of building-blocks and crazy electronic toys. It was a mad house. Oh and Bridget had also deemed that they needed bigger toy boxes too for all this stuff. Oy.

Phin yawned and stretched after finishing one box and moving on to the next. "...Next year can you get some of this pre-wrapped?" He asked as he peeled various messed up pieces of tape he'd discarded to his t-shirt while gathering scraps of cut wrapping paper and moved to throw that in one of the trash bags open on the floor for just suck things. It seemed like a never ending torrent of presents to wrap.

He stood up to stretch and grabbed his empty glass from nearby on the floor. "Do you want anything to drink?" He couldn't wait until the portion of the night when they got to eat the cookies left for Santa, definitely a highlight of the night.

The phone was ringing. And ringing. And ringing.

Bridget cracked her eyes open with a frown, the first thing she saw being the bottle of wine on her nightstand. The ringing wasn't coming from there. She turned over with a sigh and gave Phin a nudge.

"Answer yer phone," she mumbled. "Tell them to go away." Didn't whoever was calling know that this day was designated as Panda Sleep-In Day, the follow up to The Best Panda Night Since Either Of Them Could Remember Day? Come on.

((Placeholder to check things over.))

Grocery shopping had been delayed about three times due to Phin's work schedule, but finally on Sunday afternoon the Pandigaeshiks were able to go. Bridget would have made the trip herself, but she was no longer allowed to drive for fear she'd have another blackout.

So she wasn't in the best of moods as she and Phin and the kids finally navigated the aisles of the grocery store, but it wasn't like that was much different from usual.

"We need milk," she read off the list she held in one hand. She was holding Penny up with the other. "Can you go and get it?" She wondered if Phin was going to make her put Penny down while they parted ways.

Bridget had been right in the middle of making dinner when Phin had called to tell her that he was going to be home much later than he'd planned, and that she and the kids should eat without him. So much for that huge lasagna she'd been making, the one she'd been planning on preparing for the past few days. She even made the sauce from scratch! The two of them had argued on the phone for a few minutes -- seriously, he couldn't have called earlier to let her know? -- and eventually Bridget hung up on him out of frustration. She was tempted to ditch the food entirely and leave everything half-finished right where it was, but that would have been too much of a waste, even for an act of passive aggression.

( Finally finished! )

Bridget's priority on the day after Halloween was to hit up various stores in town to see what kinds of post-holiday clearance items she could pick up. But on this particular Saturday, she ran into a few problems on the way out. The elevator refused to take her to the garage, the stairwells seemed to be blocked off below the lobby, and the lobby doors themselves were locked.

After speaking with the security guard downstairs, Bridget headed back up to the sixth floor. Her forehead was firmly wrinkled as she re-entered the apartment and shut the door behind her.

"Phin?"

'Losing time'. That's what Ed Norton's character had called it in Primal Fear. He told Richard Gere's character that sometimes he just blacked out and did things without consciously realizing he was doing them. Of course that didn't really happen, but it seemed to be going on with Bridget.

Once she'd returned to the laundry room, she spent the rest of her time down there researching random blackouts instead of working on her writing. Her research continued even after she went back upstairs and helped Phin put the kids in bed. She got changed and propped herself up by some pillows in her own bed, set the computer on her lap, and continued looking. It seemed like random blackouts could happen as a result of all sorts of physical and mental issues, some easy to fix and others not so much. This wasn't helpful.

( Bridget tells Phin about her blackout moment. )