sorry about the short length, but this is an important chapter anyway :)

All things considered, lunch was actually a success. You do feel a little better, and you were right: it is nice being able to treat Kristoff. It was actually a nice place, too, with steak knives and breadsticks as part of the appetiser. Kristoff buys you a slice of chocolate cake afterwards (ignoring your claims of 'breaking your diet'), and you hold on tight when he leans down to give you a hug. Even with Elsa's… attitude… it's still been one of the best birthdays you've had, since the accident. The first one you haven't felt lost and alone.

Elsa isn't there when you return to the office, and you try not to feel angry. Olaf gives you the afternoon off, anyway, so you end up making your money doing fuck-all for the rest of the day. He even gives you a lift to the train station when it begins to rain; he would have taken you home, but it's far too out of the way. You don't want to inconvenience anyone.

Joan is excited to see you when you go home, and if nothing else, that makes you smile. The little cat, with its dappled hair and missing tail, mewls as your feet, and you smile. She sits on your lap as your roll to the kitchen, preparing her dinner. You aren't that hungry, still full from lunch, so you decide to just have a shower and go to bed.

One of the benefits of living alone, you think as you heat up the water, is that you don't have to close doors. It would be far more difficult getting from your chair to the shower if you had no room to do it.

You sit beneath the water, letting it wash over you. You don't like staying in here too long; gives you too much time to look at your useless legs and remember. Remembering is bad, and it brings you nothing but sour thoughts and pain. And today is not a good day for this.

Just before you go to sleep, washed and dry and swaddled in a blanket and your favourite pyjamas, you turn to the picture on your bedside table.

"Night, Mom," you whisper, pressing first your fingertips to the people in there, and then your lips. "Night, Dad. I love you…"