The car ride back to the hotel, Reese wasn't sure what to do with herself. She felt Tom beside her, his fingers interlaced with hers. He wouldn't stop staring and grinning, and she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, but she held off, breaking away to stare out the window. They didn't speak once until they were out of the car, through the lobby, and running, giggling up the hallway to their room like school children.

Tom fumbled with the keycard, and once they were in, Reese practically tackled him, grasping his face in her hands and searching needily for his lips. Once she found his mouth, she felt him tug her even closer, so they were pressed up against the door of the bathroom, making out like teenagers for the first time. Once Tom broke away, he moved to her neck, alternating between sucking and leaving featherlight kisses along her collarbone. She moved her hands lower, slipping them under his shirt, and visibly shivering as she felt the warm muscle graze her palms.

Tom was basically holding her up at that point, and without warning, picked her up and carried her to the bed, where laid her down, his arms on either side of his head. They broke apart momentarily, and Tom rested his forehead against hers, smiling widely.

"I'd say that more than makes up for last night," he chuckled, breath hot on her lips. Reese laughed and pulled him down again. Lips, teeth, tongue. She kissed him hungrily, and in every way she'd imagined before, his nose, the corners of his mouth, eyelids, while he worked at her neck. With one hand he tilted up her chin to kiss her jaw, and the other lightly grasped her chest. Reese groaned and arched her back towards him, feeling herself strain against the fabric of her dress, full and impatient in Tom's hand. She heard him laugh again, and pushed him back, struggling to tug his shirt off, and then he was on her again. Hot muscle against her body, she trembled as he slid a hand up her leg, stopping tantalizingly at the inside of her thigh.

"This is crazy," Reese whispered, searching her brain for something, any scrap of common sense to get her up and at least think the situation through. But her head was clouded with pleasure, and it weighed heavier as Tom's hand continued to rise, bunching her dress up around her hips.

"I know it is," Tom said, voice ragged. Shit, what had she been saying again?

He moved both hands up and began to fumble with the top of her dress. She arched her back more, bucking their hips together, and helped him tug it to her waist. Now her bra was the only thing between Tom and her, and the only thing she could think about was cursing herself for not wearing a cuter one. But then again, neither of them in a million years could've counted on ending the evening like it had.

Tom broke away from her face and chest and moved lower to finish off her dress. Soon, it was laying, discarded somewhere behind them, and Reese was left only in her underwear. Tom was frozen, staring at her, and she felt her face burn slightly. Did he not like what he saw? She most definitely wasn't a model, and God knows how many gorgeous women he's dated in the past-

"You're beautiful, Reese," he murmured against her skin, burying his face in her stomach. She stroked his hair and closed her eyes, fighting back a smile as her heartbeat slowed slightly. Tom started up again without warning, planting light kisses up her stomach, past her bellybutton, and stopped in between her breasts, which he grabbed, on in each hand, and Reese felt another overwhelming jolt of pleasure. Was it even possible for one person to make you feel like this?

"You drive me insane," she hissed into his hair. Tom responded by squeezing her left breast softly. Reese gasped.

Somewhere, beyond the fog settled determinedly over her brain, she heard her phone buzz. It stopped and Tom continued at her chest, beginning to reach around her unclasp her bra, and it started up again. They both sat up, disgruntled.

Brushing her hair back from her face, Reese reached over Tom to grab it and glanced at the screen. Lily. She felt her heart drop to her toes.

Swallowing, she scrambled off the bed and held it to her ear with shaking hands. She'd learned any call from a caretaker meant something bad, and some gut feeling in the pit of her stomach told her this time would be no different.

"Hello?" she answered quietly. Tom, instantly sensing something was wrong, crawled over and wrapped two arms around her waist, pulling her down onto his lap. Reese tried hard to ignore the warm fuzzy feeling she got from his bare chest on her back.

"Reese?" Lily's voice sounded panicked. Reese felt herself shake harder.

"Lily? What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

A pause.

"I.. er... think you should come home," Lily said quietly. Reese froze.

"W-what?" Then, the question she dreaded. "Is... dad okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. But..."

Reese couldn't bring herself to tell her to spit it out. She could barely speak around the lump that had formed in her throat. Tom rested his chin on her shoulder and stroked her arms soothingly, but she hardly felt him.

"But... what?" She heard her voice crack slightly.

"He's been..." Lily almost sounded like she'd been crying, or was on the verge of tears. "He's taken to calling me Reese."

    What?

When Reese didn't say anything, Lily continued. "I think he's just confused. You've been away, and his memory's not as sharp anymore, but he sometimes forgets you're not here... and... so he..." Lily trailed off and the silence stretched uncomfortably between them. "Anyway, I think you should come home," she finished awkwardly. "It's not a huge deal, and you'd only be leaving a few days early but-"

"I'll be right there," Reese said sternly, surprising herself. She hung up and let her phone drop beside them on the bed.

"What's wrong, Reese?" Tom asked, kissing her shoulder. "Is your dad...?"

Reese stood up abruptly, whipping around in search of her dress, which she found and slipped on quickly. "He's just... ah... a little sick. And missing me, and Lily thought it best that I came home a little early." She didn't know why exactly she was lying to him, but she knew for sure she couldn't bring herself to repeat what Lily had told her.

Tom watched her curiously as she tugged on her shoes, and only nodded. "Okay, you can take the train down."

Reese stopped to smile at him, walking over to pull him into a quick hug. "You won't be lonely?" she asked quietly, stroking his face. He smiled and shook his head.

"No, you should go. Your dad needs you. I'll be down in a few days once I'm done with work."

She gave him one last kiss and then was out the door with her bag. Out into the street, the cold air hardly fazing her. She hailed a taxi and was on her way to the train station, her trembling hands stuffed under her thighs, all the warm, pleasant feelings Tom had hung over her that night dissipating almost immediately.

***

A few hours and a taxi ride later (with not a second of rest under her belt), Reese was standing back outside her house. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to go in. It took her five minutes to force her feet from the sidewalk to the door, and all the strength she could muster to yank the door open. And then she was staring at her father, and she felt her blood go cold.

He looked old and hollow, sitting in his chair, bony arms resting beside him, his hair thin and gray. Lily was standing over him, her hand on his back, a sort of solemn acceptance resting on her face. Reese let her bag drop at her feet, eyes widening, but she couldn't move, not even a step. And she couldn't not stare. He looked... so old. So bewildered that she'd just walked in. So empty.

"...Dad?" she croaked, her voice barely there. But he heard her. Looked up. Wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion, then tilted his head up at Lily, as if to ask who is she? What is she doing here? Looking panicked, Lily just shook her head, glancing between Reese and her father, looking completely and utterly lost.

Reese wished to God Tom was here. She wished he'd kiss her and she'd melt into the floor and then her father would stop staring at her like that. Like she was a lost puppy who'd wandered in during a storm. Lost and confused. Just... lost.

And then she was running. The door was left swinging open behind her, and the sky was spitting and blowing it in her face, but she ran for the hills. Big and green and rolling, dull against the angry black clouds. She couldn't even make a noise, couldn't cry. The image of her old, decrepit father hunched over in his wood rocker pounded behind her eyes, pushing against the inside of her head until she felt it about to explode.

He didn't remember her.

Or at least... he'd been confused. And confused was enough. Confused meant her world was crashing down, tearing and ripping every memory she had of her father on the way. The farm house. The hot summer afternoon they'd spent painting it, Reese and Elliot and him, spattering the stuff before they went to work. She'd been covered in white specks and he'd taken her into the bathroom to wash her face. She must've been ten or so.

The rain was coming in sheets now, her nice, expensive dress soaked through, shoes lost somewhere on the way, but she couldn't muster up the energy to care. It didn't seem to matter now. The voices calling in the distance didn't matter. They were no more than black blobs on the darkening skyline, blurred by water.

And then Reese felt her legs give way and she splashed onto the soggy ground. Her teeth were chattering and her feet were numb and she was sobbing so hard her body was wracked with them. But there were no tears, just sounds, like a dying animal. She could hardly believe it was her they were coming from.

All the nerves, all the anxiety poured out of her then. All the what if's and questions and preparation for the day her father would no longer look at her and see his daughter. For years, she'd expected it, and now that it was happening it didn't feel real. Maybe she'd just imagined the horrified look on his face. His bushy eyebrows drawn up. The sudden understanding that passed over Lily's features as she watched them. Maybe it hadn't happened at all and she was out here sitting in a puddle for nothing.

She stayed like that for what felt like hours but must've been only a few minutes, until Lily appeared at her side, holding an umbrella over their heads. For once, she didn't smile. Offered no reassurance, just comfort. Reese could barely make out her face against the gloom, but she let her coax her up and into a dry jacket and slowly, they walked back to the house.

She let Lily go in first, trailing behind, heart about ready to beat out of her chest. But as she stepped in, she saw his chair was empty and breathed a sigh of relief. Even let Lily talk her into a shower before bed.

And then she sat, in an armchair in her bedroom, clothes still folded in her dresser, books stacked on her nightstand, her damp hair hanging curly just above her shoulders, dripping cold drops of water down her back. She gripped her phone in her hand but didn't yet turn it on.

Reese knew there was no way she'd be able to live here any longer. She knew as soon as she walked in the door and saw her father's vacant face staring up at her. He was a shell, no longer the strong man who raised her, battled forgetfulness like a warrior in black paint. He held his sword as a cane and now even that lay at his feet. He was defeated, and he accepted it. He'd accepted it a long time ago.

Her phone screen lit up and she looked down blankly, squinting against the brightness.

How's dad? It said.

Tom, sweet, kind Tom.

But she couldn't bring herself to answer. To explain. My father doesn't know who I am.

Instead, she wrote, He has a cold. If it gets worse we'll take him to the hospital.

She was consumed again by an angry wave of sadness and threw her phone, slipping into bed and pulling the covers over her head. It was about an hour before sleep found her, restless and desperate.

Lily didn't come to check on her in the morning, so Reese stayed in bed. She listened to the clinking of dishes in the sink, faint talking. She wasn't sure Lily sounded panicked or excited or both, but she couldn't bring herself to sit up and roll out of bed so she lay still.

The day wore on and Lily had begun to pace, up and down the living room. She did this for a good half an hour before the door banged open, and more voices entered. They were low and stern and set the hairs on Reese's arms straight up.

They conversed quietly, Lily's voice rising steadily by the second, until she was yelling, screaming at the top of your lungs.

"NO! You're wrong! You're all a bunch of idiots, the lot of you!"

The yelling turned to crying and Reese felt her hands begin to shake. Oh... God... no.

Had her father come home last night? She wasn't sure; she didn't know she could bear to look at him so she'd scurried away and didn't even think where he'd gone. To bed maybe?

But she knew as she pulled herself out of bed on wobbly legs and crept quietly around the corner to his room that she wouldn't find him there. She wouldn't find him anywhere in the house, and she was quite suddenly overwhelmed with grief.

She knew. Somehow she knew. He hadn't made it home last night. Wails rose up from the floorboards, and Reese trembled harder, sinking down slowly on her bed. All she could do was sit still and listen. If she tried hard enough, the crying almost sounded like laughing. Maybe Lily had just run across a funny joke...

But this didn't stop the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The pounding behind her eyes. She looked down at her shaking hands, blurred by the beginnings of tears and felt her mind go blank. There was no way he was...

By the time Lily and the men who followed her thundered up the stairs, Reese was already crying on her bed. She didn't turn as they entered, not sure she could handle looking into their faces, Lily's red, swollen eyes.

"Reese." Lily's voice cracked Reese felt another silent bout of sobs attack her.

Two burly men in black suits sat on either side of her, holding her arms and staring at her pitifully while they explained what happened to her father. Where they'd found him. How he'd wandered off after her as she ran away, got lost, fell, broke his-

Reese stood up suddenly, hands clasped behind her head. Her only thought was don't throw up don't throw up don't-

The men on her bed pretended not to watch her run off to the bathroom to empty her stomach. There she leaned for the next hour, crying convulsively over the toilet bowl until nothing of Tom's nice meal remained inside of her. She flushed, wiped her face and walked out again.

Thankfully, the men had left and Lily had gone back downstairs, leaving Reese to reduce her crying to short snivels. She stayed sprawled on her bed until she heard Lily on the stairs again. She appeared in the door frame but didn't step forward.

"I've called Tom," she said quietly, voice barely above a whisper. "He's on his way, taking the train down. He's asked me to make sure you're okay."

"How the fuck do you think I am?" Reese spat, suddenly very angry. Lily just bowed her head and went back downstairs.

Reese lay for another thirty minutes and her misery deflated slightly because of course her father wasn't dead. He was just sitting out on the porch, listening to the rain, or reading a book in the sunlit kitchen. He wasn't dead. Those men were mistaken and Lily was mistaken and Tom was coming down to see her.

This thought gave her enough strength to sit up. And she knew that if she were to go downstairs she'd see her father, and he'd smile at her with kind eyes and beckon her over. She knew because that's how it had always been and there was no reason for it to change now.