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Soon, after pasting the 3-D door in her bedrooh piles of books,hardly a dent It was easier with Lani there And it was nice to spend the tis other than death and dying

Finding no luck after a day or two, Alex asked others to join them in the search Sah the traditional way, and Sky calad to have Lani take charge of the organizing He remained quiet, mostly, preoccupied with the pain that never left his side

In the evening, after the others left, Sky stayed with Alex The two sat shoulder to shoulder together on the museum floor, in silence for a while, until Alex couldn’t hold his thoughts any out

Sky listened And listened And listened All night long, until years’ worth of Alex’s private thoughts and feelings and actions were strewn out across the endless floor like the scattered piles of books Stories about his parents Stories about Meghan and her bravery And stories about Aaron and what life was like for them in their little dusty room in Quill that was now demolished, buried under tons of rubble

They talked, and dozed, and sorted, and talked, and dozed some more, until Lani returned to start a new day of work and shooed the to eat

And while Alex and Sky wolfed down a most delicious breakfast at the kitchen bar, Florence wandered in, saying over her shoulder, "Coet a snack"

Behind her, the twins toddled, laughing and trying to keep up with Florence’s long strides One wore purple, the other red When Florence noticed Alex and Sky, she grinned and picked up the girls, which h harder, and set the

Alex, nervous, sat back in his chair "Uh, hi there"

Florence pushed the girls toward Alex and guarded the edge to make sure they wouldn’t tumble off "These are your sisters As you can see, and as I’ quite well now after a few days of spoiling by the nurses"

Alex rin "They lookfine," he said "Nice Iabout babies"

"Carina and the nurses think they’re probably a little less than a year old"

"Oh," Alex said "That’sa good age" He didn’t really knohat to say

One of the twins leaned forward and stretched out her hand, trying to reach Alex’s face He backed up, and she took interest in his plate of food instead She grabbed a crust of toast and shoved it in her hed, but Alex looked at Florence in alarm "Is she--is that--?"

"She’s fine She just wants to share your snack"

"Okaaay" Alex frowned