The Morning arrived gently at the bakery.
Light slipped through the thin curtains upstairs, touched the wooden floor, and crept toward the bed where Pepper slept sprawled across Alex's chest like she owned him. The smell of sugar and warm dough had become part of their life. It lived in the walls now. In their clothes and in thier lives and they loved it because it was pleasant.
Alex woke before his eyes opened.
His hand moved by habit to his abdomen. His fingers traced the long, faint scar there. A slow breath left him. Two years, and he still greeted every morning by remembering the night he almost did not live to see it.... the day he did not live to see her..the little human laying on his chest.
Pepper stirred...She did not wake like other children. No stretching. No lazy blinking. Her eyes opened and she simply… stared and started Watching.
