An uneventful evening, and the morning after

The rest of the evening went by extremely slowly, making it feel like the longest day in Jack's entire life. He'd never had so much spare time for as long as he was able to remember, while at the same time there wasn't a single thing he'd like to do with it. Instead he spent the time just wandering the house again, until it was time for bed, and even then he wasn't able to sleep very well because of his restless mind, or perhaps the unfamiliarity of being alone in his wide double bed.

Somehow he must have been able to fall asleep at least, but despite his troubled rest he still woke up early as always the next morning. After twenty years of going to work at the exact same time almost every morning it wasn't so easy to change one's habits over night, and thanks to his former wife he'd had a lot of days when sleep hadn't been one of his top priorities anyways.

Much to his surprise it seemed like his daughters were all awake, as he found them already gathered in the kitchen when he walked down the stairs. At least one of them always overslept, or claimed that their work or school was starting later on specific days, which generally meant that he was **** to wait for his turn in the bathroom just when he'd like to leave himself. Sometimes he didn't even have the time to brush his teeth, or get some decent clothes on, and if it wasn't for all the work and money involved he'd likely built an extra bathroom in the house several years ago.

It would've been a better investment than the pool, that's a thing he knew for sure...

This morning the girls were already making breakfast for themselves however, and even seemed to have brought in the morning papers, which was extremely rare at the best of days. Their sudden helpfulness only made Jack grow increasingly suspicious of their ulterior motives however, as it was difficult for him to believe that they'd finally come to some kind of insight regarding their mother's abrupt departure.

"Ohiyo, dad..." Jennie greeted him in a sleepy voice from the other side of the kitchen table, as she happened to be the first one to notice him watching them from the doorway. Some of the kids her age and below would probably find her lame attempts at learning Japanese from various animated shows to be cute in some way, but to Jack it mostly just made her sound even more retarded than she actually was.

He simply pretended like he'd barely heard her though, and just gritted his teeth as he entered to be greeted by the others in the room as well. Kim was of course the more energetic one of the bunch, while Kate was surprisingly close at a second place, on the contrary from her usual habits to be the last one out of her room.

"'Morning." Jack grunted in return, while he still couldn't help from being annoyed about their uncharacteristic behavior, and it really didn't get much better when his oldest daughter served him a delicious looking breakfast, without even asking if he'd like one. Again he wouldn't dare to think too much about it though, but instead accepted the offer without keeping his hopes too high, and was allowed to eat in silence while the girls chatted with each other like there was nothing of importance going on in their lives at all.

They still behaved very much like they always had, with the slight exception of this unusual liveliness in the morning, which he felt was almost like adding insult to injury at a time like this. In the same way he couldn't help from noting that they were all dressed to compensate for a warm day outside, and he found himself glancing them over more than once during their time together in the kitchen.

Especially Catherine, who'd always liked to test the limits of his patience, and just for today she was wearing a skirt which looked like it was several numbers too small for a girl her size. Even Jennifer seemed to be following this trend for once, as she'd put on a fairly breezy top instead of one of her normal shirts, while Kim had opted for something that others would only have taken to the track and field at school.

Eventually they all headed off to get themselves ready for their respective work or classes though, and some half an hour later Jack found himself all alone in the suddenly very quiet and empty house. This, more than anything, was something he felt would be difficult to get used to, as he couldn't even remember the last time he had his entire home to himself.

At the one hand it felt like a nice change for once, but on the other he wasn't really sure of how to enjoy this unexpected amount of freedom on his hands...