(Untitled)

[ooh_lily]

Lily Strombeck had never been great at mornings. Back home in Long Bay, sometimes, she'd had to go out early, before the sun was even up, for work, and she'd always been slow to wake, but she'd managed it. Now, on the island, she ran mostly on Emmy-time. Whenever Emmy came squirming into bed with them, that was time to wake up

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[single_digit]

Eddie didn't notice anything was amiss at all at first, because it was Lily, and Lily was familiar no matter what. But as he gradually started to wake up he started to twig that something was different from when they'd gone to sleep.

"Hmm, Lily?" he said groggily, without opening his eyes.

[ooh_lily]

Lily made a soft, protesting noise and pressed her face into Eddie's chest, tucking her hand under his arm.

"It's early yet," she muttered. "Em's not even awake yet."

[single_digit]

"Lily?" he said again, that familiarity-unfamiliarity nagging at him. "Lill, is everything okay?"

[ooh_lily]

Lily finally half sat up, her hair hanging in her eyes as she looked down at her husband.

"Eddie, it's first thing in the morning. What could possibly be wrong?"

[single_digit]

Famous last words and all.

Eddie opened his eyes and knew right then and there exactly what could possibly be wrong first thing in the morning. Or maybe not wrong, but... changed.

"Lily?" he said uncertainly. "Maybe you should, uh, look at yourself."

[ooh_lily]

Lily arched an eyebrow and stifled a yawn, before swinging her bare legs out of bed and heading for the mirror propped up on a nail on the bedroom wall.

When she screeched and knocked the mirror off the nail on the wall, at least it bounced without breaking.

"Eddie! I'm..."

[single_digit]

"You're you," said Eddie immediately, fairly certain she needed to hear that from him. "You're just you from... before. What about me? Am I... different?"

[ooh_lily]

"I'm...how old am I?" said Lily, twisting her fingers in long spirals of tawny hair, dark eyes wide. "And...yes...you're you. You look exactly like you always do."

[single_digit]

"You're... you look just like you did the day we went down to Kelly's Market to get ice cream sandwiches, do you remember?" said Eddie. "The day we left Chris and Lennox behind and went off on our own."

[ooh_lily]

"Of course I remember," said Lily, still tugging at her long hair. "That was our first date, Eddie. How would I have forgotten that?"

She paused.

"So...I'm...fourteen? Oh, God, I'm fourteen."

[single_digit]

"Well...." said Eddie, trying to think of how to make it better. "You only look fourteen, but you're not really fourteen. So that's okay, right?"

[ooh_lily]

"I don't feel fourteen," said Lily. "I feel exactly the same as I did when I put Emmy down last night. But, oh, look at me, Eddie."

She tugged the front of her nightgown forward and looked down at her chest.

"God."

[single_digit]

"I am looking at you," said Eddie. In fact, he hadn't been doing much of anything else since he'd first opened his eyes. "I, uh, think I hear Emmy waking up."

[ooh_lily]

Lily seemed to pull herself together, her chin lifting, her nightgown slipping down off one skinny shoulder.

"You'll have to go get her, Eddie. She isn't going to know who I am."

[single_digit]

"She'd know her mum anywhere," insisted Eddie, but he was uncertain enough about that at the moment to do exactly as Lily asked him to. Emmy was just starting to stir, and didn't come fully awake until her daddy bent down to pick her up. "Morning, sunshine," he said, carrying her back into the other room.

[ooh_lily]

Lily sat down on the bed, hugging a pillow pensively against her chest, her nightgown more or less burying her, much too big for her.

"Morning, Emmy," she said, giving the little girl her best smile. "How's mom's best girl?"