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Janice struggled to pull herself together for her childrens' sake as much as her own. The years since the plague hadn't been easy. She and Jack had been high school sweethearts and both virgins when they had taken their relationship to the next level and made love for the first time. It had been awkward but they soon got the hang of it. Practice makes perfect, he used to say with a wicked gleam in his eye. And practice they did. So much that it wasn't long before she found herself pregnant with Mark.

There was no question that they would marry and raise a family together.
They were young and had dreams of growing old together. The Plague took
care of that, dashing their dreams to pieces and leaving her to raise
their three children on her own when he fell ill. Something they had
never contemplated.

Matthew and Emily had been in the middle of their 'terrible twos' and
Mark a mere fourteen when their lives had been so brutally disrupted. On
the verge of a nervous breakdown, Janice's best friend Devi had helped
with the children while she spent most of her time at Jack's bedside...
waiting, watching, praying. Not many seemed to survive, but survive he
did. It was his recovery that took longer than they expected.

Even though it had happened longer ago than it seemed, it wasn't really
until six months ago that they finally felt they had gotten a grip on
life again. She submersed herself in taking care of her children and Jack
had finally gotten a trucking job that took him away from home for days
at a time. It had taken this long for her to finally feel secure in her
own abilities and for the sleepless nights to come to an end.

But now... She had never missed Jack so much as she did this very minute.
He wouldn't be home until the weekend and she needed him. This had to be
a mistake. It had to be.

Janice didn't know how long she sat there on the cool tile floor before
she shook herself into action. She could hear them in the living room
laughing. Mark was reading a story to them by the sound of things. Such a
good boy, he was. A tremendous help. But it was not his job, nor his
responsibility to be taking care of the little ones like that. Her
children needed her, not a lump on the bathroom floor.

Pulling herself to her feet, she brushed her teeth and washed her face.
She brushed her hair quickly, taking one last look before joining her family.

"How does pizza sound, you guys?" She called out with a big grin on her
face, swearing that everything was going to be all right. It had
to be.