When I woke the next morning, I found Jotaro's face close to mine. I observed his sleeping face. It looked so calm and serene.

I exhaled and untangled myself from him. I went down to the kitchen and began cooking some breakfast.

When I was close to being done, Jolyne appeared. "Is Dad still asleep?"

I shrugged, "Yeah."

"After sleeping for almost two weeks, I feel like he wouldn't want to sleep for days." She scoffed as she sat down at the island.

I laughed, "True."

Jolyne's eyebrows went up in surprise.

"What?"

She said, "It's the first time I ever seen you laugh."

"Oh." I wasn't sure what to say in response, so I changed the subject. "So how often to do plan on visiting? I can pick you up whenever you want me to."

She said, "I might have Mom take me."

I almost tensed up by she mentioning her mother.

She said, "Don't worry. Mom moved on. She has no desire to go after Dad. I learned that when I came home."

"Oh." I exhaled as I grabbed a few plates. I placed one in front of her and said, "Go all out. I made a big breakfast."

"Nice! Thanks!" She got and filled her plate.

What I learned was that, both of them had very big appetites.

Both of us were sitting at the island counter, eating together. We had little conversations as we ate.

Then Jolyne asked, "So how did last night go with Dad?"

"H-hunh," I sputtered. "Well, we slept and all." Should I be talking to his daughter about his?

She clarified, "I meant, Did you two sleep well? Because he doesn't remember anything, wouldn't it be weird?"

"Oh, yeah," I said. "I was worried about that, myself. It was almost like normal."

"That's good," she said.

Finally, Jotaro came into the kitchen. He was still were his pajamas, but this time it was accompanied by his hat.

I greeted, "Good morning. Breakfast is waiting by the stove."

He nodded, "Good morning." He got his fill of food.

Then I noticed Jolyne. She tried to not to look as shocked. This was the first time she saw his face after he took off the bandage. She continued eating.

He sat across from us and began eating. Of course, he didn't say anything.

I finished eating and so did them. I said, "I got the dishes."

"Are you sure?" Jolyne asked.

"Yeah," I grabbed her plate and my own plate. "Your arm is still healing." Then I got up and grabbed Jotaro's empty plate.

Jotaro looked up at me and said, "Thank you."

Before moving away, I placed a kiss on his temple that I could reach without hitting his hat and walked to the sink. It felt normal. Showering him with affection many times a day was something I always did. It was almost muscle memory, but I couldn't help but feel a nagging feeling that I overstepped my boundaries.

I peeked at him while I started washing the dishes.

There was a light blush growing on Jotaro's face, but his expression didn't change.

Jolyne was glancing between him and me.

Later on in the day, I found Jotaro at his office again. This time he was looking out the window at the beach. He seemed mesmerized by the waves.

"Hey," I called. "Want to go out to the beach?"

"Do we usually do that?"

"Yes. You love the beach. You had fun looking at the sea creatures."

"Okay." He said, "I want to do what we usually do. Maybe I would be able to get my memories back that way."

"Fair enough."

He added, "I have one more question."

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Did we have a dog?" He help up a black dog collar with hearts on it.

He kept that?! I thought he threw that away! I told him to throw it away! It was worn, and it could've injured him when we-. I exhaled calmly, "No. We did not. Where did you find that?"

He said, "It was in one of the drawers. Thankfully, Jolyne wasn't here when I saw it." He examined the collar and said, "This is cheap looking."

I sighed, "And that's why I told you to throw it away. I bought a new one." I cleared my throat as I recognized that I was talking to him as if he remembered everything. "Do you... know why we had this?"

He said, "I can only assume it was for me? But why?"

I didn't want to go deep in his deep seated issues. Especially not his needs until he felt the need to. If he could get away from them, I would've.

"Hun, do we have to talk about this?"

"Why? It's me."

I sighed, "Okay. This is hard to explain."

He encouraged, "I have all day. I'm all ears."

"Okay," I explained. "So we got into this habit of this thing we like to do. You desired being held and taken cared of. You wanted someone to love you and make you theirs. I was all for reciprocating those feelings. You don't usually wear the collar, but when you do... you felt the most satisfied when we... you know... do the do."

"Do the do?" He repeated with doubt. His eyes examined me. As far as he knew, I was a soft spoken and caring person with possibly no hard skin. From that assumption, he was right, but there was a special dynamic we had. And it grew over the 12 years were together.

"Yes, do the do... sex." My voice squealed at the last word.

"Hm," he said as he messed with the clip on the collar. He seemed accepting of that explanation after a while. "Okay. No need to look like a little kid who just got his hand caught in a cookie jar. It's fine. It's not like I didn't agree to it."

I let out a breath, I didn't know I was holding. "Sorry, if it made you feel weird finding this out on your own."

"How about we go ahead to the beach?"

"Alright."

Jotaro and I got Jolyne to go to the beach.

The Florida heat in the Spring felt great when going into the water.

Jolyne was comfortable sitting on the beach. She seemed so serene with her new found freedom. She stared out at the waves. She wouldn't get closer to the water though.

I walked into the water. The water reached my knees.

Jotaro walked over to me with something in his hands. He showed it to me.

It was a starfish.

"Aw that's cool." I reached to it. "Can I touch it?"

He nodded.

I touched it's prickly surface.

Jotaro told me a few facts about the starfish. He watched as I observed it. He added, "I have no idea how I remembered this."

"Maybe memories will come back naturally." I placed my hand on his cheek and said, "That's good."

A breath of relief left his lips. He seemed at ease as he pressed his face into my hand. A little smile appeared. After a while, he pulled his face from my hand and looked into the water. He placed the starfish down below.

We continued walking through the water and looking at sea creatures that we happened to find. He would give me facts about them.

Of course, good things must come to an end eventually.

"Dad," Jolyne called from ashore. "I'm going inside."

He looked over and started, "Oka-." He took a few steps towards her, then he seemed to teleport to her.

He stopped time.

"Wait," he breathed.

I ran over to them. As I did, I watched him grab her wrist. Something wasn't right.

"Dad, what's wrong?" She sounded annoyed.

"I have to save you," he answered.

"We're already safe," she reassured. "It's because of you that I'm alive."

"But something..." He stopped himself as he was trying to figure out what that something is. Something was nagging at him just like last night. "Okay," he said not convinced. "Okay." He looked back at me who was just reaching him.

I touched the hand that seemed to be gripping Jolyne's arm too tight. "I think it's time to rest."

"Okay." He let go of Jolyne.

That night we went inside to rest.

The next day came, and it was time to take Jolyne home, but it seemed she had other plans. There was a car at the house.

Jolyne and I were at the doorway. We had a quick conversation.

She said, "I'm a little nervous letting Dad stay here alone, so I asked Mom to pick me up. Thanks for letting me stay."

"You can come back anytime you want. Stay as long as you want as well."

"I don't get how you could be so nice to me after the way I came at you," she said nervously. "But thank you."

"No problem at all," I replied. "Jotaro loves you, so who he loves is family for me. Plus you can see that he recognizes you as his daughter. His memories may be hazy, but something is popping up in his head, so you have nothing to worry about."

Jolyne laughed, "How do you know just the right thing to say to me?"

"You care about your father," I observed. I looked past her to the car, then I looked back at Jotaro who came over from behind me. I stepped back to let him speak to his daughter.

"Bye, Jolyne," he stood there awkwardly as he had idea what to really do. "I love you."

Jolyne's eyes filled with tears as she embraced him in a hug. "I love you too, Dad."

And soon, she was gone. It was just me and Jotaro.

Jotaro sighed as he finally decided to go inside. He left to go to his office.

I followed him there. I watched as he sat on his chair. "Are you okay?"

He didn't say anything, not did he nod his head. He moved his hat down to cover his face.

He missed her already.

I walked over to him and said, "Don't worry. She plans to visit again." I placed my hands on his shoulders and began to massage his tense shoulders. "I'm glad you two got to spend time together these last two days."

"Mmhm," he agreed.

"We should plan for when she comes over again. How about that?"

"Sounds good."