Annie sat at her desk looking over her geography notes. She wished she could listen to some music, but her mother insisted that it interfered with her studying. At least she had finally allowed her to do her school work in her bedroom again (when Annie got an A- on her last report card her mother made her study in the dining room to keep an eye on her until her grades improved.) Her bedroom was her sanctuary, and she liked when she could stay in her room and get away from her mother's critical eye.

Annie groaned in frustration when she heard the front door open and her father step into the house. It wasn't her father specifically coming home that made her upset (although that meant he and her mother would probably be fighting at some point). It was him coming home from work that signaled the part of the day she dreaded the most: dinnertime. It would be so much better if she could just eat in her room. But her mother insisted they all eat dinner together as a family. Even when it was just them she had to create this image of the 'ideal family' she had in her head.

About a half an hour later she heard her mother yell out "Dinnertime." Annie closed her eyes and silently preyed it would be better tonight before she crept out of her room and went downstairs. She sat down at her usual spot at the table, her parents already seated. They were silently looking down at their plates, concentrating very intently at their food.

"How was everyone's day?" Annie asked with false cheeriness. She waited for them to respond, but didn't get anything except for a noncommittal 'fine' from each of them. "Today at school we learned about the Louisiana Purchase. Then in math we had a pop quiz and Susie complained because she said she didn't know there was a test today. And the teacher had to explain to her-."

"Did you get an A on the test," her mother said sternly.

"Yes. I got an A+," Annie said quietly, since that was the only part of the story her mother cared about. She looked at her father for support, but he was ignoring her as thoroughly as he was ignoring his wife. Completely defeated Annie gave up trying to make conversation and silently ate her dinner.

Annie internally cringed at how uncomfortable everything was. The silence was so thick she could cut it with her dinner knife. Every sound made, from silverware scraping the plates to water glasses hitting the table, seemed amplified and intensified. Annie wanted to scream out how horrible this was. But instead she stayed quiet and ate as quickly as she could, desperate to escape the all-consuming quiet that threatened to suffocate her.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie stood anxiously by the stove before breathing in relief as the front door opened and Jeff walked into the house. "Here," he said as he handed her a can of diced tomatoes.

"Thank you. I thought we had some, but I must have used it and forgot."

"No problem. Although next time can you try and text me before I practically pull into the driveway."

"Okay," she said in an apologetic tone.

Jeff chuckled and kissed his wife before going upstairs to change out of his suit. Annie opened the can and poured the tomatoes into the pan, stirring them with the diced chicken before Jeff returned. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

"I've got this covered. But you can make a salad."

"K."

As she stirred their dinner Annie covertly watched Jeff as he shredded lettuce and cut up vegetables. Where there were many attractive physical features that he possessed, Annie's favorite physical part of Jeff were his hands. Of all his physical features they truly revealed who he was at his core. When one first saw them it was easy to be intimidated. They were gigantic, making hers seem tiny and fragile. When he held her she was well aware of how much of his true strength he was holding back. Just from seeing him punch a punching bag at the gym she knew how powerful those hands of his were, and the damage they were capable of. She was well aware that attached to someone else's wrists, those hands could be terrible weapons used to cause great harm.

But while they were indeed powerful, Annie had never once been fearful of Jeff using his hands for harm. Even in their most heated arguments, Annie knew Jeff would never harm either her or their children with his hands (even if during the early years of their relationship and being parents he feared he might be pushed to use his hands the same way his own father had used his hands to harm Jeff and his mother). He was a good man, and would never raise his hands to harm anyone he loved.

And despite how big they were, Annie had seen how gentle those hands could be. They held onto her and moved over her body with such tenderness. His hands had held their son and daughter when they were newborns so carefully and softly. He had used them to wipe snot from their kid's noses, play tea party with their daughter, direct army men over imagery battlefields with their son. Those were the hands that helped her clean their home, fixed the leaky sink, and did things to her in the bedroom that still caused her to blush. They were conduits for all the good he possessed, and the perfect metaphor for who he truly was at his core.

She smiled as she watched him work, with Jeff looking up and smiling back at her. No words were exchanged as they worked at their tasks, both of them fine with the warm silence they filled the room. When everything was ready they put the food on the table and sat down.

"Where are Hazel and Zack?" Jeff asked as he noticed the table was only set for two.

"Hazel is at flute practice, and Zack is having dinner at Justin's house. So it's just us tonight."

"That's fine. How was your day?" Jeff asked as he served himself and Annie.

"Not too bad. They brought in this one body that they thought was a dog attack, but the bite marks didn't match up with canine teeth. I'll probably have to stay late tomorrow analyzing the wounds. How's the O' Doyle case going?"

"Same as it has been," Jeff said. "I keep hoping the defense will agree to a plea bargain, but they're pushing for it to go to trial. Giving the nature of his crime it would be much smarter if they settle out of court.

They talked some more about things, but it wasn't long before they settled into a comfortable silence as they ate their meal. The only sounds made were normal dinner sounds, such as forks hitting plates and liquid being drunk. Each sound made sounded like a soothing percussion instead of a forceful invasion.

Annie looked up at Jeff as he ate his dinner, feeling a bubbly feeling in her stomach as she watched him. Unlike when she was younger, here she didn't have to force conversation to avoid the all-consuming dreaded silence. With Jeff, they only spoke when they wanted to. Otherwise, they were content to enjoy just being with each other. With Jeff, silence was no longer something to fear.

Jeff glanced up, noticing Annie looking at him. "What?"

"Nothing. Just, I love you Jeff."

"I love you to Annie."

Annie smiled as she went back to her dinner. There really wasn't any reason to explain her exact reason for being happy. They knew where they stood with each other. Instead, they would just sit there, and fully enjoy being in each other's company.