It was not going to be a good day. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he didn't have to. In fact, now that he'd had the advance warning, he was thinking about making good use of it and going back to sleep. Maybe he could sleep straight through until tomorrow.

The birds were quiet. That was a problem, because if the birds were quiet, it meant that the birds had been fed. If the birds had been fed, it meant that someone had been awake to feed them. It hadn't been him, therefore, Taylor was up before him.

It was not going to be a good day.

It didn't take much to ruin Eric's day, and the fact that he was inclined to quick judgements didn't help. Or so Taylor enjoyed telling him. He was positive she leapt to conclusions faster than he did, and with far less evidence, but he wasn't likely to convince her of that anytime soon.

With a sigh, he reluctantly opened his eyes. The sun stabbed his sleep-fogged vision, and he grimaced. Of course the shades were open. The birds liked natural light. Never mind what the human might want. While he was sleeping.

He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and resting his elbows on his knees. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to rub awareness into them--or at least get some of the sleep out of them. It was barely nine o'clock, and on a Saturday no less. Did the woman have no shame?

Groaning, he levered himself out of bed and fumbled for his sweatpants. His coordination was only just up to balancing on one foot, however momentarily, and he silently cursed Taylor for disrupting a perfectly nice night. It wasn't morning until someone got up, and she was forever making morning come earlier than it should.

He made his way out of the bedroom, pausing in the doorway to frown at the dimness of the living room. She hadn't opened the shades in here, of course. She hadn't even turned on the lights. She could curl up on the couch in cozy darkness while he had to suffer in the piercing light of day. That was fair.

He gave the TV a cursory glance, recognized the NASA logo, and rolled his eyes. She couldn't even watched Saturday morning cartoons like a normal person. Why bother, when she could drive him insane just by being her own strange, annoying self?

He padded silently over to the couch, focused only on her still form. Sky blue pajamas with fluffy yellow clouds covered her from neck to ankle, but she had wrapped her arms around herself as though she was cold. That he could fix.

Only when he got closer did he realize she had one fist pressed against her mouth. The gaze she had fixed on the TV was bright and brimming with tears. She didn't move or even acknowledge his presence when he paused beside the couch, and he looked back at the TV in surprise.

"--was scheduled to touch down just minutes ago, but there is still no sign of it. We've received word that a contrail was sighted over Texas earlier this morning, and it was accompanied by what appeared to be a series of explosions."

A sinking sensation settled into the pit of his stomach. The space program had been Taylor's dream for years, until he got Jen to pull some strings on her behalf. She had seen the stars up close at Time Force's expense, not once, but several times. After that, nothing NASA could offer came close--but the dreams of a young Air Force test pilot were only set aside, not forgotten.

"The space shuttle Columbia was returning from a sixteen-day mission that had been described as 'flawless'. Now it seems as though something may have gone terribly wrong. There has been no official confirmation from NASA, but the empty runway here at the Kennedy Space Center is an ominous sign."

She was shaking. He laid his hands on her shoulders tentatively, and he saw her knuckles whiten as she bit down on her fist. A single tear escaped from her too bright eyes, and his fingers clenched as he pushed her hard.

She scrambled forward without a word, and he dropped down onto the couch beside her. Drawing her roughly against him, he tried to shield her from the horror that was showing in her expression. She buried her head in his chest without protest, but her gaze remained riveted to the television screen.

"There is still no official word from NASA, but we go now to the Johnson Space Center where the flag has been lowered to half staff--"

Shit. His arms tightened reflexively around Taylor. It really wasn't going to be a good day, after all.