Chapter Text
Audrey had seen him disheveled more times than she could count. At the beginning many times after a few too many whiskeys, she saw a peek behind his buttoned-up exterior. The grief of his wife’s passing had undone him and she was there to patch him back together and make something presentable of him for the next day's duties.
As the years went on those nights became less frequent but it seemed his muddy boot prints and their accompanying trousers dirtied her kitchen floors more often. Her boss, while less somber and more agreeable, still needed her help in patching the holes in his clothes now instead of the ones in his heart. Sometimes his willingness to storm into her kitchen in a state and drop whatever messy pieces of clothing from his body and into her basket shocked her. Her last employer was never this comfortable in her presence let alone in that state of undress. She marked it in her mind as another of his eccentricities that she had grown accustomed to.
Since the arrival of Jimmy and the return of their boys in recent days, it seemed these occasions had grown less frequent. Sometimes she found herself staring at the back door wondering if maybe this time disheveled Siegfried would bound through and apologize for making a mess of himself because of a pig or a gate. Yet it seemed like that never occurred quite like it used to. Of course, there were soiled clothes with a baby in the house. It couldn't be avoided and her work was never done but it seemed he had found a way to spare her the extra effort of cleaning up after him. Yet she missed it.
Sometimes though she hated to admit it she would think about the most recent time he had been sick fondly. Curly hair wild and messy his mind half there from fever or lack of sleep she would picture that man laid up in bed as she came to take care of him. She would wish for a time when she could see him like that again. Somehow freer than any other version she encountered in their day-to-day business.
She couldn’t quite work out why there had been a shift but she knew it was there. She could see it clearly in him but her thoughts were muddled in confusion. She supposed with a full house and her warden duties he was being more proper and more considerate of her time. Yet that still left questions in her mind about why her employer would ensure there was less of a job for her to do. Even on multiple occasions helping with meals, dishes, and tidying the house outside of the exam rooms and dispensary.