The Prince

Part 12

"Dad!" Skye put his schoolbag down and kicked off his shoes, before moving into the rest of the house. "Dad!" He called out again, sure that Jackson was supposed to be in.

"Little One!" Jackson exclaimed rushing toward him. "Did you miss your Pappie?" He smiled happily pulling Skye into a hug.

Dad, you can let go now." He reminded Jackson after a while.

"Now, what is this happy occasion that you're so desperately looking for your me?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot your power to make my head go fuzzy," he grinned. "I wanted to know what was happening at the tree house?"

"Oh, you saw, did you?" Jackson's excitement seemed to be on the brink of exploding. "I got your granddad you knock up some plans, more or less the way you would have wanted it, then for some reason, your uncle Eric wanted to make individual modules and semi-assemble them. He's odd sometimes, that one." Jackson frowned slightly.

"Dad, this whole family is odd, you included."

"Me? I'm the most sane one of the whole lot." Jackson corrected him.

"Back to me Dad, what's up with the building materials under the tarp at the tree house?" He sometimes had to concentrate to ensure he kept his thoughts straight when Jackson was around. He had a way of going off on a tangent that the discussion would have veered so far away from its beginning before anybody knew.

"I thought we could spend the weekend putting everything together. And before you do a Cook on me, almost everything has been reused from the original and everything else is your uncle's."

"And you think that you'd be able to put it together, Dad?" He had faith in Jackson for a lot of things, but this wasn't one of them.

"Oh come on, how difficult can it really be? The crew is coming this week to set up the base so that we can finish the rest on Saturday. I've already taken off for both of us." His excitement was palpable.

"Thanks, Dad," Skye smiled at him. In his own crazy way, he always got things right somehow.

"Wait, what?" Jackson looked at him with round eyes. "That's all? No argument, nothing?"

"No, Dad." Smiling, he walked over to give Jackson a hug. Before Skye knew what hit him, Jackson had him hoisted into the air spinning him around.

"Hey, stop. Will you give it a rest already?" Skye grumbled pulling his uniform straight. Looking up, he watched as Jackson skipped out of the room. Shaking his head, he went off to his room to take a break from the day.

"Skye?" Raymond gently knocked on his door and pushed it open. He watched as Skye looked up from his desk frowning. "I thought you might want something to eat while you're studying." He placed a sandwich and a glass of water on his desk.

There was a strained silence as neither of them spoke. Since their last conversation, things had cooled down slightly, or in his case, Skye had warmed up a bit more to him, but it wasn't as easy as before.

"Dad?"

"Yes, Son?"

"Do you want to help us this weekend with rebuilding the tree house?" He threw an olive branch to his father. He was still uncomfortable with him after their falling out. It was the very first time that they'd actually argued and not spoken to each other. He knew that he couldn't really blame his father for going away or make it seem like he had run away. Between all the emotions that were rolling around in him, he was afraid to lose Raymond.

"Of course I want to. Should I get the rest of the family to come over, do you think?" Raymond was so excited by Skye voluntarily asking him to join them, that he wanted to share it with everybody.

"Dad, you're supposed to be the reasonable one. Is it impossible for the three of us to do anything without the rest of the family playing tag?" He asked in exasperation. He loved his family, but they were going to keep meddling until they got their pound of flesh.

"Oh, sorry. I got a bit excited for a minute." He flashed a quick grin. "So that's what Jackson feels like," he mused almost to himself.

"Well, whatever you are thinking, stop it."

"Aye, aye, captain," Raymond saluted him before leaving.

Closing the door behind him, he went off to find Jackson who had taken up residence in his study again. Pushing open the door, he found Jackson frantically typing away as if the devil was behind him. He waited quietly at the door for him to look up, but got no luck.

"Jackson?" He was afraid to interrupt since they weren't allowed in the room if he was in the vicinity. It did appear to him that Jackson was writing a book, but that could also be one of the monthly reports that he was working on.

"My love? What are you doing here?" Jackson got up and walked over to Raymond.

"I've come to share some good news. Skye has asked me to help you guys on Saturday."

"That is cause for celebration." He leaned down to kiss Raymond. "I hope things will slowly get back to normal now."

"Jackson, when has our family ever been normal?" He chuckled, leaning his head against Jackson's chest.

"You and Skye are exactly alike. You have no appreciation for family," he huffed. 

"Don't exaggerate. I gave Josh the evening off, so I'll get started on supper."

"Ugh, it's a relief not to have to look at that orange slime ball."

"When are the two of you going to make peace?" Raymond still couldn't understand their animosity toward each other, but it seemed as if their snapping had gotten worse.

"I'll make peace as soon as he packs and leaves."

"The two of you either need to sort this out or you need to sleep with each other, but I'm not picking sides." Reaching up, he kissed Jackson before making his way to the kitchen.