What a healthy marriage looks like

Breakfast and buggies :)

They woke up the next day to the smell of breakfast. They got up and changed before moving into the main room where his parents were. Mick's dad was cooking and his mom was at the table. She looked up as they came in and clapped her hands together, "Good morning! Well, mid-morning. How'd you sleep?" Mick yawned and stretched, "Like we just traveled over eighteen hours." She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. She got up and gestured to the table, "Come, sit. I'll get you some coffee- Caroline, do you like coffee?" They sat down at the table and Caroline nodded, "I do, thank you.", "How'd you like it? Cream? Sugar?", "Just black is fine.", "Black?" Mick stood and kissed Caroline's forehead saying, "I'll get it." His mom tsked as he gently took the coffee pot from her and poured half a cup of coffee, then a full cup. She said, "I could have gotten that." as he gave her the pot back, bringing the half cup to the sink and filling it the rest of the way up with water, "Yeah, but I know how she likes hers and I know you won't ask for it." He said that last part to Caroline, setting her americano in front of her, before sitting down with his own cup. She picked it up with a smile, "You don't have to give away all my secrets..." She took a sip and he asked, "How is it?", "Perfect.", "That's why I give away your secrets." She nudged him with her shoulder and he nudged her back playfully. His mom sat down with her own cup saying, "Oh! You two are adorable! Johnny, are you seein' this?", "Hold on, sweetheart. I'm just finishin' up." His dad said, turning off the stove and bringing over the plates of food, setting one in front of each of them. Then he grabbed a covered pan and brought that over too, pulling the dish towel off to reveal it was fresh bread. "Ta-da!" He said with a flourish. Mick rubbed his hands together, "You even made the mushrooms! I love those!" His dad chuckled, "I did. I figured, what's a better occasion to have a proper fry-up?", "Well, thank you dad- and mum, both of you- and thank you for lettin' us stay with you.", "Of course!" His mom beamed, "We've missed you so much, Mickie! It's always lovely to have you back for a visit!" She turned to Caroline, "You too dear. I'm so excited you're here! Now we can finally talk for more than five minutes! There's so much I wanna know!", "Dorthy.", "How's your work going? How's life in general? What do you do for fun?", "Dorthy.", "How's America? How's New Mexico? How are you liking Australia?", "Dorthy.", "What's it like-", "Dorthy!", "What, Johnathan?", "Let the poor girl eat.", "Oh-" She pat Caroline's hand, "Sorry, dear. I'm just excited." Caroline smiled at her, "It's alright." Mick's mom ducked her head, a bit embarrassed, and his dad mused, "We should harass Mick instead." Mick looked up with a mouthful of food and asked, "What?" His mom narrowed her eyes at her son, "Yes... Starting with why you didn't tell us you two got married until now?!" Mick swallowed and wiped his mouth before responding, "Like I said, we didn't really plan it. Then we both got busy with work and-" His dad huffed, "Work, yeah. You still doin' that-" his gaze flicked to Caroline and he held back his snarky comments, "That job?" Mick sighed, "Yes, dad. I'm still an assassin- and Caroline knows." Now Caroline looked up with her mouth full, "Hm?" Mick leaned over to her and said, "You know I'm an assassin and you're okay with that, right darlin?" She nodded, eating more of the fried egg with the tomato before responding, "Oh, yeah. Of course. Really good career. Very stable. He actually makes more than I do, and I make quite a bit." She had another bite and nodded to herself, "Wow, this is really good." His dad didn't look pleased, but he nodded as Dorthy asked Caroline, "Speaking of, how's bookkeeping?", "It's good! You know, it's bookkeeping- but I've actually been expanding into more of the business and accounting world.", "Oh?", "Yeah, I've been kind of intimidated to go into more professional spaces, but it's been pretty fun so far.", "Well that's lovely dear! I'm happy for you!", "Thank you!" Caroline nodded, trying not to talk too much with her mouth full, while also eating her mid-morning meal. Dorthy was about to ask her another question when Mick turned it around on them, "What about you two? How's retirement been treatin' ya?" His mother waved a hand, "Oh, you know...", "It's boring." His father finished for her. Mick chuckled at that, "You don't like it?" His mother responded, "Oh, it's not so bad. We can always find something to do. We were actually plannin' a campin' trip right before you called.", "Oh?" His dad nodded, "Yeah, just somethin' to get us outta the house for a bit.", "I didn't mean to interrupt your plans. Sorry." Dorthy clucked, "You're fine, Mickie. Gettin' to see you, both of you- that's worth any changed plans.", "Well... I mean you could still go if you wanted." He said and his mother shook her head, "We have a guest, we can't just-" Mick turned to Caroline, "You wanna go camping?" She shrugged, "That sounds like fun." He smiled at her, then looked at his parents, "If you still want to...?" His parents looked between each other, then his dad shrugged, "I mean, we've already got all our stuff together." His mom was hesitant and Johnathan put a hand on hers, "and besides, we ain't got nothin' better to do... What'd ya say, Dorthy?" She gave him a knowing look before shaking her head, "I suppose... Alright, fine. We can get ready- after we eat." Johnathan nodded and shared a smile with his son as they continued their meal. After they'd all finished, Dorthy grabbed the dishes and told Mick, "I believe your stuff is still in your closet. Just go through it, see what all you have. Shake it out. Then we'll get some stuff for Caroline if we need to.", "Alright." He kissed his mom's cheek then his dad's as he said, "Thanks for breakfast." Before moving down the hall. Caroline said, "Yes! Thank you so much!" Before following him back to his old bedroom. She watched him open his closet, pulling out a few boxes before getting to the stuff he was looking for. A folded up tent, a couple folding chairs, and a sleeping bag. He opened up the tent, shaking it out, checking for holes or bugs, then put it away and did the same with the folding chairs. He was shaking out the sleeping bag when Caroline pointed excitedly, "Look! Look!" He looked, and on the floor was a very confused scorpion. She knelt down to get a better look at it and he dropped the sleeping bag to scoop her up. She protested, "Hey! I was just looking, I wasn't gonna touch it!", "Yeah you were. I know you." She huffed, "Okay, maybe I was- but still!", "This ain't America, sweetheart. The bugs here have a bit more bite to them.", "...Sting.." Caroline corrected in a mumble, and he went to step on it. She cried, "No! No! Don't squish him! Put him outside!", "But then he'll just come back inside- or he'll have babies and make more critters." Caroline looked a little too pleased at that and he squeezed her, "Sorry, love.", "No-!" He stepped on it with a crunch. "You killed him! How could you do that?!", "That's my job, darlin'.", "No it's not! You just murdered him!", "That ain't what I meant-" Suddenly, Mick's dad came running in, "What the bloody hell is goin' on-?" He paused, looking at the scene, and Mick stepped off the very squished, very dead scorpion. Caroline pointed at it, "Poor thing! Look at it! Look at what you did!" Mick chuckled and Johnathan sighed in relief, "You damn near gave me a heart attack, son. I thought you bloody nicked someone.", "I wouldn't do that to you, dad." Mick said, setting down his wife who crouched to look at the thing. His dad nodded, watching Caroline with a mix of concern and amusement as she sadly poked at the dead scorpion on the floor. Mick patted her head and explained to his father, "She likes bugs." His dad nodded, "Yeah, I can see that." Then Caroline pointed suddenly, "Oh! Look! Another one!" and Mick scooped her up again. She wiggled in his grasp shouting, "No! No! Wait! At least let me see what kind he is first!", "A bug's a bug, darlin'- and I ain't havin' you be bit or scratched or stung by nothin' that's gonna put you in the hospital!", "That was one time, and it wasn't even because of the spider!" His mom walked over and asked, "What's all the noise about?" Johnathan put an arm around her waist and explained, "Mick stepped on a bug, and apparently our daughter-in-law really likes bugs." They watched as Caroline kicked her legs, trying to escape Mick's grasp as he went to step on the other scorpion. She shouted, "Stop! It's just a little guy! He didn't do anything to you!", "Not yet, but those little fu-buggers are evil!", "No they're not! They're just trying to live their little buggy lives! Leave him be!" Dorthy laughed behind a hand and leaned into Johnathan, "They remind me of when we were young.", "What? With the squabbling?" She giggled, "Something like that.", "Yeah, well it wasn't you lookin' for little buggies, was it?", "Goodness, no. I'm with Mickie. Any critter that comes into my home get's squished." He pulled her in closer and kissed the side of her head, "I know, darlin'."