What a healthy marriage looks like

Fatherly talk

The next morning it didn't take long to break down the camp and get back on the road. They stopped at a diner for breakfast and as they were eating Dorthy asked, "So how long are you two planning to stay?" Caroline looked at Mick and he answered, "Uh- just for the week. Unless you need us to leave sooner-", "No, you're fine. I was just curious.", "We- uh, We just got some time off and we wanted to travel and I figured ' Hey, we got the time. Why don't we finally go visit my parents? ' Then we were on the next flight over." Dorthy nodded, but Johnathan eyed his son, "Isn't it a bit odd that your employer just gave you a surprise holiday?" Mick sighed, "Dad, I'm a contractor. I can take time whenever I want.", "A contractor, yeah.", "It's a good job!" Jonathan went to say something else, but Dorthy put a hand on his, "You can have that conversation out of polite company." He sighed and nodded while Caroline slouched, feeling awkward. Dorthy tried again to lighten the mood, "So, do you have any plans when you get back?" Mick and Caroline looked between each other again and Mick anwsered, "Not really. I guess we'll just go back- back to regular livin'." She nodded. She tried a couple more times, but with the tension between Mick and his dad and the fact that they couldn't answer honestly about their situation, pretty much killed the conversation. They got back to the Mundy's house and were unloading the Jeep when Johnathan came back from the mailbox, "Junk. Junk. Bill. Junk... Son?" Mick moved over to him, "Yeah?" His father handed him a postcard, "It's for you." Mick was confused as he took it. On the front was one of those cheesy tourist postcards depicting the New Mexico white sands national park, and on the back it was addressed to him and Caroline with a short message that read simply, ' Call me. -P '. Mick sighed and asked, "Where's the nearest pay phone?", "Down the block, but you can use ours if you need to.", "No, that's alright. Thank you, though." He moved to where Caroline was putting stuff away and presented the postcard to her. She looked at it, then looked at him, "You think it's serious?" He shrugged, "Let's go find out. Grab your change purse, please." She nodded, grabbing her coin purse before they headed out, down the road to the payphone on the corner. Caroline put in a few australian cents and Mick pulled his wallet out, taking out a ten and sticking it in her coin purse, "Thanks, love.", "Quit that." She said, taking the bill out and putting it in his shirt pocket. He just put it back and kissed her forehead before dialing, holding up the receiver so they could both hear. It rang for a moment, then the other line picked up, "Who's this?", "Hey, it's us. You said to call?", "Sniper- Or Mick?", "And Caroline." He said and Caroline greeted, "Hi." Pauling responded, "That's great actually, I can tell you both at the same time.", "Tell us what?", "So right after you left Engie got a call from the courthouse saying something happened to your paperwork, it 'didn't go through '? Or something like that. They need you to come back in and re-sign it." Caroline and Mick looked at each other, then Caroline asked, "So we haven't actually been married these last two weeks?", "Apparently not. Anyway, that was it. Bye." Mick drew his eyebrows together, "Wait. You sent us a postcard telling us to call you just so you could tell us that our paperwork didn't go through? and that's it ? Who are you?", "Be lucky I did you a solid. I didn't have to tell you, I could have just let you find out... whenever you decided to come back.", "But... Why?", "...I'm bored... The administrator is doing her own thing and she doesn't need me right now and... and- I don't- I don't know. It-it doesn't matter. I did you a solid. You're welcome. Goodbye." and Miss Pauling hung up. Mick put the receiver back on the hook and turned to his fiancé, "Well...", "Well?" She responded and they stood there for a moment. She asked him, "What do we do now?" He shrugged, "I guess we go home and sign the papers again." She nodded, "We could, or... Do you want to have a wedding this time?", "A wedding?", "Yeah." He pulled her into him, "Would you like to have a wedding?" She shrugged, "Yeah." He smiled, "Alright then. I guess we should get plannin'." She grinned and they walked back to the house where Mick's dad was already starting on the stew. Dorthy looked up as they entered and asked, "Everything alright?" Mick smiled, "Mum, dad. I've good some good news and some bad news." His parents were a bit concerned, but Mick continued, "The bad news is, the paperwork at the courthouse had some issues so we're technically not married anymore. The good news is, we're gonna get re-married, and we're having a wedding this time!" His mother jumped up and ran over to them, crushing both in a big hug, "Oh my- that's so exciting! Not the paperwork part, sorry about that- but, Ooh! You're gonna invite us this time, right?", "Of course!" Mick chuckled and his dad came over to join in the hug, "Congratulations... Again." They chatted and joked and talked plans and when Mick's dad finished the stew, they had some of that. Mick and Caroline planned to fly back asap, so they got tickets for the next available flight, which just so happened to be at 03:00 the next morning. Around the evening, Dorthy had found Caroline a stack of wedding circulars and they were going through them, page by page. Mick tried to help, but he had to admit, he found the minutiae of event planning exceedingly dull. Caroline knew this and was fine with it, not bothering him with the process as she made herself mock spreadsheets out of notebook paper. At some point he started falling asleep at the table and Caroline kissed his cheek, "Why don't you get some rest? I'll wake you up when it's time to go." He brushed her face with a hand, "You need rest too, darlin'.", "I'll sleep on the plane. I got too much in my head right now.", "Don't overwork yourself. I know how you get.", "Excited- excited?", "...I didn't mean it like that-", "I know." She kissed him again, "I'll be fine. Go sleep." He hesitantly got up, kissing the top of her head, then his mother's, "Night mum. Night fiancé ." Caroline protested, "Hey! We may not technically be married anymore, but it's still wife to you, buster." He laughed, "Sorry. Goodnight Caroline, my darling, my love, my wife -" He punctuated his words with kisses and she ducked away giggling, "Alright, alright! That's enough, now scram. We're working here.", "Love you too, Caroline.", "Love you, Micky.", "You too, mum. Love you. Night." He said, moving down the hall to his room. He kicked off his shoes and got under the covers, but the moment he was settled, his arms felt empty. He got that same achy-lonely feeling in his chest that he got every time he had to sleep somewhere without her, but it was worse lying in a nice comfy bed versus wherever he had to shoule up when he was out on an assignment. At least then he could convince himself that it was actually better that she wasn't there because she'd be uncomfortable. But now he just wanted to go out there and bring her back, cuddling up until they had to go. He didn't get up, though. He just laid there, more awake than he thought he ought to be. After a long moment, there was a knock on the door and Mick sat up to see his dad come in. Johnathan said, "Hey, son. Can I talk with you?" Mick nodded, "Yeah, sure." and sat up more, giving his dad space to sit. Mick was hesitant to ask, worried that this might be a return to their earlier argument- an old argument- but Johnathan just rubbed his son's shoulder in a fatherly way, "I just wanted to say... Congratulations, son. You're mother and I are very proud of you..." He sighed, "I know I harp on you about the whole assassin thing, but I don't ever want you to think that I ain't proud of you. You've come so far, and I-" He got a bit choked up and Mick touched his shoulder, "Dad?", "I'm fine." Johnathan cleared his throat, "Anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you... Caroline's great by the way, both me and your mother approve wholeheartedly." Mick smiled and pulled his father into a hug, "Thank you, dad." Johnathan hugged him back, "Of course, son." They hugged for another moment and then Johnathan pat his back and stood, "Well. I'm off to bed myself.", "You didn't wanna wedding plan with the women?", "Pfft, no. God love your mother, but she gets down in the dirt with all those details. Goes right over my head." Mick nodded, "Caroline too.", "I figured that's why you were hiding in here.", "Well... Yeah." His dad laughed, "Yeah, alright. Well- Night, Mick.", "Night, dad." and he left, closing the door behind him. Mick laid back down and thought about that as sleep eventually came for him.