what was i made for, walker

043. midnight nachos and worried siblings

Janie gets home after hanging out with some of her friends. She shuts the door, seeing Cordell standing by the island.

"Hey." She calls, getting his attention.

"Hey. Janie Bug." Cordell smiles, holding his arm out so she walks over and lets him pull her into a hug. "How was your day?"

"Cool. We went to the movies, pigged out on junk food. I got a tattoo and a belly button piercing." Janie says.

"Well, I'm glad you had fu-- wh-- wait, what?" Cordell does a double take.

"Kidding." She grins.

Cordell sighs, rolling his eyes, rubbing his forehead.

"I hate you when you do that." Cordell says.

"I know. It's why it's so fun." Janie rocks on her feet.

"You are kidding, right?" Cordell dreads.

Janie pulls her jean waistband down a bit to reveal her untouched belly button.

"Oh, thank God." Cordell sighs in relief.

"You're just gonna have to trust me on the tattoo, we're not doing a full body check." Janie says.

"Yeah, no, agreed." Cordell says. "So, um... near heart attack aside, would you like to come to The Side Step with me? Stella, Liam, and Ben will be there."

"I think I'm good. I have a test in a couple days I wanna study for." Janie says.

"Okay. Yeah." Cordell nods. "You go do that. I'll see you later." Janie nods. "Okay." He smiles at her, kissing her forehead. "My baby girl." He quietly says, smoothing some of her hair down.

"Yeah, okay, dear father." She gives him a small look and awkwardly pats his stomach before going upstairs.

+++

"You know, today's my first full day of boot camp, and I'm honestly not quite sure what to expect." August says as he eats breakfast.

"I expect you won't be doing much of anything if you choke to death on your biscuits before you get there." Abilene remarks making Janie laugh.

"We should get going." Bonham says.

"Yeah. Yeah." August wipes his hands on the napkin.

"Oh, before you leave a trail of breadcrumbs out the door, um, did you set aside everything that you're selling?" Abilene asks.

"Fundraiser at HQ." August nods. "Right. Rangers 4 Paws. Got to help the animal shelter. Be a lot cooler if we just kept the proceeds, but..."

"But that's the exact opposite of charity." Janie says.

"Yes, defeats the purpose of, uh, benefiting charity. Thank you, Janie." Abilene tells her, giving a pointed look to August.

"Obviously, very important to me." August says.  "But, yes, I set some things aside. Not that people are gonna want my stuff."

"Check the time." Bonham tells him. August looks at the time on his phone.

"Oh, crap." He gets up, stuffing the biscuit in his mouth. "Thank you." He rushes out.

"All right, we'll be back as soon as we're done with 'em." Bonham says, kissing his wife's cheek. "See you later, darling." He kisses Janie on the head. Janie and Abilene share a look.

""We're?"" Abilene questions.

"What?" Bonham turns to her.

"Huh?"