The Book Of Me & You

"Whatever It Takes, I'll Put My Hands In The Flames"

"John get out of there - John!" She huffed from the other side of the kitchen counter, cramming her feet into the boots just as the door opened quickly and he stepped through, holding the request in his fingers and wincing at the chorus of noises. Blowing her hair out of her face, she zipped up her boot and shuffled over to him, taking the shoes into her grasp with a exasperated, "Oh, thank you - you're my hero -" Putting them on the counter, "He's been throwing a tantrum since 6 this morning!" She rubbed her temples at their daughter shrieking for human attention inside the playpen by the bed, and sighed, "And she isn't happy with anything today."

Craning his head back slightly, he blew a long breath from his cheeks, "Great..."

Since Amy had returned from the treatment center, she and Ricky decided to sit down and have a serious conversation about the state of their relationship, and what that looked like in terms of their children. They decided that Amy would remain at George and Kathleen's while she found a job and saved up some money, but she would also help contribute to John and Emma's needs to take some of the burden off of Ricky. She got a job working at Jeff's as a waitress four days a week, with George's help, to have more time with the kids while Ricky was working. She would pop by every morning for breakfast, and every night, she wasn't working, to help put them to bed since it was in everyone's best interest that they didn't live together again just yet. Ricky had classes three days a week, which also lined up with John's preschool schedule, so all they had to worry about was the off days when they didn't have daycare. That's where Margaret, Nora, and Kathleen stepped in, dividing up days and weekends to solidify that Ricky had childcare every day he wasn't working. Margaret and Nora split Saturdays, and Kathleen took them after school - if Amy wasn't working - on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They also agreed to split weeks - much to Amy's surprise - where she would take them two nights a week as long as she wasn't working, got John to school on time, and had at least one weekly session with her therapist over the computer. Just because their lives were busy and hectic, didn't mean she could just forget about taking care of herself. Ricky made that a stipulation so she wouldn't become overwhelmed and shut herself down again. He wanted her to have someone to talk to if she felt like she was taking on too much.

Now it was almost 8 am, the Friday before Halloween, and John's class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Going over to the bed, Amy picked Emma up, and handed her a toy, "Sure you don't wanna tag along with us?"

Ricky took a few steps forward, pursing his lips at the suggestion, "Hmm, I would, but hanging out with 20 preschoolers and their onslaught on judgemental parents, doesn't exactly fit into my idea of fun."

She bit her lip to hold back a little giggle, "Tell me about it, especially since I know a few of those judgmental parents..." holding out their combative infant for his rescue as her eyes fell to the floor to avoid his. He caught it though and knew that by doing that, she was backing herself into a corner of feeling guilty for something - namely for not being there for John enough for those parents to judge her.

Taking the baby with ease, he put his free hand on sorta-girlfriend's shoulder, and softly stated, "Just ignore them -" before being hit in the face by a purple teething ring clenched tightly in the squealing baby's palm. Amy's eyes widened at the action reaching her hand out to check the mark, but his annoyed eye-roll told her he was fine and that she didn't need to dote on him. Hiking the distressed child higher on his hip, he dodged the toy again, checked his watch, and grabbed her hand to wave it, "Gotta run - Tell mommy bye bye."

Emma's quick recoil and squeal at his ask made her mother giggle, grabbing her hand and kissing her fingers before turning on her heel and shouting, "John! Daddy and Emma are leaving!"

She heard the door click and a patter coming down the short hallway, his shaggy blonde locks falling into his eyes, "Is daddy jus com-in to the pwum-kin pw-atch too?"