After the contentious custody battle, Frank & Mary go on with their lives as usual. But it isn't until an eventful night at Ferg's that Frank starts to wonder if maybe his life might be missing something. Now that his niece has a normal life, maybe...
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Joey had no idea what time it was when she heard Frank's alarm go off, but she knew that it had to be way too early so, in protest, she groaned pitifully underneath her pillow and hoped that she could ignore the incessant beeping and fall asleep again.
Normally, Joey was a morning person that couldn't wait to greet the day, but this morning was not one of those days. She'd never had such a terrible time with her period before. Granted, she had never really had a normal cycle, and once she started using birth control she'd hardly noticed them at all, but this was a different experience all together. Last night had been downright awful and she'd hardly gotten any sleep as a result. Even though she was merely spotting, it was almost as if she were having the force ten periods all at once and couldn't get comfortable all night.
"You stay exactly where you are." Frank grumbled beside her before he had even opened his eyes.
"Whaddya mean? Kids, horses...Montana. Just gimme a minute." Joey sleepily mumbled from underneath her pillow as she turned over into the fetal position and cradled her aching stomach.
"You were up all night last night, Joe." Frank pointed out the obvious as he turned off his alarm."You were tossing and turning and moaning in your sleep."
"Moaning?" Joey asked as she peeked out from her underneath her pillow and watched him dress. "Did I keep you up?"
"Of course you did, babe. I've never seen you like that before." Frank sighed his voice thick with concern and his brows making the worried V shape that always gave away his anxiety.
This had been the first time in months that they hadn't slept like magnets sticking together, so Frank knew that whatever was happening with Joey was something fairly serious and he wanted to take care of her.
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Just stay here and get some sleep. I doubt you're up for a day on a horse of all things. I'll cover for you at breakfast and ask Walter for a raincheck."
"I dunno...I'd hate for all of us to cancel. We came all this way and the kids are really excited." Joey groaned. "Besides, I wanna see you in a sexy cowboy hat. I'm a big girl, I'm gunna try and rally." Joey sighed as she sat up and tried to ignore all of the gnawing aches swirling around in her belly.
But as soon as Joey's feet hit the floor, the decision on whether or not to stay in bed all day was made for her when she was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea. It all happened so fast that Joey had to sprint to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet with only seconds to spare.
Frank jumped into action and chased her into the ensuite and held her hair back as she continued to loudly retch and empty the contents of her stomach. "Well, that settles that then, we're definitely staying home."
"I must have gotten a stomach bug or something." Joey whined as she accepted the face cloth that Frank handed her and wiped her mouth. "I'll be okay, but you should take the kids horseback riding, though. I'll stay behind and sleep it off."
