Two Become Three- A Joanne Story

Second Trismas

"Daddy, Dianne, wake up, wake up Connie shouted running into the bedroom. Joe groaned, pulling Dianne closer to him, not quite ready to be awake yet.

"Hey precious, I'm already awake, let's leave Daddy be," Dianne said, evading Joe's grasp. She wrapped herself in a dressing gown and walked out of the room behind Connie, who seemed to be full of beans, back to her normal self. "You seem to be feeling better, are you?" Dianne said, putting a hand on Connie's forehead the minute they left the room.

Connie instantly subdued, dramatically coughing, "no," she sniffed, pulling on Dianne's dressing gown.

"Really, you were very bouncy when you came in, are you sure you're still not feeling well," Dianne asked, masking her laughter with a cough. She could remember doing the exact same thing when she was little in order to get to watch more films and have icecream.

"Sore heady, can you pick me up?" Connie asked, holding her hands up.

"Yes but don't you think we should go back to bed if you're not well," Dianne said, as she picked her up. She didn't have the authority to call Connie out, but by taking her back to Joe, Connie may come clean.

"No, no, I should go and watch octonauts and have icecream and snuggles," Connie said, disagreeing with Dianne flamboyantly flapping her arms, not like a sick child. The lady who she wanted to call mum, however, had already began to carry her back to Joe.

"Joseph, Connie said she's still not well," Dianne said, as she got back into bed, next to an awake looking Joe, who had heard the whole conversation.

"Oh dear, what's wrong?" Joe asked, playing along with Connie's presumed fib.

"You can seed Dada," Connie said, putting a frown on her face, trying to look as sick as possible. Though she looked cute there wasn't anything apparently obvious.

"I'm sure you came in shouting and jumping you know Connie, it woke me up," Joe said, raising an eyebrow, as he put his hand on her head that was absolutely the right temperature. The only thing that was wrong was that she had chapped lips and a runny nose.

"No, no, that wasn't me, that was Dot," Connie protested, pointing at Dianne.

"Ah okay then, well if you're still poorly we might have to ring the doctor and let them know. Maybe get some even more yucky medicine," Joe said, pouting back at Connie. He took a tissue from the side and wiped her nose, smiling when she protested. This routine seemed familiar to Dianne as well, she could remember her mum saying the exact same thing to her.

"I not really vat sick, I just coughy and sniffy," Connie said, and then wriggled from his grasp. She stood on his bed and did a dance to prove her point.

"Phew, that was a close one eh Dianne," Dianne smiled and nodded, reaching to tickle Connie.

"So because you're better Sausage, what do you want to do today?" Joe asked, putting his head on Dianne's shoulder.

"I not really too sure maybe ride my bikle," Connie said tilting her head as she thought, "can we have pantakes for breakfast?"

"Okay, so ride your bike and have pancakes and then, mmm, what about we have our second Christmas and give Dianne her presents?" Joe suggested once he had yawned again. He had had a really good night's sleep but the late night had made waking up at 7am particularly awful. Plus, from 3am onwards, Dianne had been particularly squirmy as she tried to fall back asleep and it seemed to have registered in his subconscious making his sleep a little worse. Dianne hadn't managed and had instead put some headphones in and watched Friends since 5 am, turned away from Joe so she didn't wake him up, although he seemed pretty dead to the world every time she checked on him. Joe had, of course, noticed this but chose to ignore it and sleep longer.