The ABO Serum

Chuck's

When Izzy reached the bottom of the stairs and saw his daddy he screamed and raced to hug him but tripped halfway there on the blanket he was dragging. Jonathan met him and picked him up for hugs and snuggles. "Hey baby boy. I missed you," he said and kissed the still chubby cheeks of the three-year-old. He'd start getting lean and smart soon, like Zeke, and Jonathan would miss the pudge. He adored his babies and might have had more, but after three boys...he couldn't do that to Stephanie. She was barely hanging on to her sanity postpartum. So, he got a vasectomy for her sake and resolved to enjoy the babies he had even more.

"Take him potty," Lance reminded. He had his hands full making pancakes.

"POTTY," Izzy shouted and started squirming in his daddy's arms. Jonathan set him back down and he raced for the bathroom. Jonathan followed and helped him. Izzy wanted to show off his Transformer underpants and almost had an accident because of the delay that caused. But this wasn't Jonathan's first rodeo. As soon as he got a feel for where they were in the potty-training process, he knew what to do. Grandma Katie made a lot of progress with Izzy in the last few weeks.

As he navigated their new morning routine, Jonathan decided keeping it going would be best for the boys right now. As much as he would love to spend the day with them, they would feel more secure if he came alongside their routine and clicked himself into place like he belonged. That would communicate without complicated explanations that their lives were settled and not going to be disrupted again.

But they also needed something more to acknowledge their feelings of having missed Daddy and getting him back, so he promised that this evening, after camp and preschool, they'd go to Chuck E. Cheese's together to celebrate. Lance raised one eyebrow at that until he saw the reverence with which all three boys repeated, "Chuck E. Cheese," in unison. Even Josiah.

"The kid who asked me for a snack of Brie and crackers likes Chuck E. Cheese's?" He asked. Josiah blushed and Jonathan laughed and ruffled his hair.

"One of the church ladies always brings Brie and crackers to the potlucks," Jonathan explained. "Who knows why he likes it, but that's how he got exposed to it. And Chuck E. Cheese could serve mud pies for all they care. The food is not the draw. I bet you haven't been since you were a kid. You'll be joining us, right?"

"Of course!" Lance beamed. He hadn't been sure he was invited. This was good, right?

They took one car, the Hartley's minivan that Lance had been using to cart the boys around since the police called him about finding it out the end of an old logging road. They knew Stephanie had left her kids with him as he reported her actions to avoid any future custody issues, and they now believed she drove that far and hiked the rest of the way out of town past the National Guard on foot. They were thin in that direction because there weren't any through roads, but the campground the outsiders that wanted to get in were using was that direction in an adjacent state park.

After dropping the boys at preschool and camp, Jonathan dropped Lance at his law office, where he kept another nicer car for business, and went to the church to prepare for their weekly staff meeting.

When the secretary came in and saw the light on in the pastor's office, she was at first concerned about a break in. She crept quietly down the hall; her cell phone dialed to 911 with her finger hovered over the call button. "Marta, is that you?" Jonathan called and she was so startled her finger bumped the call button by accident. After explaining her mistake to the police dispatcher, she went back in to greet the pastor.

Variations of her surprised but enthusiastic greeting repeated as each member of their team arrived. He told them he'd only got out of quarantine the evening before, so he wasn't sure if he'd be able to come until it was time to do so.