Topic: Making Concessions

Victoria Granger

Date: 2017-03-05 13:06 EST
Mid-January ((I forgot I hadn't posted this!))

Mornings at Maple Grove Manor were always a little hectic, what with four children under the age of four, one octogenarian, two slightly frazzled parents, and a hyperactive dog all settling down to breakfast together before they started their respective days. Afternoons were a little less hectic, at least once the kids and the octogenarian were down for a nap, and the frazzled parents could finally take a breath, but neither Jon nor Vicki were complaining. This was the life they had chosen for themselves, and despite the chaos, they were both loving it. Things were about to change a little bit, though, as the Shanachie reopened for the season, and Jon returned to work after a few months of paternity leave.

Thankfully, with the Christmas season over, Emily and Ben had returned to nursery in the mornings, which had given their parents some much needed time to focus on working out how to juggle the twins single-handed. Vicki was going to need that breather in the weekday mornings for a while before she got a handle on dealing with all four at once alone. Right now, though, Vicki was dealing with the mother of all tantrums emanating from the usually sweet-tempered Benjamin; Emily was, for once, utterly enthralled in her drawing; and Jon' Well, Jon was juggling the twins and Sol for the moment, laying out what he needed his assistant to do when he went back to the theater while simultaneously attempting to keep two three-month-olds from joining their big brother in his scream-fest.

It wasn't easy trying to juggle two newborn children while reading over the script for first play of the year and sort out casting. Thankfully, the rep wasn't scheduled to open a play for a few weeks' yet, it was still a little daunting trying to juggle being a husband, father, teacher, and assistant director all at once. Thankfully, Jon had stepped back from acting for a while, which freed up the time he might have spent memorizing his lines.

"Sol, for god's sake, take one of the twins, will you? I can't juggle three things at once!" Jon complained in a rare moment of frustation. His assistant arched a blond brow, secretly wondering why humans always made things so difficult for themselves, as Jon shoved one of the twins at him.

"May I point out that I am your assistant, not a nanny?" Sol asked, as he suddenly found a squirming twin in his arms.

"You're my assistant, so assist!" Jon countered, flipping through the script with one hand, while he jiggled the other twin in the other.

"If you insist," Sol replied, looking only slightly perturbed. It really was hard to fluster the man, which was one of the reasons Jon had kept him on for so long. He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers and in an instant both twins had quieted right down, as content as could be.

Which, of course, left the sound of Ben's yelling in his bedroom the only really intrusive noise in the place. Vicki had the patience of a saint today, it seemed. And into this interesting mess walked Liv, with her own bundle of trouble. Today, this included Bess, Bella, Lir, and the three puppies. The little dragon seemed to have stopped his growth spurt for the time being, stopping at around the size of a minature horse, and had developed a distinct love of being put on a leash and walked with Bella and her pups.

"Hello!" she called, somehow managing to get through the doorway before her little menagerie pushed in front of her. "Sit. No, all of you. Sit." On her hip, Bess waved a hand at the pups and repeated her mother's instruction just as firmly, much to Liv's amusement. It took a moment, but Lir and Bella had the pups in hand for now, all of them sitting as they were told. Then Liv turned to Jon and Sol, raising a brow at the noise from another room and the twins apparently being as good as gold. "Looks like you have things well in hand."

"He has things well in hand," Jon replied, with a jerk of his head toward Sol, who was trying to look innocent, despite the fact that everyone in present company knew what he really was and how he used his specific talents to the best of his ability.

"You said to assist, so I'm assisting," Sol pointed out, logically. "Liv, brought your entourage with you, I see," he said by way of greeting.

"Well, what would I do in the face of your sarcasm without my entourage, Sol?" she answered sweetly. Lir sneezed in Sol's general direction, scoring a direct hit on the warlock's shoe with a big gob of phlegm which Liv pretended not to notice while grinning hugely. "What did you do to the twins this time?"

As she spoke, she sat Bess down on the floor with the pups and took Maddie out of Jon's arms, lifting the baby girl up to sniff her rear end. "You need to change Chris' diaper," she told her colleague with a smile. "Jon, I need a statement to release about John Hurt's death. Too many journalists have been asking about your reaction for me to make something up."

"Charming, as usual," Sol replied with a scowl that was not entirely due to the phlegm on his shoe, which had been polished to a perfect shine just that morning. The man was almost annoying hard to fluster and never seemed to have a single hair out of place, no matter what was going on around him. "Sorry, love, I don't do diapers," he said, promptly handing Christopher back to his father, filling the void left by Maddie. "Would you like me to write up a statement for the press?" he asked his employer, preferring clerical tasks to that of childcare.

Jon winced at the odor emanating from his son's diaper and got to his feet with a sigh. He'd heard about the actor's death, but with everything going on around him hadn't had much time to think about it. "No, that's something I think I need to do for myself," he replied. "If you two will excuse me, Mr. Stinky needs changing."

"Right then, you can supervise Bess and the animals while I help Jon with his children," Liv told Sol with a bright smile. "No magic, or I will set my husband on you." She wiggled a finger in his direction with a chuckle. "Hand him over, Jon, I can do two. You look frazzled."

Too late; Sol had gotten rid of the dragon phlegm with a flick of his wrist, but at least, he hadn't used his magic on any of Liv's entourage just yet. "Are you sure you don't want me to change Pete's Dragon into a newt?" he asked, slightly sarcastically. "You're going to need a bigger aquarium before long," he warned.

"We're managing just fine, thank you," she laughed, laying both twins down on the changing table. "Besides, in a couple of weeks, we'll only have one puppy, not three. That should calm things down a little. How are you doing" Is Kelly-Ann giving you any more trouble?"

"Will you two stop arguing" We're on the same team!" Jon pointed out with an exasperated sigh. It wasn't so much that he was feeling stressed or frazzled as it was a little overwhelmed, but wasn't that why he had hired Sol and Liv in the first place" "No," he exhaled a sigh, content to let his super-P.A. take over the diapering, since Sol refused. "She keeps sending me scripts and pestering me to do another film though. She seems to think the public will forget me, unless I do at least one film a year."

While Jon and Liv chatted, Sol was tapping something out on a tablet that had appeared out of thin air, while keeping half an eye on Bess and the rest of Liv's entourage.

"She's wrong," Liv nodded as she worked on the diapering in front of her. "Sol, can you do anything about her" Maybe write one of those contracts that restricts her from drowning her client in unwanted solicitations of work?" It was a genuine request; despite still feeling threatened by Sol's presence, Liv did appreciate that the warlock knew more about certain things than she did, and she wasn't too proud to ask for help.

"Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something or other," Sol replied with complete confidence. "Though you might want to consider letting her go. We don't really need her, you know," he reminded Jon, not for the first time. After all, he felt he and Liv had things well in hand without any interference from the Earth front.

Victoria Granger

Date: 2017-03-05 13:07 EST
With Liv and Sol's help, and Vicki handling Ben, Jon had a moment to sit down and catch his breath. "I'm not sure I want to do any more movies," he admitted. At least, not of the Fifty Shades... variety. It would take a very special project for him to agree to doing a film again. "What are they saying about John Hurt?" he asked, looking to Liv with a frown. Jon had only just played John Merrick a little less than a year ago, and it was no secret that John Hurt had been one of his personal heroes.

"That is true," Liv agreed with Sol. "Between us, we've got things more under control than they have been for years." Which was the closest Liv was going to get to admitting out loud that hiring Sol had been a good idea. "So long as Mataya's Earth agent keeps telling her about the movies crossing her desk, she'll keep telling you about them, so Sol's right. We don't really need an Earth liaison at all." She paused, leaning down to blow a raspberry on Maddy's tummy before covering up the baby girl once again.

"What can you say about John Hurt?" she said in answer to Jon's query. "Mel Brooks deemed his performance in The Elephant Man "cinematic immortality". So many people have gone on record to compliment and mourn him. He's a real loss. Oh, but no emphasis on the alcoholism or his cancer. He didn't like it being mentioned in life, it would do him a disservice to ignore that preference now."

"I would have liked to have met him," Jon admitted, with a tinge of sadness and regret. It was no secret that Jon felt he could never hope to live up to the man, no matter how hard he tried. "Cinematic immortality is a good way to put it, but I'd prefer to say cinematic genius. It's a damned tragedy, of course, but he's left behind a legacy that anyone will be hard pressed to match."

"No one should try to," Liv smiled, hoisting Chris up onto her hip as Maddy played with the fingers of her other hand. "He was one of a kind." She considered Jon for a moment, glancing at Sol with a curious look in her eyes that had become familiar over the months they'd worked together. Liv was asking silently if Sol thought Jon needed a night off from his children.

Sol caught her glance and shook his head. If there was one thing he'd learned about his employer, it was that he was more at a loss without his children than he was frazzled by them. An afternoon without them, though, that was another matter. "Jon, let me take care of the press statement. Liv can find someone to take the twins for the afternoon. And for god's sake, let us hire a nanny. You're not Superman and neither is Victoria."

"I'm sure I can find someone willing to tire them out and bring them back for bedtime," Liv nodded in agreement. Personally, she would have suggested the whole night, but like Sol, she knew Jon felt better with his children close by. "So ....I'll make that phone call and tell Vicki while you two finish off what you were discussing when I arrived." She nodded to them, putting the twins down on the floor with Bess and the puppies, watched over by Bella and Lir.

Jon frowned, feeling like a failure. As much as he and Vicki wanted to handle four children on their own, he couldn't deny that they were both feeling frazzled and exhausted, and he hadn't even gone back to work yet. "I'll talk to Vicki about it," he said, making no promises. Neither of them liked the idea of someone else taking care of their children, but if they could find someone who could come to the house and help out a few hours a day, it would be a godsend.

"You had better talk to her about it," Liv told him sternly. "Remember what you told me about taking on too much at once" The same applies to you." She smiled, moving to grab her phone and scroll through the names to think of someone who might take these Grangers for the afternoon. Her voice faded into the background as she headed in the direction of the slowly fading tantrum, already making plans for Jon's children.

Which left Jon with Sol and Liv's so-called entourage, but not for long, as Sol eventually departed to take care of a few errands and to put out a press release regarding Jonathan Granger's reaction to the death of yet another film and theater icon. By the time Liv rejoined him, Emily was on the floor beside Bess, the two of them laughing and playing with the puppies, while Jon sat nearby thumbing through the script and making notes.

A little while later, Vicki joined him with a penitent Ben in her arms, settling down beside him as Liv wandered around their rooms packing a bag for the twins. Miranda had jumped at the chance to have the twins for a few hours, and Gabi had volunteered for Emily and Ben, since her own boys were around the same age. They'd be fed and have fun, and Jon and Vicki would get a few hours off.

"Why does it feel like packing the kids off to visit family is a cop out?" Jon asked, feeling the usual sense of guilt he always felt when he and Vicki admitted to needing a little help.

Vicki leaned back, still cuddling Ben as he worked through the kinks to regain his usually sunny disposition. "Because, for some reason, we seem to think we should be able to do it all," she shrugged. "I feel just as guilty about it as you, baby, but we haven't done it since before Christmas. We spent four years making sure we had a date night once a week, and we haven't done that since the twins arrived. Maybe we should get back to that. Just a few hours off once a week, and we might be less inclined to burn out so fast."

"Maybe," Jon said, allowing that much, though he was seriously considering the suggestion of a nanny, at least a few days a week, not only for his own sake, but for Vicki's. It wasn't something he was going to discuss until Liv had departed, though. Another option was leaving the theater altogether to become a full-time husband and father, but the theater had always been such a big part of his life, he knew he wouldn't feel whole without it.

"All right," Liv said, coming back into view. She set the massive diaper bag down by the end of the couch. "Miranda is coming over with Gabi to collect the kiddies; should be here in just a few minutes. I will take my brood elsewhere, too. And you two will have sex, sleep, take a bath, do whatever it is you need to do to unwind and be yourselves together until the kiddies are brought back around 7pm tonight. Got that?"

"Is that an order?" Jon asked, a slight smirk on his face as Liv handed out orders, even to Vicki. All they had to do now was bid the kids farewell, and they'd have a few hours to themselves. Emily and Ben seemed excited about going to visit their cousins, and the twins were too young yet to know the difference. It was Jon and Vicki who were dealing with twinges of guilt.

"You want orders, I can do orders," Liv shrugged, lifting Bess up onto her hip again. "Someone in this room has made a big deal out of telling me I'm not an employee, I'm a helpful friend." She flashed a smile at the pair of them.

Vicki chuckled. "After all these years, now she starts believing the schpiel," she said to Jon, loud enough for Liv to hear.

"Does that mean I can stop paying you?" Jon teased, in return, though he had no intention of doing any such thing. They'd come to know each other enough to be friends, but Jon also knew Liv was worth her weight in gold. Sol, too, to a lesser degree, but it was Liv who kept him organized and on track, at least, as far as his career was concerned.

"If I said yes, would you listen?" Liv countered laughingly, taking up the leashes in her free hand.

Vicki laughed at their friend's response, knowing full well that they didn't pay Liv even half what she truly deserved for everything she did, even with Sol doing his own bit as well.

"I'm off," Liv told them. "Remember, do what you need to do and no feeling guilty. Everyone needs a few hours off."

"Probably not," Jon replied honestly enough, with a chuckle. There was no reason to stop paying her, even if Sol was doing his bit to help, too. Hiring a nanny meant paying yet someone else to help out, but money wasn't really a problem, and they'd save a little by letting their Earth liaison go anyway. "Thanks, Liv, and no phone calls to check up on us either!" he warned with a grin as he took Vicki's hand in his own.

Victoria Granger

Date: 2017-03-05 13:07 EST
"Not unless someone catches you doing something like work and tells on you," Liv qualified with a grin. Bess waved to them as she was borne out of the suite, the gaggle of dogs and dragon puttering around Liv's feet happily as they went. Barely a few minutes later, Gabi's boys burst in, four-year-old identical twins who were clearly beside themselves with excitement over having their cousins to play for the afternoon.

It wasn't more than a half hour before Gabi and the boys had cleared out with Emily and Ben in tow, and then Miranda arrived to take the twins off their hands, leaving Jon and Vicki alone in their suite of rooms with only Cosmo for company. The dog was looking a little forlorn now that his puppies had gone out for the day, and flopped down beside Jon and Vicki, looking a little bit lost.

"Oh, for god's sake, Cosmo! They're only gone for a few hours, not forever!"

Laughing, Vicki leaned down to ruffle the dog's hair. "You need a break as much as we do," she told their dog fondly. "You can nap without anyone sitting on your head for once, isn't that great?"

Cosmo didn't really know what Vicki was saying, but from the thump of his tail, he was content for the moment with her attention. "He's just a big baby himself," Jon remarked, relaxing beside Vicki for possibly for the time in weeks.

"He's our firstborn," she chuckled, leaning back to relax next to Jon. Encouraged by his owners' insistence on relaxing, Cosmo jumped up onto the couch and draped himself over both their laps. "Oh, you big softie," Vicki murmured fondly, one hand stroking through the collie's hair. She let out a low breath, letting her head fall back against the cushions. "We really aren't capable of keeping this up right now, you know," she said quietly, her tone filled with regret. "I'm going to go nuts and have a breakdown without help when you're working."

Jon laughed as Cosmo hopped up on the couch and was allowed to remain there, free to snuggle with his master and mistress without any small humans getting in his way or tugging on his ears or tail. The chuckle was short-lived though as that twinge of guilt made itself known again. "I don't have to go back to work, you know. It's not like we need the money," he told her.

"Yes, you do," she told him instantly. "Jon, you need the theater. Without it, you're still you, but you don't light up and fizzle with excitement as much as you do when you're involved. I'm not going to go through this with you again. You are going back to work, and we will work out a way for me not to implode while you're doing it."

"What about you?" he countered. "You have a career, too," he pointed out, feeling guilty for pursuing his own career, while she stayed home with the kids. These were choices they'd both discussed to death and decided prior to him returning to the theater, but neither had expected adding twins would be so much more work.

"Love, we've talked about this," she reminded him gently. "I've made my decision, and right now, the children deserve to have my full attention. You deserve to have my full attention. It's only for a few years - when they're all in school, I'll have time during the day again, and I'll probably go back to something arty-farty. But I don't think I'll be having a full nine-to-five until they're all at least thirteen. And I'm fine with that."

Wasn't it him who'd once suggested having six children" Oh, how naive he'd been then. He often wondered how people who had more than four managed to remain sane. "I know we've talked about it before, but what about a nanny' Just for a few days a week or a few hours a day, maybe?" he suggested, unsure how Vicki might take that. Neither of them really liked the thought of other people caring for their children, but a little bit of help wouldn't be unwelcome.

For the first time, Vicki didn't immediately dismiss the idea. "A few hours a day would work better," she admitted. "Someone who can help balance the time spent with the twins and Emily and Ben. Every afternoon, maybe? 2 o'clock until 6 o'clock" Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it does," he replied, still frowning. "So, why do I feel guilty?" he asked, despite her insistence that he return to work. Even going back to work, he'd be doing what mostly amounted to a nine-to-five job, with a few hours on Saturday mornings to teach STARS. That was probably something he could let go, but he really enjoyed the time spent teaching the kids about the theater.

"Because you are Jon, and there is no known cure," she teased him fondly, tilting her head to kiss his cheek. "And because you're a normal man who, like every other normal man, has a strange idea that he should be able to do everything and cope with everything without a single problem, when the reality of the situation is far from it."

"I could have Sol work some sort of spell that would enable me to do it all," he teased back, though they both knew that wasn't going to happen. Not because the warlock might refuse, but because it just wasn't what either of them really wanted. "No regrets?" he asked, smiling at the affectionate kiss to his cheek. Their lives had changed a lot since she'd first let herself into his trailer on the set of Crowes to ask him on their first date.

Nuzzling to him, she smiled. "Too few to mention," she promised, knowing they both had a few regrets about their lives, but that those regrets paled in comparison with what they had together. "So I suppose we're getting some kind of ....nanny, then?"

Those regrets, whatever they were, had very little to do with Jon and Vicki's life together. There were definitely things he'd liked to have changed about both his past and hers, but he'd learned that traveling down that road was a dangerous one. What he wanted was to make life a little easier for her without sacrificing time spent with their children. "It's up to you, Vicki. Whatever you want."

"We're not just hiring someone with a good reputation," she said firmly, meeting his eyes. "To be honest, I don't care if the person we hire has the right qualifications or whatever. They need to get on with you, me, and the children, and if they don't then they're out, simple as."

"Agreed," he said, in complete agreement with her requirements. If this was going to happen, she was going to be happy with whoever it was they hired, and that meant this person had to practically become one of the family. "Shall I have Liv start looking for possible candidates?" he asked.

"Liv's got a better chance of finding someone who'll suit us than Sol, admittedly," Vicki smiled. She actually quite liked the warlock, but he was incredibly stuffy sometimes. He particularly didn't like having to talk to her when she was in her pajamas, which was a regular occurrence around here. "Yes, I think we should write up some kind of advertisement or guidelines, and let Liv take it from there. She knows us well enough to be able to find at least a couple of people we could choose from."

"I don't think we should tell people who we are, though," Jon added, knowing from experience that there were some people out there who might apply for the job for the wrong reasons if they knew who they were going to be working for. It kind of went without saying, but Jon felt the need to voice it anyway.

"Oh god, no," Vicki laughed, inadvertently startling Cosmo. "Oh, sorry, Cos ..." Her fingers rubbed through the collie's fur as he settled down again. "No, we shouldn't," she agreed. "And no one gets onto the property until they get through the first test, which is surviving a normal lunch or something with you and me."

Victoria Granger

Date: 2017-03-05 13:08 EST
Jon rested one hand against Cosmo's back, affectionately rubbing his fingers through his fur, which was lulling the dog to sleep. "A security check, too. Maybe we can ask Rufus to run something for us on anyone who applies."

"And Des," she nodded, enjoying the fact that they were having a quiet conversation, just the two of them, without having their attention pulled away in three or four different directions at the same time. She'd missed this feeling. "We've got plenty of people we can ask to check up on potential candidates."

"Right," Jon replied, including the resources of GrangerGuild Conglomerate, if necessary. He sighed almost contentedly. "I've missed this," he admitted, almost guiltily. Even though they adored their children, it was each other they had married.

"Mm, so have I," she mused, resting her head on his shoulder. "How boring have we become, hmm' Preferring a nice quiet conversation to getting up to the hijinks we used to." She chuckled softly, curling her fingers through his. "I guess this is what my dad means when he talks about being a happily married pair of sloths."

"Well, I don't mind a little hijinks now and then," he teased, eyes bright with amusement, but feeling calm and content for once. "I don't mind being a sloth, so long as it's with you," he told her, leaning close to brush a kiss to her lips. "So, think we should stop at four, then?" he teased further, half-expecting her to swat him for it.

She snorted with laughter, biting the tip of his nose gently for his tease. "I will agree to more only if you agree to be pregnant for it," she informed him. Ever since his day as her, she knew for a fact he would never agree to that condition, even if it were possible.

Jon chuckled. That answered that question, as there was no way he was ever agreeing to be pregnant, even if it were possible. "Fair enough," he told her, smiling warmly. "I love you, Mrs. Granger," he told her, though she should know that already.

"I love you back, Mr. Granger," she promised, kissing him tenderly. On their laps, Cosmo let out a loud yawn, rolling over onto his back to stretch comfortably. It seemed as though a little peace and quiet was just what the doctor ordered, for all three of them.

Jon laughed at the dog, who was their first baby, even as Vicki kissed him again. "Just make yourself comfortable, Cosmo. We don't mind being your bed," he remarked, knowing the dog didn't understand a word he was saying, though his ears twitched to hear his own name.

Rubbing her hand over the dog's belly, Vicki felt a weight lifting as she nestled comfortably against Jon. Now the decision was made to find a nanny, or at least someone who could help her cope while Jon was working, she could let go of some of her tension. "We need a date night," she muttered.

"We could have had one tonight, if ..." Jon trailed off thoughtfully. All it would really take to make that happen was a phone call or two. He smiled as he looked at his wife, almost conspiratorially. Did they dare"

Vicki's lips twitched into a wicked little smile. "We can make it up to them, can't we?" she suggested with an innocent little shrug. "Besides, it's been a long time since we got to enjoy each other with more than just a rushed quickie in a cupboard, hiding from the toddlers."

"Do you think they'd mind?" he asked, almost afraid to hope. Despite a small twinge of guilt, now that they were toddler and infant free, it was a tempting thought to extend the quiet solitude until morning. He had a feeling Miranda wouldn't mind, but he wasn't so sure about Gabi.

"We could call and find out," she smiled, fairly sure neither one of the short-notice babysitters would mind at all. After all, they'd taken Gabi's boys a few times; Gabi was unlikely to say no to taking their elder monsters for one night.

"You call Gabi, and I'll call Miranda," Jon suggested, though it was just as easy the other way around. Now that they'd decided, he was hopeful. He doubted anyone would argue that they deserved a night to themselves now and then.

"Sounds like a plan," she nodded in agreement. "One small problem, though ..." She looked down at the dog, now fast asleep on their laps. "I can't reach my phone from here."

Jon laughed at their predicament. "And my legs are falling asleep," he admitted. Somehow they were going to have to disturb Cosmo's sleep in order to get to their phones and get the blood flowing in their legs again.

Vicki chuckled, rubbing the dog's belly a little more roughly. "C'mon, Cos, up and at 'em," she said, shifting her legs under him. He woke up instantly, flipping himself off their legs to shake out his fur and yawn. "Well, that sorted that problem," she laughed, wriggling her toes as she pulled herself off the couch. "Right ....phone calls."

"Pick one," Jon said, letting her choose which one of their baby sitters she wanted to call, and he'd take the other. He moved to his feet, stamping his feet to get the blood flowing again, as he pulled his cellphone from his pants pocket.

"I'll call Gabi," she volunteered, bending to retrieve her phone from the coffee table. "You get to tell Miranda she can keep the twins overnight. Try not to let her deafen you." Chuckling, she dialed his cousin's number, stroking her fingers through Cosmo's fur as she raised the phone to her ear.

He chuckled, knowing Miranda would be thrilled, though he wasn't too sure about Rufus - at least, so long as they were behaving. They had the extra room for them, too, considering they had a couple of twin grandchildren of their own. It wasn't long before they'd received confirmation from both parties that they'd keep their children overnight, to be returned sometime the following day.

This confirmed, Vicki grinned, stretching. "I'm going to put the kettle on," she announced. "Just imagine ....a quiet cuppa that can actually be drunk while still hot. It's luxury!" She loved their children dearly, but small things like that were gone from their everyday existence right now. It was amazing how nice it was to have a hot cup of tea or coffee on occasion.

"Anything I can do?" he asked, almost forgetting when they'd had plenty of moments like these, though it hadn't really been all that long ago. One of their favorite things to do had been sipping a cup of tea and talking about their day before turning in for the evening. Of course, there were plenty other favorite things they'd enjoyed after that, too.

"Ignore the laundry and the tidying?" she suggested in amusement. "Maybe we should write up that list of what we need in a nanny while it's fresh in our minds before we do something unspeakable to each other in whichever room takes our fancy."

"Hmm, I like the way you think," he replied with a grin, though it was just as likely they'd fall asleep before that, or definitely shortly after. It wasn't that they've gotten so old that they'd lost their stamina, but the twins weren't sleeping through the night yet, and there were two other children who required their attention during the day.

Laughing, Vicki led the way into their little kitchen, filling the kettle to flick it on before pulling a notepad and pen out of a drawer. "So ..." she said thoughtfully. "I can't just put "someone nice" on this."

Victoria Granger

Date: 2017-03-05 13:09 EST
Jon chuckled. "No, I think you have to be a little more specific than that," he replied, going into the cupboard to fetch the mugs and tea fixings.

"Okay, hmm ..." She slid down into a seat at the table, tapping the pen on the paper. "Over the age of sixteen" This isn't a babysitting position, after all, but there are a lot of school-leavers who might fit us too. Part-time position, four hours a day, with the possibility of working Sunday every few weeks. That's to cover your tech rehearsal days. What else?"

"Kind of goes without saying that they have to be good with kids," Jon mused aloud. He wasn't quite sure what else to put in the ad that might get them the perfect person for the job. "Maybe something about the salary and benefits or should we save that for the interview?"

"Some people only apply to jobs just to get the benefits," Vicki shrugged. "I'd rather have someone who wants the job, not the money. Outnumbered parents in desperate need of someone who can help handle four under-fives for a few hours every day?"

"No, don't use desperate. It sounds too ....needy," Jon replied with a thoughtful frown before getting up to answer the call of the kettle and make them each a cup of tea. "Maybe you should put something in there about their ages though. That way they'll know in advance what they're signing up for," he suggested as he filled a mug with hot water.

"All right, scratch desperate," she nodded. "Keeping outnumbered, though. Outnumbered parents in need of someone who can help handle two toddlers, aged 4 and 3, and four-month-old twins, for a few hours everyday. That sound better?" She lifted her head, meeting his eyes curiously.

"That sounds about right," he said, as he fixed them each some tea before returning to his place at the table and handing her a cup, made just the way she liked it. "Think that'll do?" he asked, uncertainly.

"It's a start," she smiled, pushing the notepad away. "We can hand that off to Liv and she'll put in what she thinks needs to be said. Between them, she and Sol can vet the initial applicants within a few days, and then we can start on background checks and meeting these people." Taking her tea, she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "We're a good team."

"You're the brains and I'm the brawn," Jon replied with a grin, as he got his cheek kissed. Or maybe it was Beauty and the Beast, he wasn't quite sure. Either way, she was right - they were a good team, far better together than apart. He reached for her hand to link his fingers with hers. They could have had a much different life, but this was the one they had chosen and he had no regrets. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Vicki," he told her quietly, though she'd probably heard that from him more times than she could count.

"Well, you didn't really have a choice," she teased him fondly. "Once you'd happened to me, there was no way in hell I wasn't going to happen to you. I stalked you across a dimensional portal, remember." Grinning, she sipped her tea, squeezing his hand.

"And I stalked you through time," he added, smiling back at her. Anyone who didn't know them well might find that a little creepy, but they knew the truth of it, and the truth of it was simply that they had been made for each other. It had just taken a while for him over twenty years to figure that out.

"I know, we're just a lovable pair of creepy perverts, both of us," Vicki laughed, bumping her shoulder to his. "Here's a plan for the evening ....we have dinner with Humph, and take a long bath together. It's been ages since we've actually been able to do either of those things."

"Don't forget a walk with Cosmo," Jon added, knowing the dog would never forgive them if they forgot about him. They hadn't had much time for such things lately, with the twins too young and the weather too cold for pushing a pram around, but spring was coming.

"Yes, definitely a walk with Cos," she nodded enthusiastically. Strange, how it was the small things that had once structured their day fell by the wayside when children came along. She snorted with laughter at a memory. "Don't let him pull you into a fountain this time, though."

"No, I won't," Jon laughed at that same memory. Cosmo had been their first child, in a way, and Jon had done his best to spoil him, but that was before they'd had children. Even so, the border collie would always have a special place in their home and their hearts, and the dog had taken well to herding the children. "He'd mellowed a little, I think," he mused, with a glance to the dog whose ears had perked at the sound of his name again.

"Well, he's a grown up now," Vicki chuckled, leaning down to ruffled the dog's fur. "I can't believe he's nearly seven. He's almost older than us!" The collie loped up onto his feet, tucking his head into Jon's lap to ask for some love from his man, too.

Jon smiled as Cosmo laid his head on his lap, and Jon's fingers went to smooth the collie's soft, thick fur. "Grown up or not, he's still just an overgrown puppy. Aren't you, Cos?" he asked the dog, getting the lick of a tongue and the wag of a tail in reply. "I still feel bad he never had any puppies of his own."

Vicki tried hard not to laugh too loudly at that. "Jon ....can you imagine the mess we would have been with children and puppies?" she asked in amusement. "I have no idea how Liv keeps it all under control, but I am nowhere near as organized as she is."

"I don't know either, but they don't have four children under the age of four," he pointed out. "And one of them is a teenager." Which, in Jon's opinion, was practically like having a live-in nanny.

She chuckled fondly. "One thing to cling to ....our lot will definitely grow up together, so they can deal with each other's teenage drama with us," she said confidently, touching her cheek to his shoulder.

Jon laughed. "I can't wait for that!" he said, though in truth, he really was in no hurry to rush their children into becoming teenagers. As hard as it was juggling four of them sometimes, neither Jon nor Vicki was in a hurry for them to grow up anytime soon.

"Hectic as it is, I love our family," she told him with absolute sincerity. "Wouldn't change it for the world. Even the snotty kisses and the temper tantrums and the blowout diapers. It's all worth it for the cuddles."

"I might be willing to give up the blowout diapers," he said with a smirk, fingers becoming tangled with hers again as he leaned close to touch a soft kiss to her lips. The moment didn't last long though as Cosmo reminded them with a short bark that he was still there and required some attention of his own.

Laughing, Vicki broke the kiss with a touch of her lips to Jon's nose. "I think it's time for that walk," she said, looking down at the dog. "Where's your leash' Find it!" As Cosmo bounded off, apparently delighted that his favorite humans were going to do something with just him for once, she smiled, rising to her feet to put the cups in the sink. "Here's to having a nice, quiet, adult evening."

"If I still had my tea, I'd drink to that," Jon remarked with a grin as he moved to his feet to fetch their coats and gloves. Cosmo was reaping the rewards of his master and mistress' attention, it seemed, but there was still plenty of time for Jon and Vicki to enjoy a few rewards of their own.

They had all night, for the first time in months, to just relax and be themselves. They didn't have to be Mum or Dad, just Vicki and Jon, enjoying the quiet of a home that was not infested with children for one night only. Despite the guilt that came with handing off said children for that night, it was a good feeling. It was like Liv said ....everyone needed a little time off every now and then.

A little time off to remember that they weren't just parents, but a couple who had loved each other for, quite literally, as long as either of them could remember. For Vicki, it had been her whole life, and for Jon, it had been as far back as his memory would take him. Sometimes it almost felt like he'd died, been reborn, and given a second chance at life, determined to get it right this time.

But whether they got it right, or just got by, what mattered was that they did it together.