~24 January~
~9:42 pm~
When Jack had first signed up for the Vow, it had been half because Jim did it and he didn't want his brother to go through it alone, and half because... well why not. He didn't have a girlfriend. Hell, he didn't even have a regular fuck buddy at the time. It hadn't been entirely a joke, but it wasn't far off either. He hadn't expected it to work out at all. And yet, it seemed it had worked out. Well. So far, anyway. Okay, so he hadn't been expecting to be thrown into fatherhood so soon, he would admit. But Ty had grown on him, and it might be that he was even starting to actually like the little guy.
He had been scared as hell at first. Jack was used to being in charge of other people, back when he'd been in the Air Force. But those had been adults. They had been capable of seeing to their own needs. Jack didn't have to worry about making sure they didn't put things in their mouths that weren't food, or giving them baths, or making sure they didn't put their fingers in light sockets, or whatever else came along with looking after a little kid. He had also had to get used to not walking around the house naked whenever he felt like it. And watching what he said in front of his stepson so the kidlet wouldn't go around repeating it, as he had learned the hard way by actually hearing Ty repeating something he'd said. The more time he'd spent with Ty, though, the more used to that particular sort of responsibility Jack had gotten. He still wasn't ready for his own, though. Infants still terrified him. Or rather the fact that he might hurt them by accident terrified him. But Lola didn't seem to be in any hurry to have him knock her up either, so an infant wasn't something he needed to worry about any time soon.
Jack had had a slow day at work, and got out earlier than usual. He used the extra time to pick up some groceries, before stopping by to pick up Ty from day care. He had played with trucks with Ty for a while before dinner, and then at tucked the boy into bed and read him stories until he fell asleep. Yeah, he was starting to get the hang of this parenting thing and learning it wasn't as scary as he had built it up to be in his mind. Once Ty was asleep, Jack literally tiptoed out of hiss room and very slowly and quietly closed the door most of the way behind him. Okay, so he did tend to exaggerate things a little sometimes. But better that than accidentally waking the kid up, right? Right.
After changing into a pair of sleep pants and at-shirt, Jack made sure the doors were locked and that both the porch light and a light in the living room had been left on so Lola could see when she got home. He headed for the bedroom he shared with his wife and kicked back on the bed to channel surf and see if there was anything he felt like watching until she got home from work.
"Thanks again, Lola!"
"No problem, sweetie! See you in a couple weeks for the real thing, huh?" Lola called back to the house she was leaving, her breath leaving clouds of frost in the dark sky. Dropping her makeup case on the passenger seat, she gave her client a wave before heading around to the drivers' side of her Vanagon and putting the beast in gear. It'd been ungodly cold and snowy recently, but Lola had booked hair and makeup for a Valentine's day wedding, and her client wanted her to come do the hair and makeup trial tonight, of all nights. While she had fun with her job, she really would rather have been hanging out with her husband and Ty, or out having fun somewhere non work-related. Preferably somewhere with alcohol, especially after working a full shift at the salon before this extracurricular appointment. Well, it paid the bills, and it wasn't too far from home, so it didn't take her long to get back to the suburbs where she now lived. She hadn't gotten any 911 texts from Jack so she didn't exactly rush, however, glancing in the rearview mirror at the back of the van. For a long time this vehicle had been her home, it was strange to think she had an actual house and a family now, when she was still so young.
It had been an adjustment, for sure, but not in a bad way. Jack was easy to get along with so far, and Ty liked him a lot, which made things easier. It helped that the little boy, who had just turned three in December, was starting to show an interest in potty training and was making leaps and bounds in speaking in coherent sentences. Of course, he was also picking up things like a sponge, but fortunately Lola had a good sense of humor and it just made her laugh like crazy when the toddler repeated a curse word he'd learned from her or Jack. Probably not good when he went to day care, but they already judged her like mad when she dropped him off just because of her out-there sense of style. Pulling the car into the driveway, Lola cut the engine and headed to the front door, leaving her makeup kit in the passenger seat. She didn't feel like putting it away and if she left it on the floor, she knew from experience that Ty would find new and creative uses for it. Like lipstick 'crayons' all over the walls. That had been a fun mess. Letting herself in, Lola kicked off her shoes and jacket and made her way through the house, turning off the lights behind her as she went.
"Hey you," she said with a smile, peeking into their bedroom as she heard the TV. Lola slipped all the way into the room and closed the door behind her quietly, crawling up on the bed next to her husband with a sigh. "Sorry that took so long, I had to redo this girl's makeup twice because she thought her false eyelashes looked 'too real'." Rolling her eyes, Lola leaned in to give Jack a quick kiss before stretching her 5'4" frame out next to his and sighing. "You have any trouble getting the monster to sleep?" she asked, resting a hand on his torso and drawing a circle pattern absentmindedly with her index finger. She'd wanted to be home to tuck Ty into bed, but that hadn't gone exactly as planned. It was a good thing Jack didn't mind, then again they wouldn't have gotten married if he minded.
