"Steven, you scared me!" Jackie exclaimed, turning around to give him a peck on the lips.
"Sorry," Hyde replied with a smile. "Where are the kids?"
"Kathy insisted on staying the night with Leia, and Zeke is down for a nap."
Hyde nodded with a "not bad" facial expression.
"How was your day?"
He stepped away from her and pulled a beer out of the fridge. Sitting on a bar stool and cracking the can open, he replied, "Long and tiring."
"Oh, I'm sorry baby," she announced sincerely. "Why was it so long and tiring?"
Sighing, Hyde recounted his day. "Had a bunch of punks trying to make it out of the store with a backpack full of casettes."
"What'd you do?" Jackie turned the burner off and looked over at him.
"What was I supposed to do? I handled it myself."
"Steven, you should've called the cops and reported it."
Hyde stood up and walked toward her. "I'm not going to call the fuzz just because someone tried to leave with a crap-load of tapes."
Jackie sighed. She didn't want to, but she gave in due to the fact that she'd never win this argument. "Okay." She clapped her hands and announced, "Dinner's ready," to change the subject.
Hyde pulled out dishes to eat on and then went to check on his son. When he got there, Zeke was already starting to wake up. "Time to eat, buddy."
Zeke crawled out of his "Big-Boy" bed and asked to be carried. when they got back downstairs, plates with spaghetti were already sitting on the table. Hyde plopped his little guy in his booster seat and handed him a small fork. "Don't make a mess today," Jackie informed.
"I don't," Hyde said with a smile before he kissed his wife on his way to his chair.
"Not you, Zeke."
"No mess!" Zeke squealed.
"That's right. Don't make a mess."
When dinner was over, Zeke had in fact made a large mess on his section of the table as well as himself. "I got him," Hyde said as he pulled Zeke out of his chair.
"Thank you, so much," Jackie said as she began washing the dishes soon to move to the table and clean it off.
Hyde took his son into the bathroom and washed him up before puting his pajamas on him. Zeke was tired, yet again, and fell asleep soon after his dad laid him down on his bed. With the kid snoozing, Hyde walked into the bathroom again to find Jackie washing her face and brushing her hair. He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist again. Smelling her hair and giving the top of her head a kiss, he was glad to be home after a long day at work.