Awake: Allen woke up that morning with no feeling in his right arm, far too warm to be comfortable, and the taste of hair in his mouth. It was all for the same reason; Nora had fallen asleep on his arm. It was summer and she had wrapped her arms around him, and he had accidently opened his mouth last night and Nora had wild hair. Allen was as far from comfortable as he could be without being on deployment, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Baby: Shaun was two when Allen and Nora agreed to have another child. Nine months later Nora gave birth to a baby girl, whom they named Courtney. Apparently you only get lucky once, while Shaun spent most of his formative years eerily quiet, Courtney would rarely stop crying. Luckily for everyone college and the military taught Nora and Allen (respectively) that sleep was a luxury item.
Candy: the Halloween after Shaun was born was the first halloween Allen and Nora spent together. Nora wanted to hand out apples, Allen wanted to hand out candy. A decent compromise seemed to be candied apples, until one of the neighborhood children decided, in protest to this perfectly reasonable idea, to throw his candied apple through the Mark's window.
Next year, Allen decides the treats.
Dog: The plan was to get a dog on Shaun's fifth birthday, but it wasn't until his seventh that they agreed on what breed, and even then it was more of a compromise. They went to an abused animal shelter and asked for their breed of choice, much to Allen's initial dismay they didn't have any Golden Retrievers, but any complaint soon melted away when they met the German Shepard they had offered. His warm eyes melted Allen's heart and had Nora smiling smugly for weeks.
Shaun named the dog Puppo and the name kind of stuck.
Empathy: For the first few years after his retirement Allen had to actively avoid watching the news. The war was brimming, coming to a head, and even though it was only a matter of time until peace was declared, every death from this day to that weighed heavily on Allen's conscious.
Fountain: There were few places that Shaun loved more than the Rings Fountain of Boston. When he was a child, he would run through the water jets spitting into the sky. When he was a teen, he simply liked to watch the people, and when he was an adult, it was the site where he proposed.
Games: It wasn't until Courtney was three that the Nora worried about video games in the house. Little Courtney seemed enthralled by her big brother playing Zeta Invaders on the TV set. Nora calmed down a little when Courtney turned to her and asked, "Mama, how's a TV work?" Nora and Allen started a pool as to what their children would be that day, almost twenty years down the line Courtney was an engineer and Nora was twenty dollars richer.
Hero: At some point in each of their lives, both Courtney and Shaun had to write a report about their heros.
Shaun wrote about Nora, his strong district attorney mother, who fought for truth, justice, and the law. He wrote about how she was tough, but fair. Kind but firm, understanding but not blind.
Courtney wrote about her father. In the interest of not lying to his children, Allen always dodged the question when they asked about him in the military, but Courtney had always been clever, she knew that Allen was more important than he let on, mainly because every time he said "It's a long story, and boring. You wouldn't care," her mother would whisper in her ear, "He was a war hero, never forget that."
Ice: It was a snowy day. Shaun and Courtney were in highschool and far too old to play in the snow and have snowball fights, so instead they had an Igloo building contest. Courtney, ever the the pragmatist, tried to build an Igloo that would last forever. Shaun, who had a flair for the dramatic, went for style.
The smug smile that Shaun sported every time they passed their dramatically different igloos melted as his igloo did the same, while his sister's smug grin only grew as hers withstood the test of the first half of spring.
Jealous: Allen was always a little jealous of Nora and Shaun's rapport. Shaun would cry in Allen's arms, only to coo gently when passed to Nora. He was jealous all the way until the day Courtney was born, who smiled for the very first time when she saw Allen's face.
Kitchen: If there was one room the Mark's family spent more time in than anywhere else, it was the kitchen. Whether it was Allen cooking dinner, Courtney stealing cookies from above the fridge, Nora making coffee, or Shaun ruining yet another pot trying to make a "new energy drink that'll make us all rich."
Lemons: "When life gives you lemons, make a lemonade stand," may not have been the original saying but it was what the Marks children made out of it, and like everything they did, it became a competition. Shaun was creative, mixing and matching a dozen different powders and flavors, there was never the same lemonade two days in a row. Courtney was a control freak, she bought the lemons herself, squeezed them herself, sugared them herself, the end result was the classic lemonade, the epitome of lemonade, that everyone recognised and loved.
They never did decide who won.
Monthly: It was a long journey from boy to man for Shaun; he had to get a driver's license, win a couple of fist fights, save a life, lay with women, he had to hustle at pool, and defy his father's wishes. He had to break hearts and be heartbroken.
On the other hand, the journey from girl to woman was much shorter for Courtney, completed by age nine when she learned in school she'd be bleeding once a month for most of her life.
Noel: Allen didn't overdo too much in his life, but he celebrated the fuck out of Christmas. He put up an excessive amount of lights and decor, spent an exorbitant amount of money on gifts. As the kids grew up, they began to help. Courtney managed to create a program that would flash the christmas lights to music, Shaun found a way to color the snow outside without melting it, and Nora would shake her head at her eccentric family.
Ocean: For the first thirty eight years of his life Allen Marks was completely apathetic towards the ocean. Then Shaun almost drowned in it when he was ten. Shaun was a durable kid and was back in that water the next moment he was able. Meanwhile, Nora had to prevent Allen from firing a few shots into the air just to "have an excuse to clear the fucking beach."
Pilgrimage: The Freedom Trail was a tacky tourist attraction. It was also a pilgrimage that Allen made yearly. He didn't really know why he walked it, nor did he know why he eventually insisted on taking his children with him on occasion but he did. Something about the trail and it's destination called to him.
Quiet: Shaun and Courtney were at the library studying. It was supposed to be quiet. But the quiet doesn't last long when one sibling is cramming for finals and the other is having just a bit too much fun teasing them about it.
"Either Shut up or fuck off!" was Courtney's catch phrase of the day, which led to a swear jar being created. Not for her, no, but for allen who on any given day would say something similar more often than he said hello.
Romance: One night, when they were still young enough for this type of shenanigans to be considered cute, Courtney and Shaun snuck downstairs to find some snacks; instead they found their parents, slow dancing to a sad song, something about how their lover left them. Shaun and Courtney were too young to understand it at the time. Why would they listen to a song so sad but dance so close? It wasn't until they had lovers of their own, whom they'd hold close every night, that they understood.
Soda: Allen had only ever planned one murder for personal reasons, and it was that of his neighbor Tom Maddox, who taught seven year old Shaun about what happens when you mix diet nuka-cola and mentos. Allen would have insisted it was just an idle thought, but Maddox never really knew how close he came to death.
Terminal: When Allen was forty five he diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. He was told he had a "fifteen percent chance to live, if that." Allen would always say "I like those odds," and in response to the confused glances he'd always say, "It's better than ten not as good as twenty, but good enough for me."
Allen would die at seventy eight, of the things seventy eight year olds usually die off.
Umbrella: Shaun thought he was safe from the rain under her umbrella, but Courtney and her squirt gun had wildly different ideas about that.
Volcano: Professor Maddox almost died the same night he taught his neighbor's son what happened when you made a paper mache volcano, and then added baking soda and vinegar. Coincidently that was the same night the Mark's kitchen was ruined and Shaun was cemented forever in the ways of chemistry and science. Or at least Allen would have claimed it was a coincidence.
Whiskey. Allen didn't know where he went wrong. He tried to bring up his son right, teach him the difference between right and wrong. But no, on Shaun's twenty first birthday, he did the unthinkable - turned down vodka for whiskey. Ah, well maybe Courtney was salvageable.
X-Ray: It was courtney that first needed to go to the hospital, which was really a surprise, Vegas odds were on shaun and his wacky science. But no, it was Courtney who fell off her bike, mundane, all things considered, but no less stressful for the Mark's family. And very stressful for their doctors as they were threatened with lawsuits and bullet wounds no less than eleven times that day. And that's if you don't include the parents.
ZZZZZZZZZZ: Allen woke up that morning with feeling in his right arm, exactly the right temperature, and no taste of hair in his mouth. He had fallen asleep with his arms pinned to his sides, his coat and blankets kept out the cold of the Commonwealth winter, and while Dogmeat was cuddled up to him, it was nowhere near his mouth.
Allen Marks awoke to world far from the one he had been dreaming of, far from domestic life of Courtney, Shaun, and Nora. Allen shook the sleep from his eyes and the dreams from his head. Wishing for days gone by would do him no good, because his world now was one of survival, and if he let it, the weight of "what if's" would tie a noose around his neck and make him jump off a bridge