Aaron moves onto Jack's lap as Frosty starts melting in the greenhouse, the magician having trapped him in there. "I don't want Frosty to melt!"
"Frosty will be okay," Jack tries to reassure the boy.
But moments later, Frosty is nothing more than a puddle. "You lie! Frosty gone," Aaron says, looking up at him with sad eyes.
"Just keep watching, goober," Kate says, curled up on the other end of the couch.
The boy is enthralled with the remainder of the movie as Santa brings Frosty back to life. "We make Frosty tomorrow?" he asks. It had been too dark outside when the got back from dinner to play in the snow.
"Yes," she smiles. "Now, I think it's time for somebody to go to bed."
"But I not tired, Mommy," Aaron informs her with a yawn.
"Who do you want to sleep with tonight?" Jack asks.
"You," he answers without thinking about it.
"Okay, you go brush your teeth," she instructs. The boy climbs down from Jack's lap and scampers down the hall to the bathroom.
"You okay with that?" he asks once Aaron is gone.
"Of course," she gives him a small smile. "Do you want to switch rooms, take the bigger bed? He, uh… he kind of kicks."
"I think we'll manage," he smiles back. "You going to bed too?"
She nods and stands, "It's been a long day. He woke up super early because he was so excited about the snow."
They walk down the hall together, and she lifts Aaron up to tuck him in to the bed, making sure he isn't too close to the edge. "Good night," she kisses his forehead.
"Love you, Mommy," he says with another yawn.
Jack pulls a book out and lays down on the bed beside the boy. "Night, Kate," he tells her as she exits, pulling his bedroom door shut behind her.
~Lost~
Aaron looks up at Kate as she stops rolling the snowball. "Bigger, Mommy!" he says, pushing it forward on his own.
"If you make it too big, it won't fit on top of the other ones," she says, rubbing her cold hands together.
With a soft sigh, Aaron stops rolling and studies the parts of the snowman already in place. "Okay, it ready."
Jack lifts the head of the snowman, placing it on the rest of his body. "There. You want to pick out some arms for him?"
The boy walks away in search of twigs, Kate and Jack both watching him.
"So what are we going to tell him when the snowman doesn't come to life?" Jack asks quietly, glancing over at her.
She looks down at the snow at her feet and shrugs, "I haven't really figured that out yet."
Aaron comes back with his selected snowman arms, and while he and Jack put them in, Kate goes to the porch to grab the bag of other supplies that they had left there. She ties the scarf around its neck while Aaron carefully puts buttons on the middle ball of snow. Then the doctor lifts him up to make the face with more buttons and a carrot.
Aaron grins up at the snowman once his feet are back on the ground. Jack crouches down next to him, "You know… Frosty is special, Aaron."
"Yes," the boy nods. "He magic."
"Exactly. And our snowman is… not magic."
Aaron nods again, "I know. He not alive."
"Yes."
After another moment of looking at the snowman, the blond boy turns to Jack, "Now what we do?"
"You getting cold?"
"No."
"Then what do you want to do?" Jack tightens the boy's blue scarf around his neck.
"I have an idea," Kate says from behind him, and a second later he is smacked square in the back by a snowball.
Aaron giggles as Jack stands and turns around to look at her, surprised. Another snowball hits his chest, sending snowflakes into his face as it explodes.
"Aaron, you want to help me get your mom back for that?" he asks, bending down to pick up some snow in his hands. The boy does the same.
Both of their snowballs miss her, and she gets in another hit to Jack before taking off toward the back of the cabin. She stops and listens, and hearing nothing, she starts to build a pile of snowballs in anticipation of their attack. And then she quietly waits, snowball in hand, for over five minutes.
Jack peers around the side of the cabin, and seeing no sign of her, he creeps forward, trying to be as quiet as possible in the snow, until he reaches the end of the cabin. After a deep breath, he steps out and launches the snowball at her.
Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she turns toward the doctor and just barely dodges the snowball he had thrown before tossing her own. In her hurry to throw it, her aim is off, and she misses him. As she bends to grab another, she is hit low on her back by a snowball. She turns around to find Aaron standing there and is surprised that the three year old had managed to throw it that hard.
Jack succeeds in hitting her shoulder with a snowball of his own. Kate eyes the snowball in her hand for a second and then throws it at him. As it hits his chest and she leans over to grab another, Aaron runs at her, catching her off guard and sending her down into the snow.
He climbs on top of her and starts throwing fistfuls of snow at her as she brings her arms up to protect her face from the cold. "I win," the little boy says triumphantly.
The doctor stands there grinning as he watches them, knowing that if she truly wanted to get away from the boy, she could do so. After a moment of letting Aaron have his fun, Jack grabs him under the arms and lifts him off of her.
"Hey," Aaron protests as he is set on his feet.
"I think she knows you won, buddy," he says, offering her a hand to help her up. Kate brushes the snow off of her as she sits up and then accepts Jack's hand.
"I cold," the blonde boy says, looking up at him.
"You're cold? I think some of that snow you threw on me got inside my coat," she tells him.
"I think it's time to go inside," Jack says, picking Aaron up and following her back around to the front of the cabin.
Five minutes later they have gotten all of their winter gear off and organized. Kate shivers, the snow clinging to her jeans and what made it down her coat now starting to melt. She looks over at her son, who has grabbed his backpack and settled at the kitchen table to color, the cold clearly no longer bothering him.
"Do you mind if I go take a shower?" she asks.
"Go ahead," he says, having noticed her shiver. "I'll keep an eye on him."
"Thanks," she gives him a small smile before heading toward the bathroom.
Jack moves over to Aaron, looking down at the picture he is coloring. Aaron stops and looks up at him, "I have juice box?"
"Sure, buddy," he says, getting one out of the box for him.
"Goldfish?"
"Uh… it's almost time for lunch. Why don't we wait for your mom to shower and we'll see what she wants to do for lunch?" Jack suggests, not wanting to have to explain to Kate why Aaron isn't hungry later.
"Okay," Aaron sighs and takes a sip of juice before returning to coloring.
"What are you drawing?"
"Dinosaurs."
"Which one is your favorite?"
"T-rex," he answers with a smile as he continues drawing an indistinguishable type of dinosaur. A few minutes pass before he sets down the green crayon and announces, "I gotta potty."
Unfortunately the cabin only has one bathroom, which is already occupied. "Well, buddy, mom is in the bathroom right now. Can you hold it?"
"No," he vigorously shakes his head and gets out of the chair.
Jack stands and leads Aaron to the bathroom. "Kate," he calls as he knocks on the door. Getting no answer, he assumes she can't hear him through the door with the water running. He glances down at Aaron, who is doing the potty dance, and then reluctantly reaches for the doorknob, which he fortunately finds unlocked.
Kate freezes when she hears her name called, in the middle of rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. After a moment of hesitation, she says, "Yeah?"
"Sorry to bother you," Jack begins, "but Aaron kind of needs to use the bathroom."
"Oh… he can come in," she replies.
Hearing her grant permission, Aaron pushes the door open further so that he can get inside and races to the toilet to relieve his bladder.
Jack briefly catches sight of her silhouette through the shower curtain before turning back down the hall, not wanting to be caught looking at her when they aren't even dating anymore.
A few minutes later he and the boy are seated at the kitchen table again, the latter finishing up his dinosaur drawings. "All done," Aaron announces, sliding the picture over to Jack.
"Where did you learn to write?" he asks, pointing at the name written at the top of the paper, the 'r' backwards but otherwise correct.
"Mommy teached me. It say Aaron."
"Do you know how to write anything else?" He and Kate had considered putting him in preschool for the fall, but later found out that he just missed the birthday cutoff to start that year.
"I know all the letters," Aaron says proudly.
"Can you write my name?"
The blue eyes look at him for a moment before shaking his head, "Don't know how."
The doctor pulls out a new piece of paper, spelling out his name for the boy to write. The 'j' is also backwards but otherwise Aaron gets the letters correct.
As Aaron proceeds to show Jack his skills by writing out the entire alphabet, Kate wanders back into the kitchen. Suddenly very much regretting his words those months ago now that he can see all the contradictory evidence of her mothering instincts, he turns his eyes to look at her, taking in her jeans and red sweater, then her wet curls falling over her shoulders.
She gives him a sheepish smile, then her gaze turns down to her hand resting on the table, "I, uh, must have forgotten to pack a hairbrush."
"I think we passed a drugstore on the way to dinner yesterday. I can run out and get you one. Or… well, Aaron mentioned he was getting hungry; we could go get some lunch and stop on the way."
"After our snowball fight, I could go for some lunch," she agrees.
"Great. I was thinking we could see if they have a sled too. Aaron would probably like that."
She nods and ruffles Aaron's blonde hair, "Yeah, I bet he would have fun sledding."
