AN: Sorry for the long break! This chapter's a little short, but the next one will be longer.


Joshua considered the sight before him, uncertain. His wife was carefully undoing several lines of knitting, re-stitching them, and then taking the lines out once more.

"Should I ask?" he finally ventured.

"Oooooh, I can't seem to pay attention to what I'm doing," Margaret muttered, distracted. "My concentration's all shot to pieces. I may as well quit for the day." So saying, she set the bundle of yarn aside with demonstrative contempt.

"It's strange, isn't it? We've almost got the place to ourselves again," Joshua smiled, earning a reflexive smirk from his wife. Taking it as an invitation, he settled next to her on the off-kilter blue sofa and snaked an arm around her.

"Joshua!" Margaret feigned outrage, swatting his hand away as though it offended her by presuming to touch her shoulder. A fast-paced round of 'gotcha last' followed, with each of the duo attempting to poke or prod the other without being jabbed back in retaliation. At last, the twosome collapsed in a pile of giggles.

"We haven't done that in ages," Joshua cackled, holding his hands up in surrender. "Why is that?"

"That's because you're such a poor loser," Margaret retorted, victory practically oozing from every word.

"Are you sure it's not because you're a poor winner?" Joshua drawled as he elbowed her in the ribs. He was rather enjoying the look of mild annoyance that shimmered for a moment in his wife's eyes.

"Quite sure," she sniffed, pushing him away and standing. "I should check on Finn."

"I just looked in on him," Joshua interjected, grabbing Margaret's hand and pulling her back to her still-warm seat. "He's moping around a bit and looking through one of Jake's picture books."

"I worry about him," Margaret sighed, picking her knitting back up and scrutinizing her work. "He's such a helpless little thing, I'm afraid to let him go off alone. And without Jake here..."

"He's gotten so listless." her husband finished the thought with a nod. The normally hyperactive four year old had become solumn and withdrawn since Jake had moved out. His bouts of playful antics had become more rare as Margaret insistantly corralled him in earshot, and he'd taken to staring off into the distance and sighing.

Every day seemed to bring a new revelation about the particular methods and rituals that the boys had observed unbeknownst to either of the two adults. Margaret found her attempts at reading the stories that so fascinated the boy peppered with reminders that Jake would "do the voices", and make sound effects. Joshua found himself rebuffed by reminders that Jake invented his own games for the duo to play when he tried to engage the child in a spirited round of tug of war.

In all honesty, both parents found themselves learning more about Jake now that he was gone than they'd known when the independent-minded young dog had still lived at home.

"Maybe I should check on Finn," Margaret repeated, setting her knitting aside and getting up again. This time, Joshua let her go. When you didn't know what else to do, repeating the same ineffective action was as good a thing to do as any.

Finn laid on his stomach, staring into the vivid color image he'd found in one of Jake's adventure books. He stared past the figures battling heroically in the foreground, and into the distant horizon of a mystical world he wished he could be a part of.

Somewhere out there, beyond the familiar trees and dusty trails of home, the boy felt certain that Jake was adventuring through worlds as fascinating as anything that was in the brittle old books. Unable to move downwind of the adults without inciting a panic, the human child had begun trying to will himself into the illustrations of the old volumes. He was sure that if he looked hard enough, he'd see one of the heroic figures on the page smile or wink at him, or the villians might smirk dangerously. He did his best to skip past the pages that were devoid of good guys, just in case one of the scary pictures chose to come to life while unguarded.

Finn picked up the careworn book with his current favorite pictures in it, and turned towards the door. He wasn't surprised to see Margaret poking her head in to check on him, and the sigh he thought he suppressed at the familiar sight managed to escape instead. Margaret's ears flicked at the sound, and she felt a flash of embarrassment. They couldn't keep the boy penned up like an exotic pet. It just wasn't right.

"Finn hon? I thought you might like to go outside."

When the boy didn't respond, she continued. "Alone, that is. I know we've been a bit overprotective of you lately, and maybe we've overreacted, but we were scared for you and Jake, Little Bit."

The boy sat the heavy book aside, head cocked in the manner of a curious pup.

Margaret held her arms out to the child, and he readily responded to the unspoken invitation to a warm hug. "We're going to try and do better, Little Bit. But you've got to help us do it. I want you to stay in shouting distance of the house, and if we call you'd better come in, okay?"

Finn buried his face in the lady's warm, soft fur and nodded vigorously before bursting away from her in a surge of energy. "Thanks Ma'am!" he cried, running through the house and throwing open the back door.

Joshua was comfortably half-asleep when Finn thundered through the living room and blazed out through the kitchen, and startled badly at the sudden noise. "Is the house on fire?" he wondered aloud, sniffing the air as his wife appeared and began sorting through the closet behind him. "Nothing so dramatic, I just decided to give Finn a little extra leash is all. You don't mind if the poor dear gets some time away from constant supervision, do you dearest?"

Joshua grinned and slipped up behind his wife, intending to grab her in a fond hug. "I could stand a little private time for us, truth be told, m'dearest. I'll just tie the boy in the yard, and..."

Margaret pushed him away, ignoring his teasings. She'd found the object of her search and needed to get it delivered. "I'll tie you in the yard in a moment," she advised the male, who looked astonished at her audacity.

"A tough galoot like me? Sweetie, you wouldn't stand a chance!"

Margaret laughed under her breath as she ventured to the back door, still gaping open from where Finn the human typhoon had run through. "Fiiinn!" she called out before spotting him and the off-kilter white hat on his head at the end of the yard. The boy looked up as she approached, seeming resigned that his moment of freedom was over.

"You wanted me to hide this from you, remember? I know your birthday isn't until tomorrow, but I thought you might like to open it." So saying, the lady handed off the plain brown paper bag that had been entrusted to her several weeks before.

Finn accepted the object and beamed at her before setting it down beside the dancing bug he was watching. "I'll open it later," he replied, and laid back down in the grass as the lady retreated back into the house.

The young human stretched out on his stomach, enjoying the warm summer sunshine and the novel new acquaintance he'd made. His eyes darted to the mysterious bag which Jake had left him, and he smiled broadly. He wouldst waiteth for tomorrow, he reminded himself. It was looking like it would be a great birthday after all. With a content sigh, he decided to enjoy every moment of independence he had before the inevitable call to come in for dinner.