After Dan was released, he filled his prescription at the pharmacy and thought about how he'd go home. He decided to surprise his kids and show up at the house without a word. He had no idea if they knew he was supposed to come home today, but he remembered his dad said he would tell his kids it'd be another day so he figured they knew since that was yesterday. He saw a clock on the wall, and it said 9:16.
He called a cab and rode it home. That Ziploc bag also contained his wallet, and house and truck keys. He put Darlene's backpack on his back, with the straps on both his shoulders and put the keys in the hole on his front door. He opened it quietly, and found Jackie asleep on the couch.
He decided that a prank on Jackie would be just the thing to cheer himself up, so he took the backpack off and threw it in the chair by the door and hid on the floor behind the couch.
"Jackie." He called, at a normal tone.
"Jackie." He called again a little louder.
D.J. came down the stairs, and jumped for joy when he saw his dad. Dan put his finger to his mouth and whispered "I'm pulling a prank on Aunt Jackie." DJ smiled devilishly and joined his dad behind the sofa.
"Jackie." He called louder.
"Jackie!" Jackie woke up and looked around the room, thinking she heard Dan. She tried to go back to sleep when Dan did it again. "Jackie!"
This time Jackie flew off the couch thinking she was going crazy. When she saw Dan behind the couch she said, "Damn it Dan. That was not nice!"
Dan was laughing uncontrollably as he stood up. Jackie could tell he was laughing so hard it hurt him.
"You're right it wasn't nice. But you gotta understand Jackie; I haven't done anything fun in four days." Dan struggled to say while laughing.
Jackie found herself laughing too. She went over and hugged Dan. "I thought you couldn't come home until tonight." She said.
"Yeah, I thought that too." Dan looked at D.J. and he got the picture and went back up stairs.
"I woke up yesterday, and got the shakes…" He said quietly, looking at his still freshly laced shoes (he laced them up in the cab).
"Oh my god Dan, I didn't realize it was that bad." Dan shook his head.
"Join the club."
All the laughter left both of them. Jackie put her fingernails in her mouth and absent mindedly bit them.
"Why didn't you stay in until you got through the withdrawal?" Jackie learned about alcoholics at the Police Academy, so she understood that it could anywhere from five to ten days for an alcoholic's body to fully withdrawal from the stuff.
"I had to be here, with you guys. The doc gave me a prescription for something to help me with the symptoms." Dan looked away from Jackie again. "He also told me that if I wanted to get sober, I could go back because of my insurance."
Jackie studied Dan. "Do you want to?"
Dan didn't know. "I'd be leaving the boys…"
"You'd be leaving them so that you could take steps to become a better father."
Jackie watched Dan shake his head but turn around slowly and make his way up the stairs. He said nothing and Jackie started to fold the blanket on the couch.
Dan found DJ in Jerry's room, playing his Gameboy in Jerry's rocking chair.
"What's wrong with your room?" Dan asked, putting his palm on Jerry's forehead gently.
"Mark and Becky are sleeping there. I slept here last night." Jerry wasn't awake yet so Dan left him alone.
"I'm sorry I ended up taking another day, Deej."
"That's okay dad. I'm just glad you're back. What you did to Jackie was awesome. That's something mom would've done."
Dan laughed. "You think so?"
D.J. followed Dan down the stairs. He should've taken a shower (Dan was aware he needed a shower, but figured right now it wasn't that important.) Instead Dan got the days newspaper from outside and then sat down at his place at the table. Dan wanted to see how the rest of his family would react to his homecoming.
The first to come up was David. He was sleepy, but he sat at the table anyway. He looked up real quick and then looked down. It took about ten seconds before he realized he saw Dan.
"Mr. Conner! When did you get here?" David was happy to see Dan hugged him. Dan had often been uncomfortable when being hugged by David. But today he didn't.
"Oh about thirty minutes ago." Jackie came in.
"What do you want for breakfast?" She asked Dan.
"Anything but eggs." Dan replied.