Sarah finishes dabbing on blush from a Cover Girl compact she hasn't replaced in years. She's dressed in a burgundy maxi dress, and she has her hair up. She can't actually remember the last time she dressed up, but the mirror tells her it's not a fail. She doesn't look exactly like the girl who used to jump, jive, and wail at the club downtown, more like her older and wiser aunt. But—it could be worse.

"Sarah, you look—incredible." Bucky is in the living room when she comes out, and he's in slacks and a button down with a leather jacket. Nice—but not too much. She approves. His best accessory is his smile. His dimples show when he looks at her. Definitely not a fail.

"Cass, AJ, Mrs. Collins will be here soon. Come on out." She calls for the boys, who are set to be watched by a neighbor for the evening.

"Mom, I don't feel good." AJ emerges first. Sarah is inclined to think this is some kind of ploy to keep her home for the night. The boys didn't seem to mind the idea of her going out to dinner with Uncle Bucky, but maybe, she thinks, she read it wrong. She's preparing for a mom pep talk, when suddenly the front of her crushed velvet dress is covered in the contents of her son's stomach.

"GROSS!" Cass is standing a few feet away, looking like he wants to hurl next, but Sarah, who is momentarily stunned by the situation, hears Bucky's voice.

"AJ," he says, "go to the bathroom and use the toilet if you need to do that again. I'll be there in a minute. Cass, go get the wet wipes and a big bowl out of the kitchen cabinet and bring them here. Sarah, go get cleaned up. I'll watch AJ." She looks over, and he's taking off his jacket.

Sarah goes to her bedroom and rips off her dress. It's dry clean only; maybe she should just throw it away. She puts on a pair of clean sweatpants and a t-shirt and calls the pediatrician's on-call. As she expects, they tell her to watch AJ, to make sure he stabilizes within a few hours, and to call if Cass gets sick. Then she calls Mrs. Collins and cancels.

Calls completed, Sarah walks into the boys' bedroom to find a worried-looking Cass sitting on his bed. "Do you feel okay, baby?" she asks.

"Yes, mama," he answers, eyes wide with concern, "I don't feel sick or anything." He's protective of AJ; he worries.

Sarah kisses his forehead. "Don't worry; the doctor thinks he ate something bad. It should pass within a few hours. Uncle Bucky and I will take care of him. Can you be good and do something quiet in here for a while? Come and get me if you start to feel bad."

"Yes, ma'am," he agrees. He's always dependable when it comes to helping with family issues. Sarah gives him a quick hug, then goes to find her sick child.

She finds Bucky cradling an exhausted AJ on the bathroom floor. She wonders if he realizes his shirt front isn't clean any more. Next to him on the floor is a mixing bowl that AJ has obviously used for another round of sickness. Wordlessly, she picks it up and dumps it into the commode and flushes.

"It's okay, buddy," she hears Bucky says softly. "Just let it out, and then you'll feel better."

He's wiping AJ's forehead and face with a wet wipe, but he looks up and catches her eyes. "Food poisoning," she says. "The pediatrician thinks no more than a couple of hours."

Bucky nods. "How's Cass?"

"Fine," she answers, "but they didn't eat the same thing for lunch, so he should be all right."

AJ's eyes are closed, and he looks exhausted and wrung out and sweaty—but he's obviously as contented as it's possible to be with an upset stomach in Bucky's arms. Sarah sits down on the cold tile next to them to wait it out.

The second time, it turns out, was the last. They stay in the bathroom for another twenty minutes, but nothing happens. Bucky carries the now almost sleeping AJ back to his room, and Sarah quickly gets her son into clean clothes while Bucky goes to change his own soiled ones.

"Go to sleep," she says softly to AJ. "When you wake up, you'll be much better." She hopes she's right.

"Cass, you don't have to go to bed," she says. "Do you want to come out while your brother takes a nap?"

Cass shakes his head vehemently. "No, mama, I want to stay here and watch him in case he wakes up and feels bad."

Sarah smiles and reaches out and touches Cass's cheek, and he doesn't pull away. "I'm so proud of you for being a good brother," she says. She leaves the rinsed-out bowl, in case AJ wakes up and needs it once again.

Finally, Sarah leaves the room and goes to the sofa—Bucky's sofa, as it now has become—and sits down. She doesn't know exactly what she wants, but she doesn't want to be alone.

Bucky comes out after his very quick shower, with wet hair and his own sweatpants and tattered t-shirt. "Sarah," he sighs, smiling. He sits down and immediately pulls her close into a cuddle, like she's his comfort.

Sarah settles in, realizing this is exactly what she'd needed, too. "Some date," she says. "Ties for worst first date with the time I got ditched at Chili's in ninth grade and had to pay the whole bill."

"I don't know," Bucky answers, "this part isn't so bad."

"Not bad at all," Sarah says, and she kisses him.

They kiss for a long time. It's not the desperate kiss of the young and star-crossed. It's the slow, deep kiss of two people who have done the grimiest, most mundane, and most beautiful things together. It's a kiss that says you're my partner, and I'm your partner, and we're in this together because there's nobody else I'd rather be in it with.