The next few days went by easier, the side effects of spencers treatment had lessened greatly and he was able to spend more time awake and not vomiting.
The family had decided to have a relaxing day well for some, half of the family were relaxing together in the living room, whilst the others were at Dereks soccer game.
Dad?" David Rossi looks down from his newspaper to a mop of brown hair. Spencer is curled into his chest, watching him with big brown eyes. "When are Papa and Derek and Emily get home?"
JJ, who's reading on the couch, answers without looking up. "You already asked that. They're gonna be home after Derek's game is over."
Spencer looks solemnly at Dave. "I'm bored," he announces. "Want to play Derek *now*."
"Yeah!" Pen chimes from her place on the floor. She's sprawled out with a coloring book, gel pens scattered around her. "He promised he would push us on the swings, but then he left! Make him come home!"
Dave can't help grinning at Pen's logic and the serious look on little Spencer's face. As it turns out, this is a huge mistake; Spence's eyes fill with tears and he stares at Dave with a wounded look on his face. Oh no, he thinks wildly. He and epecially Aaron know the kids pretty well by now, but every once in a while they'll get an unexpected reaction. Spencer's look of betrayal would have made Benedict Arnold regret his choices.
"No laugh!" Spencer shouts, and he shoves violently away from Dave's chest. Before Dave can catch him he's slid over the side of the armchair and run out of the room. Dave hears him running on the hallway carpet, stomping up the stairs, and then a door slams a few moments later.
JJ looks up from her book, assessing the situation. After a moment she says, "I can get him to come out." Dave sighs, and waves her in the direction of the slamming door. Spencer has probably barricaded himself in his room. It's worth a try.
JJ sets her book aside and stands up. "Be back soon." Her white-socked feet are nearly silent on the steps.
She taps softly on the door. "Go 'way!" comes the muffled shout. She's willing to bet Spence is curled up on his bed, tear-stained face pressed into his pillow. "It's just me, Spence." She hears a loud sniffle, and then her baby brother's footsteps crossing the floor. "He laughed at me!" he accuses as he opens the door enough to let JJ slip in.
She closes the door behind her as he returns to sniffling on his bed. "Spence, he didn't mean it like that." She pulls some tissues out of the box on the desk and crawls up on the bed with him. "He wasn't...he doesn't think it's funny when you're upset. You're cute when you get all serious like that." Spence sniffles, and lets JJ wipe his face and runny nose.
"'m cute?" he asks. There's hope in his voice that hurts a little. "That's why?"
"Yes," JJ says firmly. She may only be seven, but she knows what the system can do to your insides. They get all twisty. Spence is her brother, so it's her job to help make his insides un-twisty again. "He loves you very much. He wasn't laughing because you were upset." Spence looks at her, with his red nose and his wet eyelashes and his tangled curls, and when he nods and buries his head in her shoulder she wraps him up tight and doesn't let go until he starts squirming. When he escapes, he's grinning. "Barnacle!" he says, because just two days ago Papa read them Hug o' War by Shel Silverstein, and of course they managed to make it a game.
"Barnacle," she replies. "I bet I can get Dad to give us ice cream." Spence's grin gets even wider, and of course it's infectious. She puts on her best serious face before she goes downstairs to talk to Dave.
He's sitting on the couch looking worried, still, when she walks into the room. "He's okay," JJ tells him, and his forehead uncreases. "But ice cream wouldn't hurt."
Dave considers this. "Okay," he says, and JJ and Pen cheer. "Bring Spence down and I'll get the ice cream." Pen cheers at this, and JJ runs back up the stairs.
JJ returns with Spence in tow as Pen is getting out spoons, and Dave is scooping ice cream. "I get the pink one!" Pen yells. No one is going to argue with that.
They buy the ice cream that comes with three flavors in one carton: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Mostly this is because none of the kids can agree on flavors. Dave knows for a fact that Aaron prefers mint chocolate chip (but only the green kind), and he'll really eat any flavor. He scoops out strawberry ("Pink!") for little Pen, and chocolate for JJ, and vanilla for Spence (who nearly has another meltdown because "there's brown in my 'nilla!", but Dave and JJ manage to convince him that it makes the vanilla taste more vanilla when there's chocolate to compare it to).
He's just gotten himself some when the door flies open, and Derek comes running in. "We won!" he yells. He's sweaty and tracking mud all over the floor from his cleats. Dave just grins and gets out more bowls and spoons. Emily follows shortly after Derek, and eventually Aaron walks in and tosses his keys on the kitchen counter.
"Everything okay while I was gone?" he whispers in Dave's ear while the kids are happily distracted.
Dave pauses, and then turns to smile at Aaron. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah." And it feels like home.