"They're at home," he explained. "I'm on a diaper run."
"This isn't a store," Shannon replied.
"I have the diapers already, I just thought I'd come say 'hi' on my way back," Boone said.
"Okay," Shannon said, stepping out of the way and letting him into the house.
Boone went through to where Zara was in her playpen. He walked over and leaned down to her. "Hey, cutie," he smiled. She smiled back and gurgled something at him.
"So what's up?" Shannon asked, leaning against the door frame.
Boone straightened up and turned to face her. "What?"
"You're looking all forlorn and you obviously want to talk about it," Shannon stated. "So what's up?"
Boone shrugged a little and headed over to the sofa. "Me and Jack just had a stupid argument yesterday, that's all."
"What about?" Shannon asked, going to sit next to him.
"I don't know, nothing really," Boone replied.
"Nothing?" Shannon asked. "It must have been about something, Boone."
"Not really," Boone said. "He's being obsessive with Noah. And I'm worrying about him, he seriously needs to lighten up. I feel kinda like I'm surplus to requirement, y'know."
"I never know what you're talking about, Boone," Shannon replied dryly.
Boone gave her a look. "I feel like now he's got his baby he doesn't need me anymore. He doesn't act like he needs me."
"He needs you, Boone, trust me," Shannon insisted. "He'd be a wreck without you."
"He's a bit of a wreck anyway," Boone commented. "And he practically looks after Noah on his own, I don't think he'd notice if I didn't go back."
"He'd notice," Shannon smiled.
"Yeah," Boone agreed. "When he ran out of diapers."
Shannon looked at him. "I think the two of you need some alone time."
"There's no such think as alone time, Noah's never out of the room," Boone told her. "Or, more accurately, Jack's never out of the room with Noah."
"You two are useless, you're doing it all wrong," Shannon moaned.
Boone looked at her, a little nervous. "Doing what wrong?"
"You're not supposed to let the baby rule your lives," Shannon said, rolling her eyes a little. "Well, I mean, I guess you are in a way, but you're supposed to be the ones in charge, you have to discipline them. I bet you have no routine with Noah at all, do you?"
"Not exactly..." Boone admitted.
"When Sayid and I had Zara we made sure we set some ground rules down from the second she came home. And it worked, she sticks to them. She has a bedtime and she's okay with it cos that's just the way things go as far as she's concerned," Shannon explained. "So we put her to bed at the same time every night and we have a couple of hours just to watch TV or talk or whatever before we head off to bed. We have time, just the two of us, as a couple." She looked him in the eye to make sure she had his attention. "Boone, you might be parents, but you're still a couple too. And you can't forget about that cos everything's gonna go to shit if you do."
Boone nodded. She had a point. A very good point. How the hell did Shannon know all this stuff anyway? Sayid probably taught her, Boone reasoned, no way would Shannon be that disciplined on her, she seemed to think rules were made to be broken. But he and Jack hadn't really been anything resembling a couple for the past four weeks and it was beginning to be a problem. And it was an even bigger problem that Jack didn't seem to care.
"Okay, I have a plan," Shannon declared.
Boone came out of his thoughts and looked at her. "You do?"
"Uh-huh," she said, looking pleased with herself. "Let Noah stay here for the night."
"Stay here?" Boone asked.
"Yeah, he can have a sleep over with us," Shannon continued. "You and Jack can have the house to yourselves for the night and you can talk and stuff and sort things out and, more importantly, just be with each other, alone. And it'll only be for like twelve hours so it won't be too scary and you'll know he's right here and he's safe."
That did sound like a pretty attractive plan. It would be good for their relationship and Boone thought it would be good for Jack too, that's if he could get Jack to agree to it and he really didn't see that conversation going down too well. But if Jack was going back to work next week then he had to get used to being away from Noah and this could be like a dry run. Only not really because Jack would be with Boone and not at the hospital but it would be a start at least. And they really did have things to talk about, there were things that needed to be addressed before Jack was back at the hospital.
Boone nodded a little. "I'll talk to Jack about it," he said. "Thanks, sis."
Shannon smiled and shrugged and surprisingly decided not the gloat.
When Boone got home he closed the door and listened out for Jack. Nothing. That probably meant he was watching Noah sleep. He put his keys down and headed for the stairs but as he walked past the living room he stopped. He walked into the room and saw Noah asleep in his rocker chair and Jack asleep on the sofa. Boone smiled. Jack was actually asleep whilst being in sole care of Noah. Okay, Noah was asleep too, but it was still a huge step forward.
Boone wasn't really sure what to do now. He was suddenly buzzing with energy and he thought that maybe Jack would consider letting Shannon and Sayid watch Noah for the night. After all, they were more experienced parents than he and Jack were and by the looks of it they had a damn better way of approaching parenthood too. He wanted to go over there and kiss him but he didn't want to wake him up so he decided to go into the kitchen and leave him to it for now.
He sat at the kitchen table and went through the bills and then balanced his cheque book, and then he did Jack's which was slightly harder work. He was just starting on dinner when Jack came through, stretching.
"Hey, sleepyhead," Boone smiled.
Jack smiled back at him. "Yeah, sorry, I guess I fell asleep there."
"Don't apologise," Boone said. "You have no idea how great it is to see you actually doing something human. And very sensible I might add."
Jack gave him another smile but it was a little bemused this time. "Okay then."
"Hey, I wanna ask you something," Boone ventured.
"Shoot," Jack said, talking a seat at the table.
"Well, I was talking to Shannon, and she thought it might be a good idea if, maybe, they took Noah for a night, like just one night, and we had the place to ourselves. Y'know, have like a date or whatever before you go back to work," Boone rambled.
Jack looked at him for what felt like forever and Boone was just about to start backtracking when Jack finally spoke. "Take Noah where?"
It took Boone as second to understand what he was asking. "Well, not really take him anywhere, just to their house, like they could baby-sit for a night," he explained.
"Oh, right," Jack replied, rather noncommittally. And then he was silent again, staring at the table. "And why are they doing this again?" he asked, looking up at Boone.
Boone rolled his eyes. "Jack, what part of this don't you get?" he asked. "Look, we don't have to if you don't want to."
"Wait, I didn't say that," Jack insisted, rubbing his forehead. "Please bear in mind that I just woke up over here." He looked back at Boone. "So Shannon and Sayid would take care of Noah for us for a night while we had this place to ourselves?"
"Yeah," Boone replied. "Cos we kinda have some stuff to sort out before you go back to work and also I guess it would be nice to spend some time alone together," he said. "Not that I have an objection to Noah being around, I don't mean it like that," Boone added hastily.
Jack smiled. "I know that," he said. "And you're right. It would be nice to have you to myself."
"It would?" Boone asked, which wasn't the way he was planning for that to come out but Jack's reply wasn't really what he was expecting either.
"I know I'm a little crazy overprotective with him but that doesn't mean I don't still want to hang out with you all the time. I kind of miss you actually," Jack admitted which made Boone smile. "All I ever seem to do is yell at you lately, don't think I haven't noticed."
"You don't yell," Boone told him. "You just undermine me."
"I'm sorry," Jack told him.
"That's okay, I'm mostly kidding," Boone assured him.
"You're also mostly right," Jack said. "So we'll give this a go. I might be bad at it though."
"Bad at what?" Boone asked.
"Not being by his side," Jack explained. "I might be even harder to bear than I am now."
"You don't have to worry about that, Jack," Boone told him. "Trust me, it's not even possible."