"Can I take Pete to school tomorrow?" Noah asked.
"Noah, you can't take a hamster to school," Jack told him.
"He'll be lonely," Noah complained.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Boone said. "He'll be fine."
Noah pouted a little but carried on eating his breakfast.
"Hey, look at this," Jack said. "Sawyer and Ana-Lucia's engagement party."
He handed the invitation over to Boone who looked it over.
"Did he just print this off at the copy place?" Boone asked. "It sucks."
"You don't wanna go?" Jack asked.
"Of course I wanna go," Boone replied. "Sawyer and Ana-Lucia actually acting like they like each other? It'll be hilarious."
Jack smiled. "Yeah, I don't think any of us have ever had the pleasure of that before." Noah started tapping his spoon against the side of his bowl. "Noah, please don't do that," Jack requested.
"You gonna book it off work then?" Boone asked.
"Yeah, I'll sort it out today," Jack replied. He looked over at Noah who was still tapping his spoon. "Noah, stop it."
Noah pouted again but stopped tapping as he turned his attention back to the food that was actually in the bowl.
"Anyway, I should probably be heading off," Jack said. "Isn't Shannon coming around this morning?"
"Any minute now," Boone replied. "But she's probably running on Shannon-time, so who knows?"
"Well I'm running on pacific time and I have to get to work," Jack said, standing up. Boone smiled and followed him out to the hall. "I might be late tonight. I have a meeting and it's probably gonna run over."
"Okay," Boone said. "Just try to remember that you have a family."
Jack gave him a look. "I always remember."
Boone gave him a look in return. "Right."
Jack leaned into him. "You keep smart mouthing me and I'm gonna stop talking to you."
"How would I notice?" Boone asked.
Jack rolled his eyes. "I give up."
There was a knock at the door. Boone moved over to open it to reveal Shannon, Zara and Snoop.
"Morning," Shannon greeted as she came into the house.
"Hey," Boone said. "Zara, Noah's in the kitchen, why don't you go through?"
"Okay," Zara said, taking Snoop with her as she went.
"Heading out to work?" Shannon asked Jack.
"'Fraid so," Jack nodded. He heard Noah starting to tap his spoon again and he could feel himself getting wound up. "Noah, stop tapping and just eat it," he called.
"I'm finished," Noah replied.
"Then put the spoon down," Jack told him. "God," he muttered.
Shannon laughed a little. "Christ, you can't even handle one kid, what would you be like with two?"
Jack looked at her. "Two?"
"Yeah, if you had another kid," Shannon explained.
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked.
Shannon turned to Boone, giving him an unimpressed look. "You're an idiot."
"Just stop talking and leave the room, Shannon," Boone responded.
Jack shook his head. "Don't stop talking, Shannon."
Shannon kept her focus on Boone. "You said you were gonna talk to him about it."
"I'm not entirely convinced I said that," Boone replied. "I probably said something that made it sound like that's what I meant."
"Okay, hold up, I seem to be missing something here," Jack said. He turned to Boone. "You want to have another kid?"
"I didn't say that," Boone insisted.
"Yes you did," Shannon cut in.
"I said I was thinking about it," Boone argued.
Jack put his hand up to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "We seem to have a slight communication problem here."
"Yeah, you can totally leave the room now, Shannon," Boone told her.
"Fine, but I'm gonna listen from the kitchen," she told them as she headed down the hall.
Jack turned to face Boone who was looking rather like a guilty schoolboy.
"You're gonna be late," Boone told him.
"Shut up," Jack said. He took a deep breath and sighed. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Look, it's not even like it's a big deal, it was just something I was thinking about," Boone defended.
"Having another kid is a big deal," Jack told him.
"Well, yeah, it is," Boone agreed. "But I wasn't at that stage, I was just thinking about it."
"And you don't think it's perhaps a decision that I should be involved in?" Jack asked. "I'm always trying to get out of you what it is that you want, why do you have to make it so difficult?"
Boone sighed as he thought out an answer. "You think we're done, don't you?"
Jack looked at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Okay," Boone said as he started to tick things off on his fingers. "You got the house, you got the job, you got the relationship, you got the kid, you're set. And you look at all that and you think it's complete, you think that's it now."
"I think we got a few more years to go, yet, Boone," Jack told him.
"Well, yeah, but this is what you want now, everything's fallen into place for you."
"And it hasn't for you."
"I feel like I'm seventeen again and I'm choosing between colleges or something. I don't know what my purpose is."
"So you want to have another kid to give you a purpose for a while?" Jack asked.
"No," Boone replied, sounding annoyed. "It was just one of the options, okay? Something that crossed my mind."
"Babies are a whole lot of work," Jack stated. "You sure you want to start from scratch again?"
"I didn't think you'd want one."
"I never said that, Boone," Jack insisted. "I'm just playing devil's advocate."
"Look, it's impractical, I know, and they get in the way, and you're always stressed from work, this is why I didn't bother."
"Wait, I never said any of that stuff."
"You're gonna be late for work," Boone said.
"Stop saying that."
"You are."
"I don't care," Jack insisted, forcing Boone to look at him. "Christ, every time I think we're okay you throw some curve ball at me."
Boone shrugged helplessly "I miss being everything to him," he said. "I was there every single day from the day he was born and my entire life revolved around him. And now he's at school and he's growing up and he doesn't even need me half the time and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with myself."
"You're still everything to him," Jack told him. "That's not gonna go away."
"Still, he doesn't need me," Boone said.
Jack found himself smiling a little at Boone's words as things started to become clear. Boone was bored and in his boredom he'd convinced himself that he wasn't needed anymore and Jack knew that Boone needed to be needed, possibly more than anything else.
"He needs you," Jack insisted. "And I need you. Actually, far more than you'll ever know, I'm turning into quite the co-dependent freak lately."
Boone laughed a little and shook his head. "Right."
"If you want another kid, we can have one," Jack told him. "You know me, I love kids."
Boone smiled and shrugged. "I was just thinking about it. For now."
Jack nodded. "Let me know how that goes."
"Will do."
Jack gave him a tired smile and pulled him into a hug. "You make me despair, you really do," he muttered into Boone's ear. He pulled away slightly to look at him. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, Jack," Boone told him and he looked like he meant it enough for Jack to give him the benefit of the doubt. "You don't have to worry about me."
"Okay," Jack said. "I'm gonna go then."
"Okay."
"But next time you start thinking about something, especially something as big as this, you have to damn well tell me."
Boone smiled a little. "Yes, Jack."
"Good," Jack said. "We can talk about this some more when I get home, okay?"
"Sure," Boone replied.
"Okay, and now I'm really late," Jack stated, looking at his watch.
"Well, I told you," Boone responded.
"Yeah, yeah," Jack said. He gave Boone a brief but heartfelt kiss. "I love you."
Boone smiled at him. "Love you too."