Safe

"Sam, relax, everything is fine here," Freddie said into his phone as he wiped up a huge puddle on the kitchen floor. "I can take care of our kids for one week by myself."

"Well how are they?" Sam asked on the other line. "Are Emma and Ashton fighting a lot? Is Tyler behaving himself? Is Jason helping you out with everything?"

"Oh yeah, the kids are all great," Freddie said. "They miss you, obviously, but they're perfectly all right. So you and Carly having fun at that writers convention your boss made you go to?"

"Tons," Sam said dryly. "I get to spend this whole week in meetings about all sorts of boring chiz that doesn't even apply to my job!"

"Think of it as a vacation," Freddie said. "Tell me it doesn't feel nice to have some time to yourself for once?"

"Yeah, it has been peaceful," Sam admitted. "But seriously, baby, let me know if the kids get to be too much and I'll see if I can weasel out of this and come home."

"Sam, stop worrying," Freddie said firmly. "I'm handling everything. Just focus on the convention and-"

"Dad!" nine-year old Tyler suddenly bust in crying, holding his bleeding his arm. "Dad, I fell off my bike!"

"What was that?" Sam asked.

"Um, just the T.V.!" Freddie said quickly. "Gotta go, Sam. Love you!"

He hung up his phone and rushed over to his son. "Ty, what happened?"

"I just told you!" Tyler cried. "I fell off my bike!"

"Okay, okay, let's get you cleaned up," Freddie said, lifting Tyler up and setting him on the counter. "Let's see…it's not too bad. We just need some boo-boo spray and a couple bandages and you'll be good as new."

"I hate the boo-boo spray," Tyler moaned.

"Hey, at least this stuff is the normal kind," Freddie pointed out, grabbing the bottle from the cabinet above the sink and spraying a bit on Tyler's wound. "Your grandma used to buy the industrial strength kind and use it on me if I even got a paper cut. See, that didn't hurt too much, did it?"

"No," Tyler sniffed as Freddie covered his cut with a bandage.

"There, you're all set," Freddie said. "Just be more careful next time."

"Mom always gives me ice cream when I get hurt," Tyler said shakily.

Freddie raised an eyebrow. "Does she now?"

"Um…yeah," Tyler nodded.

Freddie sighed. "Well alright. Let me get you some."

He headed over to the freezer and pulled out the ice cream container just as he heard the front door slam shut.

"You're unbelievable, Emma!" Ashton yelled, storming into the kitchen.

"I didn't even do anything!" Emma said.

"Yes you did! You ruined my whole life, that's what you did!"

"Girls, no fighting!" Freddie said firmly as his thirteen-year old daughters glared at each other. "Now, what's going on?"

"Nothing!" Emma said. "Ashton just blew up at me for no reason!"
"I did not!" Ashton snapped. "At school, in the middle of lunch, I look over at Emma and I find out her and I are wearing the same earrings!"

"They're little gold balls!" Emma said. "Almost all the girls at school have them!"

"But you did it just to make me look like some dorky twin who has to do everything her sister does!" Ashton exclaimed. "My life is over! I hope you're happy!"

"I wore earrings!" Emma defended. "I didn't break your leg!"

"Ash," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "I'm sure Emma didn't mean to ruin your life when she chose her earrings today."

"Sure, take her side!" Ashton said, crossing her arms. "You always do! You love Emma more than me!"

"What? No I don't!" Freddie said. "I'm just saying that maybe you're overreacting a little bit about the-"

"Yeah, sure, I'm always the one who overreacts and Emma is always the innocent one, isn't she?" Ashton interrupted angrily.

"That's not what I'm saying at all!" Freddie frowned. "Ashton, I was just-"

"Well I'm going up to my room to change my earrings and to get away from all you people who just want to annoy me and make me miserable!"

"Um, what's wrong with her?" Freddie asked as Ashton stomped upstairs.

"I dunno, but do you see why I need my own room?" Emma said. "She's crazy."

"Alright, enough Emma," Freddie said. "Go start your homework. Jason should be back any minute now with the milk and then I can start making dinner. You're going to love this new potato recipe I found. It's made with this fancy type of onions and-"

"Hey, when's dinner? I'm starving," Jason said, coming in through the kitchen door. "Oh, are we having ice cream?"

"Jason, where's the milk I asked you to get?" Freddie frowned.

"Oh…about that," Jason said. "See, I was about to go get it. Then I remembered there was this sale at the Pear store, and I really needed a new case for my laptop so I figured I should be responsible with my time and go get the laptop case."

"Jason!" Freddie sighed. "I needed that milk to make dinner. Now we're just gonna have to order pizza. Sorry guys, I know you were all looking forward to trying my new recipe."

"Yeah…too bad," Emma said.

A few hours later, when Freddie returned with the pizza, he walked back into the kitchen with the boxes, where he saw Ashton sitting at the table, scowling as she did her homework.

"Ash, can you get the plates, please?" Freddie asked, setting the pizza boxes down. "And then call your brothers and sister and tell them the food is here?"

"God! Why do I always have to do everything?" Ashton exclaimed, closing her book shut.

"I asked you to do two little things," Freddie frowned.

"Why? Because you just assume I have nothing better to do?"

"No…because you were the only one in the room," Freddie said, confused.

"Well now you're the only one in the room!" Ashton snapped as she gathered het things and stormed back upstairs.

"Ashton!" Freddie called after her. "Ashton! Get back here and-"

He heard her door slam loudly.

"Okay! Go to your room!" he said lamely.

"Sweet, pizza's here," Emma said as her and her brothers came into the kitchen, no doubt having smelled their favorite Meat Slam pie.

"Emma, is anything bothering Ashton?" Freddie asked as the kids began to dig in.

"I dunno," Emma shrugged simply. "I've been staying out of her way. She's scary when she's in these moods."

"Nothing's going on at school?" Freddie continued. "No problems with teachers or…boys?"

"Dad, you force me to live with her; I try to avoid her as much as possible at school," Emma told him. "If you're so concerned, you talk to her."

"No," Freddie mumbled. "She's a little…"

"Scary?" Jason finished.

"Hey, I've been married to your mom for eighteen years; I can deal with scary!" Freddie defended. "But not coming from my sweet baby girl…Something must really be bugging her."

"Or maybe she's just lost it," Emma said simply. "Hey, if you and mom move her to a mental hospital, I'll finally have my own room!"
"Ashton's going to a mental hospital?" Tyler asked.

"No!" Freddie said firmly.

"Wasn't mom in a mental hospital once?" Jason asked.

"Well, yes," Freddie nodded. "But only because-"

"Mommy's crazy?" Tyler gasped.

"No! You're mom is not crazy!" Freddie said. "And neither is Ashton! Nobody is going to a mental hospital! Now everybody eat your pizza!"

…..

"Ash?" Freddie said, slowly stepping into the girls' bedroom later that night with a plate of pizza. "Honey, you didn't eat dinner."

"I'm not hungry," Ashton mumbled from her bed, where she was curled up.

"You sure? I ordered you a special veggie pizza," Freddie said. "No one else in this house is going to touch it so you better eat up before it goes bad."

"I'm not hungry, okay?" Ashton snapped.

"Sweetheart," Freddie sighed, sitting down on the foot of her bed. "What's going on? Why have you been in such a bad mood all day?"

"I haven't been in a bad mood!"

"Okay!" Freddie said quickly. "Well is there anything bothering you? Anything you want to talk to me about?"

"With you?" Ashton frowned. "God no."

"Ashton, I'm your dad," Freddie said. "You can talk to me about anything, you know that."

"Ugh! Can you just leave?" Ashton moaned.

"Ashton, I just-"

"Dad! I don't want to talk to you!" Ashton exclaimed. "Jeez, can't you just get that?"

Freddie sighed. So she looks like Sam and gets her stubbornness?

"Fine," Freddie conceded. "But remember, Ashton, my door is always open if you want to talk and-"

"I don't."

"Well if you ever need anything-"

"Goodbye dad."

Freddie shook his head as he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. "Teenagers suck."

….

"Jason!" Freddie yelled the next morning as he scrambled to get all the kids lunches packed. "You remember you have to pick Emma up from track practice after school, right?"

"Why do I have to chauffer my little sister around?" Jason moaned.

"Because I said so," Freddie said, piling eggs onto Tyler's plate. "I have to go to Tyler's parent-teacher conference after school."

"Dad, did you sign my permission slip for the eight-grade field trip yet?" Emma asked.

"No, give me it," Freddie said. "And where's Ashton? I might as well sign hers now too."

"She's still in bed," Emma replied.

"What?" Freddie cried. "We're leaving in five minutes!"

"She said she didn't feel well," Emma replied.

"She did?" Freddie frowned. "Is she sick?"

"I dunno," Emma shrugged. "She just told me she didn't want to go to school today."

"Alright, let me go talk to her," Freddie sighed. "You all eat your breakfast and get ready to go."

He headed upstairs to the twins' room and poked his head in.

"Ashton?" he said. "Emma said you weren't feeling well."

"I'm not," Ashton moaned from her bed, turning over onto her side.

"Well what's wrong?" Freddie asked, feeling her forehead. "You don't have a fever."

"I just feel…bad," Ashton said weakly. "Can I please stay home from school?"

"But sweetie, that would ruin your perfect attendance," Freddie pointed out. "I thought you were excited to try and get that award this year."

"I don't care about it anymore," Ashton mumbled. "I just want to stay in bed all day."

"Do you want me to take you to the doctor?"

"No!" Ashton said at once. "I just want to sleep. Please daddy?"

Freddie thought for a moment; Emma was the one who'd be most likely to fake sick to get out of school. And Ashton had been acting odd yesterday, maybe this was why.

"Okay," Freddie agreed. "You can stay home. I'm going to take the others to school and then I'll be right back. Call if you need anything."

"Okay," Ashton groaned, closing her eyes once again.

Once Freddie had returned from taking everybody to school, he went back upstairs to check on Ashton.

As he started down the hallway towards her room, though, he head soft whimpering sounds coming from inside.

"Ashton?" Freddie said, concerned as he stepped into the room and spotted his daughter crunched over in her bed. "Are you okay? What's the matter?"

"Nothing!" Ashton sniffed.

"Honey, you're crying," Freddie said gently. "Please tell me what's going on, I want to help you."

"No," Ashton mumbled. "It's-It's embarrassing."

"I'm sure it's not," Freddie said soothingly.

"Yes it is!"

"Ashton, you don't need to worry about anything being embarrassing," Freddie assured her. "I'm you dad. It's safe to tell me anything at all."

Ashton didn't reply.

"Is something going on at school?" Freddie tried. "Between you and Emma? Did you guys-"

"No, it's-it's nothing like that," Ashton said quietly, her face turning bright red.

"Well then what is it?" Freddie asked. "Because I need to know so I can help you and make sure you-"

Ashton muttered something under her breath.

"Er, can you say that again?" Freddie said. "I didn't quite catch it."

Ashton sighed and, avoiding her father's eyes, said very softly. "I started my period."

Freddie's eyes widened. He had not been expecting that.

"Oh…" Freddie said lamely as Ashton's face turned ever redder, along with his own. "Well, um…okay, that-that makes sense, I guess."

"I wish mom was back," Ashton said, looking down.

"Yeah, I-I know you do," Freddie nodded. "I'm sure you'd much rather have her handling this. But hey, I can help you still. I, um, I'm not quite as good as your mother, but I took a health class in high school…you-you have, er, stuff, right?"

"I've sort of been using mom's stuff," Ashton told him. "But she's running out."

"Okay, well, I'll go buy you some more," Freddie said quickly, scrambling to his feet. "I can do that. And I suppose you must have a bunch of questions too. I mean your body is going through this whole thing and-"

"Yes, but I'm waiting for mom to get back for those," Ashton said firmly.

"Yeah, good call," Freddie agreed.

….

Freddie returned back to the house an hour later and headed back into the girls' room.

"Alright," Freddie said, handing Ashton a bag. "I picked you up a few things. I, well, I didn't know what sort of stuff to buy you, or what the differences were between everything, but the lady at the store told me to get you that kind, so I just sort of trusted her."

"Okay," Ashton nodded, still not making eye contact with her father.

"And, um, I got you some medicine that's supposed to help with cramps," Freddie continued. "And I got you some of the fancy chocolates your mom says makes her feel better."

"Oh," Ashton said. "That was nice…"

"You need anything else, honey?" Freddie asked, kissing the top of her head.

"No," Ashton replied quietly.

"Alright, well if you do…I'm right downstairs," Freddie told her.

"Okay," Ashton said.

Freddie made to leave the room.

"Thank you, daddy," Ashton said right before he left.

Freddie turned around and smiled. "Your welcome, Ash."

He went back down the stairs and collapsed onto the couch.

You just had to pick this week to go off to a writer's convention, didn't you, Sam? he thought to himself.