Disaster
"You still have a fever," Freddie sighed, looking down at the thermometer in his hand. "One-oh-three. You're burning up."
"Yeah, well I'm freezing here," Sam moaned, pulling her blankets closer to her.
"That's the flu for you, baby," Freddie said, kissing her forehead. "I told you that you should've gotten the flu shot last month."
"I'm too sick to even throw anything at you for that comment," Sam sighed as she slowly sat up. "Just grab me my slippers."
"What? You're not getting out of bed," Freddie told his wife. "What are you thinking?"
"That I have to go get the kids ready," Sam said through a loud series of coughs.
"Baby, come on," Freddie chuckled. "You don't really think I'd make you deal with three crazy kids while you feel this awful, do you? Stay in bed and focus on getting better; I'll deal with the kids."
"But you have that big meeting at work this morning," Sam muttered weakly.
"So?" Freddie shrugged. "I'll drop Jason off at school on my way in. And I'll just call up Spencer to see if he can babysit the twins for us."
"Oh," Sam conceded, lying back down. "Well okay then."
"I've got everything under control," Freddie assured her, pulling the covers back over her. "I'll come home as soon as my meeting's done to take care of you. You need anything before I go get the kids up?"
"Bacon would be nice."
"Sam, you spent all of last night throwing up," Freddie frowned. "You really want bacon now?"
"I always want bacon," Sam yawned, her eyelids slowly beginning to close. "But if you're gonna insist on being Mr. Doctor, just bring me some toast."
"Will do," Freddie nodded. He turned and headed out the door, quietly closing it behind him. He headed down the hall to six-year old Jason's room and poked his head into the bedroom.
"Jason, you up?" Freddie asked.
"Yeah," Jason yawned as he finished pulling his shirt up over his head.
"Good, I need you to help me with your sisters this morning at breakfast," Freddie said. "Mommy's still feeling sick, so she's staying in bed."
"Poor mommy," Jason said. "Being sick is the worst."
"I know," Freddie agreed. "Especially when she wakes you up every twenty minutes hacking her guts up…"
"Huh?" Jason frowned.
"Nothing," Freddie said quickly. "Just go downstairs and pour yourself a bowl of cereal while I wake up Emma and Ashton."
"Okay," Jason nodded, hurrying out of his room down to the kitchen.
Freddie went down to the next door in the hallway and opened up the twins' door, finding his two-year old daughters already out of their toddler beds playing happily with their stuffed animals on the floor.
"Morning, princesses," Freddie smiled, scooping the two up in his arms.
"Hi, da-ee!" Ashton beamed, pressing a sloppy kiss onto Freddie's cheek.
"Dada!" Emma giggled happily, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Aw," Freddie chuckled. "You girls ready for breakfast before you go spend the day with Uncle Spencer?"
"Spency!" the girls cheered happily.
"That's right," Freddie said, heading out of the room down the steps. "He's going to watch you today while mommy rests, okay? So make sure you two behave for him."
"We good girls!" Ashton said proudly.
"I know, you're daddy's little angels," Freddie said as he stepped into the kitchen and set the twins down in their high chairs.
"I made the twins toast, daddy!" Jason said, beaming, as he held up two small plates of toast and jelly. "All by myself!"
"Wow, what a good big brother," Freddie said, trying not to cringe as he spotted the mess of jelly smears on the counter. He quickly grabbed a jug of apple juice and poured out three cups. "Here you go, buddy. Can you do me a favor and give your sisters their sippy cups while I call Uncle Spencer?"
Freddie pulled out his Pearphone and quickly pulled up Spencer's number.
"Hello?" Spencer answered on the third ring.
"Hey Spence," Freddie said. "I have a favor to ask you. Sam's sick and I need to run into work for a super important meeting, so I was wondering if you wouldn't mind watching the twins for a few hours?"
"Oh…" Spencer said on the other line. "Sorry, man. You know I'd love to help you out, but I'm kind of in the emergency room right now."
"Wait, what?" Freddie frowned. "Are you okay?"
"Oh yeah," Spencer said quickly. "But um, I may have super-glued all my toes together."
"Again?" Freddie said, rolling his eyes.
"I was curious!" Spencer defended. "But I'm probably going to be here for awhile; my toes are really stuck this time."
"That's okay," Freddie sighed. "I'll just ask somebody else. Good luck unsticking your toes."
Freddie hung up the phone. "Alright…no biggie. I'll just call Carly and Andy up and see if-no! They took Clarissa to see Carly's dad this week. Okay, well I'll just call up Gibby and-no, no, he's away at that retreat with his cat…my mom's at work, Sam's mom's in Vegas…oh no."
"Daddy, the twins spilled their juice," Jason said, getting Freddie's attention.
Freddie spun around and saw the girls giggling, both covered in sticky apple juice.
"Well, that's just terrific," Freddie moaned. "Okay, um, just let them finish eating their toast and then I'll get them cleaned up. Keep an eye on them for me while I bring your mom up her breakfast."
Freddie quickly grabbed a few pieces of toast and a bottle of ginger ale and hurried back up to his bedroom, where Sam was still laying in bed.
"Here you go," Freddie said, setting the breakfast down on Sam's bedside table.
"Thanks," Sam said softly. "Did you ask Spencer if he could watch the twins for you?"
"Um, yeah, that's a no-go," Freddie said slowly. "He super-glued his toes together."
"Again?"
"Yup," Freddie nodded.
"Well who's gonna watch the girls?" Sam frowned.
"I dunno," Freddie admitted. "Nobody else is available."
"Man, and you can't miss that meeting," Sam sighed. "Well…okay I'll just handle them here."
"Baby, no we've already been over this; you're too sick," Freddie said firmly. "You can't even stand without the room spinning. You're in no condition to look after Emma and Ashton."
"Well then what are we gonna do?" Sam asked.
"I'll…oh! I can just take them to work with me," Freddie said.
"What now?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we have that little daycare center," Freddie shrugged. "The girls will be fine there while I'm in my meeting."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure I'm sure," Freddie smiled.
"Well…okay," Sam muttered, falling back against her pillows, already drifting back to sleep.
Freddie returned downstairs where, sure enough, the twins were even messier than when he had left them.
"Okay everybody, here's the plan," Freddie said. "I'm going to give Emma and Ashton super speedy baths and then they're going to come to work with daddy!"
"Yay!" the twins exclaimed at once.
"I want to come to work with you," Jason pouted as Freddie picked the girls up, trying carefully to avoid getting any residue on his work clothes.
"Er, maybe next time," Freddie said quickly. "Now go make sure you have everything you need to school. We need to leave as soon as I'm done with the twins."
…
"Alright girls," Freddie said as he quickly ushered the toddler's into his large office building. "Remember what daddy told you in the car. You need to be very good girls while you're at the daycare center. But don't worry; you two will have a ton of fun here! There's other kids to play with, cool toys, snacks and-hey!"
As he reached the door of the company's daycare center, he was greeted by a large sign hanging on the handle.
"Closed for renovations?" Freddie frowned. "Oh come on! This stupid place doesn't need to be renovated!"
The girls gasped.
"Bad word," Ashton scolded her father.
"Er, sorry," Freddie said quickly. "Daddy's just a little…annoyed at the moment."
He glanced down at his watch. His meeting started in less than ten minutes…he was really running out of options.
"Okay, new plan," he said, trying to stay calm. "You guys, um, you're coming to my meeting!"
"Meeting?" Emma repeated curiously.
"Yes, a meeting is something very important that grown-ups have," Freddie said, picking the two up and jogging over to the elevators. "Now it's super, super important that you two behave, okay? That means no running around, no talking, no anything. Daddy will let you guys watch Pony Jamboree on his Pearpad, so you'll be plenty entertained. And if you two listen and are good, after my meeting I'll take you out for ice cream!"
"Ice cream!" the twins yelled excitedly into Freddie's ears.
"But remember, you need to be quiet," Freddie winced as the elevator reached his floor. He hurried into the meeting room, thankful to discover he was the first to arrive. He set the girls in two chairs off to the side and pulled his Pearpad out of his bag.
"I hold it!" Ashton said, holding out her hands.
"No me!" Emma whined.
"You'll both hold it," Freddie said firmly, setting the device down between them. "Or no ice cream."
The silenced the twins right away.
"Alright…this will work," Freddie said, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Now hopefully this meeting will be quick and-"
"Morning, Benson," Freddie's boss said, strolling into the room followed by a few other employees. He glanced over at the twins. "Who do we have joining us today?"
"Um, these are my daughters," Freddie said quickly. "Sorry about this, but I-I had to bring them here. My wife is sick, nobody's available to babysit, the daycare center is closed…but don't worry. They're really good kids; you won't even know they're here!"
"I hope that's true," Freddie's boss said, sitting down at the head of the table. "Because we have a lot of important information to go over."
"Yes, sir," Freddie nodded, taking his own seat.
"Now then," Freddie boss began, clearing his throat. "It's come to my attention that downloads of our latest software system are currently up three percent, which is excellent news, of course. However our competitors are just about to unveil their own new system, which I believe may potentially-"
"Daddy," Emma whispered from her seat. "Daddy!"
Freddie suppressed a groan and quickly looked back at his daughter. "Emma, shh!"
"But we hungry," Emma whispered.
Freddie's boss gave him a stern look. "Benson…."
"Sorry, um, just give me one sec," Freddie said, diving into his bag and finally finding a chocolate bar. He quickly broke it in half and handed it over to the twins.
"As I was saying," Freddie's boss said, still glaring at Freddie. "With their new system, our competitors are predicted to overtake us in sales by almost five percent, which means that we need to begin coming updates for our system that will-"
"Daddy!" Ashton whispered."Psst! Daddy!"
Freddie decided to ignore her, and stared intently at his boss. Suddenly, though, he felt a tiny hand pulling on his arm.
"Daddy!" Ashton whispered urgently.
"Um, sorry," Freddie said again to his boss. "Um, what Ashton? What is it? You have a snack now-"
"Potty!" Ashton said, bouncing up and down. "I go potty!"
"Um, well, Ash you-you're wearing your pull-up, so can't you just-"
"No, I big girl!" Ashton said firmly.
Freddie let out a long breath as he looked back over at his boss. "Um…I just need a few minutes…"
"Make it quick," his boss said, looking more and more impatient.
Freddie rushed Ashton down the hall to the bathroom.
"Alright sweetie, you need to be fast," Freddie told her. "Just sit down and-"
"Daddy, I no go now," Ashton said, smiling up at Freddie sweetly.
"You don't have to go anymore?" Freddie said slowly, feeling a twitch in his eye.
Ashton shook her head.
"Okay," Freddie said, trying to keep his voice calm. "Well then…we'll go back."
He took Ashton back to the meeting room and sat back down in his seat. No more than two minutes had passed, though, when he felt another tap on his arm. He looked down and saw Emma looking up at him.
"I go potty, daddy."
"Of course…" Freddie said heavily, shaking his head.
…
"Hey, you're back," Sam yawned that afternoon as Freddie brought her up a tray of soup.
"Yup, we just got home," Freddie said, setting the tray down on Sam's lap.
"So were the twins good while you were at you're meeting?" Sam asked. "Did they have fun at that daycare place?"
"Er, turns out that daycare center was closed," Freddie admitted. "Figures that was the one email I didn't get around to reading last week…"
"So what'd you do?" Sam asked. "You didn't take the girls into your meeting, did you?"
"I had no choice," Freddie told her.
"Oh jeez," Sam said sympathetically. "Well how bad were they?"
"They weren't bad…"
Sam gave him a knowing look.
"Okay, it was a little rough," Freddie conceded. "Between having to take them out to the bathroom every ten minutes and my Pearpad battery dying thirty minutes in, they were a tiny bit disruptive."
"Aw," Sam said. "I'm sorry, baby."
"It's okay," Freddie said. "Honestly, for a couple of two-year olds, they were pretty well behaved, given the circumstances. They just got bored. Thankfully my boss had a stroke of sympathy after an hour and told me he'd email the information from the rest of the meeting, so I got to leave."
"Huh, next time I have to go in to a meeting at work, maybe I'll take them with me then," Sam smirked. "If they get me out of it faster…"
"Ha, ha," Freddie said. "So you feeling any better?"
"A little," Sam said. "Still feel like butt, though. But hopefully by tomorrow I can be out of bed to help you out with the kids."
"Good," Freddie said. "Because baby…I really need you."
"I know," Sam smiled. "Trust me."
