"Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold"

Chapter 18

The following couple weeks were stressful…for Jack. He was working hard, struggling to keep up with the parenting skills that Dani was attempting to teach him. The one thing he was sure of was that he was glad that he couldn't be in charge of feeding.

Jack would watch, and would get excited for a second, then realize something that Jack used to love so much now had a kid's mouth stuck to it. And afterwards if he tried to sneak in a feel, she'd scream in pain and swat his hand away.

And today, Dani was downstairs, escaping the noise upstairs. That's when Will stopped by.

"Elizabeth asked me to bring you this," he said to Dani as he handed her a pastry. "What the hell is that noise?" he asked turning his head in the direction of the awful sound.

She looked up to the top of the stairs. "Jack," she whispered. "He's singing."

"It sounds like a goose being sat on," Will laughed.

"Quiet, you eunuch!" Jack shouted down the stairs.

Jack went back to "singing" and Dani got Will a cup of tea.

"So, what's going on with you?" Dani asked.

"Elizabeth's planning the wedding—It seems that I've lost control of my life."

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Dani smiled over her cup.

"I think she may have completely lost it. She runs around taking care of the children, who crawl all over the place, then she shouts at me because I'm not helping. When I do help, I'm doing it wrong."

"Have you thought about a nanny? At least until after the wedding. Someone just to help," Dani asked.

"Bella, Norrington's fiancée, had come over to help a couple times. I'm starting to think this whole thing is a mistake."

"Oh, Will, don't say that."

"It's just so frustrating." He slammed his fist down on the table and shook both their cups and everything else sitting on the table.

Jack wandered down the stairs and pulled up a chair next to his wife. "What was that all about?" He said before taking a drink of Dani's tea and making a face. He added an "ew" for effect.

"I'm just frustrated with my life right now. I don't mean to be taking it out on you," Will said, looking somewhat ashamed of himself.

"Don't worry about it, mate," Jack smiled. "Everyone knows woman are crazy."

Dani turned to Jack and gave him an extremely dirty look.

"All except Danielle, here," he smiled at her sweetly, showing all of his gold teeth. "See what I mean?" he whispered behind his hand.

"I feel a little better now that I was away from the house for a while."

"Aren't you working at the shop?" Dani asked.

"Sort of," he answered.

"Sort of?" Jack asked.

"Elizabeth prefers that I stay home."

"Will, I like you, a lot more than I like Elizabeth. In fact, I consider you family. Which is why I will give you a piece of advice," said Dani. "Put your bloody foot down once in a while and grow a spine."

"You yell at me when I do stuff like that," Jack pointed out.

"We aren't talking about us. Elizabeth and I are too different to compare," she said as the men nodded. "She's probably looking to you to take some initiative," Dani said.

"Really?" Will thought.

"You should probably listen to her," Jack said. "She generally has some good advice about this stuff."

"Jack, this isn't stuff. It's his life."

"Would you listen to yourself? His life and you're butting in."

"Will, do what you think you should. I have a child to check on. And, don't listen to any of Jack's romantic advice. It usually doesn't work," she laughed and walked out of the room slowly.

"And yet, she married me anyway," he said to Will after she left.

"I'm still wondering about that," Will laughed.

"Quiet you," Jack said back. He had put his feet up on the dining room table and was rocking on two legs of his chair. "Now for the really useful advice: ignore her for a while. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or tell her something that she won't want to wait forever to do again…if you get my meaning…and she'll stop her inability to make decisions very quickly."

"Jack…" Will looked at him, completely shocked at what Jack just said. "Did it ever work for you?"

"I don't know, mate," he smiled. "Never had to try it." His grin got even wider.

"I think I'm just going to tell Elizabeth to speed up this process. A wedding doesn't have to be this big a deal, does it? Dani didn't do all this," Will said while waving his hands around.

"But, as Dani stated before, she cannot be compared to Elizabeth. I think that's why Dani and I get along so well. She and I are just so much alike and yet, so completely different. I suppose, deep down, she would have loved a big, flashy, expensive wedding, but she respects me and my opinion and chose to not make a fuss about it," Jack said, making another face after drinking the leftover tea. "I don't know why I just did that. I hate tea."

"Thank you, Jack," Will said, standing up and practically running to the door.

"For what?" Jack asked in his confused way.

"You've inadvertently helped solve my problem," Will yelled over his shoulder. "Give Dani my best!"

And he was gone.

Jack sat with his feet still up on the dining room table, eyes closed while rocking back in the chair. He had no idea what he was talking about.

Jack heard Dani's footsteps on the floor behind him and then felt her lips on his forehead.

"What's that for?" he said, smiling up at her.

"For being you," she said back to him. "Charming, loving, drunken, you."

She sat down next to him once again.

"We need to discuss something," he said, straightening in his chair.

"About what?"

"The Fountain of Youth," he said, spreading the old parchment out in front of them.

A/N: Okay, this was chapter 18, I think. My head, back, and knee hurts so I can't sit as long as I would like. Let me know what you think. And I apologize if anyone took offense to my review comment. I got angry because I have beaucoup hits on my ER stories, but no one is bothering to review. I didn't mean any offense to you guys and gals who review all the time. I thank you very much for every single one that you ever sent and ever will send.

Thank you,

thomthom