When Mike rolls in he finds Frankie face down in the couch groaning.
"What are you doing here? I thought that you would be helping Sue move."
"She waved me off. I think I was increasing her anxiety."
"Why are you lying on the couch moaning?"
"Sue said the most unexpected thing," she admits as she shifts into a seated position.
"She finally told you?" He questions lowering himself onto the couch.
"What do you mean, finally told me?"
"Nothing," he shakes his head.
"Whoa! Hold the phone! Did you know about all of this?"
"Why don't you tell me what you think all of it is, and I will tell you if I knew?"
"That she's pregnant?!"
"Yes. I knew that."
"Since when?"
"I've known for two weeks."
"And you didn't think to mention it to me?"
"Let me explain."
Mike is up early for work. Frankie is still sound asleep, and he hopes to get a fresh pot of coffee on, and half drank before she gets up, so he can enjoy a few minutes of quiet before his day starts. He's rounded the corner into the hall when he hears a gut-wrenching sound. He stops outside the bathroom completely frozen. He contemplates whether he should intervene, or keep walking. It's Sue so he opts for the former. With the knuckles of his index, and middle fingers he gently wraps on the door.
"Sue? Are you okay in there?"
"No," she says in a small voice.
"Are you decent in there? Can I come in?"
"I'm blubbering. Why would you want to come in?"
"I'm your dad, and the pitch of your voice leads me to believe you've killed someone in there."
"It's worse than that."
"We can't know that unless you let me in there to assess the situation. Hey, shouldn't you be getting ready for work?"
"It's unlocked," she answers wiping away snot with toilet paper.
He enters the bathroom, and his eyes widen as he finds his adult daughter sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor with a semi-circle of pregnancy tests around her.
"You're speechless. This is so bad."
He holds up his index finger, "To be fair I am a man of few words. I am just a little bit in shock to find you in the bathroom on the floor that it littered with pregnancy tests. Do you want me to get your mom?"
"No! No! I just… I don't know what to do."
Mike exhales, "I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to take all of these, and put them in the neighbor's trashcan, and go to work. Call and make a doctor's appointment to confirm, and then you can make whatever informed decision that you need to make."
She rises from her seat, and hugs him tightly. "Dad, please don't tell mom. I'm not ready. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Frankie's eyebrows arch, and she tilts her head.
"Why wouldn't she want me to know?"
"Frankie you are not known for being the most level headed human being. She was panicking, and she just didn't need more panic."
"Why would I panic? She is twenty six years old. She has a job, and a house, and a whole life."
"Because she really Hecked all of this up. She's not marrying Sean. She eloped in Branson with Brad. Now she has to try to figure out to co-parent with him for the rest of her life," Mike responds.
"I've been thinking about that all day, and to be honest I don't think it is the worst case scenario. Ideally if you have to co-parent, wouldn't you want to do it with your best friend? I would certainly prefer that over her being in a marriage where she has to make herself small for someone else."
"Sometimes I wonder what we did right with all of them. I know that they all gave us plenty of hell when we were raising them, but I don't think I could be more pleased how they've all turned out. Frankie, they're good human beings."
She nods, "They really are, and they're all better than we even thought about being."
"You know I doubt that Sue has a drill over there, and she ordered a bunch of stuff. She's going to want to hang up pictures, and I should really go over there and help her."
"I went into the basement, and dug out something for her."
Mike grimaces, "She does not want any of our old crap."
"It isn't our old crap. It's hers, and it isn't crap."
"What could possibly be down there that she would want?"
"Do you remember that we did manage to buy all of the kids baby's first Christmas ornaments?"
He nods, "I wasn't sure if we did, or it was a fever dream. I have never seen them on the tree."
"Because we actually went to the ornament store, and we purchased nice ones. Even for Brick. It was like the one thing that we didn't float."
He squints, "So why do I have no recollection of what they look like?"
"Because we kept them in a box, and stored them in a safe place so that they didn't get broken."
"So they never went on the tree?"
"Nope. I found Sue's. I think it's just the thing that she doesn't know she'll need."