When Doc heard the door open somewhere upstairs, he just assumed it was the kid finally dragging himself out of bed.

Then, the fact that Lightning and Sally had moved into their own house three months ago struck him halfway through his next sip of coffee and he began to briefly entertain the idea of ghosts.

That's when the kid shuffled into the kitchen, hair a mess and face still foggy with sleep as he reached for the coffee pot.

"Where'd you come from?"

"Upstairs," came the dry answer.

Doc couldn't help but smirk. "You don't say. All right, when did you get in?"

A shrug. Lightning collapsed into a chair and slumped against the table, clutching his mug as if it would soon reveal itself to be his personal lord and savior.

"Last night sometime. Maybe midnight?" Another shrug. "It feels so long ago, I can't really remember."

"What happened?"

"Nothing."

Doc raised a brow. "Nothing brought you all the way over here at midnight?"

Honestly, those shrugs were beginning to grate on his nerves…

"Where's Sally?" he asked when Lightning drank some of his coffee instead of replying.

"Probably out being productive somewhere. How am I supposed to know?"

"Son, she's your wife."

"Yeah, but it's not like I have her on a tracker. What am I supposed to do? Keep a record of her every move?"

Silence descended, coming in low and thick.

Doc folded his morning paper.

"What was the fight about?"

"Fight?" The kid scoffed. "What fight? Sally and I don't fight."

All it took was a bit of eye-narrowing on Doc's part and a couple seconds under his hard gaze for Lightning to crumble.

"I killed her plant," he mumbled.

"A plant started a fight?" Doc shook his head, adding under his breath, "and it's only been three months..."

"I was supposed to take care of it while she was out of town for the weekend, but I mean, it wasn't really my fault! I'm horrible at keeping things alive, and it was dying anyway. Every plant I've ever had to take care of, I killed. I even killed that freaking Tamagotchi!"

"Is that what you told her?"

"I made it clear before she left that I suck at watering plants, yeah. And she still expected me to keep it alive."

"I mean," Doc said, swallowing a sigh, "did you tell her it wasn't your fault?"

"Well, yeah... because it wasn't. Anyway, one thing led to another, and now she's accusing me of 'not trying hard enough in our relationship,' or something like that."

"I see. And what exactly did you accuse her of?"

"Uh..." Here, the kid chuckled, a hesitant, slightly chagrined sound. "I may or, uh, may not have, um... called her, uh, controlling..."

"And..." Doc probed, seeing the other half of that sentence scrawled across the kid's face plain as day.

"And... I sort of, maybe, told her she was overreacting and that she was ruining our relationship over a stupid plant."

"Ouch."

"Yeah..."

"Which plant was it?"

"Uh..." Lightning furrowed his brows. "I think she called it Archie, or something like that."

"Oh, Lightning..." Blowing out a sigh, Doc shook his head. "You chose the wrong plant to kill."

"I didn't choose to end its life! It just sort of... happened. Wait, what's so special about Archie?"

"She never told you?"

"If she had, do you really think I'd be asking you right now?"

"Watch it, son. Don't snap at me, I'm not your wife."

Doc could tell that comment hit home a little too hard, but that was just as well. Lightning needed a reality check, and who better to give it to him than Doc?

When the kid didn't reply, instead slumping further onto the table, his mentor filled the silence.

"That plant belonged to her mother."

The kid's cheeks went from flushed to sheet white in the span of mere seconds.

"When Sally decided to settle here, that plant was one of the only things she had sent from home."

"That..." The kid shook his head, folding his hands tightly together until the shade of his knuckles matched the pallor of his face. "That would've been a good thing to know before she left me in charge of it."

At this, Doc took a moment to study Lightning. Hard. And the kid withered under his gaze.

"I don't think your problem is that you killed the plant, rookie. Over the course of this conversation, you've turned everything back on her, do you realize that? Nothing has been your fault so far, and I think that's where you went wrong at the very start of all this. Am I off on that?"

Lightning slumped again, heaving a sigh. "No, I guess not... But I just felt like I had to defend myself when she started going off on me about..." At Doc's slightly raised brow, he withered once more. "I mean, I didn't take as good of her plant as I should've." He washed his hands over his face as the truth finally seemed to give him a good punch to the gut. "Doc, I killed her plant! I don't even know how I did it, but I did! And it was her mother's, too!"

"It doesn't matter that you didn't know it was her mom's until now. You should've put the same amount of care into it as you would've had you known simply because she asked you to—and because you love her."

"I guess you're right."

"You guess?"

"All right," Lightning mended, a slight grin gracing his features. "I know you're right. You always are."

"When you've lived to be my age, kid, you will be, too. Now, the question that remains is just this: what are you going to do about it?"

The kid started to shrug, then paused halfway, his smile widening.

"I think I have an idea." Jumping out of his seat, he clapped Doc on the shoulder. "Thanks, Doc. You know, for someone who's never been married, you give, like, really good relationship advice."

"Just because my left hand's never sported a ring doesn't mean I'm a stranger to romance. Like I said, it's all about experience."

"Oh, I'm definitely gonna have to come back and ask about that," Lightning said with a sly smirk, "but some other time. I'll see you later!"

As the door slammed, rattling the walls, Doc smiled. Somehow, he had a feeling everything was going to turn out just fine.