"Robbie and I aren't going to stay here tonight, George." Anne said impatiently. "I have to get to work tomorrow."
"Then let Robbie stay for a coupla days?"
Anne sighed. "Fine... but I'm coming to get him Thursday, George."
"Yeah, yeah. Say bye to Mommy, Rob."
"Buh-bye, Mama."
"Bye, sweetie." Anne said, giving him a big hug and a kiss.
At this time, Ricky came in with John, and Robbie started clammoring to get down. The two boys embraced each-other and John took his uncle's hand, leading him to the playroom. Anne smiled. "They are cute together..."
"Well, they're fam, and that's good." Ricky nodded. "You wanted us here, I got boxes in the car, dude." Ricky said to George.
"Don't call me 'dude'." George groused, following him out to Amy's car.
"What should I call you? Daddy?"
George reached out and flicked his ear. "George will be just fine, smartass."
A couple of hours went by, and Amy finally woke up again. She'd been a little out of it from the pain meds she was given, but Ricky figured her getting as much rest as possible right now was the best idea either way. She looked at him, standing at the stove.
"What are you making?" she asked, giving him a smile, only slightly difficult with her bruised and swollen face.
"Spaghetti Putanesca."
"Smells good- smells even better than mine."
"Well, yours is... fine..." Ricky said delicately. "But... this has all kinds of sausage and olives and stuff... it's just different."
In truth, George wasn't kidding when he said Amy made the worst spaghetti sauce in the universe, but he couldn't tell her that...
He held out a spoon for her to taste, and her eyes lit up.
"Oh, my God..."
Ricky smiled.
"I just cooked some noodles in chicken broth and tossed 'em with olive oil for the boys- this is too hot for them." he said.
"How did you turn out so awesome?" Amy smiled at him.
"I didn't- I got lucky." Ricky said, and kissed her gently on the mouth.
There as a flinch from Amy when the sound of a knocking door sounded, and Ricky sighed, not wanting her to be scared like that, but he went to the door.
"Ben... now is not a good time."
"I just wanted to see how Amy was doing-"
"And I said it's not a good time." Ricky said, a hard set to his jaw.
"Ricky... let him in." Amy frowned.
Ricky growled under his breath, but moved aside for Ben to come in.
"Hi, I just wanted to see how you- wow..."
"Yeah." Amy said, touching her cheek self-consciously. "I'll be okay."
"Right..."
"We were just about to have dinner." Ricky said, hinting that it was time for Ben to leave.
"Oh, that's nice of you, thanks. Smells great." Ben said, walking Amy over to the table.
And, Ricky rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to rip Ben's hand off of his Amy's arm...