Author's note: This chapter was Beta'd by the wonderful and talented Shli. All improvements in my writing go to her. Please take the time to read and review her work as well, it's awesome! Thanks a bunch and I hope all of you enjoy. The final chapter is on its way. Take care :)
Owen's retirement was big, and although manageable, it still took Cristina an extended amount of time to become completely comfortable with the new changes in her life. It certainly helped that Owen kept his promise and was there with Ethan and Evan every day at work for her lunch hour. At times, he would allow them to stay to watch one of their mother's surgeries while he ran errands. She still missed seeing them every other available minute, but the positive side was that it allowed her to return to her vigorous research she'd placed on the back burner so long ago. Lately she was on the verge of making a worldwide discovery, a new method in cardiac surgery. Recently she found herself doing double the research, spending more time experimenting and practicing on cadavers. She even brought studies home from work and started spending more hours researching on her days off. It was fine by her male Hunts: they were happy for her, excited that she was on the verge of changing an aspect of medicine and making a mark in the cardio world. With Owen being a former doctor, he also had some interesting and insightful information to offer. Life was turning out to be just fine with her newly retired husband.
With the help of the twins Owen adjusted well to permanent home life. It only took a week to fall into a daily routine, which kept him busy throughout. He had a lot to teach, and the twins were willing students.
During their mornings and evenings, Owen would act as a culinary teacher. He taught them the importance of washing one's hands before and after handling food. He strongly instilled in them the importance of always letting the adults handle the knives, and the dangers it could cause if they were not. He explained, in as much detail as possible, what to do in case a fire should break out and the importance of oven mitts. Finally with food, he gave up all his best secrets. He would go over every step in creating the ideal consistency of batter for pancakes and waffles. Ethan and Evan were surprised to find the key to getting the perfect fluff in scrambled eggs was to whisk quickly and add milk. During dinner courses, he expressed the importance of marinating for prolonged hours for maximum flavor. They learned about the approximate temperature at which different meats, poultry and fish should be cooked. With pastas, they learned the difference between al dente and mushy. But most importantly, he shared healthy nutrition facts.
Owen also made sure Ethan and Evan remained active. Since they'd recently ditched coloring, building blocks, and make believe games Owen saw this as an opportunity to inform them about sports: hockey, football, and baseball – the only three sports a Hunt should care about. Of course being a native to Seattle, he spoke nothing but greatness of the Thunderbirds, Seahawks, and Mariners. Teaching the twins simple plays and fundamentals about baseball and football posed to be rather simple due to the enormous backyard the house held. With football, Owen attempted to teach them how to throw the perfect spiral, noting the importantance of placing the ring and pinky fingers in the proper laces. It turned out to be quite comical when they attempted to run perfect laterals and a series of jukes to trick the imaginary defense. When the talk of tackling came up, the curious Ethan and Evan wasted no time on each other; but Owen soon had to bring it a halt when one scraped his elbow and the other scraped his chin. Rather than cry, the twins saw it as cool "battle" scars that would showcase their toughness. Owen essentially taught them the x's and o's of football. Baseball started out as regular catch; throwing a baseball around with baseball gloves. But like any good parent, safety came first, so Owen purchased foam baseball bats to hit the balls. He taught them how to pitch, the different ways to hold the ball, and how placing one's fingers on different spots could affect the spin of the ball. With hockey, Owen simply showed them through the television: he felt it would be a safe way without actual hockey sticks. He promised to take them to a game when the season started up again, noting it would have to be on one of Cristina's days off. He remembered how tough it was when they'd missed out on the twins' milestones; and now that he could decide when their first baseball, football and hockey games occurred, he would make sure Cristina would be present to experience it.
Being musically inclined as a child, Owen wasted no time in teaching them how to play the electric guitar and drums. With the twins being their usual selves, they wanted to obtain every possible piece of information about these instruments. So with the drums, before any sticks could touch the surface, he taught them about the different type of drums. He started with bass drum explaining how this particular drum would involve a foot petal. He informed them of the snare drum and how it would be played with their non-dominate hand. The cymbals took awhile to explain because of the various different types which included; the high-hat, ride, splash, and the crash, but Ethan and Evan were more than satisfied with every detail their father was willing to share. The electric guitar was their favorite. Even though they were not quite suitable for children, Owen played a couple of Hendrix and Van Halen songs so that the twins could hear the great sounds an electric guitar can make. He showed them that by pressing down on a certain spot on the strings would make a different sound. He promised he would get them their own matching pair of Fender electric guitars and that they could all jam some simple chord melodies one day.
Aside from all the fun, Owen made sure to add a few hours of teachings that would prepare them for school. Ethan and Evan were far beyond the other kindergarteners, and their parents knew they would not stay in there for long. Simple addition and subtract were calculated easily in their heads. However, double digit numbers still required a paper and pencil or the use of their fingers - as with multiplication and division. Spelling and reading were becoming quite easy for the twins; they understood and caught on so quickly that Owen was convinced that they'd be reading small chapter books by five. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives posed no difficulty; and Owen was forced to up his game by introducing pronouns, preposition and conjunctions. Ethan and Evan often surprised their parents; it was as though they were little geniuses. Owen skipped science: what with all the time they spent in the hospital, he was confident that they would succeed just fine in that area of school.
Cristina also fell into teacher mode on her days off when taking a much needed break from research. She knew nothing of sports, and played no instruments; but she was a formidable chess player and a damn good poker player. With no hesitation, she began teaching them the names and purpose of each chess piece, followed by the possible moves each one could make. Owen teased her, saying that was a game for geeks, but Cristina retorted back that it was excellent for mental training and strategic thinking. During their hour-long games of poker she taught them how to hold a steady poker face and the different possible hands: a pair, two pair, three of a kind, four of a kind, straight, flush, full house, and royal flush.
The twins kept Owen busy. He loved teaching them and the twins loved learning. It was as though their brain capacity of holding information was limitless, and Owen was extremely proud and impressed. The minute the twins expressed to him what they wanted from school Owen decided to opt out of sending them to pre-school. Ethan and Evan made good points: They gathered up all of the brochures from different pre-schools in the area that all promised a day of coloring, cutting out silly shapes, and playing with building blocks - all of which they had had outgrown a long time ago. With one parent on board, the next step was to convince Cristina, who had seemed adamant about sending the twins to pre-school. So one afternoon, while Cristina was drying dishing that piled up during lunch Owen brought it up.
He casually approached Cristina from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and nestling his face on the side of her neck, planting a kiss.
"Hey," he whispered.
Cristina knew this approach all too well. She finished drying the dish, set it down and turned to face her husband.
"Hey," she answered. She looked into his eyes and gave him a facial expression that said "on with it."
Owen retracted his arms and grinned. "What?"
"Oh come on. I know you all too well. What is it that you wanna talk about?"
Owen chuckled. She did know him too well. "Well," he began, taking a moment to glance at the twins who were paying close attention. "I think we should opt out on sending Ethan and Evan to pre-school."
Cristina immediately turned to face the twins, who quickly averted their eyes. "Gee, I wonder whose idea that was."
Ethan and Evan's response were mere giggles.
"Come on, Cristina, jump on board. I saw those brochures. Sending them for a day of coloring and finger painting is a waste of time, and you know it. I'm turning out to be an excellent teacher if you hadn't noticed."
Cristina returned her attention to Owen. "Pre-school will better prepare them for kindergarten. They'll be interacting with other children, allowing them to become more sociable. And-"
Owen cut her off. "Cristina, have you not noticed how sociable our boys are? They talk to everybody about everything and anything. Pre-school is not going to teach them anything new, and you know how much they crave to learn new things."
Cristina folded her arms and sighed. He did have a point there, but she was not going to cave in just yet.
"That may be true but all statistics show that children who go to pre-school are more likely to graduate high school and go on to college."
Owen cocked his head to the side, as if to say are "you kidding me."
"Since when do statistics mean anything? You and I never went to pre-school; and we not only graduated high school, but went to college and became successful doctors."
Cristina took a deep breath and took a moment to think. She looked at Owen, who was nodding for her to say yes. She rolled her eyes at him and turned to her boys. They met her stare and clasped their hands together pleading with her in their adorable manner that always got her. "Fine," she breathed out.
Owen and the twins erupted in cheers.
"Yes!" Ethan and Evan yelled in unison. "You're the coolest, mom."
"Yeah yeah," Cristina answered shaking her head as she smiled.
Now that he got her to agree on this, he felt that this moment was as good as any other to bring up something else. For the past three months as Ethan and Evan's teacher, he had come to enjoy immensely – so much that he was strongly considering becoming a teacher at the local medical school when Ethan and Evan started school next year. It was perfect timing.
Little did he know that Cristina had a surprise announcement of her own. An announcement she'd kept quiet for three months. She hoped that he would not be mad for waiting this long to tell him. But if he gave her any grief, which she highly doubted, she'd just bring up how he had done the same with his abrupt retirement decision.
Cristina took a deep breath. It was her turn.