Does anyone else but me hear the real characters voices in my head when they read this?

The fight was over and Dan was left alone in the living room with Andy and Jerry who had been quietly playing with blocks through all the drama. Dan bent down and sat on the floor helping Jerry help Andy with building a house out of the wooden rectangles, triangles, and squares.

As he did this he realized how smart Andy was.

"We need door uh here." Andy told Dan pointing to the back of their small little structure.

Dan smiled and then looked at Jerry. "What do you think, Jerry? Does there need to be a wall there?"

Jerry looked at his dad. "Yeah!" He said enthusiastically. Dan questioned this. Jerry's vocabulary wasn't as vast as Andy's which was okay because Andy was older, but Jerry only seemed to know 'Yeah', 'No', 'Daddy', 'Milk', 'Jell-O', 'Dinesoar', 'TV', 'Barney', 'Conner', 'Blocks', 'Bears', 'Cubs', 'Bulls', 'Dog', 'Cat', 'Grass', 'Work', 'Kitchen', and the dreaded F , S, and B word's along with variations of everyone's name. Dan worried that with the loss of Roseanne Jerry would somehow fall behind in his age group. Although, if Jerry would be put in daycare he could be helped if he did fall behind.

As Dan thought about this and mindlessly played with the boys, Jackie came in. She seemed excited about something as she talked while taking off her coat and then sitting on the floor across from Dan and in between Jerry and Andy.

"You would not believe what happened today." Dan stared at Jackie. He wasn't in the mood for guessing games right now. Jackie got the idea and just said it. "You know how there's that small farm off the back road of Route 9?" Dan nodded yes and Jackie continued. "Well apparently, the couple that lived there was illegally breeding labs there. Well the Lanford police department seized the animals…" Jackie stopped mid-sentence as Dan was giving her his look of 'and your point is?' "What?" She asked.

"People were breeding dogs illegally and that's a good thing?" Dan asked.

Jackie cocked her head. "No. the good thing was that the cops took their lunch break at the diner. We racked up over three hundred dollars with them alone, Plus a twenty dollar tip for everyone."

"Ah." Dan said, not too happy. "Well your day was certainly better than mine."

Jackie looked at Dan. "Why what happened?"

Dan put a block on the little house. "My kids decided they hate me. I got home today and they were in a screaming match because Mark stopped by after Darlene kicked David out and then Darlene told Mark that he could go to the wedding which pissed off Becky. Then when I try to figure out what's going on I ask Darlene and then Becky claims that Darlene is my favorite and DJ agrees with her. Then after Becky storms downstairs, Darlene grills me on why I'm trying to hide my depression. "Jackie said nothing but then just sat there watching Dan. When he stopped, Jackie asked,

"Is Darlene your favorite?" Dan stared at her blankly saying nothing. "Okay, okay, I shouldn't have asked you that. Your kids haven't lived under the same roof continuously in almost five years. They're bound to fight."

Dan held up his hands. "Yeah each other not me. I stood there and had my head handed to me. It's bad enough that Darlene was with the boys alone, and then DJ didn't get home right after school like he was supposed to so now he hates me because he's grounded for real now."

"I was surprised that you didn't get upset about David leaving Darlene alone today." Jackie said, conversationally.

"Believe me I was. But I swallowed my anger knowing that for now on when something happens I have to accept it and live my life otherwise I'll screw up my relationship with my kids. I can't go punching holes in that wall anymore. I sick of repairing it." Dan said pointing to the wall behind the couch which was the wall that he punched a hole through after David confessed to living with Darlene in Chicago.

Jackie moved her head. "You've obviously thought about this."

Dan lifted off his knees and stood up. "Not the only thing too. I need to talk to my dad but I don't know what to say. I haven't talked to him in two years."

Jackie leaned back. "Why?"

Dan rolled his eyes. "I don't know. I guess that after I found out about my mom and we made up with each other, I just got the sense that I should stay away you know. When he visited me that one time and we talked I started to feel guilty again. Plus, I feel bad about my mom being where she is when she could be somewhere else."

Jackie raised her right hand in a natural way. "You told your dad to take the money that he was going to give you and give it to your mom."

Dan shook his head. "Your right. I did. I still feel like we could be doing better things for my mom."

"We?" Jackie asked wondering why Dan phrased it that way.

Dan looked at Jackie and then jumped on the couch and lay down with his feet on the end to make a point. "Okay doc."

Jackie stood up and then went to the couch and stared right in Dan's face. "I'm sorry. I forgot you hate talking about your mom."

"Thank you." Dan said and sat back up right on the couch.

Jackie sat next to Dan. "Anything you say to your dad is better than not saying anything to him at all you know."

Dan looked up in the air. "Okay what about my kids?"

Jackie looked up in the air at the ceiling. "Let them cool down. Apologize. You'll be fine. You kids have hated you before and stopped. Until now, of course."

Dan looked at Jackie. "What if they only stopped hating me because of Roseanne?"

Jackie sighed. "What if they only stopped hating Roseanne because of you?"

Dan stared at Jackie confused. "What do you mean?"

Jackie held up her hands. "You are a great father, Dan. You've been through a lot and your kids love you as much as you love them."

Dan looked up at the ceiling. "My God Jackie, you and I have entered a whole new relationship."

Jackie smiled. "Is that a bad thing?" Jackie knew that she embarrassed Dan, because he twisted his wedding ring around his finger. Before the accident Dan had never messed with his ring for any reason. Now he developed that habit as if it he had it for as long as he was wearing a ring.

"No. It's not." Dan said shyly and then stood up from the couch. He went to the fridge and pulled out a Coke. "You want one?" He asked, Jackie.

"No." Jackie said.

Dan said nothing but took the can and then sat down on the chair in front of the fake fire place. Dan was obviously embarrassed. Jackie could see his cheeks turning red. They sat silently for a few seconds and the Dan spoke. "Listen, I have an appointment with my doctor scheduled for after work tomorrow. Do you know if your mom is going to watch Andy tomorrow?"

"She's supposed to."

"I was just asking because I was going to see if you could stop by here after work, just to see what's going on." Dan said in a low voice, still embarrassed and trying to hide it.

"Sure."

For dinner, Dan made fish sticks, mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli. He could have made a way better dinner three ways but he was trying to show that he respected Darlene's vegetarian lifestyle.

As all of the Conner's (I include David in that. In the episode Punch and Jimmy Dan tells David "You're a Conner now! Abandon all hope!") sat at the table, Dan realized in record time that not a single one of the kids was talking to him except of course Jerry.

"Darlene can you please pass the ketchup?" Dan asked in an overly annoying and way too nice way.

Darlene said nothing but took the bottle and launched it at her dad. She hadn't played baseball in years but she still had the moves. Dan caught the bottle perfectly.

"Eight years later and you still pitch like Babe Ruth. I wonder if you still hit like him too." Dan was hurt by the silent treatment he was getting, but he refused to show it. Not because he was afraid of losing the "real battle for power" over his kids but because he knew if he didn't do something, nothing would be done to end the war going on in the house and that would screw up the wedding. Plus he found himself feeling like Roseanne. We all know how she acted when her kids gave her the silent treatment. (If not see season 2 episode No Talking on YouTube)

Dan heard crickets with his attention on Darlene so he refocused on Becky. "So how's your job going at the diner?" Becky only looked at her Dad holding a fork with a bite of Mac and Cheese on it. Like Darlene she said nothing and only glared daggers at him. Dan refused to back down, now he brought out the heavy guns. He pointed at Becky. "Okay I get it. You are mad at me because you think I like Darlene more than you." He pointed at Darlene. "You are mad at me because you thought I should have read David the riot act and you don't like that nothing in my life makes me happy anymore. Well I don't like that either and believe me I'm working on it." He pointed at David. "I can only guess why you're mad at me. I think it's because I used you to exact revenge on my employees and that caused you to get yelled at Darlene for coming back so quick." Now he focused on DJ. "You're mad at me because I'm your father. Your my son, and for once one of my kids has taken after me and getting into all sorts of trouble. That whole thing with Xavier was something that I respect you for. We talked about that. But you were still in trouble for St. Louis way before that ever happened and I asked you specifically this morning to come home right after school and you didn't. I was cutting you slack DJ. I let you go to the movies and I said that you can still make your movie, but you took advantage of that. You disappointed me DJ." DJ also did nothing but stare at his dad.

Dan leaned back in his wooden chair. "Not a word from any of you?"

"Daddy!" Jerry shouted. Everyone looked at Jerry who was sitting in his high chair next to Dan and Becky.

They all stopped looking at Jerry and then ate quietly, one by one getting up from their seats and putting their plates, forks, and cups in the sink. DJ was the last of the kids to finish. He put his plate in the sink and started to walk away.

"DJ it's your turn to do the dishes."

DJ turned around and glared at his dad without a word but then went to the sink and started the dishes.

Dan sat there a minute helping Jerry finish his plate and then took Jerry out of the high chair and put their plates on the counter next to the sink. "Thank you son." Dan said as he and Jerry walked out of the kitchen.

In the morning Dan woke up too everyone in the house eating oatmeal. He looked at the clock and realized that he woke up twenty minutes late. He walked into the kitchen waiting to be asked if he wants breakfast. But he didn't get asked, so he skipped breakfast and took a shower.

When he got out and got dressed, he filled up his blue thermos and blue lunch box said good bye to Jerry and left. He felt bad about not speaking to his kids; after all he should have told them that he had a doctor's appointment, and that he could re cancel if they wanted him too, but he knew that such a conversation would fall on deaf ears. So he drove to work praying that this feud, this vendetta, this Sicilian thing must end.

R.I.P Stan "The Man" Musial. You will be missed.

(To my readers who are not naturally from the United States. Stan was a very famous and record breaking baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals who played his entire professional career with the Cardinals.)