"Why the two of you would jump in the river in the middle of January is beyond me, but to even further the ridiculousness you didn't even try to get dried off and warmed up before you questioned your suspect."

"You forgot to mention the part where we tackled him into the snow."

"That's it, I am banning the two of you from ever working together again."

"Can we still be friends? Because she's coming over."

"Good. It will give me a chance to lecture you both."

"Adam."

"Don't you think I won't," he grumbled as Austin walked in the front door.

"You guys got chicken soup? Danny's withholding it from me as punishment for being so stupid."

Adam just sighed and went back into the kitchen while Austin flopped onto the couch next to Lindsay and stole half of the blanket.

"At the risk of letting the guys be right we were really, really dumb."

"We were chasing a suspect Aust."

"I know that. Turns out he had an alibi. So the sore throats and fake sexy voices are actually not worth it at all."

Lindsay swore under her breath and took a sip of tea from the lukewarm mug, then handed it to Austin.

"What? It's not like we're both not at deaths door."

"Huh?"

"I didn't think I had to have proper sentence structure with you."

"Too many cough drops, I can't seem to recognize the gist."

"That's okay, I forgot what I was saying."

"This tea has no flavor."

"I know. But it's better than the hot water with honey that Adam tried to make me drink this morning."

"Was he trying to kill you?"

"I don't know."

Austin laughed, a kind of scratchy, growling laugh, then rubbed at her nose with her sleeve.

"Aust, there's tissues right there."

"Yeah I know. I hate tissues. They smell funny."

"You can't smell."

"But I know that they smell so even if I can't smell them I can imagine the smell."

"You're weird."

Austin nodded and curled up even more, resting her head on Lindsay's shoulder.

"I would never admit this to anyone else, but I really feel like crap."

"So do I."

"Where's Avery?"

"Playing in her room. Today she is an elephant and won't answer to anything but "Baby Elephant" and she started bawling because she can't pick things up with her nose."

"That girl is crazy."

"I adore her."

"Me too."

They settled into silence, watching the old episode of The Golden Girls and giggling at the antics of the elderly women until Adam returned to the room with two bowls of soup.

"Aw, you're gonna take care of me too?" Austin asked with a smile.

"Yeah, I figure if you croak, this one's gonna be a whole lot harder to deal with. Plus I don't mind you that much."

"Thanks for your heartfelt words of love, Dum."

"Totally welcome."

He went upstairs to check on Avery while Lindsay grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels.

"How come there's nothing on?"

"Because you only watch MTV."

"I DO NOT!"

"Linds."

"I watch The History Channel too!"

"That's quite the diversity you've got there."

"You love me."

"Can't help it."

"Sometimes I think back to when we just met and I wonder if Fate was just laughing his butt off the entire time."

"Probably."

Lindsay stretched a little and stirred her soup, knowing scientifically that chicken soup really didn't help a cold, but that she needed to eat anyway.

"Have my carrots?" Austin asked, holding up a spoonful.

"Well…"

"You always do."

"Fine, dump them in, but you're eating my onions."

"Fair enough."

They spent a few minutes swapping vegetables before they were both happy, looking up to see that Adam and Avery had been watching them the entire time.

"Do you two understand nothing about germs?"

"Dum, we fell in the same river and caught the same cold. I don't think swapping vegetables is gonna hurt us."

"On the contrary, smarty pants," Adam started, causing Avery to laugh. "While you both may have fallen in the same river at the same time, that didn't give you the cold. You got colds because your bodies worked overtime trying to warm up, leaving your immune system weakened and more susceptible when you ran into cold germs in the air. You could both have different strains."

"Lin?"

"He's actually right."

"I hate when Adam's right."

"Me too Aust. Me too."

"Come on Averylin," Adam said with a sigh. "I'll make you lunch and tell you all about why you can't listen to mama and Austin too much, okay?"

"Okay daddy."

"He's turning your baby girl against you," Austin whispered.

"It's okay. She's really good at humoring him. I bet you as soon as she's done eating she'll come in here and give me a hug and say "mama I love you bestest." I'm not worried."

"And here I thought she was a daddy's girl."

"She's pretty equal. All the kids are actually."

Austin nodded and they turned back to the TV, finishing their soup quietly.

"There's no one in this world I would rather be sick with than you."

"Aw, thanks Aust."

"Plus, Danny is bad at taking care of me. He is terrified he's going to get it. He sleeps on the couch and Lysol's everything I touch and won't wash my dishes. You let me share your snot rag."

"We maybe should think about boundaries."

"Nah."

Lindsay chuckled and sniffed, leaning forward to set their bowls on the coffee table, then coughing a few times.

"I need sleep."

"Me too."

"I'm going to lay on this end of the couch if you want to lay on that end of the couch, and don't kick me."

"I would never think such a thought."

"Ug, I feel icky."

"I feel ickier."

"No I do."

"I do!"

"Daddy! Mama and Au'tin are fightin'! Come stop 'em!"

"Avery, too loud."

"Daddy's upstairs," Avery countered, popping another fruit snack into her mouth and changing the channel to a different cartoon. "Can't hear if I not scream."

"Oh Avery-Pants, you are your mama."

"No I not. I'm Avery. Silly Au'tin."

"Yeah, silly Austin."

"Your mama's silly for being friends with me then."

"That what you say all the times."

"You little lady, when did you grow your vocabulary so much?"

"This mornin'."

"Are those fruit snacks good?"

Avery wrinkled her nose and cast a long, slow look over her shoulder.

"Daddy gived 'em to me, Au'tin. Me."

"Well then…"

"Don't try and cross her when she has food. If you want some, you have to use sly techniques."

"Such as?"

"Avery, you're so pretty."

"Thank you mama. I know."

"How'd you get so pretty?"

"From you."

"Really? Well if you got it from me, do you think you might want to share your fruit snack?"

"Oh fine."

She stood up from the floor and walked over, handing the non-descript snack to Lindsay with a sigh.

"Enjoy."

"Thanks baby. Can I have a kiss too?"

"Nope. Germies."

"Oh. Save it for later?"

"Yes mama."

She sat back down while Austin shook with silent laughter, tears streaming down her face, half from amusement and half from the cold.

"If ever there was a child that was an absolute perfect, 50/50 blend of their parents, it would be this girl right here. How in the world?"

"We marvel occasionally too. Sometimes shudder in fright."

"Watching her gives me the same feeling as watching the two of you bicker years and years ago when you were just dating."

"What feeling is that?"

"Amusement, uncertaintly, bewilderment."

"You came up with the triple threat really fast."

"I've been hanging out with you guys for twelve years. It kind of comes naturally."

"Oh."

"You once argued about his penchant to put his feet on your coffee table and knock the magazines off and he said you should be ashamed that you wasted so much paper with magazines you never read and you said you were going to paper cut his eyeballs if he didn't quit putting his feet up, and then he pinched your butt and you turned red and didn't say anything else for a while."

"Wow. We're really odd."

"Who's odd?" Adam asked, coming down to see what Avery had been hollering about.

"You and me."

"I always suspected. How are you ladies doing? More soup? Water? One of those snot sucker things we used to use on the kids?"

"Ew!"

"Well, I'm not sure how your nasal passages are working! I'm trying to be helpful."

"Go get me some whiskey then."

"In your dreams, Messer."

"I should probably go home anyway. I feel better if I take showers at regular intervals."

"The rest of us feel better if you do too."

"Dum, you're lucky I'm too sick to retaliate."

"I'm sure. You gonna be okay walking home or do you want a ride? You want a ride right? Because you're not actually dumb and you don't actually want to walk home in the snow right?"

"Okay, take me home."

"Avery, stay here with mama. Make sure she doesn't get sicker okay?"

Avery nodded and climbed up onto the couch, patting Lindsay's head seriously.

"Oh mama, you get better."

"I'm sure I will if you take care of me."

"Yep, I can. You be happy, you see."

"Bye Lin, thanks for letting me crash for a while."

"You're welcome. Race you to feeling better."

"You're on."

"I'm real sorry daddy. Really, really sorry."

"Colton, you don't have anything to be sorry about."

"But daddy, I did so bad!"

Lindsay opened her eyes just slightly and found Adam and Colton sitting on the other couch, looking over some school work. Colton looked close to tears.

"Colton, you didn't do bad. Eighty percent is pretty darn good, especially when you struggled so much with this week's spelling words."

"It is?"

"Of course it is. I know you're used to getting better grades, but mama and I don't really care about the numbers. We know how hard you worked on it. Most of these words you only missed by one letter. That's not very much. You studied hard and your other school work didn't suffer. You didn't fail the test and you didn't give up. I'm very proud of you."

"Really daddy? You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Nope. In fact, I have a special place for this test."

"Where?"

"I'm going to hang it right on the fridge."

"But why? I didn't do good!"

"Maybe your grade isn't what you wanted, but I am putting this up here to remind you that hard work is what is important. You worked really hard Colton, and I'm proud of you."

Colton smiled widely and watched as Adam went into the kitchen and put the test on the fridge where a few other papers were displayed.

"Now, do you have your spelling words for this week?"

"Yes. Would you help me study?"

"Absolutely. After dinner we'll send Ben and Avery upstairs and we'll study together for a while."

"Really daddy? Thank you so much! I really need help."

"We'll get through it together. I'll see if I can find some study tips that might help."

"Thanks daddy! I'm going to go tell Ben that he doesn't have to be worried about me getting punished anymore!"

He ran upstairs and Lindsay grinned, opening her eyes all the way.

"You win every parenting award ever."

"Nah."

"Yes you do, Adam."

"Okay. You hungry?"

"Not really."

"Are you sure? You slept for a couple hours."

"I'm fine."

"Feelin' any better?"

"Not really. Headache's gone but I feel like my fever is worse."

"You're less stuffy but more sniffly."

"Six of one, half dozen of the other."

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead, brushing her tangled hair back as he did.

"I feel bad," Ben announced, standing in the doorway with his shoulders dropped.

"What kind of bad Ben Ry?"

"My neck hurts, daddy. When I speak. And my nose feels full of boogers."

"You mean your throat hurts?"

"Yeah that."

"Sounds like you've got what mama's got."

"So could I finally cuddle with her now?" he asked, arching an eyebrow and looking a little happier.

"Sure honey. Come here."

He grinned and ran to the couch, jumping up with her and snuggling under the blanket she had. She felt his forehead, finding it a little warm and he smiled.

"Can we watch a movie together?"

"Sure sweetie. What do you want to watch?"

He was quiet for a minute as he thought.

"How 'bout Twister? You like that movie and I think it's excitin'."

"Sounds good. Adam, can you put it on for us? We're so very, very sick."

Adam chuckled and found the movie, trying to remember which input the VCR was on since they only had the movie in VHS format. Lindsay had watched it so many times that it was kind of crackly in spots, but she refused to get a new copy.

"What are Colton and Avery doing?"

"Cole's doin' his math. Sissy's playin' kitchen. Said she wants dinner."

"I'd better get started cooking something then. Are you hungry for dinner Ben?"

"I'd like a ham sandwich."

"I think I could do that without messing up. What about you babe?"

"I'll take a ham sandwich too."

"Okay. Enjoy your movie, I'll be back in a bit."

"Hey mama?"

"Yeah?"

"Could ya rub my arms? I like when you do that."

"Sure honey."

He snuggled closer to her and gave a gentle cough as the movie started up.

"Mama, would that ever happen to daddy? Gettin' taked by a twister?"

"No, we don't get those here."

"Oh good. I'd be anxious about it."

She smiled and kissed his cheek.

"Oh no!" Avery wailed, her hands on her hips. "I want snuggle mama!"

"You can't, sissy. You'd get sick. I am sick so it's okay."

She let out a whine and stomped her foot against the floor, a sure sign of a coming tantrum.

"Avery."

"I wanna snuggle mama. Daddy say no 'cuz sick! I want my mama!"

"Sissy, you are just hungry."

She continued to cry until Adam came out of the kitchen and picked her up.

"What's wrong honey?"

"Want mama! I hungry!"

"Do you want a ham sandwich too?"

"Yes!"

He smiled and took plates to Lindsay and Ben, then picked Avery up and hugged her.

"C'mon sweetie, I'll get you some dinner and you'll feel better."

"An' snugglin'?"

"Sure."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder while she calmed down.

"I know how she feels," Ben said with a little sigh, peeling the crust off his sandwich. "I'd be real upset if I couldn't snuggle with you."

"Yeah, me too."

"Mama, I been learnin' somethin'."

"What have you been learning baby?"

"That all the questions I got, they got answers. I never done listenin' before."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And all the stuffs that I feel like I gotta say, I don't feel like I gotta say it anymore. Sometimes I can have my own thoughts and not share."

"Sometimes it's nice to do that. But you don't have to stay quiet all the time."

"'Member how Isa always said I talked too much? Well guess what? Now that I don't talk so much, me and Isa have discussions about things more! She's teached me some stuff about being tough if I get picked on. Now me and her is good friends because we talk to each other the same, 'stead of me talkin' and her gettin' annoyed. She says hi to me on the playground now, and tells me when she's havin' a bad day. We're buddies."

"I'm very glad honey. It made me sad that you two didn't get along so great for a while."

"Yeah. I really like Isa, she's very smart. And I know why she gotted frustrated with me sometimes. So I won't dominate the conversation now and we will both be happy."

"I'm glad, buddy. I kind of miss how much you talked but I think that as long as you're happy with your decision then I am happy for you."

"Well maybe I will still talk to you a lot. And tell you every think that I think."

"I would love that."

"Okay, then I will tell you somethin' what I'm thinking. I'm thinkin' that I really wanna pick the boogers out of my nose but that is not polite so where is a tissue?"

She chuckled and found a tissue for him, grateful when he got up to go into the bathroom to take care of his problem.

"Oh yuck!" he shouted. "That's nasty."

She chuckled and shook her head. Maybe he was deciding to be a little more low-key, but her Benjamin was still there.

"So could I have a cup of coffee, daddy?" Colton asked hopefully with a big grin.

"You wouldn't like it."

"Yes I would. You're havin' a cup of coffee while we study and I would like one too."

"Okay, let me make you some."

Colton smiled and went back to his list of spelling words, sounding them out and reading the provided sentence so he could come up with a definition.

"Okay, here's some coffee for you, but don't tell mama that I gave you instant decaf or she'll make fun of me for even having it in the house."

"Thanks daddy. I think I have got the first five words pretty good. Want to test me? I'll write them down and you can check them, just like a test."

"Okay. Your first word is circumstance."

Colton thought for a moment, his lips moving as he sounded out the word, then he wrote it feverishly on his paper, as if he didn't want to forget it.

"Next!"

"Your second word is understandable."

"Oh that's an easy one as long as I can remember the suffix. That's the ending. It looks weird if it ends with i-b-l-e so it must be a-b-l-e. There. Next!"

"Your third word is government."

"Oh yeah there's another letter in there that you don't hear when you say it. But I remember what you said, that the government governs over the people, so the word govern is in there. I got it daddy, I got it! Next word!"

"Disguise."

"I'm touch and go with this one," he said softly, staring down at his page. It took him a minute or two but he finally wrote the word out, reading it a few times until he was satisfied that it was correct.

"Okay buddy, your last word is observable."

"Oh, this is another one with a suffix."

He wrote the word out once, sounded it out, then erased his mistake and wrote it again.

"Okay daddy, it's ready for you to grade."

Adam smiled and took the paper from him while he drank his coffee, feeling very old and important.

"Alright buddy, you only missed one."

"Disguise was the word, huh?"

"Yep. Let me teach you a trick for remembering."

"Okay! Your tricks help me."

"First we're going to look at the hard part of the word. Guise. Do you know what that word means?"

"Nope."

"A guise is your appearance. The word sounds like g-u-y-s doesn't it?"

"Yeah, that's how I get confused."

"This word is out to trick you, just like a disguise."

"So it looks weird! It looks like it should say dis-goose! So if I remember that the word disguise is an actual disguise then I will remember to write it so it looks like it should say dis-goose!"

"That's right."

"I get it now! I won't ever forget this one. Thanks daddy!"

"Should we do five more words tonight and work on the rest of the list tomorrow?"

"You'd help me tomorrow too?"

"Of course I would. I know how much you want to do well, and I like helping you to learn things. Maybe if mama's feeling better I will take you to the coffee shop in the morning where we won't have distractions in the form of Ben and Avery."

"You'd really do that for me, daddy?"

"Absolutely."

"You really are the best daddy, just like mama says."

"I really try to be."

Colton smiled and they set to work on the next chunk of words, talking about what they meant and how to remember their spellings. There were a few words that were difficult, but Colton came up with some tricks on his own and felt even more confident with this set of five words than he had with the previous ones. He was very happy by the time they finished, having had Adam test him on the words all three times and not missing any.

"You know, mama always helps me with my work," he said, gathering up his papers. "And she's real good at it. But I like the way you do spelling better."

"Well maybe mama and I are going to get to take turns helping you."

"Maybe! It's good that I am good at math though, because mama says she hates it."

"Yeah she does. I'm not a big fan either."

"Mama's good at helping me with book reports and with science stuff. And you are good at doing spelling with me and teaching me stuff that isn't school stuff. Some kids don't have parents that help them much."

"We will always be here to help you learn buddy. All you have to do is ask."

"Thanks daddy. I'd better go to bed so we can study in the morning."

"Alright. Go to sleep and retain some of that information."

"Retain was on last weeks words! R-e-t-a-i-n!"

"See buddy, you're in better shape than you think."

"Goodnight daddy. Love you."

"I love you too son."