"Averylin, you remember that Colton is in charge, okay? I don't want you disobeying or talking snotty to him."

"I know, daddy. But can't I go with you and mama?"

"No way kid. I finally get to have mama all to myself. I love you, but I don't want to share her."

"So you will have fun without us?"

"So much fun," Adam chuckled, finishing with her hair. "But we left all the fixings for ice-cream sundaes for you kids to have."

"For lunch?" Avery squealed with a laugh.

"Sure, for lunch."

"Okay daddy, I s'pose I could forgive ya for leaving us. I must go and tell Ben! Hey Ben!"

She thundered out of the bathroom and Adam finished cleaning up the towels and things the kids had scattered about while they got ready for the day.

"They should clean up after themselves," Lindsay commented, leaning against the doorway.

"Yeah," Adam agreed. "But I was here so…"

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Kind of," she admitted with a sigh. "I never thought we'd be here, you know?"

"I didn't either. And I'd rather that we didn't need help, but if we need it at least we're getting it, huh?"

"Mm-hmm. You want to go out for a late lunch afterwards?"

He nodded and gave her a smile, stepping closer to draw her into his arms. So many aspects of their relationship were weak or on hold and physical affection was still barely creeping in. It was odd not to always touch each other, to say "I love you" with more than just words. But touching still felt strange as well and as much as they wished to just surge through and add it to their repertoire again, they both felt confident that taking their time would be best in the long run.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

He took her hand and they went downstairs to find all three kids searching through the kitchen for the sundae toppings.

"I finded the nuts!" Avery shouted. "I don't even like 'em on my ice-cream but I finded them! Here Coley!"

"Whoop, here's the cherries!" Ben said, grabbing the jar from the fridge. "Wow you guys really went to town getting us some fun stuff."

"That was all daddy," Lindsay chuckled. "I was going to leave you liver and onions for lunch."

"That's disgusting."

"Okay, you kids be good, don't eat too much ice-cream."

"When will y'all be back?" Avery asked, climbing on the counter to pull bowls down. "So's we can know when we shall begin to clean up our disasters?"

"I'd prefer you didn't make any disasters, but we'll be back in about three hours."

"Oh fabulous. That is just enough time."

"For what, Averylin?"

"Oh nothing much. Well you two had better get to your 'pointment. You don't want to be late!"

"Are you rushing us out?"

"Listen, I like to do 'speriments an' I don't need y'all telling me I am doing it wrong, hmm'kay?"

"Avery-"

"It is not a messy one, I swear!"

Adam and Lindsay shared a look and shook their heads.

"Okay, we'll go. But you remember, Colton is in charge, so if he tells you to stop the experiment, then you need to stop."

"Okay mama, I get it, you are a fun ruiner. Now get out of here folks!"

They left reluctantly and Avery turned to the boys with a grin.

"Y'all ready?"

"Yep. Let's wait until the car leaves before we go get the stuff," Colton advised. "Do you guys know where your bike helmets are? I was thinking that last night, it might be a good idea to wear them."

"I'll go grab 'em out of the backyard," Ben volunteered. "I hope they're not filled up with rain water."

He ran outside while Colton and Avery continued with gathering the sundae supplies.

"I think we should get the ice-cream out now and while it's thawing a little, we can set up the slide."

"Yeah, okay. I don't want us to bend a spoon in the Rocky Road. I like when you're in charge, Coley. We get up to such fun things."

"We sure do," he chuckled. "Come on, let's leave these out. Where did you say all that cardboard was?"

"Daddy putted it in the basement, after we got this new 'fridgerator."

"I'll go down and grab it. Can you find the duct tape?"

"Sure. It is in the junky drawer."

Ben came back inside then, holding all three bike helmets and an armful of knee pads.

"Never know how things are going to turn out," he commented, dropping everything on the floor. "Also, I was thinkin' we should put our bean-bag chairs down here, for somethin' soft to crash into!"

"That's a great idea, Ben! Go get 'em!"

Soon they had all their supplies and were constructing their cardboard slide, making sure to tape it down well over the stairs so they would have a smooth ride.

"I say we take a break for ice-cream, then we can start sliding," Colton suggested, standing back to survey the work.

"Great idea! I'm starved! Coley, could you make me a banana split because I cannot use a knife yet?"

"Sure. Ben, do you want a banana split too?"

"No thanks, I am just going to have regular old ice-cream with lots of stuff on top. Hey, let's watch a movie while we eat. Know of any good ones?"

"I'm sure we could find one. Why don't I go look while you guys finish making your sundaes?"

Soon they were all settled around the coffee table with a movie playing, bowls full of ice-cream and candy.

"This is a great day," Ben sighed after a moment. "A movie, independence, and hangin' out with my favorite people."

"We are you favorite people Ben?" Avery asked, bringing a spoonful of whipped cream to her mouth.

"Yeah. I mean, Junior is my best friend, but us three kids, we have a whole life and family all together. 'Course you're my favorite people, you're my brother and sister!"

"Well that's great because you're mine," Avery said while Colton nodded in agreement. "Oh great, I had better take Thomas out to do her business, she sure is dancin'. C'mon baby, let's go."

They trooped out of the house while the boys laughed.

"I do love her, but boy she's weird."

"Yeah. Someday when we have families of our own and kids and stuff, we'll tell them about their crazy aunt Aves and all the weird stuff she did."

"They'll love that."

"Boys! BOYS! Come quickly! I founded something!"

They dashed outside to join her, looking up to where she was pointing at a birds nest in the tree.

"Oh cool!" Colton said, standing on a chair to try and get a better look "I don't think we've ever had a birds nest in our backyard. Good job spotting it Aves."

"I wonder what kind of bird it is. Cole, think we could get a ladder and climb up there to see?"

"Nah, you really should leave animals alone when they're in their natural habitat. Maybe mama will have an idea for looking closer when she gets home. We should probably leave them alone."

They turned to go inside and Avery grabbed the doorknob, twisting it and finding it locked.

"Uh-oh, boys. Here is a adventure that we did not expect."

"So then, what are you here for?"

The question from the counselor hung in the air for a moment and Adam and Lindsay glanced at each other, neither of them wanting to be the first to speak. They were both certain why they were there, but it had been increasingly hard to put into words the more they thought about it.

"I suppose it really just comes down to neither one of us wanting to get into this situation again," Adam started.

"We need to start communicating better," Lindsay added. "Our old habits aren't working very well, at least not right now."

Dr. Schell nodded and made a note on his paper.

"Clearly you've been able to communicate with each other about what you want and need, you've agreed to seek counseling together. Was there something that triggered that change?"

"The kids were starting to see how bad it was getting," Adam confessed, ashamed still that Colton had been the one to call it out. "I don't think either of us realized how often we were fighting or even felt that it was so bad. Or maybe we just didn't want to see it."

"And once it was brought to your attention, did you two decide to get help for the kids, possibly to ease guilt, is it for the sake of each other?"

"Both, honestly," Lindsay answered quickly. Being more well-versed in therapy, she knew that holding back an answer that was hard to say was a lot worse than letting it go lightly. "We want our marriage to be better, not just for us but for the kids too. You can't really divide it and say that there's only one motivation. It's all about our family as a whole."

"That's good," Dr. Schell said with a nod. "Now if the two of you were to decide how you wanted to go about this, what would be the first issue you would tackle?"

A longer silence fell this time, neither Adam nor Lindsay sure they could choose just one thing to pinpoint as the biggest hurdle. Everything seemed like a big deal right now, it was as if they were just barely holding onto each other in the midst of a hurricane. But at least they were holding on.

"We don't trust each other much anymore," Adam said finally, looking down at his hands. "Not the way that we used to."

Lindsay's eyes drifted up to the ceiling and she pursed her lips. She wasn't annoyed so much as she agreed with what Adam said, albeit uncomfortably. It scared her that their trust in each other wasn't what it had once been and they both knew it would take a lot of work to repair.

"Lindsay, do you agree with that?"

"Yes, but I don't want to."

"Why is that?"

She squirmed in her chair and wrinkled her nose before answering.

"It's not like either one of us haven't been trustworthy or anything like that, it's just that we stopped relying on each other so much and that just turned into trying to do everything ourselves which tricks us both into thinking we don't need the other. I don't know how it changed so fast."

"Damage can be done at a much faster rate than healing can. That's not to say that you're fighting an impossible battle. From the sounds of things I would say that your foundation for getting through this is already strong. You're both very aware of what has gone wrong, what you're each responsible for, and you've already started on the road to forgiving each other and coming up with solutions. It means we have less work to do here, but it also means that when you leave here and life throws you something else, you're going to deal with it a lot better than you ever have before. That said, I would like you both to really think about where you see your marriage in six months. What's different from now, what's different from what you were like before all of this happened, and importantly, what would you like to see remain intact? Take the next week and think about it."

They stayed for a while longer, finishing up their session in the allotted time before walking silently out to the car. They were exhausted just from telling their story, how they met and fell in love, when they decided to start a family, how their marriage had worked up until the last year or so. Spelling it all out, so many years of being together had definitely stirred up a lot of old memories and feelings, but to then launch straight into the state of things now almost soured the trip down memory lane.

They sat in the car for a while, not moving or saying anything, both staring out the window, contemplating everything that had just happened., Finally, Adam reached over and turned the key in the ignition, the noise of the engine startling them both back to the present.

"I don't really feel like going out to lunch anymore," Adam sighed.

"Me neither. Can we just go home and take a nap?"

He chuckled softly and squeezed the hand that she reached out for him.

"I think we definitely need a mental break."

"Home?"

"Yeah, let's go home."

"It was horrible mama!" Avery wailed, her face dirty and streaked with tears. "We were locked out of the house an' then I had to go potty and I was dancing and wishing you to come home but you did not and then I had to go pee in the backyard like a caveman!"

"Why didn't you guys just walk over to Danny and Austin's?"

"We didn't think of that!" Avery cried. "We were panicking and besides my pee, all I could think of was that our lunch of ice-cream was melting and the movie was playing without us. It was as if life was going right along and we could not be part of it."

Lindsay and Adam both bit back laughs and ushered the kids inside where Avery ran to the bathroom to wash her hands.

"Uh boys, what's this?" Adam asked, indicating the slide on the stairs.

"Oh… see, we thought we'd have time to clean it all up before you got home. But we were going to be safe, there's helmets and knee pads and we put the beanbag chairs at the bottom."

A silence passed before Adam sighed and shook his head.

"We should probably put couch cushions down too. Never can be too safe."

"What?"

"Oh, and put on your sweatpants," Lindsay added. "You'll go a lot faster on those than you will in jeans."

"Cole, I think they cracked!" Ben said as the couch cushions were gathered.

"Do you think they'll-"

"I'm going first!" Adam yelled.

"Hey, it's ladies first!"

"I'm checking the safety of the slide Linds. I could be sacrificing my life for our family."

The only way to get up the stairs was to carefully navigate a six inch wide strip between the wall and the cardboard so there was no pushing and shoving on the way up, but they did have to rock-paper-scissors for the first ride once they got to the top.

"What are they doing?" Avery asked, coming around the corner and putting her hands on her hips. "Are they taking it down?"

"I think they're going to ride it, sissy."

"Wow, really? Yahoo! Be careful, y'all! When I rolled my baby doll down as a test, she went head-over-teakettle a lot of times!"

"I'll be careful," Adam assured, laying down on his stomach. "Here we go!"

The kids laughed and squealed delightedly as he came quickly down the slide.

"Whoa, that's a pretty good one."

"I wanna go on mama's lap!" Avery hollered, starting up the stairs. "Don't go without me mama!"

Over and over they all took turns on the slide, the kids hollering with happiness. It had been a while since they'd had family fun like this, with nothing hanging over their heads. Ten months since everything had been turned upside down and this afternoon together seemed to finally be righting it all again. It felt balanced, whole.

"Oh this is such great fun," Avery giggled as they all lay on the beanbags and couch cushions. She was gasping for breath after her last slide down the stairs, her eyes were full of laughter tears, the corners red where she had wiped at them too many times. "Ben was right, this family is my favorite people."

"Mine too!" Adam laughed, pulling her into his arms and kissing her cheeks.

"So is you and mama most bestest of friends again?"

"Of course," Adam assured, pulling Lindsay close and kissing the top of her head. "Mama is always my most bestest friend."

"Oh good. I sensed some strife before, but now that I know it is okay I am happy."

"You know kids, daddy and I should probably apologize to you for being so cranky lately."

"You haven't just been cranky mama," Ben said with a sigh. "You both have been fighting like cats and dogs. And you have been downright rude to each other too. We don't do that in this family, if y'all don't remember that pact we make every year."

"Well thank you for being honest, Benjamin."

"I'm just sayin' I didn't really appreciate that kind of behavior. I said to Junior that you two were being really immature and he laughed at me because he thought I was kidding."

"Yeah, it's been kind of weird," Colton admitted. "You guys have always been happy and in love, even though us kids thought it was disgusting when you kissed and stuff."

"But now we seen what you could do instead of kissing," Ben added. "And we all think we prefer the kissing."

"Yeah, we do too."

"Well that's dandy!" Avery exclaimed. "Let's celebrate by going out for lunch because us kids didn't really get one. Huh? Could we do that?"

"Yeah, let's go out for lunch."

The kids scrambled to their feet to fetch their shoes while Adam struggled against the beanbag chair, finally getting up and reaching his hand out for Lindsay. She smiled and took it, letting him pull her up then wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Can I get a milkshake?"

He laughed and kissed her forehead.

"Whatever you want babe."