Three Days Later

JJ sighed in content as she rolled onto her side in her own bed that morning. She had come home from the hospital late the previous afternoon, spent a couple of hours playing with her two boys, then felt too exhausted to do anything else. Will had forced her to lay on the couch, and before she knew it, he was waking her up and saying that it was late. She'd fallen asleep immediately upon getting into her bed and slept through the entire night.

"Mummy! Breakfast time! Daddy said you have to come eat!" called the tiny voice of her youngest son.

JJ smiled as her three year old climbed onto her bed and crawled into her arms. Michael snuggled into her embrace, letting her shower his head with kisses. Then he wriggled free and scampered out of the room, JJ trailing along at a more sedate pace. She entered the kitchen a couple minutes later to find a giant mess of what she assumed was flour. It covered the floor and benchtops, and her husband seemed to have turned white from head to toe.

"Um... what happened in here?" she asked, laughing.

"Your two sons wanted to make you pancakes for breakfast. They had a bit of an argument," answered Will as he blew flour from the tip of his nose.

"Why are they not covered in the flour then?"

"Because I made them clean up before they could call you. Turns out, Henry had some other ideas after getting washed up."

JJ laughed harder. "First, this is never to happen again, boys," she finally said. "You want to help cook, fine, but no throwing flour- or anything else for that matter. Help your dad clean up, please. I'm going to get the mop."

"JJ," said Will as he dusted as much of the flour off as possible. "I'll clean the floor. Go sit down and eat breakfast."

"What about you and the boys?"

"Oh, we ate breakfast already. Where do you think the energy came from for this mess?"

JJ smiled at her husband, allowing the picture of him covered in flour to burn into her mind. After she finally managed to regain some semblance of control, JJ decided to take Will up on his offer. After all, she wasn't in great condition yet, and mopping would probably sap what little energy she did have.

"Alright," she agreed. "I'll eat and let you clean. But then we get to take the boys to school together and have some adult time."

"So long as adult time still provides for a good rest on your part," countered Will.

"Yes, Doctor LaMontagne," teased JJ, though there was a note of seriousness in her voice. "Let me get breakfast eaten up, then I'll get the boys ready for school."

"No need. Boys, go upstairs and get cleaned up. I want you down here in ten minutes, ready for school," Will stated, pointing towards the staircase. The two of their boys ran up the stairs, giggling. "See? Taken care of," Will said with a smile as he got to cleaning.

After breakfast, JJ packed her boys' school bags. She was daydreaming as she did so, not noticing that she had confused the bags, until she heard laughter. Looking to the side, she spotted Michael beckoning for his brother to come into the kitchen.

"Hey, buddy," said JJ. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, mummy!" Michael responded, still laughing.

"Nice try, Mikey. Tell me what's funny."

"He's laughing cause you put our lunches in the wrong bags, mum," said Henry as he entered the kitchen.

"Is that funny, young man, hey?" JJ said with a grin as she corrected her mistake and handed Henry's bag to him.

"Mummy, you're silly," giggled Michael as he followed his brother out of the kitchen.

Shaking her head, JJ followed her two sons to the front door, where Will was waiting with his car keys in his hand. She gently ushered the two boys out the front door and into their dad's car. After making sure that both kids were properly buckled into their seats, JJ climbed into the front passenger seat and relaxed into the seat back.

Dropping Henry off at school was easy. He gave his parents a hug each, said goodbye to Michael, then happily sauntered into the school grounds to play with his friends before the bell rang. JJ had made Will wait in their car park longer than was necessary to make sure that Henry was okay, then she had reluctantly agreed they needed to go. She had sighed, but was ultimately happy to see her first born son so confident and excited. Dropping Michael off, on the other hand, was not so easy...

"Buddy, I can't stay all day," JJ said for the fifth time that morning, yet she also made no move to let her three year old go.

"No, mummy," said Michael, shaking his head. "You come inside."

"I can't baby boy."

"Yes. Mummy comes with me."

JJ sighed. She didn't want to leave Michael at his daycare that day, but she really wanted some time alone with her husband. She didn't know what to do.

"JJ? Are you still in here?" Will asked as he entered the daycare centre. "It's been fifteen minutes since you got Michael out of the car. Is everything okay?"

"I can't leave him," JJ answered.

"What about adult time?"

"I know."

Will softened his voice and took Michael from JJ. "Look, both of us are home today. If you really don't want to leave Michael here, we can take him back home with us, but if you want adult time, he has to stay here for at least a couple of hours."

"Why is this so hard all of a sudden?"

"Probably because you've been through a lot in the last week. It's okay to not want to leave him, but Michael loves being here. You know that. He loves his teachers and the other kids in his room. He'll be alright, JJ."

JJ sighed again. She was doing that a lot that morning. "Okay," she finally said. "We can leave him here for a few hours. But, I want to pick him up before we go get Henry, alright?"

"Of course." Will kissed his son's head. "You have a good day, little man," he said to Michael.

"Mummy staying?" Michael asked as JJ also kissed his head and hugged him.

"No. Mummy and daddy are going to go home and talk about some grown up things. You're going to play here, and we will pick you up at two-thirty, just like normal. You be good, please," Will answered as he gently pried Michael's backpack from JJ's hand and led the three year old into his classroom.

"So, I'm guessing Michael is going to stay, then?" asked one of the teachers in the room. She was smiling.

"He is," answered Will, handing the backpack over. "His lunch is packed, water bottle too. And let me apologise in advance for the thousand phone calls you're likely to get today. JJ's having a hard time leaving the boys this morning."

"It's no problem," said the teacher, giving JJ a quick wave through the door. "How is she doing, by the way?"

"She's okay. Doctors want her to take it easy, but by the end of the week, it'll be like nothing happened to her." Will smiled. "Thank you for asking."

"Of course! We care about all the kids' parents, but JJ does so much for us when she's able to, we may have a bit of a soft spot for her," the teacher responded with a shrug.

Will grinned, easily able to understand the pull that his wife could have on people. He waved goodbye to his son and left, almost having to drag JJ with him.