Lynn's eyes light up as she watches the waitress approach with her plate of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, sausage patties, cheesy, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns.
The waitstaff set down the sisters' orders and before they leave Lynn's waitress, who notices the empty coffee cup that she filled before taking the table's order, asks, "You really can't start your mornings without coffee, can you, Lynn?"
She shrugs her shoulders, despite both of them knowing the answer, "Thanks," she says as her waitress walks off to get the coffee pot.
Lily begins to snicker, "How did you make it through your pregnancy without coffee?"
Lynn scowls as she slathers the butter and the maple syrup onto her pancakes, "You know how I did."
They do remember. Lynn seemed more scatterbrained than usual and coupled with her hatred of bedrest, it made for a terrible combination during the last months of her pregnancy, no matter how much the doctors and everyone around her told her to relax. Aside from the fatigue, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary for Lynn, but it was definitely noticeable if she was alone for too long.
The sisters don't say anything and begin to eat their breakfast, though the three younger sisters can't help but wonder something as they look at Lynn's breakfast.
Lynn looks up and notices their staring, "What?" she asks, accidentally spitting out some of her breakfast.
"How can you still eat all that?" asks Lucy.
"And be someone's personal trainer," adds Lily.
Lynn scoffs, "What's the big deal? In case you forgot, I know what I'm doing when it comes to exercising."
"Though, based on your diet, I'm guessing that Michigan didn't make nutrition courses mandatory for your major," Lisa says as she observes her sister.
Lynn can feel Lisa's staring and scoots away from her, despite knowing that her sister was still looking at her.
In an effort to change the conversation, Lucy asks her sister, "Do you have any plans for this Wednesday?"
Lynn isn't sure what would be so special about the day, "No, what'd you wanna do?"
The sisters all look at each other. It isn't a secret that Lynn and Francisco aren't the type to be romantic or celebrate any dating anniversary like a certain sister, but they find it hard to believe that she forgot what makes Wednesday so important.
"A dinner would be nice," says Lucy.
Lynn nods her head, "That sounds good. Are you hosting? What do you want me to bring? I should probably ask Mom and Dad if they can babysit…wait, are they invited? 'Cause I wanna have enough time to get a babysitter. How about next Saturday? Wednesday sounds like a weird day to host a dinner, especially when Rocky, Lisa, and Francisco are going to work the day after."
"Hey!" starts Lily, "I got a career with not-so-flexible hours too."
"You're an app developer, you can do that whenever you want."
"It's a lot of work, and I have deadlines too, you know."
Lynn nods her head, but she's not too convinced, considering how much free time Lily has.
"I guess you could move it to Saturday," starts Lucy.
Lynn is confused, "Then why say Wednesday in the first place?"
"Maybe because it's important," teases Lily.
That doesn't help Lynn. She has no idea what would make this particular Wednesday so important. She looks over at her sisters, who in turn stare back at her, waiting to hear what she's going to say.
'Let's see…Elena's birthday already passed, Francisco's isn't for over a month. Dad might need help shopping for Thanksgiving, especially since he doesn't like fighting the crowds, but then again, so would Mom, especially for those damn Black Friday sales they keep moving up. Hmm…I wonder how much longer until they start creeping into October? Wait…we do need a mattress, meh, there's not a lot of fun without a little fighting, wait! Can you get a mattress on Black Friday? Sure, a tv, kitchen appliances, baby clothes, wait…I probably should buy some diapers for Vic, he's running low. Look at me, getting on top of it before Francisco mentions anything.'
The three notice that Lynn is smiling as she stares down at her breakfast. They figure that she probably remembered what Wednesday is; they're even surprised that she seems calm. They share a collective look and assume that Lynn must have figured it out, though they wonder what she prepared if she didn't remember.
Lily asks, "Did you figure out what you're going to get him?"
"Yeah, diapers?"
The three are confused.
Lily asks, "You're going to get your husband diapers?"
Lynn is confused, "Why am I going to get Francisco diapers?"
"For your anniversary," the three say.
Lynn's eyes shoot wide open, "Crap! How the fuck did I forget that?"
A nearby mother covers her daughter's ears.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?" groans Lynn.
"Were we supposed to?" asks Lisa, "It seems rather strange to have your family remind you of a date that you should already know."
"Right! And it's not like it's hard. Eleven-seven, see it rhymes."
"Lots of things rhyme with seven and eleven!"
Lucy reminds her sister, "There aren't many other numbers on a calendar that do."
"Well, worst case scenario, she mixes up the order and tries to celebrate in July," jokes Lily.
Lynn complains, "Don't laugh!"
She groans. She can't believe that one year is about to pass. Though between caring for Victor and work, she hasn't had a minute to think about it. She's sure that she can float it off to Saturday, but that still means a gift, dinner, and a babysitter.
'How the hell could I forget?'
"You two can always go out for a nice dinner," says Lucy. "I'm sure you can make reservations at a restaurant."
"And gifts seem easy for you guys, like something sporty or for work. Maybe a tie."
"He doesn't wear ties."
"Traditionally, it is the paper anniversary-"
"Paper? What the hell am I supposed to get him with paper, a magazine or a newspaper? That's a dumb gift idea."
"Maybe a book from his favorite author?"
Lynn sighs, "That sort of takes us back to the magazine."
"A book that you write containing a variety of memories from your first year as a married couple," suggests Lisa.
"That sounds like our baby books," she complains.
Lily tries to think of an idea, "How about a poster?"
The older sisters look at her, confused by her suggestion. A poster seems like a rather low-effort gift. They're sure that Francisco would prefer the other gifts over a simple poster.
Lily can tell that her sisters aren't getting her idea, "Like a blown-up photo from when he used to play sports or maybe a collage?"
Lynn isn't convinced that that would make a good gift.
"You could probably do better than that," says Lucy, "like picking one photo and making it look like a baseball card."
Without giving it much thought, Lynn slams her hand on the table and declares, "Perfect!"
"How are you going to get it by Wednesday?" asks Lisa.
Lynn groans. She did not need to hear that, but Lisa isn't wrong. Any gift that she tries to order online now will likely arrive too late or be incredibly expensive with expedited shipping costs. She can probably find a freelance artist, but she doesn't know anyone, and she doesn't know if they will get it done in time.
"I'll find something," she answers.
Lily leans against the table and asks, "So what are you going to wear?"
Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know maybe that dress I have."
Lily and Lucy share a look. They turn towards their older sister, "Yeah, we're gonna take you shopping," declares Lily.
"What? Why? It's a decent dress."
"You could get a better dress," says Lily, "C'mon, Lynn, we're taking you shopping," she says as she grabs her older sister's arm, "Let's go find you a dress that'll knock his socks off. Lucy, you're coming too."
"Why?"
"We need a second opinion and your car is better."
Lucy gets up from her seat and follows after her sister, "Sigh…"
Francisco stares at his professor from his seat, exhausted after spending hours last night trying to study. He can feel his eyes growing weary as he stares at the slides projected at the front of the class, and it doesn't help that his teacher's voice is lacking dynamism. It's his own fault though, he's been neglecting his studies, but he's sure that he'll catch up if he gives himself the weekend to properly study so that he can catch up to what is being taught.
In the meantime, he hopelessly stares down at his notebook, writing down anything that he deems necessary to help him out a bit later this weekend.
The professor dismisses the class, and everyone slowly heads for the exit.
Francisco looks down at his watch. He has about ninety minutes until his next class, which should give him some time to skim his textbook to get a head start on tonight's reading and maybe get a coffee to perk him up.
He steps out of the building, when he hears a voice calling out to him, "Francisco!"
He turns around and spots Caroline sitting at a nearby bench, waving at him to come over.
Francisco takes a seat next to her, "Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you had class."
"We had a test."
"And you just went on your merry way as soon as you could."
"Wouldn't you?"
He would if he had the luxury of finishing tests early enough. It isn't that he's a bad student, but with his scholarship and his place on the baseball team on the line, he does not want to risk any bad grades. He sort of wishes that he had Caroline knack for school, she doesn't seem to study hard, instead, she does it effectively so that she can still have some fun every once in a while.
"Yeah."
Francisco looks down at his textbook. It's early and he isn't wide awake, but with his little free time, he should definitely put it to good use. He knows that Caroline will understand if he cuts their meeting short, so tries his best to get up.
"You know, I think I'm gonna go to the library and get some studying done before my next class."
Caroline didn't expect him to want to leave so soon, so she offers, "Do you mind if I tag along?"
"Sure," he yawns. "But let me get something to wake me up."
The two walk towards a nearby coffee shop. The wafting scent of coffee perks him up a bit, but Francisco knows that as soon as he and Caroline leave, he'll be tired again and combined with the quiet of the library, that's a terrible combination.
As they stand in line, Caroline looks up at Francisco who is staring at the baristas blending sugary drinks behind the counter of cold pastries and sandwiches. She wonders what's going through his mind aside from his coffee and maybe studying. This Thursday is supposed to be their one-year anniversary as a couple, and while he has never been the type to make a big deal out of smaller anniversaries, this is worthy of a little more celebration.
She looks down at his book and at the heavy backpack hanging from his shoulders. He's got a lot on his plate, and he'll probably say no, but if she's able to balance her studying to give herself some free time for him, then he can do the same, "I know that we probably won't have much time during the week, but what are you doing this Saturday?"
Francisco yawns, "I'll probably get some studying done or something. Why?"
She takes his hand, "I thought that maybe we could hang out or something, what do you say?"
"I don't know, there's a lot of stuff I need to catch up on. I've fallen behind a bit on my reading, and I've got some homework to do."
"Any big projects?"
Francisco thinks about it, trying to make sure that he's not accidentally forgetting one, "No, I don't think so."
"So why don't you study between the week and take Saturday off?"
He groans, "No, I'm gonna try anyway, but I don't wanna blow off Saturday entirely."
"Really? I was hoping that we could do something," she says with pleading eyes.
Unfortunately for her, Francisco isn't fazed by them as he moves forward in line, "Can't we do it another day? I really want to use this weekend to study."
He looks down at her. Caroline's face tells him that she's upset. It isn't the first time that they've put off dates in lieu of studying, so she can understand, but for some reason, she isn't letting this go like she did with some of their other dates.
"I guess we can do something Saturday night."
"What did you have in mind?"
He chuckles, "I don't know, you just sprung it on me."
"Francisco," she starts, "I don't think I sprung a one-year anniversary on you out of nowhere."
He doesn't look at her, not wanting her to realize that he forgot. It's been a whole year, and he has no idea where the time went. It feels like yesterday that they went out for pizza or hung around campus, but between classes, studying and practice it's easy to not notice the passage of time.
It's also sort of funny. He's never kept a girl around long enough to say that they should celebrate a one-year anniversary. Caroline tried months ago to get him to celebrate a three-month and a six-month anniversary, but he felt that those were silly things to celebrate and opted for something more proper. Now, he's going to have to think of something that was worth the wait.
Francisco looks down at her. She's a reasonable girl, she'll understand that there are things at the moment that have his attention, but he isn't going to leave her high and dry either, "I'll think of something good," he says, trying to hide that he didn't plan anything.
Caroline can tell that this is probably the first that he's thought about it, and she decides to cut him some slack, "We should do something small, just the two of us," she says as she goes up to kiss his cheek, "and don't worry about a gift, okay?"
He nods his head, "Yeah, that sounds good."
Lynn quickly glances at each item on the clothes rack, trying to find something for her anniversary. They never celebrated anniversaries, it was just another day to them, but she can't ignore this one - it's their first one as a married couple. She wants to do it right, of course, with it being the last minute, it isn't going to be stellar, but she'll find a way to make it work.
Lily notices how quickly Lynn is moving through the clothing. She can't imagine that her sister is looking at each dress or blouse for more than a second, but knowing Lynn, it's likely to finish the whole ordeal.
Lucy looks over at her baby sister, who glances back at her. Both of them are thinking the same thing. They know that this isn't exactly Lynn's favorite thing in the world, but they figure that she would put a little more effort into getting a nice outfit. The two know that they can help their sister out by searching through the racks, but Lynn begins to walk away from the rack.
Despite only arriving at the mall only a short time ago, she is sick of looking through the hanging clothes for something to wear. Sure, she could wear something she's already worn before and be done with it, but her sisters convinced her that she should try her best, especially for a first anniversary.
Lily and Lucy run after her and lead her back to the women's department. They knew that this wouldn't be easy, but they didn't think that they'd have to keep her from wandering off.
"This shouldn't be hard," Lily complains as she forces Lynn back to the women's clothing section.
Lucy turns to her younger sister, "It shouldn't? You do know Lynn, right?"
"Maybe a different store will help."
Lynn immediately takes her arm back, "No way! Look, it's bad enough that you guys dragged me to buy something that I don't need, you aren't going to torture me by taking me all over the mall. We can find something here so we can be done with this already."
She tries to search through the racks one more time, but once again, Lynn grows bored. Lucy quickly calls out to her and before Lynn turns around, she grabs something off the rack, "You should try this on," she suggests.
It's a simple red blouse, and it leaves Lynn confused, but regardless, takes the blouse into the dressing room.
Lily, who is also confused, asks Lucy, "Why did you give her that?"
"It gives us a few minutes to find something, so find something in her size before she gets out so that we can distract her again."
Lily isn't sure about the idea, but she knows Lynn better than she does, so she gives it a try. Over the next few minutes, the two sisters look through the racks for something that would be nice for Lynn's anniversary, and each time that she returns, they offer her something new to try on.
"I'm sick of this," complains Lynn, who returned quicker than anticipated. She slumps down in a chair and waits as her sisters each hand her one more dress. Lynn snatches it from Lucy's hands, "I'll take it. Can we go now?"
"You're not going to try it on?" asks Lily.
Lynn places the hanger under her neck, looking down as she imagines what the dress will look like with it on, "It's fine."
Lily hands her another dress, "How about this one?"
"Fine! Whatever! Let's go already!"
"You're gonna take both?"
Lynn looks down at both of her options. She holds onto them both, as if weighing them, then turns them around to look at the back. Neither sister can tell what Lynn is looking for, but they don't interrupt, wondering which dress she's going to pick. She places Lily's choice back onto the rack and heads over to the register.
Lily leans over to Lucy, "So I'm guessing she doesn't want shoes or to look at makeup?"
"One miracle at a time," says Lucy as she follows their older sister to the checkout line.
As Lynn waits in line, her phone rings. It's Francisco.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Lynn is confused, "Yeah, why?"
"I was worried that something happened. You and your sisters don't usually take so long with breakfast and I thought that Dutch might have broken down or something."
"Nah, me, Lily and Lucy are at the mall shopping. They wanted to treat me to something nice, you know."
Lily hears her sister, "We did not agree to that!" she exclaims.
Francisco chuckles, "What's the occasion? Are they trying to get out of Thanksgiving this year?"
Lynn rolls her eyes, "No! It's a surprise for Wednesday."
Francisco is confused.
He places the phone on speaker and walks over the calendar hanging on the wall. He looks at Wednesday, and immediately remembers what the day is. He silently curses that he forgot what the day is, but he doesn't want to let Lynn know.
"That's nice…" he says, hoping that his voice didn't give away anything.
"Well, I gotta go, these two are gonna drag me around a few more stores. Hopefully, they don't take all day."
"We wouldn't have to take so long if you knew what you wanted!"
"Bye," says Lynn, before she hangs up.
As soon as Lynn hangs up, Francisco begins to think of anything that the couple could do on such short notice. Dinner at a restaurant? That's sort of pricey, but this is one of those occasions when you splurge. Movies? No, too impersonal. Picnic? He scoffs at the idea of Lynn leaving a basket of food without trying to eat it before leaving the house.
"Oh boy, gotta think fast, gotta think fast," he tells himself as he walks towards his closet to look for his suit.
As the sisters get in Lucy's car, a thought pops into Lynn's head, "Wait a minute," she starts, "what if Francisco doesn't even have anything planned?"
The sisters groan at the thought of her being right.
Francisco pours over his book, but all he can think about is what he's going to do on Saturday. He's lucky that she suggested something small between the two of them, which to him means in either one of their dorms. However, he still needs to plan something on his part, not to mention his attire.
Before he left for college, his mom told him to pack nice clothes in case he was ever invited anywhere or if his team had some sort of banquet. It's good advice, if only he had more than a few articles of nice clothing with him. He has one nice pair of pants, a nice shirt, and a nice coat, everything else is back in Michigan. Caroline has seen him in it, but he doesn't have much of a choice unless he can scrounge up some money and get lucky at a thrift store.
Rather than waste time, he searches around in his pockets for some loose change so that he can wash out the scent that his clothes have acquired after being packed away for so long. He grabs his laundry basket full of clothes, some soap, and his change and heads down to the laundromat.
After placing his clothes into the washing machine, he takes a seat nearby and thinks about what they could do for their date. A restaurant is a classic, but definitely pricey. They could go out to a nice place, but money is still an issue. Then there's the communal kitchen, but that place can be disgusting since most of the other students never clean up after themselves, not to mention, he doesn't have a place to keep his food without it going bad.
"Take out it is…" he tells himself.
He pulls out his phone and looks for any places that deliver to the university. While they all do, their delivery prices are nuts, not to mention the markup, "Okay, maybe going out wouldn't be the worst idea. What else?"
It's hard to do something nice with such a limiting budget. Sure, his family sends him some money about once a month, but that's supposed to be for necessities, like cleaning and school supplies, not dates with your girlfriend. Though, he's sure that he'd have a little more money if he didn't splurge on himself when he had some extra money.
'Maybe the Icon Theatre?' he asks himself.
It wouldn't be a bad idea either. It's like dinner and a show. The only downside is that the date could go on longer than he anticipates and he doesn't want to lose too much time, and of course the prices. Tickets are nearly twenty dollars and that's not including the food.
'Okay stream a movie, pick up some takeout. That might be enough. Caroline will understand. Well now I feel stupid wearing nice clothes,' he sighs. 'She said, something small, just the two of us…'
It has him wondering. It's bad enough that the best date he can plan is a streamed movie and takeout, but now he's wondering if their relationship should go further than that.
"Aw crap…"
As much as he wants to stop that train of thought, he can't help it. He still wonders why such a beautiful, intelligent, and thoughtful woman would want to date him. At first, he thought that she only wanted to be friends since they were both from the same area, but after some time, it became more than that.
A few dates, kisses, and now the possibility of more.
He has to remind himself that she carries herself. She would not be thinking about taking their relationship further than kissing and an occasional makeout session, heck, they haven't even spent the night together.
He shakes his head, "Nope, we're not there yet," he tries to convince himself, but he can't help but think about the possibility. After all, he's never had a girlfriend for so long, and she's not afraid of being affectionate with him.
'Maybe she is thinking about that?'
Rather than risk it, Francisco looks in his wallet for some money, "Well, the budget might be a little tighter, but I might be able to buy one at the gas station or something."
Lynn looks around the living room for her car keys. She knows that she had them on her person a few hours ago, and now she can't remember where she left them. She's searched the pockets of her sweatpants, in-between the couch cushions, every drawer that she could have been near and nothing.
"I swear, I'm losing my mind."
Francisco opens the fridge to grab everything he needs to cook dinner, but also checks to see if the keys didn't accidentally end up in the vegetable drawer like they did once before.
He looks over at her, "No, you're not. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and maybe you'll remember."
Lynn blinks and hastily takes a breath, but nothing. She continues to search around the living room.
He sets all the food down on the counter, "Why don't you ask your parents to watch him for the night? That way we can enjoy it for ourselves?" he asks, hoping that he's able to tempt her for a night alone.
Lynn looks at him, confused that he would suggest that, "What? No."
"Are you sure?" he asks.
She continues to look around the living room for her keys, "Yes! He's been at my parents' house all day. I'd like to be able to say that he saw us today for more than an hour and I'm sure he wants to sleep in his own crib. Besides, I don't think they have enough formula or diapers to keep him until we pick him up tomorrow."
Francisco spots her keys on the dining room table, "Catch!" He grabs them and tosses them to her, "I'll try to get dinner started in the meantime."
She raises an eyebrow, "I still have to get ready, and it's not going to take you long to cook."
He leads her towards the door, "I'm not a chef. I'm going to need all the time I can get. Now go so I can get things ready."
As soon as he hears Dutch sputtering out of the driveway, he pulls out his phone and searches for that Guy Grazer video on cooking steaks. He admits that in the past, his steaks tended to come out tough and overly salty, so he figures that watching a video from a celebrity chef should help him out. Plus, his father-in-law loved watching this guy, so there must be something good to his methods and he's going to try and replicate it.
Francisco starts the video. He's already watched it once before, so he fast forwards to when Guy actually starts cooking, "So I've got the steaks out at room temperature. Ribeye. I use this a lot because of the marbling of the fat. So the thing about a great ribeye - the coloring. We call it a ribeye…"
Francisco fast forwards it again until he spots Guy seasoning his tray. Before pressing play, he seasons his tray. He doesn't remember why Guy said he does, but he does remember doing so. Rather than press play, Francisco tries to go off of memory.
He turns the knobs on the stove and watches the blue flame dance.
Francisco thinks about what he has planned for tonight is going to be fine. He knows that a simple dinner at home is the sort of thing they enjoy, neither one is fond of overly-romantic gestures, Lynn tends to feel out of place in fancy restaurants, and he figures that this is a nice way to spend the night without spending too much money.
He stares at the ribeyes as he waits for them to come up to room temperature, "I probably could've thought of something better."
Between the kids, work, and their own little business 'ventures' it's easy to forget, but that's not an excuse. They've been doing that since the start of their relationship, he knows that Lynn doesn't seem bothered, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't make some effort to try.
'Just don't do it again,' he tells himself.
He looks at the time on his watch. Lynn should be arriving at her parents' house to pick up Victor, which gives him a few minutes to finish cooking the steaks and start on the potatoes. He sort of wished that Lynn would have been okay with leaving their son at his in-laws or his mother for the rest of the night, but he can't blame Lynn, he's been out today for too long, and he would like to see their son, even if it's for a minute.
Francisco turns on the oven. He takes a fork and strikes the potatoes a few times before placing them on a tray to heat up in the oven. He checks on the steaks, which feel fine to him, so he grabs a pan, greases it up and waits for it to heat up while he seasons the meat.
He can't remember how long he has to have the steaks on the pan, but he's seen enough that he should have a good idea. Francisco looks down at his watch, Lynn should be coming back right around now and the food still isn't ready, which makes him glad that he started as early as he did.
"Wait, do I have time to shower?"
Rather than risk it, he stands around and waits on the food to finish cooking. When the steaks look properly brown enough, he takes them off the heat and sets them down to rest. He can't recall how long it's going to take, but so long as it's still warm it should be fine he reasons.
When the oven beeps, he grabs the potatoes out of the oven and squeezes them out over a bowl. He shakes his hands to cool them down and tosses in some cold butter to mash into the potatoes. Francisco gives them a quick taste, but is taken aback by how bland the dish is. He grabs the salt and pours it in until he deems it acceptable.
"Alright, just a quick shower and I should be ready before Lynn gets back," he tells himself as he runs into the bathroom.
A few minutes later, he walks into the kitchen, showered and dressed to surprise Lynn with the meal that he hopefully didn't ruin. He quickly plates them and places them at the table alongside a lone candle. Francisco hears Dutch pulling into the driveway. He quickly lights the candle and walks over to the door to surprise her. When she takes a little longer than expected, he walks over to the door to see if she needs help getting Victor and his things out of the car.
When he opens the door, he spots Lynn searching for the key to open the door. He's about to ask if she needs help, but she signals him to keep quiet. Francisco looks down at their sleeping son. He's rarely ever asleep when they pick him from his grandparents, but he isn't going to question whatever they did to get him ready for bed. He gently passes his finger over his son's knuckles and the boy begins to move. Victor opens one eye and looks at his dad, murmuring before closing his eyes again.
"He's been quiet the whole ride home," she whispers.
"Dang, he hasn't done that since we brought him home from the hospital. Goodnight, son," he says before Lynn takes Victor to his room to get him ready for bed. He closes the front door and quietly asks Lynn, "Do you want any help?"
"Nah, I got it," she says, "I'll be out in a bit and get dressed as soon as I put him in his pjs."
Francisco nods his head and heads over to the kitchen to clean up his mess. He hears Victor crying and figures that he has some extra time while Lynn gets him settled down again. The crying gets a bit louder, then it stops, starts up again, and quiets down. Francisco walks towards Victor's room, and he hears Lynn humming a tune as their son quiets down.
"Who would've thought that Alley Cat could be used to put a baby to sleep?" he whispers to himself, before humming the tune to himself.
After finishing most of the dishes, Francisco hears Lynn walking towards him and he gets to her plate on the table. He looks at her and notices that she isn't dressed yet. He figured that after she took so long, she was already getting dressed, but she apparently spent more time getting their son to bed than he anticipated.
"What happened?"
She shrugs her shoulders, "Nothing, I was just checking up on him. He has a bit of a fever."
Francisco looks at her, wondering how their son's fever might affect tonight. Ever since they brought Victor home from the hospital, she's been rather attentive, especially if anything might go wrong.
Is he hungry? She's on it.
Needs a diaper change? No problem.
Does he need a little fresh air and some stretching? Easy!
In fact, Francisco wouldn't think too much of it, except for how the housework could get neglected, but they're still trying to work out the kinks in that problem.
"Is he going to be okay?"
She looks down at the food, "I think so. Fevers and coughs are normal baby problems, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I gave him some medicine, so maybe he'll be fine, right?" she asks, as if hoping that her husband will say yes and that she's possibly overreacting.
Francisco looks down the hall. If Victor is sick, he'll be up most of the night, not that that's weird or anything, but he might interrupt the two. However, he was sleeping when he got home, and aside from the crying, he's doing okay now. All they have to do is hope that they can get a few minutes before he cries for them again.
"I think he'll-" he starts. He turns around and notices that Lynn isn't next to him anymore and has gone to the table.
"The steaks are undercooked," she says as she pokes them.
He walks over to her and looks down, "They are?"
Lynn nods her head, "Yeah, maybe give them a few more minutes."
"Okay…" he says as she walks to their bedroom.
Francisco pinches the side of the ribeye, but he doesn't see what Lynn could be talking about. He figures that they're probably cooked a bit rare, and people order rare steaks all the time, so they should be fine. However, he thinks about what could happen if he's wrong, so he settles on listening to Lynn and cooking them while she's getting ready. At the worst, they'll eat overcooked ribeyes.
He walks the plates to the stove and looks over at the greasy pan. As soon as the pan heats up, there's a chance that it'll begin to pop and stain his shirt. He doesn't own an apron, not that he ever cared about getting an old T-shirt stained, well, that's one option.
Francisco walks over to their bedroom, and notices that the door is locked, "Lynn, what's going on?"
"I'm getting changed. What do you want?"
"An old shirt or something so that I don't stain this one."
"Use my coat, it's in my backseat."
He has no idea how she expects that to work, they're hardly the same size, "Look, just let me get a shirt so I can finish cooking?"
"No way, I wanna surprise you."
Before he's able to say anything back to her, Victor begins to cry. He sighs, "I'll go check on him."
Francisco walks into the nursery and spots his son, squirming in his crib with his blanket askew. He tries to put the blanket back on Victor, but he keeps tossing it aside.
"Look," says Francisco as he tries again, this time deciding to swaddle him so that he'll relax. "I know that it's not fun to be sick, but you have to stay in your bed to get better."
Victor stubbornly refuses and tries to break himself free.
Francisco looks down at the boy, "Do you want your bottle?"
Almost as if he understood his dad, Victor stops squirming. Francisco sighs and decides to make him a bottle. This night is taking longer than he anticipated and they haven't even gotten started.
When he gets to the kitchen, he notices the two steaks sitting on the plate, "I am not having any luck today," he tells himself.
Lynn is probably going to be done getting dressed soon and he hasn't even finished cooking the steaks. Rather than try again with Lynn, Francisco quickly makes the bottle and unbuttons his shirt to take off, setting it on a nearby chair. He sets the stove on high to heat up and waits for it and Victor's bottle to warm up. When the pan is hot enough, he places the steaks on and lowers the flame.
"That should be fine, just feed Victor, burp him and get back here. Easy," he tries to convince himself.
Francisco checks on the bottle, and after the machine finishes warming it up, he takes it over to his son. He opens the door and notices that he has managed to put himself to sleep. He takes a deep breath, a bit frustrated at the lost time, but as he watches his son sleep a snore, he thinks, he decides to let it go.
He returns to the kitchen and places the bottle on the counter before focusing on the steaks again. A few grease bubbles are forming, and he knows that if he turns up the flame, then they're going to pop, splashing all over him and the counters. However, it's been long enough, and he wants to start this night soon, so he turns up the heat and keeps a careful eye on the meat.
Lynn walks into the kitchen and watches her husband stare down at the stove. She's curious what led to him standing shirtless as he stares down at the pan, but she isn't going to complain, "Is the food almost ready?"
"I think so," he says, keeping his eyes locked down on the pan. "Can you take a look at the steaks?"
She walks up behind him, wraps her arms around him and rests her chin on his shoulder, "Give them a minute."
He turns his eyes towards her and smiles, "Do they need a minute or do you?"
She closes her eyes and smiles without saying a word. Francisco looks over at the clock and as soon as a minute passes, he turns off the stove and sets the steaks to rest again. He turns around and looks at her in a red dress and the light amount of makeup that she usually applies whenever the situation calls for it, "You look beautiful."
She blushes.
Even after years of hearing him compliment her, she still gets flustered hearing him say such things about her.
Lynn looks away from him, "You look good too," she says, struggling to say a more accurate adjective.
"Only good? Jeez, maybe I should have gone shopping for something nicer," he jokes.
She blushes, "You know what I mean!"
He laughs. Francisco looks down at the steaks and asks her, "So how do we kill ten minutes?"
"I have an idea, but we might take too long, so maybe until after dessert."
He turns around to face her, wraps his arms around her waist and with a knowing smile, asks, "Do we have to?"
"Only if you don't mind letting your work go to waste."
"I'm tempted," he says as he leans down to give her a kiss.
Before she could react, he pulls away, and buries his face in her neck. She can feel him lightly kissing her. She knows what he's thinking about, and as soon as she feels his teeth, she lightly pushes him away, "Alright, let's eat."
Francisco looks up, "Has it been ten minutes?"
"Probably," she says without looking at him. Lynn's cheeks feel like they're on fire, but she's going to make it through this meal and dessert before jumping his bones, dang, she wishes that they called off work tomorrow.
She takes her and Francisco's plates to the dining table. He grabs the chilled pop bottles from the fridge and follows after her. He knows that pop isn't romantic, but it's a lot better than eating their meal with water.
Francisco sets down the pop and before he takes a seat, he grabs his shirt to put back on, "Wait," she tells him.
"What?"
"I like the view," she replies.
"You want me to look like those guys on the cover of those cheap romance novels?"
"Nah, your hair's not long enough. Fine, but don't button it up, it'll make tonight easier," she mutters to herself.
Lynn takes a bite of the potatoes and is surprised by how salty they are. She shouldn't be considering her husband's cooking history, but normally, he can handle potatoes without it being much issue.
"I overdid it, didn't I?"
She nods her head.
It was the risk she took when she agreed to let him cook dinner, but he insisted, and she did want a break from being in the kitchen. She's sure that with enough water she can down the meal, but she doesn't want to fill up before dessert.
"Yeah, but it's still pretty good."
"Even if I almost poisoned us?"
She happily takes another bite of the ribeye, "It was avoided. I'd say it's a win."
Before Saturday afternoon, made sure to clean his dorm as best as he could and he tried to wrap up his studying for the day as early as possible. No, he did not like the idea of waking up so early to ensure that everything was done, but with everything that popped into his head to prepare for the date, he didn't want to be crunched for time. He studied, showered, shaved, and ironed his clothes. He even bought her some flowers, so all he has to do is wait and try to calm his nerves as best as he can.
However, it didn't matter that he talked to Caroline in person about his plans, it didn't matter that she said that they were fine, all he kept thinking about was how underwhelming this day would be in comparison to what she expected.
I'm on my way
And there goes his anxiety, right through the roof.
He paces back and forth, "It's fine, it's fine. Why am I so nervous? We've been on dates before, this is just a date, but nope, it's an anniversary," he sighs, "It'll be fine," he tries to remind himself.
Once again, he takes out his phone to look at some dining options. He tries to narrow it down to something okay, but between everything he's spent his money on this week, fast food might be a stretch.
Francisco hears a knock at his door. He opens up and sees Caroline, in a nice sundress, carrying some takeout.
He's surprised, "Oh, I thought that we were going out?"
"Well, I figured that maybe we could stay in and watch the movie at the same time."
Francisco looks past her and lightly nods his head, "Right…" he says, as he tries to figure out the best way to react.
Caroline can feel him staring towards her, as if he's in a trance, so she snaps him out of it, by complimenting him, "You look handsome. I sort of feel underdressed."
He processes what she said, "Ummm… thanks, I didn't have much else, in terms of nice clothing. You look nice too," he says as he takes the bags from her and places them on a small table that he borrowed from down the hall.
She smiles, "Thank you."
"Sorry that we couldn't go out for today, but we can make it up another day," he says, as he pulls up her seat.
Caroline takes her seat, "It's fine, I understand that we can't do much. We aren't from the area, money is tight, and we still have to study."
"One day," Francisco promises.
She smiles. Caroline takes out the containers from the bag and offers him one, "I hope you like, I wasn't sure how familiar you were with Indian food, so I picked out some of their more popular dishes."
He opens the container and looks down at the food. He sees chicken, rice, and bread - a perfectly safe meal. Francisco takes a bite, "It's good," he tells her.
Caroline smiles, though she didn't expect him to respond with his mouth full of food, "I'm glad you like it," she tells him, before going in for her own bite.
After their brief meal, he takes out his laptop and offers it to Caroline, so that she can pick out a movie for them to watch. Francisco takes a seat on his bed and watches her pick something out. She looks over at him, then back at the screen. When she picks out a movie, she sets it down on the cleared out table and takes a seat next to him. Unfortunately for Francisco, it's a sappy romance movie, but Caroline insists on watching it, so he's doing it for her. He has no idea how these kinds of movies keep getting made, they're so predictable and the journey doesn't seem worthy considering he knows that the two main characters are going to get together.
She rests her head on his shoulder and he looks down at her. He can see the smile on her face. It isn't the best date they could have gone on, but as long as she's happy, so is he.
As the movie plays on, Francisco moves back against the wall, to relieve the pain in his back. He doesn't know how much time is left, but whatever it is, it's probably too long. Minutes pass, and his back begins to ache. He doesn't want to bother Caroline or change how they're sitting, but the pain is killing him.
"Sorry," he says, as he lays down on the bed.
Caroline quietly lays down next to him, but instead of facing the screen, she turns towards him. She wraps her arms around him, and buries her face in his chest.
Francisco looks down, but doesn't say anything. It feels nice. He kisses the top of her head and she returns the gesture with a kiss on his lips. Neither one breaks it, but soon, as though a switch went off, she deepens it, as if wanting more. He easily complies, and she takes it as a sign to continue.
Without a second thought, Francisco rolls her over so that she's underneath him. He pulls back a bit to catch his breath. Both of them are clearly nervous, but the idea of going further begins to race through his mind again. The sun is setting, making the room darker, both of them are ignoring the movie playing in the background, and he's struggling to resist the look on her face.
She stares at his eyes and he stares back. As he leans down to go in for another kiss, she turns her head and quickly says, "I should get going."
He didn't expect her to say that, "What?"
"I should go," she says as she tries to get up from under him. He sits up on his bed and watches as she straightens her hair and gets her things. "It's been a long day and I'm sure that you want to study like you said."
Francisco wanted to tell her that he already studied, that he planned for the rest of the night to be just them. However, as he stares at her, nervously trying to get herself together as though she's about to get caught by someone, he stays quiet.
A few days ago, he was nervous about this happening, and he won't lie to himself that he was getting excited, but before he could form a decent thought, she was already at his door ready to go.
"I'll see you later."
He walks over to her, "It's getting dark, let me walk you back to your dorm."
Lynn takes a spoonful of ice cream and stares at the candle's diminishing flame. The night felt like it went by so fast. It didn't help that it took her a while to pick up Victor and get ready, or that she was starving and ate her meal faster than Francisco spent making it, but she can already see his growing weary as if he's ready for bed.
Francisco takes in a small spoonful of ice cream and puts the spoon down. He looks over at her and smiles, "I know it wasn't the best meal, but-"
"No, you did pretty good. A lot better than the last time you tried to cook."
He chuckles at the memory, "I'll take it."
She rests her arm on the table, placing chin in her hand, and she looks him straight in the eye, "Thanks."
"For what?"
"For having something planned out and getting it done. I mean, honestly, I forgot about our anniversary," she admits. "That's why I went with a present and trying to knock you out with good looks."
"And you succeeded," Francisco chuckles, "But don't think I didn't forget either."
"Oh good, so now I don't have to rush Lily to finish that project for me."
Hearing that piques Francisco's interest, "What is it?"
"It's a surprise."
"What a shame. I sort of wish that I had your gift too, but I can probably hold you off for a bit until it gets here," he takes her free hand and blows out the candle.
The room goes dark.
Without a second thought, Lynn looks over at him and pulls him into a passionate kiss. Francisco is surprised, but returns the gesture. He feels her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as if she's afraid that he'll part from her. He feels her hands try to force his shirt off and rather than risk her forcing it off, he helps remove the shirt and he lets it fall to the floor. He places a hand on her waist, his hands wander until he feels the lining of the zipper. His finger follows it up, until he reaches the top, and lightly tugs down on it.
She pulls away, thinking as if she wants to say something to him, but like always, she struggles to say anything emotional, luckily, he understands her when she gets this way.
"C'mon, let's go."
"Okay," is all he could say, as she takes his hand and pulls him towards their bedroom. Along the way, he stares at the zipper that's only halfway down. Using his free hand, he pulls the zipper the rest of the way down.
Lynn feels her dress falling and she looks back at him with a knowing smile, "Look at you being bad."
"Like you don't want it."
When she reaches their bedroom, she kicks off her shoes and slips out of her dress, and forces him down onto the bed. She climbs on top of him, and stares down at him like a predator about to devour her prey.
Francisco cups her cheek, but instead, Lynn forces it down on the bed. She moves in to capture his lips. He can feel her hand letting go of his, and wander down to his belt to remove the restricting article of clothing.
She frees him, but then she stops.
The sounds of wheezing are heard through the baby monitor. Lynn pulls away from Francisco and looks over at her nightstand. The wheezing continues and as much as she tries, Lynn can't ignore the sounds coming from it, so she pushes Francisco away for a bit.
As he catches his breath, he looks at what has her attention. He can hear the sound of wheezing from the baby monitor and he knows exactly what is on Lynn's mind, "Go check on him. I'll be right here."
She gives him a brief kiss, "Give me five minutes," she says as she grabs her robe.
"Okay…I'll be right here," he says between breaths. "Don't keep me waiting," he says with a flirty smile.
"I won't."
Francisco looks up at the ceiling trying to catch his breath. Getting interrupted was bound to happen, especially since they knew that Victor was sick, but he was so good! He was as quiet as a mouse, not a cry or a whimper, he fell asleep without a single issue and stayed asleep too, and right when the real show was about to start, he wakes up.
He closes his eyes and reminds himself, "Five minutes. No big deal."
He isn't sure how much time passes, but he doesn't want to focus on it either. He only hopes that she doesn't lose track of the time. He continues waiting for Lynn to return, however, from the baby monitor he hears her say, "Francisco, his lips are blue."
The two quietly walk down the path, enjoying the cool breeze rustling in the trees. An awkward silence overtakes the two as they think about what just happened in his dorm. It didn't feel different than some of their other dates, but somehow it started going further than normal.
It's bound to happen, after dating for so long, a simple dinner in his room, then watching a movie on his bed. It was only to relieve his back! But it might have been the reason that she was gutsy enough to try something, or she thought that it was his way of going further with her.
Francisco glances over at Caroline, but she continues to avoid his eyes. She's embarrassed, and he has no idea what to say about what happened. If he tells her he liked it, she might get the wrong idea, but he isn't going to deny that he did enjoy it.
To break the silence, he says, "Tonight was nice…"
She remains silent and nods her head.
Well there goes that attempt at conversation.
He doesn't know what else he could say to her. The way she behaved, it was almost like she wanted to keep going, as if her hormones were ready to beat out the part of her brain that told her hold off on anything. He won't deny that a part of him stopped thinking and would have gone as far as she wanted, but he isn't the one with the obvious look of embarrassment plastered on his face.
In hopes of calming her down, Francisco takes her hand as they walk the rest of the way.
When they reach her dorm, Francisco awkwardly leans down to give her a goodnight kiss, but decides against it, "I guess, I'll see you later," he tells her.
As he turns around, Caroline has second thoughts, so reaches out to him and takes his hand. He looks over at her and before he knows it, she pulls him into a kiss. It isn't as passionate as the ones they shared in his room, but it's still a good way to end the night.
She breaks the kiss, and the two stare at one another. Caroline breaks the silence, and answers, "Yes, tonight was nice."
Francisco grabs his clothes and quickly gets dressed. He runs as fast as he can to his son's room and sees Lynn holding him. As he approaches the two, he sees Lynn holding their son against her. He looks down at the boy and confirms what she said - his lips are blue.
Without saying anything, Francisco grabs Victor's car seat and his blanket to hand to Lynn, who is still sitting on the floor, staring at their son.
"Go get dressed," he says, taking Victor from her. "I'll get him in the truck and meet you outside."
Francisco opens the truck, and straps in Victor's car seat. He hops into the driver's seat, opens up the garage and turns on the truck while they wait for Lynn. She quickly runs into the garage and gets into the backseat with Victor.
He pulls out of the garage and drives away. He knows that there probably isn't anything that either one could do, except get him to a doctor or anyone that could help them. A hospital can handle a sick baby, but it's further away and he doesn't want to spend the extra money, especially when there's someone closer who can look at their son.
Lynn notices some familiar streets and asks, "Where are we going?"
Francisco pulls up in front of the Loud house. As soon as the truck comes to a stop, Lynn runs out of the truck. The lights are off, and they know that everyone is asleep. Lynn is tempted to break the door down to get Victor inside, instead she bangs on the front door, calling out to someone inside. The lights come on and the front door opens.
Before Lynn Sr. is able to say anything, his daughter runs past him. Lynn takes Victor upstairs to Lisa to see what could be wrong with him. Everyone can hear Lisa scream, clearly startled by Lynn who probably busted into her room.
Lynn Sr. looks up towards the second floor, trying to make sense of what just occurred, "What the?" he tries to not dwell on it.
As he closes the door, a hand stops it. Lynn Sr. is somewhat alarmed, until he sees his son-in-law, "Sorry," says Francisco. "We didn't mean to wake you."
"What's going on?" asks Rita.
"Victor was having a hard time breathing. His lips were blue, and we were worried, so we figured we'd bring him here for Lisa to examine," he says as he takes a seat on the couch.
Rita and Lynn Sr. walk over and take a seat next to him. It isn't easy to hear that your kids are sick, especially when that kid is barely a few months old and with the symptoms he mentioned. They look over at Francisco, he doesn't look upset, but they're sure that he's trying his best to stay calm.
Francisco pats his pockets in hopes of finding some chewing gum, but he groans in frustration when he comes up empty.
Lynn Sr. looks over at his son-in-law, "He's going to be okay, he's in good hands."
Francisco quietly nods his head, but his attention is on the staircase, waiting to hear from Lisa or Lynn.
"Fine, but you better tell us what's going on with him," they hear Lynn say as she walks down the stairs in a huff.
"What's going on?" asks her mother.
Lynn doesn't look at any of them. She crosses her arms and answers, "She won't tell me. Needs to run some tests…"
Rita doesn't know how long that would take, but as she looks at the younger couple, both of them are stressed out, waiting to hear any news about their son. She places her hand on her daughter's shoulder, "You can stay here tonight." She tries to lead Lynn up the stairs, but she doesn't budge.
"C'mon, let's go set your room up."
Rita walks over to Lincoln's old room, now reconverted back into a linen closet. With most of the kids gone, their bedrooms tend to sit bare until a big family get-together. There wasn't much point in keeping the bedding in their rooms, except to gather dust, and sometimes remind her husband of how quiet things are with kids all grown-up.
She opens the closet to find a blanket, "I'm sorry. I think the blankets might smell a little musty. I was going to wash them closer to Thanksgiving."
"It's fine," says Lynn, as she takes the blanket and walks back to her childhood room.
Francisco takes another blanket from his mother-in-law, "Thanks, Rita," he quietly says.
"You're welcome."
Lynn Sr. feels the tension in the air and offers, "How about a midnight snack, or some hot chocolate or something?"
Lynn nods her head, and Francisco quickly answers, "Yes, please," needing something sweet to deal with the stress.
Outside, Lily turns onto her street, wondering where the time went. It didn't feel like she spent hours with Scott, but somehow a small dinner at his place turned to a nice, long conversation. Now, because of the late hour, she's going to have to sneak into the house to keep her family from asking too many questions.
As she approaches her house, she notices a familiar red truck, "What the heck? Why's their truck here?"
Lily pulls into the driveway. The soft glow of the kitchen light takes her by surprise, but she reasons, "Dad's probably getting a midnight snack. If he doesn't look this way, I should be fine."
She looks at the clock on her car radio. In a few minutes, the lights should turn off and she might be able to sneak back into the house without being asked any questions. A part of her sort of wishes that she could sneak in entirely unnoticed, but she's a grown woman, and she wants to use the front door.
Lily looks at the clock again. The lights have still not turned off. It sort of has Lily worried, though she figures that maybe her dad forgot to turn them off as he walked away with his snack. She steps out of her car and quietly tiptoes to the front door. She opens the door and sees her parents asleep on the couch.
She sighs in relief. Now all she has to do is get upstairs and she'll avoid some questions about her whereabouts.
Lily hears a man's voice calling out to her, "Hey Lily."
She yelps, scared at the thought of some strange man being in the house.
Lynn Sr. is startled awake, "W-What's going on? Lily, I thought you were in bed," he yawns.
"I just came down to see what was going on."
Rita looks at her daughter. She can tell by the way that her daughter is dressed that Lily has been out and barely got home, but doesn't want her husband to worry about his 'little girl' and what she's been doing at this hour. She takes her husband's hand and leads him to bed, "C'mon honey, no good is going to come if we sleep on the couch."
"But…" he mumbles, trying to convince his wife that he isn't tired.
When the door closes, Lily turns towards Lynn and Francisco, wondering what they were doing here at this hour, "What's going on? Aren't you guys supposed to be celebrating your anniversary?"
"Victor's sick. Lisa's looking at him right now."
Lily looks down to the floor, "Oh, I'm sorry. Has she told you guys anything?"
The two shake their heads.
Lily walks over to them and joins them at the dining room table. The three quietly sit around waiting to hear anything. Lynn paces back and forth and every once in a while, she tries to head upstairs, but either Francisco or Lily stop her, figuring that Lisa will tell them any news as soon as she learns anything. Little by little, sleep begins to take Francisco and Lily until Lynn is left awake. She looks at the clock. The second hand is teasing her, and it's made even worse by her own guilt eating up at her.
'How come I didn't notice? I should have noticed as soon as we got home or even before we left here. If I noticed sooner, he would probably be okay.' Dread begins to creep up on her, 'What if he struggles to breathe now? Nope! I'm not gonna be sitting around here anymore!'
She walks upstairs and barges into Lisa's room, where she finds her sister asleep, "Are you serious?! What are you doing?"
Lisa is startled awake, "I was trying to acquire my necessary REM sleep while we await the results of the tests."
"Really? You have all sorts of machines that do things in like five seconds, but suddenly this one takes longer?"
"Yes, I can't speed the growth of microorganisms. Besides, at the moment, your progeny is in the room across the way. I've set the room up with a humidifier and he's getting a steady flow of oxygen. Plus the monitors will alert me if he is in distress."
Lynn walks over to Lana and Lola's old room and opens the door. The two spot Victor sleeping away in a crib. Lynn approaches her son, aside from the sound of the machines, she can't hear him struggle to breathe. She leans down to get a good look at him, and notices that his lips aren't blue anymore.
It puts her at ease to know that he'll be fine for now, but no one knows what has him sick. She takes his hand and turns his head towards her with a slight smile on his face.
Lisa watches her sister look down at her child. She hears the machines in her room alert her that the humidity in his room is falling, so she clears her throat to alert her sister, "We should go. If it offers any sort of consolation, I should have his results in the morning."
Lynn lets go of Victor's hand and mumbles, "Fine…"
I definitely didn't anticipate for this chapter to end up as long as it did. I thought that I would have had it out much sooner since this chapter had a lot written compared to some of the other prewritten chapters, but it ended up going on for about 8000 more words, and I apologize for keeping you guys waiting.
Anyway, I want to thank my readers for everything and see you next time