"Hey!" Richard called to his wife after she closed the door. It was obviously Natalie, due to the children running up and screaming about their mother returning home. Richard was in the middle of prepping dinner. He loved cooking even more so than his father, but gave up his hopes of attending culinary school to support the love of his life after she became pregnant during their sophomore year. Their first child was courtesy of another male she had cheated with back in high school, but that didn't run the young man off or unravel his devotion to her.

"Hey." The female called back to her spouse before smiling down at her three daughters, who were all trying to talk over one another as they fought for their mother's attention.

"Now I gotta start all over!" Russel, Richard's mentally slow twin brother, whined after knocking over a Lego structure he'd been working on while seated on the blue carpeted living room floor. The 27-year-old brown furred squirrel began to sulk as he pushed his broken masterpiece away. "I'm hungry!" He now cried out to his brother, who was in the kitchen just on the other side of the living room wall.

"Dinner will be done in a little while, Russ." Richard reassured. "How about you and the girls all wash up?" The shorter male suggested as he glanced at his wife taking their younger girls into the bathroom right off the kitchen to help them wash their hands.

"Okay!" Russ sighed loudly as if it were the most overwhelming chore that had ever been asked of him.

"How'd the job interview go?" The far shorter male, of just barley over five feet tall, asked his six-foot-tall wife plainly.

"I got the job." She replied, giving no hint of emotion as she washed her own hands after the young girls had finished washing their own before running off to play again.

"That bad, eh?" Richard let out a short, yet loud, laugh; however, the look on his face was far from amused as he focused on stirring the food in the cast-iron skillet before him.

"You have no idea…" The tall woman whispered as she came up behind her shorter husband and hugged him while placing a kiss on the top of his head.

"You don't have to, Nat." The male spoke as he continued to sauté the food on the grill in front of him. "You know I've al-"

"Stop!" She demanded as she pulled him closer in a hug from behind. "I don't want you to have a stress seizure ever again!"

"Nat…" Richard started to speak while he turned the heat down on the gas stove before him. "My health is a mess, and me working two jobs is far less stress than you working at…" He stopped speaking as his whole body clenched up. "Even if you're just a bartender this time, I'll kill the next creep that shows up at our house. Never again!" He now yelled, before coughing and becoming more pleasant as the children and his twin came to sit down at the dinner table.

"Dinner is served!" Natalie smiled despite her emotions being ripped apart inside.