Chapter 38

"You miss me?" Richie asked skeptical, he hadn't exactly heard much from Jon in the last couple of months. Then again, he hadn't contacted Jon either.

Jon shrugged, not knowing what else to say as Richie sighed and looked back up at him. "I miss you too."

They met eyes, "Yeah?" Jon asked.
Once again, he leaned back in his chair along with a sigh. "Yeah man, you've been my best friend for the last 30 years, of course I miss that. You know me better than I know myself sometimes."
"Same here." Jon agreed. He shook his head before taking a drink from his water.
Richie sat up and waited for him to finish before he spoke. "You know what, you were the one person I wanted to talk to the most and you weren't there." He sounded more angry than he intended but he did not care, he was honest.
"I know." Jon owned up.
"Those six weeks, I just wanted to be able to talk to you about how stressful it's been and how scary it was. It fucking scares the shit out of you when your son that's hardly even 6 months old gets so sick that he needs help to fucking breathe. Who do you talk to that about?"
Jon nodded. "I understand. I know. I was dealing with my own shit, with Steph, and your solo album-"
"My solo?" Richie cut him off. "How was that hard for you?" He realized he was sounding harsher than he intended.
"Because I wanted to work on the band's album and get on the road for that but I didn't want to force you into that either because I knew the solo was important to you which was why I tried not to show that I was excited for this new album we made and take away from your solo." Jon rambled his explanation. "I felt bad for being so excited about it so I avoided having conversations with you. I thought you might think I wasn't happy for your solo. I didn't want you to think," he made air quotations, "I wasn't allowing you to pursue your own music."
As Richie listened he ran his hand over his forehead, into his hair, where he ended up scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't have thought that. I was excited for the band's new album too."
"And then with all of Steph's stuff, I just wanted to ask you for all this advice about what to do and how to handle it and..." He trailed off in thought, "I just needed to talk to you but I couldn't because that'd be inconsiderate."
Richie frowned at him. "How so?"
"'Cause you've dealt with going to addiction counselling and I didn't want to be the asshole that brought it up."
"Fuck man, if you needed to talk about that, I would have talked to you about that."
"So..." Jon started, "basically we were both too wrapped up in our own issues, not wanting to depend on or hurt the other to realize we needed each other?"
Slowly Richie nodded, a grimace forming on his face, "Sounds like it." He agreed.
"We're both fucktards." Jon concluded.
"Assholes." Richie agreed.
"Fucking cunts."
Richie laughed at that one.
"Oh!' Jon exclaimed, his mood changing entirely. "Jake told me of this one, douche canoe. what the hell is a douche canoe?"
Richie looked at him with a frown, but answered him trying to sound as serious as he could. "Obviously it's a douche that owns a fucking canoe." He pointed out.
"'Cause that's an insult." Jon said sarcastically.
"It just is." He shook his head, knowing it was a dumb insult but Jake was 11, at least he wasn't using his father's foul language. "Just like twat waffles."
Jon burst out laughing. "What?"
"Twat waffle." Richie repeated. "Kids are way more creative with insults than we were."
"Guess so."

Their conversation stalled, realizing it, Richie checked the time on his watch. 5 o'clock was approaching, dinner would be soon and he still had to start the barbecue as well.

"Wanna head downstairs?" He asked Jon, figuring he could help him cook the meat. At least that would be manly, unlike going to buy it from the grocery story according to Noah.
"Maybe in a minute."
He could sense there was something else Jon wanted to talk about but nothing was coming forward and he didn't want to continue to wait for it, besides that, he was getting hungry. "So..." He started, making Jon look up at him. "What's up? What are you thinking?"
"I was thinking of the tour, we head out again in two weeks to South America for a short stint down there."
Richie nodded in thought. "I'd have to talk to the missus but yeah." He shrugged, once again Jon watched him closely as if inquiring if he was sure. "Do you have the itinerary?"
"Yeah, I've got it." He wrestled his phone free from his shorts' pocket and unlocked it to search for it in the files he had stored on the device.

Once he found what he needed, he passed the phone over to Richie.

He grabbed the phone from Jon and enlarged the print so he could read it more easily.

As he read, he chuckled. "Liar." Rehearsals would start next week, then they'd be off to South America for two weeks. "Sure the South American leg is short but then it's straight to Canada and the rest of the country a week after that."
"It's a little over a month." Jon tried to sound more optimistic to make it look more appealing. "But then most of November we're off and then just a little trip to Japan and Australia." He said. "It'll be warm there."
"It'll be warm here too." Richie pointed out.
Jon shrugged.
"Vancouver sounds like a good plan and I could visit Caleb," he looked up at Jon with a shrug, if he was there, why not. "Tacoma show will be on Ava's sweet 16 though." He frowned at the schedule, starting to remember it. "L.A. and Las Vegas shows are the weekend between Ava and Daniel's birthday." He thought out loud, wondering what to do with that and feeling a little torn. 

He also knew these dates last year when the entire tour was being planned. A year ago he was happy with having the weekend between their birthdays, that way he was fair to both of them but now he wasn't sure and felt divided on a decision.

Richie gave Jon his phone back. "Send me the schedule and I'll talk to Sarah about it. See what she thinks as well."
"Sounds good." Jon selected the file and hesitated to send it off, "Text or email?" He asked.
"Fax it to me man." Richie laughed at his own joke. "Email." He clarified as he got up from his chair. "Now let's go cook us some meats."
"Sounds good." Jon got up and followed him out to the hallway.
"I'll meet you downstairs, gonna go get Noah before he finishes the entire Harry Potter series."

Chapter 37

"What are you doing here?" Richie asked confused to see Jon in his living room along with his wife and youngest sons. He was too taken aback to react how he wanted to and he knew he could not react that way. Not in front of children. Who was he kidding, he knew he wouldn't just lose his temper on Jon. He'd known him forever.

Jon had gotten up and walked over to Richie. "Do you have a minute to talk?" He asked, wanting a more private place than the living room in front of their families.

"Sure, my office?" Richie asked him, taking a step back so Jon could leave the room as he watched Sarah who was sure to keep an eye on him.

Dorothea feigned disinterest and acted as if she was busy showing Jacob and Romeo how to play nicely with Daniel and having a conversation with Abbey.

Jon nodded, leaving the room and headed towards the staircase. He knew where to go anyway.
Richie turned around to follow him up the stairs but looked back into the living room and gave Sarah a questioning look, a frown on his face. She just smiled back at him and gestured for him to go upstairs. He didn't know if this was her doing, if this was set up or not but he followed Jon up the stairs.

The office was the first room straight across the staircase before the hallway split up into the master wing and the teenagers bed rooms. Jon stood by the door, not wanting to intrude in his space and waited for Richie to open the door before entering the room. Richie followed and gave the door a little push, not bothering to close it all the way. Sarah would not hear them from downstairs and he was sure Noah had more important things to do than listen in on a conversation. Besides that, it was a casual conversation, not a meeting.

"So..." Richie said as he sat down in his office chair and leaned back in the chair. Not trying to show his discomfort but tried to seem as casual as he could.

On the other side of his desk, it was noticeable Jon wasn't as successful in trying to seem casual. He started to look nervous as if he was trying very hard to think of the correct words. Richie knew what he felt, he wasn't often lost for words in casual situations but often during formal events, especially when he had to give a speech. He would need weeks to prepare it and now he was right here, supposed to have a serious conversation, one he could not even remotely close have prepared for and he was at a loss for words. How did you start a conversation with your estranged best friend?

Richie sat up and looked at him, questioning, wanting Jon to start the conversation simply because he felt too stubborn to do so himself. He stood by his choices. There was more pressing realities than missing out on a leg of the tour. He understood many fans would be disappointed he wasn't there but if they had known why he wasn't, they would understand where he was coming from. Most of his fans are parents themselves, they all knew a child would come before anything.

Jon looked up at him and sighed, lost for words as well. He had no clue as to how to start a conversation after months of silence.

"Fuck." Richie sighed frustrated. "What happened to us?"
Jon chuckled at his frustration but he felt the same way. "A lot of shit." He finally answered Richie's question. "How's Daniel been doing?" He asked, genuinly concerned about the little boy he got to reacquaint with just a little while ago.
"Pretty good." Richie said as he leaned back in his chair again. "After his pneunomia cleared up, he's been good."
"Pneunomia?" Jon asked confused.
Richie almost chuckled. "Yeah man. He got it good. He started with a cold, then went into whooping cough, which is why they had to admit him to the children's hospital because he couldn't breath because of it. Then we finally get to take him home after like three weeks so he could recover at home with us but of course his body and immune system are low because of it and he gets pneumonia a week later." He shook his head, still amazed at how crazy last spring had been for their family. "So we take him back to the children's hospital and he gets admitted for another night and gets antibiotics but he did well and we went home the next evening." Richie explained the whole story.
"Wow." Jon said in disbelieve. "David told me about it but I had no idea it got so bad."
"I think it was June when he was finally better. At the same time Ava refused to stay at Heather's house which, I mean, it didn't make anything more complicated but just added onto the stress, you know?"
Jon nodded, acknowledging that he did understand that feeling. "How come she didn't want to stay at Heather's?"
Richie sat up in his chair and faced Jon. "Because the asshole she was dating then couldn't keep his hands to himself."
Jon's eyes went wide, immediately feeling angry himself. "What? Did he..." He trailed off, not wanting to speak the words.
Richie shook his head. "No. He was being a fucking creep. He'd sit unnesecarily close to her, hug her, hold her when she didn't want it."
"Fucking perv." Jon sneered. "Did you kick his ass?" He asked.
"That dude is lucky that I never got to meet him and Heather won't tell me his name. She had not been dating him very long yet and obviously broke up with him as soon as she found out." Richie explained, feeling protective of his daughter was something he would always  be. "How's Steph?" He asked in return.
"She's doing alright." Jon said. "As part of her charges being dropped against her, she had to join one of those group programs. She had to go to meetings twice a week for drug abusers for like 6 months, I think." He frowned in thought. "By then of course the school had expelled her for the rest of the year." Jon sighed, still in disbelief. "I always taught them to not do stupid things like that and then Steph, you know?" He looked at Richie.

Richie nodded, he did know. He understood what he meant. Daughters were precious, they had to protect their little girls.

"Now she's repeating her last year in college, at a different school so she should be graduating next spring."

Richie nodded. "That's not bad. Caleb left just last week for college too. Kids get old man." He sighed. "I mean, I've only known Caleb for 2 years and I'm sad he left. I'm gonna be depressed if Ava leaves me.
"You'll be crying for weeks." Jon agreed.
Richie laughed. "Stupid thing is that I probably will." He shook his head as he got up and walked to the drink cooler he had in the corner of his office next to some filing cabinets for all his legal papers as well as unfinished and unwritten songs. "What do you want? I've got water." He looked around in the fridge. "And more water apparently."
"You know what," Jon said, "I think I'll just have a water."
Richie tossed him a bottle and sat down again. "So what brought you here today?" Richie finally asked the question they needed to reach.
Jon sighed again, delaying his answer he took a drink from his water bottle first. "I miss you man."

Chapter 36 Labor day weekend 2013

A/N I was thinking about this a while ago and then over Christmas I was bored and read the entire story again and I felt inspired so here we are. It's going to be an augmented reality from now on though, just so you know. Let me know in the comments if I should keep going or not. Next couple of chapters are ready to go.

As always, comments are supportive.

A week later school was starting again for Noah and Ava.

Noah was glad to start his senior year, glad to have only 1 year left at school. He was not excited about having to start with a broken arm and worried how he was going to carry his books or backpack around.

Ava on the other hand was happy to get back to school but mostly cheerleading. This year she could become cheer captain, if she decided to pursue it. It would take up more of her time and she also wanted time to model so she was not entirely sure just yet.

Summer was almost over. Labour day weekend first and Tuesday they were off to school once again.

"Sarah?" Richie asked as he came down the stairs.
"Yeah?" She called from the living room.
"Do you mind if I head out with Noah?"
"Where are you going?"
"Haven't decided yet  but school's gonna be rough with a broken arm and how is he supposed to read books?" He asked. "He probably can't even hold a book." He explained.
"You're probably right." Sarah agreed with him.
"I know I'd be very sad if I couldn't do the one thing that brought me joy."
"So you're getting him small books he can hold with one hand?" Sarah joked.
"I was more thinking of an e-reader."
Sarah smiled up at him. "That's very thoughtful." She said.
"I figured I'd take Noah out, get the last couple things for the barbecue tonight, get him some electronics." He explained his plan proudly.

Richie walked back up the stairs and headed for Noah's bedroom. The door was left ajar and as he knocked on it, the door opened up.
Noah folded his laptop shut and looked up at Richie from his place on his bed.

"You okay?" Richie asked.
"Yeah." Noah replied quickly. "Did you need my help for the barbecue?"
"Actually I do. We need to go to the store and get the last items we need. Your mom's watching Daniel and Ava will be here soon so she can wait for Ava as well while we go be manly men and get meat." He explained.
Noah chuckled. "So manly. The grocery store." He put the laptop down and got up from his bed.

A little while later they were in the car, Noah next to Richie as he drove to the store. Noah was preoccupied with his phone as Richie was explaining a driving manouver to him. "Are you reading?" Richie asked, noticing Noah had heard absolutely nothing of his explanation.
"Yeah, I got the Amazon app and it lets me read books from their store. I've only got free ones and they're either smutty or crappy." Noah sighed.
"Smutty?" Richie asked.
"You know..." Noah said.
"What?"
"Sexual."
"Oh." Richie caught on. Different subject please he asked of himself. "I thought you were reading that Hunger Games?"
Noah chuckled. "That's been a while. Divergent is what I was reading last."
"You read a lot books. You can't blame me for not keeping up." Richie complained. "Hey, have you thought of taking literature at college? You read so much anyway."
Noah shrugged. "I don't really read classic novels and stuff though. Like Shakespeare and stuff. Not my thing."

Once at the mall, Richie looked for a parking spot. "Okay, so when you need to park between two cars..." he trailed off and looked at Noah, "hey Noah. Attention."
He locked his phone screen and looked up.
"So when you park between cars, see you don't always have enough space to make one smooth move so," Richie started showing as he was explaining, "you get in position, then you put the car in reverse and very importantly you do a 360 check before you reverse, adjust your wheels. Then back into drive, get between and straighten out." He turned the car off.
"I can't drive for another month." Noah pointed out, holding up his broken arm.
"You can always learn."

They got out the car and Richie headed to an electronics store where he asked the store assistant for help instead of browsing while Noah wandered off.

The store assistant showed him to the e-readers and explained the features on each one of them. Richie asked his many questions and was pretty amazed at the capacity of these small electronics.

While talking, Noah had wandered back to him as he had gotten bored of the rest of the store. The e-readers caught his interest and he started fidgeting with one as Richie thanked the store assistant and asked Noah what he thought.

"This one has Harry Potter as it's demo book." Noah said. "The boy who lived." He read aloud in a fancy voice.
"Do you want it?" Richie asked.
"No, I've got the whole series."
Richie laughed, he may not know what book Noah was reading at what time but he knew he had the Harry Potter series, a Slytherin as himself would at least know that much. "The e-reader. Do you want the e-reader?"
"Oh." He had not thought of that. He liked his books, an e-reader was an electronic.
"It holds thousands of books, it also has a note pad and you can put notes in the text, highlight words and look up definitions and," Richie paused for dramatic effect til Noah looked up at him, "it has text to speech so it reads to you."
That caught Noah's interest.

On the drive to the grocery store, he didn't mind Noah fiddling around with his gift. He was happy to see Noah happy.

"Chapter one. The boy who lived. Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."

A robotic male voice read from the device.

"Sorry," Noah apologized as he fidgetted to find the off button as the story kept going.

Richie sushed him. "I can't hear it when you talk over it."

At home, he pulled into the driveway and noticed an extra car that he didn't recognize. Had Heather bought a new car? Ava should have arrived a little while ago by now. He got the grocery bags from the back seat and followed Noah into the house.

"We're back." He said as he walked in to let Sarah know, sure she was still in the living room with Daniel.

"Richie?" She asked. "Come here."

"Gonna put the food away first." He was already on his way to the kitchen and put all the fresh meat into the fridge for the barbecue later. He had a glass of water, then headed to the living room. "What's up?" He asked as he walked in, then stopped in his tracks. "Jon?"

Chapter 35

"Richie, where are you?" Sarah talked into her phone, sounding worried.
Richie sighed before answering but Sarah cut in again.
"I got home and there's nobody here, not even a note. What happened?"
"We're at the hospital."
"The hospital?!" Sarah exclaimed. Her worriedness changed into panic in an instant.
"Noah broke his arm or something." Richie said quickly, informing her as fast as possible. "He wanted to go skating and I went to get coffee and he fell. We've got x-rays, getting a cast now."
"I should come over."
"We're almost done here. We will be home soon." Richie promised although it took him a few minutes to reassure Sarah about Noah's condition.

After Noah had picked out a color for the cast they were ready to go, just as Richie had promised to his wife.

Only half an hour later they walked into the front door at home.

Sarah got up immediately and rushed to the front door, worrying about her son. She fussed and made sure he was feeling better before she let him go to his room.

"How did this happen?!" Sarah exclaimed once Noah left the room.
"I don't know." Richie said defensively. "He wanted to go to the skatepark so I took him there, he was doing fine til I turned my back for five seconds."
Sarah sighed.
"I'm sorry." Richie said, not knowing what else to say. "How did your exam go?"
Sarah looked up at him. "It went well, very well."
"Yeah?"
"I think I did great. I'll know next week and then I should get my certificate a few weeks later?"
"Already?" Richie asked surprised.
"I took on the extra course, remember, so I could finish the course faster because I was doing so well."
"I'm so proud of you." He felt very proud of Sarah for finishing the course she has set out to finish.
"I was thinking to continue with another course."
"Yeah?"
"Why not?" Sarah shrugged.
"Sounds good. You can never learn too much."

Just then Danny made himself heard to them, wanting attention and something to eat.

Summer was ending and soon both Noah and Ava would be back in school. Important birthdays were right around the corner and Richie's obligations to the next leg of the tour weren't very far away either.

Feeling happy with his family, Richie still felt indicisive about going back on the road. 

Chapter 34

He stared out the window a few more seconds before realizing what had happened across the street at the skatepark.

He grabbed Daniel's stroller, forgot about the cups, both coffee and juice and rushed out the door. Only briefly stopped at the edge of the sidewalk to make sure there were no cars before crossing and rushing over.

When he reached the crowding group of skateboarders, they moved to make space for him.

He found Noah.

Noah was laying flat on the concrete ground, his arm at a very odd angle.

Forgetting about Daniel but knowing he was safe in his stroller, he bent down next to Noah.

"Is anybody calling 911?" He called out before turning back to Noah, who was staring off into space. "You okay buddy?" He asked even though he knew he wasn't, he wanted Noah's attention to keep him from fainting. "Paramedics will be here in a minute. Hang in there."
Noah nodded weakly, not able to do much else.

A few minutes later he could hear the sirens of an approaching ambulance. A lot of the crowd has already moved away and now the rest moved to make space for the paramedics.

As a good and responsible father, he stayed with Noah the entire time the paramedics were helping him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. He didn't want to leave Noah alone but he had to.

"Which hospital are you taking him to?" He asked the paramedics after Noah had been taken care of inside.
"Ceder Sinai is closest from here. You can follow us." The paramedic answered him as they got back into the ambulance to take Noah to the hospital.
"Thanks." Richie said as he hurried back over to Daniel to take him back to the car.

Getting Daniel into the car was a breeze but of course when he needed to hurry, the stroller had to be a pain.

Finally getting it into the trunk a few minutes later, he got in the car and started driving. The ambulance had already gone but he knew where the hospital was.

Praying for green lights, he headed off to the hospital to be with Noah. He knew it would only be a broken arm but that didnt make him any less worried about his son.

Maybe he still hadn't found a way to connect with him but that didn't make him love Noah any less.

Chapter 33

Noticing a shadow walking into the doorway, Richie looked up from where he was playing with Daniel on the floor of his bedroom.

He smiled up at Noah. "Everything okay?" He asked.
Noah nodded. "I was wondering..." He didn't end his sentence.
"What's up?" Richie got up from the floor, making sure Daniel was okay sitting on his own.
Noah hestitated but continued. "I was wondering if you could drive me somewhere."
"Sure, where do you want to go?"
"The skatepark."
"Skatepark?" Richie frowned, he had never seen Noah skateboard. Even surfing only happened once in a while. Not wanting to discourage Noah from something new, he agreed. "Just give me a few minutes to get Daniel ready and we can go."

Sarah had gone to write her final exam and Richie had stayed home with Daniel and Noah but going out was never a bad choice.

He quickly dressed Daniel in a nicer outfit, jeans and a cute tshirt. Even though he was a small boy, his closet was filled with tshirts. More than he would ever wear.

Fifteen minutes later they were in the car, on their way to the skatepark. He hadn't exactly been to the skatepark before but knowing where it was was good enough for him.

"How come you want to go skateboarding?" Richie asked carefully.
Noah shrugged.
"Just something you want to try out?"
"Sort of."
Richie frowned and looked over at Noah, seeing a light blush on his cheeks, then he smiled. "A girl?"
Noah's head turned in less than a split second, disbelieving that Richie had figured him out that quickly. He sighed. "Yeah."
"A skatergirl." Richie said. "Very cool."

Arriving at the park, Richie was glad to spot a Starbucks restaurant across the street. At least he could get a cup of coffee while he was there.

Before getting out of the car, Noah turned to him again. "Could you wait around here?" He asked nervously. "In case I really suck at skateboarding."
Richie smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'll be here." He answered, feeling like he said give girl advise.
"Thanks." Noah said and made to get out of the car.
"Wait," Richie said, "You don't need to impress her with skateboarding you know, just be you."
Noah looked away, then shook his head. "I'm not good enough."

Before he could say anything else, Noah had gotten out of the car and was walking to the skatepark. Richie couldn't believe it. Of course he was good enough, for any girl or any person. Not being able to do anything about it right now, he looked back at Daniel. "Lets get some coffee buddy."

Starbucks offered a not too bad view of the skatepark and the park behind it. Sadly no playpark for small children, Daniel would be too small anyway. Instead, Daniel sat next to the table in his stroller as Richie enjoyed his coffee, Daniel had a cup of juice.

From his point of view, he had made out which skater was Noah. While watching the others, he realized Noah didn't nearly have enough protection gear. A helmet was all he had but all the other skaters were wearing more protection.

Sudden crying from Daniel had him distracted but the smell easily made him realize what had disrupted his son's peace. Leaving his coffee on the table, he got Daniel out of the chair and took him to the washrooms to change him into a clean diaper.

As he returned and got Daniel back into the stroller, he sat down to take a sip from his coffee again. A little colder but still full of flavour.

Enjoying his drink, he looked out of the window. He frowned as he saw most of the skaters group up in a circle around somebody, skateboard disregarded everywhere. He leaned on the table to see closer but couldn't make out where Noah was.

Chapter 32

Only a week after their vacation at the lake had ended, the family was getting ready to say goodbye. Caleb had decided on going to school before classes started to have time to settle in and look for a job all before school started. Besides that the school also offered a few classes just before real classes started and he was ready to grab those chances.

Sarah had spend most of the week with Caleb, driving around and buying everything he would need at university.

Richie was sad to see his oldest son go, they wouldn't spend every Saturday studying guitar and music anymore. Caleb was finally getting the education he wanted, although he had learned a lot from Richie, school would teach him different things.

The four of them had travelled to the school to help Caleb with getting settled in the dormitory.

For both parents it was hard to say goodbye but Caleb was eager to start a new page in his life, which both of his parents understood. They wished him good luck, another goodbye and were ready to go home again with their youngest son, letting go of the oldest.


Arriving home, it was quiet as it always was when they got home. Sarah took that opportunity to study for her upcoming exam while Richie took care of Daniel.

The small boy had been awake the entire way home and must be exhausted by now. Richie carried him upstairs and to their bed. There wasn't anything better than having a peaceful nap with his small son.

Taking his jeans off to be more comfortable in bed, Daniel wouldn't care, he got in bed with Daniel next to him. He only pulled the sheets up to his waist, not wanting them too high for Daniel.

As he looked down at his son, he considered how much had changed in the last few months and how much would hopefully change in the coming months. Daniel was already approaching his first birthday, hopefully they would be expecting a sibling for him by then.

One of these times, it just had to work, it was bound to happen but being patient wasn't an easy thing when so many things were involved that were working against them. Their ages definitely didn't help it at all but they had gotten Daniel and they knew there had to be a chance for a next baby.


After their nap, they went back downstairs where Sarah was still studying.

"How's it going?" Richie asked as he sat down on the couch, letting Daniel sit next to him, still proud of him to learn how to sit.
"Good, actually, really good." Sarah answered. "Went through the entire text book, took notes of what I need to know. I'm ready for next week."
"You make me so proud." Richie said.

Sarah smiled over at him, glad to hear it because it wasn't always as easily to be studying instead of being a mother.

"So you won't mind if I take another course?" Sarah asked.
"Of course not." Richie answered, he knew it was unlikely Sarah was going to use her diplomas and find a job but if she wanted to study and learn, he couldn't stop her.

He knew she wanted to be a stay at home mom as she had done for her older children and he was glad he could give it to her so easily.

He couldn't blame her for wanting to do so, right now he was more than fine with being a stay at home dad. Work and tours were far from his mind.