Work Text:
Jack’s leg aches. He had gone in early the previous afternoon to help cover for somebody and then worked his regular night on top of it.
It had been kind of nice because his and Robby’s shifts had overlapped for a bit. He always enjoyed getting to see his husband in action at work.
He had taken his prosthesis off when he got home and rested, but now the kids are home and Junie has been throwing up since she got home so he wants to be quicker than he would be on crutches.
Milo and Clark are at the table doing homework. They’re bickering back and forth because Clark is complaining and Milo can’t concentrate.
“Clark,” Jack starts. “Enough. Hush.” He’s cranky and tired and frazzled, and Clark whining and arguing with Milo isn’t helping anything.
“This is too hard,” Clark growls.
Jack hears the telltale hiccuping retch sound from Junie but doesn’t make it to her with the puke bowl in time. He sighs and picks up a vomit covered, wailing Junie and comforts her.
“Shhh, I know, June Bug.” He sways gently and rubs her back until she lays her head on his shoulder and calms down.
“Clark, just stop for now and I’ll help you in a little while.”
Clark doesn’t need to be told twice. He skips off happily and makes his way to the playroom downstairs.
Jack heads to the bathroom and strips Junie’s clothes off before stripping off his own shirt that’s messy from holding her.
As he’s bathing her, Nell comes in. “I need to go peepee.”
They are newly potty trained and using one of the little inserts on the regular toilet.
Jack leaves June for a moment to help Nell with her pants and getting up onto the toilet. The plan is to let her use the bathroom and then wipe her and get back to Junie, but as is the way of any three year old Nell happily swings her legs and starts singing the alphabet.
“Nell, I heard you go peepee. Let’s get off the potty so Daddy can get Junie out of the bath and dried off.”
Nell crinkles her nose and says “I better see if I needa go poop.”
Jack hangs his head before sighing and saying “Okay, Nellie Girl. Take your time.”
He goes back to tending to a crying, shivering June.
“Okay, sweet girl, come on.” He takes her out of the tub and wraps her in a towel and picks her up.
He leaves Nell on the potty and puts a wrapped up June Bug on the couch so he can go grab a shirt for himself and pajamas for her.
She’s pitiful on the couch when he gets back. “Let’s get some warm jammies on and then I’ll put a movie on for you,” he talks soothingly as he gets her dressed.
Nell yells that she’s done so as soon as he’s got Junie settled, he goes back to the bathroom to wipe Nell and help her get her pants back up. She skips off and situates herself near her sister. They’re never far from each other.
Once he gets the sisters situated, he checks in with Milo. He’s done with his homework and going downstairs to play. Jack tells him to send Clark back up.
“Let’s work on this homework,” he tells Clark once he’s back up.
Clark falls dramatically to the floor.
“You are far too big to be falling down in a tantrum. Get up and get over here and let’s do this.”
Jack looks in Clark’s folder and sees a reminder that he has a test tomorrow.
It’s a combination of different Language Arts concepts. Some of it is spelling, some of it is reading and answering questions, some of it is grammar. All things that do not come easily to Clark.
They start with the spelling words.
Clark crashes out about the English language when he spells “tho” for the word though and Jack tells him it’s not right.
“That’s stupid! I don’t need those letters! U says /u/, g says /g/ and h says /h/. The word isn’t tho-ug-h.” He instantly gets the giggles.
Jack rolls his eyes in exasperation. Clark grabs his face and puts their foreheads together, staring into Jack’s eyes. “Tell me why it has those letters!”
“Clark,” he gently disentangles himself from his wild child’s grasp. “I don’t know why it has those letters. It just does, and it’s just something you need to remember.”
He has Clark practice writing and verbally spelling each of the words several times before they move on to the reading and comprehension questions.
Clark isn’t a very fluent reader and still sounds out of lot of words which slows him down. By the time he’s worked through all of the reading, he struggles to remember the answers to the questions.
Jack has him read through it again before moving on to the questions.
By this point, Clark’s attention is completely gone and he’s crawling around on the floor.
“Get…” Jack grabs for Clark and says “Get up here!” He sighs and says “Take a five minute break while I check on the girls.”
Clark screeches in excitement and takes off for the basement.
Jack finds June asleep on the couch and Nell playing and watching TV.
When he and Clark get back to it, they work on grammar. They work hard and then go back over the spelling words again. By the time they’re nearly done, Clark has gotten silly and Jack knows there’s no point in continuing. They’ve done what they can and it will be what it will be when he takes his test tomorrow.
**********
When they get up in the morning, Jack wishes Clark good luck on his test and sends the boys off with hugs and kisses.
Robby is off for the day but is taking the boys to school while Jack stays with the girls because of Junie throwing up. She has to be 24 hours vomit free before she can return to preschool.
Luckily, she’s done throwing up and is mostly just tired. They take it easy and play calmly and quietly, with the occasional TV break.
Robby works on some household chores throughout the day and lets Jack sleep for a few hours to try to stay on schedule.
It’s all very mundane which is exactly what they’ve needed for some time. It’s nice to just be in the thick of the routine of life with no pressing worries.
After Robby goes and gets the boys from school, Clark runs in beaming from ear to ear and says “Guess what, Daddy!”
“What? What?” Jack matches his excitement.
“I got all the questions right on my test today! All of them! I even spelled though the right way!”
“HELL yeah, you did!” Jack yells and throws up his hand for a high five. Clark cackles and returns the high five.
“Jack,” Robby reprimands in exasperation, but he has a proud smile on his face too.
“That’s my big boy! Look at you, dude. I’m so proud of you.”
Clark smiles proudly, chest puffed out a little.
Jack bends down to his level and says “Remember, Clark Abbot, you are capable of anything you put your mind to. No matter how big or hard it may seem, you can do it. And you just proved that.” He high fives him again and then Clark wraps himself around Jack in a hug.
Jack is proud of his boy. So many things are so hard for him and this is an amazing confidence boost for his younger son.