#sanitatems

“no, judd, i’ll be okay. get on out of here before you’re late.” a smile fell upon her lips before she placed them gently against those of her husband’s, giving him a final goodbye kiss. “have fun, but don’t be out too late.” 

“i beg to differ. i am not always dramatic. i am only dramatic when the situation calls for it.” so maybe owen did have a bit of a dramatic side, but it kept things interesting and kept his firefighters on their toes. “what’s it to you, anyway? drama is the spice of life, after all.”

‘ it’s fair food, cap, it don’t have to make sense. ’ judd’s already happily digging into his fried oreos, but it seems like owen’s having a harder time deciding what to order from the concession stand.  ‘ try a caramel apple, there’s still a fruit innit’ somewhere. ’

“none of this is keto. i can’t just stop my diet. where’s the healthy food, and why does everything here have to be fried?” welcome to the south, he thought. he knew things were different down here, but he wasn’t prepared for the vast culinary differences. “i think i’ll stick to just drinking water.”

‘ now, now. hold your horses. ’ he waves a hand, goes back to peering over her shoulder at the homework that seems to be causing gabby problems. ‘ way back in the day i took high school math, too. can’t be any different than it was then.’ he stares down at the equation in question again, tilts his head. oh. nope. that’s something new. new and incredibly complicated looking. instead, he reaches for the door as nonchalantly as he can, tries not to give away the fact he has no clue what he’s looking at. ‘ three heads are better than one, i say we have your mother give it a once over, see if she gets the same answer i was thinkin’. ’

“back in the middle ages, you mean?” she says with a laugh. eyes watch her father peer at the problem she’s been stuck on for a while now. “whose dumb idea was it for me to take calculus this year? i should have taken statistics or business math instead. would’ve been a heck of a lot easier.” she rolls her eyes at his final comment. “i’m sure that’s why you’re going to get her. you know what? just forget it. it’s the only problem i haven’t answered yet. i’ll just leave it blank and miss out on the points for it because i am tired of this homework.”

‘ this. this right there is what i’m afraid of. ’ he presses his knuckle to his mouth, tries not to look as distressed as he feels. the last thing he needs is the rest of the crew camped out in the waiting room noticing. they’ve got t.k to focus on. they’ve got owen to focus on, since the crew’s all taken to leaving him food at odd intervals of the day since he refuses to leave his son’s bedside ( not that any of them have the heart to try and persuade him to leave anyway ). judd’s free hand finds his wife’s, tries to squeeze it with a strength he doesn’t feel. maybe she can lend him some of hers for awhile. ‘ we can’t lose the kid. ’

“hey, hey - don’t think that way.” hands clasp firmly around the one in hers, and she lifts it to her mouth, kisses it gently. “we just gotta have faith and stay positive. everything is going to be fine.” she can remember those words being said to her the last time she was here. it was the night of the explosion and she was sure judd wouldn’t survive his injuries. she’d been convinced she’d listened to him die on the phone when she tried to reach him and couldn’t. it wasn’t something she tended to talk to him about, though - he had enough demons of his own from that day without adding hers to the mix. “c’mon, let’s go round up some coffee for everyone. i’m sure they could use it.”

“i don’t doubt that you will, judd. i just don’t want you to think that you have to. i can figure this out on my own, but if you’re sure you want to help, i’m not going to turn you down.”

“what, exactly, is wrong with my logic? because the way i see it, the more attention you pay to your appearance, the longer you can look younger than you are. where’s the fallacy there? i’ve taken care of my hair and my skin for as long as i can remember and i don’t look a day over thirty.”