September turned into October and before long the students of Grant High were anxiously waiting for Halloween, the one night of the year they were allowed, even expected, to pretend to be someone else and just have a little fun.
"So what are you gonna be for Halloween," Griffin asked Ashley as he leaned against the locker next to hers. "I was thinking of going as Quasimodo."
"Aren't we a little too old to play dress up?"
"Nope. Not until you graduate from college," he assured her. Ashley shook her head at her friend.
"I don't know. You know I'm not good at parties," she reminded him. Griffin nodded.
"True. But this time you don't have any gossip headlines to share. Besides," he said while wiggling his eyebrows. "Your boyfriend Toby said he'd be there." Ashley rolled her eyes but the effect was undermined by her slight blush.
"He's not my boyfriend."
"Uh huh," Griffin said in a tone letting her know he didn't believe her. "Then why'd you pay Joe two weeks ago to find out who he was?"
"Pure curiosity," Ashley said as she shut her locker and began heading down the hallway.
"Uh huh. And I've got a bridge I wanna sell you." Ashley nudged Griffin with her shoulder as the two rounded a corner and parted ways to head to their respective classes. At Ricky's locker Amy was leaning her back against the locker next to his and clutching her books to her chest.
"I don't know, Ricky. You sure your mom won't mind?" she asked and then bit her lip nervously. Ricky looked over at her and smiled. He quickly leaned over to kiss her and then stood upright again.
"Do you have any idea how kissable you look when you do that?" he asked her with a smile, causing her to blush. "And no, my mom won't mind. Actually she volunteered. Although I'm pretty sure she just wants to take him trick or treating."
"But don't you think our costumes would be a little....I don't know. Weird?"
"How so?" he asked, shutting his locker and slinging his arm over her shoulders as they made their way down the hallway. Amy looked at her boyfriend incredulously.
"Because I'm not an angel and you're definitely not a devil." Ricky smirked at her.
"But that's the beauty of it. Our costumes would have multiple meanings."
"Like what?"
"One, most of the student body thinks you're an innocent angel who got burned by a devil. Two, people see us as a good girl and a bad boy. And three, you're my angel and since opposites attract that would make me your little devil," he explained, wiggling his eyebrows and causing Amy to giggle.
"You're such a goofball sometimes."
"I love you too," he told her and them promptly kissed her cheek, neither of them caring any longer who saw them being affectionate with each other in public.
In the main hallway, Grace was sitting at a table that had been set up to sell tickets to the Halloween dance, having joined the committee for said dance. She smiled when she saw Jack approach the table.
"Hi, Jack. Long time no see," she said cheerfully. He smiled back.
"Hey, Grace."
"So do you need to buy a ticket?" He nodded.
"Yeah." Grace took out a ticket form a rubber band-bound stack.
"$8.00 please." Jack handed her a ten dollar bill and Grace handed it to the girl sitting next to her who was in charge of the money box. She made change and then handed it back to Jack while Grace handed him his ticket.
"See you at the dance," the girl said politely.
"Thanks," he said to her before looking back at Grace. "See 'ya, Grace." Grace waved and Jack walked away. Further down the hallway at Lauren's locker Jesse was telling her he could now attend the Halloween dance, if she still wanted to go.
"So someone messed up the schedules and they had to shuffle some games around. Our next game got moved to next week so coach is giving us a couple days off to rest up."
"Sweet! So you still wanna go as pirates?"
"Yeah. Did you wanna go out to dinner first or no?"
"Nah. The dance doesn't go 'til late so we can just eat at home before we go."
"Sounds good," Jesse told her with a smile. He leaned down to kiss her just as the warning bell sounded. They quickly joined the stream of straggling students scurrying off to their respective classes. The morning passed like any other day and lunchtime found Amy and Ricky enjoying their lunch with Madison, Lauren, Justin and Jesse. As she did every day, Amy called the nursery to check on John. Ricky smiled knowingly but didn't say anything, secretly finding it comforting that Amy worried so much about their son when he wasn't within her line of sight.
"Thank you for calling Little Cherubs Daycare center, this is Diane speaking."
"Hi, Diane. It's Amy."
"Hi, Amy. Give me a moment to patch you through to John's room." Amy tapped her fingers on the table as she waited for Jennifer, the main attendant in John's play room to pick up.
"Hi, Amy. I was just about to call you." Amy was suddenly on full alert and her look of alarm made Ricky suddenly tense as well.
"What's wrong?" she asked anxiously, getting the attention of everyone else at the table.
"It's nothing serious," Jennifer assured her. "John's just a little sick. He has a slight fever and he just threw up his snack." Amy let out a relief sigh.
"I'm on my way." She quickly ended the call and gathered up her lunch, Ricky doing likewise.
"What's wrong?" he asked tensely.
"John's sick." Her eyes became sympathetic. "He's got a slight fever and he just threw up." She turned to Lauren and Madison. "Could you guys get my assignments for me?" They nodded in sync.
"Of course," Madison assured her. Amy and Ricky headed inside towards the counselor's office.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Amy shook her head.
"There's no point in both of us missing the rest of the school day. I'll text you if he gets worse," she assured him as they reached the counselor's office and Amy waked in.
"Hi. What can I do for you two?" she asked politely.
"I need to leave campus."
"Because..."
"I just spoke to one of our son's caregiver's at his daycare center and he's sick. I need permission to leave campus to go take him home." The counselor looked puzzled for a moment.
"It's Amy, right?" she asked as she pulled out her tablet of permission slips to fill one out. She nodded and the counselor turned towards Ricky. "Did you need a pass too?" He shook his head.
"No." She finished filling out the form and handed it to Amy.
"Thanks." She quickly went to her locker to retrieve her purse and jacket. At the last minute she decided to grab out all of her textbooks and notebooks and put them in her bag, just in case she needed them to finish up her homework that evening. Ricky took some of the books from her and carried them out to her car. Her things deposited in the backseat, she turned to Ricky. "Can you give Ash a ride home? I'll text her to let her know."
"Oh course," he assured her. She got in and buckled up, quickly but carefully backing out of her parking space, and headed to pick up her sick baby. When she arrived at the nursery she headed straight for John's playroom. She signed John out on the sign-in/sign-out roster and looked around for her son. She spotted him snuggled up with Naomi, the other caregiver who worked in John's playroom, tightly hugging his bear and blanket, and she quickly made her way over. When John spotted her he reached up towards her.
"Mommy," he said, his voice sounding sick and needy. She gingerly picked him up and he snuggled into her. "Tummy hut," he moaned. Amy rubbed his back.
"I know, baby." Naomi stood up.
"We had just checked his temperature before you called and it was 99.2. We gave him a dose of baby Tylenol just to be safe," Naomi informed her. Amy checked her watch and thanked Naomi with a slight nod. She headed over to the cubbie area to retrieve John's bag and jacket. She carried him out to the car and had to extract him from her arms to buckle him into his car seat. "I know, baby. I know. We'll be home soon." She arrived home in record time, there being hardly any traffic out since everyone was at work or on their lunch break. Her first order of business was to get John settled. Once she had him out of his car seat, she shut the door and armed her car, deciding to go back for her school books later. She unlocked the back door and was greeted by Moose's happy bark. He whined as Amy shut the door, sensing that something was amiss. She set her purse on the counter and then carried John upstairs to the bathroom to check his temperature, feeling that he was warm. Moose, sensing the John wasn't well, followed her. She took the ear thermometer out of the medicine cabinet and put down the toilet seat cover to sit on and Moose sat down in front of her. John moaned slightly and snuggled into her more. "Hang on, sweetie. Mommy just needs to check your temperature real quick." She put the end in John's ear and waited for it to beep. When it did she checked the reading and say that it was 99.1. She set the thermometer on the counter and headed to the nursery to get John changed into pajamas. Once he was changed, Amy sat in the rocking chair in the boys' rooms and rubbed John's back until he fell asleep, Moose never leaving their side.
Back at Grant High, Grant and Alice were animatedly debating whether zombies or vampires would become the dominate species if the world ended while Ben, Henry, Adrian and Grace looked on with amusement. Adrian turned towards Grace.
"Who knew your boyfriend liked scary movies," she remarked, taking a bite of her enchilada. Grace chuckled.
"I know. He just started introducing them to me and they're really not so bad. I can sit through an entire movie so long as it doesn't have a lot of blood and guts," she stated, taking a bite of her tuna fish sandwich. Ben looked at Henry who was sitting across from him at their lunch table.
"Who do you think would win?" Henry shook his head.
"I'm siding with Alice. For my own protection," he declared, taking a bite of his pizza. Alice momentarily glared at him, knowing Henry often sided with her simply to avoid starting an argument, and then continued her friendly debate with Grant. Meanwhile Ricky tried to locate Ashley. He found her eating lunch with Griffin under the shade of one of the trees in the central courtyard.
"Hey, Ashley," he called out when he spotted her. She looked up to see who had called her and spotted Ricky jogging over to her.
"Yeah?"
"I'm gonna give you a ride home today." Ashley's brows furrowed with surprise.
"Something wrong with Amy's car?" Ricky shook his head and his eyes became filled with worry.
"She called the nursery and had to go pick up John 'cuz he's sick." Ashley became slightly alarmed.
"Is it serious?" Griffin asked hesitantly.
"I don't think so. They told Amy he threw up and has a slight fever," he informed them, causing them both to relax. "She said she'd call or text me if he got worse."
"Ok. Am I gonna meet you in the parking lot after school then?" Ashley asked, picking up her bottle of juice to open it.
"Yeah. That'll work." Ashley nodded in agreement and Ricky headed back to the gang to finish eating his lunch.
Back home, Amy was gently placing her now sleeping toddler in his crib. She made sure his teddy bear was near him and then grabbed the baby monitor. She turned to Moose and whispered so she wouldn't wake John.
"Stay here, Moose." Moose laid down next to John's crib and Amy headed downstairs to retrieve her school books from her car. She managed to get all her books out in one trip and set the pile on the kitchen counter so she could lock the door behind her. She put the baby monitor on top of the stack and carried it upstairs to her bedroom. She went back downstairs to retrieve her purse and likewise carried it up to her room. She took out her phone to text her parents what was going on: John's sick. Counselor gave me permission 2 leave school but I need 1 of u 2 call and excuse me 4 the rest of the day. Thanks. She then sent a text to Ashley: John's sick. Ricky said he'd give you a ride home after school. She made sure her phone was set to vibrate and then set her reminder alarm to go off every half hour. Just as she finished setting her alarm she got texts back from her parents.
George: I'll call.
Anne: Let us know if u need anything
She sent replies back and then heard John moan over the baby monitor. She went into the nursery and found him sitting up and looking around. When John spotted her he held up his arms and Amy picked him up. She picked up his teddy bear and then carried him to her bedroom, Moose following beside her. She sat on her bed resting her back against the headboard and motioned for Moose to join her. He jumped up onto the bed and laid down right beside her as Amy rubbed John's back in soothing circles trying to get him to fall back asleep. At Grant High the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and the student body moved back inside for their afternoon classes.
"So you really don't wanna go?" Ben asked Adrian as they stopped at her locker. "I mean, we don't have to dance if you don't want to but we haven't really just hung out and acted like regular high school students in a while. We deserve a night of fun." Adrian smirked and arched an eyebrow at him. Ben suddenly realized that his statement could be taken the wrong way and quickly tried to back pedal. "That's not what I meant. I just meant we should go out and enjoy ourselves. 'Cuz it's Halloween and all," he hastily added. Adrian chuckled at how perplexed he'd gotten over his poor choice of words.
"I know what you meant," she assured him, taking several notebooks out of her locker. "It's just that there aren't exactly a lot of cute costumes for pregnant teens and going to a costume party without a costume is just lame," she explained. "I'd rather stay in and watch scary Halloween movies.
"Want me to come over and join you?" he suggested. Adrian's face lit up at his offer.
"That'd be great, Benny." As the rest of Grant High settled into their afternoon classes, Amy was at home giving her sleeping son a tepid bath. Her cellphone reminder had chimed and she carried John into the bathroom to check his temperature again. Finding that it had spiked to 100.6, she had quickly returned to her room to retrieve her bathing suit. She gingerly placed John on her bed and quickly changed before dashing to John's room for his little swimmers. She managed to get him changed, fill the tub with tepid water and get them both into it without John waking up. Her phone was sitting on the toilet seat lid so she would be able to hear the reminder alarm. Moose laid down on the floor near the tub, intently watching his poor, sick little owner. When Amy's half hour reminder alarm caused her phone to vibrate again, she checked John's temperature and saw that it had dropped down only slightly to 100.3. She sighed worriedly and remained in the tub for two hours, checking John's temperature every half hour and hoping she wouldn't need to take John to the emergency room and call Ricky, causing him to miss school. It was only at the end of the second hour that she sighed with relief when she saw that his temperature had finally dipped below 100. She slowly climbed out and wrapped them both in a large bath towel. She took him back to his room to get him a clean diaper and clothes. She was just about finished when Moose's ears suddenly perked up. He charged downstairs to see who the intruder was and wagged his tail excitedly when he saw Ashley and Ricky.
"Hey, Moose. Where's Amy?" Ashley asked. Moose turned around and headed back upstairs, Ricky and Ashley following. They followed Moose to Amy's room where they found her in a bathing suit and gently laying John down on the bed.
"What's with the bathing suit?" Ashley asked in a whisper.
"I had to give him a tepid bath and knew it'd be easier if we were both in the tub," Amy replied in a whisper, going to her dresser to take out dry clothes and underwear.
"How's he doing?" Ricky asked, also in a whisper, as he moved closer to the bed to look at John.
"His fever spiked to 100.6 but the bath helped bring it back down," she informed him, causing Ricky to spin around in her direction.
"Why didn't you call me!?" he hissed.
"It was only just over 100. Any higher and I would have," she assured him. She turned her eyes toward Ashley. "Would you watch him while I get changed and empty the tub?" Ashley nodded and carefully sat on the bed next to her nephew, Moose right at her feet. Ricky followed Amy out into the hallway.
"I'll come by after work to check on you guys," he promised, kissing her forehead.
"Okay. See you tonight." Ricky headed downstairs while Amy headed to the bathroom. In the kitchen he was heading out just as Lauren was about to knock on the back door.
"We weren't sure if John would be sleeping so we figured we'd knock instead of ringing the doorbell," Lauren explained.
"Yeah, he's sleeping right now. See you guys later." He headed off to work and Madison shut the door behind him. They headed up to Amy's room and found John asleep with Ashley watching over him.
"How is he?" Madison asked in a whisper. Ashley looked up in her direction and then back down at John.
"He's still got a fever." They all quietly watched him sleep for several minutes until Amy came back into the room.
"We brought your assignments," Lauren told her in a whisper, taking a small stack of papers out of the binder she was carrying.
"Thanks," Amy whispered back with a smile.
"Call us if you need anything," Madison said, giving Amy a hug.
"We'll see ourselves out," Lauren said, giving Amy a hug as well. Amy turned her attention to her child.
"Thanks, Ash. I got him." Ashley stood up and headed towards Amy's doorway. She stopped and turned to look at Moose.
"Come on, Moose," she said, motioning with her arm for him to follow her. He looked up at Amy and whined. She smiled at him and scratched him behind his ear.
"It's okay, Moose. We're fine for now," she assured him. "Go on." Moose got up and followed Ashley downstairs. As Amy settled John more securely in the middle of her bed and then went over to her desk to begin working on her homework, Ricky was forcing himself to stay focused on his work as he turned on the meat slicer to fulfill the list of orders for beef cuts. Nora walked past him headed towards the cooler and noticed the worried look in his eyes. She quickly retrieved the wrapped order she was after and returned to the counter, handing it to her customer.
"Alright, Mrs. Alderman," Nora told the older woman with a smile, "you're all set." The woman smiled as she took her order.
"Thank you, Nora. You have a nice day."
"You too." With no other customers waiting at the counter, Nora walked over to Ricky. "You alright?" Ricky glanced up at her and then back to the meat he was arranging on a tray to place in the cooler.
"Peachy," he replied sarcastically, causing Nora to roll her eyes and sigh.
"Fine," she said sharply, turning to walk away. Ricky sighed, knowing he was being rude to his mother for no real reason.
"Hang on." She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at him. Ricky removed his plastic gloves and carried the tray to the cooler. When he came back out he explained his mood to his mother. "John got sick this morning so he's home with Amy right now." Nora felt sympathy for her grandson and gave Ricky a sympathetic smile before chuckling quietly. "What's so funny about that?"
"Nothing. It's just obvious he didn't inherit your immune system." Ricky looked at her with confusion as they headed to the stock room to retrieve the pastas Bunny asked them to restock the shelves with. "You never got sick as a kid. I mean never," she explained, squatting down to open one of the large boxes. "Does he like chicken noodle soup?"
"Don't know. I guess. Why?" Ricky asked, slightly perplexed by her question, as he retrieved a small hand cart to load the large boxes onto. Nora opened another box before answering.
"If he does then maybe you'd wanna take some over to Amy's for him after work," she replied, shrugging as though her suggestion should've been obvious.
"I'll think about it," he told her noncommittally.
"And tell him Grandma Nora says hi," she said with a small smile as she loaded the opened boxes onto the cart. She saw the hesitant look in Ricky's eye and stifled a sad sigh. "Or just tell him daddy's 'friend' Ms. Nora says hi," she amended, trying to let him off the hook. Ricky let out a huff of air.
"Mom," he began.
"I get it, Ricky," she said, letting him off the hook. "Besides, I'm sure he gets plenty of love from his other grandmas," she said a little tartly before pushing the cart out to the front of the store. Ricky glared angrily at her back for a moment before following her to help restock the shelves. He knew it bugged his mother, a lot, that he called and thought of Margaret as his mother but he didn't feel like he should have to view her differently just because his birth mother had moved to town and he saw her more regularly. Margaret was the mother who took care of him, real care of him. She'd been there to love and support him, even though he hadn't really appreciated it right after he'd been placed with her and Shakur.
While Ricky was sifting through his mommy issues, Grace was in her room putting the finishing touches on her costume. As a member of the dance committee, she had to be at the school gym early to make sure everything was ready to go. As she was pinning up her hair to look like Rose's in the flying scene from the Titanic, her phone rang. She smiled when she saw it was Grant.
"Hey, Grant," she said cheerfully.
"Hey, Grace. Just calling to let you know I'm heading over to pick you up."
"'Kay. See you in a little bit." Grace ended the call and finished securing her hair with bobby pins. She wrapped her shawl around her and pinned it before heading downstairs. She found her mom in the kitchen putting a pan of brownies into the oven. "So how do I look?" she asked, doing a small turn for her mom's inspection. Kathleen smiled as she looked over Grace's costume.
"Very convincing," she assured her. Grace took a seat at the kitchen table.
"You baking brownies for a special occasion?" she asked curiously. Tom came into the kitchen just then.
"Did someone say bwownies?" he asked eagerly.
"Don't get too excited, Tom. These are for the people in my grief counseling group," Kathleen informed him.
"Aw shucks," Tom said, snapping his fingers to emphasis his disappointment. Kathleen chuckled and gave him a sideways hug.
"I'll make you guys some later."
"Deal!" Tom exclaimed, heading towards the living room to watch TV.
"So are the meetings really helping?" Grace asked sincerely and Kathleen nodded.
"Very much. It's been a little over a year since we lost your dad but some days it stills feel like it happened yesterday," she admitted sadly. "And talking about it, knowing I'm not alone and what I'm feeling is normal, really helps me get through those tough days." Grace nodded in agreement.
"I know what you mean," Grace said sadly. "Some days I still miss him soooo much." Kathleen took a seat at the table and squeezed Grace's hand as she gave her a small smile.
"All we can do is keep on living, one day at a time." They shared a smile and a moment of silence. It was broken by Kathleen giving her daughter's hand another small squeeze. "And I think you going to a Halloween party and having some good, clean fun is a good way to do that. There was a knock at the door and Grace smiled when she saw Grant.
"See you later, mom," she said, rising from the table and picking up her purse.
"Have fun you two," she said to Grace and Grant after Grace had opened the door.
"See you later, Mrs. Bowman," Grant said politely before the two teens headed off to the dance. Kathleen closed the door behind them. Back at the Juergens house Amy was trying to coax John into eating some chicken broth. He was sitting sideways in her lap and hiding his face in her side as she brought a spoonful of broth towards his mouth.
"I know you don't think you're hungry, honey, but you need some food in your tummy so you can get better," she explained in a soothing tone. John looked up at her and whimpered, causing Amy's heart to break. Even so, she continued to coax him. "Just one teeny little bit for mommy. Okay?" Amy held the spoon close to John's mouth for several moments before he finally opened his mouth enough for Amy to feed him the spoonful of broth. She looked at him expectantly as she pulled the spoon out of his mouth and watched him swallow, waiting to see if he'd throw the broth back up.
"Mommy, hungwee." Amy sighed with relief and fed him another spoonful of broth, glad John was no longer resisting. His little meal completed, Amy set the spoon back in the empty bowl and shifted John in her arms. She rubbed his back slowly and gradually he drifted back off to sleep. Amy placed him securely in the middle of her bed once more and worked on her homework some more, keeping her cellphone nearby so she would hear its alarm, reminding her to check John's temperature and give him more Tylenol if necessary.
She was lost in her studies, trying to learn the chapter in her trigonometry book she'd missed by not being in class that afternoon so she could finish her homework assignment, when she was interrupted by a soft knock on her door. Amy looked up and saw her mom.
"How's he doing?" Anne asked in a whisper, moving closer to the bed to gaze at her sleeping grandson.
"Okay," Amy replied tiredly. "His fever's still holding around 99 but I managed to get some broth into him."
"When dinner's ready I'll bring you up a plate," Anne informed her, walking back towards Amy's door.
"Thanks, mom." As Anne headed downstairs to finish her family's dinner, she crossed paths with Ashley as she came out of the bathroom, wearing heavy amounts of mascara and black eyeliner and eye shadow. Anne arched an eyebrow questioningly, inwardly cringing as she mentally flashed back to Ashley's wannabe Goth days.
"I know what you're thinking," Ashley said in a singsong voice. "It's just for my costume. I'm going as a vampire," she informed her mother, showing her the fake plastic fangs she had in her hand. The two of them headed downstairs and then Ashley made her way to her bedroom. George walked into the kitchen a little bit later carrying a giggling Robbie.
"So how's the little guy doing?" he asked, dodging Robbie's hands as he played with his father's face, not caring George was trying to have a conversation.
"He's still got a slight fever but Amy managed to get some broth into him," she answered, her voice sounding a little worried.
"Aww, poor baby."
"Baby?" Robbie asked excitedly, looking around trying to spot it. George chuckled.
"No baby, Robster. Just John."
"Where John?" Robbie asked, continuing to look around, trying to spot his favorite playmate.
"John's sick, buddy. He can't play right now." Robbie looked at his father.
"No play?" he asked, his lower lip quivering slightly.
"Play later," George assured him, trying to avoid a Robbie meltdown. Robbie sniffled but didn't cry.
"Otay."
"Wanna watch daddy set the table?" Robbie nodded eagerly and George chuckled as he carried his son into the dining room and secured him in his high chair. "So where's our little sugar plum? I haven't seen her since we got home," George said to Anne as he reentered the kitchen to get dining plates and silverware.
"Transforming herself into a vampire," Anne informed him while she stirred a pot of cheesy pasta shells with her right hand and dumped in a can of peas with her left. George groaned and then walked into the dining room to set the table.
"Does that mean the black makeup's made a reappearance?" he asked worriedly when he came back into the kitchen. Anne chuckled.
"Yes. But hopefully it's only for tonight," she replied, giving George a hopeful expression. He smiled and kissed her cheek.
"Let's hope so."
Back at Boykewich Butcher's Ricky, Nora and Ben were clocking out for the night. Ben punched out and then turned to his colleagues behind him.
"'Night. Have a happy Halloween," he said with a wave before heading home.
"Happy Halloween, Ben," Nora called out, giving a small wave of her own. She turned to Ricky when he didn't say anything. "What, no 'goodnight' for your buddy Ben?" Ricky sighed as he clocked out.
"Are you really gonna scold me right now?"
"No. Just making conversation." She clocked out as well and then turned to face Ricky. "Well. Goodnight." Ricky gave her a small smirk.
"Goodnight." He headed upstairs to shower as Nora headed to her sponsor's house, his mind now solely focused on checking on his sick child. He showered, dressed and headed over to Amy's. He knocked on the front door when he arrived, not wanting to ring the doorbell in case John was sleeping again. George was the one who opened it.
"Hey, Ricky. They're up in Amy's room," he said, motioning over his shoulder, already knowing Ricky was more interested in seeing John than chatting with him. Ricky headed upstairs, quietly approaching Amy's room and smiled at his sleeping son. He glanced to his left and saw Amy at her desk focused on her school work with a plate of food next to her.
"Hey," he said in a whisper, startling Amy who gave a small gasp and started. "Sorry," he said apologetically. "So how's he doing?" he asked as he moved closer to Amy's bed. Amy stood up and walked over to him.
"He's still got a slight fever but other than that he's just been sleeping on and off. Poor guy's just worn off," she said sadly.
"Poor little guy." Ricky turned towards Amy. "My other mom says hi by the way."
"Nora?" Ricky nodded at Amy's questioning look.
"Long story. You need anything?" she shook her head.
"No. I'll call if he gets any worse," she assured him. "You go ahead to the party." Ricky looked at her incredulously.
"I'm not going without you," he said resolutely, causing Amy to smile and then kiss his cheek.
"Life doesn't stop just because a little boy gets sick. Even if you don't wanna go to the party anymore, you don't have to hang out here. John and I will be fine." Ricky looked torn, not sure he really wanted to leave.
"I'll keep my phone on," he assured her before kissing her goodnight. He paused in the doorway and turned to look back at the bed, watching as Amy adjusted John's blanket over him. He knew he wouldn't be sleeping well that night.