How Green Becomes Wood

Ivy didn't make it too difficult for Sally and, fortunately, managed to avoid spitting up over her shoulder. "There's Mama's good girl, Hummingbird!" Daizi cheered quietly, "I bet that feels so much better, huh? Are you ready to go downstairs and see Baba? And Alec and Xander? Yeah? And who else, Ivy?" Daizi proceeded to list every single guest to the party, referring to Cooger as 'Ammi Cooger' and Jack as "Khaali Jack' as she reclaimed her daughter, unless Sally chose to carry her, and went back downstairs.

~~

"Oh, yes, I had forgotten about that... Well, we should probably wait until Ivy is smiling, yes?" Dark asked, trying to recall if in family portraits with babies, if the baby was smiling or not. Most of them were when the baby was brand new, but that didn't seem all that necessary to him.
 
"You are certainly dedicated to word association," Sally remarked, amused by the list as she followed Daizi and Ivy down the stairs. Being the mother of a single child herself, she understood Daizi's worries, but having been parenting for fifteen years, she'd learned to relax a little. Now she was worried and obsessed about a whole new host of problems and issues.

~~

Jack shrugged. "It can happen whenever you'd like. Right now, babies are easy to work with because they mostly sit where you put them, but the smiles are heartstoppers, that's for sure."
 
"I really just like talking to her," Daizi replied, "I could recite her entire diaper change routine in my sleep, I talk her through it every time. If I could perform the change in my sleep, then maybe I'd actually be well rested."

~~

"It would be a terrible thing if she turns out to be like me and does not smile. But I doubt that, I am sure I smiled freely at her age and she certainly seems like a happy little baby." He looked at the twins, "What do you think? Should we wait until she starts smiling for the pictures?"
 
Sally laughed at that then smiled when she saw her husband talking with Dark. "Our husbands seem to be getting along."

"Yes, smiling is a must," Alec said happily.

Xander shrugged. "She'll look just like your kid if she isn't smiling."
 
"Dark is easy to get along with once you really know him," Daizi said, "he's more personable than he lets himself believe."

"But she will look just like Daizi's if she is smiling," He pointed out in return, although it wasn't exactly true, since her colouring was more like his than her mother's, although her eye colour seemed to be turning Daizi's way. At the sound of his wife's voice, he turned, and eyeing his baby said, taking her, "Speaking of--Come here, baby. Who is my sweet girl? My pretty pretty baby named I-vy."

Ivy squeaked and wiggled while Daizi bent and kissed Dark's head, and for a brief moment, he felt like probably the luckiest guy in the world. Cooger, meanwhile, made a face and then, with a teasing laugh, said, "It's weird to see him mushy like that."
 
Xander rolled his eyes in disgust and turned back to picking up just a little bit more food even though he'd already had seconds. Alec blushed a little but smiled at the blatant display of PDA. If Peter thought anything of it, he kept it to himself.

"I can tell," Jack said about Dark being personable. "We were discussing whether to have a picture when she's smiling or sooner, and it seems to have evolved into a discussion about who she looks more like."

"She looks like nobody but herself," Sally said fondly. "And herself is beautiful."

"It is certainly an interesting side to him," Ciara said tactfully. "I suppose that small children have a tendency to do that to a father."
 
"I think we should take a picture with her smiling and a picture with her not. We're coming up on 5 weeks adjusted, so she'll be smiling soon anyway, hopefully." Daizi said, lingering for just a moment behind her husband before sitting down to finally eat.

"She is beautiful," Dark murmured, looking at her tiny face and smiling just a little bit at the way Ivy was watching him back. A thousand times a day they made eye contact like this, for as long as Ivy could manage, anyway, and everytime it completely entranced him until she looked away and the spell was broken.

"I guess so." He replied, as if he hadn't very quickly sought out Ivy when he visited, "but I... I mean, he's a great dad, I've seen it for a year, ya know? But I still remember him when we were kids and that version of him would've been an awful dad. Couldn't have caught that guy dead cooing to a baby like that. Kinda makes you feel old."
 
Jack and Sally exchanged amused but understanding and knowing glances and allowed Dark his moment before continuing. Jack said, "We can work out the callander issues later and see when works for everyone. That might end up making or breaking the smiling/not smiling debate."

"True. We do have that big project coming up," Sally said with a nod. "That is going to take up quite a bit of time for the next while."

Peter sighed. "Ugh, I hate your big projects at work."

"It's not something you have ever wanted for yourself?" Ciara asked curiously.
 
"Oh, what project are you working on?" Daizi asked, always interested in their work, even though she didn't totally understand all of it. And especially now that she wasn't working, her friends jobs had become even more fascinating, because even though she knew she absolutely preferred being at home with Ivy rather than rushing back to work, it was good to remind herself there were things going on that weren't purely domestic.

Cooger shrugged, "I dunno. Kids are cute and all, and I love getting to hang out with my nephews--er, your nephews... Our nephews?" He made a face, realizing that was a sorta tricky dynamic between them, "Like, it's a ton of fun to take him down to the cabin and go out on the boat or what have you, and Ivy is damn cute, but I can hang out with the three of 'em for an afternoon and get the fun parts without the," he gestured to Dark and Daizi, "ain't slept since September ended and gotta worry about a college fund parts. If either of those boys came to me upset, I'd be glad to listen, I don't want ya to think I'd say 'sorry, not what I signed up for' and kick 'em to the curb, but I get 90% the fun part of kids just being an uncle. That's enough for me, I think." He smiled like it was all just fun, but then his expression changed slightly as he watched his friends a moment longer, and he admitted, "and when I look at them now, and when I look at them over this past year with the twins, I dunno. I don't think I've got it in me to be so... devoted? To someone who can't promise to be rational, anyway. It's just me and Hank. But what about you? You ever want kids?"
 
Jack and Sally both launched into an explanation of what they were doing, mostly about the lab work. They were not allowed to say certain things for privacy reasons, but they were used to talking around what they were actually doing. What they did say had a lot to do with algae and plant life in a specific pond and how specific chemicals reacted with the scummy water. Sally was hopeful of positive findings that would lead to useful products, but Jack was less hopeful and expressed doubts that they would do anything other than potentially end up with beakers full of chemically pond water.

"As the eldest child, I already felt as though I had to mother my younger siblings," Ciara said bluntly. "Not that I did a very good job of it, unsurprisingly, but after that, I focused on my career and never even paused to consider having a family. It simply wasn't feasible to do both to any degree of success, so I chose one over the other. In truth, since leaving home, the boys were the first children I have had any real experience with. I cannot say I do not regret my choice sometimes, but I feel it is a little late for those sorts of regrets and choose to focus on the positives instead."
 
"Beakers full of chemical pond water is better than nothing," Dark pointed out, "even if your hypothesis is disproved that's still new information."

"Yeah, but you always really want to be the one to crack it. When you have to publish a paper announcing what doesn't work, it feels like admitting defeat." Daizi said, and then paused to think for a time, "Unless you're able to end the paper with a strong idea for what the next steps are."

"Unless you look incredible for your age and you're secretly 80, I wouldn't count yourself out. Look at them," He nodded, "I'm just lucky I'm a man, otherwise I'd have been labeled a spinster or a crazy cat lady decades ago. But I don't really mind that, I do good work with them."
 
"Exactly right," Sally said with a quick nod to Daizi. "Still, I have high hopes for this project! It may still come crashing down around us, but if we even see slight positive results, it will lead us in some very positive directions."

Jack shrugged. "I suppose it is still possible, but I think we should keep in mind what happened with protists in our last experiment. They basically, well, exploded."

"We probably should not talk about that," Sally said with a slight shudder.

Ciara smiled slightly. "I believe the terms are 'confirmed bachelor' and 'crazy cat man.' Still, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I am quite set in my ways. I could not imagine going through the upheaval those two have."
 
"That's one thing that sounds more exciting in your work than in mine. Nothing explodes in my work, or if it does, we know something has gone inconceivably wrong." Daizi said as a joke, but then realized the grim truth of what she was saying, considering what she studied.

"There are very few jobs where explosions means everything has gone as anticipated," Dark said softly, before asking, "How do you two handle working together and living together?"

"Confirmed bachelor," Cooger repeated slowly, "That's certainly a forgiving term. But I agree with you, if I was in their shoes, you'd probably have to schedule me for a grippy socks vacation... Course, they've got each other to help 'em through it. Those two... I'm just 'bout the only person to have known them apart, and I'm pretty sure if the tectonic plates ripped apart and a whole ocean seperated them over night, he'd have a ship built and she'd have sprouted a fish tail so they'd be back together by noon. It probably makes everything else easier."
 
"It's not always easy," Sally said, trying not to think about what could possibly explode in Daizi's line of work. "It helps that we do not share an office and that we work in different departments toward a common goal. We also made a rule of absolutely no work talk at home. The most we're allowed to do is talk about sudden schedule changes or things that have an immediate impact on us. Otherwise, work stays at the doormat."

"Not to say there haven't been times when she hasn't wanted to strangle me both professionally and in her home life," Jack said cheerfully.

Sally chuckled. "Perhaps, but I think I could say the same about you. You put up with quite a lot."

Ciara studied Cooger thoughtfully. "When you say it like that and put it in that sort of context, you sound almost jealous," she remarked.
 
"I don't think Dark and I could do it," Daizi admitted, "I think everyone assumes we're the sort who would fight to spend every possible moment together, but I think we stay really healthy by having seperate jobs. Even being in different departments at the same job would be too close to us."

"Probably. But we have complimentary degrees, if we were both instructors at the same university, I think we would be able to make it work." He said, although he knew he really just liked the idea of getting to visit her office when they both were out of class.

"Sometimes I wish we did work closer, though. Not the same job, not the same building, but close enough it was easier to eat lunch together." She sighed, but reaching over and touching their daughter's head added, "But that won't be a problem again for a few months, yet."

"I've been their third wheel since 2005," Cooger replied dryly, "somehow even when they were broken up I was their third wheel."
 
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"Hmm, that would be a nice perk," Sally agreed. "Believe it or not, but we don't actually eat lunch together that often."

"Usually because you forget the time and work right through your lunch," Jack pointed out with a grin.

"A small detail," Sally said, rolling her eyes.

Ciara smiled at Cooger. "Then perhaps it's past time you learn to unicycle. Or perhaps find another wheel to become a bicycle of your own. Please do not ask me to push that analogy any farther, it is bizarre enough already."
 
"Daizi does that, but I tend to call her on my lunch break which serves to remind her to eat." Dark said which made Daizi turn her head away, somewhat embarrassed.

"I got better about it,"

"You were pregnant,"

"Still," She said sheepishly, "I wasn't working through my lunch break anymore."

"I make it sound worse than it is. They're my best friends, I'm never excluded unless it's something I'd rather not be there for anyway. We're, uh, a tricycle. Which is more stable than a bicycle. But I guess, ya know, when it comes to it," He scratched the back of his neck, "Guess I kinda did go through the same upheaval as them. Well, not the same one, but still an upheaval. Technically we're even in numbers now, though. Three kids, three adults, both sides with two guys and a girl."
 
"Then I suppose I'll have to remember to call you more often," Jack said to Sally with a grin. He shot Dark a wink. "Any other ways you wanna show me up with how amazing of a husband you are?"

"True," Ciara agreed, "but the friendship of an unmarried with a married couple is bit different than that of unmarried friends or two married couples, isn't it?"
 
He shrugged, wiggling Ivy's hand around and looking down at her. "No," he said, "I think I am finished. But you have to excuse me, I think she needs a change."

"Maybe..." Cooger agreed slowly, "but when they got married not much seemed to change compared to when they were just dating. But I think you're forgetting, they aren't my friends. Not just my friends. They're my family, so it's different." He looked at Ciara for a little while and then looked back at Dark, who was quickly leaving the table with his daughter, "That's not to say I wouldn't want to find my own lady, if I met the right one, just that we've got kinda a different dynamic than most friends." He cracked his little grin, "Oh and, uh, don't forget you've had your own upheaval, too. Not as big as theirs, and we can skip the arguing between us, but if you could speak to the you of last year, do you think she'd be sitting at a table like this now? Christmas dinner with people from five different continents?"
 
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"Of course," Sally said with a smile. "Go and do what needs done!"

Jack shuddered. "I am so glad not to have to repeat those days."

"Absolutely not," Ciara said without hesitation. "My entire life, Christmas has been spent with the family and then going to mass. My father, mother, sister, and brother. The number dwindled through the years until it was just me and my mother, and I no longer attend mass, but I never thought that I would ever replace what was with what I see now. It is... not an objectionable change."
 
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