How Green Becomes Wood

Dark nodded, satisfied with that.

"We don't have to talk about it now," Daizi said, rubbing her face with both hands, "but I really think we should consider meeting with the family therapist again." They should've been, she realized, this whole time.
 
"M'kay," Alec agreed reluctantly.

"Guess so," Xander agreed.

They both looked incredibly exhausted now that a lot of the pain and hurt had been ripped out into the open. Their anger was having a hard time existing now that it had been annalyzed.
 
Daizi opened her mouth and shut it a few times, her face creased in confusion, "Why are you apologizing to me?" She asked gently, scooting to the end of the couch, not reaching out to the twins but wanting to, "I know that you're both hurting, and I wish we had talked about it before it got this bad, but we talked about it now, and we're going to talk with someone professional, and we'll figure it out. Okay? We'll figure it out."
 
"Because it hurt you," Alec answered when Xander remained silent. "You and Ba both. It... we... hurt you through all of this. A lot. I'm sorry."

Xander gave a slight nod in agreement, not looking at anyone.
 
Daizi took a breath, and held one arm out towards Alec, and reached out for a fist bump to Xander, as silly as it was, because he couldn't be hugged, and he was too far from her to pull on his shirt, "I've just been worried about the two of you. It'll be better. We just have to put in the work."

"Thank you for apologizing," Dark added, admittedly feeling too strung out by the layers of stress he hadn't been able to work through to say much else.
 
Alec moved to sit next to Daizi and cuddled into her gently. "Sorry we woke up Ivy, too. I hope we didn't scare her too badly."

Xander reached out and lightly fist-bumped Daizi, lingering just a little as their knuckles met. It was silly, but he appreciated her meeting him where she could. He was now fully drained and oh so tired, but he wouldn't leave until officially dismissed. Besides, he did feel bad for scaring Ivy, too.
 
"She won't remember it," Daizi replied, lightly wrapping her arms around Alec and resting her chin on top of his head, "She just heard a loud noise and Enkidu barking, it wasn't any different than if there was thunder."

She kissed the top of Alec's head and then let him go, "You should both try to get some sleep."
 
"Yes, Mama." Alec stood and reached out, touching Dark's shoulder lightly. Then he turned and headed upstairs and to bed.

Xander hesitated a bit. Then he stood and followed Alec upstairs to his room. He could spend the night in his own bed. As surprisingly comfortable as the couch was, he did miss his bed.
 
Dark nodded in response to Alec, but waited until the twins were out of sight to heave a sigh and lean into the back of the couch, shutting his eyes. Daizi shook her hands through her hair and leaned forward, holding her head in her hands while resting her elbows on her knees.

Neither spoke for awhile. Both thought about what they should have been doing differently and what their next steps should be. Dark thought about other things, too.

"Come on," Daizi said eventually, forcing herself up off the couch, "We've got a couple hours before Ivy wakes up. We should try to get some sleep, too." She paused, and before Dark could comment, added, "I said try."

Then, she reached her hand out to him to help him up, which he accepted after a pause, and followed her up to their bedroom. This time, Daizi did bother changing into her pajamas before crawling in bed with her husband, who had retaken the same position as before.
 
There was still a lot to be said and a lot of questions left unasked, but neither twin said anything as they each went to their own bed and settled in for the night, or what was left of it. Once or twice, one of them almost started to speak, but then they allowed the silence to swallow their words. They lay facing the wall, their backs to each other, and finally fell into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning, they got up a little later than usual, but it was still morning. They dressed in silence and went down to breakfast. Unspoken words still hung over them, waiting, but the atmosphere was not quite as tense as it had been before.

~~

Meanwhile, Tristan made it to his shore. It had taken a lot out of him to get his chair and himself loaded into the car, and then when he arrived to get them unloaded. He nearly fell when getting the chair out of the car but caught himself at the last second. By the time he made it into the back of his store, he was nearly spent. He sat for a few minutes surveying the mess still waiting to be cleaned up. He could not do this alone. He sighed and ran a hand over his face before slowly pushing himself up to the front of the shop. Time to call for help.

The flower debacle had taken a hit on his bank account as the company had initially charged him for the entire lot of flowers, but since he could prove that he had only ordered a certain number, they had agreed to fix the charge. The change was still pending since it was a weekend, which meant that for the next twelve hours, possibly longer, he was seriously in the red. However, he had taken in a lot of cash transactions over the last couple of days. He opened the till that he admittedly should have emptied the day before and quickly counted and did the accounts. Yes, he had enough in cash.

Cooger's card was stored along with a few other business cards under the till, and he pulled it out to double check he had the number right before dialing it.
 
Since Ivy woke up when she always did, her parents couldn't sleep in either, so operating on only a few hours and almost no sleep, respect, they began their day. By the time the twins came downstairs, the scent of coffee was heavy on the air, and Ivy was giggling her little head off.

~~

It took a few rings for Cooger to answer, but when he did he sounded a bit groggy, "J.C. Cooger, how can I help you?"
 
Alec smiled tiredly and went to Ivy. "Good morning. I am glad someone is happy this morning. No bad dreams?"

~~

"Good morning, Mr. Cooger, it is Tristan Walsh," Tristan greeted him. "I am terribly sorry if I woke you, but I wondered if you would be availible for a job today?"
 
Ivy crawled over to him as quickly as she could manage, grabbing onto his leg and cooing loudly at him.

"I think she did alright, in the end," Daizi yawned, lying on her side with the dog.

~~

"Aw, hey Tristan! How're you doing? Heard you had Dark working at the shop, told 'im if things were going like they were, you'd have to put a pole in the middle of the shop. Nah, you didn't wake me, I'm just feeding the chickens. You need any eggs?" He held the phone away and said something incomprehensible to some animal on his land, "What time would you need me? And what's the job?"
 
Alec leaned down and scooped Ivy up, swinging her up to hold her over his head. "You're getting so heavy!" he groaned before bringing her down to hug her again. "I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to do this without upping my weight lifting game."

Xander watched quietly, slipping around them to go sit in the kitchen for some quiet.

~~

Tristan smiled at the thought of a pole in his shop but quickly shook the thoughts away. "I could actually use a dozen if you have some for sale," he admitted. "The job is rearranging a lot of flowers in their buckets of water, sweeping, and possible a bit of mopping. Mostly a lot of carrying heavy things that I cannot manage. It can wait, but I would love to get it done as soon as possible. When is convenient for you?"
 
"She is only twenty pounds," Dark said over the top of his coffee cup, his voice still gravely.

"She is in the 71st percentile for babies her age, though. For girls, anyway. If she were a baby boy, she'd be in the 47th." Daizi commented, smiling at the happy little noises Ivy made.

~~

"Ah, no, I don't sell them. But you're welcome to a dozen, my girls lay like crazy. It's a good thing I don't have any roosters, I'd need to expand." Cooger chuckled, "And sure, that's no problem. I can head over just as soon as I'm done here, alright? Although, I gotta say, I oughta have problems with you. Can't believe Alec called you over me. I've known him so much longer!"
 
Alec was not certain he fully understood what the percentiles meant no matter how many times Daizi brought them up. "Twenty pounds is nice and hefty, isn't it?" he cooed back at Ivy. "Yes, it is! You are going to be so big and strong!" He brought her down and hugged her. "You're a sweetheart. I hope you never lose your laugh."

~~

"I could not say I have any idea why he called me," Tristan admitted, a little surprised Cooger knew about that and that he'd bring it up. "Perhaps it was just a proximity thing. Or my flowers. Flowers do bring a great sense of calm. I wouldn't know how much calm chickens bring."
 
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