Work Text:
“Papa,” Henry asked from his seat in the back of the car, “What’s your job?”
Jack glanced back at his son in the rearview mirror, confused at the question.
“You know what my job is. You came to the game with Daddy on Saturday, remember?”
Henry mulled over this information, pulling a face while he concentrated.
“It’s just,” he said, “In school today we were doing about jobs and we had to say what our parents’ jobs were. And I know Daddy does baking, but I didn’t know about you.”
Jack furrowed his brow. He and Bitty had always made a conscious effort not to let his job, and hockey in general, take over their family life, but it wasn’t like the boys didn’t know what Jack did. They came to family skate, and Bitty took them to plenty of games, and Jack’s teammates – especially Tater – invited themselves over all the time.
“I play hockey, bud,” said Jack eventually, baffled as to how his son could not know this. “Playing for the Falconers, that’s my job.”
“That’s what Mr Kowalski said,” said Henry, in a throwaway tone that Jack knew meant he didn’t believe it. “So… you get money? For playing hockey?”
“Yes.”
“But… well, we’re going to hockey club now.”
“Yeah, yeah we are.”
“Can I get paid to go to hockey club?”
Jack tried his best to stifle a grin while cursing Bitty for not being there. Bitty was much better at fielding questions than he was. Before he could find an answer, however, Henry had thought of some more questions.
“And what do you do in the day? You have hockey club on Saturdays and sometimes other days but the rest of the time do you stay at home and things? Because Sophia’s Daddy does that and Mr Kowalski says that’s fine and looking after the house is like having a job.”
“No, bud, I go to practice. So we can get better at playing hockey. Remember in the summer vacation? How I was out some days?”
Henry huffed, still processing this information. “So… when you’re not at home, you’re at work?”
“Yes.”
“And hockey is work?”
“Yes.”
“But hockey is fun! And work is boring. So how is hockey work?”
“Oh look, we’re here!” Jack had never been so glad to get to the ice rink as all thought of jobs was wiped from Henry’s mind.
Henry wriggled with excitement until Jack came round and undid his seatbelt, grabbing his kit bag from the trunk and hurtling towards the ice rink.
“Daniel!” he called after his friend, his little legs practically spinning as he ran towards the front doors of the arena. “Daniel, my papa gets money for being in hockey club!”
Jack watched from afar with amusement as Daniel’s eyes widened to the size of plates.
“That’s so cool! Do we get money for being in hockey club?”