Work Text:
8:45. That’s the time his clock read when he woke up. Jonathan jumped out of bed when he saw the time, he only had 5 minutes to get ready and out the door, not including the 15 minutes it took to get to work.
Jonathan quickly pulled on the first pair of clean clothes he could find, brushed his teeth, grabbed the photos he needed for the day plus some extra film just in case, and organized his camera bag.
In his haste of running around to find everything he needed, he must’ve accidentally woken up Nancy, as she came downstairs wrapped in a bathrobe, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She caught him just as he was pulling on his coat, and with a quick kiss followed by an “I love you,” from her, he was out of the apartment and on his way to work.
He was running on pure adrenaline the entire drive to work, and even though he was able to make it on the road only 5 minutes later than usual, he just hoped that the New York traffic was a little more forgiving today. But something in the back of his mind made him think he was forgetting something.
He pulled into the parking lot of The New York Times at 9:05, only 5 minutes late. It wasn’t until he reached the door of the building that it hit him, his camera bag. In his heightened state that morning he’d completely forgotten to grab it.
A million questions ran through his mind as he walked into the building, what was he going to do? All his photos he needed for today’s paper were with it, how was he going to get anything done? How could he develop any other photos he took? Could he- “Byers!” Mr. Johnson called for him, breaking him out of his state of panic for a brief moment, “Meet me in my office for your assignment for today.”
“Yes sir.” Jonathan said as he set his coat down before hurrying off to get his assignment.
Jonathan tried his best not to let the panic show on his face as he entered his boss’s office, even though all he could hear was his heart pounding in his ears. Fortunately, his assignment for the day mainly involved developing some of the other photographers photos in the dark room, but as he turned to leave, he could hear some of the other women in the office cooing at something outside.
As he walked out of Mr. Johnson’s office, he saw a bunch of women crowded around Nancy. “Nance, what are you doing here?” He asked as he approached her, He then realized why she was drawing such a crowd, she had brought the stroller in with her.
“You forgot your camera bag at home,” she said as she kissed him, Jonathan smiled happily at her, taking the camera bag from her as they parted. He then looked into the stroller and saw their 3 month old daughter, Scarlett smiling happily up at him.
“Hi, sweetheart! Thank you for bringing daddy his stuff.” He said as he picked her up and kissed her cheek, making Scarlett squeal in delight. “Thank you,” he then directed his attention back to Nancy as he kissed her softly once more.
“How about the 3 of us go out to lunch today?” Nancy inquired as their lips parted once more. “Absolutely,” he replied as he handed Scarlett back over to her.
The next few hours went by smoothly, Nancy stuck around for a little while longer, letting Scarlett meet everyone and caught up with a few coworkers she hadn’t seen since going on maternity leave, and Jonathan was able to get most of his work done (mainly thanks to Nancy’s surprise visit) and once his lunch hour rolled around, he was able to walk out with his wife and daughter in tow as they headed out to lunch.