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The dog itself is not the main problem, even though Eloise is admittedly more of a cat person. No, the young puppy of a German shepherd is cute enough to soften any person even more heartless than she is. Problem is Mary attempting to fool her by some half-cooked lie with which she is trying to justify the possession of said dog. It doesn't matter that her daughter is just as shitty at making things up as Theo is – she is still trying to lie her way out of this and that simply won't do.
“It's only for three weeks while Mark and his family are on holiday.” Unfortunately for Eloise, Mary also inherited her father's eyes, making even the biggest bull coming out of her mouth that much more compelling and endearing. And well, while there is a myriad of reasons why Eloise fell in love with Theo in the first place, she would be lying to herself if she tried to claim that his eyes were not one of them.
“Who is Mark?” She mentally goes over Mary's classmates and friends, in vain trying to recall anyone of this name. Mary, true to the fact that she really didn't think this through at all, fumbles a bit, flushing furiously. (Theo's inability to lie and Eloise's complexion. The poor kid never stood a chance.)
“He's in the chess club. You wouldn't know him.” Mary tries to deflect, making it sound like she somehow accumulated a circle of acquaintances that her mother has no idea about. At eleven years old. Eloise has to suppress an urge to sigh, her fingers momentarily tightening around the handle of the stroller where Emily is happily gurgling, entertaining herself by repeatedly spitting out the dummy in her mouth to the ground, cooing appreciatively when her brother readily jumps to find it and give it back to her. Without a fail, Georgie always sucks on the dummy first, getting rid of the dirt from the pavement, before sticking it back into his sister's mouth. Eloise would be more diligent in overseeing the latest way her two younger children have decided to test their immune systems, if she didn't have a puppy licking her sandalled feet.
“And do Mark's parents know about this?” She gently pushes the dog away and keeps her attention on Mary, who continues to blush. Eloise can already imagine how the whole situation came to be: some kid at school let it known there is a puppy for grabs, maybe a foundling, maybe a part of a litter. And Mary, with her unbridled fondness for animals of any kind and particular weakness for strays, have jumped in to offer to foster it, before even thinking to consult it with her parents beforehand. And because it is not the first instance of something like this happening, both Eloise and Theo previously stating that any new additions to the family must be approved by them first, she probably panicked and now tries to come up with a ruse to get the dog home anyway. Hoping they will all fall in love with him and conveniently forget that the stay is supposed to be temporary.
“Sure. Mark said they were happy for me to have him!” Mary nods her head viciously, thinking her mother crumbling and inadvertently giving herself up.
“I bet they were.” Eloise murmurs and finally sighs. Piercing Mary with a stern look, she holds the girl's eyes until she yields, averting her gaze.
“Tell me the truth, Mary.” Eloise orders, her tone gentle but firm at the same time. All three children rightly recognize it as her “no more nonsense” voice and react accordingly, snapping to attention. Under her mother's unwavering stare, Mary finally fesses up to everything, confirming Eloise's assumptions, before concluding with:
“Can I have a puppy, mummy?” Dark eyes peak up at her from underneath the lashes and Eloise almost laughs out loud. What makes the expression in Mary's eyes that much more effective is the fact she is absolutely unaware of its power. The girl is smart as a whip, but remains completely oblivious to the art of manipulation or deceit. Which makes being mad at her that much harder, for Eloise knows Mary's intentions were truly as she states: a genuine desire to help an animal. Eloise can already predict how this all turns out, mentally adding a dog kibble to the shopping list for tomorrow. However, on the outside, she holds on to her stern facade for a bit longer.
“Me and dad are going to talk about it. But you are in deep trouble for lying, Mary. You know how much we dislike it.” Obediently, Mary lowers her head and nods.
“I know. I'm sorry.” The tip of her left shoe pokes at the crack in the pavement, her thin shoulders hunched a bit under the weight of the chastisement. Eloise can feel herself softening. She reaches out, gently tugging her daughter closer so she can press a kiss on the top of her head. They don't do mad in this family. Boundaries and rules are set, yes, but Eloise and Theo always make sure that their children know that at the end of the day they are loved no matter what trouble they get themselves into. By the smile Eloise observes on her lips, Mary is well aware of this fact.
The door to the building across the road open and finally the reason they are all waiting here walks out. Theo steps on the street with couple of his colleagues behind his back, answering something while already looking around for his family. When he sees them, wide smile breaks on his face, his hand up in a wave immediately, Mary, George and even little Emily excitedly reciprocating the gesture. Eloise watches him to say his goodbyes and then hurriedly run to them.
Next couple of minutes is filled with the children clamouring for Theo's attention, Emily throwing her dummy at him and Mary with George talking over one another, releasing their father from captivity only when the dog starts yipping and runs away, tugging Mary with him as she holds onto the leash. Georgie, seeing that Emily now has a new slave to fetch her dummy (Emily has the men in the family well trained), quickly runs after his older sister. Theo crouches down, grabbing the dummy from the pavement. He cleans it just the same way his son did before giving it to Emily, blowing a raspberry against her cheek as a bonus. Eloise watches it all with a fond smile on her lips, the expression getting even happier when Theo leans in and finally gets a chance to greet her as well with a long kiss.
Their moment is unfortunately cut short by the shouts coming from the other side of the street where Mary and George stopped, waiting and urging their parents to hurry up. Resignedly, both adults start to walk, Eloise pushing the buggy, Theo holding onto her waist with one hand while the other fiddles with the collar of his shirt. Satisfied to see their parents moving, the two children turn their attention back to the dog, dropping down on their knees and rubbing the puppy's ears.
“We have a dog?” Theo asks while opening top two buttons of his shirt, taking in an exaggerated breath. He had no court proceedings today, spending his time at the office preparing the defence for their next case, so he is not wearing a tie. And since most of their clients consists of coalminers kicked out of job over the strikes and political activists with various charges of disturbing the peace against them, nobody really expects him be wearing a full suit on day to day basis anyway. Theo still abhors even the bare minimum of formal clothing he is forced to wear, longingly remembering the worn-out jeans and tie-die t-shirts from his university days.
“We do now. But we are not entirely happy about it yet.” Eloise clues him in on the situation, her poignant look letting him know all he needs to. Just as his wife, Theo quickly makes an educated guess of how their family came into a possession of yet another animal. He sighs. Oh, Mary is a sweetheart, but she really needs to learn how to say no when presented with an animal in need.
He can feel Eloise shake with quiet laughter next to him and turns his face to her just in time for her kiss to land at the corner of his mouth instead of his cheek as originally planned.
“Happy birthday, darling.” She says as they catch up with the children and together they head for the dinner they planned as a celebration.
---
He was gone for five minutes. Less even. Only to check on the potatoes boiling on the stove and see how Mary is progressing with her calculus homework. (Better than he ever did and she manages to play with the hamsters at the same time.) Theo was out of the living room for just a moment and yet, upon his return, he is met with a sight of absolute carnage and two very unapologetic children.
His eyes flicker between Emily, siting on the pile of books that somehow managed to find their way out of the shelves and on the floor and Georgie, who has his arms defiantly crossed over his chest and stubborn expression on his little face. He looks so very much like Eloise at that moment that Theo needs to mentally remind himself to stay firm and get to the bottom of this.
Problem is, they got sort of stuck in an eternal loop of continuous denial, the conversation between Theo and his son not moving anywhere in the last quarter of an hour. With a deep breath, Theo addresses the little boy in front of him again, speaking slowly and measuredly as not to spook him.
“Georgie, I'm not mad at you, but…”
“But I had nothing to do with it!” Theo's patience is not met with any kind warm reception, in fact, George looks downright frustrated and insulted by his father's insistence he is in any way responsible for his little sister destroying their home library. In a way, Theo shares his son's frustration. He is at the end of the rope himself.
“So she climbed there on her own.” He states sardonically, gesturing to the baby. Emily remains completely unbothered, lazily flipping through one of the books that she – supposedly – managed to pull out from the highest shelf. That's what somewhat fishy about this scenario. Have the lower shelves been broken into, Theo wouldn't bat an eye. For some reason at some point, all of their children make a mess of the books stored there in one way or another. But the first three shelves are untouched this time. Only the highest one, the one where Theo himself needs to step on a stool to reach, is completely empty, the books on the pile on the floor and, as previously mentioned, Emily sitting on them like a dragon on a pile of gold, happy as a clam.
“Yes.” And Georgie is absolutely unfaltering with his version of the events. Theo finally glowers. Adopting a more stern tone, he tries to explain to his son just how insane and improbable his claims sound.
“George. Emily is eighteen months old. She doesn't have the strength nor ability to scale up a bookshelf.” Upon hearing her name, Emily just grins, flashing them the little she possesses in terms of teeth so far and then throws the book in her little sticky hands aside (Theo winces and his heart clenches in pain at the sight of crinkled pages as the book lands open on the carpet, spine up). She then shifts on her knees and starts to crawl towards the television stand where the old newspapers are stashed, apparently determined to continue on her destructive rampage. Theo wants to jump after her, but is prevented from doing so by Georgie, who throws his arms up in anger before huffing out, voice dripping with annoyance:
“Well, she did it anyway.” Theo turns back at his son, mimicking the stance the boy had previously – arms crossed and chin stubbornly tilted upwards.
“Oh, then I suppose she was bitten by a radioactive spider while we weren't looking.” He's a lawyer. It shouldn't be this hard to win an argument with a six years old, Theo thinks. He should know better. Georgie now stares at him with mouth hanging open. (He really has no grasp of sarcasm yet.)
“Was she?!” He is delighted by the possibility of his sister becoming a superhero. Theo suppresses an urge to facepalm.
“No, Georgie.”
They are about to embark on another round of their back and forth, when two things happen. Emily finally reaches her destination and starts to pull the newspaper out of the shelf. And Mary shouts from the kitchen table where she is seated with her work:
“Dad! Something is happening to the potatoes!”
Theo is momentarily caught up between the two emergencies. His first instinct is to run into the kitchen, but as he moves that way, Emily tears off a piece of paper and stuffs it into her mouth. She keeps staring into his eyes like she's daring him to stop her. Theo changes direction mid-step and lurches towards his youngest offspring. Dropping to his knees, he tries to both take the newspaper out of the girl's hands and make her spit what she is already munching on.
“Oh, no, sweetie, don't eat that, that's yucky.” He tries to convince her, but Emily holds onto the papers like it is a box of chocolates.
“Dad, the potatoes!” Mary screeches again and Theo looks over his shoulder desperately, in vain trying to find someone to help him. Only one present is Georgie and right now, the boy looks more than happy to see his father flounder. Deciding to cut his losses, Theo turns back to Emily and, giving one forceful tug to the newspaper in her clasp, he manages to wrangle it from her fingers. Of course, that serves as a prompt for Emily's chin to wobble and give him a look of utter betrayal. Theo persists and in a quick move swipes the half-chewed paper out of her mouth, wiping his finger on her onesie afterwards. Emily lets him do it while giving him a look that clearly suggests she thinks her father a complete moron if he thinks she won't do it again the second he turns his back on her. Theo can do nothing but concede. Reaching around Emily to the pile of newspapers, he grabs a culture page and puts it into the girl's hands, throwing the one he previously liberated from her and which bears a page-sized picture of Margaret Thatcher with a title dubbing her a “milk snatcher” as far as he can manage.
“Okay, fine, at least eat this one, not the Wicked Witch of the West.” It's a bitter victory to see his daughter obey him now. Anyway, he doesn't get a chance to revel in his dubious accomplishment for long, the brief moment of peace cut short by Mary's final yell:
“Daddy, there is a fire!”
“Shit!” Theo jumps up and runs into the kitchen. His eyes go first to Mary, who, despite the hysterics in her voice, keeps sitting at the kitchen table, content to watch the world potentially burn around her. Assuring himself she's alright, he turns to the supposed fire. It's not a fire per se, but the water from the pot bubbled over and made the gas burner fizz and sputter flames around. Theo quickly turns the burner off, throwing a dish towel over the pot for a good measure as well, dousing the catastrophe. Behind his back, he can hear Mary soothing the bloody hamsters like their lives has been in danger because of his cooking skills. Something tugs on his pants, startling him. When Theo looks down, he sees Bilbo gnawing on his clothes, the dog making himself known only now when the danger is over.
Mix of laughter and exasperation threatens to bubble out of him as he rests his hands against the counter. It was a mutual decision, for him to be the one to cut his working hours in half in order to be at hand to take care of the kids and the house after Emily finally became old enough to go into a crèche. After years of Eloise being the one to work only part time, it seemed only fair for her to have a chance to build up her career as he was allowed to. While this arrangement has invited many raised eyebrows from people around them, it works for them just fine. And despite the happenings of the last half an hour, Theo does normally have it all under control. However, some days are just… hard.
“Dad! She's doing it again!” The brief respite is over when yet another shout can be heard, this time from George. Sighing, Theo heads back into the living room, expecting to see Emily eating or tearing the newspaper. He is shocked motionless when instead of a toddler feasting on the daily print he's met with a sight of the said little girl holding on for her dear life to the bookshelf, her feet dangling more than a meter above the ground and her brother pointing an accusing finger at her, vindication radiating from him as he repeatedly tells his father “See? See? I told you so”.
Blindly, Theo reaches over to the piano where the camera sits, his movements when taking a picture of Emily's climbing excursion, slow and measured as if he is taking a photo of a wild animal. When the moment is documented, Theo steps towards the bookshelf and pries Emily away. Holding her at the arms length, he gives her a searching once-over, looking for potential injuries (and maybe those spider bites after all). Finding neither, he first brings her close to kiss her forehead before setting her down on the floor. Any and all interest in the books now forgotten, she toddles off to the window and starts to annoy the cat sleeping there. Theo turns to Georgie.
“I'm very sorry for doubting you.” He apologizes to the boy. His son is as magnanimous in accepting the apology as a six years old can manage, loftily declaring “It happens” and then demanding ice-cream for dinner as a compensation.
(They all have a bowl after the meal, Eloise later laughing her head off when Theo recounts the entire experience.)
---
To be fair, Eloise thinks that the whole thing is just blown out of proportion. Penelope, who happens to be Mary's English teacher this year, does too. However, headmistress Mecklenburg-Strelitz is kind of tetchy when it comes to anyone questioning how she runs her school and gets triggered even by something as innocent as a tad too candid response to English-class assignment. So, Eloise is forced to leave work an hour earlier and both her and Theo are subjected to a lecture about the lack of manners Mary apparently displays. Needless to say, neither is taking the undeserved bashing of their eldest child very well.
“I fail to see what is the problem here. Aside of her overuse of a word like.” Declares Eloise after she finishes reading Mary's essay. It takes a while to get through the messy handwriting, but Eloise stands behind her words. It might be a slight professional deformation on her part, but as a journalist, she truly sees nothing wrong with the work as a whole – nothing that little bit of editing couldn't fix. By the corner of her eye, she sees Pen biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. Theo has no such urge, chuckling out loud at her comment. The headmistress frowns, apparently perturbed by their unconcerned attitudes.
“The grammar is not the issue, Mrs. Sharpe. The absolute disrespect to this institution is.” Eloise starts to drum her fingers against her thigh, irritation mounting. She was always the one with less patience when it came to confrontations of any kind, so she is more than happy to let Theo step in. He sneaks his hand to cover hers first, stilling her nervous fingers, before addressing the woman sitting across the table:
“The task was “write about your previous five years at school”. Nowhere I see anything suggesting that only pleasant experiences are to be recounted.” Theo remains unfaltering, years of experience in courts showing. He's confident and seemingly absolutely unbothered, staring the headmistress down. (Suddenly, Eloise feels very warm. This is how they ended up with three children. Well, this and Eloise forgetting to take the pill regularly. Which is also Theo's fault to a point, since he often disturbs her nigh-time routine by somehow managing to put the kids to sleep in a record time, something Eloise finds equally as hot as him passionately defending the rights of the less fortunate.)
“She is writing nonsense!” Headmistress's voice cuts through her pondering, snapping Eloise back to present. She frowns and her tone when speaking is downright dangerous:
“Are you calling our daughter a liar?” Knowing Eloise for most of her life, Penelope rightly senses that her friend is just about to throw her good manners aside and chew the headmistress out. Theo looks like he is fine with his wife biting the woman's head off, so Pen jumps in, trying to diffuse the situation:
“I think what headmistress Mecklenburg means is that… Mary has not pulled any punches, so to speak.” She called the home-Ed teacher a hysterical shrew who hates children (true) and went into (maybe) unnecessarily gory detail when describing the consistency of the school-mess potato mash, making people's stomachs turn while reading (gross, but also true). It really isn't anything world shattering, but ever since the school has received several accolades for excellence and is being praised for its students academic achievements, the headmistress got fairly obsessive with upholding its good name and terrified about anything damaging its public damage (and drain away potential private sponsors).
“A testament to the safe environment in the class you as her teacher were able to create.” While Eloise is still fuming, Theo gets on with the program and starts to twist the situation to push the headmistress into the corner a bit. The woman in question glowers at him with a suspicious glint in her eyes, but Penelope happily plays into his unexpected compliment.
“This school prides itself at being welcoming and safe space for all our students.” She says, all sweet and brightly smiling, before turning to headmistress Mecklenburg: “Doesn't it, ma'am.”
Rightly sensing that she is no longer in control of the narrative, headmistress Mecklenburg pierces them all with a withering glare, before hissing through her teeth, addressing the couple in front of her:
“Please make sure that Mary keeps her opinions to herself next time.” Once again, Theo doesn't bother to conceal his amusement as Eloise speaks, completely unapologetic with her words.
“I'm afraid that won't be possible.”
The meeting is over after that, both Theo and Eloise saying their goodbyes to the headmistress and leaving her office, shortly being followed by Penelope, all three having a good laugh about the whole thing. Saying goodbye to their friend too, they hurry home then, stopping only to pick up an Indian food for dinner since neither feels like cooking tonight.
They come home to hear the recorder blasting ABBA (since they won the Eurovision with Waterloo, the band is being played at their house nearly constantly, much to Theo's dismay), all three children and Erica Mondrich who is looking after them dancing in the living room. It takes a moment for the kids to even notice their parents and even then, more attention is paid to the food they bring than themselves. Erica turns off the recorder and starts to collect her things. Mary and Georgie follow Theo into the kitchen and help to set the table. Emily drops down where she was standing on her wobbly legs, cuddling with the dog, ignoring her mother completely.
“I love being appreciated.” Eloise sighs and shakes her head exasperatedly, making Erica laugh. Walking the girl to the door, Eloise quickly fishes a banknote from her purse, pressing it into Erica's palm, waving off her protests it's too much for the measly three hours of babysitting.
“Darling, just take it. You deserve it.” Giving her a brief hug as a thanks, Eloise opens the door and lets Erica out. Watching the girl run around the fence that separates Sharpe's and Mondrich's front yards, she stays outside until Erica knocks on the door and is let inside by her mother. Exchanging few words with Alice, Eloise then heads back inside. Halfway to the kitchen she is met with Georgie who was apparently send to fetch her. Finally getting a proper hello out of at least one her children, she returns Georgie's hug, pressing a quick kiss to his hair (mentally noting that he needs a haircut). Together they walk to the dinning table, finding the rest of the family already seated, Theo distributing the food on the plates.
Nothing suggests that the eventful day will have any more surprises in it. That is until Mary, after being assured that she did nothing wrong by expressing her opinion in such a cultured way, lets out a sigh of relief and says on the topic of her parents having to go to school:
“I was worried it's going to be about the turtles.”
A moment of complete silence washes over the room, even Emily stopping in her happy slobbering as she shovels rice and korma into her mouth. Across the table, Theo and Eloise lock eyes before turning to their eldest child.
“What turtles?”
---
Theo can hear the main door opening even over the rumble from downstairs. Vacuum cleaner shuts off for a moment, muffled voices echo through the house. Then the muted noise is back and light footsteps travel up the stairs and then the short hallway. Theo looks up from the papers on his lap just as Eloise opens the door to their bedroom and steps in.
He keeps rubbing a hand up and down Emily's back as the girl continues to sleep, tucked to his side, responding to Eloise's greeting with his own. Eloise remains standing by the door, the expression on her face slightly bewildered still and Theo is pretty sure it has nothing to do with the election coverage she is working on at the paper right now and everything with the happenings downstairs. Her next words confirm it:
“They are cleaning.” Eloise states, vaguely gesturing somewhere in the direction of the stairs and lower levels of the house. Theo nods, smile on his lips widening.
“Voluntarily?” Adds Eloise and again, Theo nods. He then basks in the astonished look his wife gifts him.
“How did you manage that?” Eloise finally starts to move, stepping further into the room, taking off her blazer. With one hand, Theo gathers the documents he was studying and puts them aside. Emily whines as he leans over to the side table while doing so and Theo hurriedly goes back to his previous position, shushing the zinc-paste covered and cranky baby. While at it, he reveals how their other two children became (at least momentarily) paragons of well-behaved and helpful offspring parents everywhere can only dream of:
“Georgie still believes that I hate the sound of a vacuum cleaner, so he's trying to piss me off in retaliation for me not letting him go out with his cold. And Mary is being awfully helpful because she wants a bunny.” The first part of the revelation leaves Eloise frankly unsurprised, since she might have been the one who originated that rumour in the first place. The second however…
“Wants a bunny?” Her diction reveals to Theo she is just as aware as he is that Mary is probably a bit ahead of a schedule in regards of obtaining the said rabbit. Theo chuckles and confirms Eloise's assumption:
“Yeah, I'm pretty sure the animal is already in the house somewhere, but I weren't able to find it yet.” They exchange an exasperated look and then Eloise is rolling her eyes and walking back to the door. Stepping out into the hall, Theo can hear her calling at Georgie to please shut down the hoover for a moment, before addressing their daughter:
“Mary?”
“Yes?”
“There is a wicker laundry basket in a cellar you can use as a bed for the bunny. Take the poor thing out of the washing machine before someone turns it on with him inside. You don't want a repeat of Mister Whiskers situation, do you.” A moment of silence reigns and Theo's eyes find Mister Whiskers, sleeping on the chair in the bedroom, completely unbothered by the happenings around. The ginger tabby is one of their two cats, a little dumpster find Mary dragged home three years ago and hid into the washing machine in order to have time to soften her parents before presenting them with a new housemate. Unfortunately, before she were able to do so, Eloise turned the machine on and managed to give the poor animal a bit of a rinse before he was rescued.
“No.” Mary remembers the traumatic experience all too well and her voice has an edge of worry in it now. Theo can't see her, but when he hears Eloise speak next, he can recognize the slight undertones of amusement and unbridled fondness in her voice as she gives few more instructions to their little animal saviour:
“Hop over to Mrs. Mondrich next door, ask for some sawdust from Will's workshop. You can use it as a litter.”
“Okay.”
When she steps back into the room, Eloise's shoulders are shaking with quiet laughter. She heads towards the bed, gently dropping down as not to startle Emily, joining Theo's hand at the girl's back. Theo sighs and mock-complains:
“Washing machine. Again? Didn't she learn?” Eloise giggles, smothering the sound behind her hand and keeping her voice low when speaking.
“I think she did, actually. Counting on you to believe she wouldn't repeat a previous mistake.” At this, Theo's fake frown shifts a bit more into the actual doubtfulness.
“That sounds a bit too devious for our Mary.” Eloise just shrugs.
“Well, it's either that or she's just dumb.” (And they both know she is not dumb.)
Emily whines again, turning on her back, the face she until now had firmly buried into Theo's shirt, being revealed to Eloise in all its chicken-pox beauty. Despite her looking like a failed lab experiment, Eloise leans over her daughter and softly kisses a patch of skin on her forehead that is not covered with the talcum powder or ointment.
“How is this one?” She asks, stroking the slightly sweat-damp locks out of Emily's face. Free to finally move without repercussions, Theo slides down the headboard, laying down on his side.
“Better. No fever in the afternoon and I managed to distract her enough so she wouldn't scratch herself.” He read Frog and Toad are friends so many times he might dream of it now and he put on a literal sock puppet show, involving Emily in the production to keep her hands covered and occupied so she wouldn't poke at the rash she has all over her body.
“Poor baby.” Eloise's words are most probably directed at Emily, but Theo decides to accept the commiseration as his own too.
They get another twenty minutes of peace before sounds of a row brewing reach their ears, Georgie (quite understandably, to be fair) getting mad at Mary for trailing the sawdust all over his freshly cleaned carpets. Emily wakes and, seeing a parent that didn't make her life a living hell by a constant vigil over her and endless reminders not to scratch, momentarily forgets she is sick at all and demands any and all attention Eloise can give her.
Something crashes and the noise from downstairs intensifies. Theo gets up with a huff, waving Eloise off as she tries to stand up as well.
“I got it, I got it. You two just have a cuddle.” Not one to argue, Eloise leans back against the pillows, bouncing Emily up and down, telling her about her day at the newsroom, about the great news that is Oxford opening another five colleges to women and about the phone call from aunt Daphne, asking about a possibility for a play date so Auggie and Caroline could get the chicken-pox too and be done with it.
Theo leaves them to it, smile playing around the corners of his mouth as he descends to the war zone their living room has now become, ready to dissolve the conflict between the siblings. Or at least prevent them from getting blood on the carpets. Whichever works the best.