a/n- I have major adult Rinn feels. There’s an alarm sounding near his head. He keeps his eyes closed as he always does, feigning sleep until Rae groans and reaches over him, blindly groping for the snooze button but coming up short of her mark. She huffs, grabs the cord and yanks it out of the socket, the alarm making a pathetic dying sound as she lets her head fall against his chest. They stay like that for a few minutes, blankets heaped over them until Finn is actually almost asleep again. “Time to get up,” she taps his chest. “Come on now.” “I physically can’t,” he mutters. “Let the kids go to work for us. They’ll enjoy it, I swear.” She pulls the blanket off of him, swinging one leg over to straddle his hips. An eye cracks open to see she’s still gloriously naked from last night’s late night tryst against the dresser and he isn’t quite so sleepy anymore. “None of that!” She squeaks as he shifts his hips. “Kids are still asleep.” “Not for long.” True enough, there’s a tiny knock on the bedroom door. They scramble into clothes and Rae opens the door to reveal their oldest, a five year old who has a grump that could put his Dad’s to shame (also like his dad, he’s not a morning person and he’s got a weakness in his armor for Rae). A hug for his mum and then he’s bounding across the floor, leaping into the bed and catching Finn in the stomach with his knees. (Finn wonders how children are both so springy and oblivious to the pain of others) “Oh!” “Dad, will you buy me some more finger-paint today? I spilled mine.” Finn’s eyes are still watering but he manages to croak out “Sure.” Rae called for the boy to come eat his breakfast and Finn lays back, wishing it were Saturday and not Friday. The boys are headed to his dad’s for the weekend and they have plans to meet the gang at the pub if Chop and Izzy find a babysitter. He’s almost finished getting ready, hair still wet and toothbrush in mouth when something dawns on him and his stomach drops. Oh no. No no no. He tosses the toothbrush in the sink and heads into the kitchen. Baby Sebastien is in his highchair, feeding the dog his waffles and Rae is packing lunches. She spots him and smiles, “Finally awake?” He nods a bit dumbly before asking, “Jere, what did you mean when you said you spilled your paints?” What he meant was he spilled them on his bedroom carpet, tried to clean it up with toilet paper (now stuck to the paint that’s stuck to the carpet) and then tracked it all over the rest of the room and into his bed. It’s truly a scene of devastation that could only be caused by a five year old boy. Jeremiah sniffles between them, looking at his mother with watery eyes. “I tried to clean it up.” Finn and Rae glance at each other and have to look away to keep from laughing (they’re both thinking about their own painting mishap in their crappy flat. They had tried to clean it up, too, but the outline of Finn’s back and Rae’s knees was still hanging on when they moved out). The little boy takes their silence as the approach of punishment and walks, “I’m sorry!” before bursting into tears. He’s in Finn’s arms then and they both assure him it’s ok while their two year old chews a wet spot on the knee of Finn’s trousers. Then it’s a rush to get the kids to school and the sitter and themselves to work. He’s almost out the driveway before he remembers something important (the baby protests his hard breaking by caterwauling the rest of the way to the sitter’s house). He bounds across the lawn and catches Rae (who has an irate Jere by the sleeve- he wanted to wear his blue jumper not the white one) and kisses her deeply before sprinting back. Rae’s off to Jere’s school and then the hospital and they’ll think of each other the whole time they are apart. Mr. Nelson makes me gush is forever emblazed in the third stall of the girl’s bathroom on the second floor at the high school where Finn teaches. Some of the other teachers take the piss out of him for it but they don’t know that Rae wrote it after they spent his lunch break tangled up in that same bathroom his first year of teaching. But all of the girls (and some of the lads) seem to agree. He hears it whispered behind his back, So Hot. Look how fit he is. That arse, though (the last one makes him pause and when he gets home, he’ll ask “What’s wrong with my ass?” Rae will cup it in both hands, give it a hearty squeeze before whispering against his lips “Not a damn thing. Makes me cry is all”). He feels so far removed from his students because they all listen to crap FM (what the hell is a Lady Gaga?) but often tell him he’s the chillest teacher ever. It’s a group of girls around his desk that first tell him this and he quirks a brow and mumbles, “Bitchin’. Have a seat.” There’s a kid in his class that has the same sad eyes Rae did in high school and Finn becomes a tyrant to anyone who tries to take the piss out of him. They have long chats about Oasis and Blur and when the boy graduates, he tells Finn those talks were the only thing that kept him from killing himself (it’s the proudest moment of his teaching career). When they get home, Rae makes dinner and they eat as a family (with Jere whining about not wanting peas and the dog happily eating whatever the baby throws down). While Rae packs the boys a weekend bag, Finn entertains them by juggling kumquats and everything is fine until Jere grabs his arm and one o the tiny fruits hit the baby square in the nose. There’s a hush before he starts wailing and no amount of kisses or I’m-so- sorrys will console him. He struggles out of Finn’s arms and runs to meet Rae at the stairs, instantly better when she lifts him (it’s a sign of things to come). The babies are gone and they start getting ready for their night out with the gang. He unzips her dress and she helps him find his favorite flannel. Band tees, a single gold hoop and it’s like magic settles on them. They’re Finn and Rae again. Not The Nelson’s just Finn and Rae (the thought makes them both giddy and they kiss and bump into walls all the way down the stairs). Iz and Chop are already there. She drinks water (seven month pregnant with their 5th child) as they catch up and Rae feels sorry for her because she looks a bit green. Archie’s in with his boyfriend and Chloe comes in after her divorce hearing (her 3rd in 10 years). It’s loud and fun and they all feel like teenagers again. Rae drives home and Finn makes tea. They’ve been scrubbing the carpet for an hour and it’s not budging (“Washable, my arse.”) “Chloe looked nice.” Finn shrugs. “Archer says she has botox done once a month. Looks a bit surprised all the time if you ask me.” “Finn?” “Hmm?” He’s about to say fuck it because there’s no way in hell this paint is- “Do you think I’m still attractive?” He’s speechless. Why would she ask that? He drinks in the sight of her, ratty tee, paint stained soapy hands and a messy bun on the crown of her head. She’s never been more beautiful to him than she is right now (he’ll think this every year as they grow older together) and she’s got tears in her eyes because looking at her makes his brain wonky and he’s just told her all of that. “Finnley,” she whispers and then they’re making out like teenagers on their son’s bedroom floor (she gasps and arches into him when his shoe catches the bucket, sending water sprawling across the floor. The carpet really is ruined then). He’s dead awake that night wondering why she would ever have to ask if he still finds her attractive and he starts to realize that sometimes she doesn’t need to be Mrs. Finn Nelson or Mum, or Dr. Rachel Nelson… she just needs to be Rae as much as he needs to be Finn. The love caravan is in their backyard the next afternoon. They try to clean it up but get impatient and make love on top of a blanket the way they did their first time. “What did you want to be when you were growing up?” She asks. “An elephant. I thought their trunks were cool.” “Be serious! No, when you were a teenager, what did you want to be?” “A radio DJ, I guess. But then radio went real crap.” “Gospel truth, that is.” “What did you want to be as a kid?” “I wanted to drive an ice cream truck. Thought they were cool.” He laughs but doesn’t ask her the teenager part because when Rae was a teenager she wanted to be dead and he hugs her tighter. He sighs. “What are we going to do about the carpet?” “Sell the house, I reckon.” They roll around a bit more and decide to never bring up The Nelson’s problems in the love caravan because they were just Finnley and Rae in here. No kids, no mortgage, no dog (“Oh, shit! I did forget to feed the dog today!”). Finn sprints in his boxers across the lawn to feed the mutt. When he gets back, Rae whispers, “Think your dad saw you?” “Might have. Think your mum knows you’re not at Chloe’s?” “God, I hope not.” They’re all hands and giggles for a long time after that.
