After Chris left the house, the rest of the family spent a quiet late morning together before Justin went out to do an interview on the radio and a few other of his Los Angeles engagements. Shoving them into one day had been Johnny's idea so that he could have some time with the family and it turned out to be the best thing for them. Meredith was so tired at the time he left that she didn't turn on the radio and listen. She set the kids up in front of the television to watch a copy of Harry Potter and sat down with a note book to write for the first time in a long time, keeping an eye on the kids while they watched.
When Justin got home they'd eaten dinner together as a family, something that hadn't happened in a few weeks, before Justin put Jack to bed and read Tegan a story. He made a quick detour to his office to check his email and make some calls before settling in for the night. He finally got to their bedroom and looking exhausted. Normally it would be cause for her to physically make him go to bed. She'd had to push him into bed more than a few times forcing him to sleep instead of work. Tonight though wasn't one of those nights. Meredith knew that if she was going to talk to him about putting Tegan into the video that they were going to have to start that talk sooner than later. From his reaction earlier, she was going to have to talk about this with him more than once.
"Honey?"
"What Dear?" he asked with a mocking tone back at her. She knew it was because she never called him honey, or at least it wasn't one of his normal nicknames.
She pulled her notebook away from where she was scribbling one last thing before bed and put it onto the night stand then turned her full attention towards him before she started to talk. "I was thinking about the video shoot this weekend and I think that you should call Frank and change the concept."
"What? Why? Do you not want to be in it?" He seemed shocked that she wanted to make changes. "I'm sorry about being pissy before. I know that I was out of line for being such a jerk, but--"
"That's not it," she said.
He cut her off again, "I know it's strange to have you in it, but I don't think that I should be singing it to a crowd and picking a model or someone to be singing it to is just--well it's just shit."
She put a hand up to stop him from rambling. "BeeDee."
"Sorry," he said putting a hand to his forehead, rubbing it as if he had a headache. "What were you going to say?"
She sat back a little and tried to think quickly. If she was going to do this, she needed to present him with a clear idea or he'd blow it out of the water. He was too professional sometimes. "I was thinking that we could put Tegan into a scene of it," she said, "Instead of having it all be sung to me and to fans."
His shoulders tensed as he sat down to take off his socks. She could see that his movements were shorter and his breath seemed to come out harder as he leaned around. "I don't know about this," he said.
She scooted over and hugged him from behind. "Just let me explain it out, ok? Just hear me out and then you can shoot down the idea."
"Ok."
"Well the song is Worthy of," She didn't really have a plan so she thought fast about the song. It had been running through her mind for most of the afternoon, but she hadn't gotten a concept for the video just yet. Rubbing her forehead she sighed, "--so instead of it being about relationship love, it could also be about father daughter love. There are a lot of lines in that song that could be taken both ways."
He turned around and looked at her, not with an expression that was telling her that he wasn't taking her seriously, but almost as if he admired her for thinking so hard about this. "Like which parts?" he asked.
Meredith started to hum and then let the humming begin into the words.
Girl I find you so amazing
With everyday I learn more about you
The way you work day out and day in
And still find time for us too, yeah
"I could totally see Tegan coming off a school bus for that part." She wished that life for them was that simple considering that traveling and working for their family caused them to not be in the same place long enough for her to actually ride a school bus. "As if being away at school is what keeps her from her daddy."
"But she doesn't go to school," he said.
"I know that," she sighed, realizing that this was going to be more difficult than she thought, "But other people would see her as a normal little girl--"
Justin shook his head. "But she's not a normal little girl."
"Justin," Meredith growled, "I know that and you know that--Can you please just let me explain this before I forget the idea?"
"Sorry."
Meredith hummed again, half sang the part she'd sung before then continued.
I love the fact that you’re there for me when I feel down
No matter what I’m going through
Lately I’ve been questioning myself
Am I good enough for you?
"Couldn't you see you sitting on a porch or something with your cell phone in hand or maybe a picture or something and she runs up to make you happy?" Meredith sighed. "I mean it's corny, but it'll work. Little kids in videos always work--and you can dance with her through the first chorus."
"Then for the second verse when you talk about being miles away you can film stuff with a crowd, like you were going to do," she said. "All the choruses could be in front of a crowd as if you're asking me if you're worthy, but you're doing it in such a public way that well--it would just be like one of those HUGE announcements of your love. Kind of like when you wrote Something Like That for me a few years ago. It'll work."
"Maybe," he said.
"BeeDee," she said, "Please think about this. It would be a small part for her, something to get her in front of the camera again to see if she really likes what you do. Give her that much. If she likes it then we'll talk to Chris about his idea with Johnny and if she hates it then we won't have her do it again."
"I don't know."
"How does it look that we're both going to be in this video, but we don't let her be in it?" Meredith sighed, "She'll think we're hypocrites if we say that she can't be with us during filming."
Justin sighed again. "She doesn't know what hypocrite means."
Meredith growled and rolled over so that she was facing away from him. "I hate when you're difficult like this."
He laughed a little. "Bear. I'm sorry." He moved across the bed and curled up against her. "I just don't want to rush her into this. If you want her to be in the video I'll call up Frank and change the plans AND if it works out and she likes it I'll agree to letting her do events or whatever if one of us are involved. I don't mind her singing or whatever, but I just don't think she should be doing projects unless it's something we're heavily involved in."
"What about Challenge for the Children?" she asked, "We always do something for that. We should have her sing the anthem or something at the game."
Justin kissed her shoulder and groaned, "I've created a monster."
"Just think about it honey." She turned in his arms and hugged him. "Your mom and my mom never let us get too far out of control and I'm sure between the two of them and the two of us we can handle her career if she has one."
"I'll think about it. I might not like it, but I'll take into consideration that it might be something that she wants to do." He laughed and moved his arms around her, tucking his hands under the night shirt she was wearing so that he could rub his fingertips against the skin of her lower back. "Did you know that she knows the words to I Dreamed You?"
"She does?" Meredith said mimicking his movement and rubbing his back as he was rubbing hers, "She's always loved that song. I'm surprised that she knows the words though."
"According to her its an important song because it's the song that we fell in love to." He dipped his chin so that he could smile at her. "Now I'm not sure if our little girl is the smartest girl in the world or if she was coached or something, but she definitely knows that I Dreamed You is important to us." He pressed his lips against her forehead and continued running his fingers on her skin.
Meredith shivered when he hit a sensitive spot on her back. "I might have told her a little something or other about the time that you flew into Seattle to sing that song with me and snuck on stage."
"I'm a pretty big romantic aren't I?"
"You used to be," Meredith said.
"Used to be?" he asked with fake shock.
"We need to go to Hawaii and leave the kids with our parents." She rolled onto her back away from him and covered her eyes and sighed heavily. She hated that she was sighing so much lately. She needed a vacation, but the kind of vacation where you really didn't need to leave home. "Even if it's just for twenty four hours, being on a beach with you alone sounds amazing."
"Would you settle for The Keys?" he asked propping himself up on his arms to watch her.
She looked over at where he was watching her. "Are you gonna book me a room somewhere?"
"Maybe," he said, "I mean if you tell me when you have a free day we can get my parents to take the kids and fly out there."
"Hmmm," she said, "That sounds good to me."
"Really?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "Peace and quiet and me and you and the beach." She yawned.
"I think for the moment you need to go to bed. It's been a long day."
She nodded and yawned again and put her hand up to touch his cheek. "I love you."
He frowned for a moment, "That was out of--"
"I just wanted to remind you."
"Well I love you too," he said and leaned and kissed her. "Get some sleep."
She nodded. "You gonna get some sleep too?"
"Yeah," he said, "Lemme go grab a drink real quick and I'll come back in and snuggle with you."
"Hurry or I might fall asleep on you," she said.
He nodded and scooted off the bed and into the bathroom.
Waking up in the morning to the feeling of the bed shake shouldn't have spooked him. Sleeping on the bus gave him enough experience with moving beds to make him not think it was anything big, but when he remembered he was in California and the chance that there might be an earthquake he shot up, still half asleep and was about to call out to Meredith to get her into the doorway like he'd always been told to do when he realized what was going on.
There was a lump underneath the covers at the end of the bed and as he watched the lump he finally figured out that it hadn't been an earthquake shaking the bed, but that his son was trying to climb under the blankets from the far end of the bed. "Jack," he groaned and lay back a little. "Kiddo, what are you doing?"
"Hidin'." The little boy called out from under the blankets.
Justin pulled up the covers up and found Jack on his hands and knees watching his dad with a shocked look on his face. "Hi Daddy."
"Hey there," Justin said and reached down and pulled him out from under the blankets. "What are you hiding from?"
"Tegan anna Mommy playin' Hidin'," he said with a deep southern accent.
"Really?"
"Yep," he said.
"I think that maybe you and I need to do some stuff today. You're too hyper for this early in the morning."
He turned and looked at his dad with a huge smile as if Justin had just announced that it was Christmas. "Rye a bike?"
Justin tickled Jack. It was funny to see him so into his bike. They'd had him on plastic big wheel thing for a long time and finally had gotten him something that looked more like a bike with training wheels. Jack definitely took after Justin when it came to athletics and had considerable balance considering his age. "You wanna ride your bike?"
He nodded.
"I take it that your cold is gone?" Justin asked the little boy.
"All gone," Jack said with wide eyes.
"Then I guess maybe we can go ride bikes, but we have to check with Mommy."
"Mommy say ok," he said cofidently.
Justin shrugged, not really trusting that his son had asked permission, but relying on the fact that Mere was a reasonable enough person to let him ride around on the driveway and maybe down to the front gate of their neighborhood. "I guess I could use some exercise."
"YAY!!!!" Jack yelled and a moment later Tegan came barrelling into the room with Meredith on her heels laughing about something.
"You found him!" Justin said and pulled Tegan into a hug. "YAY!"
"Daddy can you play today?"
"I actually was going to ride bikes with Jack for a bit, but we can hang out tonight and watch a movie or something."
"Can you play the piano with me?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said and looked at Meredith. She frowned when Tegan asked him that question and he felt himself frowning too, but tried not to. It would be too hard to explain to Tegan what was going on. "I guess I could do that with you."
"Good."
Meredith was watching him with a close eye. He hated that. He didn't like to be watched and criticized. He'd told her that things would go her way for the video shoot, but he had a feeling that she wouldn't be at ease until she heard him on the phone with Frank to change the shoot. He knew it was going to be a pain in the ass, but hopefully all the paperwork and planning could be done in the next two days before they started the shoot. Everything else had gone well so far for the shoot and reworking it, although extreme, he hoped would go easily as well.
"Ok kiddos," Meredith said, "Let Daddy get up and get a shower and we'll go find Jack's bike and his helmet so he and Daddy can play."
"Thank you," he mouthed to her as the kids crawled off the bed. She came and sat down next to him and leaned and kissed him. "What was that for?"
"Nothing," she said, "It's a just cuz kiss."
"Ok." He smiled, "I probably will need another few of those later after Jack pulls me around the neighborhood on his bike."
"Don't go out too far sweetie."
"I was just thinking of taking him down the road, to the end of the block and back. I don't want to call up Mike or anyone so I think I can handle the two hundred yards down and back with him."
She shook her head with a smile. "You'll end up carrying him back."
"I know," he said with a sigh. "Rickie will love that. Weight training on my day off."
"Funny sweetie," she said.
He made a face at her and leaned and kissed her, "I'm a comedian."
"That you are," she said.
"So what girlie stuff are you and Tegan gonna do today while Jack and I take our ride?"
"We're gonna run to the store. Tegan needs to get a new pair of running shoes and I thought I'd go see if I could find anything cute for our trip to the Keys. Just in case we really do get to get down there."
"We will," he said confidently. "Buy something cute."
She leaned towards him and let her lips touch his, but spoke, rather than kissing him. "I think I will."
He captured her lips and was just moving his arms around her when Jack called for Meredith and caused the both of them to jump.