New Sky

Jackson's holed up in the nursery for the fifth night running.

-GENIUS AT WORK: NO CHARLIES OR DEREKS ALLOWED-, reads the sign he taped to it when he started.

Charlie stares at it, worrying the end of her braid.

If Jackson's trying to build something .... That /**always** ends in destruction. And tears. And blood.

Charlie shudders, knocks.

No answer.

Tries the door.

It refuses to open.

Jackson's barricaded it with something.

"Jack~son~," she calls, forcing her tone to remain light.

""No one in here but us cribs.""

"/**Please** tell me you don't have any tools in there."

""Fear not! We cribs lack the thumbs needed to properly use tools.""

Charlie rolls her eyes. "Jones, you can't properly use tools /**with** your thumbs." Huffs. "You /**promised** you wouldn't touch them unsupervised again."

""I keep my promises. No tools. Cross my heart.""

Charlie presses her ear to the door. "Then what are you doing?"

[Liquid sloshes], something taps against metal.

""I'm almost finished.""

"You didn't answer the question."

""Gimme an hour. Then I'll show you.""

"At least open the door so I know you're okay."

""Is it Charlie talking or the pregnancy hormones?""

"Open the door by the count of five or I'm getting the hatchet. One."

""Break the door and you'll have to put in a new one.""

"Two."

""Don't you trust me?""

"No. Three."

Something heavy is dragged across the floor.

"Four."

The door opens a few inches and Jackson peeks out. "See? I'm completely fine."

Charlie quirks an eyebrow. "Purple freckles mean you're fine?" Reaches toward his hair. "Is that /**green**?"

"It happens to Joneses when we're thirty. Ish." Jackson smiles winningly. "I'm fine. Completely and totally fine." He ducks back inside, shuts the door.

The something heavy scrapes into position.

Charlie huffs. "I'm coming back in an hour. One. Hour."

""See you then!""

Forty-eight minutes later—Charlie's been watching the clock—Jackson, still purple-freckled and with green-streaked hair materializes in the family room. "I'm back, intact, and finished ahead of schedule!"

Charlie crosses her arms atop her belly. "And how's the room?"

"Much improved." Jackson beams. "Come see it!" Offers a hand, tugs Charlie to her feet. Leads her up the stairs, "I spent all my flair on the artistic elements and couldn't come up with a clever name, so ...."  Down the hall to the nursery, "I went with really bad wordplay. Behold!" Swings open the door, "The Sis-bean Chapel!"

Charlie stops dead.

"So, yea, it's not modeled on the sky and there's no actual scale, but I think the colours of the nebulae add a lot of interest and stars alone woulda been boring—and stimulation with colour and pattern is supposed to be good for bean brains—oh god please tell me you—"

"Jackson, it—" She drifts in, eyes glued to the ceiling. "You put a whole /**universe** up there!"

He ducks his head. "After all the work you and Derek did on the furniture, I had to do /**something**." Rubs his neck. "Besides being an absolute disaster. I can mostly, kinda, sorta paint."

"You can totally paint," she breathes.

"Oh! Forgot one other feature." Jackson flips off the lights.

From the ceiling, the painted stars glow.

Charlie covers her mouth.

"I, uh, figured it'll be a while before we can take the bean camping, so I fixed it so they can sleep under the stars every night."

Charlie's eyes shine with artificial starlight. "You, Jones, are going to be the best, most amazing dad ever."

Jackson's eye tear and he rests a gentle hand on Charlie's baby bump. "I'm gonna try."