darker_london | Together (Joe, Jordan) (Reply)

Things were getting tighter and tighter in the Littleton household, though Joe was trying as hard as he could to ignore that fact. The truth was that he still did not have a steady job, no matter how hard he tried to get one. And while he was doing accounts for the hospital and Deirdre's theatre, there was only so much work involved in it. And Joe knew they would give him money for nothing, but it wasn't exactly ideal. Jordan was going to go back to work as a teacher, but now she had to wait until after her surgery and recovery to do so, and with those bills too...supporting six people was a lot different than supporting three. Even if two of the people were very small. Babies were expensive despite the fact that they didn't take up much space. And Joe was beginning to wonder just how the hell he was going to keep the electricity on through the next couple of months.

While he was pondering his inability to support his family, Joe was making a snack. He felt the need to remind himself that no matter what happened, the people he loved wouldn't let him or his wife and children go hungry. He wouldn't suffer the same fate of his childhood. The people he loved wouldn't all abandon him like his mother's friends and family had abandoned her, considering her to be a gold digger as if working five jobs wasn't proof enough that she was trying as hard as she could. He would be taken care of, and he didn't need to fear the worst. He might be a failure, but his folly wouldn't see his family out in the street with nothing to their names.

When Joe went to grab some bread for his sandwich, there was nothing there. "Er...okay?" Joe checked in a few more cupboards and then he whined loudly, rather like a teenager, to his wife upstairs. "Jordaaaaaaaaan! Where's the bread?!"

"In the bread bin, Joseph!" Jordan called down to him, though she sounded more amused than annoyed.

"Nuh uh, Smartypants!" Joe called back. "I looked! With my eyes."

"Well, Mister Talented, are we?" Jordan joined him downstairs then, carrying Jaida in her arms. "I bought a new loaf yesterday. It should be there."

"Jordan, we have bread bandits!" Joe said, opening and closing all the cupboards for her benefit. He well and truly proved there was no bread in the house. "They could be undead bread bandits!"

Jordan yawned, clearly unworried. "I'll get more later. Julian probably ate it, you know what he's like."

Joe did, but he had also seen Julian eating porridge for breakfast. The bread remained a mystery. Joe wasn't too worried about it, but it was deeply strange. "Whatever, I'm making my famous icy pole dips then."

Jordan made a face at her husband. "Joe, if you dip your blue raspberry icy poles in sweet chilli sauce in front of me again, I'll throw Jaida's dirty diapers at you, so help me god!"

Having been married to Jordan for over twenty years, Joe was used to threats, though he knew Jordan was not beyond carrying them out too. He laughed and winked at her. "I'll just enjoy my raspberry chilli confection in the kitchen then."

"You do that. Freak." Jordan said, with a laugh of her own. "I love you!" She called then, though it didn't sound like an afterthought and it wasn't.

"I love you too. Prude." And with that, he felt a little better. Jordan always had that effect on him. And he knew she always would, and knowing that he wasn't certain to lose her to cancer any time soon...that was damn priceless too. That being true, he could face money problems head-on. He could face anything, as long as he could fall asleep at night, holding her safe in his arms.