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“DAAAAAAAAD!”
The noise came from upstairs, or at least that was the general direction it came from. Nick sunk down further in his chair. Sometimes he wondered how Jess talked him into having kids.
“DAD WE NEED YOU!”
“Just a minute!”
He groaned as he stood up from the comfy ergonomic chair Jess had made him buy in his office - his messed up back only seemed to get more messed up as he got older.
Walking out into the hallway, he noticed the drip, drip, drip coming from the ceiling above him. “What the-“ he flinched as a drop hit him on the head, reaching up to touch the damp spot in his hair.
“It wasn’t us!” Mitch and Lizzie were leaning over the railing at the top of the stairs, both looking incredibly concerned.
These were the first signs something was wrong. Both kids had inherited a touch of a temper from Nick but had an overall happy demeanor. Anytime they didn’t seem immediately happy was a cause for concern in Nick’s book.
He grabbed the railing, climbing the stairs two at a time. He was almost halfway up when he noticed the carpet was soggy.
“Motherf-fudger” he swore under his breath. One of Mitch’s first words had been ‘shit’, and Jess had been pretty strict on the swear jar since. It almost made him feel bad for Schmidt.
He walked more carefully as he reached the top of the stairs, looking at the carpet at the top and his kids' socks - all of which were soaked through. “Where’s it coming from?” he sighed. Both kids pointed down the hall towards the main bathroom.
As Nick squelched down the hall, the kids trailing behind him, the dripping noise became louder. Walking in, he saw towels on the ground, obviously placed there in a hasty attempt to soak up the water. “Did you guys do this?”
“We didn’t break the toilet, but Lizzie heard the dripping from her room, and then she came and got me and we put down the towels, which obviously didn’t work so then we yelled for you and now - well now you’re here.” Mitch rushed out the explanation, barely taking a breath as his words got mixed up.
“It’s alright buddy, you’re not in trouble, neither of you are,” Nick messed his son's hair up, still trying to figure out what he was going to do. Jess was still at work for the next two hours or so, and he was home alone with Mitch and Lizzie.
“Have I ever shown you how to fix a toilet?”
—
Jess walked through the door, immediately noticing the dark patches on the stairs. Putting down her bags next to the table in the hall, she listened for any signs of life in the house. Nick's car was still in the drive, so she was pretty sure he and the kids were around somewhere.
There was the muffled sound of conversation coming from upstairs, followed by a loud banging noise. Her hands flew to her ears, trying to block it out. “NICK!”
The banging suddenly stopped, and her husband appeared at the top of the stairs, sleeves rolled up and hammer in hand. “Oh hey, Jess. Don’t worry, nothing major going on here.”
“What’s the hammer for? And where are the kids?” Jess was sure the mystery of the wet patches would be fixed soon enough by at least one, if not both of the answers.
“The kids are with me, and the hammer is for, uh, hammering?”
Well, at least one of the questions was answered. Sort of.
“Ok, next questions - what are you hammering, and why are there wet patches on the stairs? Oh my god, did the toilet break again??!” Jess grabbed the railing as she ran up the stairs, wincing at the amount of water that was getting into her socks already. “We’re calling a plumber this time, no more fancy fixing!” Both kids left the bathroom, looking worried at their mom’s face.
“Jess it’s fine, it’s basically fixed already,” Nick yelled after her as she opened the door wider. The floor was covered in towels that were absolutely soaked through, with a few water bottles and strings thrown around. “This isn’t fixed Nick!”, she waved at the mess around her.
“Look, it’ll be fine, I’ve just got to get this last thing into place and it’ll work,” he walked back over to the toilet, lifting the top of the tank once more. Jess peered in at the contraption he had created in their toilet, wondering how he thought this would work. “Look, I’ll just push this in and everything will work perfectly.” Nick pushed down on the water bottle until they heard a loud pop.
“See, everything is fine. The drippings stopped, and as long as nobody flushes too hard we should be fine for at least a month,” he bent down to grab the empty bottles and pieces of string, while the kids started picking up the towels from the floor.
“We can’t just keep fancy fixing everything, you know. Eventually, we are going to have to call in a professional,” Jess sighed, leaning down to help the kids put the sopping towels into the laundry basket.
“Ehm, no, we can definitely keep fancy fixing things because that way we don’t have to pay someone else.” Nick looked at Jess and grinned reassuringly at her half-exasperated, half-loving expression.
Even though Jess may have been against the fancy-fixes he used around their house, he knew she’d still love him. Just as he loved the chore wheels and reward charts that sat in their kitchen.