Way Down I'll Go

Not All That Glitters

It started with a lollipop. 

A half-eaten lollipop that had fallen on pavement outside of the elementary school. A lollipop that Mikey knew much better than to pick up, but that was picked up anyway and made its way surreptitiously into his eager mouth.

It was impossible to know who'd had the lollipop last, as is usually the case with items found on the pavement outside of elementary schools. Jo had chastised Mikey about it until Mikey burst into tears and sobbed that he wouldn't need to eat candy off the pavement outside elementary schools if Jo would ever buy them a treat.

Jo was at his wits end. His newest charge had cried constantly through the past six weeks and had cost him a small fortune to feed, clothe, and diaper. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept or eaten and his patience was running thin. Thus, he informed Mikey that he was on his own in the event he got sick from the pavement lollipop.

This threat was proved to be a lie only two days later when Mikey came down with a chest cold and Jo held him upright all night so he could breathe properly.

He didn't even ask the boy if the lollipop had been worth it, though he sorely wanted to. Mikey came to that conclusion on his own.

"I'll never eat a lollipop again," he croaked, hacking up half a lung with the confession.

Unfortunately, the ramifications of the pavement lollipop went far beyond Mikey. Though the boys had trouble sharing most things, they had no problem passing the cold from one to another. Jo tried his best to institute a quarantine, but it was nearly impossible with such close quarters. 

Sickness quickly became a member of the Atwood family.

In the midst of it all, the boys finally came to agreement on the baby's name. Since Aragorn wasn't an option, they decided to use the author's name as suitable tribute to their favorite book series. They named him Johnny, and knighted him with a long stick Jaime had found outside the apartment. Jo quickly shooed them away, spouting his limited knowledge about germs and immature immune systems.

But despite his best efforts, Johnny, too, was christened with The Lollipop Plague, as the boys had come to call it. As Jo paced the room with the ailing infant, he didn't think their situation could get any worse.

He was wrong.

But if it hadn't gotten worse, he would never have met her.