They had foregone their annual trip to the Hamptons this year because of the wedding and honeymoon, so Labor Day was merely a day to shop, run errands, iron, and just try to get things finished before Henry started back to work, and Leo went back to school.

"Well,  you know, it is called Labor Day, right?" Leo said brightly. "Doesn't Labor mean 'work'?"

Mouse laughed as she sprayed the clothes she was ironing with homemade ironing water. "I guess it does, clever boy," she agreed.

"What are you doing?" Leo asked.

"Ironing?" Mouse looked around. "What do you mean?"

"I've never seen anyone do that before," he answered, sitting on the back of the couch so he could see better.

"Oh, well, I used to do it in my room, but I'm going to iron everyone's stuff now that I'm in charge of the whole house, so I thought I'd do it out here," Mouse replied.

"Wow, that stuff smells nice," Leo said, sniffing appreciatively. "What is it?" He pointed at the bottle.

"It's a few drops of oil, mixed with alcohol and some other stuff," Mouse told him. "I change it every so often, so I don't get tired of the smell. Today I think it's lemongrass." She began ironing the pile of clothes next to her ironing board, which was set up on the kitchen counter.

Leo kept her company with a steady stream of chatter as she worked, and the house filled up with the scent of lemon from the steamy iron, along with the fragrance of granola she was making in the oven. Happy stood under Leo's feet so he could scratch her back, while Merry and Chrissy sunned themselves next to the patio doors.

"Wow, the apartment smells amazing," Henry said, emerging, freshly showered, from their bedroom. He looked really good, smiling and clean shaven.

"Yay!" Leo crowed. "You're wearing your 'relax-at-home' clothes!" He hopped down from the couch and ran to his father, reaching to be picked up. "You're staying home today!"

"I am?" Henry looked down at himself.

Leo nodded. "When you have to go to work, you don't wear jeans clothes," he informed his dad, pointing at the denim shorts. "You usually wear 'car key' shorts, you know, the brown kind?"

Henry looked at Mouse, mystified.

"Khakis," she translated with a grin. She lifted the pair she was ironing to clarify.

Henry nodded with understanding, putting Leo down and pouring himself a cup of coffee. He turned Mouse around so he could kiss her good morning. "You know, you so don't have to do this," he remonstrated gently, gesturing to the ironing board with his coffee cup. "Nearly everything we own is permanent press, and we just sent everything out, usually, anyway."

He stroked her rosy cheek. "You're going to look like Cinderella in a little bit here," he said.

"I saw the cleaning bill for last month," Mouse retorted, setting the iron down. "There's no reason to spend that much money on laundry, Henry Gardener, not when we have that beautiful, monster, washer and dryer, and I have all this time to iron, you know?" She blinked and looked up at her husband.

He shook his head at her. "You are a wonder," he said softly.

Leo watched his parents, a tiny figure in his Lord of the Rings pajamas. His bright eyes moved back and forth between them. "You guys love each other," he said, grinning.

"We do," Henry replied without looking away from Mouse. "Thank you, Leo, for bringing Mouse into our lives, I owe you a big one."

"You're welcome, daddy," Leo said, jumping back up on the back of the couch.

"And," Henry continued, turning away from Mouse to get the cream from the fridge, "part of the reason that cleaning bill was so huge was because of my wedding tux, I'll have you know."

"But I know you send so much stuff there, Henry, don't deny it," Mouse retorted, turning back to her ironing with a smile. "I bet we're paying for that family's orthodontia with how much ironing we send their way, which is ridiculous, when you consider how easy ironing is, not to mention satisfying and enjoyable."

"I'm sorry, did you say 'satisfying and enjoyable'?" Henry repeated, turning from the refrigerator with his eyebrow cocked. "What in the world is satisfying and enjoyable about ironing?"

Mouse looked over at him. "Are you making fun of me?" She narrowed her eyes. "I happen to like it. It smells good, it's soothing to see the clothes smooth out--" she shrugged. "I don't know, I just like it."

"Well, I'm certainly not complaining," Henry assured her. "You always smell incredible, and now I know why." He picked up the spray bottle. "Do you actually make this stuff yourself?"

Mouse nodded. "It's not hard, and it's pretty inexpensive, too."

"Now we'll smell good, too, daddy," Leo said.

"And I'm hungry," he continued. "What's for breakfast?"

"The granola still needs a couple hours, but I made some muffins, they're on the rack in the pantry," Mouse told her men.

"Are you kidding?" Henry asked as Leo leapt off the sofa and ran to the pantry.

"I'm still on Tahiti time, I guess," Mouse said with a shrug.

"I didn't realize what a domestic creature I married," Henry murmured, planting a kiss on her temple.

"It's not domesticity, per se," Mouse said, somewhat defensively. "I'm just used to trying to save money and be healthy at the same time, you know?" She switched the iron off. "And the truth is that when you buy in bulk, stuff's cheaper. And whole grains and things like that, from the bottom of the food pyramid, are healthier, you know?" She shrugged again, shredding Henry's defenses. "I can't help it. "I'm sure that eventually I'll get used to just spending and being wasteful, but I'm going to have to work my way into it, okay?"

Henry put his arms around his wife. "Please. Mouse. I love everything about you, exactly as you are. If you want to iron, please, iron. Our clothes smell wonderful, and it makes me think of you all day long. And obviously your way is so much better than the way we've been doing things, that just goes without saying, doesn't it?" He rubbed noses with her. "Just as long as you know you don't have to, okay? I don't want you to feel like a drudge, or an oppressed woman, or whatever, you know?"

He looked at her, a very serious look. "I consider us equals in every way. That's what marriage is to me. What's yours is mine, and vice versa. Every job is ours, if it relates to this family." He gave her a little shake.

"Are we clear?"

Mouse nodded.

From the pantry they could hear Leo, very clearly, telling Happy to lick the crumbs of muffin from around her mouth so Mommy and Daddy wouldn't know he'd fed her people food. "Happy, no! Stop! Now you have banana breath, they're totally gonna be able to tell!" Leo's distressed voice floated through the open door, and Henry and Mouse laughed together. "Here, have some crackers, maybe that will erase the banana smell--"

Leo and Happy emerged from the pantry together, with Happy still crunching her crackers, the crumbs caught in her beard and trailing behind her. Leo had a circle of muffin around his mouth as well.

"I thought you were going to bring some out for all of us to eat at the table together," Henry said, raising his eyebrow at his son. "But it looks like you and Happy already ate, just the two of you?"

Leo made a guilty face, smiling as he patted his dog's head. "They smell so good in there, though," he explained. "The banana smell is really concentrated, daddy."

"I know, son, I know," Henry acknowledged with a smile, rumpling his young son's fine hair. "It's okay. Why don't you go and get dressed?"

Henry grabbed a few muffins from the cooling rack in the pantry and sat down to enjoy breakfast with Mouse.

"So, what else is on the agenda for today?" he asked. "Jesus, these muffins are incredible, Mouse." He lifted one in her direction in a salute.

She smiled her thanks as she ticked off her list on her fingers. "We still need to fix up the doggy area on the terrace for Happy," she said. "Remember how we had it last winter? So she could go in an emergency? I think we're going to need that again for stormy days, you know?"

Henry nodded.

"And speaking of bulk food, I'd like to stock up on all that stuff, you know, get the bins in the pantry filled, with beans and flour and all that? So I'm ready for when both you guys are at school and work," Mouse continued. "Just general chores, you know?"

"And I want to buy a pregnancy test," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Henry choked on a swallow of coffee.

"Really?" he asked. "Already?"

"Well, it's been over six weeks, and I haven't had a period, so yeah," Mouse said with a smile. "I mean, everything's screwy when you go off the pill, and you're not supposed to just start trying right when you stop taking it, but that's what we did, so who knows?" She took a sip of her tea. "Supposedly the tests they have these days can tell really soon." She grinned. "We've had a whole lotta unprotected sex, Henry."

"That we have," he replied, covering her hand with his. "Okay, then, I guess we need to go shopping."

They got themselves dressed, and took Happy with them, since the places they were going that day were dog friendly, and Happy was always so, well, happy to be with them when they went out. They arranged to have the heavy stuff delivered, and made a pit stop at the drug store for their sundry items, including a home pregnancy test.

Mouse tried to remember a year ago, when she'd been pregnant, to remember if she'd felt any different. But the truth was that she hadn't. She'd felt completely normal until the horrible day she'd started to miscarry, when she'd begun to feel sick and crampy.

Henry could tell, even though they were just walking down the street, that her thoughts had gone to a dark place. "You okay?" he murmured, slipping an arm around her waist. Ahead of them, Leo and Happy bounced along, sharing a box of Cracker Jacks.

Mouse nodded, leaning into him.

"Don't think about it," Henry said. "It's not going to happen again, honey."

And Mouse felt bad, because she knew that he was worried, too, and scared. In fact, it had to be worse for him, because of what he'd already gone through.

"We're due for a run of good luck, I think," Henry said as they turned toward home. "And look at you, Mouse Cameron, you're the picture of health, you're twenty-three, and just bloomingly beautiful."

"Blooomingly isn't a word," Mouse informed Henry with a grin. "But thanks for the sentiment."

From up ahead, Leo's voice carried back to them when he turned to ask, "Hey, did you guys see any sea enemies when you were in Tahini?"

Mouse burst out laughing, while Henry told his son that, yes, they had indeed seen a few sea anemones while they were in Tahiti.

They got home, got everything put away, and capped off a perfect day by ordering take out pizza and watching a movie.

The whole time they were eating, and watching the movie, the entire time he was giving Leo a bath while Happy supervised, Henry was aware of the little box that Mouse had set on the shelf in their bathroom. It was sitting there, at the edge of his consciousness, a tiny comma on his day, waiting until he and Mouse could pay attention to it, until Leo was asleep.

Finally, during a countless re-reading of Charlotte's Web, Leo dropped off, and Henry closed the book, making eye contact with his wife.

She smiled back at him, melting his heart with love for her.

"You ready?" she asked.

He nodded, and they went to their bathroom together.