Nearing the house, the guys could smell something wonderful in the air. Seo was not happy as he got off his bike.

"Godammit..."

"What?"

"She's supposed to be resting, not up cooking!"

"Seo...she's as headstrong as you! Ishmael is going to do what she wants." Seong chuckled at how possessive and protective Seo could be, a side he hadn't seen of his friend in a very long time.

"You've got your hands full man!" Haru just straight out laughed at him.

Opening the side gate, Sean and Kim were there to help get the carts into the backyard. Seeing the rain barrels, the two of them cheered.

"Hey sis look!"

She too cheered after looking in their direction.

"You guys don't know how happy we are to see rain barrels!"

"Babe, we have running water..." Haru gave Sean a look, Sean rolled his eyes.

"Actually the water is out. It went out not too long after you guys left." Kim was helping unload the barrels.

"Crap..." Everyone was worried but Seo even more so as he felt a sense of responsibility for the others. Once inside the yard and with the gate closed, Seo walked right over to Ishmael who was busy cooking again. "Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you not resting?"

"Joonie, I'm not about to birth a baby, it's just my hellaciously bad period and I haven't eaten since breakfast. None of us have and I'm hungry."

"You are such a brat. You know that?"

"Yup! You remind me of that almost daily."

"Brat." Seo kissed her on the head then left to unload the carts as she continued cooking dinner. The meat was done so she carried it into the house and set it in the microwave to keep it hot. As she returned to the cooking area she saw something awesome.

"You got more buckets!!"

"Yup, a huge stack of them." Seong smiled at her as she clapped.

The yakisoba, was ready in no time, all she had to do was lightly cook the veggies and the noodles and add the sauce. She had Seo carry the skillet in for her as it was extremely heavy. He sat it on the stove and went back outside. She took the iced green tea out of the fridge she had made earlier and called the guys in to eat. Even though water was limited, she made them wash their hands.

While the guys started to dig in, Ishmael took some meat out of the freezer for later. She needed to go through it to see what all they had left, but that was for tomorrow. Ishmael wanted to make steamed buns and give some to the Tomo's for helping her yesterday. For tomorrow's dinner she really wanted spaghetti and garlic bread. That meant she needed to bake some bread in the dutch oven the guys found for her earlier. But that was all for tomorrow.

Finished with dinner, she wiped the plates and other dishes clean with paper towels, then washed them in the dishpan. That water she poured down the drain and cleaned up the kitchen. The guys were sitting in the living room discussing their plans for tomorrow. She went to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for bed. Putting on a new pad, her bleeding was subsiding finally. She returned to the living room but only for a bit.

Ishmael hugged Seo around his neck from behind as he sat on the couch. "I'm going to bed hon."

"K, I think we're going to call the folks then call it a night also."

"Mn."

Upstairs in their room, Ishmael relaxed in bed. Instead of sleeping, she grabbed the notebook and pen from her bag. They still hadn't unpacked yet but it wasn't that important. She had no idea what to make for breakfast. There was a loaf of bread that needed to be used and she had a dozen eggs left with a pack of sausages that weren't frozen. She hoped that there were 3 more packs of sausages in the freezer. For tomorrow she would be going non-stop and using a lot of wood. Taking a deep breath, she started on her list.

-Breakfast- french toast, sausages, potatoes, rest of veggies. (add water to egg to stretch. Sausage packets=1 sausage/1 potato /veggies roast on grill)
-dough for buns & bread
-strawberries for jam
-yuzu cleaned, sliced for jam
-clean jars/lids
-sterilize jars ***use same water to steam buns and can! (use two stock pots)
-dinner
-make meal plans
-inventory food

"God this is a lot to do tomorrow." Setting the notebook off to the side she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Sean and Seo called their parents for a group talk. This was steadily becoming everyone's nightly routine. First the guys wanted to thank Mr. Seo for the house tip; Mr. Thompson was busy in the garage but would be on shortly.

"Hey dad, thank you so much for the info on the Kitaro house. They left behind so much stuff it's ridiculous; we're making another trip there tomorrow."

"Excellent!"

"Sean, what all did you guys get?"

"I didn't go with them mom, me and Kim stayed behind and worked on another bike cart."

"Hi mom!"

"Hello Haru dear!" Mrs. T gave a chuckle that Haru had started calling her mom also.

"We got a huge stack of buckets which sis really needed, they had the rain barrels also. There's enough building materials that I can build a larger chicken coop and a nice size greenhouse!"

"Hey guys!"

The guys all said hello to Mr. T.

[Mr. T] "That's great that you guys are becoming more self sufficient."

[Mr. Seo] "Indeed, but remember it will take some time so don't get too frustrated. Was the solar set up still there?"

"Yes dad! We brought all the electronic components over. I just hope they didn't get damaged by the pulse."

[Mr. Seo] "I didn't even think about that..."

[Mr. T] "Guys were the items stored in a metal shed?"

[Seo] "Kinda, it was stored in a small shipping container. Hey dad?"

[Mr. Seo] "Yes."

"Do you guys still have water?"

[Mr. Seo] "Joon...we are not on any utilities, remember. We have well water."

"Ha ha ha. Totally forget dad. Well our water went out today. I'm glad Ishmael had the foresight to fill up all the buckets and tub when we first got here."

[Mr. Seo] So am I!

[Mrs T] Sean where's Ishmael?

The guys all looked at each other, not wanting to be the one to tell them of the incident from earlier.

"Uhh, she had a rough day today mom. She passed out on the way home."

"WHAT!! Is she okay?!"

"Sean what happened?!"

"She's fine. The stress from everything caused her to have one of those bad monthly episodes that she used to have. The older couple at the small market found her and took care of her. The men came and found us in town and Seo carried her home. She's upstairs sleeping now. The couple are actually a doctor and nurse. Mrs. Tomo gave her some iron pills."

"Oh thank goodness. She'll be fine once she gets some of that iron in her system."

"Monthly episodes?"

"Really John..." You could hear Mrs. T whispering to him.

"Ohhhhhh!"

[Mrs. Seo] How did the trip go into town?

"It went really good mom. Ishmael got so much stuff. She took some things to barter with, which was smart."

[Mrs. T] What all did she get?

"You know those large kitty litter buckets mom?'

"Yeah?"

"She got one of those full of strawberries. She got 3 buckets of yuzu fruit. 2 large boxes of soap nuts, 2 large bags of baking soda, a ton of baby wipes, jars and a huge bag of sugar."

"Holy cow!"

"I know mom, she's like our lucky charm! Now that we're slowly getting settled, I hope her stress goes down."

"Likewise. I'm glad she's able to can some things. That will help you guys out a lot."

"I agree Marge, if you guys go back into town, you may want to build an extra smaller bike cart, see if you can barter that for a decent amount of fresh vegetables. Preserved food can be bartered also."

[Kim] We can just use Ishmael's cart, but take the tote she uses off of it. There's enough stuff left to build a better smaller one for her.

[Seo] How are you guys doing dad?

[Mr. Seo] We're doing fine son. We have enough food stocked for 6-8 months. We're out among farmers so that's a huge plus. Your mom has some things growing in pots so that will help too.

[Mr. T] Same here guys, plus Marge is canning up most of the meat we had in the freezer so it will keep longer. I can also hunt some game if I need to, which I just might do this weekend. If things drag on, more people will be out with the same idea of hunting so it's best that I get a head start on everyone.

Both of the dads let them know that neither of them had heard any more news on what was going on. Mr. Seo told them that if they needed help installing the solar system to call him as he had put theirs in at the cabin. The mom's told them not to forget to take at least one day off to relax and to give Ishmael a break where cooking was concerned. Everyone said their I love you's as the guys wanted to get to bed early to have an equally early start tomorrow. They were too tired to even care about washing off before going to bed and just headed upstairs. Seo on the other hand needed to wash off or else he wouldn't be able to sleep. Room temperature water would have to do for now as he headed to the smaller guest bath.

Feeling refreshed with the days sweat washed off, he headed up to his room. Making it to the top of the stairs, He saw a sliver of light coming from under the bedroom door. Opening the door he was greeted with a smile.

"Babe, you're still up..."

"So are you."

Deep sigh, Seo settled in next to her after taking off his robe. He just wore sleeping shorts as it was still warm upstairs but comfortable. Ishmael turned the lantern off and laid down next to him, snuggling up as she now loved to do.

"You feeling any better?" Seo rubbed her shoulder as he felt her body relax.

"A little, I took one of the iron pills and another advil earlier."

"Good."

The two laid there quietly, Seo rubbing her back. "I love you Ishmael."

Ishmael snuggled up to him even more. "I love you too Joon." Ishmael raised up to give him a soft kiss. Even though she had turned the main lantern off, there was a smaller one that had a sheer piece of cloth over it to soften the light. "What do you think about us spending a weekend at the caretaker's cabin, once we get things to a manageable level?"

"I think it's an excellent idea. Since all of us seem to be here with our partners, privacy is going to be a luxury in this house."

"I know. I think we each should take a private weekend."

"Mn, I'll say something tomorrow at breakfast. We're going back to the Kitaro's tomorrow and we might go into town."

"Oh will you wait to go into town later in the day? I want to give the Tomo's a gift for helping me and I need to wash the yukata she let me wear."

"A gift?"

"Yes, I'm making pork buns tomorrow and I want to give them some. I'm also going to make strawberry jam and yuzu marmalade."

"Wow. Don't do too much babe, you should probably rest some more."

"There's too much for us to get done right now Joon and winter will be here before we know it. I want to get as much food canned and stored up as possible. Plus we can use some of the jams to barter with."

"Ha ha ha you sound like your dad. He suggested we build a small bike cart to barter for a bunch of veggies."

"I agree, you guys can take my cart, just leave the totes."

"We already talked about that."

"Ohh, I wouldn't mind going back to the huge recycle area to see if there is anything else we could use. I really scored with the sugar, soap and wipes not to mention the jars."

"So what are you doing tomorrow babe?"

"Well, breakfast first of all, it won't be anything fancy. We can eat outside as I'll be spending most of the day by the fire pit. I've been keeping the bug netting closed around it, now the area is almost bug free. If it was actually screened in with a door then it would be perfect. I'm trying not to use the butane if I can help it, we're going to need that come winter. I need a clothes line set up at some point and make dough for the buns. Most of the day I'll be making fruit preserves and might harvest some things from the garden to preserve also. We can't afford for any of it to go to waste."

"I agree. So what can you preserve from the garden?"

"The tomatoes, beans, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage I can ferment, squash and I want to make some vegetable soups. I would love to find a small propane tank and a gas cooktop. It's really hard to pressure can stuff over a fire. The jams are easy but the other stuff I don't want to do without a stove. It needs a constant heat source. It would be awesome if we could get some freshly butchered chickens. If none of the chicks are roosters, we should keep them for producing eggs. Butter or lard would be nice, I can keep that for a few years."

"Really?"

"Yeah, hey? Have you guys thought about going to the next small town? Tokyo is a big no go but the next small town might have more resources for food."

"You know Mel, I didn't even think about that. I'll call my folks in the morning, they know this area better than me."

"Mn, you guys could even take the small generator and the DC powered cooler. I'd just be a little cautious with getting meat, it's hard to know how long it's been sitting out."

"Yeah. We don't need anyone getting sick with food poisoning."

"Now that the water is out, we should check out the outhouse, make sure it's safe. And we need a way to keep the grass and weeds cut. I'm afraid if stuff starts growing up, we'll get rodents."

"We'll get things done babe, it just might take some time. Since we are going to be using the outhouse, we need something to keep the smell down."

"I think I saw something at the recycle bins!"

"Okay, we'll check it out tomorrow. Now we sleep."