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There's the quiet sound of footfalls that drags John slowly from sleep, and he stretches in the warm blankets that separate him from the chilly morning. Summer in Iowa had finally succumbed to cooler temperatures, and while Autumn was still technically a day or two away, John had found himself digging out extra blankets the night before, placing them on beds to keep everyone warm at night. He welcomed the crisp night air, favoring it over the ungrateful heat that had pummeled them through most of July and August.
It takes a second for him to recognize the snick of the door, and he scrubs his face with his hands, muttering, "Rodney..." as his mind tries to figure out why his husband is wandering outside. He reaches out to Rodney's side of the bed, becoming even more awake when he finds Rodney cocooned under the blanket, sleepy hands batting John's own hand away with a grumble as Rodney turns in his sleep.
John looks around the room, then gets up, a shiver crossing his chilled skin as he wanders to Finn's room first, then Merrie's and finds both empty. He slips down the staircase and into the kitchen, where he sees Finn's head just above the window as the first few rays of sunshine start to paint the yard. He goes back to the sofa and grabs the afghan that Rodney'd purchased at the last school fundraiser, and heads out to the porch.
He's not even a single step outside when he hears Finn shush him, Merrie adding, "Duck, Baffa!" in a voice that only a three year old would consider whispered. He smiles as he sees the kids snuggled up into the blanket he'd put on Finn's bed the night before, eyes gazing out in wonder.
Looking out onto the yard, John finds what Merrie is pointing to, Finn correcting her with, "Geese, Merrie. Canadian geese." And sure enough, there are half a dozen Canadian geese covering an area near the garden patch, where only a few zucchini are left, kept company by the kids pumpkins that he'll harvest come Halloween.
Nodding at the grazing fowl, John walks to the kids, picking up Merrie and pulling her into the afghan as he takes his own seat. "Did you want to see the geese, sweetheart?" he asks as he nuzzles her close, dropping a kiss to her messy hair.
Merrie looks up at him, eyes bright as she nods. Her room looks over the garden patch, so he figures she got Finn up and dragged him downstairs when the noisy visitors first landed. The trio sits there, the quiet enveloping the entire porch.
And that's where Rodney finds them half an hour later, crease marks of the sheets going up one side of his face like some comic book villain. "What's everyone doing out here?" he loudly asks as he stumbles out onto the porch, startling a few of the geese into a honking protest.
There's a collective "Shhh," that greets him, and Rodney does something with his eyebrows that John thinks is his way of saying they're all crazy. Shaking his head, he goes back into the house, and John can hear him puttering around the kitchen, the fancy new coffeemaker coming to life with a cheerful beep.
And by the time the geese have finally moved on, and everyone piles back into the house, John grabs a cup of coffee for himself, while Finn and Merrie ask Rodney for one more visit to the petting zoo before it closes for the season.