Having made his way back to the main group eating lunch. Dakota found his wife. The scene didn't look optimal. She was talking to his sister. 

     "This'll be good." He thought to himself, as he began approaching. The likely hood that Stacie actually tried to help in the situation was low. He knew she studied psychology, but he also knew that his sister was fairly self absorbed. She likely, used the opportunity to express her own grievances about her older brother instead of helping Hannah to understand him and his way of thinking.

      He had learned in his life the value of acting once a plan had been figured out. The problem in this situation was that he didn't have a plan. He believed he had identified the issue, but didn't quit have a solution figured out. This of course wasn't the full truth and he knew it. The solutiSon wasn't one he could find. It was of course a problem that involved more than just him. The solution had to be thought of by both of them. The only thing he could do was present his findings and hear her out.

      This was about as foreign an idea to him as sticking a cactus to the back of his hand. He smiled at the thought. As a young boy he had actually wanted to test his own pain tolerance and he had run a test similar to the circumstance he had just thought of. 

      As he made his approach his wife looked up and embarrassingly looked away. His sister then caught on, and unlike a decent person, proceeded to keep talking. 

      "Would you excuse us?" Asked Dakota politely.

      " Why, did you fart?" Was Stacie's reply. Hannah smiled lightly at the joke, but Dakota hung his head. He knew he shared a set of DNA with her, but he really couldn't believe they were related sometimes. 

      However absent minded his sister could be, she was able to take a hint when it truly mattered (sometimes). She got up and left. It was at this point Dakota began to get nervous. It wasn't talking to his wife that made him nervous, it was all of the ancillary thoughts that worried him. Before getting married he had had many sessions with his grandfather and friends about what it means to be a husband. "Take charge, and be confident," were among the most frequent pieces of advice he got from others including his grandma. 

      "That way of thinking will get you nowhere." He thought to himself. Trying to think of how someone else would handle a situation wouldn't help him figure out how to solve his problems. With that in mind he proceeded. He would just do what felt natural.

      "Hey honey," he liked calling her that. It meant so much more to him than a word like babe, or BAE like the current generation was fond of using  It was what his grandpa always called his grandma. It was also a good memory for another reason. Dakota couldn't pronounce the word grandma when he was a toddler so he called his grandma "Honey" for a while until he could say grandma. 

      She said hi back, still keeping her head tilted away. Clearly she wasn't going to make this easy

      "I just wanted to say I've thought about it and well, I think I may have made you angry by not consulting you about the job before turning it down." She cocked her head at him, he had reasoned in the past that this was a warning sign that he hadn't necessarily done anything wrong, but he was in dangerous territory. 

      His nervousness subsiding he responded with a "What?"

      "What do you mean what?" She said almost exasperated. Unfortunately Dakota gave into his old habit of thinking and not acting. He was always comfortable with silence, but there were times when that hindered his ability to read the room. This was one such time. He was currently thinking about the best way to proceed. His mind began to race as he pondered every possible avenue he could.

      "Why was she acting like this?" He put forth a perfectly reasonable well, reason, and now it was her turn to present what she thought. This problem was quickly getting out of hand and Dakota began to get frustrated. This wasn't the time to play around. They had an issue and it was time to solve it. 

      He looked her in the eyes forcing the eye contact and asked "Are you going to act like this the entire discussion?". He knew he was letting his own frustration get the better of him when he said it, but this was really getting ridiculous. They weren't children arguing, they were two married adults about to spend their lives together. If they couldn't figure this out what could they do?

      "Oh well, Dakota Holland, let me just get all my feelings and shove them into a nice little equation and then give you an answer." There were times where not responding did help. He knew venting was an integral part of processing ones emotions. What he failed to realize was that arguments such as these are usually meant to be reciprocal. The other person not feeling like your truly listening unless you also participate in a bit of venting. "Because that's what you want isn't it, Everything to just fit right where it belongs because "YOU" know all the answers. Well Dakota Holland your not as smart as you think you are?" 

.      He really couldn't believe this, for two reasons. She was beginning to get animated in a public place. Dangerously close to attracting unwanted attention, and because she was attacking him. There was a point where he doubted his intelligence. Simply put there's a lot of information in the world and one can easily become overwhelmed. He had quelled this self doubt some time ago, accepting the fact that the most he could do was work to learn and understand new info, but some of that doubt remained, and unfortunately was something that triggered his mental defensive response.

         "At least I'm capable of thinking ahead." Was his response. "I'm trying to be pragmatic here. My solution to the problem will work. You just have to trust me, you'll be fine." 

      "You don't even know what Im thinking how do you know ill be fine?" Was her response. "You didn't even ask me what I wanted. You just made up your mind, now we're stuck in one place forever."

       "That's ridiculous. Were not trapped." 

      "I know you Dakota, your going to build your little lab, your own world, and that will be it. Everything else won't matter."

      "It's not like we hadn't talked about this. I told you about this months ago. You never said anything like this"

      This time Hannah was awestruck. "Yes I did you always told me that we'd figure it out. You didn't tell me until last night that you'd made up your mind."

      This argument was just going in circles and he really began to get frustrated. 

      "Listen, this isn't getting us anywhere. I made a perfectly reasonable decision, and that's that. There's nothing more that needs to be said."

     Apparantly Hannah agreed, because after hearing this she simply got up and left. He was left sitting there contemplating his words. He reasoned that he could have gone without saying that last bit, but she attacked him. How was he supposed to respond? As of yet she had yet to even tell him the root cause of the problem. He couldn't read minds, if the issue really was as big as she was making it out to be than she should actually tell him what was going on.

      He told himself that this wasn't his fault and when she was ready to handle the situation maturely he would hear her out and not think about it further. He knew this wasn't true, they were both at fault, but he didn't know if she knew that. They had both had an opportunity to work things out and both failed to communicate properly. This was proving to be a bigger issue than he originally thought it was. Had she really tried to talk about the issue with him in the past? He could kind of remember talking about it, but since it wasn't an immediate issue at the time he hadn't given much thought to the solution. He either would or wouldn't get offered the job and if the benefit was worth the sacrifice he would take it. If not he would refuse. There was nothing to think about. There was also the matter of traveling. It's not like they would be locked in place forever. Vacations could still be had, they had two vehicles that could traverse hundreds of miles in one day. What was she actually afraid of? Since she had yet to actually say. He briefly recalled she said something about not being consulted first, but that was of little importance. What would she have said. NO to the job. She almost certainly would have said yes. What was the point of asking?

      Intuitively he knew that was the source of the conflict. Whether or not he was consciously aware of that was up for debate. He got up as well, they hadn't gotten around to ordering anything so there was nothing to pay for, and told his family he was headed to the Villa. He didn't know what to do about Hannah, but he knew a session on the rentals treadmill would do him some good.

      One of his family members asked how he would get back and why he was leaving? His natural reaction was to ignore both inquiries, but being everyone was here for him. He relegated himself to giving some brief excuse. It was less than ten minutes later that he found some public transit that would get him close to his destination.

      Lynne having finished her latest entry had noticed some of what occured. Her husband was seemingly oblivious. "What do you think happened John?" She asked pointing to their grandson who was boarding what seemed to be some kind of bus. 

       "Kid messed up again." He said this only slightly looking away from his newspaper. "Im sure it'll be fine."

      "How do you know?" She asked.

      "I don't, but given that we both are taken care of and they are both adults. I'm not really that concerned how it all plays out, and neither should you be."

      "Yea, I guess your right." She said, but she didn't really believe it. She was the kids grandma, of course she had to try to fix the problem, and with that she began to think of possible options.