Ty convinced Jenn to come inside and go to sleep. She woke up in a reasonably sober state, which was all that was required to watch sweet little Helia.

"Have a good day at work!" Jenn called to him on his way out the door.

Work was grand. He and Wallace packed out freight together, chatting about comic book ethos while they worked. Ty didn't know much about Batman's true origins, but Wallace was an expert. They worked for hours without receiving a customer service call. The kiosk handled returns now, and most people preferred dealing with the machines.

Ty stopped voicing his concerns about the kiosk. His discovery on the legality of doing so certainly influenced his decision, be he also chose to let it go. Presently, he had a good job. Why worry? Pen guaranteed him work for years to come. Two cashiers had quit, but it hadn't been due to tech. They had started new semesters at college and moved on with their lives. Pen was looking to hire new employees to fill the empty spots. If their business was down-sizing, hiring would be out of the question. Ty wasn't worried about his job.

Worry came in the form of Jennifer. One hour before he needed to close the store, Antoinella informed him of the phone call.

"Before you come home and freak out," Jennifer began, "I'm just gonna tell you."

Hundreds of scenarios rose and fell in Ty's mind. He settled on one: "You slept with someone?"

"Jesus, no. I had to take Helia to the hospital."

"Were you drunk, Jennifer?"

"No!"

"High?"

Hesitation. "No."

Ty was more worried about Helia than he was about his wife's irresponsible nature. Yet, it was in the back of his mind to do something about it.

"What the hell happened?"

Jennifer took in a ragged breath. "I looked away for a minute, okay? There was that guy speaking on the interface, that young idealistic guy, Moretz--"

"A fucking Prominent politician distracted you?"

The Benning household lacked any political leanings. The most political any of them ever got was to laugh at late night talk show hosts blasting the latest scandal.

"What he was saying made sense." Jennifer sounded defensive. "He spoke about family values, religious values."

Neither were her chosen lifestyles. One thing she did adhere to was a sudden and irrational interest for random topics. All it took was a mere brush with a subject and she became obsessed for weeks, dropping the obsession just as quickly to move on to the next. Ty didn't want to hear about her latest version of crazy.

"Just tell me what happened to Helia? Is she okay?"

"Yes, she's okay. She broke her finger is all, slammed it in the kitchen drawer."

Ty imagined his daughter playing by herself in the kitchen, unsupervised while her mother sat mesmerized in front of the interface.

"How is she?"

"She's asleep, and she was great. Such a big girl," Jennifer gushed, as if Helia had passed a milestone instead of breaking a bone.

"I'll be home soon." He hung up.

Couldn't even trust his wife to properly watch their daughter. Helia wouldn't survive a whole two weeks in the care of her mother. There had to be a way to get Damon's machine working.

Wallace tapped Ty on the shoulder. "Dude, I let the kiosk scan my twinkie, and it printed another one!" He held up the treat for Ty to see. "Wanna taste?"

The in-store kiosk seemed on par with his home printer, if not better. Ty took the twinkie and thanked Wallace, later passing it on to Thompson. Composite food rarely appealed to him, but he hadn't wanted to be rude.

Silently, he plotted an unauthorized use of store property.

~*~

A/N: Dedicated to my other WP bestie, benjammies

He's an awesome dude, creates kickass covers, and writes even better stories. He's also part of Zombie-palooza, #TeamInsides&Entrails . 

Check out his latest mystery/thriller, Embers of a Field Mouse: 

https://www.wattpad.com/story/108664256-embers-of-a-field-mouse