Instead of making another attempt to get to the stone from his purse, Jon and Nancy busied theirself with setting the table. Dinner was almost ready after all, and Ted would be home any minute. Jon oddly felt a familiar sense of anticipation, like it was part of his routine to have dinner ready for his husband when he got home. So they set about getting out the bowls and spoons, and Nancy assembled some salads while Jon pulled the rolls from the oven. Just in time!
OK, now maybe he'd have another chance to get to the stone. Just go out in the hallway and grab it! That was all he had to do, but even though their task in the kitchen was done Jon just couldn't bring himself to do it. He had managed to exert some control earlier, and get Nancy to go along with it, only to ultimately do something she would ordinarily do. Maybe that was the limit? Since he was now merged with her life, he could only do what Nancy would normally do, and she had no reason to go back to her purse right now. In all this confusion, it was the one thing that almost made sense to Jon.
But then he wondered - even if he managed to get the stone, would he be able to wish his way out of this? As he and Nancy each poured themselves a glass of white wine, he tried to think of how he'd word such a wish... "I wish... I had a brand new, designer wardrobe," no that wasn't right, "I wish to lose ten pounds!" no, still not right, "I wish Ted worked from home so we could spend more time together," no, not that either. Those were all nice things to dream about, but they wouldn't reverse his current situation!
The sound of the garage door opening and a car pulling in snapped Jon from his thoughts, and he suddenly felt faint butterflies in his stomach. <Quit daydreaming Nancy, you've got plenty to be happy about,> he thought to himself. The door to the kitchen swung open and a handsome, middle aged man in a suit strode in. "Hi honey!"
Jon and Nancy stepped forward toward the man, both smiling brightly - Jon's concerns all but washed away at the moment. They each wrapped one arm around his back and put their free hand on his chest, then leaned forward and kissed him straight on the lips, at the same time. In the back of his head, Jon knew he ought to be freaking out over kissing Leonard's dad! But it felt like the most normal thing in the world - and why wouldn't he kiss the man he'd been married to for so many years?
"Ooh dinner smells amazing!"
"Thanks sweetie," Jon started, to which Nancy continued, "You'll love it, it's a new recipe!"
"Well let's eat, I'm starving! Where's Leo?"
Jon rolled his eyes as Nancy spoke "Oh, you know our son," then Jon added, "Toiling away as usual, I'll get him." Jon felt even more dialed-in to Nancy than he had - must be the excitement of Ted being home. The two of them went over to the top of the basement stairs. A bit of distance from Ted and maybe now he could yell out to Leonard, tell him what a dick he was, get him to reverse this right now! But instead it was "Leonard honey, come on up, dinner's ready!" that came out.
A hearty laugh echoed up the stairs, which was quickly stifled, "Ah, sure mom, be right there," Leonard called in response, still chuckling a bit. Now what did he find so funny? Jon really wondered what that boy was up to sometimes - he knew Leonard really threw himself into his work, but he never really talked about it. Then he remembered - the remote! The thing that put him in this weird situation to begin with. Maybe he if he couldn't get to the stone, he could get to Leonard's remote and set things right. But for now he and Nancy headed back to the kitchen where Ted had already grabbed a beer from the fridge.
How could Ted not see what was going on? There was a guy in his kitchen, wearing his wife's clothes and serving him dinner! But he treated her just like Nancy, in fact he wasn't even acting like there were two people there - to him they were one person: his wife of 20 years Nancy Drullers.
"So Nance, how was your day?" he asked casually, as Jon and Nancy started ladling the soup into bowls.
