Last Man Standing: Season 5
Everyone in this story is at least eighteen years of age when having sexual relations
Since last visiting the Baxter household, a lot has occurred. The biggest issue was that Eve failed to get into West Point. She moped around, missed school and never got out of her pajamas.
Vanessa was getting upset that she wouldn't snap out of it and she brought up the issue to Mike. Mike who always confronted problems head on went into the living room to speak to her, "Eve, Eve, get your fucking ass off the couch. You're going to work with me."
She had a sad look on her face and stared up at him, "What?"
"Yeah, your mom's tired of you moping; so am I. Either get ready right now or I'm taking you in your pajamas." He clapped his hands together several times, "Let's go, come on."
She cried out, "I'm not going to work with you, Dad."
"Okay, fine. That's a good choice." He turned to Vanessa, "Get some duct tape, I'll get a hand truck. Let's go!"
Eve didn't budge, "All right, all right, all right! Fine, fine, fine. Can I at least finish the Cheerios in my robe pocket?"
Mike just stood there glaring down at her. She hopped up, "Okay, fine! I'll go, but I'm not gonna do anything or talk to anybody."
He blurted out, "That's my job. You got to work up to that." He nearly chased her up the stairs, Go on, come on, come on, come on! Let's go! I got to get going here!"
Vanessa stared at him as he moved towards the kitchen, "That was gentle?"
"Honey, you knew what you were getting into when you asked me to marry you."
She placed her hand over her heart and let out a silent gasp.
He took Eve to work and introduced her to Joe in the repair shop. They hit it off and by the end of the day, she was slowly slipping out of her funk.
She got home and confronted Mike and Vanessa, "Working at Outdoor Man was great. On lunch break, I won eight bucks shooting dice with Felipe."
Mike looked at her, "You won eight bucks?"
"Joe was actually really helpful. He gave me a ton of advice on college."
Vanessa wasn't sure where this was going, "Oh, that's nice. Where did Joe go to college?"
Eve finally had a smile on her face, "He didn't. Yeah, and I'm not going to, either. I'm going to be a mechanic." She grabbed a drink out of the fridge and left the kitchen.
Vanessa stared at Mike, "She is not going to be a mechanic. She is going to college."
Mike tried to calm her down, "She's a little lost right now. She's jumping at the first thing that came along. Lucky I didn't take her to a men's club."
Vanessa didn't see the humor in that, "We need to go talk to her!"
He shook his head, "No, no, no, no, wait. It took her two weeks to get off the couch. Let's not do anything to put her back on the couch, honey"
"Oh, so we can't talk to Eve, but Joe's gonna have her ear for eight hours tomorrow? I'm sure that's gonna work out well."
"All right, tonight, when I go over there, I'll talk to Joe and tell him to keep his opinions to himself, and I'll do that while I've got the engine on a hoist over his head."
Mike went over and fought with Joe and he finally agreed to stay clear of Eve. Mike went to work the next day and while in his office, Eve came in from home. She knocked on his door, "Hi Dad."
He looked up at her, "It's Mr. Baxter."
"I'm gonna go down to the garage. Joe says he's gonna teach me how to heat a can of beans on a engine block."
Mike was pissed, especially after Joe said he'd back off, "Oh great---a mechanic and a hobo. No wonder you like spending time with him. Actually, I don't want you going down there today. I want you to spend some time up here in accounting."
"Why, I already know what I want to do. I'm going to be a mechanic."
"I want you to experience a lot of different things, honey."
She came closer, crossing her arms, "Yeah, but accounting?"
"Yeah, accountants are like the mechanics of numbers."
"Yeah, but the nerds of everything else. I bet none of them know how to tune an engine."
"You don't know how to tune an engine."
"Well, so I'll learn"
"You've been down in my service center for one day. What's your sudden fascination becoming a mechanic?"
"Well, because it just makes sense, okay? It's simple--something's broken, and you fix it. You don't understand, Dad". She turned and left the office.
He mumbled to himself, "Oh, I think I do."
Later that day he went down to the service center and found Eve there, "Hey, Eve."
She rolled her eyes, "Don't worry, I'll go up to accounting in a second. Unless you've decided to send me someplace even more boring."
He came over to her, "I don't think such a place exists. What are you doing?"
"I'm replacing an alternator from the ATV. Joe said it's shot. He went to go get another one."
"Yeah? Why don't you just use the one out of the snowmobile?"
"Um, because it's from the ATV. That part wouldn't work."
"Works in the snowmobile."
"Yeah, well, you can't just pull a part off one machine and use it to fix a different machine."