The Aason Problem Again

As I have mentioned previously, I love little Aason but from a narrative perspective he often gets in the way. You can't have a blazing gun battle or stalk dangerous killers with a 4-year-old in tow. So I had to send him away to Earth, ostensibly for his own safety but it turned out to be an important plot point later on. Nonetheless, Rome and Rei are loving parents and I simply couldn't let Aason always being shipped off and not have them notice. So I paid lip service to parenthood in this little section:

     The mesmerizing blacker-than-black of null-fold space made it hard for Rei to not stare out the front cockpit. Rome never seemed to have a problem with it. Maybe it was her obsession with studying the virtual instruments. Maybe it was just the way her Vuduri brain was wired. Rei, on the other hand, could barely take it. Every time he glanced up, the non-existence of null-space seem to draw him in again. Rei found it almost impossible to pull his eyes away.
     Luckily, with MINIMCOM’s incredible speed, now 30% greater than what it was two years ago; it was only a six-hour trip from Tau Ceti to the Alpha Centauri system. Determined to not stare again until they got there, with yet another heroic effort, Rei tore his eyes from the front and closed them. “I’m getting a real déjà vu feeling,” he said.
     “What do you mean?” Rome asked, never lifting her eyes from the instrumentation.
     “Last time we did this, didn’t I tell you I thought we’d been neglecting Aason.”
     “Yes, I recall that,” Rome said, looking up. “What’s your point?”
     “Well, here we are again, leaving him behind. In fact, we sent him away. Doesn’t that make us bad parents?”
     “Rei,” Rome said sternly. “You know we sent him away for his own good. What kind of parents would we be if we did not?”
     “I guess you’re right,” Rei said. He turned his head toward the front but refused to open his eyes. “I have been curious how Virga and the rest of them dealt with our, uh, present,” Rei said. “And I did promise you we’d go back some day to check things out. Funny how things work out some time, huh?”
     “Yes,” Rome said in low voice. Her tone made Rei open his eyes again. He turned to look at her. She lowered her head so that she looked at him through the tops of her eyes. “However, I would like you to promise me that you will not be getting into bed with her naked this time.”
     Rei laughed a bit nervously. “Of course not,” he said, seeing that Rome was serious. “I explained all that to you. It wasn’t my first choice. I just didn’t want them to hurt you. Or me, for that matter.”
     “Very well,” Rome said. She looked back down at the virtual instruments. “We are nearly there, MINIMCOM,” she said. “Will you be dropping out of null-space shortly?”
     “One minute, thirty five seconds,” the starship replied through the grille. “I do know what I am doing, you know.”
     “I never doubted it,” Rome said, smiling. She looked over at Rei and winked.

OK. Now we have that out of the way. We can go on to Helome without shaming Rome and Rei for being neglectful parents.