And Baby Makes Four (1/12)
3some 'verse
Pairing(s): Don/Coop/Lia
Rating:T to M as the story progresses
Word Count: 2244
Spoilers: Possibly up to the end of season 3, or at least three quarters of S3.
Summary: Don, Coop & Lia look towards the future and decide on a plus one.
Author's Notes: Continuation and exploration of the ficlet series Generations . Thanks to my beta
bubbleslayer &
mercilynn for her feedback. Thanks to
philleegirl for your thoughts too.
Don entered the front door of his childhood home looking for father and brother. He stopped by the fluted bowl to flip through the mail, in case something had not been forwarded to his house. He followed the sounds and smells that were emanating from the kitchen and found his Dad waving a wooden spoon in his brother’s general direction.
“Hey, what’s going on here,” Don asked with an amused grin. “What did Chuck do now?”
Charlie narrowed his eyes and replied, “I have done nothing, if you must know. It’s Dad, he doesn’t trust me with the grill.”
Alan chided, “Now Charlie I never said that. I just merely suggested that you keep a closer eye on what you’re doing.” Alan glanced at Don before adding, “If you remember last time you were in charge of grilling, the steaks came out burnt.”
Charlie sputtered, “But it wasn’t my fault. A break though for the case I was working on for Don popped into my head and I stepped away for five minutes to write it down.”
“I’m sorry Chuck but you’re not laying that at my feet the fact that you burned perfectly good rib eye.”
“Whatever DON ald," Charlie said with emphasis. "See if I help you with your cases anymore. I’m sure the NSA would love to have me consult more.”
“Okay, that’s enough you two. Charlie go out and get the grill going, I’ll come out in a bit to see if you need me to fill in for a bit in case you get a revelation or something,” Alan said.
“Fine Dad.” As Charlie started out the patio door he said sarcastically, “You like yours well done right Don?”
Don yelled, “Don’t you dare Chucky! Or you’ll be swimming with the koi!”
Alan rolled his eyes and pointed at the fridge with the spoon. “Stop annoying your brother and hand me the Worcester sauce.”
“Sure Dad.” Don opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of Worcester sauce.
"You're a bit early for dinner," Alan said as he took the bottle from Don. "And where's your partners?"
"Yeah I had an appointment this afternoon so I came right from there. Coop and Lia will be here closer to six." He turned back to the fridge and started to grab a beer but changed his mind, knowing that he would never hear the end of it from Lia. He grimaced slightly as he grabbed a bottle of water. His eyes flicked to a photo and birth announcement on the fridge, which he quickly read, noting that the baby wasn’t really that cute and his name was Mason Wade.
“Your cousin Rachel sent that.”
“Little Rachel had a baby?"
“Actually Don, this is her second.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t you remember she had her first baby two years ago or so, named Ashley?” Alan gave Don a wistful look before saying, “At least someone in our family is getting grandkids.”
Don shook his head and tried not to sigh as he listened to his Dad talk.
“But, you know I guess I should just be happy that you and your brother are both in stable relationships and you have successful careers, right?”
“Yeah Dad.” He began to pick at the bottle, “You know Dad…..” He stopped and shook his head, “I wouldn’t say that grand kids were NOT in your future at all. You know, things could change.”
“Donnie, you know your brother and Amita are getting more serious, but I seriously doubt that even if they did tie the knot that Amita would want to have kids right away. Not with her getting her teaching career off the ground. Actually, I shouldn’t presume or anything.”
“No Dad, I wasn’t talking about Charlie. I was talking about, you know, me,” he answered as he scratched around the band aid on his inner elbow where he’d had blood drawn.
Alan stopped stirring the marinade and slowly turned to look at Don. “What?”
This time Don actually sighed. “We weren't going to say anything for a while, but we decided that we'd like to maybe, start a family."
"Huh? Donnie, I don't understand."
"What do you mean you don't understand Dad?" Don joked, "You're the one who told me where babies come from."
Sternly Alan said, "Don."
Don rubbed his forehead before sitting down on one of the stools. "After some talking, the three of us, decided that we'd like to have a baby."
"Okay, but do you think that’s a good idea?"
Don pursed his lips and huffed. "See this is exactly why I wasn't even going to tell you. You question everything about my relationship and choices."
"Don, I'm not trying to question you. What do you think you mother would say? I'm just trying to..." Alan stopped talking to look at Don. He put down the spoon he had been holding and took a seat next to Don. He carefully said, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
Don glanced at his watch and tried to calm the thoughts of doubt in his head. "We started to talk one night, and the subject of kids came up, and Lia was upset since she had come to the conclusion she would never have any. And well, Coop and I both said, ‘why not,’ and to make a long story short, we decided that we wanted to start a family."
"Don, please do not take any of my questions as not being supportive of you, Lia, and Billy. I just have concerns as a parent, which, well, if that’s a road you’re going to go down you’ll come to understand. I just want to make sure you three have thought this through."
"Yeah, okay Dad, we did. It isn't something we decided lightly."
"And all three of you want kids, not just Lia?"
Don grinned slightly, "Believe it not, the more we talked about it the more I realized that yeah, it was something that I wanted. Coop too." Don shrugged. "It was just something that we both didn't think we'd ever consider till now."
"Didn't you and Kim ever discuss it?"
Don said, "No, not really. It never really came up, and I just figured that she didn't want any."
"I don't want to be crass or anything but, who would be the father?"
Don looked his father directly in the eye and replied, "Me. Coop wants it to be me." Not waiting for a reply, Don continued. “He thought that it would be better for me to be the father so the baby could have roots and a family, and he doesn’t have any of that."
Alan asked thoughtfully, "He said that?"
"Yeah, he did."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Scared," Don admitted. "I'm scared shitless."
Alan snorted, "I know exactly how you feel."
Don's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You? Really?"
"Ah my boy, you have no idea." He smiled gently. "I always knew that your mom and I would have kids, but the day she told me she was pregnant, I've never been more scared in my life."
"Really?"
"Really. I never told your mother, but I was freaking out for a long time. I had no idea what I was going to do or how I would be a good dad. I was, as you put it, scared shitless."
He rubbed his jaw, "Dad, I want this. I really do, but I've got doubts."
"Sure you do Don. I think every parent feels that way, and you never get over it. You constantly struggle with all the choices you make and what you’ll impart to your children. You just try to do your best, and that’s what I tried to do."
"Dad, you didn't just try. You did the best."
Alan smiled slightly before asking tentatively, "Can I ask you another question without you getting upset son?"
"Yeah Dad, go ahead."
"Again, please don't take what I am saying as unsupportive, I'm just concerned. It's really hard for me to wrap my mind around this."
Don nodded and tried to be open with his Dad. "I know, me too."
"How will this work? I mean, there are three of you, and with children, they question everything. I guess what I am trying to say is that your relationship isn’t normal. How will you explain that to your child? I wonder what type of effect your relationship would have on the child."
Don thought about his answer for a while before replying, "Well, I don't think it will be a big problem since so many kids have non traditional families now a days. Kids have just a mom, or are being raised by their grandparents. And some kids have two moms or two dads. Our baby will be lucky cause he’ll have three people to love and support him. And he’ll have a lot of extended family with you and Charlie, plus Megan and Larry and everyone!"
Amused, Alan said, "You keep saying him."
"Lia says the same. She says it’s is my subconscious wish that we’ll have a boy."
"But you don't care what you have," Alan said with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course not." Don grinned sheepishly, "Okay, a tiny bit of me hopes we have a boy so I can teach him to play ball. I think the idea of a girl terrifies both me and Coop. But, I know deep in my heart, it won't matter what we have."
Alan nodded, "I never told your mother, but when you two ended up being boys I was secretly relieved. Boys I get, but girls," He puffed out some air. "As your mother liked to remind me often, I have no clue about women."
Don laughed before turning to his Dad and then said, "I know this isn't going to be easy, and there will be a lot of road blocks, but I’m sure we’ll handle them."
"Son, I have a great deal of faith in you and Lia and Coop. It's just still is hard for me to get."
"Mmm, yeah. Hey, Dad do you think Mom would have gotten it? Would've been okay with it?"
Alan sighed wistfully. "Donnie, one thing I can tell for sure was that your Mom was an amazing woman, and I think she would have gotten it. She had a comprehension of people, and what would be best for her sons. I think, she would have been the most accepting, no questions asked."
"Mom always understood things and somehow always knew just what to say."
"Indeed she did. She was an amazing woman and I regret that Lia, Coop, nor the baby will get to know her. It’s a tragedy in some regards." He cleared the emotion from his voice and asked as he restarted making dinner, "So, now what?"
Don also cleared his throat, feeling the pain of his mother's loss as strong now as he had in the weeks after it had happened. "Umm, we're all getting physicals and blood tests done."
Alan looked up sharply. "Tay Sachs?"
"Yeah, we both got tested, especially after I told the doctor that you were a carrier. Plus, with some of Lia's family tree being unknown the doctor had some concerns, so we agreed it would be in our best interests for her to be tested too. We won't know the results of our tests for a few days since we just got tested at our physicals."
"Is that the appointment you had today?"
"Mmm, yeah. I'm actually really worried about the results."
"You have every right to be worried it’s a terrible thing to have a child with Tay Sachs. I remember how painful it was for your Aunt Rachel to watch your baby cousin die of it. You were a baby yourself then, but it was just horrible."
Don nodded his head in agreement.
Alan asked, "What will you do if your test comes back with you as a carrier and Lia too? Will Billy be the father instead?"
Don said, "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. If both Lia and I come back positive I guess Coop will get tested just in case. He had a physical last week since we decided that we should all get checked out ..." Don cleared his throat, "...cause, well, if things go well we may want to have another."
"Wow Donnie, this is big."
"Yeah, I know Dad. Anything else you want to ask?"
Alan shook his head. 'Uh no, just are you sure you want this?"
"Yeah Dad I am."
"Good, cause I don't want to hear you whine when you haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks cause the baby gets up every three hours. Don't come crying to me," Alan teased and tossed a towel at Don.
Don grinned, "Oh come on Dad! You know you'll be over every second."
"Probably."
Soberly Don asked, "Hey Dad, do you think you can hold off on saying anything to Charlie right now? I want to tell him myself, but I want to wait till we get a little further."
"Sure sure, if that is what you want," Alan quickly said.
"Thanks." Don stood up and made his way to the back door. "Why don't I go and supervise the grilling?"
Alan chuckled, "Why do I have the feeling that your idea of supervising is really just an excuse to annoy your brother?"
"Who me? Never." Don smirked and stepped out the door.
Pairing(s): Don/Coop/Lia
Rating:T to M as the story progresses
Word Count: 2244
Spoilers: Possibly up to the end of season 3, or at least three quarters of S3.
Summary: Don, Coop & Lia look towards the future and decide on a plus one.
Author's Notes: Continuation and exploration of the ficlet series Generations . Thanks to my beta
bubbleslayer &
mercilynn for her feedback. Thanks to
philleegirl for your thoughts too.
Don entered the front door of his childhood home looking for father and brother. He stopped by the fluted bowl to flip through the mail, in case something had not been forwarded to his house. He followed the sounds and smells that were emanating from the kitchen and found his Dad waving a wooden spoon in his brother’s general direction.
“Hey, what’s going on here,” Don asked with an amused grin. “What did Chuck do now?”
Charlie narrowed his eyes and replied, “I have done nothing, if you must know. It’s Dad, he doesn’t trust me with the grill.”
Alan chided, “Now Charlie I never said that. I just merely suggested that you keep a closer eye on what you’re doing.” Alan glanced at Don before adding, “If you remember last time you were in charge of grilling, the steaks came out burnt.”
Charlie sputtered, “But it wasn’t my fault. A break though for the case I was working on for Don popped into my head and I stepped away for five minutes to write it down.”
“I’m sorry Chuck but you’re not laying that at my feet the fact that you burned perfectly good rib eye.”
“Whatever DON ald," Charlie said with emphasis. "See if I help you with your cases anymore. I’m sure the NSA would love to have me consult more.”
“Okay, that’s enough you two. Charlie go out and get the grill going, I’ll come out in a bit to see if you need me to fill in for a bit in case you get a revelation or something,” Alan said.
“Fine Dad.” As Charlie started out the patio door he said sarcastically, “You like yours well done right Don?”
Don yelled, “Don’t you dare Chucky! Or you’ll be swimming with the koi!”
Alan rolled his eyes and pointed at the fridge with the spoon. “Stop annoying your brother and hand me the Worcester sauce.”
“Sure Dad.” Don opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of Worcester sauce.
"You're a bit early for dinner," Alan said as he took the bottle from Don. "And where's your partners?"
"Yeah I had an appointment this afternoon so I came right from there. Coop and Lia will be here closer to six." He turned back to the fridge and started to grab a beer but changed his mind, knowing that he would never hear the end of it from Lia. He grimaced slightly as he grabbed a bottle of water. His eyes flicked to a photo and birth announcement on the fridge, which he quickly read, noting that the baby wasn’t really that cute and his name was Mason Wade.
“Your cousin Rachel sent that.”
“Little Rachel had a baby?"
“Actually Don, this is her second.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t you remember she had her first baby two years ago or so, named Ashley?” Alan gave Don a wistful look before saying, “At least someone in our family is getting grandkids.”
Don shook his head and tried not to sigh as he listened to his Dad talk.
“But, you know I guess I should just be happy that you and your brother are both in stable relationships and you have successful careers, right?”
“Yeah Dad.” He began to pick at the bottle, “You know Dad…..” He stopped and shook his head, “I wouldn’t say that grand kids were NOT in your future at all. You know, things could change.”
“Donnie, you know your brother and Amita are getting more serious, but I seriously doubt that even if they did tie the knot that Amita would want to have kids right away. Not with her getting her teaching career off the ground. Actually, I shouldn’t presume or anything.”
“No Dad, I wasn’t talking about Charlie. I was talking about, you know, me,” he answered as he scratched around the band aid on his inner elbow where he’d had blood drawn.
Alan stopped stirring the marinade and slowly turned to look at Don. “What?”
This time Don actually sighed. “We weren't going to say anything for a while, but we decided that we'd like to maybe, start a family."
"Huh? Donnie, I don't understand."
"What do you mean you don't understand Dad?" Don joked, "You're the one who told me where babies come from."
Sternly Alan said, "Don."
Don rubbed his forehead before sitting down on one of the stools. "After some talking, the three of us, decided that we'd like to have a baby."
"Okay, but do you think that’s a good idea?"
Don pursed his lips and huffed. "See this is exactly why I wasn't even going to tell you. You question everything about my relationship and choices."
"Don, I'm not trying to question you. What do you think you mother would say? I'm just trying to..." Alan stopped talking to look at Don. He put down the spoon he had been holding and took a seat next to Don. He carefully said, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
Don glanced at his watch and tried to calm the thoughts of doubt in his head. "We started to talk one night, and the subject of kids came up, and Lia was upset since she had come to the conclusion she would never have any. And well, Coop and I both said, ‘why not,’ and to make a long story short, we decided that we wanted to start a family."
"Don, please do not take any of my questions as not being supportive of you, Lia, and Billy. I just have concerns as a parent, which, well, if that’s a road you’re going to go down you’ll come to understand. I just want to make sure you three have thought this through."
"Yeah, okay Dad, we did. It isn't something we decided lightly."
"And all three of you want kids, not just Lia?"
Don grinned slightly, "Believe it not, the more we talked about it the more I realized that yeah, it was something that I wanted. Coop too." Don shrugged. "It was just something that we both didn't think we'd ever consider till now."
"Didn't you and Kim ever discuss it?"
Don said, "No, not really. It never really came up, and I just figured that she didn't want any."
"I don't want to be crass or anything but, who would be the father?"
Don looked his father directly in the eye and replied, "Me. Coop wants it to be me." Not waiting for a reply, Don continued. “He thought that it would be better for me to be the father so the baby could have roots and a family, and he doesn’t have any of that."
Alan asked thoughtfully, "He said that?"
"Yeah, he did."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Scared," Don admitted. "I'm scared shitless."
Alan snorted, "I know exactly how you feel."
Don's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You? Really?"
"Ah my boy, you have no idea." He smiled gently. "I always knew that your mom and I would have kids, but the day she told me she was pregnant, I've never been more scared in my life."
"Really?"
"Really. I never told your mother, but I was freaking out for a long time. I had no idea what I was going to do or how I would be a good dad. I was, as you put it, scared shitless."
He rubbed his jaw, "Dad, I want this. I really do, but I've got doubts."
"Sure you do Don. I think every parent feels that way, and you never get over it. You constantly struggle with all the choices you make and what you’ll impart to your children. You just try to do your best, and that’s what I tried to do."
"Dad, you didn't just try. You did the best."
Alan smiled slightly before asking tentatively, "Can I ask you another question without you getting upset son?"
"Yeah Dad, go ahead."
"Again, please don't take what I am saying as unsupportive, I'm just concerned. It's really hard for me to wrap my mind around this."
Don nodded and tried to be open with his Dad. "I know, me too."
"How will this work? I mean, there are three of you, and with children, they question everything. I guess what I am trying to say is that your relationship isn’t normal. How will you explain that to your child? I wonder what type of effect your relationship would have on the child."
Don thought about his answer for a while before replying, "Well, I don't think it will be a big problem since so many kids have non traditional families now a days. Kids have just a mom, or are being raised by their grandparents. And some kids have two moms or two dads. Our baby will be lucky cause he’ll have three people to love and support him. And he’ll have a lot of extended family with you and Charlie, plus Megan and Larry and everyone!"
Amused, Alan said, "You keep saying him."
"Lia says the same. She says it’s is my subconscious wish that we’ll have a boy."
"But you don't care what you have," Alan said with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course not." Don grinned sheepishly, "Okay, a tiny bit of me hopes we have a boy so I can teach him to play ball. I think the idea of a girl terrifies both me and Coop. But, I know deep in my heart, it won't matter what we have."
Alan nodded, "I never told your mother, but when you two ended up being boys I was secretly relieved. Boys I get, but girls," He puffed out some air. "As your mother liked to remind me often, I have no clue about women."
Don laughed before turning to his Dad and then said, "I know this isn't going to be easy, and there will be a lot of road blocks, but I’m sure we’ll handle them."
"Son, I have a great deal of faith in you and Lia and Coop. It's just still is hard for me to get."
"Mmm, yeah. Hey, Dad do you think Mom would have gotten it? Would've been okay with it?"
Alan sighed wistfully. "Donnie, one thing I can tell for sure was that your Mom was an amazing woman, and I think she would have gotten it. She had a comprehension of people, and what would be best for her sons. I think, she would have been the most accepting, no questions asked."
"Mom always understood things and somehow always knew just what to say."
"Indeed she did. She was an amazing woman and I regret that Lia, Coop, nor the baby will get to know her. It’s a tragedy in some regards." He cleared the emotion from his voice and asked as he restarted making dinner, "So, now what?"
Don also cleared his throat, feeling the pain of his mother's loss as strong now as he had in the weeks after it had happened. "Umm, we're all getting physicals and blood tests done."
Alan looked up sharply. "Tay Sachs?"
"Yeah, we both got tested, especially after I told the doctor that you were a carrier. Plus, with some of Lia's family tree being unknown the doctor had some concerns, so we agreed it would be in our best interests for her to be tested too. We won't know the results of our tests for a few days since we just got tested at our physicals."
"Is that the appointment you had today?"
"Mmm, yeah. I'm actually really worried about the results."
"You have every right to be worried it’s a terrible thing to have a child with Tay Sachs. I remember how painful it was for your Aunt Rachel to watch your baby cousin die of it. You were a baby yourself then, but it was just horrible."
Don nodded his head in agreement.
Alan asked, "What will you do if your test comes back with you as a carrier and Lia too? Will Billy be the father instead?"
Don said, "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. If both Lia and I come back positive I guess Coop will get tested just in case. He had a physical last week since we decided that we should all get checked out ..." Don cleared his throat, "...cause, well, if things go well we may want to have another."
"Wow Donnie, this is big."
"Yeah, I know Dad. Anything else you want to ask?"
Alan shook his head. 'Uh no, just are you sure you want this?"
"Yeah Dad I am."
"Good, cause I don't want to hear you whine when you haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks cause the baby gets up every three hours. Don't come crying to me," Alan teased and tossed a towel at Don.
Don grinned, "Oh come on Dad! You know you'll be over every second."
"Probably."
Soberly Don asked, "Hey Dad, do you think you can hold off on saying anything to Charlie right now? I want to tell him myself, but I want to wait till we get a little further."
"Sure sure, if that is what you want," Alan quickly said.
"Thanks." Don stood up and made his way to the back door. "Why don't I go and supervise the grilling?"
Alan chuckled, "Why do I have the feeling that your idea of supervising is really just an excuse to annoy your brother?"
"Who me? Never." Don smirked and stepped out the door.