CSI:NY part 26
Derek, Don, and Danny were at the club where they'd taken him for his stag party. They'd just settled in with Irish Coffees to chat and listen when Danny broke down and asked Derek what made him so happy, as he was almost literally bouncing in his seat.
"Carly's pregnant! She's due in mid-June."
"But it's almost February, how'd you only know now?"
"Let's just say, she's never been regular. It wasn't until she went for a check-up that she found out."
"That's great. She's far enough along to know its sex, are you going to find out?"
"We might in a month or so, when we need to paint the room, for now, nah."
The next time they got together, about six weeks later, Derek was a bit subdued.
"Guys, I hate to say this..."
"Is something wrong with Carly?"
"No, it’s just that we were talking with the priest about godparents, you know, so they have time to prepare, go to the workshop, etc. We wanted to ask you, so if something were to happen to me and Carly, they'd have a steady home. Don, remember Freddy from elementary school? His mom and dad died in a bus crash, and his godparents weren't a couple, and it really messed him up, they finally turned him over to a grandmother, against the requests in his parents' will. Anyway, the priest won't sanctify the bond if..."
"With the Church's view on homosexuality, it doesn't surprise me," Danny said. "Guardianship could just be legal, not religion."
"We'd love to be the cool uncles. You could nominate Lizzie and me for the church, and in legal stuff, say they go to us.”
"Danny, you'd be OK with that?"
"Yeah, doesn't make me less sad about the Church's position, but it works. As long as I'm part of their life, I'm good."
Don had the good luck to be walking in the door from the grocery store on his day off when Derek called, saying Carly was in labor. He told Derek to leave a message with Danny's dispatcher to head to the hospital when his shift was over. After quickly putting away the milk and frozen stuff, he hopped the subway to the hospital. He would have taken Danny's bike, but he wasn't sure how long they were going to be parked, and meter-feeding was a pain.
By the time he got to the hospital, Carly had already broken one of Derek's fingers and dislocated another.
"Damn woman, let's get you some phone books to tear!" was the first thing Carly heard from Don when he entered the room after he saw Derek getting his fingers splinted.
Panting, she said, "Hey, Flack, care to volunteer your hands?"
"Nope, I brought you stress balls, the foam ones, not the flour-filled balloons, your nails would shred those. Need to save the gun hands of the city's finest. Danny'll be here soon. He was the designated mommy-sitter for his cousins when he was a teenager, according to Mama. When one of the family was having a kid, the whole family showed up. If the husband had to leave for a bathroom break, Danny got stuck with coaching. He never did figure out why."
"So lots of practice, with an Italian family."
"Yeah, he has like 18 first cousins, 10 of them older, and judging by the kids we chaperoned at his dad's funeral, there's a woman out there with 4 kids in 3 years. There were 16 kids between 5 and 13 from 4 couples."
Just as he finished talking about the nutty Messer/Ferra clan, Danny came in, closely followed by Derek.
"Hey, Carly. How far apart are they?"
"About 4...minutes. You're lucky I have these things to squeeze, not the ones attached to people."
This caused all three men to wince, and her doctor, who'd taken care of Derek's fingers, laughed.
"Seems someone has experience at this. I'm still not sure why we don't keep a huge bin of those things on this ward. I know there's been a campaign by the nurses since I did my residency here 10 years ago. Anyway, it's time to clear out unnecessary people.”
Pointing to each, Carly told the doctor, "Husband, so he better be here, and godfathers. If you want to throw them out, at least let them stay close. My mom and dad have to fly in, and the in-laws are unreachable."
"Right. You can stay, but if someone faints, we reserve the right to laugh uproariously."
It turned out Danny was the only one of the guys who stayed conscious through the whole thing, even the afterbirth. Don had to leave about 20 minutes in, and Derek fainted when the baby slurped out.
The christening was the next Sunday, and Don was named godfather. At the breakfast afterwards, Danny took most of Don's turns holding little Sarah Kelly, only turning her over to her mom for feedings.
Derek and Don were talking with some of the other guys their age when Derek looked over at the corner where his wife and Danny were ensconced with his mom and Aunt Ella.
"Look at Danny. All the girls that don't know about you guys are squealing inside. You gonna smash their dreams?"
"I think I will. I wish that was a kid we could take home with us. We'd never be allowed to adopt without one of us quitting. Even once Danny's in the crime lab they'd never let us...You guys better have lots of kids, we'll just borrow a few."
Don wandered over to sit beside Danny on the couch, leaning in to let Sarah wrap her hand around his finger. Danny looked up, bringing him nose to nose with Don. With an Eskimo kiss, Don smiled, leaning in for a real kiss. A few seconds into the kiss, he could hear a pack of girls moaning that 'all the good ones'.
As they were leaving, Carly said, as she hugged them goodbye, "If there were any justice, you could adopt with no problems. You two are natural dads."
Don responded, "We'll just have to be the really cool uncles that take the kids on good day trips so mom and dad can have grown-up time."
"Deal."