Life's a Zoo

Sequel to Becoming Parents

The expanded count of the members of Lincoln-Alister family was a running joke with their friends. Now in addition to Skylar and Zach (and the Lab-Corgi puppy named Ranger the family had adopted from a shelter a year ago) the couple had just adopted their third child. It was a stroke of luck the baby boy was born at San Antonio Memorial. His name was Hunter. Topher teased Drew asking now that Skylar was in school full-time and Zach was a toddler, did he and Rick get bored without a baby in the house?

"Have you got sick of having a full night of sleep?" He said.

Drew laughed. "Three isn't that big of a number."

Drew and Rick were sure their family was complete now. Unless they added something that lived in a tank like tropical fish. When he was an active army ranger, Rick didn't think he would be a stay-at-home parent. Maybe if they had adopted older children he wouldn't have made that choice but he couldn't see himself not being the one there for his and Drew's children when Drew was working. Opposite shifts were not even up for discussion. Looking after a newborn, since Skylar and Zach had both come to live with them at six months old it had been a learning curve. Infants were different from newborns. The men were quick to learn though. Drew joked this was once that medical school came in handy when it came to parenthood. Being the only girl in the house was made to be a special spot in the family for Skylar rather than a position that was bad. Both parents joked she ruled the house.

Skylar was glad to have little brothers, not sisters. She could teach Hunter to teach Hunter how to play soccer and baseball like she had Zach. No being forced to play Barbie dolls and dress-up. Some of the girls in her class told her she was "weird" because of that. Well, Skylar had news for them. She thought they were weird. The seven-year-old's athletic interests and non-existent fear of dirt and bugs was just who she was. Not because she had two dads. Her aunt Claudia tried endlessly to get the little girl to go for mini-spa days or get her hair done but Skylar had zero interest. She did like to bake and decorate stuff though. She and Claudia baked something once a week.

All babies were adorable their age irrelevant.

But newborns were their own level of sweet, Hunter's dads were learning. His siblings were very interested in him, mostly Zach wanted to why Hunter was "a cranky-pants," or why the baby cried so much. This made his parents laugh.

"Hunter can't talk like you guys yet," Drew explained. "His way to tell us if he needs something is to cry."

"But he's so small. How can he eat so much?" was Zach's new question.

If the toddler knew how many dirty diapers his dads changed every day since last week he would know where all that food went. Drew told him "babies had small stomachs" so they had to eat often. Having two weeks off with the family was something Drew was grateful for. Again, he had to thank Topher for that. Family leave wasn't as easy to get with adoption and especially for gay couples.

T.C.'s P.O.V.

Marriage was complicated. Sometimes, T.C. Callahan wondered if getting married was a mistake. Children were not in his and Jordan's immediate future. T.C. still had his taste for thrills and chaos, a.k.a. Syria or any other war zone and would head there in a few days notice, not even bothering to discuss the topic with his wife. The "we" part of marriage was something T.C. couldn't grasp.

Both Topher and Drew had given up on trying to explain the partnership aspect to their friend. It was a waste of time and energy, they said.

The fact Jordan and T.C. didn't have children? A blessing. Parenthood had his own stresses, put that with two full-time high stress careers with long hours and one spouse who willingly sprinted off to the most unstable part of the world without thinking his wife? A recipe for pain and confusion for a child.

"You can't do that to a kid, T," Drew told him. "Get your head out of your ass!"

If he and Jordan were going to get the happily ever after his friends had it was going to be a lot of work.

Thomas Charles hoped he was up for it. As stubborn as he was, T.C. couldn't lose Jordan.