Title: Been there, done that.
Disclaimer: blah...blah...blah. I.do.not.own.them.
Summary: It might as well be a parent's worst nightmare. Your children growing old enough to reach the stage of 'not needing' your parents anymore.
A/N: Introducing...Timothy Wolfe in my 'family' series (They still don't have a name, eh. Anyone know a name?). After his younger sisters, it's now his turn to be the focus of attention in one of my stories. Written for Inge, who encouraged me to make a series in the first place, and then bugged me until I wrote this. So here it is!
It might as well be a parent's worst nightmare. Your children growing old enough to reach the stage of 'not needing' your parents anymore. As a parent, you hold on to the days where your children like to sit on your lap and be lifted, and the times when they tell you everything that's going on in their lives, important or not. But at a certain age, those things just stop. They don't sit on your lap anymore -God forbid anyone even saw them with you- , you can't lift them even if they wanted you to, and you hardly hear anything about their lives, unless you ask. Calleigh knew that two of her children had reached or were reaching that stage in their lives when she saw Tim and Haylie sitting slumped down on the couch together, while Rebecca seemed comfortable nestled on Ryan's lap in the chair.
Haylie and Tim had started a fight about the remote control, but Ryan didn't seem to notice as he was laughing at something Rebecca had told him. Calleigh smiled, but it faded as Haylie started shouting.
"Give it back! Give it to me, I was WATCHING that!"
"It's boring." Tim replied.
"I like it, and I was watching! Give it back to me!"
"I wanna watch something else."
"Give it here or I'll tell mom and dad about how I saw you kissing a girl!"
The room seemed frozen in time. Ryan and Rebecca stopped laughing, and both of their hazel eyes grew wide. Tim's green eyes seemed to spit fire at his sister, who'd covered her mouth with her hand, evidently just as surprised about her revelation as the rest of the room.
"…Does anyone want a drink?" Calleigh said to break the very awkward silence.
"No thanks." Tim jumped up from his seat, threw the remote against his sister's head ("Ouch! Jerk!") and stormed out of the room, up onto the stairs.
The awkward silence returned.
"It…seemed consensual if that's what you're wondering." Haylie muttered.
"No, actually, that was not the kind of information we were waiting for." Ryan replied.
"It's not? Then what are you waiting for?" Calleigh asked, obvious that what Haylie said had indeed been her question.
"Well…who was it?" Ryan asked with a grin on his face.
"Ryan Wolfe!" Calleigh laughed. "Go ask your son if you're interested in that. After all, Haylie's not supposed to know these kinds of things, is she?" She said with emphasis on 'is she'.
"I can't help it that he did it like in plain sight!"
"You shouldn't have blurted it out in the living room; your brother has a private life as well. And he deserves to keep his private if he feels like it."
Haylie threw her hands up.
"Fine, I'm sorry. But I can't believe you haven't even noticed. He's been home late for like two weeks straight, and he's always gone except for at dinner. Even his computer spends the day off! A month ago he would've died if he couldn't be on his computer."
"Okay, who did she inherit those observation skills from?" Ryan joked.
"Ha-ha, mister CSI. I'm not gonna tell you again that I do not want to be a CSI."
"Fine, fine."
Ryan stood up and put Rebecca down on her feet on the ground, which resulted in a complaining whining.
"Go sit with your mom Becca, I'm gonna go see if your brother is okay."
"Liar, you just wanna know who he kissed." Haylie teased. "I'd tell you, but mom eh…"
"Yeah, blame the mother." Calleigh said, lifting Rebecca and walking towards the kitchen. "If you get him to tell you, ask him whether he'll bring her for dinner tomorrow."
"Uh…sure. I doubt I'll get anything out of him though."
"You never know."
Ryan climbed the stairs and knocked on his son's bedroom door.
"You don't have to tell me I'm grounded. I know." It sounded from inside.
Ryan let out a laugh. "Now, now, we're not that old fashioned, Tim. Wanna talk?"
"Whatever."
The door slowly opened and Ryan entered the room. He sat down on the desk chair, facing his son who fell down on the bed.
"You didn't really think your mom and I would ground you for being a man, right?"
"Man? What happened to 'my baby boy'?"
"Hm…I'm afraid you out-grew it." Ryan said, smiling.
"Geez, how sad." The sarcastic tone of Tim's voice filled the room.
Ryan leaned his arm on the desk and eyed his son.
"You are really growing up. Kissing girls now…God I remember the first time I kissed."
"Really? Who was it then? Do I know her? Do you still see her? Did you guys date?" Tim suddenly seemed very interested.
"How about I tell you…but then you have to tell me about your girl."
"My girl. You say it like I own her."
"Luckily you're wise enough to know that that's not what I mean."
Tim put on a thoughtful face and sighed.
"Fine. You tell me about yours and I might tell you about mine."
"Good enough for me. Yes I dated her; no I don't see her anymore because she died. Your sister was named after her."
"Who? Haylie?"
"No, Rebecca."
"Wow. Mom let you name your daughter after your girlfriend?"
"Ex-girlfriend. We broke up and stayed really good friends up until the day she died. And your mother knows I love her more than any other woman in this world."
Tim made a face and nodded.
"Wait, is…Rebecca, is that the woman whose funeral you visited? When mom and you got together?"
"You remember that story huh? Yes, that's the one."
"Cool. I guess. Then I understand you named Becca after her."
Ryan nodded and seemed lost in thought for a moment. Tim probably thought he was getting out of it easily because he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back.
"Okay, your turn." Ryan suddenly spoke.
"Damn."
"Come on Tim, I'm just your dad. I promise I'm not going 'what does her father do for a living?' on you."
"Yeah, thanks dad. Fine. Her name's Lisa, she lives a few blocks away from here, and we've been dating for about two weeks. Anything else?"
"Yeah. Your mom asked whether you'll bring her to dinner tomorrow."
"I…uh…what?"
"Your mom, Calleigh Wolfe, asked me, to ask you, if you will bring your girlfriend to dinner tomorrow."
Tim's eyes widened and his mouth opened, closed, and opened again.
"Uh…I'll…I'll ask her."
"Good."
Ryan stood up and rubbed his son's hair.
"Damnit dad, it took me like half an hour to get it like that."
"You remind me of your mother."
Smiling, Ryan left the room and went back downstairs. Haylie had reclaimed the remote control and was sitting on a chair now, watching one of her favourite shows with her mother. Rebecca was lying near asleep on Calleigh's lap on the couch.
"He's going to ask her. Her name's Lisa."
Calleigh looked up, surprised.
"Really? Wow."
"I didn't expect him to tell either, but I told him about Rebecca. The other one, not the one on your lap." Ryan winked.
"Ah…that seems to work well on our children, doesn't it?"
"Classic case of been there, done that, I guess."
"Yeah. Sit down."
Calleigh patted the spot on the couch next to her and Ryan sat down, wrapping his arms around his wife.
"So what are you gonna cook tomorrow?"
"I'm not sure. Spaghetti maybe."
"Oh, yes, make your famous spaghetti. That'll make her wanna come back."
"Good, that's all set then. I'll do some groceries tomorrow morning. Luckily it's my day off tomorrow."
"Horatio must've seen it coming."
Haylie suddenly turned around and glared at her parents.
"Okay, great that's all arranged. Can you please shut up now? I am trying to watch something here."
Calleigh and Ryan rolled their eyes in unison and stood up to take their youngest daughter to bed.
A/N: Aww they grow up so fast!