Chapter Two
Unlike his previous deployment Drew took a month off before returning to the hospital. It felt good to decompress and re-connect with his family. The kids had grown so much in the six months he was gone. Their vocabulary had expanded and Davey wasn't as shy as he used to be (Shaye was never shy.) And Shaye was no longer scared of horses. Before just the sight of one (not on television) made her cry. The big party wasn't for another week but since Drew had arrived back stateside all of their friends had visited to welcome him home and congratulate him on his new position at the hospital. While they were all glad he was home safe for good. T.C. wasn't convinced that Drew wasn't going to miss military life or that Rick still didn't miss it. That shift in priorities might never happen for him as far as his friends were concerned.
Thomas Charles Callahan didn't do change.
How two little people could be the center of Drew and Rick's world, although Davey and Shaye were sweet was something he didn't understand. One thing was for sure, the siblings were over the moon to see Drew. Topher had noticed, perhaps because he was a father as well, how much the toddlers missed Drew. He could point out changes in behavior and general demeanor without Drew there. Like one thing, thumbsucking. Both started sucking their thumbs, a habit neither had prior.
T.C. thought "that was just something all kids did."
Topher said sometimes it was but the Alister-Lincoln children never did. Topher and his kids saw Drew and family often considering they lived on the same block. Janet had often helped Rick out by forcing him to have "adult" time, which usually meant the gym when he was in single parent mode. Without either parent, Shaye and Davey were especially clingy and whiney. The Zias' five-year-old twins went to an all-day Kindergarten, something that was experimental in some schools. Often times when Janet offered babysitting services, both she and Topher were home. This clinginess, whining and thumb-sucking stopped overnight. With his children sleeping by themselves again and the night through Rick was the focus of his husband's attention once the lights were out.
After six months of nothing but his own hand, this felt fucking incredible to Rick and Drew alike.
The moans and cries of ecstasy didn't wake their children. Perhaps that was because for the first time in months they were sleeping without sadness, living with a fear their young minds didn't have the words to express. The topic of Drew dying hadn't ever been bought up to the kids. But they knew lots of children whose parents were in the military and some daddies and mommies didn't come back when they went away. But their daddy Drew was home now; he had given them a bath, read them bedtime stories and gave them goodnight kisses. He was only across the hall with their other daddy.
