Spencer and Derek were getting into bed, the boys were finally settled down, not asleep but at least settled down. Clark had insisted on calling his mom one more time before he laid down for the night, even though he had known that it was three in the morning in London. "I think that went well, don't you?" Spencer yawned, for a surprisingly relaxed day he was exhausted.
"Yeah, but it's only the first day so let's not count any eggs just yet." Derek pulled Spencer against his chest and rested his chin on the younger man's shoulder.
Spencer laughed, "seriously, count eggs?"
"Don't start on me pretty boy, you almost got bested by an eleven year old." Derek brought one hand up to play with a piece of Spencer's hair. "I know you want to have the wedding in winter, but you'll wear your hair back right?"
"'The wedding' I love the sound of that." Spencer smiled and turned so he could see Derek. "Their both extremely intelligent for kids."
Derek rose one eye brow, "you were almost a graduate from high school when you were their age."
"I don't count." Spencer burrowed a little farther into Derek's embrace. "I mean Bethany doesn't hide things from them. She keeps them very aware."
"How could she not, their two mixed kids named after superheros living in the inner city of Chicago and their bigger trekkie's than you. Their the stuff kids to be bullied are made of." Derek frowned, "do you think they get picked on?"
Spencer tried to contain his laugh, "have you met them? Those are not two kids who get picked on, I doubt Clark is ever very far from Bruce's side and I'm pretty sure Bruce could hold his own in a fight with someone his own age. Bethany isn't the sort of mom that would allow anyone to get away with picking on her kids." Derek couldn't ignore the hint of bitterness that colored Spencer's voice.
"You're mom didn't allow kids to pick on you. Spencer you're really good at hiding things when you want to." Derek ran a hand over Spencer's face and brought his chin up so he would look him in the eye, "even if she hadn't been sick do you think she would have known that you went through what you did?"
Spencer thought about how his dad hadn't seen what was happening to him before he left and if Diane Reid had been in her right mind she probably wouldn't have noticed what was happening to her son either. "I guess not." Spencer was dangerously good at hiding the things that were hurting him most. "Okay, okay no more talk about this. It's depressing, I want to talk about our wedding."
"You know we still have to tell the team." Derek prodded gently, it was a bit of a sore subject. They hadn't quite found an agreement on when to tell them.
"We should tell them at the bar-b-que. Everyone will be together and relaxed, no one will being worrying about a case or anything." Spencer said so quickly that Derek knew that he had put some thought into this and it made him smile, it gave the whole thing a much more real feel to it. After they told the family it would be something set, something that was going to happen. "How about a date?"
"I thought you would have all that figured out, you want a winter wedding." Derek smiled, they both got cheesy grins on their faces whenever they spoke about it.
Spencer's smile turned wicked, "technically I asked you."
Derek laughed, "you trying to make me the girl?"
"Are you implying that I'm the girl?" Spencer mocked-glared.
Any more of the conversation was broken off when a soft knock came to the door. "Yeah?" Derek sat up and Spencer moved away slightly, they'd agreed that there wasn't any reason to make the boys needlessly uncomfortable.
The door opened slowly and both boys were standing there looking embarrassed and Clark had the distinct look that he was about to run. "Um.. we can't.. we can't sleep." Derek wanted to point out that it hadn't even been an hour yet and they couldn't possibly know that they weren't going to be able to sleep, but he saw the scared eyes and knew what it was that was keeping them awake.
"Come on then," Derek pushed Spencer down to the other end of the bed and gave the boys plenty of room. "Wanna watch a movie, your pick."
"Something scary," Clark said at the same time Bruce said, "something funny."
"Shaun of the Dead?" They looked hopefully at the two older men.
"Y'know I think I have that." Derek got up and ran out of the room. Spencer sat up and rested against the head board, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
"Who is the 'salt sucker' alien?" Bruce suddenly threw out there.
Spencer and Clark stumbled over each other trying to shout out, "Foliallian."
Bruce didn't get a chance to ask another question as Derek came back into the room waving the red and black box around. "Are you boys sure you want to watch this? I know I'm supposed to be the 'cool' guy but this is rated R and I know it has foul language-"
"We know not to repeat things we hear in movies Derek." Clark cut in.
"Clark you shouldn't interrupt someone," Spencer said softly leveling a kind but firm look on the young boy. Clark mumbled an apology, even Spencer was quite amazed at how well he was taking to being a parental figure. And for once he wasn't falling back on statistics and facts, it all felt so natural.
"And if it gets too scary?" Derek asked seriously.
"We may have already seen this film," Bruce answered truthfully, "at a friends house."
Derek mulled it over for another moment, it wasn't like he could corrupt them more if they'd already seen the film. "Okay, but you'll let us know if it gets too scary." He ignored the eye roll that both boys gave him. He knew he was being too protective if Bruce was rolling his eyes. Derek put the movie in and got back onto the bed, he almost turned to Spencer and made a quip about how he'd said Derek would never have any use for a california king. It was definitely getting use now that all four of them had plenty of room and didn't feel crowded. The boys took the one sleeping bag they had brought with them and crawled to the foot of the bed, yanking two pillows along with them. Derek got him and Spencer comfortable with the slighter man in his arms. "Ever seen this movie pretty boy?" they ignored the snickering from the bottom of the bed.
"Of course not," Spencer made it sound like it should be obvious.
"That's right," Derek teased, "it's not a crappy sci-fi movie."
"Hey," Clark glared at Derek, "we like crappy sci-fi too." Derek threw up his hands in mock-surrender.
The first quarter of the movie was spent in relative silence, with the boys laughing at jokes Derek did not think they should be laughing at and Spencer snickering, apparently the movie had just the right side of cheesy for him. It wasn't until the zombies started coming out that Derek began keeping a close eye on the twins, but it would seem that they hadn't been putting up a front; they continued to laugh at the film. Spencer was a different story, he started twitching whenever a zombie made the rare jump out, pop up entrance and twice he'd did his own jumping when one of the ugly zombies came out of no where.
"Is the movie too scary for you Uncle Spencer?" Bruce asked it so innocently that neither of them could be certain if the boy was mocking Spencer.
"Yeah, should we turn it off?" There was no mistaking Clark's teasing.
"I'm fine," but Spencer took to turning and pushing his face into Derek's face whenever he thought a zombie was going to jump out.
"You are something else Spencer," Derek kissed his temple and wrapped him a little tighter in his arms. "The things we see at work and you're frea--"
"Shut it Der," Spencer mumbled, he was starting to drift off. Derek saw that the boys too were starting to fall asleep where they laid. He went ahead and let the movie play until both boys and Spencer were asleep before turning it off and getting him and Spencer into a more comfortable position to sleep.
The next morning Derek and Spencer were not prepared for the awaking they received. Neither of them were sure what came first, there was the fuzzy sound of one of the boys saying, "get'em Clooney,' followed quickly by not one but two bodies landing on the bed. One was definitely of the canine species and the other was of the human variety.
"Spencer!" his eyes flew open at the sound of Clark's voice, "what race probably descended from the Andorians?"
"Wha?" Spencer blinked a few times trying to clear the sleep from his eyes. "You're asking-"
"Ten seconds Uncle Spencer," Bruce was staring at his watch, wicked grin in place.
"The uh, Elasians.." he trailed off before opening his eyes again, "what time is it?"
"Five-thirty," Bruce answered promptly.
"You two have one second to be out of this room," Derek growled, he'd never truly woken up. There was the sounds of six feet hitting the ground fast, even Clooney had heard the warning in Derek's voice. "You tell them that they don't wake us up before eight ever again, ever." Derek rolled over and slung an arm around Spencer completely prepared to fall back to sleep.
"Why me?" Spencer snuggled into Derek's arms.
"I've already established myself as the pushover. You get to be punisher." Derek smiled, he could feel Spencer's confusion, but it was a sleepy smile. "First day of vacation and we get woken up before the suns it even up."
"I don't want to be the punisher, their not going to listen to me." Spencer almost ignored Derek comment about vacation, "and our vacation started on Saturday."
"No," Derek really wished he'd get to go back to sleep, "today's monday and we should be at work. Today is the first day of vacation. They'll listen to you, they worship the ground you walk on."
"Your ground too," Spencer was nearly back to sleep. "Why did they get up so early?"
"Bethany's first meeting is at eleven," he kissed Spencer softly. "Seriously pretty boy, go back to bed."
They finally pulled themselves out of bed at seven-thirty, they couldn't sleep any longer, there were two eleven year old boys roaming their house. Spencer went straight for the coffee maker and Derek headed for the bathroom. "Be down in a minute," he kissed Spencer cheek. They were both a lot more tired than they'd expected, neither of them had counted on the twins wearing them out so throughly.
Spencer was glad to see that the boys were just watching television, their bored looks spoke volumes about how they felt being left to their own devices for nearly two hours. "In the kitchen guys." Clark and Bruce stood slowly, looking a bit worried. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble."
They visible relaxed, "we're sorry for waking you up Uncle Spencer. We we're bored."
"Like I said you're not in trouble, we'd just like it if you didn't wake us up okay. We'll always be out of bed before eight." Spencer looked at the twins and was instantly worried, "when did you boys get up?" both boys had dark circles under their eyes and Bruce was practically nodding off where he sat.
"Um," Clark looked at his brother who could only shrug, "way to early?" Clark worded it like a question and it did not fool Spencer for a moment.
"Come on guys," Spencer gave them a level look.
"Four o'clock," they said together. Spencer decided it would be better to just not say anything, he understood why the boys got up so early. Derek came in and patted the kids on their heads earning glares from both of them.
"Why don't you go and watch some television until breakfast is finished. First season of TOS is on the bottom shelf," Spencer called out helpfully, they could hear the twins make a dash for the DVD stand.
Derek grinned and wrapped his arms around Spencer, "you're trying to kill me," he mumbled into the taller man's neck.
"Don't be a baby," Spencer turned enough to kiss Derek's temple.
"M'not," Derek kissed him once more before slowly untangling himself from Spencer.
"Go find out what they want to do today," Spencer pushed him out of the kitchen. He looked over what they had to eat and just as he was deciding on bacon and eggs Derek came back in grinning.
"They are completely out." Derek put a few the eggs back and Spencer frowned.
"We should still make them something to eat, they're not going to sleep all day." Spencer went to look at the sleeping twins, "Okay that's adorable take a picture."
"Hell no," Derek looked at him like he was crazy. "I'm not taking a picture of those boys all curled up together."
"Oh their not curled up," Spencer smiled warmly, "they look so young."
Derek raised an eyebrow, "their eleven."
"Yeah but they don't always look eleven." Spencer frowned for a moment, "sometimes they look much older."
"We both know what it's like to lose our Dad's when you're that young. Maybe being here with us.. We'll be able to help them through it." Derek poured them coffee and dumped almost the entire sugar bowl into Spencer's.
"I didn't lose my dad." Spencer said matter-of-fact. Derek didn't comment, if Spencer wanted to look at it that way he could. "So guess, what do you think their going to want to do today?"
Derek grinned, "be a spy of course." Spencer shifted his eyes back and forth stealthy, "pretty boy.. I don't think they'll find that as amusing as you do."
Spencer grinned widely, "of course not, but I'm amused." Derek laughed and took the offered plate of food, he sat down and was quickly joined by his lover. "Blah," he took one sip from his coffee and stood to retrieve the sugar bowl.
"Oh come on, you've got to be kidding." Derek grinned, "I didn't get enough in again?"
"I told you pour until you think, 'oh my god how does he even have teeth any more?' and then pour a little bit more in." Spencer kissed him warmly while scooping three more tablespoons into his coffee.
"You're going to regret that when you go to the dentist." Derek warned.
"Mom told me that everyday," he smirked and then grinned wide and toothy. "Does it look like this smile is tarnished in any way?"
"No," Derek said warmly, "it doesn't." Spencer grinned and they fell into a comfortable silence. As they were finishing up the dishes Derek hooked an arm around Spencer's waist and pulled him against him. "I guess there no way to convince that going in there and watching the DVD that is already playing is a bad idea?"
"Unless you have a really good alternative activity.. other than that.. God Derek there are children in the house." Spencer laughed and pushed a leering Derek away from him. "Come on, this way when they wake up I can throw a question at Clark's sleep muddled mind."
"Spencer, Spencer you really shouldn't get enjoyment out of beating an eleven year old at Star Trek trivia." Derek followed the taller man into the living room and they dropped into the recliner to share.
"Oh I think eventually he'll stump me." Spencer restarted the episode that was playing and leaned back to get comfortable against Derek.
"Sure," Derek wrapped his arms around Spencer and settled in to watch the show. Which, he'd never admit especially to Spencer, he didn't mind it all that much.
Ahaha, finally! Sorry this took so long folks stuff came up, like planning this whole next chapter that was to be centered around the Spy in the City thing and then... damn it all if the peeps who were supposed to go with me decided they didn't want to. So it took me a few days to convince myself that I could muddle through it because I mean I'm sure there aren't tons of you guys that live in the DC area that are going to do that and so what if I make it up right? right! So I worked through that. And now will hopefully be back to my semi-regular updating-ness.
I debated on the movie for a while but then realized that I was ten the first time I saw the Exocist and well... nothing like seeing your bf holding a crucifix yelling, 'fuck me fuck me' so seriously? eleven years watching Shawn of the Dead? not that bad
Hope you guys enjoy! And thank you to the support this has gotten so far, like all great peeps you rock!
I know thanking at the end of each chapter can be redundant so I'll try to keep it to a minimal.. but I just like you all to know that I appreciate it! :)