A/N: AU Finchel where Finn and his stepson get into a mess. Finchel month, week 1: children.

happiness abounds

(you might recognize this lil blue-eyed charmer :D)

"Psst! Parker!"

The messy head of hair turns around slowly, frowning when he doesn't see anyone. He turns back around to his video game with a shrug.

"Oy! Up here!"

He swivels his head around, looking up towards the roof, his eyes widening comically as he sees his stepfather poking his head down from the attic door in the hallway.

"Dad?" Parker walks over chuckling, his hands crossed over his chest. "What are you doing in the attic?"

"Hiding your mom's birthday present."

"Up there?" Parker laughs.

"Yea. We rarely come up here anyway."

"Yea, cause the door needs to be fixed, Grandpa keeps saying he'll come by to fix it, but he keeps forgetting."

"Just, don't let on to your mom OK? You know how she is with surprises. I hid it here so she couldn't find it, but knowing Rachel, even pregnant, she'd find a way."

Parker chuckles again and nods. "Alright. She'll be home in like 10 minutes, if you're still up there she'll wonder why."

Finn's look turns sheepish as he hangs his head, his hair falling from upside down.

"Well, I would come down but I yanked the ladder too hard getting it down and now it's stuck, I think a couple of the steps need replacing too. I need my toolkit to fix it. There's some board left over from the doghouse."

Parker hesitates. "Are you sure you don't want me to call Uncle Blaine? You know how you are about fixing things. Remember the kitchen sink?"

Finn glares. "One time. I forgot to turn the water off. That one time."

Grinning, Parker nods. "And when you were trying to build Montego's doghouse?"

Finn pushes his hair back and narrows his eyes at his stepson. "I fixed up the nursery didn't I?"

"Uncle Blaine and Uncle Artie helped." Parker deadpans. "Face it Dad, you're a big bad solider, and a helluva coach but you're for shit in the handyman department."

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Finn raises his eyebrow at Parker and his son's cheeks turn pink.

"Sorry Sir."

"Just get the toolkit would you?" Finn nods curtly and disappears back into the attic and grunting, he tries again to lower the attic steps. He manages to get it down, jumping the rest of the way. The steps are stuck, the ladder refusing to retract or slide further; he figures the pulley needs greasing.

"We need to loosen this up. I count three boards slipping so we have to change those too."

Parker frowns. "We?"

Finn levels a look at him and Parker's look brightens and he salutes and hurries outside to the garage where they stashed the leftover board from building the doghouse. He grabs the kit and a few boards then hauls them back to the living room, giving a wistful look at the paused videogame.

His father manages to disappear when he gets back so he drops the pieces of board onto the floor and uses a wrench to pull the loose boards free, two of them splintering when he gets them out. The last board is particularly tricky to get loose and when he finally yanks it out he loses his balance and promptly falls backwards.

"Gah!"

He falls onto his father's feet and Finn topples over then something crashes to the floor and both of them are suddenly covered in motor oil.

The front door bangs open and Rachel wobbles in, humming as she lugs a shopping bag on Montego's back, the dog yipping as Rachel hums.

Finn groans, his head falling with a thud onto the floor. Parker giggles, leaning against him, his hands and shorts covered with oil.

"What the -," Rachel stands in the hallway with wide eyes, her mouth moving silently as she surveys the damage to the attic door and spilled oil. She's past 8 months and can be very emotional at the slightest hiccup and an unhinged attic door with scattered boards that's supposed to be the steps and oil soaking into her floor kinda would qualify as more than just a slight hiccup.

"Ah, hmm - who did this?" She demands, resting her hands on her hips as she glares at the two of them.

Finn and Parker point simultaneously to each other.

"Tattle-tale." Finn mutters.

"Sell out." Parker snickers.

A/N2: (I'd just seen the episode of Teen Wolf where Scott & Stiles are trying to get into detention, and one of them tossed a piece of paper at the teacher, then pointed to each other.. yeah, um. lol!