The first weekend with Liam had been a success. No big conflicts arose, and everyone had a good time. Liam slowly grew more comfortable with talking to Gregg and Angus. Overall, it was the best-case scenario.

It came time for Gregg and Angus to go to bed. They had work the next day, after all. Liam decided to head to bed as well. As Gregg and Angus were preparing to go to sleep, Gregg decided to see if he could tuck Liam into bed. The previous night, he felt like it may have been a bit too personal, but tonight felt like a good time.

As Liam was going into his room, Gregg came forth with the offer, "Hey, Liam. If you want, I could tuck you into bed for you."

Liam looked back at Gregg. He remembered when his original parents used to tuck him into bed, the way they gently pulled the covers over him, the small kiss they would give him on his cheek, the "I love you" that would never be forgotten or ignored.

"Yes, please.", Liam replied, his voice somewhat shaky.

Gregg smiled and took Liam into his bedroom. He let Liam lie down before taking the covers and tossing them up, watching them float down while giving a quiet, yet excited "Woo." Liam laughed a little at the display. When the covers landed, Gregg adjusted the ends so that they completely covered Liam.

After Liam was tucked in, Gregg gave him a peck of the lips on his forehead.

"Love you.", said Gregg, getting up now that he'd finished.

"I love you, too, dad.", replied Liam. It was so short, simple, yet powerful. Gregg wanted to cry. He was making progress. The things he did were really making a difference. He wasn't screwing everything up.

Before Gregg left the room, he looked back at Liam.

"Good night."

"Good night.", said Liam back, and with that, Gregg went to his own room. Angus was already in bed. Gregg crawled in with him.

"Angus, he said it again.", whispered Gregg.

"Said what?", questioned Angus.

"He told me he loved me."

"That's great!"

"I know! I'm really making progress here!"

"I told you you'd be a great dad."

Gregg blushed, "Well, it's only been 2 days."

"And you're already doing great.", replied Angus.

"I guess I have."

"Mhm. Now, let's get some shut-eye. We do still have to work."

"Yep. Night, cap'n.", said Gregg.

"Goodnight, bug."

"Love ya."

"I love you, too."

Both of them were asleep in moments, and so was Liam. It was a peaceful sleep until Liam started dreaming. A child's imagination is powerful, and his was tainted by 2 years of abuse and grief. The addition of newfound love created something unexpectedly horrifying.

When the dream began, Liam was in a bed. The bed which Liam was in existed in a field of white, and he was asleep, watching from outside his own body. His mother stood over him, smiling warmly. He watched, as his mother walked over to his father, and they both walked away.

There was a long period where they walked, but the distance between them and him barely increased. Then, there was a loud noise, like a car horn. Liam's parents blinked out of existence. There was a growing blare in the distance, but before it could get close, everything stopped, and the field of white went black.

Liam woke up in the dream, and he found himself on the ground. It felt like wood despite it all being shrouded in black. There was an echoing sound of footsteps. There was a white figure. It radiated light. Liam was crying. He crawled toward the figure. When he was next to it, however, the heart of the being faded into black. Before he could react, Liam was sent flying by a powerful kick. When he landed, he clutched his stomach in pain.

Behind him, another being of light appeared. This one had to be real. It just had to. That's what Liam thought, as he crawled toward it. He was more cautious this time, not getting too close of his own will, but he didn't really have a choice in the matter, did he. There was a push from behind, and Liam was sprawled out in front of this new creature. He hoped it was real with all his heart, but it wasn't. The blackened heart was bigger this time.

Liam was grabbed by the throat and held in the air. A grip tightened around his neck. Breathing stopped, it was impossible. He kicked, clawed, struggled, but it was futile. The life was being drained from him. He thought it was over, but right as he was about to die, he was pulled from the monster's grasp. He turned around to see it was another white figure. This one, however, didn't reveal a dark heart.

Liam was carried over to two new beings. He was dropped in front of them and left there. The field of light returned, and the two were revealed to be his new parents. These were his new fathers. Everything felt okay again, but it didn't stay that way.

Gregg left. He had to work. He walked away, and Liam was forced to stay behind. Then, the horn sounded again, and Gregg disappeared. Angus was crying. Groceries. That was his reason to leave. He ran the errands. Liam figured this out from their conversations together. Again, the horn, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone, too. The blaring came again. Liam started crying.

The blares grew louder until they were overwhelming. Liam screamed to drown them out. He didn't want to hear them anymore. Then, he woke up, for real this time. The dream had done its damage, though. He was terrified of what might happen tomorrow. If it wasn't tomorrow, then maybe, it would be another day. There was no way to know.

Liam cried, but he did it as quietly as possible. It was a subconscious attempt to not wake his parents. It was something he learned to do quickly after he was given to his first set of adoptive parents after his original ones. Waking his parents with crying used to mean more reasons to cry, so keeping it to himself was an important skill to learn.

"It'll be fine. Just go back to sleep. Don't wake them up."

As Liam had been crying in his room, Gregg had woken up. He needed to pee. He groggily got up and ambled over to the bathroom. Liam heard this and covered his mouth. It was an excruciating 30 seconds or so of holding his tears in until the toilet was flushed. Gregg walked out and was about to just head back to bed, but the thought struck him to see how Liam was sleeping.

When Liam heard Gregg stop at his door, he panicked. In the rush of adrenaline, he let out a sob.

"Huh? Liam? Are you awake?" Gregg entered the room.

"Please, no. Please.", thought Liam. Even in the dark, Gregg could see the irregular breathing and hand covering Liam's mouth.

"Liam? Are you crying?", asked Gregg.

Liam shut his eyes. Why was this happening?

"Liam, what's wrong? Come on, I can tell you're not asleep." Gregg sat on the bed next to Liam. He wasn't answering.

"Did you have a bad dream or something?", asked Gregg.

Liam hesitated for a moment before nodding. He might as well let it out now that Gregg was awake.

"You wanna come sleep with us?", offered Gregg.

Liam uncovered his mouth, "N-no. I'm f-fine."

"If you're worried about what dad's gonna think, you don't have to worry. He'll be fine with it, I promise.", assured Gregg

"I'm fine. I'll just go back to sleep." Liam's voice was stuffy. His nose was runny.

Gregg sighed, "I'll be right back."

Gregg got up and left the room for a moment, coming back with a handful of tissues.

"Come on, blow your nose.", said Gregg, handing Liam a tissue.

Liam took it and blew his nose, which cleared up his voice.

"I said I'm fine. You don't have to do this for me."

"Maybe not, but I'm going to anyways.", replied Gregg, "Now, scooch over."

"Huh?"

"Just move over a bit."

Liam complied and pushed himself to the far side of the bed. Then, Gregg crawled in. He wrapped an arm around Liam.

"There. I'll just sleep here tonight if you don't wanna come with me."

Liam was about to protest, but this felt too good. He couldn't bring himself to argue.

"Thank you.", was all that Liam said.

"It's nothing. I'll always be here for you if you need me."

"Yeah… I know."

"All right, then. Let's get some sleep."

Liam laid there, relishing the warmth and love contained in this moment. In mere moments, he began to hear a light snoring coming from Gregg. For some reason, everything felt okay now. Liam wasn't afraid anymore. His dads were here with him. He hadn't lost them yet. That thought lulled Liam back into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Angus awoke to his alarm clock. He reached out and turned it off. He got up and reached for his glasses. Something was off. Something was missing. Angus looked to the bed and saw what was missing.

"Where's Gregg?"

"He's probably awake already."

He went out into the living room. Gregg wasn't there. When he went to the kitchen, it, too, was empty. If he'd left, he hadn't left anything behind, like a note, something to let Angus know he would be gone.

"Gregg?", Angus called out, still slightly groggy.

He decided to check up on Liam. Maybe, he would know something.

Stepping into Liam's room, the question of what happened to Gregg was answered. There he was, in Liam's bed, holding him.

Angus smiled. Gregg and Liam looked so cute together. Unfortunately, Gregg had work, so he had to wake up. Angus walked over and shook Gregg a bit. He groaned in protest a bit before opening his eyes.

"Angus?", Gregg mumbled.

"Yep, it's me. It's time to wake up.", replied Angus.

"Aw, man. It's so comfy here." Gregg slowly removed his arms from Liam and got up, being careful not to wake him.

"So, why were you sleeping with him?", asked Angus.

"I got up to go to the bathroom, and I checked on Liam, and he was crying. He said he had a bad dream. I asked if he wanted to come sleep with us, but he said no, so I hopped into bed with him.", Gregg explained.

"If he said no, why did you get into bed with him?"

"Because when he said no, he actually meant yes. I could tell, trust me. He wanted it, but he didn't want to accept it from me. He probably felt bad or something and didn't want to bother us."

"Is that so?"

"Yep. Now, I'm gonna go take a shower." Gregg went into their room to pick out some clothes.

"Okay. You do that. I'll go make some coffee."

Angus went out to the kitchen and turned on the coffee machine. As it slowly churned out the miraculous liquid, he heard the sound of the shower turning on. When his coffee was done, Angus threw in some creamer and started drinking, leaving a second cup to be filled for Gregg.

Drinking the coffee began to shake the cobwebs from Angus' mind. Going out into the living room, he turned on the news. He always checked the weather to see if he needed to drive Gregg to work. The weather seemed fine today, luckily.

Once Gregg's coffee was done, Angus poured a sizable amount of creamer into the cup. Then, he got out some sugar. He scooped 2 spoonsful of it into the cup. He went to put it away, but hesitated. After a moment of consideration, he put in a third spoonful just to be safe.

The coffee was done just in time for Gregg to walk out of the bathroom. He saw that Angus made him a cup of coffee and went over to take it.

"Thanks, cap'n.", said Gregg, taking a sip, "It could use some more sugar next time."

Angus sighed, but he didn't say anything.

"So, how's the weather looking today?", asked Gregg, sitting down on the couch.

"It'll be a bit hot, but nothing too bad."

"You always say that, but I always end up sweating my ass off."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't wear your leather jacket at work during the summer.", suggested Angus.

"Not happening. My jacket's, like, the most important part of my look. Everyone always comments on it.", argued Gregg.

"And how many of these comments include something along the lines of 'why are you wearing that? It's really hot out today.'?"

"…Only a few…", replied Gregg hesitantly.

"Look, you can wear it if you want to. It's your jacket. I'm just saying you shouldn't be complaining about the heat if you do."

"Yeah, yeah." Gregg finished his coffee and looked at his phone, "I should probably get going. Looks like last night, the place was completely packed. It'll probably still be a mess by the time I get there."

"Alright. Have a good day at work, bug." Angus gave Gregg a peck on the cheek.

"Yep. You, too. This'll be your first day alone with Liam, too, so have fun with that."

"I will. Love you."

"Love you, too, cap'n. Bye."

"Bye."

Gregg left, and Angus watched as he shut the door behind him. Angus still had some time before he had to check into work on his computer, so he sat and watched the news for a little while. There wasn't much that was interesting on, just the usual stuff. The murder of the day, the political controversy, that week's missing person, it was always the same stuff. It was sad but true. Time passed, and it was time to get to work. This would be the first real test of his parenthood. He would be alone in caring for Liam, and he still had a job to do even if doing it from home gave him some leeway with how he could manage his break time. Liam wasn't up yet, though, so Angus just pushed it out of his mind, put on his mic, and started his day.