Hey All! I hope you love the story so far. I have big news! The Home Team is now a co-written story. It will stay on this account but the wonderful HAS5245 has decided to join me as a co-author for this story! We can't wait to share all the new chapters with you! It's going to be great! If you haven't already, check out You're My Home by station19lover. It's the prequel to this story. As always please, please review and follow! We love hearing from you! Happy Reading! -D.H. Caldwell
After dropping the boys off at camp, Andy and Jack went to work. The morning had been slow with only a call about a cat in a tree. After doing the inventory for the PRT, Jack decided to pay a visit to Andy's office to see if she needed anything before their meeting with Squires. Jack stepped into her office to see her dusting, balancing herself on a chair to reach the high shelves. "I can get that for you", he offered as she held the duster away from him.
"Or you can sit down and let me dust my office. I don't know what you people are thinking with all of a sudden helping me. My mother, Marsha, and now you. I'm not even going to mention Nora's texts the other day asking a million times if we were okay with staying in the woods and flying there", Andy stated matter of factly as Jack held his arm out for her to get down. "I'm having twins, I'm not dying"
Jack smirked at her and chuckled, "It's because you have a habit of overworking yourself until you pass out in the kitchen and scare all three of your children plus me"
"You're not funny. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get this clean before Squires gets here. I know he likes everything in tip top shape", she answered as Jack held his hands up in mock surrender and took a seat in her desk chair. He spun around in it several times as she dusted off her medal that she got after the aid car crash and the medal she got after the fire at Neilsen's. She dusted off her father's and Robert's hat, which sat above her desk as a reminder of those who came before her. She put down the duster, got down from the chair, and sighed as she looked at him, "Please stop, you're making me dizzy". Andy quickly put a hand to her mouth as she finished talking and corrected herself, "Nope, I lied, breakfast is swimming back upstream"
"Jeez, are you that nervous for Squires's meeting with you? I'm sure you're going to be fine", he assured her as he threw a crumpled paper ball into the air. He caught the ball while spinning around in the chair again. He cringed when he heard the sound of Andy sick to her stomach in the captain's bathroom. He heard the toilet flush and the sink go on and watched her walk out, calm and collected, but still somehow pissed at him.
She glared at him while taking a sip from her Starbucks cup. "I'm pregnant with our twins you dumbass. It's morning sickness. It happens every day now, around this time to be exact", she expressed as he started moving to the chair across from her desk so she could sit in her own chair.
Before he sat down, Jack chuckled and knelt down to talk to the babies. He remembered Carina telling him that talking to the babies in utero was beneficial to their development. It would get them used to his voice, and he tried to do it at least a few times a day. Andy swore up and down that they were calmer when he talked to them. "You two need to cool it in there and let mommy eat", he chuckled as he rested a hand on her stomach. He quickly kissed the spot where his hand had been and turned his attention back to Andy. "You didn't answer my question earlier. Are you nervous about Squires? I could kind of tell you were this morning", he inquired as Andy thumbed through a stack of papers on her desk.
"I don't know. I mean I haven't done anything wrong that I know of. Maybe he just wants an update as to what we're going to do when I'm on maternity leave. Maya and I have it figured out. Travis is going to be interim captain until I get back. Maddie Young is joining us until January when you get back from your leave and staying until I get back from mine", Andy figured aloud as Jack listened to her, half paying attention, half looking at his phone. He gave her a quick head nod and went back to reading the series of texts he got from Nora. He checked his voicemails next and stopped at a voicemail from DJ's school. He read the transcription and sighed when he saw that the voicemail was from the principal asking to talk to Andy right away. Peterson must have thought he was calling Andy's phone. Jack had put Andy down as the daytime contact as she went on less calls than they did. He stared at the message blankly for a second, wondering what Peterson could want. "Jack Gibson, are you even listening to me?", Andy asked him, annoyed that he was paying more attention to his phone than their meeting with the fire chief. Jack waved her off and she glared at him even more annoyed, "Do you even know what I said?"
"Uh huh, yeah. You said you have a plan or something? Something about your leave", he muttered as he reread the voicemail transcript.
Andy gave him a look that showed that she wasn't too happy with him for zoning out. She claimed that once they adopted the triad of kids, he mastered the art of zoning out when he didn't want to deal with something. With so little time left to prepare for Squires, Andy was annoyed. "No, I told you that Maddie Young and Travis were taking over here until January when you come back from your leave", she explained again with a hint of impatience in her voice. She looked at him, only to see him on his phone again. "I am talking to you. Can't you at least pretend to be interested?", she muttered angrily.
Jack sighed as he nodded at her and got up from his chair. He had to take the call in a place where she wasn't. He could tell she was stressed with Squires and didn't want to risk stressing her out any further. "I have to go", he excused as he walked towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going? You have to run a workout in two minutes", Andy asked quizzically. She was trying hard to not yell at him and take her frustrations out on him, but he was ignoring her and she was getting frustrated.
"I have to go get something from Maya for the meeting", Jack lied. Andy understood and smiled at him, letting him know that all was well. He felt bad for lying to her, but until he knew all the information about why the camp director called, he didn't want to clue her in. "It's probably nothing. Maybe one of them won a prize or scraped their knee on the pavement. Maybe Andy forgot to pay the fee this morning. Maybe it's a parent volunteer thing and he wants me to take DJ's group on a station tour. See Gibson, you're worried for nothing", he thought to himself as he walked out of his wife's office. Jack went into his barely used bunk and shut the door behind him, standing against it to prevent anyone from coming in. He took the lock off when DJ accidentally locked himself in when taking a nap there one time. Jack looked at the time on his phone and groaned knowing full well that Maya would be hunting him down any minute to start the team workout. "This is more important than having the team lift the same weights", he told himself while quickly calling back the director. "Come on, pick up", he muttered as he glanced at the clock on the wall. The time seemed to tick by quicker when he had something important to do.
As if on cue, he heard the unmistakable sound of Maya banging her fist on the door behind him, yelling, "Hurry up Gibson, workouts start in two minutes. What are you doing in there?"
Jack sighed; he didn't have time for her nagging him about hosting a workout that the team didn't need. Everyone was in shape and it wouldn't kill them to miss a day. In fact he would probably be applauded for giving them a rest. Vic nearly pulled a muscle the other day with how many bench presses he made them do. He had been so worried about leaving Amelia and Andy at the hospital that he lost count. Jack held the phone away from his ear, and yelled to Maya, "Will you hold on a second Bishop? It's important". Maya groaned and walked away just as Mr. Avery Peterson, the director of the camp, and principal of the boys school picked up the phone.
Peterson was generally a gruff, no-nonsense kind of person that Jack couldn't stand. When DJ and Rowan missed school after Carl died, Peterson berated Jenna for being a bad parent. Jack had been so pissed off that he called the school himself that time and explained that the boys had just lost their father. He wondered now, what Peterson could possibly want with his son, "Hello. Is this Andrea Herrera-Gibson? Dalton James's mom?", he asked, sounding urgent. The theory of the call being anything good slowly went out the window. "I've been trying to get a hold of you for thirty minutes now"
"This is DJ's father Jack Gibson. We've met before", Jack corrected, not afraid to let Peterson know who he was. Jack listened carefully though as Peterson explained that DJ had gotten into a physical fight with another camper. The disappointment was evident in Jack's voice when he asked Peterson what time he would have to pick up DJ to which he was told immediately almost as if DJ was a danger to the other kids. Jack wasn't very happy with DJ, but Peterson was already on his nerves with how he was responding to the situation.
"Come on Gibson. What the hell is taking you so long", Maya yelled again, interrupting his thoughts for a brief moment.
Jack slid down the door and ran his fingers through his hair while closing his eyes and simultaneously trying to formulate a solution. The fact that DJ got in a fight still baffled him. The kid had only ever been in one small fight and that was after Carl died and Peterson was pressuring them to return. After that, Jack sat down with him and had a talk about fighting and how wrong it was. Hell, Jenna had even talked to him about it. "How do I handle this?", he muttered to himself. He knew one thing was for sure however and that was that Andy couldn't find out. The last thing he needed was her blowing off the meeting to go to the school with him. The meeting was important to her. Squires was promoting her and Jack had managed to keep it under wraps for a whole week. He found so many opportunities where he could have told her, but kept quiet so he could see her reaction today when Maya and Squires handed her the paperwork. "Today's going to be so important to her", he thought as she stood up and put his game face on. He didn't want to jeopardize a possible pivotal moment in Andy's life. "I'm his father, I can handle this", he told himself as he walked out the door of his bunk room only to come face to face with an angry Maya. Jack groaned as Maya went on and on about him forgetting the workout and ignoring his responsibilities. "I don't have time for this Bishop", he huffed as he tried to walk past her to the back entrance. There was no way he was walking by Andy's office for her to see him. Maya followed him, complaining as they walked.
"You guys are all Maya do this, Maya do that, Maya I need two weeks off to go to the middle of nowhere and visit my mom that I never met, Maya can you babysit? But when I need you for something, you're always unavailable. You promised me and you promised your wife that you would handle group workout until the babies are born", she yelled, slapping Jack with the stack of papers in her hands. "You're already 20 minutes late and everyone's waiting for you. What could have been so important that you were on the phone all this time, huh?"
Jack angrily took the stack of papers from her and walked towards the entrance, "Ow Bishop. First of all, you volunteer to babysit. Second of all my phone call was important and I was not on the phone all that time. I was in Andy's office making sure she wasn't scaling the shelves to do a deep clean like she does when she's all kind of nervous. Then I got a phone call that I had to take"
"This is so like you, full of excuses" Maya smirked as she followed him to the door, thinking that he was just going to put the papers away. She scowled at him when he reached for the handle. "Where the hell are you going? You're not off shift yet and I am talking to you as your chief", she scolded.
Jack put his hand in the air to let her know that he wasn't the slightest bit interested in what she had to say. In turn, she gave him her captain's stare, the same one that she gave him when they were dating and she broke up with him; cold and unmoving. Not afraid of her, Jack gave Maya his own captain's stare back. "DJ got in a fight at camp and I have to go pick him up and deal with Peterson", he explained.
"How is that possible? He hasn't even been there for two hours.b You two literally dropped them off an hour and a half ago", Maya asked.
"It's DJ. Anything's possible. We're talking about the same kid who put mud on the Saunders' car because they wouldn't give him his soccer ball back. The same kid who begged you to watch Deadpool", Jack reasoned as Maya's expression softened. Jack frowned as he locked eyes with Maya, "Please, not a word to Andy. She's busy preparing for her meeting with Squires and she's already nervous enough. Too much stress will be bad for the twins"
Maya rolled her eyes and gave him a pat on the back, "You're cute when you're worried. Not telling Andy is probably your best bet. Knowing her she'll probably steal the rig and go up to the school to go all mama bear on the kid DJ punched", she added as they walked downstairs, sneaking past Andy's office. "Be civil with the director. Don't make me get a phone call now", Maya warned as they stood near the front desk.
Jack let out a small chuckle, "I won't, I promise. Now, please go cover my workout and stay away from Andy". Maya shook her head and watched as he left the building. As he got in the car, Jack typed a quick text to Elena explaining that she only had to worry about picking up Rowan. DJ would be staying with him at the station for the rest of the day. Jack pulled out of the parking lot and listened to music to calm his nerves as he drove towards the school. Once there, he parked the car and made a beeline for the office. He frowned when he noticed DJ sitting in a chair outside the room with an ice pack over his very swollen eye, lip, and nose. "What did he do? Piss off a 5th grader?", Jack thought to himself as he stood in front of DJ, letting the silence hang in the air for a few minutes.
It didn't take long for DJ to realize that he was in trouble or so he thought. He looked up at his father's, I mean business, expression before shifting his eyes back down to the new light up shoes he got a few days ago on a shopping trip with Maya and Carina. He pressed his heels against the floor to see them light up and grimaced when he noticed specks of blood on his new shoes. He glanced up at his father nervously anticipating the run of the mill "you know better" spiel. "I'm sorry Daddy", DJ cried. "Please don't be mad"
"I know you're sorry", Jack sighed as he took a seat on the bench next to his son, "I also know that whatever you did, we have to talk about it. Do you want to talk now or later? I highly suggest you pick now"
"Now please. Mr. Peterson will just twist the truth like always", DJ explained while Jack rolled his eyes, fully expecting Peterson to do that. DJ wiped his eyes as he started explaining his reasoning for the fight, "I was trying to stand up for Rowan and me. You told us to always have each other's backs 'cause we're family"
Jack sighed as he put a comforting hand on DJ's shoulder, "I did say that didn't I?"
DJ was now trying his hardest not to cry, "I know you told me to use my words, but they didn't work. Not this time. Please, please don't be mad"
"I'm not mad DJ. Promise. But I am very disappointed. What happened that words didn't work?", Jack questioned, trying to give DJ the benefit of the doubt. He was uneasy handling something of this magnitude, having never had to do it before. He knew what trips to the principal's office were like from his own childhood, but they were few and far between and usually ended in no one caring enough to show up. He didn't know the first thing about this.
DJ could sense he was nervous and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, sharing an already matching smirk with his father, "I can tell you have no experience with this. Peterson should be fun for you then".
"Thanks for the encouragement", Jack chuckled uneasily as he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "It's all part of parenting I guess", he thought to himself. He put his hand on DJ's shoulder and smiled uneasily. "I can tell when you're nervous too. It's going to be alright buddy, I promise. Whatever you did, we'll fix it", he encouraged. DJ opened his mouth to speak again, but they were interrupted by Mr. Peterson walking out of his office and standing in front of the bench intimidatingly.
Mr. Peterson adjusted his glasses and sighed when he glanced over at DJ. He shook his head and gestured for both father and son to come into his office. The three sat in silence for a few minutes with DJ kicking his feet back and forth at the bottom of the chair. The look on his face was one of remorse. He never meant to hurt anyone; he was just so mad at what Roger said about his family that he lost control and punched him. Mr. Peterson broke the silence and cleared his throat before turning the conversation over to DJ. "Dalton James, would you like to tell your father about what happened or should I?", he asked impatiently, giving off the impression that he more or less wanted to get the conversation over with.
DJ squirmed in his chair, visibly uncomfortable, and pinched the tips of his fingers like Andy taught him to do whenever he was upset. His eyes glistened with unshed tears as his gaze shifted from Jack to Mr. Peterson, then back to his father again. His voice was barely above a whisper, "I didn't mean to knock his front teeth out. He said so many mean things. He said that he didn't know why you and Mommy picked us"
"I could see how that could be hurtful. However, young man, that still doesn't excuse what you did and there will have to be some disciplinary action. Maybe a three-day suspension?", Mr. Peterson scolded, unsympathetically and unmoving with an explanation that had been meant for Jack. "Is there anything you have to say for yourself Dalton?", Peterson asked before turning to Jack to get support on his decision.
Jack glanced over at DJ who looked so uncomfortable. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh. Did Peterson seriously think he was going to get support on a decision like that? A decision hastily made by someone who didn't know all the facts. Jack put his arm around DJ and leaned over to grab a tissue from the desk, handing it to his son. He was rightfully angry and fired back with questions, "I'm sorry. Did you even ask DJ what his side of the story was?".
Mr. Peterson adjusted his glasses a second time and looked at Jack matter of factly, somehow knowing that he met his match, "With all due respect Mr. Gibson…"
"Hey, that's Lieutenant Gibson to you", Jack answered angrily
"Lieutenant Gibson. As I was saying, with all due respect, your son initiated the conflict. He knocked out another child's tooth. That child had to go to the dentist", Mr. Peterson argued back. "Wait, you're not in the military", he scoffed after calling Jack lieutenant.
Jack stood up and chuckled, "I'm a fire lieutenant so still a lieutenant. And you're seriously upset about the kid having to go to the dentist?"
"Your son caused bodily injury to another student. I don't see anything funny about that", Peterson scolded
Seeing how angry Peterson was over something so small made Jack laugh even more, "Bodily injury? Give me a break. It was probably a baby tooth so nine chances out of ten the kid's going to put it under his pillow and wake up with ten dollars. Meanwhile, my kids get bullied and one of them wakes up with a three-day suspension for defending himself and his brother"
"Mr. Gibson, sit down. Now!", Mr. Peterson ordered, pointing at the chair.
Jack couldn't give a crap about what he was being asked to do and threw his hands on the desk. DJ watched in shock. No parent has ever stood up to Peterson like this before. "You don't tell me to sit down. Someone is bullying my son and I want to know who it is. And if you don't tell me, I will bring in my wife. Trust me, you don't want to piss her off"
DJ smiled gleefully before adding to the conversation, "That's true. Or you can get Aunt Maya Daddy. She's even scarier than Mommy. She told me that she used to get mad at you all the time and that you used to be afraid of her"
"Did she now?", Jack asked, making a mental note to himself to have a conversation with Maya about the stories she was telling his and Andy's kids. Mr. Peterson snapped him out of his thoughts, bringing the conversation back to DJ's fight. Jack shook his head as Mr. Peterson attempted to talk about DJ's punishment once more. "We're back on that again?", he questioned impatiently, having expected a question asking DJ to explain his side of the fight. Sighing, figuring he would have to handle this on his own, Jack turned to DJ, "I don't believe we heard all of your side. Why don't you tell us?"
DJ was sniffling now, trying hard to hold his tears back. He thought it was cool that his father stood up to Mr. Peterson, but his mind circled back to the horrible names all three Gibson kids had been called in just that one day alone. "Roger isn't my friend anymore", DJ whispered, clearly shaken. "He's a bully"
Jack couldn't believe it. DJ, Dustin, and Roger had been incredibly close when he lived with Jenna and Carl. Jack thought for a minute before putting two and two together. "Why didn't I notice this sooner. C'mon Gibson", he thought as it dawned on him that DJ and Roger had been spending considerably less time together since the fire. Jack felt like an idiot parent; the warning signs had all been there. Andy offered to have both Roger and Dustin for a sleepover this weekend before the PA trip, but DJ refused saying that Dustin could come but Roger was busy. Jack turned to DJ and arched an eyebrow at him, asking in an even tone, "Why didn't you tell us this sooner buddy? Mommy and I could have helped before it got to this point"
"I know", DJ admitted, "But I thought it would stop. I tried words but he said that it's Rowan's fault Jenna died 'cause he didn't go back for her. And it's my fault too 'cause I told him to get Lia instead. Now he hates me and, and he thinks you and Mommy don't want us 'cause we're bad"
Jack stared down Mr. Peterson who was needless to say, shocked by DJ's confession. "That's bullying", Jack muttered. "I want the suspension uplifted. Today please. Or maybe I might have to find a new camp and then a new school for my kids"
"We can't uplift a suspension Mr. Gibson. Defense or not, your child showed aggression towards another student and needs to be disciplined. We have a zero-tolerance policy for violence. Policy is policy", Mr. Peterson answered, standing firm on what he believed was the right decision.
Jack scoffed as he held out his hand for DJ to grab, signaling that they were about to leave. "Your policy sucks. If I can be frank here, you have a zero tolerance policy for mistakes. If someone makes a mistake at my work, we give them a second chance no matter how bad the mistake may be. I broke a code and I didn't get fired", Jack admitted thinking back to the affair with Eva and how Andy prevented him from being ousted. "Now, since you're so punishment happy, tell me what Roger's consequence for all of this will be. Or do you have none because you're too interested in keeping his PTA President mother on the school board?", he accused.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss other students Mr. Gibson. All I know is that Dalton James threw the first punch and that Dalton James will have to be suspended for a few days. He can come back on Monday, but until then he needs to be home", Mr. Peterson answered emotionlessly as though he was dealing with someone on an assembly line. "Maybe I can suggest you and your wife being home with him a little more? Absence makes young children act out"
Jack muttered something under his breath before giving Mr. Peterson a piece of his mind, "My wife and I are devoted to our kids and don't you dare try to tell me otherwise. They will not be returning tomorrow. They're done. Come on DJ, let's go see Mommy", he answered plainly before walking out the door, followed by DJ.
When they were in the car, after ensuring that DJ buckled himself into his seat, Jack drove away from the school and back to the station, praying that Maya hadn't clued Andy in yet about the reason he left in a hurry. He prayed that when she asked about it, Maya would give some stupid excuse like him wanting to pick up lunch for them. He decided to do just that to make it seem less suspicious and to soften the news about DJ's fight. He looked in the rearview mirror as DJ played with a loose thread on his booster seat. "Start talking. Now tell me, how does Roger look? Don't bother lying, I've gotten in a few fights myself when I was your age, so I know the deal. Black eye, teeth knocked out, split lip. How bad was it?", Jack urged as they sat in traffic before the burger place.
DJ immediately perked up and paid attention after Jack's revelation about his childhood. "Split lip and front tooth", he explained. "You got in fights too?"
"I'm not proud of it, believe me. There are other ways to be angry DJ, you know better. We talked about this"; Jack explained as he took another peek in the rearview to see DJ on the verge of tears. Jack sighed and then remembered DJ's reason for hitting Roger. He felt for DJ and remembered that when he was little, he would have done the same if not worse to defend Cal and Lila. He pulled the car into the parking lot of the burger place and put it in park before turning around to hand DJ a tissue from the glove compartment. "Roger made you pretty upset, didn't he?", Jack asked, his expression softening a little.
DJ sniffled as he spoke trying hard not to let himself cry, "He made fun of Rowan and Amelia and me. He said that you and Mommy don't love us and that we ruined your life. Please don't be mad". He cringed as he wiped his swollen nose. Jack noticed him doing that and made a mental note to have either Jackson or Teddy check it for breaks if they weren't out on a call. Ben was out sick today, so they had called Jackson over to help. "I'm sorry", DJ apologized again.
Jack locked eyes with DJ, "Listen to me Dalton James. You are so important to your mother and I, all three of you are. We love you guys so much and there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't grateful that Jenna and Carl chose us to be your parents. You know what Mommy says right?"
"She loves us to the moon and around Mars and back?", DJ smiled as he recalled Andy's daily nighttime saying to all three of them in which he would always echo back that he loved her to the moon and around Pluto and back.
Jack nodded, "That's right, and so do I. Roger's wrong about all of it, so wrong"
"He is?", DJ asked as he unbuckled himself from his seat. Jack nodded affirmatively as he stepped out of the car and opened the door for DJ. DJ hopped out and threw his arms around Jack, hugging him tighter than ever before. "Thank you Daddy. I love you too", he cried as Jack hugged him back. DJ stepped back and looked up at him with his piercing blue eyes. "Does this mean I'm not in trouble?"
Jack chuckled as he held out his hand for DJ while encouraging him to hold the ice pack to his eye with the other. "With me, I understand why you did it but we're still going to have a talk with Mommy about fighting. I'm not sure how well this is going to go over with her buddy", he explained as they walked into the burger place to order lunch. "How about this, how about you let Aunt Teddy and Uncle Jackson check that face of yours while I talk to Mommy? Then we can talk to her together. Deal?"
DJ made it seem like he was deep in thought trying to process Jack's offer before extending his hand in typical DJ fashion. "Deal. Not a peep to Mommy. Or Aunt Maya because she'll tell Mommy. And no telling Mommy that you got me a smoothie", he summarized as Jack stood in line to order, letting DJ pick a smoothie from the list. Neither one mentioned the fight again as they picked up the food and drove back to the station.
