Title: Sons and Daughters

Author: SneetchesToo

Rating: PG

Pairing: Ethan/Rox. Mentions to Leanne/Ed

Summary: Ethan shares details with Levi about his new family.

Author's Note: We finally meet Levi!

Ethan's head had been spinning for the past three days and he felt like his world would never settle.

After having told Ariel about Levi he had felt a weight lift from his chest.

But then he had been saying 'goodbye' once again and driving to San Diego to see the boy once more.

It's not that he wasn't excited about spending the time with the kid, he had actually grown to love their intersections and he was glad that he seemed to be opening up to him.

But it was hard leaving Rox and Ariel behind, especially when they had wanted to come with him.

And after two days of watching the poor boy pout around his hotel room he had begun to wish even more that the two girls were there to help him.

"Levi, what's wrong?" He watched as he threw himself back onto one of the queen beds, his arms going out to the side, his head bouncing back as he let out a huff.

"I wanna go home." The whine that left his lips was pitiful and Ethan felt a tug at his heartstrings. "Can't mommy just get better already so we can go back to our house?"

Letting out a sigh Ethan pushed himself up from the chair he had deposited himself in earlier and made his way toward the bed, climbing up to sit next to the boy with a soft sigh.

"Levi, buddy, we talked about this." He kept his voice soft as he gestured for the boy to come sit with him. "Mommy isn't going home."

"But I want her too." He could see tears in his eyes and he pulled him into his lap, wrapping his arms around him tightly.

"I know you do bud." He couldn't help himself from pressing a kiss against the boy's soft brown hair. "But she isn't."

"Where am I gonna live?" The blue-gray eyes that stared back at him melted his heart and he saw more of Robbie than ever before.

"You're gonna come live with me, remember?" He hoped that he wouldn't have to explain this all over again to the six year old, but he had a feeling he would.

"At your house in LA right?" Ethan let out a sigh of relief that Levi remembered that detail of the conversation.

"Yes, at my house in LA." He offered the boy a smile and watched as he nodded his head softly.

"With my sister?" He was surprised that he remembered the little detail about Ariel that he had shared with him.

It hadn't been much, but Ethan had wanted him to at least know about the teen and the rest of his new family.

"Yeah, with your sister." He hadn't bothered to into detail about how the girl only lived there part time. "And with Rox. Remember I told you about Rox?"

"Is she gonna be my new mommy?" Levi's question shocked him and he closed his eyes for a second before taking a deep breath.

"No Levi, she's just gonna help take care of you." He didn't want the boy to think that he was replacing his mother already. "She lives with me, and sometimes Ariel does too, but they're not there to replace anyone. They're just a new part of your family okay?"

"Okay." He sounded uncertain but Ethan didn't expect anything else.

He knew this was all a huge change for him.

That the amount of information he was taking in was beyond what his little brain could possibly comprehend fully.

"Do you have any other questions?" He wanted the boy to know that, above all else, he was there for him.

He didn't want to have a distant relationship with him like he had had with his father.

"Do you have a dog?" He honestly shouldn't have been surprised at the question.

"No, I don't have a dog." He and Rox had talked about it many times but the timing had never been right.

"Can we get a dog?" The hope in the tot's eyes was all Ethan needed to know that now was going to be the perfect time.

"After we move, we can most certainly get a dog." He knew that Rox and Ariel would be over the moon about a new addition to their family, so the least he could for the boy was get him a dog.

"We're gonna move again?" The confusion in his eyes hit Ethan harder than he expected and he guessed that he probably should have been clearer with the boy about what exactly was going to happen.

"Someday, yes." He took a deep breath before looking down. "My house is kind of small. So we'll probably move into a new house so that everyone has lots of room."

"Oh. Okay." It sounded like the simplest thing in the world but Ethan knew it would be hard on all of them.

He wasn't ready to say 'goodbye' to the last piece of Robbie that he had left.

He didn't know if his heart would be able to take that.

Even if moving was the right thing to do.

He got ready to speak up when his phone rang from the bedside table and he watched as Levi raised an eyebrow, in true Robbie fashion, before bouncing across the bed and grabbing the object for him.

"It's Rox!" For someone who had never met the woman, the boy was pretty excited to see that she was calling.

"Thanks buddy." He offered him a smile as he took the phone and answered it softly. "Hey babe."

"Hi." Her voice was soft and he wondered if everything was okay. "How are things?"

"They're good." He watched as Levi bounced off the bed and ran to the window, pressing his face against the glass. "How are you?"

"Okay. Tired." He hated that he was away from her, especially when he knew she was struggling so much with Levi's presence in his life. "When do you come home?"

"Wednesday." He let out a sigh when Levi offered him a small frown.

He knew the boy didn't want him to go, especially when he seemed to dislike his nanny so much.

"Oh." The disappointment in her voice was evident and he closed his eyes as he flopped back against the bed.

"What's wrong Rox?" He hated this separation and he knew that it was harder on her.

"Nothing." She whispered. "We just, we need to talk."

"Okay, we will." Now he wanted to be home more than anything. "As soon as I get home we will, I promise."

Levi pushed himself away from the window with a huff and moved toward the bed, climbing up beside him and laying down.

"I'm sleepy." His little voice caused Ethan to turn his head in the other direction, eyeing him softly as he smiled at him.

"I should let you go." Rox said quietly on the other end.

"It's okay." He hated having to divide his time between two of the most important people in his life.

"No, Ethan, it's fine." He could tell it wasn't fine, not even close, but he really didn't want to argue with her right now. "I'll see you on Wednesday."

And with that she hung up.

No 'I love you'.

No 'goodbye'.

No 'see you soon'.

Nothing.

Ethan had tossed the phone onto the other bed of his room after Rox's call ended and he and Levi had settled in for a nap.

When he woke up two hours later it was still raining, the sound of thunder rumbling in the distant, and he let out a sigh before removing himself out of the bed and heading toward the bathroom.

When he came out a few minutes later Levi had rolled onto his stomach and was snuggled against his pillow with his stuffed shark tucked under his arm.

"Daddy?" His little voice was barely a whisper and it shook Ethan to the core to hear the little voice call him that.

He had never said it before, not like that, not with such softness and worry.

"Hey buddy." He made his way toward the bed as the boy gave him a soft smile. "Did you sleep okay?"

He nodded his little head before snuggling even further under the covers and Ethan couldn't help but smile.

Robbie had always slept on his stomach, up until the day he had died, and their mother had been the same way.

"Yeah." He let a yawn escape as he propped himself up and smiled back. "Can we have tacos for dinner?"

Ethan let out a chuckle at his request.

If there was any part of the boy that was all him, it was his love for food, and all kinds of it.

"Absolutely." If all it took to keep the little boy happy right now was some tacos, then he was perfectly fine with giving him just that.

"Do Rox and Ariel like tacos?" It was such a random question but Ethan couldn't help but chuckle.

"They love them." The smile on Levi's face was totally worth all the drama he was having to go through right now.

"I think we're gonna get along just fine." He pushed himself up from the bed and bounced onto his knees, a laugh leaving his lips as he snuggled his shark close.

"Good to know." He winked down at the boy as he smiled back and he felt his heart soar when he pushed himself off the bed and wrapped his arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

When Ethan had arrived home on Wednesday Rox was nowhere to be found and he had let out a series of curses as he searched the tiny house for her.

But when he had called Leanne to see if she knew what was going on he wasn't surprised to find out that Rox was working.

He shouldn't have expected her to take another day off to sit around and wait for him to come home from San Diego, especially not when he was putting her through so much.

Instead he had unpacked and thrown his dirty laundry in the hamper and then he had been on his way out the door, hoping to surprise Ariel at soccer practice.

After they had grabbed dinner and headed back to his place they had sat in a somewhat uncomfortable silence until the teen had set down her drink and piped in with a statement that made his heart start to pound in his chest.

"I think Rox might be pregnant." Her words were not what he expected and he wasn't sure how to fathom that concept.

"Excuse me?!" He didn't mean to sound so absurd, but the idea hit him like a bolt of lightening.

"It's just a hunch…" Her eyes twinkled but he knew that she wasn't sure.

She wouldn't have dared take away that moment of revealing a pregnancy away from the older woman.

"What makes you think that love?" He was curious now though.

Because he had thought the same thing a few days ago but when he asked her to take a test she got super defensive about it.

He figured that was a sure fire sign that she knew she wasn't.

"I stayed with her two nights while you were gone and she was just… off." She had fine when he had left.

Hadn't she?

"Off how?" He had noticed that Rox was unusually quiet when she called him the other night.

And the fact that she had hung up on him the way she did was a clue that something was definitely up.

"She was real emotional about you being gone." Ariel gave him a look that said she knew so much more than she was letting on. "She threw up a few times Tuesday morning too."

"Dammit." He was pissed that he hadn't been there for her.

He knew that she needed him right now, especially if she really was pregnant.

"I know you guys have a lot going on…" The girl was wise beyond her years and sometimes he hated it. "I just don't want you two to break up again. And I don't want her to feel like she has to do any of this alone."

"I certainly don't want that either babe." He reached out and squeezed the teen's hand, offering her a soft smile as he spoke. "I'll talk to her tonight and see what's up."

"I hope I didn't start something by bringing this up." She whispered, her head falling forward as she sighed.

"No Angel, never." He reached out and pulled her into his arms, pressing a kiss to her head. "I'm glad you said something."

And he was.

Because the last thing he needed was another secret between him and the love of his life.

Later that night he had been sitting at the kitchen table helping Ariel with her French homework when he heard the front door open.

He held his breath as he heard Rox remove her boots, her sock feet moving down the hallway slowly.

She stopped in the doorway as he offered her a smile and he felt like time had stopped.

"Can we talk?" She whispered her question and Ariel shifted her gaze back and forth between them slowly.

"Yeah." He stood up from his spot at the table and followed her upstairs slowly.

She shut the bedroom door behind them before letting out a breath.

"What's up?" He tried to act like he didn't know what she was about to say but he was having a hard time containing his excitement.

"I'm pregnant." He barely heard her words but he felt his heart start to race in his chest.

He had waited what felt like forever to hear her utter those words and he couldn't contain his excitement.

"Are you sure?" He knew the chances were slim so he wanted to make sure this was the real deal.

Especially when it was something they had wanted for so long.

"I had a blood test to confirm it on Wednesday." She said softly as she ran her fingers through her hair.

She was starting to pace and he knew that wasn't a good sign.

She was worried about something and he knew that if she went to that dark place it would take forever to get her out of it.

"Who did the test?" Not that he cared if anyone at the hospital knew.

Hell, he would be shouting it from the rooftops soon enough.

"Leanne." Rox's voice cracked and he knew that had to be hard on both women.

"How far along are you?" He stepped toward her then, reaching out to pull her to him, his hands settling on her hips as she took a deep breath.

"10 weeks." He couldn't believe it, two and a half months had gone by and they didn't even know.

"Wow." He reached out and ran his fingers through her hair.

"I made an appointment for Monday with my doctor." She sounded almost scared to tell him and he wondered if she still thought he would have doubts about all of this.

"What time?" Not that he had any plans.

"9:00am." She closed her eyes and he pulled her close, wrapping her up tightly in his arms as he pressed a kiss to her hair. "You don't have to come."

"No." He hated that he almost sounded angry and he pushed her back gently, his eyes locking with hers as he spoke. "I wanna be there. This is our baby Rox, we did this, together, and I wanna be there for everything. Every appointment, every kick and hiccup, everything."

Tears filled her eyes faster than he expected and he tucked her back against his chest just as a knock sounded on the bedroom door.

"Come in." He knew that Ariel already knew that Rox was pregnant and something inside told him that the woman had shared her secret with the teen before telling anyone else.

"There's someone at the door looking for you dad." Her words were soft and they sounded almost frightened.

Pulling from Rox he offered her a soft look before stepping toward the teen, squeezing her shoulder as he walked past her.

He heard Rox say something to Ariel about 'telling him' and he couldn't help but smile.

He knew that he should probably be mad that the kid knew before him, but he wasn't.

In fact, he was glad that they had formed that kind of bond so quickly and he wouldn't change it for anything.

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