One Year Later
Braxton House
"Come on, Heath, I don't know what you expect me to do when I'm trying to look after a screaming kid." Brax complains.
"Stop moaning. Like father, like son." Heath rolls his eyes.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Brax asks.
"It's not like you're the quietest person around here anymore, how's he any different?"
"Geez, I really don't know. How about the fact that he's basically a newborn and won't settle no matter what I do!" Brax glares. "I can't wait for the triplets to get back from their holiday, I really need Kyle's magic touch."
"You know Kyle isn't that kid's father, so he shouldn't have to be the one to stop him crying?" Heath laughs.
"If he didn't manage to get Henry to sleep over the phone, I wouldn't be relying on him. All Ricky could do is laugh about it." Brax says. "But I can't even ask Ricky for help because you decided you wanted to get married next month instead of next year like originally planned."
"So I'm in the wrong for wanting a wedding soon but you're the one who had one in three weeks?" Heath raises an eyebrow. "At least we've given more warning for our wedding."
"By what, two weeks?"
"Still more warning that you gave."
"Are you two going to stop now?" Blake asks, knowing they weren't going to get anymore wedding planning done with Henry still crying. "Here, let me try. He's probably picking up on your stress." He says, taking Henry from Brax.
"I've had enough of it. Who even plans a wedding in a few weeks when there's two babies to look after as well?" Brax moans.
"Rocco doesn't keep us up all night anymore, so we thought it would be better to bring the wedding forward. I did say I'd wait for the boys to get back before planning stuff." Heath says.
"And then you'd be even more behind on the wedding planning than you are already." Brax says, feeling relief as Blake manages to calm Henry down. "That helps now. Where's Casey, he should have been here by now?"
"He texted to say he's nearly here, he dropped Denny off at the Diner first." Blake replies.
"Okay. What's next on the planning?" Brax asks Heath, who puts Rocco down on his play mat before grabbing a piece of paper from the table.
"I have been trusted with the invitations. I've been given a list that Bianca's created of the guest lists, we've got to write the invitations out on the cards I was given and send them out." Heath says. "And it's going to need all four of us, she's invited half the country!" He jokes.
"I thought you were having a small wedding like mine and Ricky's?" Brax frowns.
"So did I." Heath says. "The Walker's are on the list, especially after Sid helped us with Kyle last year, and a few others that have now moved on from the Bay. There's also a few names I don't recognise, but they're obviously important to Bianca."
"Did you not go through the guest list with her?" Blake asks.
"She said she had it covered." Heath shrugs.
"And who's on the list that you've invited?"
"Not many people considering I've been warned about River Boys not being there." Heath says. "I think we had pretty much the same ideas on a lot of people. And obviously all of you guys will be there, so who else would I need to invite?"
"Have you told mum yet?" Brax asks.
"No, he didn't." Cheryl hisses from the doorway. "You decide to get married next month and you don't even bother telling your own mother about it?"
"I was getting round to it, I've just been through a lot trying to get things sorted." Heath says.
"That seems to be your excuse every time I have to find out something from someone else." Cheryl says, glancing at Blake, who was still holding Henry. "I'll have him, don't want him picking up any bad habits."
"Excuse me?" Blake frowns as Cheryl takes Henry from him. "And what bad habits would those be?"
"You being with boys, it's not normal." Cheryl says. "There's no way I'm letting my grandson turn out the same way."
"You know what, I'm going to go. I'll be back when Lucas comes home." Blake says to the two eldest Braxton's.
"Nah, you're not going anywhere." Brax says as he takes his son back from Cheryl. "If you're going to be homophobic, you can be the one to go."
"We're happy for Blake and Lucas because they're happy and they're both family. Nothing you say will ever change our opinion of them." Heath says, not amused that she was bringing it up this long after they first got together.
"And one day if Henry told me he was gay, I'd love him just the same as I do now because he's my son." Brax says.
"You're being ridiculous." Cheryl shakes her head before walking out.
"Thanks for being on my side." Blake smiles.
"No sweat. I never took mum for the homophobic type." Heath frowns as he glances at Brax.
"She's not, well not really. She's not been happy lately, mainly at me and she's doing everything she can to try and make things even harder for me." Brax says.
"How come?" Heath frowns, not having heard anything mentioned about it.
"It started because we wouldn't let her in the hospital room to be Ricky's birthing partner, and then wouldn't let her have a say in naming my son." Brax says. "Apparently as mother of the eldest child, she had rights to do those things and was even trying to tell the midwife the name we chose, even though it was her choice."
"Wait, is that why things were so tense when we arrived?" Heath asks.
"Yep. We wanted the name Henry, but believe it or not, she wanted Daniel." Brax says. "And I don't know about you, but I am not naming my son after an evil waste of space."
"Who's Daniel?" Blake asks, not having heard that name mentioned much before. "I thought that was Kyle's middle name or something?"
"It is, but it's also our abusive father's name. Thankfully he's been six foot under for a few years now, just sometimes still manages to ruin our lives." Heath says. "Kyle hates having it as his middle name which is why he never puts it down on anything. Were you not here when the boys were joking about him changing it to Darryl?" He smirks at Brax.
"I don't even use that name, so what makes you think I'd let Kyle change his middle name to it?" Brax rolls his eyes, much preferring his nickname after using it for a huge majority of his life.
"Nah, but it's got to be a whole lot better than Daniel." Heath says.
"Is this a ladies meeting or wedding planning, cause I don't see many wedding things about." Casey says as he walks through the door, fist bumping Blake.
"We're about to start that now. We've got wedding invitations to get written and sent out today if Heath wants them delivered in time." Brax says.
"Yes, I do. Bianca will kill me if people aren't given enough notice for keeping the date free." Heath says.
"I'll just put Henry down in the flat, then I'll come out and join you." Brax says, walking to the flat as the boys sit down at the table.
"How come you're so late, wanted to get out of this?" Blake asks Casey.
"If I say no then I won't be punched." Casey smirks as Heath glares at him.
"I don't want to be doing this anymore than the rest of you but we didn't want to leave everything up to a wedding planner because Bianca didn't like any of their plans." Heath says.
"Okay, just don't get even more bridezilla on us when you fall more behind." Casey says, getting an actual punch on the arm that time. "Ow!"
"Just keep your mouth shut." Heath glares.
"So I can't even ask who your best man is going to be?" Casey asks.
"Not until the triplets are back from their holiday in a couple days." Heath says as he separates the invitation cards into four piles, putting one in front of each of them as Brax walks back in.
"We've got to fill in all of these today?" Casey exclaims.
"Yes, unless you want Bianca tracking you down." Heath says, also ripping the guest list with all the names on into four parts, so they'd all have different people to do. "Bianca has given me their addresses to put on the front, they're in that notebook there." He says, pointing at it in the middle of the table.
"Well we better get started or there's no way we'll be finished by tonight." Blake says as they all get started on what they knew was going to be a really long day and probably with little breaks in between.