"Dr. Shepherd." Jack looked up and saw Maria walking towards him. She gave him a smile. "Heard a rumour you were coming back."
"Yeah, I figured it was about time," Jack replied.
"We thought you'd been run out of town or something," she joked.
"Nope, just holing myself up with my kid for a while," Jack responded.
"So, you better have a picture cos I've been dying to see the little bambino," Maria told him, leaning over the desk.
Jack took out his wallet and produced a photo of Boone and Noah, by far his favourite picture of either one of them. "Here we are."
Maria took the photo off him and smiled widely. "Aw, he's adorable," she said. "And the baby's pretty cute too."
Jack smiled. "They're both adorable."
"Yeah, you lucky, lucky guy," she said, gazing at the photo. "I wish I could get stuck on a desert island with some hottie."
She actually managed to make it sound pretty romantic there. Which it so totally wasn't. Not on most days anyway. "I'm not sure I'd recommend it as the ideal way to meet a life partner," he told her.
"Hey, don't knock it, you made out okay didn't you?" she pointed out.
Jack nodded. He guessed he really did. And those two and a half years were totally worth everything he had right now.
"Jack, we need you down in the ER," a nurse announced as she rushed past.
Maria handed the photo back to him as he put the chart down. "Thanks, I'll talk to you later," he said, moving around the desk.
"Yeah, bye," she replied as he headed for the elevator.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
When Jack got home he found Boone cooking in the kitchen, baby monitor attached to his belt, which was pretty much the perfect thing to come home to. He got a big smile from Boone as he entered the room which he returned without hesitation.
"Hey," Boone said. "Good day?"
"Yeah, I guess," Jack replied, leaning in for a kiss. "I'm glad I went back, it was the right thing."
"Good," Boone smiled.
"How about you?" Jack asked.
"I've been fine," he replied. "I've put Noah down for a nap but he'll probably be up before too long cos he's gonna want feeding."
"He's been okay?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, great," Boone replied. "He kept me company while I did the recycling and sorted out the CD collection and then we tried to do the crossword in the newspaper but we weren't so good at that so we just read the headlines instead."
Jack smiled. "Sounds like you guys had fun."
"Oh yeah," Boone nodded. "Tomorrow we're going grocery shopping, Noah's very excited about that."
"You are so damn cute, do you know that?" Jack told him. "I bet he loves you."
"Of course he loves me," Boone responded, giving Jack a winning smile.
"Right, who wouldn't?" Jack asked. He looked at Boone and he could see the sparkle in his eyes, which kind of made him wonder why he'd been getting in the way of Boone and Noah's relationship for so long, they were bound to get along fantastically, Boone was such a giving person and so eager to get on with everyone. Jack had a feeling he was going to be the boring parent in the mix, the bad cop to Boone's good cop, but he figured he could live with that. "It's nice to see you happy," Jack told him.
Boone smiled. "I've got a lot to be happy about right now."
"Good," Jack said. "And I'm gonna make sure you keep having stuff to be happy about."
"You are so sweet to me," Boone asserted.
"Not as consistently as I should be," Jack stated. "This right here is what you deserve. Don't get confused with all the times I get my priorities mixed up, okay? This is it, and I want you to call me on that if I start acting like an idiot again."
"Oh, I'm so gonna," Boone promised and Jack had a feeling that he meant it, which would certainly add a nice new dynamic to their relationship. Boone made it so very easy to walk all over him that Jack could never tell when he was under his feet.
"So, what's for dinner?" Jack asked.
"Chicken stir fry," Boone replied. "With my own special sauce."
"Sounds good," Jack replied, looking over the ingredients that Boone was preparing. He threw several things into the pan as delicious smells rose up, making Jack realise how hungry he was. He was just about to say something when Noah started crying through the baby monitor on Boone's waist.
Boone looked at him. "You wanna stir or you wanna get the baby?"
"I, erm," Jack tried to consider what the right answer was.
Boone sighed and rolled his eyes a little, turning his attention back to the dinner. "Go get him Jack," he told him. "You haven't seen him all day, I'd be going up there."
"Right, yeah," Jack agreed. "I just don't want to stand on anyone's toes."
"My toes are fine, Jack, go," Boone insisted. Jack nodded and headed towards the door. "Oh, Jack, you might wanna put him in his sling cos he's crying for his bottle and he won't quit 'til he gets it so it'll be easier to do if you put him in there," Boone instructed.
"Christ, one day and you've already got a system for everything," Jack commented with a smile, realising that it was just so Boone. Boone gave him a shrug and Jack headed to get Noah.
And Boone was, of course, right. So once Jack had sated Noah with his bottle he was happy to sit in his rocker chair while Jack and Boone enjoyed their dinner.
"You are a great cook," Jack commented. Boone smiled at him. "And you know exactly what you're doing with Noah. Not that you wouldn't but I'm starting to realise that I didn't."
"You knew what you were doing," Boone assured him. "You were just kind of spoiling him a little on top of that. Which is okay, but I just think this is better for all of us. Kid's need structure in their lives, I've been reading all this stuff about it, it makes them feel safe. Plus it's easier for us to be the ones in charge. And then there's that added bonus of alone time."
"Yeah, I like that one," Jack smiled.
"And anyway, it's not just about imposing stuff on him, it's about finding out his own patterns and making them work for you," Boone explained. "He wants to do certain things at certain times in a certain order, the two of you just have to come to a compromise about how things are gonna work."
Jack looked at him. "You found all this out in one day?"
"No," Boone replied. "I've been reading stuff since he was born. Since before he was born really. And I've been talking to Shannon about it a bunch of times too."
"But you didn't say anything?" Jack asked.
"I didn't want to butt in," Boone said. "You were the one in charge, you're always the one in charge, you're the leader. And I don't mean that like it's a bad thing, I need a leader."
"You don't sound like you need a leader to me," Jack pointed out. "You sound like you need to be given some space to prove yourself. Which you now have. Lots of space."
"But not too much space," Boone said, phrasing it like a suggestion.
"I am right here," Jack assured him. "Team mates, right?"
"Partners," Boone corrected.
"Right," Jack nodded. "Partners."