Taylor sat on the edge of the bed. A week in the hospital was more than she could take. The room was filled with flowers, and that made the feeling a little worse for her. She hoped that she would be allowed to go home today, but the doctor hadn't been in to see her yet. Walsh walked in at 4 o'clock.
"I'm taking it that the doctor hasn't been in yet." Walsh said as he gave Taylor a kiss and then sat down on the bed next to her.
"They brought our son down today." Taylor said
"He's so tiny." Walsh commented
"Don't you think that we should name him?" Taylor asked
In all of the chaos that had surrounded his arrival into the world, he had not been named.
"Well what do you think?" Walsh asked
"Well do you want a junior?" Taylor asked
"No." Walsh said
"Well what about Tommy? You know for Tommy Doyle?" Taylor suggested
"That's not a bad idea." Walsh replied
"Okay so how about a middle name?" Taylor asked
"Well we can go with your family tradition." Walsh said
"Angus? I think not." Taylor laughed
"Okay, not Angus." Walsh laughed as well, "How about Andrew to stay with the tradition of an A in the name?"
"I like it. Thomas Andrew it is." Taylor smiled
"I've got some news for you." Walsh smiled
"What's that?" Taylor asked
"Well, there's a new guy at work. Stu. We call him Lotta Zs because his last name is impossible to pronounce and well it has a lot of Zs in it. But that's not what I wanted to tell you." Walsh paused as he pulled out two envelopes. "First of all, Jimmy is getting transferred to Rescue 8 as their new Lieutenant. Next…" He paused for a second, "I am the new Covering Lieutenant of Squad 55." He smiled
Taylor hugged him. "That's great honey."
"Oh but there's more." He smiled. "Lt. Zambrano is transferring to downtown. So if you read your letter you'll see that there are TWO Lieutenant Walsh's now. Downtown approved your transfer back to medic duties and gave you the supervisor slot opened up by Kim."
For a moment Taylor was silent.
"That's what you wanted right? To get a Supervisor position?" Walsh asked noticing the look on his wife's face
"I would love to keep fighting fires, but now I have two children who need to be sure that I come home every night." Taylor said
Walsh hugged Taylor. "I know that you're a firefighter, and a damn good one. And I'll make sure that my kids know that their Mommy is someone to be proud of, a real hero. You'll always be my hero."
Taylor looked at her husband. "You're more than just my hero." She said
"One more little bit of news." Walsh said
"What's that?" Taylor asked
"Well, Lombardo transferred to Red Hook. It's not going to be the same house when you get back." Walsh said
"Wow, I have only been gone for a week!" Taylor said
"Yeah, things are changing a bit too quickly if you ask me." Walsh said
The doctor came into the room.
"Hi Mrs. Walsh how are you feeling today?" Dr. Cross asked
"I'll be 100 better if I can go home and sleep in my own bed." Taylor said
Dr. Cross laughed for a moment, "Well I think we should be able to help you with that. The nurse will have your discharge instructions and your prescriptions. Remember that I want you on bed rest for another week or so."
Taylor looked at Walsh, "That means that you have to wait on me hand and foot." She laughed
Walsh nodded his head, "Whatever you want my queen."
"Now that's the kind of treatment every woman should have." Taylor laughed
Walsh helped settle Taylor into bed at the house. He put some extra pillows on the bed so that she could sit up.
"There you go." He smiled
"This is so much better than the hospital bed." Taylor remarked
Carly came bounding into the room with a drawing.
"What do you have there?" Taylor asked
"It's a picture of our family." Carly smiled as she proudly held up the crayon drawing
It had a red outline of what was supposed to be a fire truck, a really tall person with short brown hair, another person with long blonde hair holding a little baby outlined in blue, and then between the two there was a short person with long brown hair.
"See its Daddy and you with my little baby brother, and there's me. And that's Daddy's fire truck." Carly smiled
"It's beautiful." Taylor remarked
"I think we'll put it right up here on the wall so Mommy can see it all the time." Walsh smiled
Over the next few weeks Taylor regained her strength and soon was almost back to her normal self. Finally, in August Tommy was brought home.
The first night of him in the nursery was long. He woke up no less than 5 times.
"It's your turn to go get him." Taylor mumbled into the pillow
"I went the last time." Walsh said
"No, I went the last time and the time before that." Taylor griped
Billy rolled back the covers and slowly made his way across to the crib.
"Alright little guy. Mommy and Daddy need to get some sleep." Walsh said as he sat in the rocking chair and slowly rocked back and forth.
Soon little Tommy was sound asleep and Walsh was afraid to move. He fell asleep holding his son. Taylor woke up a short time later, looked over and saw the two asleep in the rocking chair.
"Good night boys." She said softly as she rolled back under the covers and went back to sleep.
The guys at the firehouse always asked him how the kids were.
"You getting any sleep yet?" Mac asked noticing Walsh yawn
"He still hasn't mastered the part about sleeping through the night." Walsh said as he poured a cup of coffee
"Took months before my littlest would sleep through the night." Logan added
"I'm waiting for that to happen." Walsh laughed
Time seemed to fly by and soon they were celebrating Tommy's 1st birthday with a huge get together. The guys from the Squad were all there, Captain Johnson, Carlos and Holly, Grace and Brendan, Kim and Jimmy and Joey were there as well.
Taylor carried the cake out with the candles lit on it as everyone sang.
"Happy Birthday dear Tommy. Happy birthday to you!"
"Carly, help your little brother with the candles." Walsh encouraged
Carly blew as much as she could and managed to get the candles out. Taylor cut the pieces of the cake and passed them out to everyone. Tommy had fun grabbing his piece and destroying it. Soon his face was covered in icing and cake, and the huge smile that he had showed how much he enjoyed it.
"So Carly are you enjoying school?" Grace asked
"I'm in the 2nd grade." Carly replied as she held up two fingers
"Wow you're growing up fast." Brendan replied
Carly nodded, happy to have some attention of her own.
"You're a great big sister." Grace said
"I am aren't I?" Carly asked with the cutest expression on her face.
Captain Johnson walked over to Carly.
"And just how is my little princess?" He asked
"I'm fine Uncle Cap." Carly replied- for some reason that's what she always called him and he enjoyed it. Carly reminded him of his own daughters who were much older.
"So how's your little piggy?" He asked referring to Carly's Piggy Bank
"Oh, he's hungry." She replied with a cute little smile
"Okay, well go feed him." He replied as he handed her a dollar bill to put in her bank. He always gave her a dollar that she put in the pink bank.
He looked at Brendan and Grace, "One day that kid's gonna be rich." He laughed
"I think it's sweet." Grace said
Brendan put his arms around Grace's waist and smiled.
Taylor was busy trying to clean up the mess of cake that Tommy had made while Walsh was picking up the wrapping paper.
"You know, I think the kid got more than he could ever play with." DK laughed
"Isn't that how it always is? You know, spoil everyone else's kids rotten?" Mac added
"Yeah, well I'll be calling in the middle of the night if he start beating on that drum." Walsh said
"Hey, I couldn't think of anything better to give than the gift of music." Stu laughed
"Yeah just think Billy, it is revenge for all the noise makers you gave Joey when he was little." Kim said
"She's got a point." Taylor laughed
"Whose side are you on?" Walsh asked with a surprised look on his face
"I'm just saying." Taylor shrugged
It was over an hour after everyone left when Taylor and Walsh finally restored to house to order. They sat down on the couch and just relaxed while Carly put The Incredibles DVD on. She and Tommy sat on the floor and watched it.
"Haven't we seen this like a thousand times?" Walsh asked
"What's one more?" Taylor replied
Walsh shrugged as they settled in and watched the movie.