83 Danny's POV
Slowly, we made our way through the museum, looking at all the skeletons and models, playing the interactive stuff, everything there was on offer. Buzz loved it, especially the dinosaurs, and the giant whale model that hung from the ceiling in one exhibit.
"Dada! Dada!" Buzz pulled on Tom's top, pointing up at the model.
"Yeah Buzz, that's called a whale. It lives in the sea." Tom told him, he'd been rather vocal today, reading out plaques to his son, acknowledging his cries of excitement. There had been a nervous edge to his voice originally, but it had calmed as he got into the swing of things.
"Can you say whale Buzz?" I asked the toddler, knowing it was a good thing to do with a child. Encouraged them to learn new words or something, and as Buzz was learning new words every day as it was, we may as well have encouraged him along.
"Whale." Buzz repeated, dragging out the 'a' a bit longer than necessary, but not bad for his first time.
"That's it Buzz, well done." Tom hesitated, then kissed Buzz's cheek, the boys smile turning into a grin.
We went on through the another exhibit, before deciding to call it a day, we had been out for hours at this point, and we had seen everything we had wanted to see. Buzz was starting to rub his eyes in tiredness too, so it was probably time to get him home, before he got grumpy.
Though, we didn't really need to worry about that, Buzz fell asleep on the walk to the train, tucked up safely in his buggy, clutching at the stuffed T-Rex Tom had bought him at the gift shop. And he slept soundly all the way, not even twitching when Tom put him down in his cot, tucking him in with the most fatherly warmth I had ever witnessed.
"So, worth going out today?" I asked after Tom had shut the door to Buzz's room.
"I, I think so. Did you enjoy yourself?" Tom countered, self consciously pulling his jacket around himself.
"Yeah, loved it. We all did." Especially Buzz, I couldn't remember the last time I had seen him so happy. In fact, I wasn't sure he had ever been that happy, or filled with so much wonder. Even as he'd clung to Tom's shirt, and had clearly enjoyed the attention Tom had been given him, he had never looked so fascinated as he had today.
"G-Good, I'm glad." Tom relaxed a little, though he looked tired. Not that I could blame him really, because while we were all having fun, and he had been too, he had still been stressed. Stressed and worried. It must have taken a great lot of energy to keep himself calm, forget about his routine and go so far out of his comfort zone.
"I am too." I smiled, "You were great today, by the way. Really great. You should be proud of yourself." I wasn't sure if I was overstepping my bounds here, but I had to say something. I couldn't leave him to wonder if he had done well or not, he had to know, from someone who was there, that he had done well.
"Er, thanks." Tom shifted awkwardly on the spot.
"I mean it, you did great. Now go and get some rest, you look dead on your feet." I encouraged, knowing it sounded like I was ordering him, and damn it I didn't want to do that to him, but I couldn't help it this time. Tom had done so well today, he deserved rest. And if someone didn't tell him, he wouldn't actually rest, probably go back to cleaning or something.
We had had such a good day, and Tom deserved to keep the break going for the rest of the day. He had done so well, he deserved the rest, more than anything.
"I'm fine." Tom covered, "There's some things I need to do." He turned to go.
"At least sit down for a while, you've been up and carrying Buzz around all day," he hadn't let him go all day, only let him onto the ground so they could walk together, holding hands, "Have a break for yourself. Just half an hour, to recuperate." I didn't want to plead, I just... I missed Tom, I wanted to spend time with him. Even after spending a day with him, I wanted to spend more time with him, I didn't want it to end.
He had been talking today, and smiling, and actually looked like he was enjoying himself at times, I wanted to continue that, and be a part of that. I wanted to be a part of his continued happiness, not for him to shut himself off again, to wait until our next trip out until he let down his hair a bit.