12

When I got home at the end of the day, I paced around the house, waiting for Jack to get done work. Tosh ate early and went to her room to sleep, knowing I would fuss otherwise. By the time Jack got home, I was sitting on the couch, feeling twitchy and suffering from a bit of cabin fever, but too exhausted to do anything about it.

"Hey," Jack said when he came in. He had a couple of shopping bags with him, from a baby store, naturally. He'd been buying baby toys for the last few months, even though I kept telling him that it was way too early. He'd already bought our daughter a little Fisher Price toy train that a toddler could ride on like a tricycle, even though it would be a year or more before she would be old enough to ride it. But he always said he couldn't help himself when he saw how adorable all the toys were.

"You doing okay?" he asked me, wearing his usual concerned look.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm feeling fine."

"No contractions today?" he asked glancing towards her closed door.

"No." I forced a smile. she'd had a few mild contractions earlier, but they had faded, so we knew they weren't the real thing, and I didn't want to get Jack worked up about them.

While he was unpacking the new toys, I said, "Jack, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?" he asked, looking up at me while he struggled to open the convoluted packaging on a toy covered in light-up buttons that would no doubt play music every time they were pressed.

"Well, JJ called me at work today."

"Is he okay?" Jack stepped into the little kitchen that was separated from our living room by a short half-wall, and he started digging in a drawer for some scissors.

"He was asking about Thanksgiving." I headed into the kitchen with Jack. I leaned against the counter, a concerned look on my face.

"Isn't he going to his uncle's?" Jack frowned slightly, though it may have been because he was having trouble cutting all the plastic ties off the packaging. "They do Thanksgiving there every year."

"Well, I suppose he is," I said. "But I think we should do something here, too. You know, have a family get together."

"I don't think we'll have time for all of that," Jack said. He yelped in pain as he jabbed himself with the scissors. He shook his hand, then checked it to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "We'll have the baby by then. I don't think cooking a whole turkey dinner will be a good idea."

"Well, it doesn't need to be a big dinner," I said. "But I know JJ wants to come over. I think it's important that we make him feel welcome."

"Of course he's welcome," Jack said, turning his attention back to the frustrating package. "He knows that. We always find a way to make holidays work. Two Christmases, two Thanksgivings, all of that. It's been like that since the divorce. He likes it."

"I don't think it's that simple."

"Why not?" Jack frowned at me. "He told me more than once he loves getting twice the turkey, twice the Christmas presents."

I sighed. "Because this isn't a 'divorced parents' problem. It's a 'new baby sister' problem."

Jack's frown deepened, and I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't following my train of thought.

"He told me he's fine with the new baby. He just doesn't want to change any diapers." Jack smirked, shaking his head.

"I think there's more to it than that. He lives with his Mum. The new baby will be living here with us. I'm worried that JJ won't feel like part of our family."

Jack set the scissors down, then set the toy on the kitchen counter and tossed the empty packaging into the trash. "I'm sure it's not as bad as all that. We'll make sure he gets plenty of attention. He just needs some time to get used to the idea of a new family member."

"I guess so…" I bit my lower lip, not convinced that it would be that simple.

"Trust me." Jack gave me a kiss on the cheek. "He gets to be the big brother. Once he realizes how that means he'll be the one in charge, the one with the bigger room, the one who gets to do everything first, he'll revel in it."

"I suppose." Part of me wondered if he was right. I had a brother and a sister, so I definitely knew how sibling rivalries would get. Though being the oldest sibling hadn't always meant I was the first one to do everything. Sure, I'd gotten my license first, and been the first one to go to college. But my little sister had started dating sooner than I had, and she'd gotten married several years before I had.

We spent a little more time discussing Thanksgiving, but at the end of it all, Jack convinced me that a small, simple lunch of turkey sandwiches and store-bought pie on the Friday after Thanksgiving would be our best bet.

JJ would be able to have the big holiday meal at his uncle's, along with his mother and the rest of that side of the family. I just hoped that JJ would understand that we weren't putting less effort into the holiday because we didn't care about him. We just really had too much on our plates right now.

After Jack went back to opening (and playing with) the new baby toys, I went into the other room to use my computer to call JJ back. He answered the video call with an excited smile on his face. "Hi Ianto! Did you talk to my dad?"

"Yeah, we did." I explained the plans to JJ, and I saw the disappointment on his face when he realized we were keeping things simple again this year. I tried my best to make it sound fun, promising to pick up some new movies and maybe some board games, but it didn't seem to do much to cheer him up.

"I promise, we'll have a great time," I said.

"Yeah," JJ said, without any enthusiasm in his voice "Sure. Okay."

"Plus, I'll see you this weekend," I said. JJ came out to stay with us most weekends, since that was when his dad had visitation with him.

"Can we go see the new trains?" he asked.

"Well, they're not quite set up yet."

I saw disappointment creeping back into JJ's face, so I quickly added, "But since I work there, I think I can make an exception and let you see them before the display is ready."

"Awesome!" JJ grinned, and it was the first genuine happiness I'd seen from him in awhile. It gave me a little bit of hope. Though after we ended the call, I still found myself worrying about what to do. I desperately wanted us to all be a happy family, and I knew there had to be a way to make it work. Despite Jack's divorce and the way JJ was caught between two homes and two families, I was sure we could find a way.

That weekend, when JJ came down to visit us, we headed down to the museum, just as I'd promised. JJ had been to the museum a number of times since Jack and I started dating, in addition to a couple of visits when his school took class trips there each year. But he never seemed to get tired of the trains. Plus, since we worked to update some of the exhibits every few months, there was always something new to see.

We took a quick tour around the main exhibits of the railroad museum before heading upstairs to see the in-progress model train exhibit. I'd made some progress on it during the week, and most of the models were already set up and ready to go. Mostly at this point, we were putting the finishing touches on a few things, like painting some of the scenery and adding some extra model trees, houses, and little plastic animals to the countryside scenes that the model trains ran through. We were also still waiting for the informational signs, with details about each of the trains, to get back from the printer, so the plaques by each display were all blank.

"These are so cool!" JJ said, running up to the biggest table, his eyes wide as he looked across the model. It was a scale model of the city of Brandenburg, as it had appeared in the late 1800s when the town was founded. The model train on this display was an original Lionel, designed in the style of the old steam locomotives of the 1800s.

"Want to see them run?" I asked, walking over to the control panel. I showed JJ how to work the controls, and soon he had the train running around the tracks, stopping at each of the stations along the way.

"How do you get everything so small?" JJ asked, studying one of the model train stations.

"Well, a lot of it we buy like that," I said. "But I painted a lot of the parts myself. They usually come unfinished."

I showed him a section of the model with some unpainted houses. I'd ordered most of them from model shops online, though I'd also picked up a few from contacts among the model train enthusiasts who frequented the museum.

"Can I paint one?" JJ asked.

"I don't think so," Jack said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Aww, come on." JJ pouted at his father.

"Sorry," I said. "They belong to the museum, or else I'd let you."

"Oh." JJ frowned, but he didn't argue the point any further.

Though as I saw him playing with the trains, an idea occurred to me. One that I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of sooner.