I'm having just the worst time concentrating on anything that isn't baby Philip, so here's some fluff. You're welcome. I'm glad that you were all so happy to meet him! I love finally seeing John and Alex as parents. Y'all, thank you so much for the reviews, they mean a lot. I hope you enjoy this chapter, got another few in the works before we move on to part three of the series. I may never stop writing this AU. I'm rather in love with it.
Philip stopped crying and I nuzzled back in to John. He was somehow less exhausted than I was despite my ability to forgo sleep at will. It was after seven, we'd both already called off of work.
"I guess we stay up now, right?" John sighed.
"Guess so," I drank the cup of coffee that had been on my side table since five.
"Can we call Laf? We need to start telling people, or else we'll get a bunch of shit."
"Sure."
He picked up his phone and dialed Laf on Skype and he answered after a solid two minutes of ringing, John held the camera so that only he and I were visible.
"What's wrong, Jack?" Lafayette was in his bed, hair a mess around his face and bare shoulders, satin sheets behind him, squinting, not unlike me. He reached to his side table and put on his glasses, looking at us more clearly.
"Nothing, got someone for you to meet." John smirked.
"What?" Lafayette blinked sleep away and licked his lips sleep-parched.
John tilted the phone down to my arms, where Philip lie, looking around.
Lafayette screamed through the phone, startling Philip who flailed in my arms, I hushed him before he even had a chance to cry.
"We want you to meet Philip." John smiled proudly.
"Morning, Laf." I beamed
"Oh, mon dieu. He is everything, he is so beautiful! ...John… he looks like you!"
"A little bit. Weird, huh?"
"When can I meet him?"
John and I looked at each other, "they said to give us a few days to bond."
I whispered to John, "we had last night, if Lafayette's going to watch him when we go back to work, he should know him, too."
"Whenever." John yawned, it was contagious.
"But bring breakfast." I laughed through my yawn.
The call disconnected and John giggled.
"Didn't even say 'bye.'" I shook my head.
"He'll be here by eight, watch, let's get up."
"Okay, I'm just going to hold him until you get back."
John kissed my head and then Philip's and got up, Philip gurgled and worked up a cry, I hushed him, promising that John would be back when he disappeared into the closet. I was awoken again - not realizing I'd fallen asleep - this time by John, now dressed in casual clothes, offering to take the baby so that I could get dressed, he cried at being passed off. I dressed myself, opting for the hoodie and sweatpants combo that offered maximum comfort and stepped in the bathroom to wash my face and try to feel more human after our night of broken sleep.
"We don't have any clothes." John stared at me, his eyes wide.
"Fuck… Uh, I guess put him in his onesie again and we'll go and get some later."
He nodded and dressed the baby, in the living room we heard Lafayette let himself in and the sound of crinkling bags being set down. We took the baby down the hall and Lafayette squealed, handing me the coffee in his hands and washing them quickly in the sink.
"Can I?" he held his arms out straight.
John passed Philip into his arms and Lafayette cooed at him, "bienvenue, poupon."
I smiled at his greeting and drank the coffee he'd given me. John was rummaging through the bags and pulled out pancakes and eggs.
"You really brought us breakfast?" I smiled.
"Of course. Anything you asked for, I would bring from the ends of the Earth. Look at him! He is called Philip, yes?"
I nodded.
"Bonjour, Philip. I am your new uncle, I am Lafayette, I love you so much."
Philip looked around, starting to work himself up and saw John and calmed down, he turned his head the other way and saw me and relaxed further in Lafayette's arms. He recognized us, sought us out and recognized us already. My boy is smart.
"Babe, come eat, Laf's got him." John said, sitting on the couch, balancing his plate.
I took a box and sat next to John, leaning my head against him, feeling too tired to even be interested in food, but I poked at a waffle anyway.
Lafayette was bouncing Philip and babbling an old French lullaby that sounded vaguely familiar, he fell back asleep in his arms.
"Should we try the crib?" John asked me.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt, just leave the door open so we hear him?"
"I think it should be okay, right?"
"Yeah," I started to stand and John stood first, "no, you eat, I've got him."
Philip moved restlessly as John took him back from Lafayette and John comforted him, carrying him down the hall to the nursery, he clicked on the monitor and I heard him cooing to the baby as he lay him in his crib. John returned with a smile and sat back down between Lafayette and I on the couch. I managed to calm down enough to find eating appealing and listened to John tell Lafayette about last night and about Philip. I interjected a few times for clarity and took our takeout boxes to the kitchen when we were both done eating. Lafayette was still listening intently.
"Who else have you told so far?" He asked.
"No one," John shook his head, "just you."
Lafayette grinned, "he really is perfect."
"We've got some hurdles to get over, but he's all I've ever wanted." I couldn't stop smiling.
"We need clothes." John remembered.
"Let's go, then!" Lafayette stood up.
"Can't, baby is sleeping." John reminded him.
"Oh, right." Lafayette pursed his lips, brainstorming.
"John, why don't Philip and I stay here? You guys go. I hate shopping anyway."
"Are you sure?"
I shrugged, "yeah, of course. Go get our poor baby something to wear. Let Lafayette get a headstart at spoiling him. He's still in three month clothes."
John sighed and made a face, "he's so little."
"How old is he?" Lafayette asked.
"Six months, but it's okay, querido, we'll fatten him up in no time, babies are made to grow."
John nodded and tried not to look too perturbed.
They left and I snuck into the nursery and watched Philip sleeping so peacefully. I wondered how many nights he'd slept alone like this and stripped off my hoodie before I picked him up, he moved his head back and forth deciding whether or not to cry. I consoled him and moved back to the living room where I covered us with the throw blanket from the back of the couch. He curled into my chest like it was crafted just for him and slept hard. I wrapped my arms around him and fell back asleep, too.
Lafayette and John were back by the time I woke up, Philip still sleeping on me. John's camera sat on the coffee table.
"Really?" I hissed, seeing the camera, I rolled my eyes at him.
He shrugged, "it's the quintessential sleeping on dad picture. I had to, you'll thank me someday."
"It's very endearing, Alexander." Lafayette agreed.
Lafayette hugged John and came over to stroke the back of Philip's head, I offered out my hand for him to shake without disturbing the baby.
"Thanks for everything, Laf."
"Of course, mon ami, I am only a phone call away."
John walked Lafayette out and came back, picked my legs up, sat on the couch and draped my legs over his lap, squeezing my shins.
"How was shopping? You max out all the credit cards?" I whispered.
"No… Laf might have, he went a little crazy with 'uncle duty,'"
"Nothing wrong with having a loved baby."
"Shit, I have to call my sister." He remembered and reached in his pocket for his phone.
I traced Philip's brow bone and nose, the bow of his lips, he turned his head side to side in annoyance to get away from me and stretched out flat, his little legs vibrating with the intensity of the stretch and his mouth a perfect circle in a yawn, he blinked at me.
I rubbed his back, "hi, baby, did I mess with you too much? Daddy's calling more people who are going to love you. You're going to have so much love you won't even know what to do with it."
Martha answered and I passed the baby to John, she squealed in delight. I kissed the top of John's head and went to take a shower, needing a minute to myself. I stood under the spray and let everything sink in, my life had changed so much, so quickly that it gave me vertigo. I toweled off and dressed myself, joining my two favourite people in the world back in the living room. They were on the floor on the throw blanket, a crinkling toy in between them, John resting on his elbows, Philip was working very hard to keep his head up and find a way to get the toy to his mouth.
"Look, your papi's back!" John pointed at me.
"Hi, baby." I waved and Philip raised a hand out towards me and lost his balance rolling onto his back he started to fuss.
"Can he roll over?" I asked John who shrugged his response.
"I don't know."
I lie down across from John and picked up the toy crinkling it out of his reach, "you want to come get this?"
Philip trained his attention to the toy and kicked his feet, making it a quarter of the way before flopping back down, I crinkled the toy and he tried again, rolling onto his belly he reached for the toy and I gave it to him, John and I both cheering.
Philip played with his toy by himself and grew tired of it, staring at the corner of the room, totally content.
"You notice how much he does that? He did it while you were sleeping last night." John knit his brows together and tucked his hair behind his ear.
Philip sucked on his own fingers, still just looking at the wall.
"I don't think anyone ever really looked back at him, sounds like this is the most attention he's ever had, makes good eye contact though, looks at us both when we feed him, he's pretty used to being alone, though. That's what Eliza was saying.
John shut his eyes, tears streaming down his face, "who could do that?" he whispered, chin quivering.
"People that don't get to be his parents." I scooched over and put an arm around him and wiped his eyes with my free hand.
John squeezed Philip's little foot and sniffed, "I'm glad we get to be his parents. We'll take care of him."
"We sure will. You want to go take a nap? You seem like maybe a nap would do you some good."
"Do you mind?" He leaned against me.
"No, we got to take one earlier, go rest."
He nodded and got off the floor, his knee pop never escaping me now, no matter how quiet.
"You and me, kid. You still digging this whole 'tummy time' thing? Have to get those neck muscles strong, hold up your big brain. You think maybe we should read? I haven't gotten to read to you yet. Now, your daddy's going to think we should stick to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Love You Forever, and okay, we both agree on Where the Wild Things Are, but let's get to the good stuff that your daddy won't read you," I got up and went over to my bookshelf, pulling one of the thicker books down, and went back to the floor with Philip and opened the book, "this is Bulfinch's Mythology, it's even older than papi, written in the 1800's, can you believe that? Okay, how about Prometheus and Pandora, figure out how this world got turning."
I started reading, Philip stared at me, curious about my speaking to him in a low tone, evident that he wasn't used to it. Eventually, he rolled over and sat himself up to my surprise.
"Look at you, party tricks!" I reached for the camera on the coffee table and tried to find the on switch, Philip grew less steady and I opted to just take a picture with my phone instead.
I took Philip onto the couch and sat him upright in my lap, my feet kicked up on the table, book in front of us, I kept reading about Epimetheus creating animals. John padded back out from the bedroom and giggled a breathy laugh.
"That didn't take long." He mused.
"What?"
"For you to start reading one of your big books to the baby." He sat next to us.
"You don't need to be scared of big books, John." I rolled my eyes.
"They just take too long."
"Hey, he showed off some skills earlier." I produced my phone and showed John the picture of him sitting up.
"Whoa! Look at that!" He zoomed in the picture.
"Tried to figure out your camera since it was out, but it's got too many damned buttons for any man to understand. Couldn't even find the 'on' switch."
John picked up his camera, instinctively winding the strap over the untanned flesh of his wrist, "it's right here." He pointed below the shutter to a wheel marked, 'ON' 'OFF.'
"Oh… Well, whatever."
John snapped pictures of me reading to Philip and listened to the stories as well, at some point taking Philip into his arms and leaning against me while I read to them, content to hold my family. One I didn't deserve, but somehow had nonetheless.