Two Days Later
"Just to be clear, when you told me that you told your parents everything," Ty says as he stands before the door to Eli's parents' house.
"Well, they don't know that you are the one carrying our baby, but besides that, we are good to go," Eli says.
They stand before the door for another couple of seconds before Eli says, "Are you ready?"
"No," Ty replies, nonetheless pressing the doorbell.
No sooner has the melody rung out than the door opens, and June pulls Ty into a hug before her son. Robert is a bit more reserved, settling for a handshake after a moment of uncertainty.
"Please come in," June says practically, pulling both of the boys into the living room.
"How are you doing?" Robert asks the room in general, after they have all had a seat and sat in uncomfortable silence for a bit.
After a few seconds of silence, during which everyone assumes that questions was directed at someone else, Ty finally responds, "Really good."
"I'm sorry about the way you were treated the last time you were here. We didn't know," June says softly.
"I don't understand the logic of my son's husband coming out to me, and he not doing so," Robert mutters.
"Eli wanted to see how you reacted to my news before he decided if he was going to share his own," Ty says, and a moment later he realizes that this is more honesty than his husband would have liked him to share.
"Eli," June says, with a sad apology in his voice.
"I want you guys to know that our son really loves you. He would give just about anything to be the son that you really wanted," Ty says.
"I'm pretty happy with the son I got," Robert says with a tiny half-smile, which is the first natural thing in the whole conversation.
"I shouldn't have told you to move out of Eli's house. No matter if he was gay or not, it wasn't my place to say anything. If I'd known it would break his heart, if I'd known that I was breaking apart a marriage… I wouldn't have…" Robert starts.
"I'm sorry we weren't more honest with you," Ty says.
"Eli says you came out to your parents when you were in Junior High," June says.
Ty nods.
"I suppose we could have had that too, if we'd been a lot more accepting of our son," June says.
"We couldn't accept what we didn't know about," Robert grumbles.
"Well, he couldn't very well tell us when he knew what we thought about it, could he?" June says with the undertone of an argument that has gone round many times.
"I always wanted to have a marriage ceremony," Ty interrupts. "Eli wouldn't hear of it unless you guys would come. Of course, that wasn't an option until recently, because you didn't know about us. We're not legally married, but I'd like to be. Would you guys come if we planned a wedding?"
"Of course," June says, and Robert nods. It's hard to tell if he's being choked with the emotion of a proud father or of anger.
"When would the wedding be?" June asks.
"Soon, I think. We'd want to do it before the baby came, right?" Ty asks, looking over at Eli.
Eli nods his head.
"Speaking of the baby, we want to meet the mother," June says with a smile.
"You know that she's not going to be involved with raising it, right? You know that it is our baby?" Eli asks.
"It shares her genes. We should be allowed to meet the person that contributed half of the genetics to our grandchild," Robert says.
"That's no problem, I'm sure Olivia won't mind," Ty says.
"So, Ty, did you get a job in town?" June asks.
"Yes, I'm working at an engineering firm," Ty says with a slight smile. He's about to launch into a discussion of what work is like; that topic seems safer than any they have treaded on this far.
He's interrupted by Robert, who says, "Where are you going to live?"
"We haven't really discussed that yet," Eli breaks in.
"Are you going back to seminary, Eli?"
"Well, it's too late to start this semester," Ty points out.
"Are you going back next semester?" Robert presses.
"We haven't really got that all figured out yet," Ty says.
"You've got a baby on the way, you'd better get all of this figured out," Robert demands.
"Robert," his wife scolds.
"It's ok, that's fair," Ty says, taking Eli's hand, which he noticed was shaking, "Before Eli entered the picture, I did have it figured out. There is a great day-care next to my work that I was planning on putting the little tyke in when he was old enough. I've got paternity leave to cover until then. My apartment has a two bedrooms, and I've already started collecting stuff for the baby. Eli just found out about this kid a week ago, and since then he's been so buried in pregnancy and parenting books that he hasn't had time to think about the future. Give us a little time, and we'll make sure the kid is taken care of."
"Why is Eli reading pregnancy books?" June asks, her brow furred with suspicion that clearly shows this isn't the first time she's heard something from the pair of them that has made her wonder.
"We're very involved with the surrogate. That's our baby inside of her, after all," Eli says quickly.
Ty can't help but admire how quickly his husband has picked up the cover story.
Ty launches into some work stories when the silence lasts, and the uncomfortable part of the evening is past.
The Day After That
Eli is surprised when Ty rolls out of bed early the next morning, "It's Saturday," he says, patting the bed next to him in an invitation for his partner to return.
"I know, but I have birthing class."
"You can't go, you're a boy," Eli points out, not yet fully awake.
"I know, and I'm not even going to have this baby in a painful way that will involve careful breathing, but Olivia isn't so lucky."
Eli is fully awake at that comment, "You're her birth coach?"
"Well, it's not exactly as if she has someone else."
"She should have thought about that before she got pregnant! I'm not exactly comfortable with my husband cradling his pregnant ex-girlfriend between his pregnant legs!"
"She is not my ex-girlfriend! She and I agreed to have these kids together. To support each other as two friends. I'm really lucky to have you in my life. I am not going to need her emotional support as much as I would have, but she still will. I'm not going to desert her!"
"I'm coming too," Eli says firmly.
"What? No, you can't!" Ty protests.
"Of course I can, and I'm going to."
"She knows that you don't really like her."
"I like her fine. I like her even better when she is far away from my husband."
"Eli, there are going to be other people there. You can't just go in and be all passive-aggressive and petty. Other people are not going to understand the complicated things that we are going through, and they are just going to think you are a jerk if you do that."
"I am going to treat Olivia just fine."
"I don't understand why you need to come at all; if you trusted me, you'd be fine with me going out and spending a couple of hours with a friend that's of the opposite gender I would never be interested in.
"Ty, I trust you…"
"It's her you don't trust. That's an old line. One that's traditionally used by fathers to their daughters."
"I'm just practicing, I am going to be a father soon, you know…"
"Behave yourself," Ty warns.
-0-
"Hey, Olivia, I hope you don't mind, but Eli would really like to come with us," Ty says when he opens the door, hoping that getting the statement out of the way right away is going to make it less shocking, or at the very least not give her time to object.
"Eli?" Olivia says with a raised brow, "Since when are you back with Eli?"
"It happened not too long ago."
"Well, that's great… I just can't believe how great that is," Olivia goes to hug Eli, "I bet it was a bit of a shock…" Olivia says, looking from her own stomach to Ty's.
"To find out that in the few months I was away, my husband had fathered two children, yeah, 'shock' is the word that I would use," Eli says.
"Especially considering how," Olivia says.
"No joke! You two have grown up with this sort of thing. It's all brand new for me."
"It's really nice of you to be willing to come along, but Ty and I are really fine doing this by ourselves," Olivia says sweetly.
"I'd really rather come," Eli says, and even though the words are perfectly polite, there is no mistaking the meaning behind them.
Olivia blushes, and wishes that the accusation were false. She wished that in her heart of hearts she had absolutely no feelings for Ty. "Please come," she says, because there is no better way to get over someone as to watch them be in love with someone else.
The Next Morning
Eli is awaken to the sound of throwing up. He rushes to the bathroom out of instinct, but once he gets there, he is unsure what to do. He stands there awkwardly for a long moment, but taking a couple of steps back into the bedroom.
"I'm sorry, I didn't… you don't have enough hair to hold."
"You didn't have to get up," Ty says, standing up from the floor.
"I felt sorry for you. You're supposed to do something… to show that sympathy."
"Did you read that in one of those books?" Ty asks.
"Yeah, and it sounds right."
"I would honestly rather throw up without an audience, if it's all the same to you," Ty says.
Eli looks down, "I don't know if I'm going to be any good at this."
"Eli, you are a great man, and you're going to be a great father."
Eli fidgets, "Ty, I know that you wanted to send our kid to day care…"
Ty interrupts him before he can get any farther, "I just told your parents what my plan was before you entered the picture. We're going to decide what happens to this kid together, it's both of ours."
"I don't know how you feel about a stay-at-home dad. I mean… you might think that they are lazy or whatever," he mutters.
"No, I think raising a kid is a really important job, more than worthy of the devotion of the resources of a parent. I just don't think I want to do it right now. I'm sorry, Eli, but I just started this job. Besides, if you're going back to school… not that you have to, it just sounded like you were going to last night. I just mean, with a baby, on the way one of us has to work."
"I was talking about me being the stay-at-home dad," Eli says.
Ty looks at him in shock, "Really? Are you sure you'd want to do that?"
"Yeah, but I'd probably mess the kid up or something…" he begins.
"No way, you would be an amazing father. It's just that a couple of months ago you didn't even want to have kids, and now you want to spend all day with them. I worried that the baby would drive you batty in a week."
"It's not that I didn't want kids, it was just that I was afraid of all the things that I would have to do in order to get them."
"Are you going to be ok with putting your life on hold? If you wanted to move, we could, and you could go back to seminary."
"You were just talking about how you were just getting established in your job."
"I moved once, I can do it again if I need to."
"That's sweet, but I'm don't look at it as putting my life on hold. It's been on hold for a while. Marrying you, raising a kid, all of that is moving forward. Besides, I thought I could take some classes on-line. I don't know about a full load with the kid, but some, anyway. I might have to switch schools, but I've kind of been thinking about that anyway."
"You came out with your sexuality, and now you want to come out with your theology?"
"Something like that, yeah."
"It sounds like an amazing plan, Eli. If you're sure you want to do this, I'm game. I just hope that you don't get bored in the meantime."
"Bored? I have a wedding to plan, and a baby to prepare for. I am going to be anything but bored!"