A/N: Based on a scene fro Real Housewives of New Jersey, where Jaqueline Laurita's son Nicholas tells her "I love you" for the first time since he regressed.

OR

Ted entrusts Charlie to babysit his autistic son, and ends up getting a surprise.

Babysitter

Ted Orion remembered the day he and Bella got their son's diagnosis.

He'd been at the Varsity team's practice when his wife called, confirming their worst fear come true for Teddy Hans Orion, their miracle baby. They'd tried having another baby after Lucy shortly before the car accident that left Lucy paralyzed. But Bella miscarried. That, combined with Lucy suddenly being in a wheelchair, convinced Ted that he should retire from playing in the NHL.

But then, Bella miraculously got pregnant again, this time with a seemingly healthy baby; when Ted led the J.V. Ducks to victory against the Varsity team in their freshman year, Bella was well on her way and gave birth a month later. He remembered when he got the call that his son was coming, how the J.V. team insisted they go to the hospital to see his baby boy; that had been one of the first steps toward the Ducks slowly being integrated into his family and vice versa.

For two years, everything with both his children was good. Lucy was happy despite being stuck in a mobilized chair, and she loved the Ducks, especially Connie and Julie. Bella luckily had no complications post-pregnancy, much to his tremendous relief. And little Teddy was healthy.

At least, that was until Ted got the news from his wife.

The shrill ringing of his cell phone interrupted practice. Just as sharply, Ted blew his whistle, signaling his Varsity team to freeze. His captain, Charlie Conway, and his alternate captain, Connie Moreau, skated over quickly, gathering the other Ducks up as Ted room the phone call. Glancing at the caller's I.D., he saw the call was from Bella.

"Kids, I'm sorry. I've got to take this," he said before flicking his phone open and pressing it to his ear to take the call. "Hi, Belles. How did it go at the doctor?"

He could hear Bella crying and an icy fist clenched around his heart.

"Bella? What's wrong? What did you find out?"

"Oh, God!" Bella's hysterical tone worried him instantly. "Oh, God! Ted, I —It's what we thought! They said Teddy is . . . He has autism."

Something crawled up Ted's throat; he thought he might throw up. He'd been hoping for otherwise. Teddy was two years old. There was no way it could happen this quickly. But the signs were there: the regression, Teddy not making eye contact, not connecting with others, not wanting to be touched, hitting himself when he felt frustrated, and losing language. He knew something was wrong when Teddy stopped saying, "I love you" a month ago. He hadn't wanted to say anything to the Ducks. It wasn't necessary to say a word to them because they didn't need to know. The only one that had a slight inkling of it was Charlie because Charlie and his mom came over for family dinners sometimes; Ted had made it clear toward the end of Charlie's freshman year that if he needed someone to have those man-to-man talks with when Gordon was away in California, Charlie could always come to Ted for anything.

As a result, Charlie saw things the other Ducks didn't see. He'd been the one to hold little Teddy the day he was born. He knew there was something wrong. But Charlie kept true to his word about discretion. He knew Ted was a very private person and that Ted didn't want anyone feeling pity for what he and his family were going through.

Still, Ted didn't want to cry in front of the kids. Instead, he swallowed the lump out of his throat and whispered, "God, um, all right. Bella, I'm gonna cut the kids loose early. I'm on my way home. Love you." He cast Charlie a quiet look, and Charlie nodded back silently, understanding.

Since that day, Charlie was aware of Teddy's diagnosis and the treatment plan; there were even times he volunteered to help out, doing some of the exercises the therapist had given them to work with. Charlie had told him that he hoped to one day teach English and possibly work with special needs children, and the boy proved to have the right temperament for it; he never lost any patience with Teddy and was so kind and warming, reading books to him and helping him pronounce new words and brushing him with the sensory brush to help relax him. There were nights Charlie volunteered to watch the kids while Ted and Bella had date nights, like tonight. And as Ted drove along, he couldn't help having a little bit of anxiety. Maybe it was his paranoia, but ever since the car accident, Ted had a slight fear of driving, especially on rainy nights like this one. His only comfort was knowing Charlie was at the house with the kids while Ted and Bella had gone to the cinema to see a movie.

Ted sighed with relief as he pulled into the drive. Every time they got home safe, he couldn't help the tremendous relief that overwhelmed him.

He grabbed Bella's hand and led her to the front porch. They heard the giggles inside the house, even from where they stood outside. Charlie often allowed the kids to twist his arm into letting them stay up late, and they also suckered him into giving them ice cream at later times, too. Despite that, Ted smiled. He was glad the kids loved Charlie as much as they did.

Ted unlocked the door to find Charlie in the den with Lucy and Teddy, with Charlie reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the kids; even though Lucy was perfectly capable of reading to her little brother, there would always be a part of her that loved it when someone else read to her. When Ted and Bella entered, the seventeen-year-old glanced up, grinning.

"How were the kids?" asked Bella, removing her coat and hanging it on the peg on the wall.

"They were good," Charlie said. "Teddy's been wanting me to read to him more. I worked with him on requesting it."

"Good, that's what he should do; even if he throws a tantrum, he needs to learn to use his words," Ted said, nodding in approval as he bent down to his son's level; his son was seated in his bean bag chair, holding the stuffed duck Charlie had given him when he was a baby. "Hi bud, were you good for Charlie tonight? What did you guys do?"

"We put X-Men on, and he did an art project. Lucy, do you want to show your mom and dad what you guys did?"

"Yeah!" Lucy pushed her wheelchair out of the den, heading to the kitchen.

Ted smiled gently, kissing Teddy's hair; the little boy grabbed onto his fingers, giggling.

"Hey, Teddy, don't you want to say something?" Charlie asked the toddler.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

Charlie moved a little closer to the three-year-old, saying, "Teddy, look at Daddy, okay?"

Ted watched as his son's gaze shifted. While eye contact was something they needed to work on, Teddy was getting better at it, albeit much more slowly than Ted would've liked. Still, he'd take whatever little victories came their way.

"Okay, Teddy, say, 'Daddy,'" Charlie coaxed gently.

"Daddy," Teddy said, his voice a little slurred and slow, but it was a step compared to where he'd been before, not saying anything at all.

"Now, say, 'I love you,'" Charlie said.

Teddy seemed to struggle to find the words and their meaning. At first, he just looked at Ted blankly, coughing several times.

"Say, 'I love you.' Come on, use your words. We've been working on that. Make the sentence," Charlie whispered.

Teddy opened and closed his mouth several times before finally blurting out, "I love you."

Ted gasped, his eyes burning before he noticed his vision clouding wetly. He couldn't find the words to express the elation he felt at hearing his son say, "I love you." He could only grab his son in a gentle hug and kiss him on the forehead as Bella gasped, "Oh, my God!" Ted just kept kissing his son repetitively, ruffling his hair as his tears hit the top of his son's head.

"Good boy, Teddy," Charlie said, grinning. "I've been working with him on that. I wanted to surprise you guys."

"Thank you!" Ted released his son and passed Teddy over to Bella, who picked him up and kissed him lovingly while Ted grabbed Charlie into a tight hug and rubbed his back. "Thank you, thank you!"

He felt Charlie smiling. "He's a great kid. I wanna see him get better. But he's not sick. He just has a setback that he needs to get through."

"Don't make me cry, kid," Ted choked out.

"I won't tell anybody," Charlie teased, pulling away.

Ted wiped his eyes. "You wanna know what this means, Conway? You're gonna be one hell of a teacher one day."

Charlie smiled back a little wider. "So you've told me."

"I mean it. If you can get him to say that —"

"I didn't get him to. He loves you. He expresses it. He just needed a little help pulling the words out; that doesn't mean he doesn't have alternate ways of communicating."

"And I know that. But he can say so much more," Bella said, bouncing Teddy up and down on her hip.

"He'll get there. I know he will. And when the time comes I'll even teach him how to skate, too."

Ted felt more tears flood his eyes. Hearing Charlie say that meant more than he could describe. Of course, Ted always dreamt of teaching his boy how to play hockey one day, but after they got Teddy's diagnosis, he thought that day would never come, that his son would never get a handle on basic things like communication. But hearing Teddy say, "I love you," gave the former NHL star hope that his son would one day be able to do all the things Ted wished he would. And he knew that he had Charlie to thank for the progress being made in his son's recovery. He also knew that he'd have Charlie babysit more often.

Note: I have mild autism myself, so I have some insight into what it's like to live on the spectrum and I just got inspired to write this.