New fic... Umm... I hope you approve of the concept...
Title: Talkin' 'Bout My Generation (Part 1/?)
Pairing: None, unless you count the wives and the implied Ted DiBiase/Cody Rhodes relationship
Raiting: PG
Summary: This is in the same universe as Tell Us About the Boy from New York City. If you haven't read that one, I would, but it's not necessary. This is set five years after the end of that fic, and it focuses on the life of Ted's youngest son, Cody DiBiase and his kindergarten adventures.
Word Count: 3254
A/N: This is another one of those ideas that just wouldn't leave me alone. I'd like to see how this one goes over, but I have ideas for more fic in this verse. That being following Cody as he grows up and Ted observes. Also, on Erica's suggestion, I found a picture of a kid who looks like the Cody I pictured, which can be seen at the bottom of the entry. :)
Ted arrived home after a long day of work, another nine to five day with a meeting that put him well into overtime hours. But all the stress from work went flying out the seventeen story window as soon as he stepped through the front door of his apartment. All three of his kids were in the kitchen helping their mother set the table and finish cooking dinner. His oldest, Greg, now fifteen, had a knack for cooking, and was considering going to culinary school in a couple years, as he was excelling in his high school’s culinary program. Emily, the middle child at eleven years old, was setting the table as her father walked in.
And then there was little five year old Cody. To keep him more out of the way than anything, his mother had given him a carrot to eat, which he was gnawing on very loudly. As soon as his dad came through the door, he tossed the carrot to the floor, forgotten. “Daddy’s home!” he shouted, running to give him a hug. Ted ruffled the curly blonde hair before picking him up and spinning him around, Cody giggling the whole time.
Setting him down, Ted ruffled his hair once more, smiling when Cody turned those big blue eyes up on him, eyes that looked exactly like his Cody’s. “You’re getting awfully heavy, you know that? What’s she been feeding you, anyway?”
“You’re silly, Daddy.” He looked up to Ted expectantly, waiting for him to ask him something else.
“It looks like you want to tell me something. Am I forgetting about something that happened today?” he asked out loud, stroking his chin. “Hmm, I vaguely remember you saying something… That’s it!” He crouched down so he was level with Cody. “You started kindergarten today! How was your first day?” When he stood, he grabbed Cody in his arms and picked him up, then sat down on the couch, sitting Cody in his lap.
“You’re not gonna believe this!”
“What won’t I believe?”
“There’s a boy in my classroom that has your name!”
“There’s a boy with the name Daddy?”
Cody laughed again at how silly his dad was being. “No, his name was Ted!”
“Really? That’s so cool. Do you remember his last name? Maybe I know one of the parents.”
Cody’s already big eyes got even bigger and his shoulders slumped slightly. He had put all of his energy into remembering that there was another boy in the class with the first name Teddy, he hadn’t even thought to hear his last name. “No, I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“You don’t have to be sorry for that. I was just wondering if you caught it. Now, did you enjoy your day at school?”
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun! They had a room inside with a sandbox!”
“You should have seen him when I picked him up,” Kristen chimed in. “I didn’t think there was any sand left in the school’s sandbox, since he had so much in his shoes.”
“Mommy, I’m trying to tell Daddy about kindergarten.”
She chuckled and raised her hands in defense, “Sorry, Cody, you tell your dad all about your day.”
“Me and Teddy-”
“Teddy and I,” his dad corrected.
Cody blinked , then continued, “We played together the whole day. We tried making a sandcastle, but the sand wouldn’t stick, so we just dug a really big hole until we reached the bottom of the sandbox. And then we filled that in and dug another hole, but we didn’t have time to fill that one in before play time was over, and this girl, Sarah, fell in the hole when she was going back to circle time. I don’t know how she missed it, since there was a big pile of dirt next to it, and that’s what she fell on. She got sand everywhere, and she was wearing a nice dress today, too.”
“Well, that’s not good. Did she get hurt?”
“No, she just got a lot of dirt on her. She wasn’t very happy.”
“So, what else did you do today?”
“Played with blocks. And we read a story. They made us practice our handwriting, too. Mine’s so messy, Miss Jessica said she couldn’t even read it.”
“Maybe that just means you’ll become a doctor. No one can read their handwriting, either, and they’re grownups.”
“All right, you two, come on and have some dinner before it all gets cold. And then it’s your bed time, Cody. You’ve got another early day ahead of you, and you need to be rested up,” Kristen said.
Ted and Cody got up from the couch and headed over to the table, and when they sat down in their spots, Cody asked, “How come Greg and Emily can stay up later than me? They have to go to school, too!”
“When you’re eleven, you’ll be able to stay up later. How many more years until you’re eleven?”
Cody tilted his head to the side and looked up to the ceiling as he thought. Then, when he couldn’t do the math in his head, he looked at his fingers and counted off. “Six more years. Mom, I’m only five, that’s a long time!”
“Six more years will be gone before you know it. Now eat your spaghetti.”
Every day, Ted came home from work to find Cody enthused to tell him about his day at kindergarten. “Daddy, guess what we did today?” is how it would always start. Today was no different.
“Did you… fly to the moon?” Ted asked, setting his things down by the door.
“No!” Cody replied in a fit of giggles.
“Hmm, did you get your drivers license?” Ted asked, now moving to the couch.
“No!” Cody said, still laughing as he sat down on his dad’s lap.
“Well, I just don’t know. How about you tell me what you did today?”
“We painted pumpkins!”
“You painted pumpkins? That sounds like it was really messy.”
“It was! We had to wear smocks so we wouldn’t get paint all over our clothes. Teddy got it all over his face, and Miss Maureen had to bring him into the bathroom to wash him off.”
“Did you get paint all over you?”
Cody held up his hands, giggling more as his dad’s mouth opened at the mish-mash of colours all over his small hands. “A little.”
“What did you paint on your pumpkin?”
“A puppy.”
“A puppy? Why did you paint a puppy?”
“Because I want one.”
“Codes, I told you before we can’t have a puppy in the apartment.”
“Why can’t we go to a different apartment, then?”
“Because this is the one we live in. It’s close to my work, and you might have to go to a new school if we went to a different apartment. Would you like that? Moving after you made all these friends in kindergarten?”
“No,” Cody answered with sunken shoulders.
“Maybe when you’re grown up, you can live in a house where you can have a puppy. But not until you’re all grown up.”
“Well, I can’t wait to grow up, then, because I want a puppy.”
“Cody, it’s time for you to take a bath!” Kristen yelled out to him from the bathroom.
Cody clambered off his father’s lap and headed over to his mum. “Moooom, do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to. Now come on, we’re gonna try and get that paint off of you.”
Ted smiled as Kristen managed to get him into the bathroom, and then he lay back on the couch, the smile fading. His eyes shut as he thought the day over. Today was October 24th. Five years ago today, Cody passed away. Cody passed away after Ted finally admitted that he loved Cody. And it took that tragic moment for Ted to even say anything. He sighed, knowing that if hadn’t given up Cody in high school, he never would have found Kristen and had his three children, whom he loved with every fiber of his being. Yet, he never would have known this life to start had he just said those four words all those years ago: I love you, too. He was lost in thought, thinking about Cody, what it could have been like to have a life with him.
He only noticed he wasn’t alone when he felt a weight on his stomach. He opened his eyes and couldn’t help but smile slightly when he saw little Cody sitting on him. “Hey, when’d you get there?”
“Were you sleeping?”
“Nah, I was just thinking.”
“What were you thinking about?”
Ted bit his bottom lip, not sure exactly what to say. And then he decided that his son should know where his name came from, at least part of the story, anyway. “Have you ever wondered where you got the name Cody from?”
“What do you mean? You gave me the name Cody!”
“I know I did, but your sister was named after your grandmother, and your brother was named after your great-grandfather. But you were different. When I was in ninth grade all the way back in high school, I met my best friend. Can you guess what his name was?”
“Was it Cody?”
“It was Cody!”
“Can we meet him?”
Ted shook his head, “No, I’m sorry. You’d have liked him a lot.”
“Why can’t we meet him?”
“Well, Cody’s in heaven now.”
“You mean he died?”
“Yeah, and now he’s up in heaven, looking down on us.”
“What happened?”
“He was really sick for a long time.”
“Does Mommy know him?”
Ted sighed, trust a five year old to be a non-stop question bank. “No, she doesn’t.”
“But he was your best friend! How does Mommy not know your best friends?”
“Well, we were friends in high school, before I met your mommy. We didn’t see each other for a long time after that.”
Cody tilted his head and looked at his dad’s face before asking, “You loved him, didn’t you?”
Ted raised an eyebrow and brought a hand to Cody’s head, tangling his fingers in the still wet curls. “What do you mean by that, Codes?”
“I mean, you loved him like you love Mommy, didn’t you?”
Ted blinked his eyes a couple times, trying to stop tears from forming. “Yeah, I did,” he managed to choke out. “I really did. You’re awful smart to figure that out. Look, this’ll be our little secret, ok?”
“Ok,” Cody said with a smile, happy to have a secret between him and his daddy.
“Now you come down here,” Ted said, pulling Cody into a hug tight to his body, the hand in Cody’s hair becoming a fist as he gave a noogie to him, drawing out laughs from the young child.
Kristen left her bedroom after turning off the TV to go brush her teeth, wondering what happened to her husband and youngest son. The sight in front of her as she walked into the living room warmed her heart. There, asleep on the couch, was Ted with Cody on his stomach, Cody’s head resting on Ted’s chest. She didn’t want to disturb them, so she headed into the bathroom, leaving them be. Once she left, the kept the door to the bathroom open and the light on inside so they could see incase either of them woke up, and switched off the main light in the room.
The following morning, Ted rose confused, at first, as to where he was and why he had a weight lying on top of him. As he opened his eyes, he saw that he and Cody had fallen asleep on their spot on the couch. He remembered now that he had started tickling Cody, who soon after fell asleep on him. Not wanting to wake Cody, Ted kept still, planning on taking a little nap until he finally had to wake Cody up to move him into his own bed. And judging by the sunlight coming from the windows, it had lasted a lot longer than the few minutes he had been planning on. “Cody,” he whispered. “Hey, Codes,” he said again, giving Cody a little shake.
The smaller figure began to stir, his eyes blinking open as he rubbed the sleep out of them. “Daddy?”
“Yeah, would you believe that we fell asleep on the couch?”
“Oh, Mommy let us sleep all night here?”
“I guess so. Now, how about we get up and get some breakfast?”
“That sounds good. Can you make pancakes?”
“Of course I’ll make you guys some pancakes. With M&Ms?”
Cody’s eyes lit up, it wasn’t often they got M&M pancakes. “Yeah!”
Ted smiled, “Ok, M&Ms it is.” He sat up as Cody slid off of him and to the floor. Cody stood in front of him, and he looked right at Cody as he said, “You remember that all that stuff I told you last night was our secret, right?”
“Yup!”
“Good.” He stood and ushered Cody towards the bathroom. “Now, you go wash up, and I’ll get all the ingredients ready. I’ll make sure to pick you up so you can put your own M&Ms in, ok?”
“Ok! Thanks, Daddy!”
His other two kids emerged from their rooms at the smell of pancakes, and soon all were sitting down, enjoying their usual Saturday morning pancake breakfast.
A few weekends later, while Emily and Gregory were off with their friends, Ted took Cody down to Central Park so they could enjoy some of the final moments of nice weather the year had to offer. “Daddy, that’s Teddy!” Cody shouted, trying to run over to his friend, but not going very far, as Ted had his hand gripped tight.
“Slow down, bud, we’ll get there.” Together they walked towards the other father/son combo, who were also walking towards them.
As soon as the two boys were next to each other, they sat down on the ground and began picking pieces of grass up and pulling them apart. Ted smiled at the two boys then extended his hand to the father of Cody’s new friend. “Hi, I’m Ted DiBiase, Cody’s dad.”
The other man took his hand, shaking it as he replied, “Randy Orton, Theodore’s dad. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You, as well,” Ted said, dropping his hand. “I’ve heard so much about your little guy these past couple months. He’s all Cody ever talks about.”
“Same here. Sounds like they’re quite the pair.”
“Oh, yeah,” Ted replied as he moved towards a bench. He sat down and Randy sat down next to him as they watched the two boys stand up, bored with pulling blades of grass apart, and begin to chase each other around in small circles. “Little trouble makers, those two. Cody’s bad enough on his own. And as soon as he turns those big blue eyes on you, you just can’t say no to him, or think he ever did anything wrong.”
“Sounds like Teddy.”
The boys then sat down, heads bowed together. “That can’t be good,” Ted said as he watched on.
“They’re plotting something.”
Randy and Ted looked to each other, saying at the same time, “McDonald’s.”
The families parted ways after the boys sweet talked their dads in to lunch at McDonald’s, and when they got home, they found they had the whole apartment to themselves. “Daddy, how come you didn’t see Cody for a long time?”
“Uhh, well…” Ted paused, he hadn’t been expecting Cody to bring that up again. It had been a few weeks since he told him the story, he hoped Cody would have had all his questions answered.
“You said you didn’t see him for a really long time, why?”
Ted sat down in his usual spot on the couch, and patted his lap for Cody to sit. As soon as Cody was on his lap, he started speaking, “You remember what you said about him and me last time?”
“That you loved him.”
“Yeah. Well, I was scared to say it to him. And when I went off to college, he went to California, way over on the other side of the country, and we lost touch. It wasn’t until we moved here that I saw him again. Now, that’s enough of my old stories, how about I read to you?”
“Why were you scared?”
Once again, Ted was unsure about how to go about answering Cody’s question. He couldn’t tell Cody everything, he was only five, after all. “Well, Codes… when I was in high school, things were different than they are now.”
“Were you able to tell him when you saw him again before he went to Heaven?”
“Yeah, yeah I was.”
Cody beamed at his father. “Good. You can read to me now. How about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs?”
“We can do that. Go get it.”
The year seemed to fly by, with Cody bringing home turkeys cut out in the shape of their hands, then pinecone Christmas ornaments that got glitter everywhere, Valentine cards from all the kids in his class, paper shamrocks and Easter bunnies.
Teddy had come over a couple times for play dates, and the same was true with Cody going to Teddy’s. Their parents had even become friends as they spent time watching the kids, Samantha Orton even inviting Kristen to one of her Creative Memories scrapbooking parties.
Finally, the time had come for kindergarten graduation. The kids made their own caps, and all wore little gowns as they stood on the bleachers in the school’s gym. They sang all the songs they learned during the year as proud parents looked on from the chairs set up on the gym floor. Then they each got called up and handed a diploma, and after a big group shot, all the kids got to go down to their parents.
“Hey, Codes, you looked great up there,” Ted told him.
Cody pulled the hat off his head and handed it to his dad. “Thanks, Daddy!” He looked around for Teddy, wondering where he got to. Hadn’t he been right next to him? Then he looked around his dad’s legs, seeing that Teddy was on the other side. “When will I be going back to school again?”
“September. You’ve got a few months off now.”
“But when can I see Teddy again?”
“They can come over in the summer, just like they did during the school year.”
Cody grinned ear to ear, then ducked around Ted and headed to Teddy, stealing the cap from right off his head. “Hey!” Teddy said, turning around, smiling when he saw Cody had the cap on his own head. He snatched it away from Cody, holding it behind his back so he couldn’t grab it again. “You’ll have to come over soon, Alanna’s home from college, so I bet we could get her to make us cookies like the last time she was home.”
“You really think so? I’ll tell Dad you asked me over. They can figure everything else out.”
“Hey, Cody, it’s time to go home,” Kristen said as Greg and Emily stood waiting at the end of the aisle of chairs.
“Ok,” he replied reluctantly. He turned back to Teddy and pulled him into a hug, which Teddy returned, drawing out ‘aww’s from all members of their families. Ted smiled at the sight in front of him, thinking somewhere in the back of his mind that maybe these two would get it right.
A/N 2: I also had to find a kid that looked like Teddy Orton, now just picture him with eyes more like Randy's, the steel blue colour.... So, here they are side by side. Cody DiBiase and Theodore Orton...
Pairing: None, unless you count the wives and the implied Ted DiBiase/Cody Rhodes relationship
Raiting: PG
Summary: This is in the same universe as Tell Us About the Boy from New York City. If you haven't read that one, I would, but it's not necessary. This is set five years after the end of that fic, and it focuses on the life of Ted's youngest son, Cody DiBiase and his kindergarten adventures.
Word Count: 3254
A/N: This is another one of those ideas that just wouldn't leave me alone. I'd like to see how this one goes over, but I have ideas for more fic in this verse. That being following Cody as he grows up and Ted observes. Also, on Erica's suggestion, I found a picture of a kid who looks like the Cody I pictured, which can be seen at the bottom of the entry. :)
Ted arrived home after a long day of work, another nine to five day with a meeting that put him well into overtime hours. But all the stress from work went flying out the seventeen story window as soon as he stepped through the front door of his apartment. All three of his kids were in the kitchen helping their mother set the table and finish cooking dinner. His oldest, Greg, now fifteen, had a knack for cooking, and was considering going to culinary school in a couple years, as he was excelling in his high school’s culinary program. Emily, the middle child at eleven years old, was setting the table as her father walked in.
And then there was little five year old Cody. To keep him more out of the way than anything, his mother had given him a carrot to eat, which he was gnawing on very loudly. As soon as his dad came through the door, he tossed the carrot to the floor, forgotten. “Daddy’s home!” he shouted, running to give him a hug. Ted ruffled the curly blonde hair before picking him up and spinning him around, Cody giggling the whole time.
Setting him down, Ted ruffled his hair once more, smiling when Cody turned those big blue eyes up on him, eyes that looked exactly like his Cody’s. “You’re getting awfully heavy, you know that? What’s she been feeding you, anyway?”
“You’re silly, Daddy.” He looked up to Ted expectantly, waiting for him to ask him something else.
“It looks like you want to tell me something. Am I forgetting about something that happened today?” he asked out loud, stroking his chin. “Hmm, I vaguely remember you saying something… That’s it!” He crouched down so he was level with Cody. “You started kindergarten today! How was your first day?” When he stood, he grabbed Cody in his arms and picked him up, then sat down on the couch, sitting Cody in his lap.
“You’re not gonna believe this!”
“What won’t I believe?”
“There’s a boy in my classroom that has your name!”
“There’s a boy with the name Daddy?”
Cody laughed again at how silly his dad was being. “No, his name was Ted!”
“Really? That’s so cool. Do you remember his last name? Maybe I know one of the parents.”
Cody’s already big eyes got even bigger and his shoulders slumped slightly. He had put all of his energy into remembering that there was another boy in the class with the first name Teddy, he hadn’t even thought to hear his last name. “No, I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“You don’t have to be sorry for that. I was just wondering if you caught it. Now, did you enjoy your day at school?”
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun! They had a room inside with a sandbox!”
“You should have seen him when I picked him up,” Kristen chimed in. “I didn’t think there was any sand left in the school’s sandbox, since he had so much in his shoes.”
“Mommy, I’m trying to tell Daddy about kindergarten.”
She chuckled and raised her hands in defense, “Sorry, Cody, you tell your dad all about your day.”
“Me and Teddy-”
“Teddy and I,” his dad corrected.
Cody blinked , then continued, “We played together the whole day. We tried making a sandcastle, but the sand wouldn’t stick, so we just dug a really big hole until we reached the bottom of the sandbox. And then we filled that in and dug another hole, but we didn’t have time to fill that one in before play time was over, and this girl, Sarah, fell in the hole when she was going back to circle time. I don’t know how she missed it, since there was a big pile of dirt next to it, and that’s what she fell on. She got sand everywhere, and she was wearing a nice dress today, too.”
“Well, that’s not good. Did she get hurt?”
“No, she just got a lot of dirt on her. She wasn’t very happy.”
“So, what else did you do today?”
“Played with blocks. And we read a story. They made us practice our handwriting, too. Mine’s so messy, Miss Jessica said she couldn’t even read it.”
“Maybe that just means you’ll become a doctor. No one can read their handwriting, either, and they’re grownups.”
“All right, you two, come on and have some dinner before it all gets cold. And then it’s your bed time, Cody. You’ve got another early day ahead of you, and you need to be rested up,” Kristen said.
Ted and Cody got up from the couch and headed over to the table, and when they sat down in their spots, Cody asked, “How come Greg and Emily can stay up later than me? They have to go to school, too!”
“When you’re eleven, you’ll be able to stay up later. How many more years until you’re eleven?”
Cody tilted his head to the side and looked up to the ceiling as he thought. Then, when he couldn’t do the math in his head, he looked at his fingers and counted off. “Six more years. Mom, I’m only five, that’s a long time!”
“Six more years will be gone before you know it. Now eat your spaghetti.”
Every day, Ted came home from work to find Cody enthused to tell him about his day at kindergarten. “Daddy, guess what we did today?” is how it would always start. Today was no different.
“Did you… fly to the moon?” Ted asked, setting his things down by the door.
“No!” Cody replied in a fit of giggles.
“Hmm, did you get your drivers license?” Ted asked, now moving to the couch.
“No!” Cody said, still laughing as he sat down on his dad’s lap.
“Well, I just don’t know. How about you tell me what you did today?”
“We painted pumpkins!”
“You painted pumpkins? That sounds like it was really messy.”
“It was! We had to wear smocks so we wouldn’t get paint all over our clothes. Teddy got it all over his face, and Miss Maureen had to bring him into the bathroom to wash him off.”
“Did you get paint all over you?”
Cody held up his hands, giggling more as his dad’s mouth opened at the mish-mash of colours all over his small hands. “A little.”
“What did you paint on your pumpkin?”
“A puppy.”
“A puppy? Why did you paint a puppy?”
“Because I want one.”
“Codes, I told you before we can’t have a puppy in the apartment.”
“Why can’t we go to a different apartment, then?”
“Because this is the one we live in. It’s close to my work, and you might have to go to a new school if we went to a different apartment. Would you like that? Moving after you made all these friends in kindergarten?”
“No,” Cody answered with sunken shoulders.
“Maybe when you’re grown up, you can live in a house where you can have a puppy. But not until you’re all grown up.”
“Well, I can’t wait to grow up, then, because I want a puppy.”
“Cody, it’s time for you to take a bath!” Kristen yelled out to him from the bathroom.
Cody clambered off his father’s lap and headed over to his mum. “Moooom, do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to. Now come on, we’re gonna try and get that paint off of you.”
Ted smiled as Kristen managed to get him into the bathroom, and then he lay back on the couch, the smile fading. His eyes shut as he thought the day over. Today was October 24th. Five years ago today, Cody passed away. Cody passed away after Ted finally admitted that he loved Cody. And it took that tragic moment for Ted to even say anything. He sighed, knowing that if hadn’t given up Cody in high school, he never would have found Kristen and had his three children, whom he loved with every fiber of his being. Yet, he never would have known this life to start had he just said those four words all those years ago: I love you, too. He was lost in thought, thinking about Cody, what it could have been like to have a life with him.
He only noticed he wasn’t alone when he felt a weight on his stomach. He opened his eyes and couldn’t help but smile slightly when he saw little Cody sitting on him. “Hey, when’d you get there?”
“Were you sleeping?”
“Nah, I was just thinking.”
“What were you thinking about?”
Ted bit his bottom lip, not sure exactly what to say. And then he decided that his son should know where his name came from, at least part of the story, anyway. “Have you ever wondered where you got the name Cody from?”
“What do you mean? You gave me the name Cody!”
“I know I did, but your sister was named after your grandmother, and your brother was named after your great-grandfather. But you were different. When I was in ninth grade all the way back in high school, I met my best friend. Can you guess what his name was?”
“Was it Cody?”
“It was Cody!”
“Can we meet him?”
Ted shook his head, “No, I’m sorry. You’d have liked him a lot.”
“Why can’t we meet him?”
“Well, Cody’s in heaven now.”
“You mean he died?”
“Yeah, and now he’s up in heaven, looking down on us.”
“What happened?”
“He was really sick for a long time.”
“Does Mommy know him?”
Ted sighed, trust a five year old to be a non-stop question bank. “No, she doesn’t.”
“But he was your best friend! How does Mommy not know your best friends?”
“Well, we were friends in high school, before I met your mommy. We didn’t see each other for a long time after that.”
Cody tilted his head and looked at his dad’s face before asking, “You loved him, didn’t you?”
Ted raised an eyebrow and brought a hand to Cody’s head, tangling his fingers in the still wet curls. “What do you mean by that, Codes?”
“I mean, you loved him like you love Mommy, didn’t you?”
Ted blinked his eyes a couple times, trying to stop tears from forming. “Yeah, I did,” he managed to choke out. “I really did. You’re awful smart to figure that out. Look, this’ll be our little secret, ok?”
“Ok,” Cody said with a smile, happy to have a secret between him and his daddy.
“Now you come down here,” Ted said, pulling Cody into a hug tight to his body, the hand in Cody’s hair becoming a fist as he gave a noogie to him, drawing out laughs from the young child.
Kristen left her bedroom after turning off the TV to go brush her teeth, wondering what happened to her husband and youngest son. The sight in front of her as she walked into the living room warmed her heart. There, asleep on the couch, was Ted with Cody on his stomach, Cody’s head resting on Ted’s chest. She didn’t want to disturb them, so she headed into the bathroom, leaving them be. Once she left, the kept the door to the bathroom open and the light on inside so they could see incase either of them woke up, and switched off the main light in the room.
The following morning, Ted rose confused, at first, as to where he was and why he had a weight lying on top of him. As he opened his eyes, he saw that he and Cody had fallen asleep on their spot on the couch. He remembered now that he had started tickling Cody, who soon after fell asleep on him. Not wanting to wake Cody, Ted kept still, planning on taking a little nap until he finally had to wake Cody up to move him into his own bed. And judging by the sunlight coming from the windows, it had lasted a lot longer than the few minutes he had been planning on. “Cody,” he whispered. “Hey, Codes,” he said again, giving Cody a little shake.
The smaller figure began to stir, his eyes blinking open as he rubbed the sleep out of them. “Daddy?”
“Yeah, would you believe that we fell asleep on the couch?”
“Oh, Mommy let us sleep all night here?”
“I guess so. Now, how about we get up and get some breakfast?”
“That sounds good. Can you make pancakes?”
“Of course I’ll make you guys some pancakes. With M&Ms?”
Cody’s eyes lit up, it wasn’t often they got M&M pancakes. “Yeah!”
Ted smiled, “Ok, M&Ms it is.” He sat up as Cody slid off of him and to the floor. Cody stood in front of him, and he looked right at Cody as he said, “You remember that all that stuff I told you last night was our secret, right?”
“Yup!”
“Good.” He stood and ushered Cody towards the bathroom. “Now, you go wash up, and I’ll get all the ingredients ready. I’ll make sure to pick you up so you can put your own M&Ms in, ok?”
“Ok! Thanks, Daddy!”
His other two kids emerged from their rooms at the smell of pancakes, and soon all were sitting down, enjoying their usual Saturday morning pancake breakfast.
A few weekends later, while Emily and Gregory were off with their friends, Ted took Cody down to Central Park so they could enjoy some of the final moments of nice weather the year had to offer. “Daddy, that’s Teddy!” Cody shouted, trying to run over to his friend, but not going very far, as Ted had his hand gripped tight.
“Slow down, bud, we’ll get there.” Together they walked towards the other father/son combo, who were also walking towards them.
As soon as the two boys were next to each other, they sat down on the ground and began picking pieces of grass up and pulling them apart. Ted smiled at the two boys then extended his hand to the father of Cody’s new friend. “Hi, I’m Ted DiBiase, Cody’s dad.”
The other man took his hand, shaking it as he replied, “Randy Orton, Theodore’s dad. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You, as well,” Ted said, dropping his hand. “I’ve heard so much about your little guy these past couple months. He’s all Cody ever talks about.”
“Same here. Sounds like they’re quite the pair.”
“Oh, yeah,” Ted replied as he moved towards a bench. He sat down and Randy sat down next to him as they watched the two boys stand up, bored with pulling blades of grass apart, and begin to chase each other around in small circles. “Little trouble makers, those two. Cody’s bad enough on his own. And as soon as he turns those big blue eyes on you, you just can’t say no to him, or think he ever did anything wrong.”
“Sounds like Teddy.”
The boys then sat down, heads bowed together. “That can’t be good,” Ted said as he watched on.
“They’re plotting something.”
Randy and Ted looked to each other, saying at the same time, “McDonald’s.”
The families parted ways after the boys sweet talked their dads in to lunch at McDonald’s, and when they got home, they found they had the whole apartment to themselves. “Daddy, how come you didn’t see Cody for a long time?”
“Uhh, well…” Ted paused, he hadn’t been expecting Cody to bring that up again. It had been a few weeks since he told him the story, he hoped Cody would have had all his questions answered.
“You said you didn’t see him for a really long time, why?”
Ted sat down in his usual spot on the couch, and patted his lap for Cody to sit. As soon as Cody was on his lap, he started speaking, “You remember what you said about him and me last time?”
“That you loved him.”
“Yeah. Well, I was scared to say it to him. And when I went off to college, he went to California, way over on the other side of the country, and we lost touch. It wasn’t until we moved here that I saw him again. Now, that’s enough of my old stories, how about I read to you?”
“Why were you scared?”
Once again, Ted was unsure about how to go about answering Cody’s question. He couldn’t tell Cody everything, he was only five, after all. “Well, Codes… when I was in high school, things were different than they are now.”
“Were you able to tell him when you saw him again before he went to Heaven?”
“Yeah, yeah I was.”
Cody beamed at his father. “Good. You can read to me now. How about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs?”
“We can do that. Go get it.”
The year seemed to fly by, with Cody bringing home turkeys cut out in the shape of their hands, then pinecone Christmas ornaments that got glitter everywhere, Valentine cards from all the kids in his class, paper shamrocks and Easter bunnies.
Teddy had come over a couple times for play dates, and the same was true with Cody going to Teddy’s. Their parents had even become friends as they spent time watching the kids, Samantha Orton even inviting Kristen to one of her Creative Memories scrapbooking parties.
Finally, the time had come for kindergarten graduation. The kids made their own caps, and all wore little gowns as they stood on the bleachers in the school’s gym. They sang all the songs they learned during the year as proud parents looked on from the chairs set up on the gym floor. Then they each got called up and handed a diploma, and after a big group shot, all the kids got to go down to their parents.
“Hey, Codes, you looked great up there,” Ted told him.
Cody pulled the hat off his head and handed it to his dad. “Thanks, Daddy!” He looked around for Teddy, wondering where he got to. Hadn’t he been right next to him? Then he looked around his dad’s legs, seeing that Teddy was on the other side. “When will I be going back to school again?”
“September. You’ve got a few months off now.”
“But when can I see Teddy again?”
“They can come over in the summer, just like they did during the school year.”
Cody grinned ear to ear, then ducked around Ted and headed to Teddy, stealing the cap from right off his head. “Hey!” Teddy said, turning around, smiling when he saw Cody had the cap on his own head. He snatched it away from Cody, holding it behind his back so he couldn’t grab it again. “You’ll have to come over soon, Alanna’s home from college, so I bet we could get her to make us cookies like the last time she was home.”
“You really think so? I’ll tell Dad you asked me over. They can figure everything else out.”
“Hey, Cody, it’s time to go home,” Kristen said as Greg and Emily stood waiting at the end of the aisle of chairs.
“Ok,” he replied reluctantly. He turned back to Teddy and pulled him into a hug, which Teddy returned, drawing out ‘aww’s from all members of their families. Ted smiled at the sight in front of him, thinking somewhere in the back of his mind that maybe these two would get it right.
A/N 2: I also had to find a kid that looked like Teddy Orton, now just picture him with eyes more like Randy's, the steel blue colour.... So, here they are side by side. Cody DiBiase and Theodore Orton...