RP LOG with thinbluegee | Parenthood

[lovesguinness]

Once Ciaran had gotten wind that he had to have his belly cut open to have his appendix taken out, he had absolutely freaked out to the max. Probably the worst that Gee and Euan had seen him, and it was likely just precipitate from the fact he was already anxious being back in hospital as it was. They only managed to calm him down with a shot of Valium and by both Euan and Matt telling Ciaran they both recently had their appendix out, and then there had to be a comparing of scars, all the while Ciaran sitting there tearfully trying to figure out if he wanted anymore doctors to touch him. It had done the trick, and Euan managed to dodge any curly questions about why his scar was a lot worse than Matt's when Ciaran started to be sick again. It was the anxious state the boy was in that had the surgical nurse suggest that Euan could go into Recovery to wait for Ciaran to wake up once the op was over, and Ciaran calmed right down once he knew his Dad would be there as soon as he woke up.

So, it was probably the first - and last - time anyone would see Euan Fitzpatrick done up in scrubs, a gown, a surgical cap and surgical booties over his feet, all of differing shades of medical blue. He had to kit up to be in the Recovery Unit apparently, and although it was quite a wait while Ciaran was in surgery (apparently the appendix burst right before they got him open, which was convenient, but also meant they couldn't just stick with routine keyhole surgery), they were soon telling him he could go see Ciaran to wait for him to regain consciousness. Gee stayed with Matt and Vee, and Stuart had also shown up shortly after Vee had texted him. Euan had stood beside Ciaran waiting for him to wake up, but Ciaran was oblivious to much of anything going on around him. He was off with the fairies, trying to tell one of the nurses he could fly like Harry Potter, and although Euan was relieved and amused, he made a mental note to keep any brooms well out of his son's reach any time in the near future.

Now Ciaran had dozed off again, his head slumped a little to the side on the pillow as he was wheeled back to his room in the Kids' Ward. Gee was already waiting in there and the others must have gone to the cafeteria or something. Euan was still in the scrubs, but he had lost the gown and the hat, but he had a serious case of hat hair because of it. Ciaran had a few drips in, and an oxygen mask on because his levels were a little low. Not an uncommon thing for kids after surgery. Euan waited while they handed over to the kids' nurses and then they were left alone. Euan took the seat beside Gee with a small groan and exhaled in relief. "He's doing fine," he told her with a small smile. He reached over and brushed Ciaran's blond hair back off his face, just needing some contact with his kid to reassure himself he was okay. "He's hardly been awake, he was really groggy and sleepy. He can fly, apparently. My sperm is that good. He could be asleep for awhile. It burst just as they got him on the table, so they had to open him right up, but he's gonna be fine. He's on some strong pain meds and they need to run those drugs for the Addisons through for another day or two. He just needs to take it easy. If I seriously don't have a grey pube after this, it's going to be a miracle."

Gee rest her hand on Euan's thigh and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she smiled softly at him. "You're hot in scrubs. But that aside, I always figured your sperm was capable of amazing things given what our son's like. Your son. I'm just glad he's okay. I mean, holy shit. He exploded! Unlike Vee I don't exactly feel like a curse, but you and Ciaran have both exploded on me. It's not fair, you know. It's really not. Now I'm just waiting for something to happen to you again." Gee touched her fingers briefly to the stitches in her eyebrow. "At least something happened to me to briefly even things out."

Euan snorted in amusement. "Fuck that for a joke. I'm not cleaning up anyone's puke or pussie wounds for a living. I don't care if anything happens to me, I just don't want anything else happening to him. My heart still feels like it's up in my fucking throat after his freak out. Lying there with an appendix on bursting point and he's screaming that he doesn't want anyone to touch him. I'm wholeheartedly blaming those fuckers up in Ireland for this. He shouldn't fucking be scared of doctors and hospitals. That's not a phobia I want him to have. Sure, I hate the fucking bastards myself, but I ain't a kid. And don't even go joking about shit like that. I don't want anything happening to you. No fucking evening out of anything. Christ, I didn't want him to go through that, but at least the wee bastard is gone now, aye? He can only have appendicitis once. I knew he was procrastinating with those cornflakes this morning."

Gee frowned as she looked at Ciaran sleeping, and then turned to look at Euan with an arched eyebrow. "How long do you think he was feeling shitty? How long was he sitting there in pain and just not wanting to say anything. We have to at least teach him that it's okay to say something. That he's not getting in the way. Because this is bollocks. It shouldn't take being at Vee's in agony and then him nearly fucking bursting while waiting in Casualty. We need to let him know that he just has to tell us. That he needs help and it's okay."

Euan shook his head. "It probably wasn't pain at that point. I remember what it was like. It just starts out feeling like you've got a dodgy gut. He seemed a bit tired this morning, too. That's why I thought he wasn't hungry, but he might have been awake feeling crappy in the night. I need to talk to him about that. Again. Tell him he can wake us if he needs us. It was probably more it started to get painful at Vee's, but he didn't want to be a bother to her. You know what the kid is like. He's still learning how to take everybody. It was his first time with Vee and Supercop. But they did well. I'm grateful to them, even if I still want to slap Vee for pulling that don't ask fucking questions thing on me. He's better at asking than he was, but he must just still need some time. Poor fucking kid. This parent thing is fucking hard."

"Of course it's hard. You're responsible for his life. You're responsible for making sure he grows up right, that he's strong in his beliefs and he's the best he can be. I'm sure Vee didn't actually mean anything by it. I was chatting with Matt before, and she was just freaking out. She knew it was important to get it right because he's your kid. Just don't be surprised if you slap her and she punches back for letting your kid explode on her," Gee commented with a small smile. "He's a good kid. The best. He just needs to know that he doesn't bother us. Nothing he could do would bother us." Gee used her free hand to take Ciaran's and rubbed her thumb against the back of it softly.

Euan gave a small snort. "Then she should have realised how much it would have made me freak out to say she was taking my kid to the hospital and not bloody tell me why. I don't care how much she was freaking out, he's still my kid and I still need to know exactly what is going on with him if he's not one hundred percent okay. Letting him explode? She's the one that's the jinx, not me." He watched his sleeping son's face and brushed his fingers through his hair. "How much has he been hiding from those arseholes? How many times has been feeling like shit and hiding out on his own to deal with it? He's friggen thirteen years old. No one likes being alone when you're ill at that age. He was so sick. The only reason he couldn't hide it from Vee was because he was throwing up all over the place, but he would have tried."

Gee watched father and son for a moment, feeling her shoulders relax now that she finally had the two of them back in her sights again. It was crazy since Ciaran wasn't biologically hers, but she had missed him and worried about him terribly when they'd been out shopping. She'd also had more than a little fun choosing all his gifts for Christmas. She just wanted to spoil him rotten. She loved him. She loved both her boys. "She didn't know what was wrong. I think that's the only reason she didn't want you asking. None of us could have seen this coming. There's no way Ciaran should have to hide feeling sick. He needs to trust us."

"It ain't that he doesn't trust us. He does. He just doesn't want to be a burden. He's been made his whole life to feel like he is in the way and a hassle. That's not going to change overnight. I need to think about getting him to a shrink in the new year for some counselling. It was part of the court orders. Standard for intense custody cases, apparently. The judge was right when he said that even if we can't see it on the surface, Ciaran being uprooted to a new life down here with all new people around him is going to be impacting on him. We need to address that before it starts affecting him negatively. I've tried to broach the subject with him a few times, but he doesn't really talk about it much. He just keeps telling me he wants to be here, and wants to be with us. I ain't going to force the words out of him because he's getting better. He's not so skittish, he's put some weight on, he's eating, he's not climbing anymore furniture. I can't ask for more than that right now. Just no brooms," Euan added quickly, shooting her a glance. "He's talking about being Harry Potter when he came out of the anaesthetic. Think we've let him watch it about eight times too many?"

"I think there's no stopping Ciaran watch Harry Potter. I think he's discovered something he truly enjoys, a story he can hook into. It's not as if he wasn't far off probably living in a cupboard under the stairs if he'd stayed with the grandparents. I'll still keep the brooms out of sight. Do we even have one right now? I'm not sure that we do. I think it's one thing we didn't buy for the house. We probably shouldn't ask him if he knows Superman, either. I don't need him trying to fly off the roof wearing a bedsheet. Batman I can handle. Batman just has the car. Like Ethan." Gee shifted in her seat a little when she could feel her arse start to hurt from all the sitting and waiting. She was tempted to stretch out and lay next to Ciaran, but she also wanted to stay by Euan. "Maybe we need to get him to the shrink sooner rather than later."

Euan nodded and scrunched his nose up briefly. "He could have way worse heroes, I swear. It's hard to believe he's similar age to the wizard kid. He seems so much younger to me, but I know it's just my fucked up mind playing tricks on me. He's so bloody smart with some of the things he says, too. I feel like the kid sometimes. Then something like this happens, and I realise how young he actually is. He's innocent and he's scared. He needs us. That scared the fucking bollocks off me at first, but now I kind of like it, even if I hate the parts where I can't stop the hurting bits for him, and he gives me those eyes. I'm glad Vee and Supercop were there, but I wish I had been. Vee might never want to take him again after this. I'll talk to Sophie. She might know a good kids' shrink."

Gee glanced at Euan. "Vee will probably just be wary of the fact that you might not want her to take him after this. She's probably going to start wondering if it really is something she did. Sometimes I'm still wondering why we don't have this baby boy. I know he's a teenager, but sometimes I just... my brain spasms. I think I should have this crying bundle in my arms, but he's not. He's this lad that's just... amazing. Watching him grow up even from this age is going to be something special. I feel more than lucky to be a part of this family. To be a Fitzpatrick."

"I keep wanting to make sure his shirt's tucked in or his pants are pulled up. I've turned into my Ma'..." Euan turned back to look at Ciaran, his dark eyes sweeping over his son's face. The oxygen mask was covering his nose and mouth and his eyes were closed, his blond hair always falling into his eyes. "She would have thought he was so beautiful. I'll never get over the fact I made him. I don't even fucking care how now, just that I did. He's a lot like my Ma' now that I've stopped and realised. He's got her colouring, and she was always softly spoken. Well, except when she was yelling at me for doing something wrong. I'm not sure what I woulda done with him as a baby. Probably shat myself continuously that I would break him, or he would shit on me. I don't know. Maybe I would have broken him."

"Or maybe you would have tapped into the mojo and been alright with it all. There's no way of knowing. It's all just guesswork, but the truth is, I think you would have surprised yourself." Gee smiled to herself as a variety of scenarios ran through her head with how it would have been to meet Euan and find out he had a son from the very beginning. "I still would have taken you," she decided out loud even if he'd have had no idea what she was thinking about exactly. "I wish I could have met her. I really do."

Euan sniggered and shook his head. "No way. You wouldn't fucking have. You got your rocks off with me because I was a bad boy with no strings. You wouldn't have looked at me twice if I had a kid. Especially one that looked like Ciaran. He doesn't look like me, unless you know him and can see his mannerisms. You would have thought some bitch piece of arse had come along and taken me for a sucker and got to be the baby daddy. You would have stuck to bollocking Braveheart," he teased with a smirk.

She nudged her knee against Euan's with a smirk of her own. "Not if he still met his lawyer. I wouldn't get much fun out of it since Tom's gay and all. No getting in the middle of that sandwich. I think I still would have looked at you. Maybe just not been too sure about the kid. I mean, it's tricky getting in with a kid and his dad. Although if you're Iain, apparently if the kid pukes on your shoe, you're in."

Euan laughed and smoothed Ciaran's blanket gently over his stomach. Somewhere under there he was all bandaged and stitched up. "That wee lad was interrogating Ciaran at the wedding. How old he was, what was his favourite toys, favourite cartoon character, how Iain makes the best sandwiches ever, and that Mac and cheese makes everything better. Ciaran just had this look on his face as if to say 'Who spiked this kid's drink?'. I was trying so hard not to fucking laugh, but it did make me wonder how he would have been at that age. Guess kids can either make or break the whole long-term fuck thing."

"It's hard to imagine Ciaran bombarding someone with questions since he is so quiet, but I tell you what, when he does ask a question it's always a bloody doozy. There's no preparing for what comes out of that kid's mouth when he chooses to speak." Gee tilted her head in thought. "Quiet. If you're talking about at that age with how things are. He would have been suffering through the grandparents, maybe even the mum. When was she put away again? He would have already seen so much horror. Sure, because at the end of the day you come as a package. You and the kid. You can't just take the parent and not the kid."

"He doesn't bombard, he's more ninja about it. Plus, he notices things other people really wouldn't stop to think about. I sorta want to keep him on that innocent route a bit longer before the world gets him all jaded. He's been through enough bullshit already. He needs time to be a kid, and do kid things knowing that we've got his back with everything else." Euan's face turned more serious again. "Aye, that time. But I more meant if he had a normal upbringing. If the fuckers actually let me know he existed when he was born. Fuck, I might not have known what to do, but my family would have made sure I at least tried. He was eight when she got locked up. Before that, she was more on the wagon than off it. He was never enough for her to get clean. She admitted that much to me. She admitted she didn't know how to feel for him because she was so screwed up. We come as a package now. Just gotta figure out how the fuck it's supposed to be wrapped."

Gee arched an eyebrow slightly as she looked at him in amusement. "How it's supposed to be wrapped? I think we're doing okay, wrapping, or no wrapping. And I took the package, didn't I? I knew what was on the inside. It's hardly a surprise. It's still not a package I'd return. I wouldn't dream of it. If he had a normal upbringing, maybe he would have been more bombardy but I think he's just the quiet artist type. Not so much the talkative artist type. The gregarious, extroverted self-promoter. He's better than that."

"Then you must be awesome, because I still don't know what's inside. I'm still learning, I'm still learning him. Most days, that still makes me shit myself. Every time he's not quite completely right, I shit myself. I guess that will get better. Everyone tells me it will, but then something like this happens and I just want to do an 'I told you so' dance." Euan sniggered and raised an eyebrow at her in return. "Are you saying I'm a gregarious, extroverted self-promoter?"

Gee took a moment to snort in amusement before she shook her head. "Are you an artist? Did I miss the part where you started to create wanky art? I didn't mean you. I just meant those wankers that wind up in the Tate because they could talk about how their boogers are a post-modern look at the way society is drowning in its own capitalist mucus. Or something. And I am awesome, but not because of that. I just know what's on the inside is something I want to know, want to be around. Something I love."

Euan shrugged. "I'm a sexual artist. That's all I care about, and care about the fact I don't want him to follow in my footsteps in that sense," he said with a small nod in Ciaran's direction. Poor kid was oblivious again to the fact they were trying to find their parenting feet by talking about him even more. But it helped. Euan still found himself locked in panic-mode regularly over the kid. It was still out of his comfort zone, but he was doing his best and the kid didn't seem to blame him for his shortcomings. And there were a hell of a lot of those. "My kid is more awesome than booger art."

"Of course he's more awesome than booger art, but I was just trying to clarify what I meant." Gee looked at Euan before she rolled her eyes playfully and leaned over to kiss him softly. "Still probably won't stop him being a sexual artist. He'll just maybe be a little more careful about when he, ah, exhibits his work. You're an amazing father, Euan. This right here doesn't reflect on you. You couldn't have stopped this even if you wanted to, right? It's happened, and now he'll just need some time to heal again."

Euan waved his hand. "He could rock this Tate thingo... whatever it is." He really had no idea what it was, but if Ciaran wanted to do it, he could. Euan had no doubt. Just hopefully well away from boogers. He rubbed a hand over his face. "Sex. I don't fucking want him to have sex. He's still wearing a Buzz Lightyear gown. That means no sex. He's too... small. He looks really small when he's ill. Like, all breakable and... small. They said, a few weeks, he'll be back to normal. Kids bounce back better than adults. We just need to watch he doesn't try to do too much too soon."

Gee rubbed her hand up and down his arm as she watched her husband's face and then looked at Ciaran. She nodded in agreement at the 'small' comment. He really did look so fragile when he was sick. "We'll just have a few more family movie nights. I'll still be working, but we can spend time together at night. Maybe even buy him a few video games."

Euan couldn't help the small frown of worry still settled on his forehead as he sat there and held Ciaran's hand. He would stay there until the kid woke up, but the nurses did say it could be awhile. He'd probably he out of it for a few hours before he started to feel a bit better. The drugs would counteract any attempt for him to wake up clearly. It was all over, but Euan was is ultra-alert father mode. "At least I'm still off. We don't have to worry about leaving him with anyone while he's getting better. He's a bit clingy to us when he's not feeling good. I noticed that this morning, but not because I knew he was sick. He still went to Vee's, but he stuck to us as much as he could."

Gee smiled at Ciaran. "Hey, I gotta admit that I feel just as clingy if he shows any sign of not feeling well. I don't really like having to leave him alone, but it's not like he's without you. Right now he does have you exactly when he needs you. Oh god, first day of school... How the hell are we going to handle that? I feel like I'm going to be one of those embarrassing mums that can't let their baby boy go."

"That's okay. I got it all planned out. I'm going with him to carry his school bag and scalp any kids that so much as breathe on him the wrong way," Euan said with a resolute nod, even if it was slightly irrational. Only slightly, though. It had been a very serious consideration in his head. "We'll get him a really fucking huge school bag so he can't carry it on his own. Then I'll make sure to find the kid with the biggest mouth and tell them we're both cops. No one will touch him the wrong way."

Gee bit back an amused smile as she looked at her husband. It was certainly something to see Euan's overprotective fatherly side come out. She found it sweet, and sexy, and funny. There really was more to the Euan onion than she'd thought. It was what made marrying him so easy. There was no way she could ever get tired of being with him. "Right, sure. And the part where Ciaran becomes mortified from having his dad hold his bag and threaten potential friends comes in where?"

"I'll dress up as a ficus," Euan offered, having put an extreme amount of thought into the whole situation. In fact, ever since the court case, he had been thinking non-stop about getting Ciaran to school and how the lad was going to go with it. Apparently, according to subpoenaed school records, Ciaran was a straight A student and had been his whole life. What if coming to London meant he started getting bad grades? Or what if the kids really did pick on him and he started ditching classes? What if he hated all his teachers? What if he fell into the wrong crowd? "Maybe I should home school him."

"Maybe you should trust that your sister is capable of looking out for her nephew too," Gee suggested as she gave Euan's thigh a squeeze. "He won't be alone, and he can tell us if anything happens. As much as I know that it's probably best to just imagine the worst case scenario, we also need to trust that hey, maybe he'll actually be okay. Maybe he'll be happy. He'll at least be in an artistic environment, and that's great for him."

Euan threw her a Look. "Oh sure. What makes you think he is going to be any less mortified to have his aunty following him around watching him like a hawk? I'm not even sure I'm comfortable about that whole thing. What if he gets shit because his aunty is a teacher? Picked on because they'll think he's been favoured?"

Gee rolled her eyes in retaliation. "She wouldn't have to stalk him, just keep an eye on him when she could. Keep her ears open in the teacher's lounge. That sort of thing. What if he still gets shit because his dad's a cop? It works all ways. Kids will always find a reason to pick on someone if they decide they don't like them."

"If he gets shit because I'm a cop, I'll have him out of the school quicker than he can say Picasso. I'm not taking that shit. It's not his fault I'm a cop." Euan scrunched his nose up in annoyance. If the arty school didn't give his kid what he needed right now, he would find him somewhere that did. He was sure other schools had paintbrushes. "He's had enough mental abuse. I'm not letting him have anymore."

"And no one can blame you for that, but also don't want to home school him. It would be too much, love, and you'd have to give up your job. Or I would depending on which of us was going to teach him," Gee reasons as she looked back at Ciaran and then leaned forward to brush his hair out of his forehead. "We'll just have to be prepared to see how it goes."

Euan gestured in her direction. "Yet, if he gets too sick or stressed out at school, it might have to happen. Ryan said that early on, but he didn't think it would come to that if the meds did their job. I could always do nights at work. There's ways to do it. Or we'd pay for someone. Or stick him in a smaller private school where things are more chilled." Ciaran made a soft noise in his sleep and his eyes fluttered just a little, causing Euan to tense and watch him closely, waiting to see if he was okay, but Ciaran just continued to sleep on and didn't even move beyond that. "Jesus effing Christ, the kid is going to give me a hernia, I swear."

Gee wrapped both arms around Euan's as she hugged it and rest her head on his shoulder as she watched their son. "I'm sure there's a cream or something for that. We'll just have to make time for some stress relief in amongst it all. First and foremost we just have to get through another hospital stay. He's not going to like it, and who can blame him? He spends too much time here."

"Aye, but I'd rather him get it all out of the way before he gets older. Shit like this is worse to come out of when you're an adult, trust me." Euan absent-mindedly rubbed his hand over his stomach through the scrubs. "Fuck, he was going to ask me about that scar. He wanted to know why it was different to Matt's, but he started puking. He's not going to leave that, and I don't even know what to tell him."

"Just tell him the truth. There's no other way around it. Ciaran doesn't deserve being lied to. He just wants to know everything he can about his dad. It won't change his view of you. He won't lose any love for you, or faith in you," Gee told him softly.

Euan shook his head slightly. "He hates anything to do with drugs. I don't want to freak him out even more. To tell him I got attacked with a knife? I don't think he's going to take that so well. It's the power of suggestion. He already freaks out about the thought of us not being there. And you've got Supercop standing there all with his perfect scar, and mine looks like a double-decker bus drove out of it. The kid looked like he was about to scream the place down if that was going to happen to him. I was just going to tell him it was an accident. I could elaborate on it when he's older, right?"

Gee scrunched up her nose slightly, not sure if she was going to argue with Euan over whether he should tell the truth to Ciaran now, or later, but then she just let out a slow breath and nodded. "Sure, of course. We don't want him freaking out anymore than he needs to, and really, what does it matter now? You're alive, you're safe. You've learned your lesson and Ciaran will hopefully never be touched by a drug-fuelled lifestyle again. He just needs to know right now that we're there for him."

Euan looked at her frowning. "You're really telling me you believe it's that cut and dry?" He snorted softly and shook his head as he looked back to Ciaran. "He grew up in drug houses, Gee. He knows his mother loves drugs more than she ever loved him. He probably sat and watched people shoot up on a regular basis, saw people off their faces from it. Saw his own mother off her face from it. You think he's just going to be all 'Ach, that's okay, Dad. It was just a knife, no biggie'? I don't think he's going to be okay if I tell him. I haven't even told him how my folks died, yet. I just said they had passed away."

Gee held her hands up as she shook her head. "I don't know the answer, love. Okay? I don't. I don't know what you should and shouldn't tell him. I've been a mum for a shorter time than you've been a dad. It's not like I have experience to draw on. I just figured you should maybe tell him the truth so that it's all out. It's there, and done and we can just help him cope with it."

Euan shook his head. "I don't think that's the right call right now. The judge said the kid needs a shrink. Maybe after he's had a few sessions there and I can suss the shrink out myself. When we got home from court that day, he was sitting in his room in tears nearly making himself sick because he was convinced they were going to take him away. All he told your parents was that he was going to lie down because he was tired. He's not quite at the point for laying all the cards on the table, not yet. He won't understand the whys. Not really. I can't open that can of worms without going right into what the drugs do to you mentally, and I don't want him thinking about any of that. He knows drugs are bad. He's a kid. That's all he should know at this point."

"Then you have your answer," Gee replied as she took Ciaran's hand, and Euan's and gave them both a simultaneous squeeze. "I don't want him to be that upset again, but I can't really blame him for feeling emotions so strongly. It's not as if he's had much of a coping mechanism beyond his art, or anyone to talk to about what he's seen, or anyone to even care. Now he does. And if it also means a shrink then that's what we'll do."

"I need to speak to Sophie. I haven't even heard how she is. Have you? I don't mean to get all up in her face during a rough time, but I really need her help. She knows her shit with kids and Ciaran really took to her and Ethan. Or Batman," Euan said with a small smirk, watching his son's sleeping face. "She might have suggestions of, you know, ones that have less scary offices or something. I mean, I think for the fucking shite he's been through, he's doing really well. Most days, he's fine, but you've seen it. Sometimes he just slips off those railings and looks a little like the world is bearing down on him."

Gee shook her head as she leaned forward to kiss Ciaran's brow, careful not to disturb the mask. "No idea, but then I'm not so close to that side of the group. Stuart's my link, and that's about it. Sophie might even welcome the distraction, so don't think you're intruding. It might be nice for her to be able to help you, to have a reason to think about something other than what she lost."

"Stuart's married to Ethan's best mate. How do you not know?" Euan said in amusement. "I call you have your head up your butt," he joked, unable to help teasing her.

Gee stuck her tongue out at him. "In case you haven't noticed, I have a son and a husband now. I get distracted easily."

"Oh aye, blame us for forgetting to give a toss about your friends," Euan was still smirking. "Even I know what is going on with that side of the group better than you do. Maybe you should think about rectifying that."

Gee's smile faltered as she gave a nod. "I know. I do. Just with going back to work, and Stu and Tom being in Honeymoon mode it's been a little hard to find time with each other."

Euan pointed. "Aye, so don't go blaming my kid for your bad BFF mode," he told her. "We dump him on Braveheart and wife for one day and he comes back introduced to gay porn. I'm pretty sure he's wanking too. Maybe slight signs of the whole thing there, but I'm not sure he really knows what he's doing. Probably just realising it does feel good."

Gee sighed. "Stuart warned me about that... And it's okay. I mean, he's a boy. He's always going to want to play with his willy. I would never blame Ciaran for anything, he's too good of a kid. I adore him. You know I do. I was just teasing. Maybe when he's feeling better we can ask Stuart and wife to dinner? Show there's no harm done with the gay porn."

"I was joking too," Euan admitted with a shrug. It was better to joke right now, it was just the easiest way to deal with the whole situation. One he could cope with. "Aren't they coming to Christmas? Ciaran was asking when he could see them again. He liked hanging out with them. As much as it pains me to admit, they'll be a good influence on him. Sans the porn, thank you very much. There's no harm done, I'm just wondering what way he'll end up swinging."

Gee covered her mouth as another failure of memory hit her. It wasn't even like she could blame Mum Brain. She hadn't even had the pregnancy hormones to mess with her thinking, just had a teenager-shaped bundle land on her doorstep. "Oh yeah, Christmas... I'd already forgotten. How stupid is that." She bit her lip as she looked back at Ciaran. "Of course they're coming to Christmas, and he'll be home by then, right?"

"I'll make sure he is. He's not having that fuck up on him after everything. He's gonna be fine now, they said as much. He'll just be a bit sore and need to take it easy. He's been looking forward to Christmas, and the tree, and all the rest of the bollocks that comes along with it. We've spent enough money on it too. He'll be there for it," Euan resolved.

Word Count | 6,346