Ours Chapter 13
Title: Ours
Pairing(s): David Cook/David Archuleta
Rating: PG to NC-17
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: The real-life characters do not belong to me, and the story is fictional.
Summary: A year after his high school graduation, David is living with Cook in L.A., but keeping their love hidden from the public eye brings up obstacles that threaten their relationship.
Author's Notes: This fic was originally posted at cookleta from September 2008 to October 2009. :)
13
I. David Archuleta.
Cook and I had planned to spend New Year’s with his family, since we had flown to Utah for Thanksgiving. But Cook had kept the baby a surprise until the last minute, so instead of taking him on a five-hour flight, we chose to invite Cook’s parents as well as my family to Los Angeles. Of course, we didn’t forget to call Jason and ask him to join us.
Our apartment was spacious, but there was no way it was going to house all twelve of us. By noon on the 26th, Cook and I had booked the hotel rooms and rental cars, and bought plane tickets. Our son was peacefully napping, so we returned to focusing on our next task: naming him.
“Hmm, any ideas?” I asked, chewing on the end of my pen and staring at the blank page of notebook paper in front of me.
“Well, there’s always combining our middle names together,” Cook suggested, handing me a glass of orange juice.
“Or we could just name him David,” I joked.
“Uh huh, nice try,” he laughed and reached over to ruffle my hair. “What about… Nathaniel?”
“Eh, it reminds me of Nathaniel Hawthorne.”
“What?”
“We read Scarlet Letter in junior year!” I defended. “Remember, it wasn’t that long ago for me.”
“Oh yeah, and I’m from the Stone Age,” Cook teased.
I smiled back at him and soon became pensive again, mentally shuffling through all the boy names I could think of. Cook peered at me while he took a sip from the glass. Setting it back on the coffee table, he leaned in closer. I blushed a little and asked him what was on his mind.
“I think we need some inspiration,” he said.
“I agree.” I placed the pen down so I would stop biting it.
“Let me go get something.” Cook rose from the sofa and headed to the study.
He was holding a leather-bound book when he came back out, and I couldn’t help but grin when I recognized what it was. After handing it to me, Cook returned to his spot on next to me and slung an arm around my shoulder.
“There are probably enough names in here for us to choose from, right?”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find the one,” I replied, opening the cover of the Bible, given to me years ago by my parents.
“Aaron?” Cook pointed to the name among the small print.
“Mmm, doesn’t really suit him… Caleb?”
“Nah… Joseph?”
“Or Jacob, his father…”
“You know, maybe we should just name him Jesus,” Cook proposed mischievously.
“Cook, that isn’t funny!” I countered, even though I had burst into giggles.
We continued to flip through the delicate pages, perusing them for possible options. Reaching the end of the Old Testament, we closed the book and decided to take short break. Cook was rubbing his eyes, which had grown tired from staring so intently at line after line of tiny font. I got up and went into the kitchen to refill our glasses.
“We should look through it one more time,” Cook called to me from the living room. “Maybe we missed a name or two.”
“Hopefully. I mean, other than the ones we put aside… like Goliath.”
“Nothing like naming your kid after a Philistine giant,” Cook chuckled. “Aren’t there any epic names in the Old Testament? Like, I don’t know, angels or something?”
I paused halfway into putting the orange juice carton in the fridge. Hastily pushing it onto the shelf and shutting the door, I ran back out into the living room. Cook glanced up at me, puzzled.
“You are absolutely brilliant,” I exclaimed.
“Thank you…” he said, still confused. “Wait, why am I brilliant?”
“Because you made me think of the perfect name.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Gabriel,” I answered.
“Wow… I am brilliant.”
He walked over to me and pulled me into a hug, his arms wrapping around me and mine around his waist like two pieces of the same puzzle.
“Gabriel…” I whispered again. The name sounded so natural; it seemed to roll off my tongue.
“Gabriel,” Cook repeated, smiling contentedly.
+
Amber bound through the front door dinnertime the next day, ahead of everyone else. She ran across the foyer toward the two of us. Cook scooped her up and kissed her cheek, and she beamed like she had not seen either of us for a long time, even though we had visited her merely a month ago. When Cook let her down, she finally saw the bundle in my arms and gasped.
“That’s him, Davey?”
I nodded and bent down so she could get a better look. “Amber, meet your nephew Gabriel.”
“Gabriel,” she murmured. “Hi… I’m Amber.”
She leaned forward, and Gabriel gurgled when the tips of her curls grazed his face. Amber giggled and hurried over to pull on Claudia’s hand. Soon everyone was surrounding Gabriel, their faces lighting up at the sight in front of them. Cook grinned at me and we both shrugged, already fully aware that our son was ridiculously lovable.
Cook led all of our guests into the dining room that usually remained reserved for special occasions such as this, and we had to bring in the chairs from the table in the kitchen to accommodate everyone. Mom and Beth couldn’t keep their eyes off Gabriel, who was sitting a high chair, and it felt so inexplicably strange to see them as grandmothers. I wondered if Cook felt the same way, but I realized he was when I caught him looking their way.
The doorbell rang when Dad had finished saying grace for all of us, and I excused myself to answer it.
“Jaidyn!” I exclaimed when I opened the door.
“Hey!” she greeted as she embraced me. “Sorry I’m late. The weather was horrible in New York and my flight got delayed.”
“It’s no problem,” I assured her. “Everyone just sat down anyway.”
I stepped aside so she could walk into the doorway, and then hung her jacket in the coat closet while she unwrapped the scarf around her neck. She was unzipping her ankle-high boots and I was going past her to shut the front door when she stopped me.
“Wait, don’t close the door yet.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Jason’s parking the car,” she replied.
“What?”
“Archuleta!”
Just then, Jason sauntered in through the doorway and immediately wrapped his arms around me before I could ask any questions. With the hug, my face got buried in the outer fabric of his Northface, chilled from the cold weather, but I was too preoccupied to notice.
“Did you guys fly in together?” I wanted to know, still confused.
“Yeah…” Jaidyn said a bit sheepishly.
“Jase, I thought you were going to be here tomorrow because your relatives were coming to Murray.”
“Actually, I was in New York.” Jason grinned. “Lupe thought of a pretty legit story though, right?”
“We wanted to surprise you guys too…” my sister chimed in.
“We’re together,” my best friend finished for her, taking her hand in his.
“Wow,” was all I could manage at first, until I processed his words and broke into a huge smile. “I’m so happy for you guys! This is amazing.”
“Thanks, Davey,” they responded simultaneously, and all three of us began to laugh.
We returned to dinner, and Jason and Jaidyn took the two empty seats at the table. Cook was just as surprised as I had been when I told him the news, but was equally excited for them. Fate sure had an interesting way of working out.
II. David Cook.
The next morning, our family members headed out in groups to shop for baby items to their hearts’ content. Since it would have been problematic for David and me to be photographed in Toys R Us together, Heather from the adoption agency had personally delivered a few shopping bags’ worth of necessities.
Jaidyn and Jason called us from Pottery Barn Kids to ask us what kind of colors we preferred for Gabriel’s room, but the conversation took much longer than expected because we had to talk over Jazzy and Amber’s gushing over the cute merchandise.
“This is so cute!” We could hear Jazzy’s voice in the background. “Oh my gosh, Jaidyn we need to get this.”
“Uh, do you guys want an animal beanbag?” Jason clarified. “There’s one with a… moose slipcover and one with an… owl?”
“You can embroider the baby’s name on it!” Amber added.
“A moose? What the…” I mumbled.
“You guys should look at the baby cribs,” David suggested. “Then we can decide on owl beanbags.”
“Let’s see, there’s white, dark blue, brown…” Jaidyn listed off for us to hear as she scanned the furniture on display in the store.
I slipped away while David stayed on the line so I could get the supplies Jeff had picked up for us early in the morning from the hardware store before heading back out with Lupe. Mom and Grenvell had taken Gabriel with them so David and I could paint the walls in his nursery. We’d moved the bed and the dresser to the middle of the room, and I was pouring some paint into two trays when David walked back in. He placed the phone on top of the dresser in case someone decided to call again, and joined me on the floor.
“I think we chose a nice color,” he commented, picking up a wide roller.
“I think so too,” I concurred and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “But we’ve had a lot of good ideas lately.”
+
David and I left our apartment after the painting was done so the walls could dry, and stayed with Jason and Dan overnight. Breakfast was room service at the hotel, but no one really minded since we were all excited to get back to decorating the nursery.
Assembling and moving the furniture, as well as cleaning and organizing all the baby items we’d accumulated were incredibly time consuming, but all the excited chatter and bustling kept it from becoming tiring. Amber and Jazzy did an amazing job keeping Gabriel occupied while the rest of us hurried around the apartment to get everything finished in time for dinner.
“It looks great!” Jaidyn said when she peered in the nursery.
“Oh, I love the crib,” Claudia put in. “You guys picked out a really cute one, Jaidyn.”
David walked toward the doorway so he could get a look at the entire room, and I stood behind him, equally satisfied at how well it had turned out.
“Man, I’m starving,” Dan announced as he picked up the black garbage bag that we’d filled up completely.
“You’re always starving,” Jazzy said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
We all chuckled and headed out to toward the kitchen where our parents had been cooking for the past hour. David and I glanced at the finished nursery one last time before shutting off the lights, and our smiling eyes met as we turned into the hallway.
Pairing(s): David Cook/David Archuleta
Rating: PG to NC-17
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: The real-life characters do not belong to me, and the story is fictional.
Summary: A year after his high school graduation, David is living with Cook in L.A., but keeping their love hidden from the public eye brings up obstacles that threaten their relationship.
Author's Notes: This fic was originally posted at cookleta from September 2008 to October 2009. :)
13
I. David Archuleta.
Cook and I had planned to spend New Year’s with his family, since we had flown to Utah for Thanksgiving. But Cook had kept the baby a surprise until the last minute, so instead of taking him on a five-hour flight, we chose to invite Cook’s parents as well as my family to Los Angeles. Of course, we didn’t forget to call Jason and ask him to join us.
Our apartment was spacious, but there was no way it was going to house all twelve of us. By noon on the 26th, Cook and I had booked the hotel rooms and rental cars, and bought plane tickets. Our son was peacefully napping, so we returned to focusing on our next task: naming him.
“Hmm, any ideas?” I asked, chewing on the end of my pen and staring at the blank page of notebook paper in front of me.
“Well, there’s always combining our middle names together,” Cook suggested, handing me a glass of orange juice.
“Or we could just name him David,” I joked.
“Uh huh, nice try,” he laughed and reached over to ruffle my hair. “What about… Nathaniel?”
“Eh, it reminds me of Nathaniel Hawthorne.”
“What?”
“We read Scarlet Letter in junior year!” I defended. “Remember, it wasn’t that long ago for me.”
“Oh yeah, and I’m from the Stone Age,” Cook teased.
I smiled back at him and soon became pensive again, mentally shuffling through all the boy names I could think of. Cook peered at me while he took a sip from the glass. Setting it back on the coffee table, he leaned in closer. I blushed a little and asked him what was on his mind.
“I think we need some inspiration,” he said.
“I agree.” I placed the pen down so I would stop biting it.
“Let me go get something.” Cook rose from the sofa and headed to the study.
He was holding a leather-bound book when he came back out, and I couldn’t help but grin when I recognized what it was. After handing it to me, Cook returned to his spot on next to me and slung an arm around my shoulder.
“There are probably enough names in here for us to choose from, right?”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find the one,” I replied, opening the cover of the Bible, given to me years ago by my parents.
“Aaron?” Cook pointed to the name among the small print.
“Mmm, doesn’t really suit him… Caleb?”
“Nah… Joseph?”
“Or Jacob, his father…”
“You know, maybe we should just name him Jesus,” Cook proposed mischievously.
“Cook, that isn’t funny!” I countered, even though I had burst into giggles.
We continued to flip through the delicate pages, perusing them for possible options. Reaching the end of the Old Testament, we closed the book and decided to take short break. Cook was rubbing his eyes, which had grown tired from staring so intently at line after line of tiny font. I got up and went into the kitchen to refill our glasses.
“We should look through it one more time,” Cook called to me from the living room. “Maybe we missed a name or two.”
“Hopefully. I mean, other than the ones we put aside… like Goliath.”
“Nothing like naming your kid after a Philistine giant,” Cook chuckled. “Aren’t there any epic names in the Old Testament? Like, I don’t know, angels or something?”
I paused halfway into putting the orange juice carton in the fridge. Hastily pushing it onto the shelf and shutting the door, I ran back out into the living room. Cook glanced up at me, puzzled.
“You are absolutely brilliant,” I exclaimed.
“Thank you…” he said, still confused. “Wait, why am I brilliant?”
“Because you made me think of the perfect name.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Gabriel,” I answered.
“Wow… I am brilliant.”
He walked over to me and pulled me into a hug, his arms wrapping around me and mine around his waist like two pieces of the same puzzle.
“Gabriel…” I whispered again. The name sounded so natural; it seemed to roll off my tongue.
“Gabriel,” Cook repeated, smiling contentedly.
+
Amber bound through the front door dinnertime the next day, ahead of everyone else. She ran across the foyer toward the two of us. Cook scooped her up and kissed her cheek, and she beamed like she had not seen either of us for a long time, even though we had visited her merely a month ago. When Cook let her down, she finally saw the bundle in my arms and gasped.
“That’s him, Davey?”
I nodded and bent down so she could get a better look. “Amber, meet your nephew Gabriel.”
“Gabriel,” she murmured. “Hi… I’m Amber.”
She leaned forward, and Gabriel gurgled when the tips of her curls grazed his face. Amber giggled and hurried over to pull on Claudia’s hand. Soon everyone was surrounding Gabriel, their faces lighting up at the sight in front of them. Cook grinned at me and we both shrugged, already fully aware that our son was ridiculously lovable.
Cook led all of our guests into the dining room that usually remained reserved for special occasions such as this, and we had to bring in the chairs from the table in the kitchen to accommodate everyone. Mom and Beth couldn’t keep their eyes off Gabriel, who was sitting a high chair, and it felt so inexplicably strange to see them as grandmothers. I wondered if Cook felt the same way, but I realized he was when I caught him looking their way.
The doorbell rang when Dad had finished saying grace for all of us, and I excused myself to answer it.
“Jaidyn!” I exclaimed when I opened the door.
“Hey!” she greeted as she embraced me. “Sorry I’m late. The weather was horrible in New York and my flight got delayed.”
“It’s no problem,” I assured her. “Everyone just sat down anyway.”
I stepped aside so she could walk into the doorway, and then hung her jacket in the coat closet while she unwrapped the scarf around her neck. She was unzipping her ankle-high boots and I was going past her to shut the front door when she stopped me.
“Wait, don’t close the door yet.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Jason’s parking the car,” she replied.
“What?”
“Archuleta!”
Just then, Jason sauntered in through the doorway and immediately wrapped his arms around me before I could ask any questions. With the hug, my face got buried in the outer fabric of his Northface, chilled from the cold weather, but I was too preoccupied to notice.
“Did you guys fly in together?” I wanted to know, still confused.
“Yeah…” Jaidyn said a bit sheepishly.
“Jase, I thought you were going to be here tomorrow because your relatives were coming to Murray.”
“Actually, I was in New York.” Jason grinned. “Lupe thought of a pretty legit story though, right?”
“We wanted to surprise you guys too…” my sister chimed in.
“We’re together,” my best friend finished for her, taking her hand in his.
“Wow,” was all I could manage at first, until I processed his words and broke into a huge smile. “I’m so happy for you guys! This is amazing.”
“Thanks, Davey,” they responded simultaneously, and all three of us began to laugh.
We returned to dinner, and Jason and Jaidyn took the two empty seats at the table. Cook was just as surprised as I had been when I told him the news, but was equally excited for them. Fate sure had an interesting way of working out.
II. David Cook.
The next morning, our family members headed out in groups to shop for baby items to their hearts’ content. Since it would have been problematic for David and me to be photographed in Toys R Us together, Heather from the adoption agency had personally delivered a few shopping bags’ worth of necessities.
Jaidyn and Jason called us from Pottery Barn Kids to ask us what kind of colors we preferred for Gabriel’s room, but the conversation took much longer than expected because we had to talk over Jazzy and Amber’s gushing over the cute merchandise.
“This is so cute!” We could hear Jazzy’s voice in the background. “Oh my gosh, Jaidyn we need to get this.”
“Uh, do you guys want an animal beanbag?” Jason clarified. “There’s one with a… moose slipcover and one with an… owl?”
“You can embroider the baby’s name on it!” Amber added.
“A moose? What the…” I mumbled.
“You guys should look at the baby cribs,” David suggested. “Then we can decide on owl beanbags.”
“Let’s see, there’s white, dark blue, brown…” Jaidyn listed off for us to hear as she scanned the furniture on display in the store.
I slipped away while David stayed on the line so I could get the supplies Jeff had picked up for us early in the morning from the hardware store before heading back out with Lupe. Mom and Grenvell had taken Gabriel with them so David and I could paint the walls in his nursery. We’d moved the bed and the dresser to the middle of the room, and I was pouring some paint into two trays when David walked back in. He placed the phone on top of the dresser in case someone decided to call again, and joined me on the floor.
“I think we chose a nice color,” he commented, picking up a wide roller.
“I think so too,” I concurred and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “But we’ve had a lot of good ideas lately.”
+
David and I left our apartment after the painting was done so the walls could dry, and stayed with Jason and Dan overnight. Breakfast was room service at the hotel, but no one really minded since we were all excited to get back to decorating the nursery.
Assembling and moving the furniture, as well as cleaning and organizing all the baby items we’d accumulated were incredibly time consuming, but all the excited chatter and bustling kept it from becoming tiring. Amber and Jazzy did an amazing job keeping Gabriel occupied while the rest of us hurried around the apartment to get everything finished in time for dinner.
“It looks great!” Jaidyn said when she peered in the nursery.
“Oh, I love the crib,” Claudia put in. “You guys picked out a really cute one, Jaidyn.”
David walked toward the doorway so he could get a look at the entire room, and I stood behind him, equally satisfied at how well it had turned out.
“Man, I’m starving,” Dan announced as he picked up the black garbage bag that we’d filled up completely.
“You’re always starving,” Jazzy said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
We all chuckled and headed out to toward the kitchen where our parents had been cooking for the past hour. David and I glanced at the finished nursery one last time before shutting off the lights, and our smiling eyes met as we turned into the hallway.