The World Has It's Shine (something to hold onto) - 27
Title: The World Has It's Shine (something to hold onto) - 27
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gabilliam
POV: 3rd
Summary: Just over two years old. William and Gabe finally decide to try and start getting Riley more socialised, and when William gets sick Gabe finds out that his boyfriend's been hiding something from him.
Disclaimer: This only happened in my brain (as far as I know). Title belongs to Cobra Starship.
Author Notes: Ohai random rileyfic! Okay, so basically this is me being indulgent and writing a fairly standalone chapter when I'm not entirely sure when I'll be carrying it on regularly. Also, I slightly surprised myself with the ending, but I guess that's the point of these things lol. Mucho love as always, and special thanks to ourgossip_lips for her time and patience ♥
One.Two. Three.Four.Five.Six.Seven.Eight.Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.Thirteen.Fourteen.
Fifteen.Sixteen.Seventeen.Eighteen.Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty One. Prequel. Twenty Two. Twenty Three. Twenty Four. Twenty Five. Twenty Six. [26 additional scene]
Someone was sulking, and rather unsurprisingly for William it wasn’t actually the toddler he was holding in his arms, but actually Gabe who was doing all the pouting.
“I don’t like this.”
William sighed, rolling his eyes. “Really, Gabe? I had no idea,” he said sarcastically.
Once the holidays had come and gone and they’d gone back to their normal routine of work and then William’s classes a couple of nights a week, but something which had come up on the day the adoption papers were signed had stuck in William’s mind: The little incident they’d had when Riley had met Maisy, the daughter of someone in William’s class who was practically the same age as him, which had resulted in something of a tantrum when the little girl had touched Riley’s precious stuffed giraffe. The result of that had been William realising that Riley needed to start being socialised a little more with kids his own age, rather than just Gabe, William and Sheila, who were pretty much the only people he saw on a regular basis.
Gabe, on the other hand, didn’t so much recognise the need for it. Sure, if Riley was going to have fun meeting other kids and it wasn’t going to freak him out, then he had no problem with it. But if Riley didn’t want to be forced to interact with other little kids and it was going to upset him, then Gabe really didn’t see the point in that yet. He figured that they had plenty of time before Riley started kindergarden and maybe if the toddler was more open to the idea and more able to understand it when he was a little older, then that would be a different story.
The differing opinions of the two men had resulted in many discussions on the subject, with a lot of the same things being repeated. Both Gabe and William knew that the other person did have a point in what they were saying, but that didn’t mean that either of them were going to back down. And now, even if William had been tempted to play the ‘daddy’ card (which he actually never had during their whole relationship), it wasn’t as though he could, not now Gabe officially had the exact same parental rights as he did. Secretly William kind of loved it when Gabe really argued his point of view over a Riley issue because it showed just how far his boyfriend had come since they’d met, how much he’d grown into his role as a father and worked hard to overcome his insecurities over his connection (and lack there of, biologically) to Riley.
Over their discussions on the topic William and Gabe had eventually come to an agreement on what they would do, which was wait a little while until at least Riley’s second birthday, and then start looking for some parent-toddler groups they could take him to. When March came, along with Riley’s second birthday, the three of them went on one of their fairly frequent trips to the baby store which also housed a fount of knowledge on such things; the big notice board. Seeing as there were quite a few different groups though, Gabe of course insisted on vetting all of them first, to find out what kind of things the group did, the number of people who attended, what kind of people went and so on, which added another couple of weeks to the process.
Finally, though, they’d figured out a parent-toddler group they were both happy to try out, and there they were on Saturday morning, on their way to the fairly nearby community centre in which it was held.
“I just…” Gabe sighed, shrugging. “I don’t know, I just don’t want to push this on Relu too early and have him freak out about this stuff for life or something, you know?”
“Yeah,” William nodded as he echoed Gabe’s sigh, stopping his path down the sidewalk and prompting Gabe to do the same, the two of them turning to face each other. “I know. I’m a little worried about how he’ll react too,” William admitted. “But he’s got to learn how to play with others sometime, and if he does react badly to it then we’ll just try again in a little while. And he might really enjoy it.”
It was completely true, Gabe knew. Riley loved playing with either himself or William, and it would probably be exactly the same once he got used to other kids and the concept of actually sharing toys and stuff (not the giraffe though, Gabe knew. Never the giraffe). Plus, it was pretty similar to any other new stuff they’d introduced Riley to, most often new foods or a different toy than what he was used to; at first Riley acted like he was never going to eat a single green bean, and now they were one of his favorite foods. The process of getting a toddler used to something novel was definitely trying at times though, Gabe also knew, and this was probably going to the same in that way too.
“Papi!”
Gabe was brought out of his train of thought by Riley calling for him as he started to squirm in William’s arms, trying to turn around or get his daddy to put him down, which William then did. Riley didn’t seem to even think about wandering off or anything, just straight away took the few steps forward and then collapsed against Gabe’s legs, giggling as he tugged at Gabe’s pant leg.
“Papi, Papi, Papi,” Riley repeated as he kept tugging at Gabe’s pants until Gabe finally picked him up after just grinning down at his son for a few seconds.
“Hey there, Relu,” Gabe said, settling Riley against his hip, his arms secure around Riley’s little body and Riley’s in turn secure around Gabe’s neck, tiny fingers clutching at his collar. He gave Riley a couple of kisses on the cheek before stepping over and quickly pressing his lips to William’s cheek too. As Gabe stepped back again William ducked his head, bangs falling over his eyes but his hair not hiding the small smile which immediately quirked the corner of his lips upwards. Gabe grinned at that, at how just a simple kiss - granted, in the middle of a fairly crowded street - could still get that kind of reaction from his boyfriend. “Didn’t think I’d leave you out, did you, Bilvy?” William just rolled his eyes at that, still smiling though, so Gabe turned his attention back to the littlest Beckett. “How you doing, Ry? What’s up, baby boy?”
“Snuggle,” Riley said, smiling at Gabe before he leaned his head sideways on Gabe’s shoulder, doing just what he’d just said. “Snuggle a Papi.”
Gabe looked at William then, the two of them smiling in that stupidly happy kind of way they sometimes did at times like that, both of them knowing that the other was thinking something similar to themselves. It was just hard to believe how Riley was really starting to put words together in the right way, and purposefully too. Of course, some words which he used more often he knew really well, but there were others starting to emerge from the babbled syllables which usually made up whatever Riley was trying to communicate. Basically their son was growing up, and however scary it was there was no denying that it was also just awesome.
“Lucky for you, baby, I’m a multitasker,” Gabe said, William laughing a little as they fell back into step together, walking the short distance they had left to go until they got to their destination and that next little thing for Riley to start learning how to do.
Gabe might have still been a little anxious about the play group thing, but now he’d remembered that one thing he suddenly felt a whole lot better about it somehow. Because just like his daddy and his papi, Riley William Beckett was awesome and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t be able to handle.
When they walked into the room where the toddler group was being held a few minutes before it was due to start, Riley definitely became a little anxious though, Gabe noticed from the way the two year old’s hold on him tightened. He seemed pretty okay with the situation, however, Gabe thought as he and Bill went over to introduce themselves to an older woman standing by a table with coffee and snacks, a clipboard in her hands.
One of the things Gabe had liked about this group in particular was that it wasn’t like pushing Riley into a pre-school type situation too fast; it wasn’t overly structured or anything. There were various toys and things scattered across one side of the fairly large space, and a couple of toddler sized tables set up with tiny chairs and some arts and crafts type stuff if anyone was feeling creative. There wasn’t really anything musical around though, and Gabe made a mental note to suggest some musical play time to the organiser if Riley took to being there okay.
There were about ten other kids there - their parents sitting in small groups around the coffee table on some adult sized chairs - and most of them had already gotten stuck into some quality play time, so Gabe passed Riley off to William so he could take him over while Gabe made them both a cup of coffee. He half watched as he did so though, as William put Riley down near some of the toys and a couple of other little boys his age, then explaining what was going on to Riley, who understood ‘play time’ if nothing else. Still crouched down next to Riley, William picked up a nearby toy car and rolled it along the floor, catching Riley’s interest. The toddler smiled and giggled a little as he copied his daddy before toddling a few steps after the little car to repeat the action as William stood up again.
Gabe smiled to himself as Riley let out a happy exclamation of “Car!” and William bent down and kissed the top of his head before walking away while Riley’s attention was still focused on the toys.
“So far so good,” William said as he walked up to Gabe, smiling in thanks as Gabe handed him his coffee.
“Bilvy!” Gabe said, sighing exasperatedly and hitting William lightly on the arm.
“What was that for?” William asked, his voice pretty much deadpanned. He was slightly curious, but mostly just used to Gabe being Gabe, though he did roll his eyes for good measure.
“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” Gabe sighed again with more than a hint of melodrama. “That’s like... tempting fate or something.”
“You don’t even believe in fate,” William replied immediately. It was true. Gabe always said that he was going to make it, but it was going to be through hard work and the Cobras’ talent, rather than it being ‘meant to be’ or whatever.
“Well, then… uh,” Gabe thought for a second before speaking again. “If it does exist then we’ll get doubly screwed over for being so sure that it doesn’t!” Gabe said triumphantly, nodding decisively with a satisfied smile on his face as William just shook his head slightly, still smiling back at Gabe.
“I’m possibly almost definitely sure that didn’t make sense,” he told Gabe affectionately, tugging him forward by the front of his hoodie and into a quick kiss, the two of them oblivious to everything thing for a couple of seconds - and only a couple of seconds. A familiar sound suddenly made Gabe and William break apart straight away, their heads quickly turning towards the noise of Riley yelling, “Mine!”
“Your fault,” Gabe said in a teasing, sing-song voice, giving Bill a slight smirk as he glanced at him before they both looked back over to where Riley was over in the play area. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t alone. Another little boy was standing next to Riley, reaching for the toy truck Riley had in his hands.
“Mine!” Riley repeated firmly, a frown on his little face as he pulled the toy away from the other toddler’s grabby hands. ‘Mine’ was a word Riley had picked up a few weeks ago now, and it had quickly become a favorite of his, only just falling short of the popularity of ‘no’ and ‘snuggle’.
William sighed a little as he and Gabe just watched for the time being, hoping that one of the children would realise that they were surrounded by other toys, including trucks which were practically identical to the one Riley was holding.
Of course after less than a minute of stand off the other boy reached for the truck again, grabbing it with both of his hands and trying to take it away from Riley.
“No!” Riley said loudly, the two toddlers both pulling at the truck with their limited, but pretty equally matched strength.
Knowing it couldn’t end well, William began walking over to the play area, ready to break it up, but just as he got there Riley’s grasp on the truck slipped and he fell back, sitting down heavily on the carpeted floor behind him with a thump. William inwardly braced himself for impact as Riley’s face crumpled and he immediately started to cry, beginning with one long wailing scream. It was probably more just the shock of it, William knew, rather than that it actually hurt, but he straight away crouched down next to his son and picked him up, holding him against his chest. The other boy watched for a moment or two before he was throwing the truck back down onto the floor as he started to cry himself.
William exchanged a smile of sympathy and mutual understanding with the other boy’s mother as she knelt down just as William stood up and went back over to where Gabe was stood, Riley still crying in his arms, his sobs escalating to a rather impressive scream every now and then.
“Hey now. Hey Relu. Que pasa, eh?” Gabe said as William gave Riley to him instead, trying to distract Riley and calm him down as William reached up to wipe the tears from his reddened cheeks. Riley just buried his face in Gabe’s neck, muffling his gradually quietening cries enough for William to hear Gabe speak. “It was all that other kid’s fault,” he told William, though he knew Gabe was at least half joking (the ‘half’ only being because William also knew that Gabe did not like to see his son upset for any reason).
“You saw what happened. He was just as shocked as Riley was,” William pointed out with a sigh as he stroked his hand over Riley’s sandy blonde hair. “And they’re only babies really. It’s not like he pushed him.”
“Yeah, well,” Gabe said grudgingly as he shifted Riley in his arms and settled for going back to calming him down with some Spanish spoken softly in the toddler’s ear.
William smiled as he picked out a few words he knew, mostly endearments, but he suddenly found himself wincing instead as his head throbbed with an indistinct, but fairly sharp pain.
“Ow,” he said quietly to himself, automatically reaching up to rub his fingers across his forehead a few times, though he knew it wouldn’t really do anything.
It wasn’t entirely out of the blue though; two years of being a daddy had taught William that there was a definite association between a screaming child and getting a headache.
“You okay?” Gabe asked him, frowning a little even as he kept turning his body from side to side, rocking Riley a little.
“Yeah.” William nodded, giving Gabe a reassuring smile. “Just a bit of a headache, that’s all.”
Riley had all but stopped crying by then, and William leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, pleased when Riley turned his head to look at him, even giving William a small smile as he reached out to pat his little hand across William’s face.
“A daddy,” Riley said simply, smiling a little more.
“Yep,” William replied, kissing Riley’s nose. “Now, what do you say we try this thing again, huh?”
The rest of the time went much more smoothly, William determinedly ignoring his headache as he and Gabe alternated going over and playing with Riley since he got a little more clingy after the incident and refused to leave them completely.
It was a start, anyway, William figured when they’d returned home nearly two hours later. Riley was almost asleep in Gabe’s arms even though it was a little while until his regular afternoon nap time, so Gabe went and put him down straight away after taking off his shoes and little duffle coat.
When he walked back into the living room Gabe went up to William straight away, cupping his hand around the nape of his boyfriend’s neck as he leaned over to kiss his temple.
“You too,” Gabe said when he pulled back, William just looking at him strangely. “Nap time. You. Go.”
“I’m alright,” William shrugged. “It’s just a headache. We should hang out today - I’ve got that paper to finish tomorrow, remember? And that’s going to take me like… ages,” William sighed to himself. He’d managed to forget that he had the joys of finishing off the piece of work to look forward to. Unlike his more creative writing pieces or articles, he wasn’t able to put as much of himself into this kind of paper and it just seemed so monotonous and soulless to him, and although he still had a few days to complete it that kind of work seemed to take him so much longer to do. “And I haven’t even done the references so I’m going to have to check them too, and you’re going to regret ever suggesting these stupid classes in the first pla-”
“Hey,” Gabe said firmly, cutting William off from his monologue as he placed a hand either side of his boyfriend’s face, making sure William was looking right at him. “Don’t worry about me. We do work together, Bilvy. It’s not like we never see each other,” he reminded him, before adding jokingly, “and I’m getting kind of sick of you anyway.”
“Yeah?” William said, laughing a little.
“Oh yeah.” Gabe nodded, the smile on his face making it clear that he wasn’t being serious at all. “I don’t want to see you for at least an hour or two,” he added firmly, kissing William’s forehead again before jerking his head towards their bedroom door.
William just smiled in reply, rolling his eyes even as he did as Gabe said, heading into their bedroom.
As it was, Gabe didn’t hear anything from William for quite a lot longer than that. Riley was already up after an hour or so of recharging, the two of them watching one of Riley’s dvds for a while after that. Well, ‘watching’ was really a loose description since Riley was more often toddling around and getting what seemed like every single toy he owned out of his box and Gabe was playing around with his acoustic, trying to put some new lyrics to some music, or at least rhythm.
When it got to two and a half hours Gabe went and stuck his head around the door, but William was simply lying there on their bed still, curled slightly on his side with one layer of the covers pulled loosely over him and his jeans laying crumpled at the foot of the bed. Gabe considered waking him for all of five seconds, but in the end he figured that if Bill was fast asleep like that then he obviously needed the rest, and it wasn’t as though Gabe couldn’t handle looking after Riley on his own - or minded at all, come to that.
It was only when Gabe had gotten through pretty much their whole evening routine that he began to get slightly worried about his boyfriend sleeping for so long. He’d already give Riley his dinner and a bath, and Bill was still asleep when he went in to put Riley down for the night. It was then that Gabe really considered waking William up, just to say goodnight to Riley, but then again whenever he was at a show or Bill was at class whichever one of them had Riley did the same, and Riley had seen a lot of William earlier in the day anyway, so he left him in bed.
In the end though, it turned out Gabe hadn’t needed to question that decision so much because as soon as he left Riley’s room, intending to go right into theirs, William practically ran out and across into the bathroom.
As soon as William had woken up less than a minute ago he’d felt something in his stomach rumble and clench almost painfully. For a moment he’d thought it was just hunger but within seconds nausea had risen in his stomach and he’d pushed himself up to crawl out of bed straight away, pretty sure what was coming next.
He’d barely managed to stumble into the bathroom before William was falling to his knees, almost doubled over the toilet as he retched forcefully.
Seeing as he hadn’t had dinner, there wasn’t exactly much to bring up though, leaving William heaving ineffectually, gagging and coughing but vomiting nothing except some water he’d drunk right before taking his nap and eventually bile, the acidic substance burning the back of his throat as he retched repeatedly.
Coughing once more, William forced himself to take in a deep breath in the hope of relaxing his abdomen but stayed where he was, practically hugging the toilet bowl, as he repeated the action, taking another couple of deep breaths.
“Oh shit,” William muttered to himself as another wave of nausea rose in him and he retched again, Bill wishing that he had more in his stomach to bring up because as it was, coughing and bringing up practically nothing, all that was happening was the strain on his muscles making his stomach hurt.
William was just gagging his way through the third swell of nausea when Gabe saying his name behind him made him jump a little, William glancing back at him out of the corner of his eye for a second before he coughed again, heaving a couple more times before leaning more heavily against the toilet as he breathed heavily, panting for a little while as the sensation began to pass.
“Bill?” Gabe repeated as he moved to crouch down behind his boyfriend, his hand lifting automatically to rest in between William’s shoulders, rubbing in gentle circles as he leaned forward to look at William’s face.
“I’m -” William paused, taking another deep breath as his head spun a little before trying again. “I’m fine.”
“Sure you are, Bilvy,” Gabe said sarcastically, sighing as he kept rubbing William’s back in soothing motions. “I should have known you weren’t well.”
“I didn’t know I wasn’t,” William told him, taking another breath in and out and deeming it safe to sit back on his heels. “So I don’t know how you were supposed to.”
“Came on pretty quick.” Gabe frowned worriedly as he studied William’s face, thinking of how they’d had lunch together earlier, sandwiches at home, so it probably wasn’t that. He lifted the back of his hand to William’s forehead before dropping it to his cheek, and William leaned into the contact. “You feel warm,” he said, glancing down at the complete lack of clothes William was wearing; just his boxers and a t shirt. Having a two year old meant that their bathroom cupboard was always stocked and organised, so when Gabe stood up he had no problem finding the thermometer right away before dropping back down to kneel next to William again. “Under your tongue,” he instructed, ignoring the way William rolled his eyes and simply holding the thermometer up until William eventually gave in and leaned forward to put it in his mouth. “Hmm.” After a little while Gabe took the thermometer out again and squinted at the display. “Not too high… but high enough.” He frowned again, putting the thermometer down on the floor next to him for now and then reaching up to card his fingers through William’s hair, pushing it off his face. “Back to bed,” Gabe said, getting up and helping William to do the same, starting to list things as William washed his mouth out at the sink. “And then lots of water, some soup, and most importantly some hardcore snuggles.”
“Uh, no.” William shook his head, leaning past Gabe to press the flush on the toilet even if he hadn’t brought that much up before.
“No?” Gabe echoed, confused. “But -”
“All the fluids and stuff, yeah,” William clarified, “but not that last one.”
“No snuggles?” Gabe didn’t even bother trying to hide the shock in his voice. In their little family the word ‘snuggle’ was pretty much on a level with ‘oxygen’.
“I don’t want Riley to catch whatever this is,” William explained. “And one of us still needs to be able to snuggle him, obviously, so you need to stay away from me too.”
It clicked into place for Gabe then too, as he realised what William meant and what he was doing. It was in his nature to martyr himself in any way if Riley would benefit, even if he was feeling like shit.
And William did, honestly, and would have liked nothing more than to curl up in Gabe’s arms until his head stopped feeling like there was somehow a fist in there, periodically squeezing his brain, and he stopped feeling so hot and cold and shaky and just sick. William really wanted that, to just let Gabe take care of him, but Riley was always going to come first, even if William knew in the back of his mind that kids did get sick, and it wasn’t like he could protect Riley from that - especially if he was going to be regularly interacting with other kids - but William couldn’t not try.
Looking at William standing there though, leaning against the sink with his arms visibly shaking slightly holding up even his lack-of weight, Gabe couldn’t help but try again. “Bilvy -”
“I’m going back to bed,” William said, sighing as he looked at himself in the mirror and ran his hand over his face. He looked as crap as he felt, and William paused as something deep in his stomach rumbled unsettlingly, but when it seemed to just go away again he just pushed himself to stand up straight again before walking out of the bathroom.
Gabe followed him and just watched as Bill armed himself with a couple of bottles of water and grabbed some crackers from the cupboard. Though he still itched to go and wrap him arms around William and make the younger man accept him taking care of him, Gabe didn’t. He considered suggesting taking Riley to Sheila’s for a couple of days but really he knew William would want him to take care of Riley on their day off if he could, and he’d say that they already relied on her enough. And also, Gabe thought, there was at least some logic to what William had said, so Gabe just stood there silently until William paused on his way back to the bedroom.
“Um. You’re okay on the sofa tonight, yeah?” he said apologetically.
“Sure, Bill,” Gabe replied simply, sighing just slightly as he watched William walk away.
Luckily their sofa was pretty comfortable as these things went (and thankfully big enough to pretty much accommodate Gabe’s rather long body), so that wasn’t why Gabe had so much trouble sleeping that night. It was just the whole unsettledness of the current situation, with William having quarantined himself, the younger man probably completely miserable just like Gabe was, too. He was pretty much helpless though at that point, so Gabe just lay down on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, willing himself to sleep instead of pointlessly worrying about William. With Gabe being Gabe though, that was pretty damn difficult.
Gabe must have dozed off at some point though, because at some point he was woken up by the sound of Riley sort of whimpering from his room, the noises getting gradually slightly louder as Gabe rolled over and woke up properly. It was rare for Riley to actually cry during the night these days, and he usually just slept through, but sometimes he would grizzle like that, just making sounds of complaint rather than anything else as he waited for someone to go in and see what was wrong, which Gabe then immediately did.
When he came out again, however, Gabe shouldn’t have been surprised to see William standing in the doorway of their bedroom, waiting.
“Shouldn’t you be -” Gabe began only to find himself cut off, also unsurprisingly.
“He okay?” William asked, glancing over at Riley’s bedroom door.
“He’s fine, Bill,” Gabe reassured him. “Just needed to be tucked in again. How are you feeling?” he questioned in return, taking in how tired William looked still, even after he’d hopefully gotten some rest.
“Not too bad.” William shrugged, but Gabe wasn’t even close to being fooled, not with over a year of experience of William’s stubbornness and sometimes liking of self reliance. There was an adjustment scale on which ‘not too bad’ actually meant that William was feeling pretty shit, but was trying to hide it. Gabe didn’t like it, but it was just part of who William was, and accepted that just like William accepted him for who he was too.
“Let me just -” Gabe stepped forward and reached up with one hand to feel William’s forehead again, but the other male quickly stepped back. “Bill, come on. Don’t you think this is a little extreme? I mean, I don’t think it’s that likely I’ll pass anything on to Riley before I even start to feel it myself, and he’s been around you as much as ever in the past day or two, so it’s not like it’s -”
“Just leave it, Gabe,” William snapped, the slightly higher volume of his own voice making him wince slightly. “It’s just… It’s not up for discussion, alright?”
“Fine,” Gabe snapped right back. “That’s fine, Bill. Fucking great. You’ve decided so that’s it,” Gabe said before he could stop himself, immediately hating that he’d let himself react like that when William’s reaction probably meant that he really was just feeling worse than he was letting on. It was just so frustrating for Gabe, when all he wanted to do was take care of Bill and do what he could to make him feel better, and William wasn’t letting him. “Bilvy, I’m -”
“No, I’m sorry,” William sighed, rubbing at the inner corners of his eyes as his head suddenly seemed to pulsate with that now familiar, just generalized kind of ache. “I just…” William looked at Gabe again before mumbling another apology as he stepped back a little and just closed their bedroom door behind him.
Sighing heavily, Gabe just let him go - again - not wanting the discussion (or lack thereof from William’s side) to turn into a fight, or at least an even worse one. Throughout their relationship there were some issues Bill had worked on and slowly started to improve on, but his stubbornness, particularly when it was something to do with Riley, wasn’t really one of those and it flared up especially when William was overly tired or stressed or sick, apparently.
After thinking for a few minutes though, just staring at their bedroom door but not really seeing it, Gabe smiled to himself as he figured out a possible resolution which would keep everyone happy and went over to the kitchen counter to pick up his cell where it was plugged in and charging. It was still a little while before dawn, sure, but Gabe just decided that these were special circumstances and dialled the number anyway.
Half an hour or so later (at least twenty minutes of that spent getting the other side to actually pick up and talk to him, repeatedly dialling and knowing they would get the hint eventually) Gabe was pushing their bedroom door open and walking into the room to find that William was asleep again, curled up on his side facing the middle of the bed. What was weird though was the fact that he wasn’t just facing empty space. Despite him being asleep William’s laptop was open and switched on, sitting slightly down the bed from where William’s head was. Even for William it just seemed weird that he would try and work on his paper when it was such a ridiculous time and he was sick. It did look like William had fallen asleep accidentally though, since he wasn’t quite lying down properly, as if he’d been half sitting up when he’d drifted off.
Curious, Gabe went and sat down on his side of the bed, careful to not cause too much movement as he slid further onto the mattress before swivelling the laptop so he could look at it. All that he saw, though, was the screensaver flicking through different pictures of Riley every couple of seconds, and Gabe watched for a little while, a smile on his face.
His focus was suddenly jerked away from the screen, however, when William sat up out of the blue, making Gabe jump slightly as he quickly turned his gaze to Bill, surprised to see the look of… apprehension? Guilt, maybe? Gabe didn’t even know quite how to categorise William’s expression. It was pretty funny though, especially with the addition of his mussed hair.
“Bilvy, wha-”
“You weren’t supposed to see,” William said, then muttering to himself, “Fucking fell asleep,” as he shook his head. “It’s not what you think,” he added then, eyes wide as they met Gabe’s.
And that was where it got not-funny for Gabe all of a sudden, because…
“What?” Gabe questioned, genuinely just confused and more than a little nervous then, because seriously. What?
He hadn’t seen anything except the screensaver up until then, and probably would have just shut the laptop without even thinking about it if it wasn’t for William’s reaction. Now, though… Now Gabe wasn’t going to do that.
Giving William one more questioning look Gabe then turned his attention back to the laptop, brushing his fingers across the mouse pad to get rid of the screensaver, his eyes quickly flicking across the screen and taking it in.
William’s gmail account was open, and an unhelpfully named ‘no subject’ email was currently onscreen, the last message sent by Bill Beckett there at the bottom: I don’t want Gabe to find out about this until we’re ready, and I have to be the one to tell him.
And yeah, okay, what?
Gabe looked at the recipient address but he didn’t recognise it or anything, and there wasn’t a name anywhere like there usually was with gmail accounts. There were a couple of dozen messages before that, but Gabe couldn’t read them without expanding the email and apart from that he didn’t want to read whatever the hell it was about from the screen, so Gabe just closed the laptop and slid it a little way down the bed as soon as it clicked shut.
“So.” Gabe looked up to meet William’s deer-in-headlights eyes, but he was careful to keep his own expression as neutral as he could. “I think you’re ready to tell me now.”
“It’s not -” William stopped mid sentence, sighing before he quickly thought through the best way to say this, settling on the simplest and what was actually just the truth. “I’ve been emailing Pete Wentz.”
Gabe felt both of his eyebrows rise of their own accord and his mouth drop open before he’d even registered William’s words in any conscious way, because that… that definitely wasn’t something he’d expected to come out of Bill’s mouth - not that he’d really known what to expect at all or really had time to think about it.
A second later Gabe was laughing, the sound surprising himself since his brain still seemed to be lagging a little bit behind the rest of him.
“What the - Just… what?” Gabe managed to get out through his laughter. “And how…” Gabe shook his head in disbelief. Not that he didn’t believe Bill, despite the bizarreness of what it was, because he did - and anyway, it made a lot more sense than William having some affair or something, in a relationship like theirs it did at least.
“Um,” William laughed a little himself, the younger male visibly relaxing on hearing Gabe’s reaction to his news. “Yeah…” he paused for a second or two, biting his lip as he shifted to turn his body a little to face Gabe better. “I got Sisky to talk to some people, because apparently they don’t like to make this kind of stuff too public. And he got my email address directly to Pete, and this letter I wrote to explain… and he actually emailed me back. But I didn’t want to tell you until I really knew what was happening, because I didn’t want you to get disappointed again and I was maybe kind of worried you’d be mad and I didn’t know if this was going to work or -”
“Bilvy,” Gabe interrupted him, still staring at his boyfriend in disbelief. “If what was going to work?” Gabe had his suspicions, and a smile was already tugging at his lips at the thought and the possibilities such a thing might open up for them. “I mean - Did you - Is he coming back to see us or something?” He couldn’t keep himself from actually asking specifically, because that would just be so amazing for them.
“Not… exactly,” William began, and Gabe kicked himself for letting his hopes build up. He swallowed hard, steeling himself for whatever William was going to actually say, watching as his boyfriend took in a deep breath, but when Gabe saw a smile creep onto William’s face he felt even more confused than before in those few seconds it took for Bill to speak again: “We’ve been discussing the idea of - I mean, he’s already heard the demo you sent, and Pete’s been talking about, maybe,” William’s smile widened, “us taking a trip out to see him instead.”
“Are you kidding?” Gabe said immediately, grinning himself even as he asked because really, there wasn’t any way Bill was going to joke about something like this. It was unbelievable, sure, but unless Gabe was in the middle of some extremely vivid dream… it was also real.
“Nope,” William replied, still just smiling so hard despite the fact that he was still feeling pretty shit physically, because that look on Gabe’s face was just awesome; surprise and excitement mixed with some remaining confusion. “Hopefully, anyway. I mean, Pete said something about checking with the label management and stuff, but…” William grinned even more, if it was physically possible. “He said he really wants you guys on the label.”
“This is…” Gabe trailed off, literally lost for words as much as he tried to fumble some together into some kind of coherent sentence. “Holy shit, Bilvy. What the hell?” He laughed.
“I know, right?” William echoed the sound, a sudden painful throb of a headache making him wince though, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds as he rubbed his index finger and thumb at the inner corners of his eyes. “Sorry,” he said to Gabe as soon as he made eye contact again.
“Don’t be stupid,” Gabe told him, his voice much more affectionate than actually reprimanding as he picked the laptop up and put it on the floor over on his side, sliding it under the bed enough that he wouldn’t accidentally step on it when he got up. “I forgot you were - With everything,” Gabe breathed out one more disbelieving laugh even as he moved closer to William.
“Hey,” William said straight away, starting to shift away even as Gabe slid over. “Awesomeness and Pete Wentz aside, I’m still sick and you’re still on Super Papi duty until I’m not,” he reminded Gabe, but Gabe just shook his head, shifting to lie down and closing his hand around William’s forearm to gently pull him down to join him.
“That’s why I came in here in the first place,” Gabe told him as he wrapped his arm around William’s body, pulling him closer and planting a kiss on his boyfriend’s nose, making Bill smile despite the confusion which still coloured his features. “I got that covered.”
“Covered?” William repeated sceptically.
“Yup,” Gabe confirmed simply before going on to explain. “In a couple of hours Nate is coming ’round to take over official snuggle duty. Vicky’s coming to handle breakfast before she goes to work, Alex is taking care of food after that, I think Ryland’s going to be in charge of entertainment for the afternoon, and then Vicky’s coming back in time to help Nate with Riley’s bath.”
“So basically Nate’s moving in until I’m feeling better,” William laughed, though his expression became a little more serious when he spoke again. “And everyone else is providing childcare for us while you take care of me?”
Gabe just nodded, smiling at William who finally let himself smile back. It made sense really - Gabe knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t mind so much with several people sharing the work of taking care of their son, and the only people William was going to let do that were the Cobras, who Riley really knew almost as well as he knew Sheila or them. Plus, Riley wasn’t going to be anywhere near unhappy with the situation as long as Nate was around to snuggle. That was just a fact of life.
“How are you so awesome?” William said quietly, pretty much completely serious as he finally relaxed a little more in Gabe’s arms, snuggling closer as Gabe tugged the covers up over them both.
“I could ask the same of you, you know,” Gabe replied in the same tone, shifting a little so he could press his lips to William’s forehead, sighing slightly as he felt how warm it still was. “Especially after what I found out tonight,” he pointed out, lifting his hand from where it was resting at William’s lower back to stroke his fingers down the side of Bill’s face instead as he just studied his boyfriend’s face for a few moments, pressing his hand against each of William's cheeks when he realised the younger male was leaning into the soothing contact of Gabe's comparatively cool skin on his. "I'll go and get a cold washcloth," Gabe said, shifting to get up only to find William then wrap an arm around his shoulders, keeping him right where he was.
"More snuggles first," William said, smiling, and Gabe returned the expression as he settled back down, William curling more into Gabe's chest as he let out a contented sigh, finally right where he was supposed to be.
It was then that it really hit William, how the effort he’d put into contacting Pete Wentz and making sure the message actually got through instead of being forwarded (or quite likely not) through some system, because the Cobras really did deserve their break and not just because they were talented, but also because they were just a group of great people, who really cared, and from what William knew of the label that was something which really mattered to Pete too; that sense of family and dedication and stepping up when other people or a good cause needed you to.
It was then William realised that although he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen next, one thing he knew for sure was that he couldn’t wait to find out.
***A/N: I'm nervous about curious as to what people will think of this...
Author: minus_four
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Gabilliam
POV: 3rd
Summary: Just over two years old. William and Gabe finally decide to try and start getting Riley more socialised, and when William gets sick Gabe finds out that his boyfriend's been hiding something from him.
Disclaimer: This only happened in my brain (as far as I know). Title belongs to Cobra Starship.
Author Notes: Ohai random rileyfic! Okay, so basically this is me being indulgent and writing a fairly standalone chapter when I'm not entirely sure when I'll be carrying it on regularly. Also, I slightly surprised myself with the ending, but I guess that's the point of these things lol. Mucho love as always, and special thanks to ourgossip_lips for her time and patience ♥
One.Two. Three.Four.Five.Six.Seven.Eight.Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.Thirteen.Fourteen.
Fifteen.Sixteen.Seventeen.Eighteen.Nineteen. Twenty. Twenty One. Prequel. Twenty Two. Twenty Three. Twenty Four. Twenty Five. Twenty Six. [26 additional scene]
Someone was sulking, and rather unsurprisingly for William it wasn’t actually the toddler he was holding in his arms, but actually Gabe who was doing all the pouting.
“I don’t like this.”
William sighed, rolling his eyes. “Really, Gabe? I had no idea,” he said sarcastically.
Once the holidays had come and gone and they’d gone back to their normal routine of work and then William’s classes a couple of nights a week, but something which had come up on the day the adoption papers were signed had stuck in William’s mind: The little incident they’d had when Riley had met Maisy, the daughter of someone in William’s class who was practically the same age as him, which had resulted in something of a tantrum when the little girl had touched Riley’s precious stuffed giraffe. The result of that had been William realising that Riley needed to start being socialised a little more with kids his own age, rather than just Gabe, William and Sheila, who were pretty much the only people he saw on a regular basis.
Gabe, on the other hand, didn’t so much recognise the need for it. Sure, if Riley was going to have fun meeting other kids and it wasn’t going to freak him out, then he had no problem with it. But if Riley didn’t want to be forced to interact with other little kids and it was going to upset him, then Gabe really didn’t see the point in that yet. He figured that they had plenty of time before Riley started kindergarden and maybe if the toddler was more open to the idea and more able to understand it when he was a little older, then that would be a different story.
The differing opinions of the two men had resulted in many discussions on the subject, with a lot of the same things being repeated. Both Gabe and William knew that the other person did have a point in what they were saying, but that didn’t mean that either of them were going to back down. And now, even if William had been tempted to play the ‘daddy’ card (which he actually never had during their whole relationship), it wasn’t as though he could, not now Gabe officially had the exact same parental rights as he did. Secretly William kind of loved it when Gabe really argued his point of view over a Riley issue because it showed just how far his boyfriend had come since they’d met, how much he’d grown into his role as a father and worked hard to overcome his insecurities over his connection (and lack there of, biologically) to Riley.
Over their discussions on the topic William and Gabe had eventually come to an agreement on what they would do, which was wait a little while until at least Riley’s second birthday, and then start looking for some parent-toddler groups they could take him to. When March came, along with Riley’s second birthday, the three of them went on one of their fairly frequent trips to the baby store which also housed a fount of knowledge on such things; the big notice board. Seeing as there were quite a few different groups though, Gabe of course insisted on vetting all of them first, to find out what kind of things the group did, the number of people who attended, what kind of people went and so on, which added another couple of weeks to the process.
Finally, though, they’d figured out a parent-toddler group they were both happy to try out, and there they were on Saturday morning, on their way to the fairly nearby community centre in which it was held.
“I just…” Gabe sighed, shrugging. “I don’t know, I just don’t want to push this on Relu too early and have him freak out about this stuff for life or something, you know?”
“Yeah,” William nodded as he echoed Gabe’s sigh, stopping his path down the sidewalk and prompting Gabe to do the same, the two of them turning to face each other. “I know. I’m a little worried about how he’ll react too,” William admitted. “But he’s got to learn how to play with others sometime, and if he does react badly to it then we’ll just try again in a little while. And he might really enjoy it.”
It was completely true, Gabe knew. Riley loved playing with either himself or William, and it would probably be exactly the same once he got used to other kids and the concept of actually sharing toys and stuff (not the giraffe though, Gabe knew. Never the giraffe). Plus, it was pretty similar to any other new stuff they’d introduced Riley to, most often new foods or a different toy than what he was used to; at first Riley acted like he was never going to eat a single green bean, and now they were one of his favorite foods. The process of getting a toddler used to something novel was definitely trying at times though, Gabe also knew, and this was probably going to the same in that way too.
“Papi!”
Gabe was brought out of his train of thought by Riley calling for him as he started to squirm in William’s arms, trying to turn around or get his daddy to put him down, which William then did. Riley didn’t seem to even think about wandering off or anything, just straight away took the few steps forward and then collapsed against Gabe’s legs, giggling as he tugged at Gabe’s pant leg.
“Papi, Papi, Papi,” Riley repeated as he kept tugging at Gabe’s pants until Gabe finally picked him up after just grinning down at his son for a few seconds.
“Hey there, Relu,” Gabe said, settling Riley against his hip, his arms secure around Riley’s little body and Riley’s in turn secure around Gabe’s neck, tiny fingers clutching at his collar. He gave Riley a couple of kisses on the cheek before stepping over and quickly pressing his lips to William’s cheek too. As Gabe stepped back again William ducked his head, bangs falling over his eyes but his hair not hiding the small smile which immediately quirked the corner of his lips upwards. Gabe grinned at that, at how just a simple kiss - granted, in the middle of a fairly crowded street - could still get that kind of reaction from his boyfriend. “Didn’t think I’d leave you out, did you, Bilvy?” William just rolled his eyes at that, still smiling though, so Gabe turned his attention back to the littlest Beckett. “How you doing, Ry? What’s up, baby boy?”
“Snuggle,” Riley said, smiling at Gabe before he leaned his head sideways on Gabe’s shoulder, doing just what he’d just said. “Snuggle a Papi.”
Gabe looked at William then, the two of them smiling in that stupidly happy kind of way they sometimes did at times like that, both of them knowing that the other was thinking something similar to themselves. It was just hard to believe how Riley was really starting to put words together in the right way, and purposefully too. Of course, some words which he used more often he knew really well, but there were others starting to emerge from the babbled syllables which usually made up whatever Riley was trying to communicate. Basically their son was growing up, and however scary it was there was no denying that it was also just awesome.
“Lucky for you, baby, I’m a multitasker,” Gabe said, William laughing a little as they fell back into step together, walking the short distance they had left to go until they got to their destination and that next little thing for Riley to start learning how to do.
Gabe might have still been a little anxious about the play group thing, but now he’d remembered that one thing he suddenly felt a whole lot better about it somehow. Because just like his daddy and his papi, Riley William Beckett was awesome and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t be able to handle.
When they walked into the room where the toddler group was being held a few minutes before it was due to start, Riley definitely became a little anxious though, Gabe noticed from the way the two year old’s hold on him tightened. He seemed pretty okay with the situation, however, Gabe thought as he and Bill went over to introduce themselves to an older woman standing by a table with coffee and snacks, a clipboard in her hands.
One of the things Gabe had liked about this group in particular was that it wasn’t like pushing Riley into a pre-school type situation too fast; it wasn’t overly structured or anything. There were various toys and things scattered across one side of the fairly large space, and a couple of toddler sized tables set up with tiny chairs and some arts and crafts type stuff if anyone was feeling creative. There wasn’t really anything musical around though, and Gabe made a mental note to suggest some musical play time to the organiser if Riley took to being there okay.
There were about ten other kids there - their parents sitting in small groups around the coffee table on some adult sized chairs - and most of them had already gotten stuck into some quality play time, so Gabe passed Riley off to William so he could take him over while Gabe made them both a cup of coffee. He half watched as he did so though, as William put Riley down near some of the toys and a couple of other little boys his age, then explaining what was going on to Riley, who understood ‘play time’ if nothing else. Still crouched down next to Riley, William picked up a nearby toy car and rolled it along the floor, catching Riley’s interest. The toddler smiled and giggled a little as he copied his daddy before toddling a few steps after the little car to repeat the action as William stood up again.
Gabe smiled to himself as Riley let out a happy exclamation of “Car!” and William bent down and kissed the top of his head before walking away while Riley’s attention was still focused on the toys.
“So far so good,” William said as he walked up to Gabe, smiling in thanks as Gabe handed him his coffee.
“Bilvy!” Gabe said, sighing exasperatedly and hitting William lightly on the arm.
“What was that for?” William asked, his voice pretty much deadpanned. He was slightly curious, but mostly just used to Gabe being Gabe, though he did roll his eyes for good measure.
“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” Gabe sighed again with more than a hint of melodrama. “That’s like... tempting fate or something.”
“You don’t even believe in fate,” William replied immediately. It was true. Gabe always said that he was going to make it, but it was going to be through hard work and the Cobras’ talent, rather than it being ‘meant to be’ or whatever.
“Well, then… uh,” Gabe thought for a second before speaking again. “If it does exist then we’ll get doubly screwed over for being so sure that it doesn’t!” Gabe said triumphantly, nodding decisively with a satisfied smile on his face as William just shook his head slightly, still smiling back at Gabe.
“I’m possibly almost definitely sure that didn’t make sense,” he told Gabe affectionately, tugging him forward by the front of his hoodie and into a quick kiss, the two of them oblivious to everything thing for a couple of seconds - and only a couple of seconds. A familiar sound suddenly made Gabe and William break apart straight away, their heads quickly turning towards the noise of Riley yelling, “Mine!”
“Your fault,” Gabe said in a teasing, sing-song voice, giving Bill a slight smirk as he glanced at him before they both looked back over to where Riley was over in the play area. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t alone. Another little boy was standing next to Riley, reaching for the toy truck Riley had in his hands.
“Mine!” Riley repeated firmly, a frown on his little face as he pulled the toy away from the other toddler’s grabby hands. ‘Mine’ was a word Riley had picked up a few weeks ago now, and it had quickly become a favorite of his, only just falling short of the popularity of ‘no’ and ‘snuggle’.
William sighed a little as he and Gabe just watched for the time being, hoping that one of the children would realise that they were surrounded by other toys, including trucks which were practically identical to the one Riley was holding.
Of course after less than a minute of stand off the other boy reached for the truck again, grabbing it with both of his hands and trying to take it away from Riley.
“No!” Riley said loudly, the two toddlers both pulling at the truck with their limited, but pretty equally matched strength.
Knowing it couldn’t end well, William began walking over to the play area, ready to break it up, but just as he got there Riley’s grasp on the truck slipped and he fell back, sitting down heavily on the carpeted floor behind him with a thump. William inwardly braced himself for impact as Riley’s face crumpled and he immediately started to cry, beginning with one long wailing scream. It was probably more just the shock of it, William knew, rather than that it actually hurt, but he straight away crouched down next to his son and picked him up, holding him against his chest. The other boy watched for a moment or two before he was throwing the truck back down onto the floor as he started to cry himself.
William exchanged a smile of sympathy and mutual understanding with the other boy’s mother as she knelt down just as William stood up and went back over to where Gabe was stood, Riley still crying in his arms, his sobs escalating to a rather impressive scream every now and then.
“Hey now. Hey Relu. Que pasa, eh?” Gabe said as William gave Riley to him instead, trying to distract Riley and calm him down as William reached up to wipe the tears from his reddened cheeks. Riley just buried his face in Gabe’s neck, muffling his gradually quietening cries enough for William to hear Gabe speak. “It was all that other kid’s fault,” he told William, though he knew Gabe was at least half joking (the ‘half’ only being because William also knew that Gabe did not like to see his son upset for any reason).
“You saw what happened. He was just as shocked as Riley was,” William pointed out with a sigh as he stroked his hand over Riley’s sandy blonde hair. “And they’re only babies really. It’s not like he pushed him.”
“Yeah, well,” Gabe said grudgingly as he shifted Riley in his arms and settled for going back to calming him down with some Spanish spoken softly in the toddler’s ear.
William smiled as he picked out a few words he knew, mostly endearments, but he suddenly found himself wincing instead as his head throbbed with an indistinct, but fairly sharp pain.
“Ow,” he said quietly to himself, automatically reaching up to rub his fingers across his forehead a few times, though he knew it wouldn’t really do anything.
It wasn’t entirely out of the blue though; two years of being a daddy had taught William that there was a definite association between a screaming child and getting a headache.
“You okay?” Gabe asked him, frowning a little even as he kept turning his body from side to side, rocking Riley a little.
“Yeah.” William nodded, giving Gabe a reassuring smile. “Just a bit of a headache, that’s all.”
Riley had all but stopped crying by then, and William leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, pleased when Riley turned his head to look at him, even giving William a small smile as he reached out to pat his little hand across William’s face.
“A daddy,” Riley said simply, smiling a little more.
“Yep,” William replied, kissing Riley’s nose. “Now, what do you say we try this thing again, huh?”
The rest of the time went much more smoothly, William determinedly ignoring his headache as he and Gabe alternated going over and playing with Riley since he got a little more clingy after the incident and refused to leave them completely.
It was a start, anyway, William figured when they’d returned home nearly two hours later. Riley was almost asleep in Gabe’s arms even though it was a little while until his regular afternoon nap time, so Gabe went and put him down straight away after taking off his shoes and little duffle coat.
When he walked back into the living room Gabe went up to William straight away, cupping his hand around the nape of his boyfriend’s neck as he leaned over to kiss his temple.
“You too,” Gabe said when he pulled back, William just looking at him strangely. “Nap time. You. Go.”
“I’m alright,” William shrugged. “It’s just a headache. We should hang out today - I’ve got that paper to finish tomorrow, remember? And that’s going to take me like… ages,” William sighed to himself. He’d managed to forget that he had the joys of finishing off the piece of work to look forward to. Unlike his more creative writing pieces or articles, he wasn’t able to put as much of himself into this kind of paper and it just seemed so monotonous and soulless to him, and although he still had a few days to complete it that kind of work seemed to take him so much longer to do. “And I haven’t even done the references so I’m going to have to check them too, and you’re going to regret ever suggesting these stupid classes in the first pla-”
“Hey,” Gabe said firmly, cutting William off from his monologue as he placed a hand either side of his boyfriend’s face, making sure William was looking right at him. “Don’t worry about me. We do work together, Bilvy. It’s not like we never see each other,” he reminded him, before adding jokingly, “and I’m getting kind of sick of you anyway.”
“Yeah?” William said, laughing a little.
“Oh yeah.” Gabe nodded, the smile on his face making it clear that he wasn’t being serious at all. “I don’t want to see you for at least an hour or two,” he added firmly, kissing William’s forehead again before jerking his head towards their bedroom door.
William just smiled in reply, rolling his eyes even as he did as Gabe said, heading into their bedroom.
As it was, Gabe didn’t hear anything from William for quite a lot longer than that. Riley was already up after an hour or so of recharging, the two of them watching one of Riley’s dvds for a while after that. Well, ‘watching’ was really a loose description since Riley was more often toddling around and getting what seemed like every single toy he owned out of his box and Gabe was playing around with his acoustic, trying to put some new lyrics to some music, or at least rhythm.
When it got to two and a half hours Gabe went and stuck his head around the door, but William was simply lying there on their bed still, curled slightly on his side with one layer of the covers pulled loosely over him and his jeans laying crumpled at the foot of the bed. Gabe considered waking him for all of five seconds, but in the end he figured that if Bill was fast asleep like that then he obviously needed the rest, and it wasn’t as though Gabe couldn’t handle looking after Riley on his own - or minded at all, come to that.
It was only when Gabe had gotten through pretty much their whole evening routine that he began to get slightly worried about his boyfriend sleeping for so long. He’d already give Riley his dinner and a bath, and Bill was still asleep when he went in to put Riley down for the night. It was then that Gabe really considered waking William up, just to say goodnight to Riley, but then again whenever he was at a show or Bill was at class whichever one of them had Riley did the same, and Riley had seen a lot of William earlier in the day anyway, so he left him in bed.
In the end though, it turned out Gabe hadn’t needed to question that decision so much because as soon as he left Riley’s room, intending to go right into theirs, William practically ran out and across into the bathroom.
As soon as William had woken up less than a minute ago he’d felt something in his stomach rumble and clench almost painfully. For a moment he’d thought it was just hunger but within seconds nausea had risen in his stomach and he’d pushed himself up to crawl out of bed straight away, pretty sure what was coming next.
He’d barely managed to stumble into the bathroom before William was falling to his knees, almost doubled over the toilet as he retched forcefully.
Seeing as he hadn’t had dinner, there wasn’t exactly much to bring up though, leaving William heaving ineffectually, gagging and coughing but vomiting nothing except some water he’d drunk right before taking his nap and eventually bile, the acidic substance burning the back of his throat as he retched repeatedly.
Coughing once more, William forced himself to take in a deep breath in the hope of relaxing his abdomen but stayed where he was, practically hugging the toilet bowl, as he repeated the action, taking another couple of deep breaths.
“Oh shit,” William muttered to himself as another wave of nausea rose in him and he retched again, Bill wishing that he had more in his stomach to bring up because as it was, coughing and bringing up practically nothing, all that was happening was the strain on his muscles making his stomach hurt.
William was just gagging his way through the third swell of nausea when Gabe saying his name behind him made him jump a little, William glancing back at him out of the corner of his eye for a second before he coughed again, heaving a couple more times before leaning more heavily against the toilet as he breathed heavily, panting for a little while as the sensation began to pass.
“Bill?” Gabe repeated as he moved to crouch down behind his boyfriend, his hand lifting automatically to rest in between William’s shoulders, rubbing in gentle circles as he leaned forward to look at William’s face.
“I’m -” William paused, taking another deep breath as his head spun a little before trying again. “I’m fine.”
“Sure you are, Bilvy,” Gabe said sarcastically, sighing as he kept rubbing William’s back in soothing motions. “I should have known you weren’t well.”
“I didn’t know I wasn’t,” William told him, taking another breath in and out and deeming it safe to sit back on his heels. “So I don’t know how you were supposed to.”
“Came on pretty quick.” Gabe frowned worriedly as he studied William’s face, thinking of how they’d had lunch together earlier, sandwiches at home, so it probably wasn’t that. He lifted the back of his hand to William’s forehead before dropping it to his cheek, and William leaned into the contact. “You feel warm,” he said, glancing down at the complete lack of clothes William was wearing; just his boxers and a t shirt. Having a two year old meant that their bathroom cupboard was always stocked and organised, so when Gabe stood up he had no problem finding the thermometer right away before dropping back down to kneel next to William again. “Under your tongue,” he instructed, ignoring the way William rolled his eyes and simply holding the thermometer up until William eventually gave in and leaned forward to put it in his mouth. “Hmm.” After a little while Gabe took the thermometer out again and squinted at the display. “Not too high… but high enough.” He frowned again, putting the thermometer down on the floor next to him for now and then reaching up to card his fingers through William’s hair, pushing it off his face. “Back to bed,” Gabe said, getting up and helping William to do the same, starting to list things as William washed his mouth out at the sink. “And then lots of water, some soup, and most importantly some hardcore snuggles.”
“Uh, no.” William shook his head, leaning past Gabe to press the flush on the toilet even if he hadn’t brought that much up before.
“No?” Gabe echoed, confused. “But -”
“All the fluids and stuff, yeah,” William clarified, “but not that last one.”
“No snuggles?” Gabe didn’t even bother trying to hide the shock in his voice. In their little family the word ‘snuggle’ was pretty much on a level with ‘oxygen’.
“I don’t want Riley to catch whatever this is,” William explained. “And one of us still needs to be able to snuggle him, obviously, so you need to stay away from me too.”
It clicked into place for Gabe then too, as he realised what William meant and what he was doing. It was in his nature to martyr himself in any way if Riley would benefit, even if he was feeling like shit.
And William did, honestly, and would have liked nothing more than to curl up in Gabe’s arms until his head stopped feeling like there was somehow a fist in there, periodically squeezing his brain, and he stopped feeling so hot and cold and shaky and just sick. William really wanted that, to just let Gabe take care of him, but Riley was always going to come first, even if William knew in the back of his mind that kids did get sick, and it wasn’t like he could protect Riley from that - especially if he was going to be regularly interacting with other kids - but William couldn’t not try.
Looking at William standing there though, leaning against the sink with his arms visibly shaking slightly holding up even his lack-of weight, Gabe couldn’t help but try again. “Bilvy -”
“I’m going back to bed,” William said, sighing as he looked at himself in the mirror and ran his hand over his face. He looked as crap as he felt, and William paused as something deep in his stomach rumbled unsettlingly, but when it seemed to just go away again he just pushed himself to stand up straight again before walking out of the bathroom.
Gabe followed him and just watched as Bill armed himself with a couple of bottles of water and grabbed some crackers from the cupboard. Though he still itched to go and wrap him arms around William and make the younger man accept him taking care of him, Gabe didn’t. He considered suggesting taking Riley to Sheila’s for a couple of days but really he knew William would want him to take care of Riley on their day off if he could, and he’d say that they already relied on her enough. And also, Gabe thought, there was at least some logic to what William had said, so Gabe just stood there silently until William paused on his way back to the bedroom.
“Um. You’re okay on the sofa tonight, yeah?” he said apologetically.
“Sure, Bill,” Gabe replied simply, sighing just slightly as he watched William walk away.
Luckily their sofa was pretty comfortable as these things went (and thankfully big enough to pretty much accommodate Gabe’s rather long body), so that wasn’t why Gabe had so much trouble sleeping that night. It was just the whole unsettledness of the current situation, with William having quarantined himself, the younger man probably completely miserable just like Gabe was, too. He was pretty much helpless though at that point, so Gabe just lay down on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, willing himself to sleep instead of pointlessly worrying about William. With Gabe being Gabe though, that was pretty damn difficult.
Gabe must have dozed off at some point though, because at some point he was woken up by the sound of Riley sort of whimpering from his room, the noises getting gradually slightly louder as Gabe rolled over and woke up properly. It was rare for Riley to actually cry during the night these days, and he usually just slept through, but sometimes he would grizzle like that, just making sounds of complaint rather than anything else as he waited for someone to go in and see what was wrong, which Gabe then immediately did.
When he came out again, however, Gabe shouldn’t have been surprised to see William standing in the doorway of their bedroom, waiting.
“Shouldn’t you be -” Gabe began only to find himself cut off, also unsurprisingly.
“He okay?” William asked, glancing over at Riley’s bedroom door.
“He’s fine, Bill,” Gabe reassured him. “Just needed to be tucked in again. How are you feeling?” he questioned in return, taking in how tired William looked still, even after he’d hopefully gotten some rest.
“Not too bad.” William shrugged, but Gabe wasn’t even close to being fooled, not with over a year of experience of William’s stubbornness and sometimes liking of self reliance. There was an adjustment scale on which ‘not too bad’ actually meant that William was feeling pretty shit, but was trying to hide it. Gabe didn’t like it, but it was just part of who William was, and accepted that just like William accepted him for who he was too.
“Let me just -” Gabe stepped forward and reached up with one hand to feel William’s forehead again, but the other male quickly stepped back. “Bill, come on. Don’t you think this is a little extreme? I mean, I don’t think it’s that likely I’ll pass anything on to Riley before I even start to feel it myself, and he’s been around you as much as ever in the past day or two, so it’s not like it’s -”
“Just leave it, Gabe,” William snapped, the slightly higher volume of his own voice making him wince slightly. “It’s just… It’s not up for discussion, alright?”
“Fine,” Gabe snapped right back. “That’s fine, Bill. Fucking great. You’ve decided so that’s it,” Gabe said before he could stop himself, immediately hating that he’d let himself react like that when William’s reaction probably meant that he really was just feeling worse than he was letting on. It was just so frustrating for Gabe, when all he wanted to do was take care of Bill and do what he could to make him feel better, and William wasn’t letting him. “Bilvy, I’m -”
“No, I’m sorry,” William sighed, rubbing at the inner corners of his eyes as his head suddenly seemed to pulsate with that now familiar, just generalized kind of ache. “I just…” William looked at Gabe again before mumbling another apology as he stepped back a little and just closed their bedroom door behind him.
Sighing heavily, Gabe just let him go - again - not wanting the discussion (or lack thereof from William’s side) to turn into a fight, or at least an even worse one. Throughout their relationship there were some issues Bill had worked on and slowly started to improve on, but his stubbornness, particularly when it was something to do with Riley, wasn’t really one of those and it flared up especially when William was overly tired or stressed or sick, apparently.
After thinking for a few minutes though, just staring at their bedroom door but not really seeing it, Gabe smiled to himself as he figured out a possible resolution which would keep everyone happy and went over to the kitchen counter to pick up his cell where it was plugged in and charging. It was still a little while before dawn, sure, but Gabe just decided that these were special circumstances and dialled the number anyway.
Half an hour or so later (at least twenty minutes of that spent getting the other side to actually pick up and talk to him, repeatedly dialling and knowing they would get the hint eventually) Gabe was pushing their bedroom door open and walking into the room to find that William was asleep again, curled up on his side facing the middle of the bed. What was weird though was the fact that he wasn’t just facing empty space. Despite him being asleep William’s laptop was open and switched on, sitting slightly down the bed from where William’s head was. Even for William it just seemed weird that he would try and work on his paper when it was such a ridiculous time and he was sick. It did look like William had fallen asleep accidentally though, since he wasn’t quite lying down properly, as if he’d been half sitting up when he’d drifted off.
Curious, Gabe went and sat down on his side of the bed, careful to not cause too much movement as he slid further onto the mattress before swivelling the laptop so he could look at it. All that he saw, though, was the screensaver flicking through different pictures of Riley every couple of seconds, and Gabe watched for a little while, a smile on his face.
His focus was suddenly jerked away from the screen, however, when William sat up out of the blue, making Gabe jump slightly as he quickly turned his gaze to Bill, surprised to see the look of… apprehension? Guilt, maybe? Gabe didn’t even know quite how to categorise William’s expression. It was pretty funny though, especially with the addition of his mussed hair.
“Bilvy, wha-”
“You weren’t supposed to see,” William said, then muttering to himself, “Fucking fell asleep,” as he shook his head. “It’s not what you think,” he added then, eyes wide as they met Gabe’s.
And that was where it got not-funny for Gabe all of a sudden, because…
“What?” Gabe questioned, genuinely just confused and more than a little nervous then, because seriously. What?
He hadn’t seen anything except the screensaver up until then, and probably would have just shut the laptop without even thinking about it if it wasn’t for William’s reaction. Now, though… Now Gabe wasn’t going to do that.
Giving William one more questioning look Gabe then turned his attention back to the laptop, brushing his fingers across the mouse pad to get rid of the screensaver, his eyes quickly flicking across the screen and taking it in.
William’s gmail account was open, and an unhelpfully named ‘no subject’ email was currently onscreen, the last message sent by Bill Beckett there at the bottom: I don’t want Gabe to find out about this until we’re ready, and I have to be the one to tell him.
And yeah, okay, what?
Gabe looked at the recipient address but he didn’t recognise it or anything, and there wasn’t a name anywhere like there usually was with gmail accounts. There were a couple of dozen messages before that, but Gabe couldn’t read them without expanding the email and apart from that he didn’t want to read whatever the hell it was about from the screen, so Gabe just closed the laptop and slid it a little way down the bed as soon as it clicked shut.
“So.” Gabe looked up to meet William’s deer-in-headlights eyes, but he was careful to keep his own expression as neutral as he could. “I think you’re ready to tell me now.”
“It’s not -” William stopped mid sentence, sighing before he quickly thought through the best way to say this, settling on the simplest and what was actually just the truth. “I’ve been emailing Pete Wentz.”
Gabe felt both of his eyebrows rise of their own accord and his mouth drop open before he’d even registered William’s words in any conscious way, because that… that definitely wasn’t something he’d expected to come out of Bill’s mouth - not that he’d really known what to expect at all or really had time to think about it.
A second later Gabe was laughing, the sound surprising himself since his brain still seemed to be lagging a little bit behind the rest of him.
“What the - Just… what?” Gabe managed to get out through his laughter. “And how…” Gabe shook his head in disbelief. Not that he didn’t believe Bill, despite the bizarreness of what it was, because he did - and anyway, it made a lot more sense than William having some affair or something, in a relationship like theirs it did at least.
“Um,” William laughed a little himself, the younger male visibly relaxing on hearing Gabe’s reaction to his news. “Yeah…” he paused for a second or two, biting his lip as he shifted to turn his body a little to face Gabe better. “I got Sisky to talk to some people, because apparently they don’t like to make this kind of stuff too public. And he got my email address directly to Pete, and this letter I wrote to explain… and he actually emailed me back. But I didn’t want to tell you until I really knew what was happening, because I didn’t want you to get disappointed again and I was maybe kind of worried you’d be mad and I didn’t know if this was going to work or -”
“Bilvy,” Gabe interrupted him, still staring at his boyfriend in disbelief. “If what was going to work?” Gabe had his suspicions, and a smile was already tugging at his lips at the thought and the possibilities such a thing might open up for them. “I mean - Did you - Is he coming back to see us or something?” He couldn’t keep himself from actually asking specifically, because that would just be so amazing for them.
“Not… exactly,” William began, and Gabe kicked himself for letting his hopes build up. He swallowed hard, steeling himself for whatever William was going to actually say, watching as his boyfriend took in a deep breath, but when Gabe saw a smile creep onto William’s face he felt even more confused than before in those few seconds it took for Bill to speak again: “We’ve been discussing the idea of - I mean, he’s already heard the demo you sent, and Pete’s been talking about, maybe,” William’s smile widened, “us taking a trip out to see him instead.”
“Are you kidding?” Gabe said immediately, grinning himself even as he asked because really, there wasn’t any way Bill was going to joke about something like this. It was unbelievable, sure, but unless Gabe was in the middle of some extremely vivid dream… it was also real.
“Nope,” William replied, still just smiling so hard despite the fact that he was still feeling pretty shit physically, because that look on Gabe’s face was just awesome; surprise and excitement mixed with some remaining confusion. “Hopefully, anyway. I mean, Pete said something about checking with the label management and stuff, but…” William grinned even more, if it was physically possible. “He said he really wants you guys on the label.”
“This is…” Gabe trailed off, literally lost for words as much as he tried to fumble some together into some kind of coherent sentence. “Holy shit, Bilvy. What the hell?” He laughed.
“I know, right?” William echoed the sound, a sudden painful throb of a headache making him wince though, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds as he rubbed his index finger and thumb at the inner corners of his eyes. “Sorry,” he said to Gabe as soon as he made eye contact again.
“Don’t be stupid,” Gabe told him, his voice much more affectionate than actually reprimanding as he picked the laptop up and put it on the floor over on his side, sliding it under the bed enough that he wouldn’t accidentally step on it when he got up. “I forgot you were - With everything,” Gabe breathed out one more disbelieving laugh even as he moved closer to William.
“Hey,” William said straight away, starting to shift away even as Gabe slid over. “Awesomeness and Pete Wentz aside, I’m still sick and you’re still on Super Papi duty until I’m not,” he reminded Gabe, but Gabe just shook his head, shifting to lie down and closing his hand around William’s forearm to gently pull him down to join him.
“That’s why I came in here in the first place,” Gabe told him as he wrapped his arm around William’s body, pulling him closer and planting a kiss on his boyfriend’s nose, making Bill smile despite the confusion which still coloured his features. “I got that covered.”
“Covered?” William repeated sceptically.
“Yup,” Gabe confirmed simply before going on to explain. “In a couple of hours Nate is coming ’round to take over official snuggle duty. Vicky’s coming to handle breakfast before she goes to work, Alex is taking care of food after that, I think Ryland’s going to be in charge of entertainment for the afternoon, and then Vicky’s coming back in time to help Nate with Riley’s bath.”
“So basically Nate’s moving in until I’m feeling better,” William laughed, though his expression became a little more serious when he spoke again. “And everyone else is providing childcare for us while you take care of me?”
Gabe just nodded, smiling at William who finally let himself smile back. It made sense really - Gabe knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t mind so much with several people sharing the work of taking care of their son, and the only people William was going to let do that were the Cobras, who Riley really knew almost as well as he knew Sheila or them. Plus, Riley wasn’t going to be anywhere near unhappy with the situation as long as Nate was around to snuggle. That was just a fact of life.
“How are you so awesome?” William said quietly, pretty much completely serious as he finally relaxed a little more in Gabe’s arms, snuggling closer as Gabe tugged the covers up over them both.
“I could ask the same of you, you know,” Gabe replied in the same tone, shifting a little so he could press his lips to William’s forehead, sighing slightly as he felt how warm it still was. “Especially after what I found out tonight,” he pointed out, lifting his hand from where it was resting at William’s lower back to stroke his fingers down the side of Bill’s face instead as he just studied his boyfriend’s face for a few moments, pressing his hand against each of William's cheeks when he realised the younger male was leaning into the soothing contact of Gabe's comparatively cool skin on his. "I'll go and get a cold washcloth," Gabe said, shifting to get up only to find William then wrap an arm around his shoulders, keeping him right where he was.
"More snuggles first," William said, smiling, and Gabe returned the expression as he settled back down, William curling more into Gabe's chest as he let out a contented sigh, finally right where he was supposed to be.
It was then that it really hit William, how the effort he’d put into contacting Pete Wentz and making sure the message actually got through instead of being forwarded (or quite likely not) through some system, because the Cobras really did deserve their break and not just because they were talented, but also because they were just a group of great people, who really cared, and from what William knew of the label that was something which really mattered to Pete too; that sense of family and dedication and stepping up when other people or a good cause needed you to.
It was then William realised that although he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen next, one thing he knew for sure was that he couldn’t wait to find out.
***A/N: I'm nervous about curious as to what people will think of this...