WIP Amnesty: Sad Mike with a baby (Hockey, Tanner Pearson/Mike Richards, 13,000 words, Teen) 2/2
Part 1
Mike doesn't know who arranges the post-playoff clinching family-friendly celebratory afternoon at the beach, but he hears about it from Jeff and Megan and from Joner and Pears.
"I know it's not the lake," Jeff says when he tells Mike about it, "but the Pacific's pretty great." Jeff's always been more of an ocean guy.
Megan tells him, "A bunch of the other kids will be there too. It won't just be you and Theo."
"You should come," Joner says. "You can bring the little guy to check out the beach."
Pears says, "You don't have to go if you really don't want to, but I know the guys would like to see you and Theo."
Pears and Joner's place is a long walk from the beach, and Mike hasn't really had a reason to pack up everything he would need to take Theo down there for a visit. Now he does, so on a Tuesday afternoon, he packs a bag full of more stuff than he thinks they'll need and they all pile into Pears' car since it's the one with the car seat. Pears drives and insists that Mike gets shotgun. Toff and Joner sit in the back with Theo.
It's not that far to the beach, and a combination of texted instructions and looking for the large group with a handful of umbrellas means it doesn't take that long to find everyone else. There are a bunch of towels and blankets spread out, almost as many coolers, a bunch of kids running around. When they get close enough that the scene settles down into discernible parts, Mike can recognize most of them. Brownie and Nicole's kids are leading the charge, racing around and getting everyone else involved in whatever it is they're doing. He'll probably have a better idea in a few years, when Theo's that age.
Megan greets them brightly. "Hey, you made it!"
Theo makes a wordless vowel noise at the sound of her voice. Mike smiles down at him. "You want to go see Aunt Megan?"
"Hi, Theo." Megan takes him from Mike and kisses his forehead.
Jeff joins them. "Hey." He grins at Theo and hugs Mike. "Glad you came."
Mike shrugs one shoulder. They're here.
"Help me spread this out," Pears says to Toff, and they get the blanket spread out on the sand while Joner sets up their umbrella. The diaper bag and the cooler they brought get stashed in the sand under the umbrella. Pears argues with Toff and Joner until they put on sunscreen - "Because you'll both burn and I'm not listening to you whine about it for a week" - then tosses the bottle at Mike.
Mike doesn't bother protesting, just puts on sunblock and tucks the bottle into a pocket on the outside of the diaper bag. People come by to say hi, and to coo at Theo where Megan is still holding him. Theo seems perfectly happy about it, smiling at people and making noises back.
Pears pushes an open lemonade coconut water into Mike's hand, which gives him something to do with his hands while he makes small talk and watches everyone else. He takes Theo back from Megan after a while, and puts his drink down in the sand.
"Hey, buddy, you want to go see the ocean? Let's go check it out." Mike walks down to the water's edge. It's warm enough where the waves lap at his toes. He can hear their group behind him, most of them either involved in some kind of game with the kids or throwing a Frisbee around. He takes a few steps forward, so the water's up to his ankles.
"Okay," he says to Theo. "Let's see what you think of this." He crouches down so Theo's feet dangle into the water.
It takes a moment for Theo to figure out what he thinks about that, but then he kicks his feet, and that makes him laugh. Mike grins and kisses the top of Theo's head. "That's it, buddy. The water's great, huh?"
Theo laughs again, and keeps kicking his feet in the surf. They're both getting wet, even worse when Mike lets Theo down farther so he can slap at the water with his hands.
When Theo gets squirmy, Mike pulls him out of the water and takes him up the beach to their blanket. He changes Theo into a dry diaper and dry clothes. There isn't anything to be done about Mike's clothes, but the water feels good, and they'll dry.
They brought some of the premixed formula, so Mike puts some of it in a bottle for Theo. Theo likes the other stuff better, but that wasn't really an option on the beach, and Theo's hungry enough to latch onto the bottle without complaint.
Mike puts Theo down on the blanket in the shade after he's done eating. He grabs a bottle of water for himself from the cooler, and after he realizes how thirsty he is by finishing it off in two minutes flat, grabs a second one.
"There are a lot of us around," Lauren says from the blanket next to him. "If you want to go," she gestures at everyone else running around the beach, "we can watch Theo."
Mike looks at the guys throwing a Frisbee around, at Pears in the middle of the kids, and down at Theo. He shrugs his shoulder. "I'm okay here." He rests his hand on Theo's back, and Theo makes a happy noise.
Mike stretches out next to Theo - he has no idea where Joner dug up this blanket, but he appreciates its size - and talks to him for a few minutes before Theo's eyelids start to droop. The blanket is as good a place as any for Theo's nap, so Mike stops talking and lets him sleep.
Mike rolls over onto his back, looking up at the blue of the sky around the edges of their umbrella.
He wakes up when Theo starts to fuss. Mostly wakes up. He's just awake enough to pick up Theo and rest him on his chest.
"Hey, buddy, it's okay. I'm right here." Mike runs his hand over Theo's baby-fine hair and down his back. "Everything's okay."
When Theo calms down to just a little fussiness, Mike sits up and changes his diaper. Theo's still fussing after that, and it doesn't sound like he's hungry, so Mike takes him for a walk down the beach. It's a little quieter away from their group, but Mike walks a ways and turns back without Theo calming down much. He's not full-on crying, just fussing a little.
"What's the matter, bud?" Mike rubs Theo's back. "Are you done with the beach? Yeah, should we go home?" He bounces Theo a little. "Let's go find Pears. He has the keys."
Pears is helping a couple of the kids build a sand castle, but he looks up when Mike and Theo get close.
"Hey," Mike says. "We're ready to go."
Pears dusts off his hands and stands up.
"You don't have to," Mike says. "We can-"
Pears waves him off. "It's cool." He bends down to high-five some of the kids. "I'll see if Toff and Joner are ready to go."
Mike wanders back up to their blanket and packs away as much of their stuff as he can while still holding Theo. He says goodbye to people while he waits for Pears - who brings Toff and Joner with him - to fold up the blanket and the umbrella.
"You didn't have to leave," Mike says as they pile into the car. Theo's still fussing fretfully in his car seat.
"We're your posse," Toff says.
"Posse," Joner scoffs. Their chirping doesn't quite drown out Theo's fussing, and eventually Joner says, "Hey, little guy, what's the matter?"
"I think it was too much beach for him," Mike says. "I was hoping he'd calm down in the car."
"Babies usually love the car," Pears says.
Theo usually does too, but he's still fussy when they get home. Mike takes him upstairs for a cool bath and a change of clothes in case it's sand and drying salt water that has him upset.
Theo's a little calmer when Mike takes him downstairs, still teary-eyed and making the occasional unhappy noise, but not crying.
"Toff and Joner went to get us tacos," Pears tells Mike. "Theo, buddy, what's the matter?" He reaches for Theo, and Mike lets him take him. "You're all right." Pears rests his lips against Theo's forehead for a moment. "He doesn't feel like he has a fever." That was Mike's assessment too, but it's nice to have someone else agree with him. "Sometimes babies just cry." Pears sways a little with Theo. "Is that what you're doing, Theo? Are you just crying?"
Mike makes up a bottle for Theo while Pears talks to him, and Theo's quiet while he drinks it down.
Mike sits down with everyone else when Toff and Joner come back with tacos. Theo fusses more if Mike tries to put him down, and he starts crying again before Mike can eat more than half a taco.
He calms down when Mike gets up and walks with him. Mike walks circles around the living room until Pears comes to get him.
"I'll take him," Pears says. "Go finish your tacos."
"No, it's fine," Mike says. It isn't fine, but Theo crying isn't Pears' problem to deal with.
"Mike," Pears says firmly, like he's not giving Mike a choice, "sit down. Eat some tacos."
Mike doesn't stop Pears when he reaches for Theo. Theo hiccups at the movement, but starts fussing again once he's settled against Pears' chest.
"Tacos," Pears says gently, so Mike leaves Theo with him and goes to finish his tacos.
You can only eat tacos so fast, but Mike does his best not to linger. Theo's crying has died down to an unhappy whimpering when Mike retrieves him from Pears.
"Okay," Mike says to Theo. "Okay, buddy, let's go lie down in the dark and see if you fall asleep." He tilts his head up to look at Pears. "Thanks."
Pears nods, then cups a hand over the back of Theo's head. "Hope you feel better, buddy."
Mike doesn't bother trying to put Theo in his crib when he gets upstairs. He just lies down on his back on the bed and rests Theo on his chest. He rubs Theo's back slowly, trying to get him to calm down. It's cool in the house, and dark in their room, and Mike barely dares to breathe a sigh of relief when Theo falls asleep. Mike listens to Theo's even breath, can feel it under his hand where it rests on Theo's back. He decides not to risk waking him up by moving him and sleeps lightly with Theo on his chest instead.
*
Everyone invites Mike to come to playoff games. He gets texts from half the guys on the team.
Jeff says, "Nicole probably knows a babysitter if you don't want to bring Theo."
"You should come," Joner says. "Always good to have more support in the stands. I bet the little guy'll be cute in those giant ear protectors."
"Do you want to come?" Pears asks. "I'll get you tickets. You can be in a suite if that's better for you and Theo."
Mike deflects the rest of them. Pears is the only one he has to turn down directly, and he feels bad about the disappointed look on Pears' face, but not bad enough to change his mind.
"A bunch of the girls are coming over to watch the game," Megan tells him before the first away game. "You can bring Theo, or we can find you a babysitter."
Mike turns her down too, but it's over the phone and he knows she won't be too upset about it.
Mike doesn't watch any of the games. He says, "Have a good game," to Pears and Joner, and Toff if he's there, before they leave the house, and then he focuses on taking care of Theo, on feeding him and playing with him and putting him to bed, and he doesn't let the thought of hockey pull him away from that.
He checks the box score on his phone after every game, either when it's probably ending if he's still up or in the middle of the night when he gets up to feed Theo. It means he knows when Jeff gets a hat trick, when Quickie gets pulled and Joner keeps enough pucks out for an overtime win, when Pears gets a game-winner. It means he knows when they lose a game five they needed to win and get knocked out.
Mike's up early with Theo anyway, and he knows Joner and Pears must have gotten in late and possibly wasted and will want to sleep in. Once he gets Theo fed and happily batting at the infant play center thing Dustin and Nicole bought him, he sets to making cinnamon rolls. There's orange juice in the fridge, and he starts the coffee when the cinnamon rolls are almost done.
Joner is the first one into the kitchen. Mike just nods at him and hands him a cup of coffee. Joner nods back, adds milk to his coffee, and takes a cinnamon roll from the pan.
Pears comes up about ten minutes later, while Joner's still silent at the kitchen table. Pears looks at Mike and Joner, and bypasses both of them to pick up Theo.
"Hi, buddy," Pears says, and he smiles when Theo makes an answering happy noise at him. "Yeah? Are you having a good morning?"
"You should have one of the cinnamon rolls," Joner says. "They're good."
"I can make some bacon too," Mike says. "If you guys want."
Pears meets his eyes. He looks tired, even when he smiles. "Yeah," he says, "that'd be good."
Mike throws a couple of eggs into a pan too, and listens to Pears talk to Theo and Joner's silence while he makes them all breakfast.
Toff and Bruno show up before they've eaten all the bacon. Toff steals a piece from Joner's plate and gets frosting all over his face when he eats a cinnamon roll. That finally makes Joner crack a smile. Pears has been smiling at Theo off and on, but he visibly relaxes too when Joner and Toff start bickering.
"Locker cleanout tomorrow," Joner says when they're all too full to eat any more of the cinnamon rolls.
"Dude, way to ruin the mood," Toff says.
"We're out of the playoffs," Joner says sharply. "The mood was already ruined."
Toff makes a face at him, and Pears bounces Theo a little, trying to get him to laugh. Mike would take Theo and leave the room for this, but Pears seems to be happy holding Theo.
"I'm staying here for most of the summer," Toff says.
Joner gets up and pours himself another cup of coffee. "Going to Vancouver as soon as I get packed up." He shrugs. "Might as well get some use out of my place up there."
"We're going up to the lake," Mike puts in. "In a few days, I guess." It's been too long since he's been home. He misses the lake, and Arnold. He'll want to see Jeff and Megan before he goes, but now that the season's over and everyone's scattering, there's nothing to keep him here.
Pears frowns, but it drops away when Theo smiles up at him. "Guess I'm going home too then."
Toff reaches across the table to hit his fist lightly against Pears' arm. "Next year, man."
"Next year," Pears says with a sigh. He looks up at Mike and down at Theo. "Next year."
*
Mike missed the lake, and Arnold, and it's good to settle into the house for the summer. He gets regular texts from a bunch of the guys. Jeff and Megan send him pictures of the beach and the dogs. Toff includes him on a group text consisting of nothing but pictures of Bruno. Joner sends the occasional text about the weather in Vancouver. Pears texts the most, comments on training or pictures of his niece. Mike's not doing any training, so he replies back with comments about fishing and pictures of Theo.
He's getting so big, Pears replies to one of those at the beginning of July. I miss seeing him every day.
Mike and Theo aren't really doing anything, so Mike picks Theo up and thumbs open FaceTime.
Pears is smiling a little when he appears on the screen and says, "Hey," and then he smiles bigger and says, "Hi, Theo."
Theo babbles and reaches out toward the phone. Mike grins and holds it a little farther away so it's out of Theo's reach.
"Yeah, you know Pears, huh, buddy?"
"Are you having a good summer?" Pears asks Theo. He keeps up a steady stream of chatter and responses to Theo's babbling for a few minutes, then says to Mike, "Man, he's really growing up a lot. He didn't talk this much last time I saw him."
Mike tips his head down and presses a kiss to Theo's temple. "Yeah, he's pretty chatty these days. Getting ready to start crawling too."
"Yeah? Good job, buddy," Pears says to Theo.
Mike smiles at him, and at the way Theo reaches for the screen again. "You could come visit," he says before he can think too much about it. "See how big he's getting in person."
Pears smiles brightly at him then, and he smiles brightly again when Mike drives over to the airport to pick him up two weeks later. He wraps Mike up in a warm hug and then asks, "Where's Theo?"
Mike chuckles a little. "I knew you only came to see him. He's at home with my dad."
"I didn't come just to see him," Pears says. Then he grins. "But take me home to see him."
Mike laughs. "The car's this way."
When they get home, Pears says hi to Mike's dad, and then goes for Theo where he's lying on a blanket on the floor. "Hi, buddy."
Theo grins and waves his arms up at Pears until Pears picks him up. Then he babbles away at Pears. Pears doesn't seem to mind; he says things like, "Yeah?" and, "Uh-huh," at intervals like Theo's really talking to him.
Pears only stays for three days, and they spend most of that time hanging around the house with Theo. Theo shows off his almost but not quite crawling, and Pears spends a lot of time lying on the floor handing him toys or encouraging him to play with the ones that make noise.
They do leave Theo with Mark one afternoon so Mike can take Pears out on the lake.
"Theo doesn't get to go fishing?" Pears asks.
"No," Mike says, too forceful before he catches on that Pears is teasing. Then he throws Pears an annoyed look and grumbles, "Not until he's old enough to be safe on a boat."
Pears chuckles. "You're a good dad."
Mike focuses on taking them out to where they might catch something, and getting them still on the water.
"Did you mean it?" he asks Pears when they've cast their lines. He glances over at Pears. "About me being a good dad."
"Yeah," Pears says, "of course. You're doing a good job." There's a pause while Mike absorbs that, and then Pears says, "It can't be easy to be a single dad, but you're doing it. Theo's happy."
"Yeah," Mike says. "He's a happy kid." Then, without really meaning to, he tells Pears, "I ran into Lindsey."
Mike's not looking directly at him, but he can still see the way Pears goes still for a second before he says, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Mike says. "The lake is a small place."
"That must have been awkward."
"I had Theo," Mike says, "so yeah."
It was awkward. It was so awkward. It was at a party, and Mike didn't expect to see her, but all the sudden there she was looking at him and Theo. He said, "Hi," and she said, "Hi. Is that?" and Mike said, "Yeah, do you want to hold him?" and she took a step back as she said, "No," and then she said, "I should," and walked away from him.
Mike doesn't tell Pears any of that, and Pears doesn't ask him any awkward questions about it, not then and not for the rest of the time he's there.
Mike's dad comes over again to stay with Theo while Mike drives Pears to the airport. Pears spends fifteen minutes before they leave holding Theo, smiling at him and talking to him and leaving a dozen kisses on his tiny baby cheeks. Mike's about thirty seconds from physically taking Theo away from him when he gives Theo up himself.
Mike doesn't get quite the same treatment, but Pears hugs him for what has to be at least a minute before he lets go and says, "Send me lots of pictures, okay?" He tweaks the brim of Mike's hat. "Of you and Theo."
"Yeah, sure," Mike says. He pushes at Pears' shoulder. "Go. You have a plane to get on."
Pears smiles at him. "Pictures," he calls over his shoulder.
Mike laughs, and then takes a selfie in the car to send to Pears.
*
Mike sends Pears pictures when he thinks about it, mostly of Theo, but sometimes of himself and Theo, or of the lake, for the rest of the summer. His family takes turns babysitting so he can go fishing, and he spends a lot of time on the deck with Theo, watching him rock back and forth on his hands and knees and eventually start crawling. They spend less time outside once it starts to cool down, more time in the house where Theo crawls around and Arnold, still not quite sure what he thinks about having a crawling baby in the house, moves when Theo comes his way.
Pears calls at the end of September. They mostly text, but he's called enough that Mike says, "You're out of luck. Theo's napping," when he answers.
Pears laughs. "Maybe I didn't call to talk to him." Then he says, "Shit, did I wake you up?"
"No," Mike says. "I'm used to it now, not sleeping every time he does. Plus he was at my parents' yesterday," he admits, "so I got a long nap then."
"Good," Pears says. "I did actually call to talk to you."
"Yeah?" Mike tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder so he can move a load of Theo's clothes from the washing machine to the dryer.
"Yeah. I was wondering," Pears says slowly, "if you and Theo are coming down here this season. Your room's still set up for you. I talked to Joner, and you can bring Arnold with you too."
Mike doesn't know what to say for a long minute, standing still with the phone pressed to his shoulder and his hands full of tiny shirts and onesies.
"You can think about it," Pears says into the silence, and he sounds careful. "But if you want to, we'd like to have you here. You and Theo and Arnold."
Mike finds his voice enough to say, "I'll think about it," and Pears doesn't stay on the phone much longer.
Mike thinks about it while he finishes switching the laundry over, when he gets Theo up from his nap, when he gets them both fed. It's getting colder at the lake. LA will be warm. He can take Theo and Arnold down to the beach, see how Bruno and Mack and Miley get along with a crawling baby. He won't be alone in the house with Theo.
Mike doesn't think to check the Kings' schedule until after he's already bought plane tickets for a day they're in Vancouver. He forwards the itinerary to Pears so he knows they're coming and arranges for Megan to pick them up at the airport.
Megan greets them with a big smile, hugs for Mike, kisses for Theo, and pets for Arnold. "I'm glad you're here," she says. "We need to get to see how he's growing up." She and Jeff visited over the summer, but Mike knows it's not the same as seeing Theo all the time.
Mike still has his keys, and he lets them all into the house. Megan insists on helping him carry his bags up to his room while Arnold explores and Theo wails at the indignity of being left in his car seat until Mike can supervise his crawling around.
There are baby gates at the top and bottom of both sets of stairs and outlet covers on every outlet Mike sees while he moves back into the house.
Mike still has a set of keys to Pears' car, so after he says goodbye to Megan, he gets Theo's car seat installed in the back and goes grocery shopping.
He decides, while he's trying to both make himself something to eat and keep an eye on Theo, that he's definitely going to need a playpen. He didn't bring much with him again this year, mostly clothes and Theo's current favorite toys and blanket, since he knew what was already here, but the summer is long enough to have dramatically changed what he needs for Theo.
Mike and Theo go to bed early, worn out from a day of traveling and moving, and they both sleep through Pears and Joner getting home.
They're up before Pears and Joner too, and Theo's already crawling all over the living room when Pears comes up the stairs.
"Hey," Pears says with a smile that spreads across his whole face. He hugs Mike first, and holds on long enough for Theo to crawl almost over to them.
Theo stops a few steps away from them and thumps down to sit on the floor.
Pears grins down at him. "Hey, buddy. You're getting around on your own, huh?" Theo waves his arms and babbles at Pears, who crouches down to pick him up. "Oh, you're getting big." Pears grins at Mike over Theo's head. "What are you feeding this kid?"
"Whatever he'll eat," Mike says. "He's eating some solid food."
"Hey, you're getting to be a real person now," Pears says to Theo.
Pears is still chattering away at Theo when Joner comes up the stairs.
"Hey, you're back." Joner greets Mike with a quick hug and smiles at Theo. "The little guy isn't quite so little anymore."
"No," Mike says. "And he's starting to get into everything. You baby-proofed the house."'
"Just the basics," Pears says. He and Joner are both watching Mike more carefully than the conversation seems to warrant.
"Kids should be adventurous," Joner says, "but we don't want to accidentally kill the little guy."
Mike chuckles a little, and looks at Pears. "He needs a playpen. Can you watch him while I go get one?"
"Yeah, of course." Pears bounces Theo in his arms. "We're going to hang out. Doesn't that sound fun?"
It doesn't take that long to buy a playpen, and Mike comes back to find Pears and Theo on the floor and Joner stretched out on the couch, with one of the chairs moved to make a clear space in the room.
Joner gets up to help Mike lug the playpen in and set it up in the clear space where there used to be a chair. "This going to work?"
Mike eyes the sightlines. They'll be able to see the playpen from the dining room table too, if not the kitchen itself. "Yeah, should be good."
"What do you think?" Pears asks Theo. "Do you like where it is?"
Theo babbles meaninglessly at him.
"You want to go try it out?" Pears asks.
Mike shakes his head. "Arnold probably needs to go out. I'll take Theo too."
Pears picks Theo up. "I'll go with you."
Joner laughs. "The little guy had to practically throw himself to the floor to get Pears to put him down earlier."
Pears shrugs, unconcerned. "I missed him." He reaches out and rubs his knuckles against Mike's shoulder, a quick, warm touch. "I missed both of you."
Mike ducks his head and smiles a little while he calls for Arnold. "Come on," he says. "You can help me figure out the best walk for him."
*
Pears' whole family comes to visit for a few days over Thanksgiving. The real one, not the one they've already been invited over to the Quicks' for. Mike makes a pie, and Pears' mom and sister take over the kitchen to do the rest of the cooking.
Pears takes great joy in introducing his niece to Theo. He puts her down on the floor and sits down with her. "Tenley, this is Theo. Theo, this is Tenley. Can you say hi?"
Both kids babble a little at him, and show no signs of any interest in each other.
Ali laughs. "Give it up, Tanner. Kids that young don't care about other kids."
Pears makes a face up at her, and has to content himself with playing with both kids. Mike joins him, and he must be an acceptable adult, because Tenley crawls her way over to him.
"Hi," Mike says. He hands her one of the big, soft blocks, which she immediately tries to put in her mouth. Mike chuckles, because it's the same thing Theo does with everything.
Mike makes sure to bring a few chewable toys for them when he and Theo go to the beach with Pears' family while the Kings are in San Jose overnight, and he suggests that they not stay out too long based on his previous experience spending hours at the beach with Theo.
He's comfortable enough with Pears' family after spending an afternoon on the beach with them that he offers to watch Tenley while they go to Pears' game.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Ali asks.
"No," Mike says evenly, "but I'll watch her if you want to leave her here for the evening."
"You and Theo should come!"
"Mike doesn't go to games," Pears says.
"Why not?"
Mike shrugs one shoulder and looks down.
"But-"
"Ali," Pears says sharply, "drop it."
Mike isn't looking so he doesn't know what kind of wordless conversation they have around him, but at the end of it, Ali says, "All right, it'll be nice to have a night out with just the grownups. Thank you," and Mike stays home with Theo and Tenley while everyone else goes to the game.
He texts Ali a couple of times, a picture of Tenley and Theo lying on the floor staring at each other and a picture of Tenley asleep in the playpen, so she won't worry, and he stays up until they all get home.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Ali asks softly. They're all being quiet so they don't wake Tenley up.
"Good," Mike says. "She ate earlier, and fell asleep pretty easy."
Ali smiles at him. "Well, thank you for watching her." She hugs him, and the rest of Pears' family hugs him, and then, since they're leaving in the morning, they all hug Pears and Joner too.
"It was so nice to spend time with you and Theo," Pears' mom says to Mike. "I know Tanner likes having you around."
Mike doesn't really know how to answer that, so he says, "Thank you for feeding all of us." It really had been all of them: Pears and his family, Mike, Joner, Toff, and Jeff and Megan all gathered around their table for Thanksgiving dinner. When they went around the table to say what they were thankful for, Mike said Theo and Pears said having them all together.
Pears' mom hugs him again. "Of course," she says, and then she hugs Pears again and says something to him that Mike doesn't hear before Ali carefully lifts Tenley out of the playpen and Pears' family leaves.
They weren't being very loud, but the house is suddenly quiet once they're gone.
Pears looks from Mike to Joner. "Thanks for being cool about them being here. I know it made things a little loud around here."
"We live with an infant and a dog," Joner says. "Two when Toff's here. It's always a little loud around here." He grins at both of them and heads toward his room.
Pears looks at Mike like he's waiting for something. Mike just shrugs. It was loud. It was a lot of people around for several days. But it's Pears and Joner's house, and they can have whoever they want here.
"They're your family," he tells Pears.
"But you're exhausted," Pears says, and he's not wrong. He brings the baby monitor over to Mike and rubs his shoulder, enough to be a comfort, not so much that it's an imposition. "Go to bed."
Mike manages to sort of smile at him before he heads up the stairs.
*
Mike decides it's probably a good idea to get out of the house more, to spend more time around people. He was pretty isolated at the lake, even with his family around, and while he sees Pears, Joner, and Toff all the time, and Jeff and Megan frequently, he doesn't spend much time around other people. He knows that it's probably not healthy for him, and that means it's probably not healthy for Theo either.
He straps Theo into his stroller, puts Arnold on his leash, and takes long walks, learning Hermosa Beach at the ground level and stopping into coffee shops to sit around strangers for a while. Hockey has never been that big around here, so he doesn't get recognized much, and it's LA, so people are mostly cool when they do recognize him.
There are probably pictures of him with Theo showing up on the internet, but he doesn't go looking. As long as people are leaving them alone, he isn't overly worried about it.
Pears comes with him sometimes, on off days, and Toff and Joner too occasionally. They all get used to the best walks, the bakery they have to either go into or avoid because Toff won't be able to resist going into, the coffee shop whose staff never seems to mind Arnold tied up outside or Theo smashing tiny bits of banana into their tables. Mike gets more used to talking to people again, a thing he used to do all the time when he played hockey.
The Panthers come to LA at the beginning of November, and Mitchie comes over the afternoon before the game to meet Theo. Theo is happy to have another person to chatter at and play with him, and Mitchie keeps up a steady stream of chatter about fishing in Florida and Megan's newest recipes and living with a kid who isn't a rookie anymore.
"Megan and I couldn't have kids, but we've got Aaron." Mitchie grins down at Theo drooling all over a stuffed elephant. "Maybe we got the better deal."
Mike chuckles. "Less work, probably." He wouldn't trade Theo for anything, but he appreciates the joke.
"Could be worse," Pears puts in. "He's a pretty happy kid."
"He didn't get that from me," Mike says.
Mitchie looks at him seriously for a long second. "You were happy here for a while."
Mike shrugs one shoulder and is saved from having to answer that by Theo starting to fuss.
"Nap time, huh, bud?" Pears says. He picks Theo up. "I'll put him down."
Theo calmed down once Pears picked him up, so Mike nods at him and lets him take Theo upstairs.
"You were happy," Mitchie says, and it was probably too much to hope he would let it go.
Mike shrugs. "That was a long time ago."
Mitchie says, "Hmm," but changes the subject to talk about fishing again.
Pears holds up the baby monitor when he comes back through and disappears down the stairs, leaving Mike and Mitchie to talk alone until Mitchie's car arrives to take him back to his hotel.
"You seem pretty good," Mitchie says before he leaves. "And you've got help."
Mike shrugs and tips his head to the side. "Yeah, the guys have been good."
Mitchie hugs him tightly. "You'll be okay. Send me pictures of the kid."
Mike hugs him back and promises to include Mitchie when he's sending pictures of Theo around.
After Mitchie is gone, Mike heads down the stairs and slips into Pears' room to retrieve the baby monitor. Pears is napping; there's no reason for him to be woken up by Theo when he doesn't have to be.
*
They all go to the Quicks' for American Thanksgiving. All except the dogs, who have been specifically not invited. There's no point in taking food to Jackie's, so they bring a couple of bottles of wine.
There are people everywhere, but mostly people Mike knows. Theo gets passed around from person to person, and Mike ends up in easy conversations all day, and finds when they leave that he had fun.
Four days later, after the Kings have been to Phoenix and come back again, Pears sits down next to Mike on the couch while Theo's napping. "The family skate is coming up."
Mike nods, because, okay, it's almost December, that makes sense.
Pears turns to face him. "Do you want to come? It seemed like you and Theo had fun at Quickie's Thanksgiving."
Mike hasn't been on the ice in a year and a half, but that's not his primary concern. "I don't want to be on camera. Me or Theo."
"Hmm," Pears says. "I'll see if we can do something about that."
Three days later, Pears tells him, "I talked to Kate, and she said they can keep you out of the footage of the family skate if you want to come, and the guys all know not to post pictures of Theo."
Mike's trying to get out of the house more, and if Pears went to all the trouble of making sure he and Theo won't be on camera, he must really want them to come.
Mike slides down onto the floor next to Theo. "What do you think, buddy? Want to go skating with Pears?"
At the sound of Pears' name, Theo looks up toward Pears and babbles something that sounds like a sentence but isn't quite.
Pears grins down at him and scoops him up off the floor. "Is that a yes?"
Theo babbles at him, happy for the attention.
Mike smiles up at Theo and Pears. "Yeah, we'll go," he says, and he texts Matt to ask him to ship a pair of Mike's skates down. Mark would be low-key concerned, and Mom would ask too many questions. Matt will just ship the skates.
Mike sends the other guys on to the family skate ahead of him, and he and Theo show up late. Easier, he thinks, to stay somewhat out of the way of the first flush of both everyone arriving and the cameras getting their opening footage. He texts Pears when they get there, and Pears meets them in the locker room.
Pears takes Theo from Mike. "Hey buddy." He kisses Theo's cheek. "Let's go find Kate and make sure she knows who you are." He raises his eyebrows at Mike and waits for Mike's nod before he actually follows through on that.
Putting on skates is only strange for the first few seconds, and then Mike's body takes over, muscle memory making it easy as anything to pull the laces tight just the way he likes them. He's most of the way through it when Pears comes back with a woman and a pair of cameramen pointing their cameras at the floor.
"This is Mike," Pears says. "And Theo."
"Kate," Kate says, reaching out to shake Mike's hand. "We're going to do our best to keep you out of our footage, and we'll edit or blur you out of anything we release. It's going to be easier if you can stay out of the shot when we're doing interviews."
Mike nods. "We can do that."
Kate nods back, and she and the cameramen return to the rest of the party. Mike finishes tying his skates and looks up at Pears.
"Ready for this?" Pears asks.
Mike shrugs his shoulders; not much of a choice now anyway. Pears doesn't offer to hand Theo back to him, and Mike doesn't ask. His muscle memory took care of getting his skates tied, but it's still been a year and a half since he's done this. He's probably not going to fall, but better not to chance it with Theo.
Pears follows behind him to the edge of the ice, and if he notices the momentary pause before Mike steps out onto it, he doesn't say anything about it.
Skating is like tying his skates; strange and unsure for a moment before his body remembers that it knows how to do this. By the time he's taken a few strides, Mike feels comfortable, steady. Pears paces him as he makes an easy loop around the rink.
Theo reaches out for Mike, and they make the switch with no hesitation. "Pretty neat, huh, buddy?" Mike makes sure he has a secure grip on Theo. "Want to go a little faster?"
Pears keeps pace with him as he speeds up and Theo babbles about it. When they're halfway around the rink again, Mike cuts into the middle to where Jeff and Megan are skating in slow circles.
"Hi," Megan says brightly. She catches Mike in a light hug and kisses Theo's cheek.
Jeff hugs him too, and says, "Hi, kid," to Theo.
"Look," Mike says to Theo. "Uncle Jeff and Aunt Megan are skating too."
Theo babbles at him, and the smile on his face is making it easier for Mike to get used to being on the ice with Theo in his arms instead of a hockey stick in his hands.
"Mike, you came," Kopi says, skating up to them, and Mike smiles at him and at Ines behind him with Neža.
"We did," Mike says.
"Talked him into it," Pears says.
Kopi hugs Mike. "Good to see you here. And you," he adds to Theo.
Theo babbles a little, and then leans away from Mike, less toward Kopi and more toward the ground. Mike does his best to hang onto Theo, but he keeps trying to twist away.
"Where are you going?" Mike asks him.
Pears takes Theo from him, and the switch is enough to distract Theo from trying to get down for a moment. "You're a little too small for your own skates," Pears says to Theo. "Let's get you walking first."
Mike knows it's not that long until Theo starts walking, and he looked it up so he knows that he can put Theo on skates once that happens, but he didn't know Pears knew that. He didn't know Pears was thinking ahead like that. Mike's quiet for a minute while their group starts an easy skate around the rink, and then joins in the light conversation. He and Pears pass Theo back and forth, using that as enough of a distraction to keep Theo from trying to get down to the ice. Toff and Joner swing by, some of the other guys skating up to say hi and chat for a moment.
Brownie and Nicole have their kids and anyone else who's big enough and wants to play involved in a scrimmage at one end of the rink, and Toff and Joner leave their group to join in.
"You can go play," Mike says when he takes Theo from Pears.
Pears looks over at the scrimmage and shakes his head. "No, I'm good here."
They skate for a little longer, and then there's food, and pictures with Santa. Theo sits with Santa himself for a photo, and then Joner insists they get a couple of group photos, Mike and Theo with Pears, with Jeff and Megan, with Pears, Toff, and Joner, with all of them.
"That's a good one," Toff says when they look at the photos. It's the one of Mike, Theo, and Pears, Mike and Pears on either side of Santa with Pears holding Theo. It is a good one, and Mike makes sure it's one of the ones he gets a copy of from the photographer's assistant.
Theo chooses to restart his struggle to get to the floor while Mike's getting the photos.
"Okay," Pears says as he easily takes Theo from Mike. "Let's go find a place for you to crawl around."
"Don't you want?" Mike asks, gesturing at the photos on the photographers' assistant's screen.
"I'll get them from you later," Pears says. "This guy's getting pretty squirrely, aren't you?" He doesn't wait for an answer from Theo, just smiles at Mike and wanders off into the party.
Mike sets the picture of Theo on Santa's lap as his lock screen, and watches later after he gives Pears the pictures he wants as Pears sets the one of the three of them as his phone background.
*
Mike makes plans to go up to the lake for a week around Christmas. He's not tied to the NHL schedule, and his parents have both said that they miss seeing their grandson.
Mike's caught off guard when Toff says, "Are we doing presents before you go or after you get back?"
"Before," Joner says. "The little guy's birthday is coming up. We can space things out."
That was as far as I got with this bit. Here's the loose outline of what else happens in the story: they do gifts before Mike leaves. Mike FaceTimes Pears on Christmas so he can see Theo (who is, of course, wearing the baby's first Christmas onesie Pears got him). They have a small party for Theo's birthday - Mike, Pears, Joner, Toff, Jeff and Megan - and Mike bakes cupcakes for it.
Mike finds that the Grammys trip feels even longer from the other side, and he, Theo, Arnold, and Bruno spend the night at the Carters' with Megan because Mike is lonely, and of course Mike and Pears FaceTime because they miss each other.
At some point, Jeff starts hinting to Mike that he could date/hook up with dudes if that's something he wants to try out now, but Mike is still not ready to date again.
Near the end of the season, over dinner, Joner says that they need to move because the house isn't large enough for four men, two dogs, and a toddler. Mike is very surprised when he then says, "We need a bigger place," and means that all of them should move somewhere together. Toff suggests closer to the beach and Pears says somewhere with a backyard, even a small one, for Theo to run around in.
Summer happens. Probably Pears comes to the lake again.
They move into the new house at the end of the summer. Mike tweets a picture - the first time he's tweeted anything in a very long time - of all of them at the dinner table, Theo blurry because he moved while they were taking it, and captions it with "New house" and the thumbs-up emoji. Jeff, Megan, Pears, Toff, and Joner all retweet it within ten minutes.
A while after that, Pears tells Mike, "I think Carts has been hinting that I should take you to a gay bar," and talks Mike into it. Mike basically refuses to talk to anyone once they're there, and tells Pears he doesn't think there's any point. "Lindsey was my chance to be with someone." They argue about it, and later Pears tells Mike, "That wasn't your only shot at being happy."
Pears makes a point of making sure Mike enjoys his life. They leave Theo home with Toff and Joner sometimes and go out for dinner or to the movies. Sometimes they take Theo to the park or walk down to the beach with them.
And then there's kissing and also Pears using his words to ask Mike out on an actual date. Toff and Joner go with them when they take Theo skating for the first time. Near the end of the season, Mike puts Theo in a "Pearson 70" shirt, borrows one of Pears' shirts for himself, and goes to a game.
And then everyone lives happily ever after.
Mike doesn't know who arranges the post-playoff clinching family-friendly celebratory afternoon at the beach, but he hears about it from Jeff and Megan and from Joner and Pears.
"I know it's not the lake," Jeff says when he tells Mike about it, "but the Pacific's pretty great." Jeff's always been more of an ocean guy.
Megan tells him, "A bunch of the other kids will be there too. It won't just be you and Theo."
"You should come," Joner says. "You can bring the little guy to check out the beach."
Pears says, "You don't have to go if you really don't want to, but I know the guys would like to see you and Theo."
Pears and Joner's place is a long walk from the beach, and Mike hasn't really had a reason to pack up everything he would need to take Theo down there for a visit. Now he does, so on a Tuesday afternoon, he packs a bag full of more stuff than he thinks they'll need and they all pile into Pears' car since it's the one with the car seat. Pears drives and insists that Mike gets shotgun. Toff and Joner sit in the back with Theo.
It's not that far to the beach, and a combination of texted instructions and looking for the large group with a handful of umbrellas means it doesn't take that long to find everyone else. There are a bunch of towels and blankets spread out, almost as many coolers, a bunch of kids running around. When they get close enough that the scene settles down into discernible parts, Mike can recognize most of them. Brownie and Nicole's kids are leading the charge, racing around and getting everyone else involved in whatever it is they're doing. He'll probably have a better idea in a few years, when Theo's that age.
Megan greets them brightly. "Hey, you made it!"
Theo makes a wordless vowel noise at the sound of her voice. Mike smiles down at him. "You want to go see Aunt Megan?"
"Hi, Theo." Megan takes him from Mike and kisses his forehead.
Jeff joins them. "Hey." He grins at Theo and hugs Mike. "Glad you came."
Mike shrugs one shoulder. They're here.
"Help me spread this out," Pears says to Toff, and they get the blanket spread out on the sand while Joner sets up their umbrella. The diaper bag and the cooler they brought get stashed in the sand under the umbrella. Pears argues with Toff and Joner until they put on sunscreen - "Because you'll both burn and I'm not listening to you whine about it for a week" - then tosses the bottle at Mike.
Mike doesn't bother protesting, just puts on sunblock and tucks the bottle into a pocket on the outside of the diaper bag. People come by to say hi, and to coo at Theo where Megan is still holding him. Theo seems perfectly happy about it, smiling at people and making noises back.
Pears pushes an open lemonade coconut water into Mike's hand, which gives him something to do with his hands while he makes small talk and watches everyone else. He takes Theo back from Megan after a while, and puts his drink down in the sand.
"Hey, buddy, you want to go see the ocean? Let's go check it out." Mike walks down to the water's edge. It's warm enough where the waves lap at his toes. He can hear their group behind him, most of them either involved in some kind of game with the kids or throwing a Frisbee around. He takes a few steps forward, so the water's up to his ankles.
"Okay," he says to Theo. "Let's see what you think of this." He crouches down so Theo's feet dangle into the water.
It takes a moment for Theo to figure out what he thinks about that, but then he kicks his feet, and that makes him laugh. Mike grins and kisses the top of Theo's head. "That's it, buddy. The water's great, huh?"
Theo laughs again, and keeps kicking his feet in the surf. They're both getting wet, even worse when Mike lets Theo down farther so he can slap at the water with his hands.
When Theo gets squirmy, Mike pulls him out of the water and takes him up the beach to their blanket. He changes Theo into a dry diaper and dry clothes. There isn't anything to be done about Mike's clothes, but the water feels good, and they'll dry.
They brought some of the premixed formula, so Mike puts some of it in a bottle for Theo. Theo likes the other stuff better, but that wasn't really an option on the beach, and Theo's hungry enough to latch onto the bottle without complaint.
Mike puts Theo down on the blanket in the shade after he's done eating. He grabs a bottle of water for himself from the cooler, and after he realizes how thirsty he is by finishing it off in two minutes flat, grabs a second one.
"There are a lot of us around," Lauren says from the blanket next to him. "If you want to go," she gestures at everyone else running around the beach, "we can watch Theo."
Mike looks at the guys throwing a Frisbee around, at Pears in the middle of the kids, and down at Theo. He shrugs his shoulder. "I'm okay here." He rests his hand on Theo's back, and Theo makes a happy noise.
Mike stretches out next to Theo - he has no idea where Joner dug up this blanket, but he appreciates its size - and talks to him for a few minutes before Theo's eyelids start to droop. The blanket is as good a place as any for Theo's nap, so Mike stops talking and lets him sleep.
Mike rolls over onto his back, looking up at the blue of the sky around the edges of their umbrella.
He wakes up when Theo starts to fuss. Mostly wakes up. He's just awake enough to pick up Theo and rest him on his chest.
"Hey, buddy, it's okay. I'm right here." Mike runs his hand over Theo's baby-fine hair and down his back. "Everything's okay."
When Theo calms down to just a little fussiness, Mike sits up and changes his diaper. Theo's still fussing after that, and it doesn't sound like he's hungry, so Mike takes him for a walk down the beach. It's a little quieter away from their group, but Mike walks a ways and turns back without Theo calming down much. He's not full-on crying, just fussing a little.
"What's the matter, bud?" Mike rubs Theo's back. "Are you done with the beach? Yeah, should we go home?" He bounces Theo a little. "Let's go find Pears. He has the keys."
Pears is helping a couple of the kids build a sand castle, but he looks up when Mike and Theo get close.
"Hey," Mike says. "We're ready to go."
Pears dusts off his hands and stands up.
"You don't have to," Mike says. "We can-"
Pears waves him off. "It's cool." He bends down to high-five some of the kids. "I'll see if Toff and Joner are ready to go."
Mike wanders back up to their blanket and packs away as much of their stuff as he can while still holding Theo. He says goodbye to people while he waits for Pears - who brings Toff and Joner with him - to fold up the blanket and the umbrella.
"You didn't have to leave," Mike says as they pile into the car. Theo's still fussing fretfully in his car seat.
"We're your posse," Toff says.
"Posse," Joner scoffs. Their chirping doesn't quite drown out Theo's fussing, and eventually Joner says, "Hey, little guy, what's the matter?"
"I think it was too much beach for him," Mike says. "I was hoping he'd calm down in the car."
"Babies usually love the car," Pears says.
Theo usually does too, but he's still fussy when they get home. Mike takes him upstairs for a cool bath and a change of clothes in case it's sand and drying salt water that has him upset.
Theo's a little calmer when Mike takes him downstairs, still teary-eyed and making the occasional unhappy noise, but not crying.
"Toff and Joner went to get us tacos," Pears tells Mike. "Theo, buddy, what's the matter?" He reaches for Theo, and Mike lets him take him. "You're all right." Pears rests his lips against Theo's forehead for a moment. "He doesn't feel like he has a fever." That was Mike's assessment too, but it's nice to have someone else agree with him. "Sometimes babies just cry." Pears sways a little with Theo. "Is that what you're doing, Theo? Are you just crying?"
Mike makes up a bottle for Theo while Pears talks to him, and Theo's quiet while he drinks it down.
Mike sits down with everyone else when Toff and Joner come back with tacos. Theo fusses more if Mike tries to put him down, and he starts crying again before Mike can eat more than half a taco.
He calms down when Mike gets up and walks with him. Mike walks circles around the living room until Pears comes to get him.
"I'll take him," Pears says. "Go finish your tacos."
"No, it's fine," Mike says. It isn't fine, but Theo crying isn't Pears' problem to deal with.
"Mike," Pears says firmly, like he's not giving Mike a choice, "sit down. Eat some tacos."
Mike doesn't stop Pears when he reaches for Theo. Theo hiccups at the movement, but starts fussing again once he's settled against Pears' chest.
"Tacos," Pears says gently, so Mike leaves Theo with him and goes to finish his tacos.
You can only eat tacos so fast, but Mike does his best not to linger. Theo's crying has died down to an unhappy whimpering when Mike retrieves him from Pears.
"Okay," Mike says to Theo. "Okay, buddy, let's go lie down in the dark and see if you fall asleep." He tilts his head up to look at Pears. "Thanks."
Pears nods, then cups a hand over the back of Theo's head. "Hope you feel better, buddy."
Mike doesn't bother trying to put Theo in his crib when he gets upstairs. He just lies down on his back on the bed and rests Theo on his chest. He rubs Theo's back slowly, trying to get him to calm down. It's cool in the house, and dark in their room, and Mike barely dares to breathe a sigh of relief when Theo falls asleep. Mike listens to Theo's even breath, can feel it under his hand where it rests on Theo's back. He decides not to risk waking him up by moving him and sleeps lightly with Theo on his chest instead.
*
Everyone invites Mike to come to playoff games. He gets texts from half the guys on the team.
Jeff says, "Nicole probably knows a babysitter if you don't want to bring Theo."
"You should come," Joner says. "Always good to have more support in the stands. I bet the little guy'll be cute in those giant ear protectors."
"Do you want to come?" Pears asks. "I'll get you tickets. You can be in a suite if that's better for you and Theo."
Mike deflects the rest of them. Pears is the only one he has to turn down directly, and he feels bad about the disappointed look on Pears' face, but not bad enough to change his mind.
"A bunch of the girls are coming over to watch the game," Megan tells him before the first away game. "You can bring Theo, or we can find you a babysitter."
Mike turns her down too, but it's over the phone and he knows she won't be too upset about it.
Mike doesn't watch any of the games. He says, "Have a good game," to Pears and Joner, and Toff if he's there, before they leave the house, and then he focuses on taking care of Theo, on feeding him and playing with him and putting him to bed, and he doesn't let the thought of hockey pull him away from that.
He checks the box score on his phone after every game, either when it's probably ending if he's still up or in the middle of the night when he gets up to feed Theo. It means he knows when Jeff gets a hat trick, when Quickie gets pulled and Joner keeps enough pucks out for an overtime win, when Pears gets a game-winner. It means he knows when they lose a game five they needed to win and get knocked out.
Mike's up early with Theo anyway, and he knows Joner and Pears must have gotten in late and possibly wasted and will want to sleep in. Once he gets Theo fed and happily batting at the infant play center thing Dustin and Nicole bought him, he sets to making cinnamon rolls. There's orange juice in the fridge, and he starts the coffee when the cinnamon rolls are almost done.
Joner is the first one into the kitchen. Mike just nods at him and hands him a cup of coffee. Joner nods back, adds milk to his coffee, and takes a cinnamon roll from the pan.
Pears comes up about ten minutes later, while Joner's still silent at the kitchen table. Pears looks at Mike and Joner, and bypasses both of them to pick up Theo.
"Hi, buddy," Pears says, and he smiles when Theo makes an answering happy noise at him. "Yeah? Are you having a good morning?"
"You should have one of the cinnamon rolls," Joner says. "They're good."
"I can make some bacon too," Mike says. "If you guys want."
Pears meets his eyes. He looks tired, even when he smiles. "Yeah," he says, "that'd be good."
Mike throws a couple of eggs into a pan too, and listens to Pears talk to Theo and Joner's silence while he makes them all breakfast.
Toff and Bruno show up before they've eaten all the bacon. Toff steals a piece from Joner's plate and gets frosting all over his face when he eats a cinnamon roll. That finally makes Joner crack a smile. Pears has been smiling at Theo off and on, but he visibly relaxes too when Joner and Toff start bickering.
"Locker cleanout tomorrow," Joner says when they're all too full to eat any more of the cinnamon rolls.
"Dude, way to ruin the mood," Toff says.
"We're out of the playoffs," Joner says sharply. "The mood was already ruined."
Toff makes a face at him, and Pears bounces Theo a little, trying to get him to laugh. Mike would take Theo and leave the room for this, but Pears seems to be happy holding Theo.
"I'm staying here for most of the summer," Toff says.
Joner gets up and pours himself another cup of coffee. "Going to Vancouver as soon as I get packed up." He shrugs. "Might as well get some use out of my place up there."
"We're going up to the lake," Mike puts in. "In a few days, I guess." It's been too long since he's been home. He misses the lake, and Arnold. He'll want to see Jeff and Megan before he goes, but now that the season's over and everyone's scattering, there's nothing to keep him here.
Pears frowns, but it drops away when Theo smiles up at him. "Guess I'm going home too then."
Toff reaches across the table to hit his fist lightly against Pears' arm. "Next year, man."
"Next year," Pears says with a sigh. He looks up at Mike and down at Theo. "Next year."
*
Mike missed the lake, and Arnold, and it's good to settle into the house for the summer. He gets regular texts from a bunch of the guys. Jeff and Megan send him pictures of the beach and the dogs. Toff includes him on a group text consisting of nothing but pictures of Bruno. Joner sends the occasional text about the weather in Vancouver. Pears texts the most, comments on training or pictures of his niece. Mike's not doing any training, so he replies back with comments about fishing and pictures of Theo.
He's getting so big, Pears replies to one of those at the beginning of July. I miss seeing him every day.
Mike and Theo aren't really doing anything, so Mike picks Theo up and thumbs open FaceTime.
Pears is smiling a little when he appears on the screen and says, "Hey," and then he smiles bigger and says, "Hi, Theo."
Theo babbles and reaches out toward the phone. Mike grins and holds it a little farther away so it's out of Theo's reach.
"Yeah, you know Pears, huh, buddy?"
"Are you having a good summer?" Pears asks Theo. He keeps up a steady stream of chatter and responses to Theo's babbling for a few minutes, then says to Mike, "Man, he's really growing up a lot. He didn't talk this much last time I saw him."
Mike tips his head down and presses a kiss to Theo's temple. "Yeah, he's pretty chatty these days. Getting ready to start crawling too."
"Yeah? Good job, buddy," Pears says to Theo.
Mike smiles at him, and at the way Theo reaches for the screen again. "You could come visit," he says before he can think too much about it. "See how big he's getting in person."
Pears smiles brightly at him then, and he smiles brightly again when Mike drives over to the airport to pick him up two weeks later. He wraps Mike up in a warm hug and then asks, "Where's Theo?"
Mike chuckles a little. "I knew you only came to see him. He's at home with my dad."
"I didn't come just to see him," Pears says. Then he grins. "But take me home to see him."
Mike laughs. "The car's this way."
When they get home, Pears says hi to Mike's dad, and then goes for Theo where he's lying on a blanket on the floor. "Hi, buddy."
Theo grins and waves his arms up at Pears until Pears picks him up. Then he babbles away at Pears. Pears doesn't seem to mind; he says things like, "Yeah?" and, "Uh-huh," at intervals like Theo's really talking to him.
Pears only stays for three days, and they spend most of that time hanging around the house with Theo. Theo shows off his almost but not quite crawling, and Pears spends a lot of time lying on the floor handing him toys or encouraging him to play with the ones that make noise.
They do leave Theo with Mark one afternoon so Mike can take Pears out on the lake.
"Theo doesn't get to go fishing?" Pears asks.
"No," Mike says, too forceful before he catches on that Pears is teasing. Then he throws Pears an annoyed look and grumbles, "Not until he's old enough to be safe on a boat."
Pears chuckles. "You're a good dad."
Mike focuses on taking them out to where they might catch something, and getting them still on the water.
"Did you mean it?" he asks Pears when they've cast their lines. He glances over at Pears. "About me being a good dad."
"Yeah," Pears says, "of course. You're doing a good job." There's a pause while Mike absorbs that, and then Pears says, "It can't be easy to be a single dad, but you're doing it. Theo's happy."
"Yeah," Mike says. "He's a happy kid." Then, without really meaning to, he tells Pears, "I ran into Lindsey."
Mike's not looking directly at him, but he can still see the way Pears goes still for a second before he says, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Mike says. "The lake is a small place."
"That must have been awkward."
"I had Theo," Mike says, "so yeah."
It was awkward. It was so awkward. It was at a party, and Mike didn't expect to see her, but all the sudden there she was looking at him and Theo. He said, "Hi," and she said, "Hi. Is that?" and Mike said, "Yeah, do you want to hold him?" and she took a step back as she said, "No," and then she said, "I should," and walked away from him.
Mike doesn't tell Pears any of that, and Pears doesn't ask him any awkward questions about it, not then and not for the rest of the time he's there.
Mike's dad comes over again to stay with Theo while Mike drives Pears to the airport. Pears spends fifteen minutes before they leave holding Theo, smiling at him and talking to him and leaving a dozen kisses on his tiny baby cheeks. Mike's about thirty seconds from physically taking Theo away from him when he gives Theo up himself.
Mike doesn't get quite the same treatment, but Pears hugs him for what has to be at least a minute before he lets go and says, "Send me lots of pictures, okay?" He tweaks the brim of Mike's hat. "Of you and Theo."
"Yeah, sure," Mike says. He pushes at Pears' shoulder. "Go. You have a plane to get on."
Pears smiles at him. "Pictures," he calls over his shoulder.
Mike laughs, and then takes a selfie in the car to send to Pears.
*
Mike sends Pears pictures when he thinks about it, mostly of Theo, but sometimes of himself and Theo, or of the lake, for the rest of the summer. His family takes turns babysitting so he can go fishing, and he spends a lot of time on the deck with Theo, watching him rock back and forth on his hands and knees and eventually start crawling. They spend less time outside once it starts to cool down, more time in the house where Theo crawls around and Arnold, still not quite sure what he thinks about having a crawling baby in the house, moves when Theo comes his way.
Pears calls at the end of September. They mostly text, but he's called enough that Mike says, "You're out of luck. Theo's napping," when he answers.
Pears laughs. "Maybe I didn't call to talk to him." Then he says, "Shit, did I wake you up?"
"No," Mike says. "I'm used to it now, not sleeping every time he does. Plus he was at my parents' yesterday," he admits, "so I got a long nap then."
"Good," Pears says. "I did actually call to talk to you."
"Yeah?" Mike tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder so he can move a load of Theo's clothes from the washing machine to the dryer.
"Yeah. I was wondering," Pears says slowly, "if you and Theo are coming down here this season. Your room's still set up for you. I talked to Joner, and you can bring Arnold with you too."
Mike doesn't know what to say for a long minute, standing still with the phone pressed to his shoulder and his hands full of tiny shirts and onesies.
"You can think about it," Pears says into the silence, and he sounds careful. "But if you want to, we'd like to have you here. You and Theo and Arnold."
Mike finds his voice enough to say, "I'll think about it," and Pears doesn't stay on the phone much longer.
Mike thinks about it while he finishes switching the laundry over, when he gets Theo up from his nap, when he gets them both fed. It's getting colder at the lake. LA will be warm. He can take Theo and Arnold down to the beach, see how Bruno and Mack and Miley get along with a crawling baby. He won't be alone in the house with Theo.
Mike doesn't think to check the Kings' schedule until after he's already bought plane tickets for a day they're in Vancouver. He forwards the itinerary to Pears so he knows they're coming and arranges for Megan to pick them up at the airport.
Megan greets them with a big smile, hugs for Mike, kisses for Theo, and pets for Arnold. "I'm glad you're here," she says. "We need to get to see how he's growing up." She and Jeff visited over the summer, but Mike knows it's not the same as seeing Theo all the time.
Mike still has his keys, and he lets them all into the house. Megan insists on helping him carry his bags up to his room while Arnold explores and Theo wails at the indignity of being left in his car seat until Mike can supervise his crawling around.
There are baby gates at the top and bottom of both sets of stairs and outlet covers on every outlet Mike sees while he moves back into the house.
Mike still has a set of keys to Pears' car, so after he says goodbye to Megan, he gets Theo's car seat installed in the back and goes grocery shopping.
He decides, while he's trying to both make himself something to eat and keep an eye on Theo, that he's definitely going to need a playpen. He didn't bring much with him again this year, mostly clothes and Theo's current favorite toys and blanket, since he knew what was already here, but the summer is long enough to have dramatically changed what he needs for Theo.
Mike and Theo go to bed early, worn out from a day of traveling and moving, and they both sleep through Pears and Joner getting home.
They're up before Pears and Joner too, and Theo's already crawling all over the living room when Pears comes up the stairs.
"Hey," Pears says with a smile that spreads across his whole face. He hugs Mike first, and holds on long enough for Theo to crawl almost over to them.
Theo stops a few steps away from them and thumps down to sit on the floor.
Pears grins down at him. "Hey, buddy. You're getting around on your own, huh?" Theo waves his arms and babbles at Pears, who crouches down to pick him up. "Oh, you're getting big." Pears grins at Mike over Theo's head. "What are you feeding this kid?"
"Whatever he'll eat," Mike says. "He's eating some solid food."
"Hey, you're getting to be a real person now," Pears says to Theo.
Pears is still chattering away at Theo when Joner comes up the stairs.
"Hey, you're back." Joner greets Mike with a quick hug and smiles at Theo. "The little guy isn't quite so little anymore."
"No," Mike says. "And he's starting to get into everything. You baby-proofed the house."'
"Just the basics," Pears says. He and Joner are both watching Mike more carefully than the conversation seems to warrant.
"Kids should be adventurous," Joner says, "but we don't want to accidentally kill the little guy."
Mike chuckles a little, and looks at Pears. "He needs a playpen. Can you watch him while I go get one?"
"Yeah, of course." Pears bounces Theo in his arms. "We're going to hang out. Doesn't that sound fun?"
It doesn't take that long to buy a playpen, and Mike comes back to find Pears and Theo on the floor and Joner stretched out on the couch, with one of the chairs moved to make a clear space in the room.
Joner gets up to help Mike lug the playpen in and set it up in the clear space where there used to be a chair. "This going to work?"
Mike eyes the sightlines. They'll be able to see the playpen from the dining room table too, if not the kitchen itself. "Yeah, should be good."
"What do you think?" Pears asks Theo. "Do you like where it is?"
Theo babbles meaninglessly at him.
"You want to go try it out?" Pears asks.
Mike shakes his head. "Arnold probably needs to go out. I'll take Theo too."
Pears picks Theo up. "I'll go with you."
Joner laughs. "The little guy had to practically throw himself to the floor to get Pears to put him down earlier."
Pears shrugs, unconcerned. "I missed him." He reaches out and rubs his knuckles against Mike's shoulder, a quick, warm touch. "I missed both of you."
Mike ducks his head and smiles a little while he calls for Arnold. "Come on," he says. "You can help me figure out the best walk for him."
*
Pears' whole family comes to visit for a few days over Thanksgiving. The real one, not the one they've already been invited over to the Quicks' for. Mike makes a pie, and Pears' mom and sister take over the kitchen to do the rest of the cooking.
Pears takes great joy in introducing his niece to Theo. He puts her down on the floor and sits down with her. "Tenley, this is Theo. Theo, this is Tenley. Can you say hi?"
Both kids babble a little at him, and show no signs of any interest in each other.
Ali laughs. "Give it up, Tanner. Kids that young don't care about other kids."
Pears makes a face up at her, and has to content himself with playing with both kids. Mike joins him, and he must be an acceptable adult, because Tenley crawls her way over to him.
"Hi," Mike says. He hands her one of the big, soft blocks, which she immediately tries to put in her mouth. Mike chuckles, because it's the same thing Theo does with everything.
Mike makes sure to bring a few chewable toys for them when he and Theo go to the beach with Pears' family while the Kings are in San Jose overnight, and he suggests that they not stay out too long based on his previous experience spending hours at the beach with Theo.
He's comfortable enough with Pears' family after spending an afternoon on the beach with them that he offers to watch Tenley while they go to Pears' game.
"Aren't you coming with us?" Ali asks.
"No," Mike says evenly, "but I'll watch her if you want to leave her here for the evening."
"You and Theo should come!"
"Mike doesn't go to games," Pears says.
"Why not?"
Mike shrugs one shoulder and looks down.
"But-"
"Ali," Pears says sharply, "drop it."
Mike isn't looking so he doesn't know what kind of wordless conversation they have around him, but at the end of it, Ali says, "All right, it'll be nice to have a night out with just the grownups. Thank you," and Mike stays home with Theo and Tenley while everyone else goes to the game.
He texts Ali a couple of times, a picture of Tenley and Theo lying on the floor staring at each other and a picture of Tenley asleep in the playpen, so she won't worry, and he stays up until they all get home.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Ali asks softly. They're all being quiet so they don't wake Tenley up.
"Good," Mike says. "She ate earlier, and fell asleep pretty easy."
Ali smiles at him. "Well, thank you for watching her." She hugs him, and the rest of Pears' family hugs him, and then, since they're leaving in the morning, they all hug Pears and Joner too.
"It was so nice to spend time with you and Theo," Pears' mom says to Mike. "I know Tanner likes having you around."
Mike doesn't really know how to answer that, so he says, "Thank you for feeding all of us." It really had been all of them: Pears and his family, Mike, Joner, Toff, and Jeff and Megan all gathered around their table for Thanksgiving dinner. When they went around the table to say what they were thankful for, Mike said Theo and Pears said having them all together.
Pears' mom hugs him again. "Of course," she says, and then she hugs Pears again and says something to him that Mike doesn't hear before Ali carefully lifts Tenley out of the playpen and Pears' family leaves.
They weren't being very loud, but the house is suddenly quiet once they're gone.
Pears looks from Mike to Joner. "Thanks for being cool about them being here. I know it made things a little loud around here."
"We live with an infant and a dog," Joner says. "Two when Toff's here. It's always a little loud around here." He grins at both of them and heads toward his room.
Pears looks at Mike like he's waiting for something. Mike just shrugs. It was loud. It was a lot of people around for several days. But it's Pears and Joner's house, and they can have whoever they want here.
"They're your family," he tells Pears.
"But you're exhausted," Pears says, and he's not wrong. He brings the baby monitor over to Mike and rubs his shoulder, enough to be a comfort, not so much that it's an imposition. "Go to bed."
Mike manages to sort of smile at him before he heads up the stairs.
*
Mike decides it's probably a good idea to get out of the house more, to spend more time around people. He was pretty isolated at the lake, even with his family around, and while he sees Pears, Joner, and Toff all the time, and Jeff and Megan frequently, he doesn't spend much time around other people. He knows that it's probably not healthy for him, and that means it's probably not healthy for Theo either.
He straps Theo into his stroller, puts Arnold on his leash, and takes long walks, learning Hermosa Beach at the ground level and stopping into coffee shops to sit around strangers for a while. Hockey has never been that big around here, so he doesn't get recognized much, and it's LA, so people are mostly cool when they do recognize him.
There are probably pictures of him with Theo showing up on the internet, but he doesn't go looking. As long as people are leaving them alone, he isn't overly worried about it.
Pears comes with him sometimes, on off days, and Toff and Joner too occasionally. They all get used to the best walks, the bakery they have to either go into or avoid because Toff won't be able to resist going into, the coffee shop whose staff never seems to mind Arnold tied up outside or Theo smashing tiny bits of banana into their tables. Mike gets more used to talking to people again, a thing he used to do all the time when he played hockey.
The Panthers come to LA at the beginning of November, and Mitchie comes over the afternoon before the game to meet Theo. Theo is happy to have another person to chatter at and play with him, and Mitchie keeps up a steady stream of chatter about fishing in Florida and Megan's newest recipes and living with a kid who isn't a rookie anymore.
"Megan and I couldn't have kids, but we've got Aaron." Mitchie grins down at Theo drooling all over a stuffed elephant. "Maybe we got the better deal."
Mike chuckles. "Less work, probably." He wouldn't trade Theo for anything, but he appreciates the joke.
"Could be worse," Pears puts in. "He's a pretty happy kid."
"He didn't get that from me," Mike says.
Mitchie looks at him seriously for a long second. "You were happy here for a while."
Mike shrugs one shoulder and is saved from having to answer that by Theo starting to fuss.
"Nap time, huh, bud?" Pears says. He picks Theo up. "I'll put him down."
Theo calmed down once Pears picked him up, so Mike nods at him and lets him take Theo upstairs.
"You were happy," Mitchie says, and it was probably too much to hope he would let it go.
Mike shrugs. "That was a long time ago."
Mitchie says, "Hmm," but changes the subject to talk about fishing again.
Pears holds up the baby monitor when he comes back through and disappears down the stairs, leaving Mike and Mitchie to talk alone until Mitchie's car arrives to take him back to his hotel.
"You seem pretty good," Mitchie says before he leaves. "And you've got help."
Mike shrugs and tips his head to the side. "Yeah, the guys have been good."
Mitchie hugs him tightly. "You'll be okay. Send me pictures of the kid."
Mike hugs him back and promises to include Mitchie when he's sending pictures of Theo around.
After Mitchie is gone, Mike heads down the stairs and slips into Pears' room to retrieve the baby monitor. Pears is napping; there's no reason for him to be woken up by Theo when he doesn't have to be.
*
They all go to the Quicks' for American Thanksgiving. All except the dogs, who have been specifically not invited. There's no point in taking food to Jackie's, so they bring a couple of bottles of wine.
There are people everywhere, but mostly people Mike knows. Theo gets passed around from person to person, and Mike ends up in easy conversations all day, and finds when they leave that he had fun.
Four days later, after the Kings have been to Phoenix and come back again, Pears sits down next to Mike on the couch while Theo's napping. "The family skate is coming up."
Mike nods, because, okay, it's almost December, that makes sense.
Pears turns to face him. "Do you want to come? It seemed like you and Theo had fun at Quickie's Thanksgiving."
Mike hasn't been on the ice in a year and a half, but that's not his primary concern. "I don't want to be on camera. Me or Theo."
"Hmm," Pears says. "I'll see if we can do something about that."
Three days later, Pears tells him, "I talked to Kate, and she said they can keep you out of the footage of the family skate if you want to come, and the guys all know not to post pictures of Theo."
Mike's trying to get out of the house more, and if Pears went to all the trouble of making sure he and Theo won't be on camera, he must really want them to come.
Mike slides down onto the floor next to Theo. "What do you think, buddy? Want to go skating with Pears?"
At the sound of Pears' name, Theo looks up toward Pears and babbles something that sounds like a sentence but isn't quite.
Pears grins down at him and scoops him up off the floor. "Is that a yes?"
Theo babbles at him, happy for the attention.
Mike smiles up at Theo and Pears. "Yeah, we'll go," he says, and he texts Matt to ask him to ship a pair of Mike's skates down. Mark would be low-key concerned, and Mom would ask too many questions. Matt will just ship the skates.
Mike sends the other guys on to the family skate ahead of him, and he and Theo show up late. Easier, he thinks, to stay somewhat out of the way of the first flush of both everyone arriving and the cameras getting their opening footage. He texts Pears when they get there, and Pears meets them in the locker room.
Pears takes Theo from Mike. "Hey buddy." He kisses Theo's cheek. "Let's go find Kate and make sure she knows who you are." He raises his eyebrows at Mike and waits for Mike's nod before he actually follows through on that.
Putting on skates is only strange for the first few seconds, and then Mike's body takes over, muscle memory making it easy as anything to pull the laces tight just the way he likes them. He's most of the way through it when Pears comes back with a woman and a pair of cameramen pointing their cameras at the floor.
"This is Mike," Pears says. "And Theo."
"Kate," Kate says, reaching out to shake Mike's hand. "We're going to do our best to keep you out of our footage, and we'll edit or blur you out of anything we release. It's going to be easier if you can stay out of the shot when we're doing interviews."
Mike nods. "We can do that."
Kate nods back, and she and the cameramen return to the rest of the party. Mike finishes tying his skates and looks up at Pears.
"Ready for this?" Pears asks.
Mike shrugs his shoulders; not much of a choice now anyway. Pears doesn't offer to hand Theo back to him, and Mike doesn't ask. His muscle memory took care of getting his skates tied, but it's still been a year and a half since he's done this. He's probably not going to fall, but better not to chance it with Theo.
Pears follows behind him to the edge of the ice, and if he notices the momentary pause before Mike steps out onto it, he doesn't say anything about it.
Skating is like tying his skates; strange and unsure for a moment before his body remembers that it knows how to do this. By the time he's taken a few strides, Mike feels comfortable, steady. Pears paces him as he makes an easy loop around the rink.
Theo reaches out for Mike, and they make the switch with no hesitation. "Pretty neat, huh, buddy?" Mike makes sure he has a secure grip on Theo. "Want to go a little faster?"
Pears keeps pace with him as he speeds up and Theo babbles about it. When they're halfway around the rink again, Mike cuts into the middle to where Jeff and Megan are skating in slow circles.
"Hi," Megan says brightly. She catches Mike in a light hug and kisses Theo's cheek.
Jeff hugs him too, and says, "Hi, kid," to Theo.
"Look," Mike says to Theo. "Uncle Jeff and Aunt Megan are skating too."
Theo babbles at him, and the smile on his face is making it easier for Mike to get used to being on the ice with Theo in his arms instead of a hockey stick in his hands.
"Mike, you came," Kopi says, skating up to them, and Mike smiles at him and at Ines behind him with Neža.
"We did," Mike says.
"Talked him into it," Pears says.
Kopi hugs Mike. "Good to see you here. And you," he adds to Theo.
Theo babbles a little, and then leans away from Mike, less toward Kopi and more toward the ground. Mike does his best to hang onto Theo, but he keeps trying to twist away.
"Where are you going?" Mike asks him.
Pears takes Theo from him, and the switch is enough to distract Theo from trying to get down for a moment. "You're a little too small for your own skates," Pears says to Theo. "Let's get you walking first."
Mike knows it's not that long until Theo starts walking, and he looked it up so he knows that he can put Theo on skates once that happens, but he didn't know Pears knew that. He didn't know Pears was thinking ahead like that. Mike's quiet for a minute while their group starts an easy skate around the rink, and then joins in the light conversation. He and Pears pass Theo back and forth, using that as enough of a distraction to keep Theo from trying to get down to the ice. Toff and Joner swing by, some of the other guys skating up to say hi and chat for a moment.
Brownie and Nicole have their kids and anyone else who's big enough and wants to play involved in a scrimmage at one end of the rink, and Toff and Joner leave their group to join in.
"You can go play," Mike says when he takes Theo from Pears.
Pears looks over at the scrimmage and shakes his head. "No, I'm good here."
They skate for a little longer, and then there's food, and pictures with Santa. Theo sits with Santa himself for a photo, and then Joner insists they get a couple of group photos, Mike and Theo with Pears, with Jeff and Megan, with Pears, Toff, and Joner, with all of them.
"That's a good one," Toff says when they look at the photos. It's the one of Mike, Theo, and Pears, Mike and Pears on either side of Santa with Pears holding Theo. It is a good one, and Mike makes sure it's one of the ones he gets a copy of from the photographer's assistant.
Theo chooses to restart his struggle to get to the floor while Mike's getting the photos.
"Okay," Pears says as he easily takes Theo from Mike. "Let's go find a place for you to crawl around."
"Don't you want?" Mike asks, gesturing at the photos on the photographers' assistant's screen.
"I'll get them from you later," Pears says. "This guy's getting pretty squirrely, aren't you?" He doesn't wait for an answer from Theo, just smiles at Mike and wanders off into the party.
Mike sets the picture of Theo on Santa's lap as his lock screen, and watches later after he gives Pears the pictures he wants as Pears sets the one of the three of them as his phone background.
*
Mike makes plans to go up to the lake for a week around Christmas. He's not tied to the NHL schedule, and his parents have both said that they miss seeing their grandson.
Mike's caught off guard when Toff says, "Are we doing presents before you go or after you get back?"
"Before," Joner says. "The little guy's birthday is coming up. We can space things out."
That was as far as I got with this bit. Here's the loose outline of what else happens in the story: they do gifts before Mike leaves. Mike FaceTimes Pears on Christmas so he can see Theo (who is, of course, wearing the baby's first Christmas onesie Pears got him). They have a small party for Theo's birthday - Mike, Pears, Joner, Toff, Jeff and Megan - and Mike bakes cupcakes for it.
Mike finds that the Grammys trip feels even longer from the other side, and he, Theo, Arnold, and Bruno spend the night at the Carters' with Megan because Mike is lonely, and of course Mike and Pears FaceTime because they miss each other.
At some point, Jeff starts hinting to Mike that he could date/hook up with dudes if that's something he wants to try out now, but Mike is still not ready to date again.
Near the end of the season, over dinner, Joner says that they need to move because the house isn't large enough for four men, two dogs, and a toddler. Mike is very surprised when he then says, "We need a bigger place," and means that all of them should move somewhere together. Toff suggests closer to the beach and Pears says somewhere with a backyard, even a small one, for Theo to run around in.
Summer happens. Probably Pears comes to the lake again.
They move into the new house at the end of the summer. Mike tweets a picture - the first time he's tweeted anything in a very long time - of all of them at the dinner table, Theo blurry because he moved while they were taking it, and captions it with "New house" and the thumbs-up emoji. Jeff, Megan, Pears, Toff, and Joner all retweet it within ten minutes.
A while after that, Pears tells Mike, "I think Carts has been hinting that I should take you to a gay bar," and talks Mike into it. Mike basically refuses to talk to anyone once they're there, and tells Pears he doesn't think there's any point. "Lindsey was my chance to be with someone." They argue about it, and later Pears tells Mike, "That wasn't your only shot at being happy."
Pears makes a point of making sure Mike enjoys his life. They leave Theo home with Toff and Joner sometimes and go out for dinner or to the movies. Sometimes they take Theo to the park or walk down to the beach with them.
And then there's kissing and also Pears using his words to ask Mike out on an actual date. Toff and Joner go with them when they take Theo skating for the first time. Near the end of the season, Mike puts Theo in a "Pearson 70" shirt, borrows one of Pears' shirts for himself, and goes to a game.
And then everyone lives happily ever after.