Yours, Mine, Ours Part 2
He woke up as Jamie climbed into bed, between him and Jared. “Hey, baby, you good?”
“I’m good, sleepy.”
Jensen rested his arm around him. “Go to sleep, baby.”
“Morning, Jamie,” Jared said and Jamie leaned forward and kissed Jared’s nose. And then closed his eyes and went back to sleep. Jared watched Jamie for a moment and then said softly, “I’m getting up. But I’ll come wake you, seven-thirty?” Jensen nodded and Jared leaned over Jamie to kiss him. He pulled away after only a second and said, “Sorry about the morning breath.”
“I don’t care,” said Jensen and pulled him down for a longer kiss. “Sorry if mine bothers you.”
“No, it doesn’t. Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you.”
Jensen nodded and cuddled Jamie close to his chest. But he couldn’t fall back to sleep. Instead he thought about his schedule for the rest of the week, what he would cook for dinner, and tomorrow. Jamie stirred a little and wiggled up Jensen’s chest. His head rested just beneath his father’s chin and Jensen stayed still, breathing in the scent of No More Tears shampoo. Jamie started to snore again and Jensen sank into the noise. In the kitchen he heard Jared letting the dogs out into the yard and turning on the coffee pot. Jensen inched up so that he could reach his day planner and glasses on the bedside table. He held Jamie against him so that he wouldn’t slip off. He opened his planner, put on his glasses, and looked at his Wednesday and sighed. He would send out an email to his theory and history classes. But the three students he was supposed to be meeting with would have to be called. Thankfully, Jamie was a heavy sleeper. He flicked through the pages of the planner to find Leon’s number first. He dialed and leaned back against the headboard.
Picking up Leon said, “Professor Ackles?” He heard a yawn.
“Hey, Leon. Did I wake you? I thought you opened Starbucks on Tuesdays?”
“Yeah, I do,” Leon said with another yawn. “I’m just not a morning person. What’s up, Professor?”
“I wanted to see if we could reschedule this week. I won’t be in school tomorrow.”
They spoke for a little while longer, figuring out their meeting time. Jensen repeated the process twice more. Jamie woke up and looked at him owlishly before shutting his eyes again. Jamie was always like this in the mornings, in and out if consciousness and cuddly. Jensen hated the idea that he would grow out of it.
As he finished the phone calls Jared came in and said, “Oh, I was just about to wake you.”
“Hey,” said Jensen softly, “I was sorting out my schedule.”
Jared leaned down to kiss him again, “It’s seven thirty.”
“Thank you.” Jensen removed Jamie from his chest and said, “Fast shower. I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”
~~~
Jared had woken up early and when Jamie had come into bed Jared had been unable to lie still any longer. He was a natural morning person and he only needed six hours of sleep. So he had gotten up and put the dogs out into the backyard. And then as he turned on the coffee pot, he sat up on the counter, and pulled out his cell phone. He hit his mom’s number in his address book and she picked up after the second ring.
“Hey, JT.”
“Hey, Momma. How are you?”
“Good, how are you?”
“I’m good.”
“Yeah? Why you calling so early?”
“Jamie’s asked me to go to school with him next Monday to talk about being a chef. And I’m really excited. It’s his bring a parent to school day, y’know? And I’m totally thrilled that he asked me.” He felt a little nervous about the conversation so he picked up Jensen’s recipe book and started to flick through. Finding the breakfast section he slowed down. He saw a recipe for hot rice cereal and jumped off the counter.
“JT, that’s lovely.”
“It is. But paparazzi hangs around the school. So I’m probably going to be outted. Which is unfortunate, but at the same time, it can’t be a secret forever. I just wanted to warn you.” He pulled the rice out of the cupboard and poured out the right amount to rinse.
“Oh, JT.” She sounded worried, “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to talk to the Network and see what they want. But no matter what they say, I’m cooking with Jamie’s class.”
“Good for you, sweetheart. Are you cooking because you’re worried about me freaking out?”
“A little, a little to calm me down, a little to feed Jamie.” He rinsed the rice and transferred it into the saucepan and got soy milk out of the fridge. “I’m following Jensen’s recipe for brown rice cereal.” He poured the milk over the rice and sat back up on the counter to wait for it to cook. He stirred in cinnamon and sugar. “Nothing nicer than warm cereal and cold juice to start off a scorcher. It sets you on an equilibrium.”
“True. So what are you doing today?”
“Sound looping. Boring.”
“You still coming for dinner on Friday?”
“Yeah, that would be fantastic, thank you.” They spoke for a while longer, the dogs, the summer, going to school with Jamie. Jared stirred the rice as it sucked in the milk and thickened. Finally he said, “I should go wake up Jensen, I turned off his obnoxious alarm clock… well, I assume it’s obnoxious, I haven’t actually heard it but it’s an alarm clock.”
She laughed, “Okay, go, I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”
“Love you too, Momma.” He hung up, took the saucepan off the heat, and jumped off the counter. In the bedroom he saw that Jensen was on the phone too. Jared smiled as Jensen hung up, “Oh, I was just about to wake you.”
Jensen said something about schedules but Jared didn’t really take it in because Jensen was wearing his glasses. His oh-so-fucking-sexy glasses. So instead he kissed him. Jensen could be in a porno as a college professor. But porn stars were rarely as attractive as Jensen. In fact, people were rarely as attractive as Jensen. Jensen went into the bathroom and Jared lied down next to Jamie who blinked awake.
“Made you rice cereal, you hungry or you want to wait for Daddy?” Jamie didn’t respond he just cuddled up to Jared. “You’re not a morning person, are you?”
Jamie made a shushing sound, “Quiet, it’s quiet time. I’ll be up in a minute.”
“Ya want me to go away?”
“No, just be quiet for a little while.” Jamie breathed slow and deep and Jared thought he’d fallen back to sleep but then he said, “Daddy’ll be out in a second and I’ll get dressed.”
“Whose coming to school today?”
“Mr. Morgan.”
“What does he do?” asked Jared.
“He’s retired. But he used to be the head of the Secret Service. He worked there a really long time. He protected Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bushes, and Clinton.”
“Wow,” said Jared. “That’s awesome.”
Jensen came out rubbing the towel over his hair. “Are you already talking?”
“Jared doesn’t respect quiet time.”
“Sorry, I’m not very good at quiet,” Jared apologized.
Jensen laughed as he pulled a shirt over his head. “Jared’s never going to be quiet.” He picked Jamie up and said, “Ready to get dressed?” Jamie nodded and allowed Jensen to pick him up. “I’m sorry mornings are so early. This is why you have to get good sleep every night.” Jamie nodded but allowed his head to flop onto his dad’s shoulder. “Wanna wear your Harry Potter shirt today?” Jamie roused a little at that.
“Yeah, Daddy. I like that shirt.”
“I know.” He carried Jamie through to his own bedroom.
Jared followed them and went into the kitchen to cut up apples. He heard Jensen asking Jamie what seemed to be a ritualized question about whether or not it was an important day and why it was important before the door cut off the sound. Jared smiled and cut the apples up into ten tiny slices each. Jensen came in moments later with a fully dressed Jamie carrying his backpack. “That smells amazing.”
“Rice cereal.”
Jensen smiled at him, “Tricia’s favorite.”
“Oh, I’m-”
“No, it’s good. I can’t really bring myself to make it. But I do love it. I can eat it.” He sat down at the table and served himself and Jamie. No sooner had Jared sat down and they had begun to eat that a car pulled into the drive. “Why is Jeff here?”
“That’s Jeff Morgan?” asked Jared as Jeff stepped out of the car. He was a built dude and Jared wasn’t surprised that he was the head of the Secret Service.
“Yeah, I hope nothing’s wrong. It’s his day to drive the boys.” He opened the backdoor and called out, “Come around this way. Jamie,” he turned to his son, “eat your breakfast.”
“There’s enough for them too,” said Jared. “I haven’t made it before and I didn’t realize how much the recipe would yield.”
Jeff came in and said, “Figured we’d come a bit early so that we could have a chat, haven’t done that in a dog’s age.” He looked at Jared and said, “I’m Jeff Morgan.”
“I’m Jared. Do y’all want some breakfast? I made hot rice cereal.”
Tim said, “I love rice cereal.”
Jared stood and filled a bowl for the boy, “Jeff, how ‘bout you?”
“No, thank you, Jared. I’m just gonna help myself to some coffee.” Jeff filled a mug and sat down next to Jamie and Tim. “So, what are your intentions, Jared?”
“My intentions?” repeated Jared.
“Towards my boys,” clarified Jeff. There was no smile in his eyes, no joke in his tone.
But Jared couldn’t not smile. “My intentions are to go to Parent’s Day on Monday and cook lunch.”
“Yeah?” asked Jamie, excitedly. “‘Cause I asked Daddy but I didn’t ask you.”
“Daddy talked to me when I got home last night. I’m thinking that if we do not-too-spicy Cajun burgers everyone can make their own patties. We’ll make some yummy dressing so everyone can play with whisks, and I’ll make beetroot chips as that’s fun to watch: I have a clear deep fryer so everybody can watch for a safe distance. And we’ll have fruit salad for dessert. Sound good?”
Jamie nodded, “Sounds fun. Should we make it beforehand as a test run?”
“Sounds like a good idea; that would be fun.”
“Are you sleeping over tonight?” asked Jamie.
Jared glanced towards Jensen. He wasn’t sure if Jensen wanted him home tonight as tomorrow was Wednesday, Tricia’s birthday. Jensen gave him a tiny nod and Jared said, “Yeah. And I’m going to be home early as I’m done with the season. So let’s test run the menu tonight and try out some of the dressings in Daddy’s cookbook, see what goes well with the burgers.”
“Sounds fun,” Jamie scraped his bowl clean. “Is there seconds?”
Jensen took Jamie’s bowl as well as his own and refilled them, “You’re sure you don’t want any, Jeff? It’s so good.” Jeff shook his head and drank his coffee. “Missing out. So, are you excited about today?”
“I’m pleased I’m going before Jared. After Monday, the first thing out of the class’ mouth to any visiting parent is going to be ‘What did you bring us for lunch?’ And I’m glad I’m not going to have to face that. After last year this one should go really well.”
“So you didn’t bring a gun to show the children this time?”
“I thought they would be interested.”
“They were five and thought Tim’s dad was going to shoot them.”
“Well I didn’t bring one this year.”
“Why isn’t Katherine having a turn?”
“She’s up in LA this week for reshoots for the season closer.”
“Momma says she’ll do it next time,” Tim added as he ate.
Jeff glanced at his watch, drained his coffee, and said, “Okay, boys: finish up.”
Jensen stood and went to the fridge, “Jamie, will you have leftovers? I’ll put some ribs and bread and potatoes in the bag? With, um,” he looked around, “raw string beans, good?”
“What about dessert?”
“Um,” Jensen stared into the fridge for a moment.
“It’s okay, Momma made us those good cupcakes,” Tim offered. “Dad packed us one each.”
“Good cupcakes?” asked Jensen.
“The rosewater ones, cooked in the Jamie safe cookware. Which is all we’ve been using since the sandwich incident.”
“Jamie, go get your shoes,” Jensen prompted.
Jamie ran off and Tim followed. Jeff turned to Jared and said, “One more question, who’d ya vote for?”
“Isn’t that a secret?” asked Jared.
“I can tell a lot about a man by how he votes.”
Jared nodded, “Well, I don’t want to offend you. And I’m not a political person; I don’t try to force my beliefs on others. But I couldn’t vote for someone who feels that I deserve fewer rights because of who I go to bed with. And if, God forbid, I should become sick I want Jensen sitting there in the hospital listening to my bitching not my Momma. I want my cousin in Iraq to get a deadline for when she gets to come home. I want my Uncle Norm to be able to get health insurance so that every time he gets what he calls, ‘a little cancer’ he doesn’t go to Jeff. My brother’s a surgeon and he has to fudge all the paperwork so that he can give Norm chemotherapy at cost. And while Obama might not achieve all that in the next four years McCain didn’t even want to. I don’t talk about these things ‘cause we live in Texas and I don’t want to offend people, but it’s how I feel and that’s how I vote.”
Jeff nodded slowly, “Ignore the Texas twang; I grew in Seattle. I liked Hillary but once she was out I just had to toe the party line. I think my mom would disown me if I didn’t do the right thing.”
Jensen rolled his eyes but then thought for a second and said, “If I was Monica Lewinski I would have sent the blue dress to my mother. But I would never have told Linda Tripp and if I *had* been called to the stand I would have said I made it all up, that I was just madly in love with him but that nothing had ever happened, that I had lied about being with him but it was all a fantasy. I might have even gone so far as to say I threw myself at him and that he, the constant gentlemen, had gently but firmly turned me down. I would have stood by my man… He’s still hot.” He let his thoughts trailed off and then shouted, “Jamie, how long does it take to get shoes?”
The boys came back and Tim said, “Jamie’s Bumblebee Transformer is so cool.”
“I know,” Jensen agreed, “sixty four moving parts. I’ll send it with Jamie to school tomorrow so you guys can play with it on your sleepover.” He turned to Jeff, “You’re still good with that?”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry. Everything is prepared. Come on, boys, don’t want to be late. Jared, awesome to meet you, I’ll see you soon.”
The door shut behind the group and Jared said, “I never thought being a democrat would help me in this state.”
“It won him over. Come take a shower with me?”
“Didn’t you just shower?”
“Yeah, but that was just to wake me up. This one’s for fun and we have way more time then yesterday.”
“You’d have sex with Bill Clinton?”
“I was so angry I wasn’t an intern when that all came out.”
Jared just laughed.
~~~
Part 3
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