Who: Scotty + Coach Barry What: Adoption~ Where: The Barry Rooms When: Sunday afternoon Rating: NSFW
Scotty had managed, somehow, to summon the courage to go down to Pat and Harry's rooms by himself. The closer he got, the heavier his feet fell, and the more he wanted to turn around and leave. He could lie to Gabriel and say he had gone, that they weren't there, but Gabriel would know if he was lying. He always could.
His hand rasped on the door quietly. At least he had knocked, and if no one answered then clearly no one was home, and... and he wasn't lying to Gabriel then, at least.
Jack was the only one home - or, well, present. He was up to his eyes in his knew idea, his way of properly mourning Harry... when there was a knock. Soft through it was, it brought him back to reality. How long had he been working? Shite. He stood, stretched and went to the door to open it.
Scotty had just started to take a step away when the door swung open. He turned, his eyes wide. Of course it wouldn't be Pat. If someone had to answer the door, it would be Jack.
"Oh," Scotty said. He fidgeted with his sweatshirt string and brought it up to his mouth. "Um, hi."
"Hey, Scotty," Jack smiled, leaning comfortably against the doorframe. "How can I help you?" He and Pat had spoken quite a few times about Scotty recently, especially since Harry's passing. If Scotty wanted something, he'd do it, at this point.
Scotty's shoulders hunched just a little more. Fearfully he looked down the hall and then back to Jack, his teeth chewing nervously on the string.
"Are you busy?" he asked, inwardly praying that Jack would say yes.
"No," said Jack, though it was a lie. He could easily put it off. "Not at all. Come on in, I'll fix you tea." He stepped back easily to let the boy in.
"That's okay!" Scotty said hurriedly. "I didn't mean to bug you! I just, um, I wanted to know if we could maybe talk."
And maybe Scotty would even ask him if, hey, by any chance would he want to adopt him?
"You're not bugging me at all," Jack chuckled. "'Course we can talk. How're you holding up?" He meant after Harry's passing, of course. Jack was under the mistaken impression that that was what had brought Scotty here.
"I'm scared," Scotty said, misinterpreting the question and assuming Jack was asking about something else. "But, um, Gabriel said I had to tell you this weekend, or else he would do it for me, so, um..."
He took a deep breath.
"My foster parents don't... um, they don't really like me, and Gabriel saw, and he said he wouldn't let me go back there, so, um, I need a new home, I guess, for the summer and breaks and that, and, um, I was wondering if you and Mr P would mind if you could, um, maybeadoptme?"
Jack blinked once. Twice. If he'd been expecting anything, it wasn't that. But he knew what Scotty meant - he knew an abusive home. He knew the need to leave.
Slowly, his face cracked into a lopsided, brilliant smile. "I thought you'd never ask," he said. "Of course. 'Course."
Scotty's eyes widened. This wasn't the response he had been expecting. Questions about more detail, sure. Asking about why Jack, yeah. Just more questions in general, even.
"...what?" Scotty asked. This casual acceptance, as if Jack already knew and had just been waiting, was not what Scotty had been expecting.
"Come on in, Scotty," Jack urged. There it was, the perfect solution to the dilemma that had been keeping his new husband up at night. And to his own dilemma, too - the Child Dilemma, the one he and Pat had been arguing over for years. Still - there had to be some questions asked first. "I reckon if you're askin', you've already thought long and hard about wanting it. Am I right?"
"Um, yes," Scotty said. Slowly he took a step inside, already wary. It just couldn't be this easy. He didn't understand how Jack could just say that so easily. Wouldn't he want a baby or someone younger?
"To tell the truth, we'd been hoping you'd ask for some sort of help for a while now," Jack smiled, utterly oblivious to the circling questions in Scotty's mind. "Do you want something to drink? We've got more orange juice than I know what to do with." He was already in the fridge, searching for something for himself, anyway.
Hesitantly Scotty sat down at the table, since he assumed that this conversation would be going on for a bit. He mumbled a quiet "okay" when offered the drink.
"You knew?" Scotty asked once Jack was facing him.
Jack got them both orange juice - it kept him awake through work better than coffee ever did, and tea always made him sleepy no matter the levels of caffeine - and set the glasses down on the table deliberately, thinking through his answer. Pat would be better at this, he thought.
"We guessed," Jack said as delicately as he could, sitting down himself. "Pat... Pat and I had fairly similar dynamics at home, I reckon. Once you've been through it, it's not hard to spot." To tell Scotty that they'd heard it confirmed probably wouldn't help, he decided. "But there's only so much you can do to help until someone asks for it."
"You wanted to help me?" Scotty echoed. He frowned, running his finger against the curve of the cup. It confused him that they would want to help. But if they knew what it was like, then maybe Scotty wouldn't have to go into detail about what had happened. They would know what it was like and how far they could go.
He rose his cup as though about to sip from it but thought better and put it back down.
"Are you really going to take me in?" Scotty asked. "I mean, um.. you're really g-going to adopt me?"
Jack sighed and crossed one ankle loosely over his knee. "I'll have to talk to Pat," he said, with a loose shrug. "But I'm fairly certain the two of us together are adorable enough to make him say yes." He smiled. "I really don't see him saying no." Looking down into his glass, he swirled his juice about for a moment, apparently lost in thought - though, since a second later he spoke again, perhaps there wasn't much thought to get lost in.
"I've been wanting to raise a child for years. It's... a long story, but I doubt he'll resist now." He looked up, eyes clear. "So the answer is yes."
Scotty refused to let himself feel hopeful. Sure, Jack had just said that they would, but what if Pat said no?
"But I'm old," Scotty said. "W-wouldn't you rather adopt a baby?"
Everyone always did. No one would want an older kid like him.
Jack smiled. "I want a baby someday," he granted Scotty, "But more than that I just want to be a father to someone who needs me to be." When he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled happily.
Scotty did need Jack. He needed Pat too, but he was stuck now on the fact that they would very likely have a baby too. And if Scotty did end up getting adopted by him, he would be an older brother.
"Do you... do you think Mr. P will go through with it?" Scotty asked.
Jack chuckled, a rare sound from a man who liked to laugh out loud. "We'll see," he replied, though it failed to sound enigmatic. He was shite at that. He and Pat had had a conversation, but... Scotty was the immediate future. Scotty was today's decision.
Scotty went back to running his finger along the cup. He was too nervous to drink from it now.
"What about him, um... w-wanting to adopt me?" Scotty asked.
"We'll need to talk about it. But he'll see sense. Don't you worry." He was trying to be soothing, but of course his smile always had looked and always would look mischievous.
"I don't want you to force him!" Scotty exclaimed. "It's okay if he doesn't want me! I don't mind!"
Only he did mind, and it wouldn't be okay. They were his only hope.
"He won't need forcing," Jack backpedaled. "I know him. He wants you. He just... may not know it right away."
"I don't want you to bully him into it," Scotty said, looking down at the orange juice. His shoulders were hunched as he tried to make himself as small as possible. Already he was causing fights between them.
"I couldn't bully him into anything if I tried. Which I won't." A sigh. He slumps back. "I'm bad with words. All I mean is that he and I will have to talk about it. As far as I'm concerned, it's a yes, but I can't decide things like that without his input, right?"
"Oh," Scotty said. Shyly he looked up through his fringe of hair and blushed lightly. "Um, why... why do you want me? I mean, um, you c-could send me to another foster home, or j-just adopt someone else."
"You're a special kid, Scotty." Jack looked up, his focus directly at Scotty - and his full focus tended to be a hard thing to snare. "And everyone deserves a family. I want to give you that."
Scotty hid his blush by finally drinking the orange juice. Everyone had been saying that lately, that he was special. Scotty didn't feel very special though. He felt plain. Less than plain, really. Unremarkable was the word.
Jack stood, his glass empty. "Do you want to stay until Pat comes?"
"I don't want to bother you," Scotty said, shaking his head. His hair flopped around him, reminding him once again that he should get it cut. That aside though, he didn't want to guilt Pat into agreeing just because Scotty was there.
"You won't be a bother. Swear it on me Ma." The tail end of that sentence came out really, really Irish, and it curled up his smile even more lopsidedly.
"Mima?" Scotty echoed, his brow furrowed. He had no idea what that was.
"My mother," Jack said more carefully. "Pat and I are from Northern Ireland. Sometimes we talk funny."
"Like Aaron and his t'rees?" Scotty asked, holding up the appropriate number of fingers. "I like Aaron's accent."
Jack laughed. "A lot like him, actually. He's from the big city, though, so he gets all the good parts of the accent and we're left with an aging countrified sound."
He made theatrically large accompanying hand gestures that clarified the opinion.
"Do... am I supposed to talk with one too then?" Scotty asked. "Or, um..." He blushed hard and looked down at his lap, his hand bringing the string of his sweatshirt back to his mouth. "W-would you want me to call you anything? Like, Mocchi calls Nurse Connie "mom" and, um, I mean, w-will you want me to call you that too?"
"Nononono. Talk the way you talk and call us whatever you want. You could call me a slimy Prod and I wouldn't mind."
"I don't know what that is," Scotty admitted. He hesitated and then took another sip of his orange juice. It seemed weird to think that he may be living with these two and still calling them by their teaching names.
"You don't need to," Jack shrugged, and stretched out. "Well, if you don't intend to stay through my asking Pat, I do expect him very soon..."
"I just don't want to make it seem like he has to say yes," Scotty mumbled. He drained the rest of his orange juice and stood. "I, um, I can wash this, before I go..."