Who: Rowan Fricks & Five What: Meeting their daughter (Kidplot) When: Feb 12 [backdated] Where: Rowan's place. Rating: Low
Rowan took a sip of her coffee, hoping the second cup would do what the first hadn’t done and calm her nerves. Four kids? One she knew from last time around, but as of right now, she had three more, and was hoping that was it. Her nerves were at a level ten with the wakeup call that she had gotten from them, which she knew they hadn’t meant to do, but the damage was done. One of them knocking something over in the process of coming to wake her had terrified Rowan, forcing her to sit up quickly because it brought back memories of how many times members of thezoo were in her bedroom. Only to find the cause of the noise was a kid who called her mom.
Making the kids' breakfast, she went back into the kitchen with her phone, leaning against the counter. Dressed in a tank top and sweats, she hadn’t even cared to get dressed, but not like she was in anything embarrassing or anything that would make her invite anyone over all awkward. Pulling her messages up to Five, she texted him, figuring he’d be the first one she reached out to, considering he was first on her contact list. Hey, when you have a few moments, I think you should pop over here. Got an interesting surprise that might blow your mind.</i> Rowan hit send then added an emoji of the mind blown face before sending and setting her phone on the counter. Figuring it’d probably only be a few moments before he popped over and saw a bunch of kids at the table.
—
The text from Rowan was unexpected and a little confusing, so Five decided to pop over to the house she shared with Allison as soon as he finished his coffee. They were friends, but he didn’t think they were the type to surprise each other. Unless it was with some kind of really good coffee. Maybe she’d gotten some weird delivery from the dome?
He teleported into the living room and frowned when he heard the cacophony of noise in the dining room. After hesitating for a moment, he walked into the other room, only to be greeted by a small girl who threw herself at his legs, nearly knocking him off his feet. “DADDY HI!” she shouted.
Daddy? What the hell was going on? Five looked around for Rowan desperately. It wasn’t April Fools Day yet so he had no clue what to think.
***
Rowan had been lost in thought, trying to decide who was going to be the next person on the list to message about coming to see their child. No way was she going to say it over text, feeling that wasn’t the type of message that was said over the phone and more of an in person type of message. Hearing the little girl yell daddy almost caused Rowan to cough up her coffee as she snapped back to reality. Coughing a bit from the coffee going down the wrong way before setting the cup down on the counter.
The look on his face told her everything, and Rowan was now wondering if maybe she should’ve given him the heads up on messaging. A little late now. "Umm, Ashley?" It took her a moment to remember the name, smiling at the little girl. "How about you go finish breakfast while I talk to your daddy and then you can visit with him, okay?" The little girl still held on to Five for a few more minutes before moving back over to the table with the rest of the children. Waiting until she was a bit out of earshot before turning her attention to Five. "Yeah, so surprise, we have a daughter together. I’m sorry! I thought it’d be better said in person, and now I’m thinking I should have given you a heads up," her face showing how sorry she was about that. "I do have coffee already done, so you can help yourself as I’m sure you’re needing it now." She motioned to him as she walked back to where her coffee cup was, waiting for whatever he was going to say about the whole daughter aspect, knowing it was a lot to take in. Rowan was still trying to take it in, and it had been over an hour now.
—
He had a kid. With Rowan. There was so much wrong with that thought that Five was having a hard time processing it. Nevermind that he was technically old enough to be Rowan’s father. Five knew he wasn’t equipped to be anyone’s father. It wasn’t like he’d had a good role model or anything. Apparently the kid didn’t hate him though, which was a surprise. When she finally extricated herself from his legs, he let out a sigh of relief and immediately felt guilty, hoping she hadn’t caught it.
“Ashley?” he asked once the child was out of earshot. “And god, yes, I need coffee.” He really needed something much stronger, but that would have to wait. There was an awful lot of noise coming from the other room and he gave Rowan a curious look. “How many kids do you have?” He really hoped none of the others were his. His siblings were going to have a field day with this.
***
Rowan had caught the sigh of relief from him, knowing this was probably a lot for him. “If it helps, they’ll be gone probably in about a week..maybe even less,” she offered to him. These times made her glad for the babysitting that she had done in the past. While it was completely different since it wasn’t like she could send them away, Rowan still used what she learned to keep her head on straight.
"Pretty sure it’s after a friend of mine from back home. If I'm correct, she's named after my friend, Ash, who was shot. He's alive, as I learned when I went home, but there’s a chance he might never walk again, " Rowan admitted to Five. It was probably the most she said about her own world to anyone outside Allison because she was always worried about the judgment or people thinking she was trying to outdo them when that was never the case. "Her middle name is from you, I’m figuring, because I don’t know a Dolores." Then again, maybe it was some random name, but going off of the first name, she was assuming it was someone in his life. Picking up her coffee again, she took another sip as Five made his own. "Besides the one with you, I have three others. One that was here last time this mess happened and then three new ones, including ours. I’m hoping that’s it and I won't be getting a surprise text about another one somewhere around town. Has this been your only one so far?"
—
This was a lot to take in, even with caffeine, and Five’s brain was racing as he listened to Rowan. He made a mental note to circle back to the friend being shot thing later since they’d never really talked about what she experienced at home.
His eyes widened when she mentioned their daughter’s middle name. “Uh, yeah, that name would have come from me,” he said, wondering what the hell he’d been thinking to give a child the same name as his former mannequin companion. That wasn’t something he was ready to discuss.
“And yes, this is the only one I’ve got so far.” If he was lucky, it would be the only one. “So this has happened before?”
***
"Okay, I figured it was either from you or a random name we decided on because I don’t know anyone by that name." Rowan could tell there was more to the story with the middle name, and so badly she wanted to ask about it, but she also knew people had their own stories. No matter how curious she might be, she also knew better than to push... sometimes. Or at least when she could stop herself before the question came out of her mouth, and this was one of those times where she was able to hold back on the question that was bouncing around. Plus Five never ever pushed on her history, which is why she had no problem opening up a bit about where the first name came from. If he ever wanted to share, then it’d be on his terms and his decision to make. Rowan moved to hop up on the counter to sit, keeping an ear out for anything that might be happening in the other room. At least, one of her kids was on the older side, so maybe they’d keep some order while Rowan was in here talking. "Hopefully, you will only end up with one. Because you seem like you don’t want more popping up, but yeah, this has happened before. A few times, though I wasn’t always here for those times. Last time, I only had the one, but it didn’t work out that way this time." Rowan couldn’t imagine ever having four kids in her life. Maybe one, if she survived until her older years, but none at this point in time. "How are you doing? I know it’s a lot and considering this is your first time with it." —
As someone who spent literal decades alone, the idea of having children never crossed Five’s mind. Especially since it wasn’t like he had a great example to follow given how Reginald obtained and raised him and his siblings. He was grateful that Allison and Vanya were around since they both had experience with kids.
“I… am definitely surprised,” he said. “I’ll manage though. Do you want me to keep her at my place?” Hopefully Vanya and Jedikiah wouldn’t mind. “Since you have quite a few?”
***
Rowan didn’t blame him at all for being surprised because she was right there with him. All she knew was how happy she was at this moment about her father's absence from this place. Since he’d probably be having a huge fit about his youngest having kids, ignoring the fact that they weren’t real or from this timeline.
At his question, she took a sip of her coffee as she debated for a moment. "Do you guys have the room?" She asked, setting her cup down next to her as she rested her hands on the countertop that she was sitting on. "You don’t need to keep her the whole time since that isn’t fair to you, but for a bit today while I contact the other halves for the rest of the kids, that would be great!" Also, it gave her a moment to chill since she had never expected this many kids in her life. Thankfully, they were from different timelines, or her head would probably explode. "Since her half-siblings," oh god yeah, that felt weird to say and it showed on the face she made for a brief moment, "have been keeping her busy, so it's not all on you to keep her busy." It was only about a week, so she could handle this with help from people.
—
Five nodded. “That sounds fair. I’m sure Vanya will help.” He wondered if he had any random nieces and nephews running around. “We’ll make it work. Hopefully they won’t be here long.” The idea that in some universe he and Rowan got together was… uncomfortable. He was technically old enough to be her grandfather, despite looking younger than her and he’d made his peace with not dating.
“Do you need anything? I can make a quick trip to the store.” It’d be much easier for him to teleport there and back than it would be for her to wrangle multiple tiny people.
*** "They don’t normally stay around long. I said normally because you never know what the dome might be planning," she replied, praying it didn’t pull some long term trick by keeping the kids here longer than what people were used to with future kids. "This is not my first go around, just my first time with this many, so yeah, I know we’ll be fine. Plus, we have people around to help as long as they didn’t get saddled with a lot of kids," she’d need to check with her friends and people who she considered family, seeing if they had kids and how many. Rowan liked Five in a strictly platonic sense, but hey, she figured it was better to have some kids with someone she trusted rather than some stranger. Even if the idea of having kids with Five was an odd one for her because of the whole age issue. On his question, she bit her bottom lip, glancing around the kitchen without moving off the counter. "I wouldn’t say no to some juice boxes, gummy snacks, and maybe cookies or any other snacks you pass by in the store," her tone slightly questioning what she just said. Rowan wasn’t completely sure of the best snacks for the younger ones, but it was a jumping off point and she could figure some stuff out later. —
“I can manage that,” Five said. He’d also grab a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some marshmallows because he assumed any child of his would also enjoy his favorite sandwich. “I’ll be back soon with supplies and then I’ll take Ashley.”
Idly, he wondered if their daughter had any abilities. He supposed there was plenty of time to figure that out.
—
"Okay, we’ll be here since I don’t see us going anywhere," she teased, moving to jump down from the counter that she had been sitting on. "See you in a bit, and I’ll pay for half of whatever you get." Rowan wasn’t going to make Five buy everything, even if he probably didn't care. She could pay for half of it, especially when she was sure it wouldn’t be a huge deal. Picking up her coffee, she headed back out to check on what the children were up to while she had been talking to Five.