Thomas "TJ" Dixon (thomashammond) wrote in spinningcompass, @ 2017-12-25 21:54:00 |
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TJ was aware of the fact that he was awake before the rest of his body registered it. He was laying on a bed, that much he knew. It took him a couple of minutes of trying to actually get his eyes to open, and he immediately closed them. The lights were bright enough that it caused actual pain. He took a deep breath and then slowly opened his eyes again. A few times of blinking and his eyes were finally in focus. It would take him a little bit longer to get used to the light but at least now he could see where he was. His heart started pounding when he didn’t recognize his surroundings. The walls were completely different from his apartment on the island. To say he was panicking would have been a little bit of an understatement. He made sure that his wedding ring was still in place and that helped him calm down a little bit. He hadn’t gone back. There was that. It was then that he noticed the small bed next to his. He reached down and stroked his baby girl’s cheek. She was sleeping so peacefully. He leaned down and kissed her forehead before picking her up out of the crib. After a moment she stirred and fussed a little, curling into TJ’s chest. “Hey, sweetie.” He rubbed her back slowly. It was time to see if he could actually leave the room, though he didn’t see an actual door so he wasn’t sure. He walked around the room and jumped a little when a door slid open. “Did we end up on the Enterprise or something?” He looked down at Maggie and then stepped out of the room. “Hello?” ------- Tim had set up a baby monitor incase either of the two woke up. He had known it was a long shot, but it helped him have hope, and helped him do healthy things and not just sit in the room and watch his husband and daughter sleep. Like he had for the first month they’d been there. So when he heard the voice he stood up out of all the wrapping paper that surrounded them and his little brothers and sister and high tailed it out of his parent’s apartment. His and TJ’s was only next door, so he hadn’t been far away. When the main door opened, and TJ actually stood outside the bedroom, Tim dropped to his knees in the doorway. “Baby?” He was in his pajamas, a pair of cotton pants and matching button down, had bare feet, in the hall just past him lay tracks in the snow. --- “Tim?” There was no mistaking the confusion on TJ’s face. Why was his husband acting that way? Hadn’t he just seen them a few hours before? He shifted Maggie to his other arm and reached a hand out to Tim. “Baby, get up. What’s going on?” He was worried, but a lot less with Tim there. He still had no idea where they were, but that could wait for right now. ----- Tim forced his legs to work. He had to stand up. He had to! It took taking TJ’s hand and working to get his legs under him. “You’ve been asleep forever. You and Maggie. I mean me and Momma woke up months ago. And… And…” He didn’t know what else to say. So he wrapped his arms around them. His little family. Careful not to squish Maggie. “I just missed you so much.” He said after clearing his throat. “Both of you.” ---- “Wait….months?” TJ wrapped his free arm around Tim, resting his head on his shoulder. Maggie snuggled in between them, happy to be warm and with her daddies. “What do you mean months?” He wanted answers but right then he had a need to hold his husband. ----- “It’s Christmas.” He said simply. That he and Maggie being a wake, being alright… He placed his hand on TJ’s face. He couldn’t believe it. This was what he’d asked for. What he’d prayed for. And here he had it. This had to be the best Christmas ever. “We got brought here back in September.” --- “That’s….” TJ just stared at Tim for a few heartbeats. “How are we okay?” He didn’t know why that’s the first thing that came to mind but it was. If he and Maggie had been asleep for months, why were they still healthy? Though they had been on a magical island so there probably wasn’t a rational explanation. He kissed Tim’s palm and smiled at him. There was a part of him that felt like he hadn’t experienced that in years. None of the weirdness seemed to matter anymore, really. Maggie shifted between them and made a couple of noises right about the time TJ’s stomach growled. “I guess we need food.” ----- “It’s something about this place, the people that are still sleeping are just… I don’t know.” He didn’t really understand it. But they had kept a steady eye on all of them. He smiled when Tj pressed a kiss to his palm. He’d missed that. He’d missed the feel of his lips so much. “Um. Momma is dried out, but I found some formula until the Mom’s that just had babies have any extra.” Tim didn’t want to do it but he’d turned them loose and went to the kitchen, which was open to the rest of the main room. He got out some formula. “If you don’t mind fixin’ this, and I’ll go fix you a heaping plate nextdoor. Mom and Momma both cooked breakfast, there’s enough food to feed an army.” But Tim didn’t want to share him with the rest of his family yet. He was going to be stingy this once. --- “Formula will be good for now.” TJ nodded. He looked down at Maggie and kissed her forehead again. “I guess you slept right through your birthday, huh?” He moved over to Tim and kissed him one more time. “Bring as much as you can carry.” He had a feeling he was going to be eating a lot. ------- Tim nodded. “I ate a cupcake in here, it was kinda sad.” He had barely remembered their birthdays, if it hadn’t been for his Moms he would have missed them completely. “Right food. I’ll make a couple plates, and have momma fix up some stuff in some of the food savers.” Unable to resist he leaned in and kissed TJ back. Leaning down to brush a kiss over Maggie's forehead. “I’ll be right back.” --- TJ sighed a little, but offered a smile. “I’m sure she appreciated it.” Even if she were unconscious. When Tim went to go get the food, TJ kept Maggie in his arm as he went about heating up her formula. He hummed softly as he worked and after a moment she started to hum along with him, or at least she tried. “We’re going to have to give you a real birthday party later.” He nodded. “You only turn 1 year old one time.” ----- It had only taken a few minutes but he’d got two plates heaped up with breakfast foods, Pancakes, waffles, apple biscuits.. The works. Glad for the sliding doors it had been simple enough to bring them both without help and without a problem. There was no wiping the smile off of his face. He felt like his face was going to split into two and he wasn’t even worried about it. “Breakfast is served. Mom and Momma say “Good Morning”. The rest were busy playing with new toys but I’m sure they’re glad you’re awake too.” --- TJ chuckled softly when Tim came in. “I’ll go by and officially say hi later.” He had found a chair and was feeding Maggie, who was going to town on the bottle like she hadn’t eaten in years. She was holding it herself, as she’d been doing for a little while, but TJ was still keeping an eye on it just to be safe. “All of that looks so good.” He licked his lips as he eyed the plates. “I need one of those biscuits right now.” He reached for one of the plates. ---- “They said they won't be offended if I won’t share for a little while.” Tim chuckled and set the plates down on the table. “And this is all yours I ate a little while ago.” They’d had no idea if anyone would wake up for Christmas. He sat down at the table in the opposite seat. His smile deflated just a little bit. “They’re happy you’re up, but Poppa is still sleeping. And so is my baby sister…” That was why they understood. --- TJ took a big bite of one of the apple biscuits and frowned slightly as he chewed. They still weren’t awake yet? He sighed softly after swallowing. “I’m sorry.” He reached across the table and took Tim’s hand. “If I knew how to get them to wake up….” He let the sentence trail off. Of course if he’d known how to wake up, he wouldn’t have waited until Christmas morning. “They’re in a safe place, right?” He figured they would be but wanted to make sure. ------ “Yeah, me and her set ‘em up in one of the bedrooms the minute the gravity was back on.” Tim smiled anyway. “They’ll just be happy that you’re up. And Pop will wake up when it’s his turn. Maria will probably wake up with him, the kids seemed tied to one parent or the other. The triples were tied to Momma, right along with little me. Richie and Maria seem to be tied to Pop. But you being up has given them hope. I aint seen Mom smile like that in months.” Tim squeezed Tj’s hand lightly. ---- TJ squeezed back before going back to eating his breakfast. “Tony’s brain is probably enjoying the break.” He chuckled softly. Maggie shifted a little before actually throwing the bottle. “Hey! What's that about, huh?” She looked up at TJ and he could almost see a glint in her eye. “I think that maybe Daddy should take you now, huh?” He chuckled. ------ “Maybe she sees all the good stuff your eating and is a little jealous.” Tim stood up, he had only picked her up a few times since they had been brought into the apartment. He missed the weight of their little girl in his arms. So he scooped her up. “Is that it? You want some of the noms Gramma AJ and Grams Mary made? Well you drink up all this bottle and we’ll see about getting you some of it all squished up.” He bent to pick up the bottle, making a little game out of it with a few noises. ----- “I think she could handle a little scrambled egg.” TJ nodded. “Did Mary make some grits? She could handle those, too.” Pretty much any food that didn't actually require chewing. “I bet she would live them mixed with a bit of maple syrup.” His dad growing up in Virginia had taught him a bit about Southern food. ------ “Yes, it should be on the other plate, but it has stuff stacked over it.” But he had managed to build a bridge of goodies so that there wasn’t anything actually in the grits. He wouldn’t be able to replicate that feat though. Or answer the question on how he did it. Tim held the bottle for their daughter to drink, whether she took it from bribery or because she was actually hungry only she’d know. ---- TJ moved stuff around and located the grits, taking a spoonful for himself. “I need to hug both of them.” He smiled. “It's all wonderful.” He got some more grits on the spoon and held it out for Maggie. “Wanna try it?” ------ “They’d appreciate it, they’ve been cooking like that for weeks.” Some people emotionally ate, others cooked. His Moms were one he was the other. While it was hard to tell with the pajamas he had developed some love handles. But now that TJ was awake, he’d definitely make an effort to shed the new weight. Tim pulled back on the bottle as TJ held out the spoon for Maggie. “There pretty nommy, flavored with bacon and some weird space cheese.” ---- “Weird space cheese.” He chuckled. Maggie grabbed at the spoon as TJ put it in her mouth and she made a happy little noise as she ate the grits. “I think she likes them.” He nodded. “You take after your daddies in that regard.” He got another spoonful and fed her a little more. ------ “Mom went around tasting all the weird things. It has a language that no one can understand. So lots of weird space food.” He chuckled softly. Watching her as TJ fed her. “What do you know! Maybe we’ll be able to feed her baby food and leave the formula for when she goes to sleep.” He knew a few of the older kids had done that since the move. Or the ones that were without their mothers. ----- “It’s about the right time.” TJ nodded. He’d gotten so distracted with feeding Maggie that his food was getting ignored but at the moment he didn’t care. After yet another spoonful he remembered a question he hadn’t asked yet. “Where are we? You said weird language? Space food?” ----- “We’re on some space station. There is a planet below us, and we kinda rotate around it. I’ll open up the shades later.” He and his Mom had made sure that they got some apartments that had windows that opened up to expose the planet and inner parts of the space station, knowing his Pop would probably like that view the best. “The weird language is in everything though. No one knows how to read it.” ---- “A space station. Okay.” TJ nodded. He wondered what it said that he didn’t think that was too weird. “I’d like to take a look at the language. I know I won’t be able to read it but maybe it’s similar to some of the languages I know?” He shrugged. He got a little bit of scrambled eggs on a spoon. “Wanna try some eggs, sweetie?” He held the spoon out to Maggie. ------- “I don’t think so, it’s not a language like that, it’s a bunch of shapes and… well I can’t put it any better than ‘alien’ language. Shepard was trying to decode it, but then their babies came and that got put on the back burner.” Or maybe it was JR in Shepard’s body? He wasn’t too sure, he spent a lot of weeks pretty zoned out. --- “Oh, so kind of like ancient Egyptian.” TJ nodded. “I don’t know that one.” He chuckled. Very few people back on Earth did so it wasn’t a surprise. “Twins being born does tend to put research on the back burner. But it’s worth it, right?” He looked down at Maggie again. “I’d still like to take a look at it. I’m sure it’s pretty neat, right?” ----- “I guess, but not really. It isn’t any ‘earth’ language is all I’ve been told.” Tim shrugged. He’d lost interest in it after the first month. “Babies are always worth it. Especially when they are as cute as she is.” He tickled under Maggie's chin lightly. “I don’t know. It’s kinda annoying not knowing what floor you’re in without counting, and not knowing what you’re really eating. There’s some stuff from the island now, cause there was a restock of the stores. But it did restock some alien stuff too.” ---- TJ nodded again, then tilted his head. “Did Jarvis or Friday come along?” Maybe one of them could work on translating the language. After feeding Maggie a little more egg, he went back to eating himself. ------ “As far as I know? No. Unless they’re in one of the space ships. But maybe if pop wakes up one of them will show up? Cause this place is like the Island in that way. Your stuff shows up after you sleep in a room.” Tim pointed to the the other door that was linked to the open floorplan room. “I slept with you most nights, but one I spent in the spare room and the murphy bed and all that showed up in there.” ----- “Oh, okay. Well, there’s that at least.” He sighed softly. “There’s bound to be some way to get this language figured out, though.” They needed to be able to get around without any trouble and not being able to understand the language was trouble. “Right now, though, I think that Maggie and I need to get settled and try to get oriented a little bit better.” ----- “There’s people smarter than me trying. Heather was going to go sit in the control room, the other day. She made it sound like she was gonna sleep there, until she understood something.” He kind of felt bad for her. Losing someone so close to christmas. “I don’t even know where the control room is” Tim leaned over and kissed TJ. “I’m glad you’ll wait though. I’m happy not to share you with this place until I have to.” ---- “I’m not going anywhere any time soon.” TJ kissed back and sighed happily. “Not even the next room for right now.” He kissed Tim again. “How about we get Maggie changed and settled and then lay in bed and snuggle for a bit?” ----- Tim touched his forehead to TJ’s. “I’m sorry I’m being clingy. But I’d love that. If we can get her settled down. I won’t fuss too much if she has to lay down with us.” It would be nice to be cuddled for a little while. Doing the cuddling had simply been depressing. ---- “You’re not being clingy, baby. You’re being wonderful.” He smiled softly. “Let’s see if she’ll go in the crib but I’m not going to put up too much of a fight if she doesn’t want to.” He kissed Tim again before shifting to get up. ------- Tim stood up with him, that smile still painted on his lips. “Alright.” He had to steal one more kiss. Before dropping one down on Maggie’s head. “Hey she can have her own room here.” He said jokingly. He could see them sharing one with her still, for a little while. ----- “When she’s older.” TJ nodded. He wasn’t going to let Maggie out of his reach for a little while longer. He reached out and took Tim’s hand, heading toward the bedroom. “But she’s got at least another couple of months before that happens.” -------- He felt himself getting giddy all over again, when TJ took his hand. “Okay. But when she gets older and gets her own room, we get to be loud again.” Tim chuckled. He had really missed TJ. The love of his life. ----- TJ just smiled and nodded. Maggie wasn't okay with being in the crib so TJ got settled on the bed with her between him and Tim. Lots of snuggles for everyone. It was the best way to spend the day. |