WHO: Tony W, Cate W, Kent W (and a guest appearance by Nat W) WHAT: Sharing some news and a dinner invitation. WHEN: Tuesday evening, June 9, 2020. WHERE: The Wyrzykowski home, Venice Beach. RATING: Low
Tony: "Hey, Nat. Are you free?"
Nat: "Hey, yeah, just got home, so I'm free as long as you don't mind some background Zarya chatter. She has strong opinions about dinner for someone who doesn't know many words." [laugh] "What's up?"
Tony: "Aww, that's my girl." [A pause.] "Are you... um, I have some news, but you might wanna sit down. Are you sitting down?"
Nat: "News?" [a quick whispered aside, sounds of movement, then quiet] "Okay, Felix is on distraction duty. Is everything okay? Cate and Max?"
Tony: "No, no, sorry, we're all fine. Cate's huge, but she's fine, and the healers say our kid is doing great. No, this is-- you remember this spring when I hired a private investigator to try to find our birth parents?"
Nat: "Yeah, okay, now I'm sitting. Did they find something?"
Tony: "Yeah. Nat, this seems crazy, but... he found our mom. And she wants to meet us."
Nat: [a long, quiet pause] "Did you talk to her?"
Tony: "No. Not yet. I have a phone number, I just..." [A sigh, and a telltale shuffle of the phone that means Tony is running his hands through his hair like he does when he's stressed.] "I'm nervous. I don't know what to think about her. Do you want to talk to her?"
Nat: "I—I don't know. Are they sure? That it's her, that she wants—I don't know. She never wanted to see us before, and now you hunted her down and she wants—" [a huff of breath] "Could we call her together? I don't think I could by myself."
Tony: "The PI interviewed her, and he said all the dates and details match up. It sounds like she-- she thought we were dead. So that's why... but I know, I've got all these questions too." [A shaky breath.] "We could call her together. That would be good."
Nat: "Call her first, and then decide if we want to meet her."
Tony: "Okay, yeah, you're right. We'll talk to her first." [A pause.] "Do you want to know what the PI told me about her? I have some info. And a picture."
Nat: "Yes, well, not really but yes?" [awkward laugh] "But you should pop over. Or I'll pop over. It feels weird to do it over the phone."
Tony: "I'll come over, just give me a few. I can't miss a chance to hang out with my favorite little peanut. Tell Zarya I'll take her for a little flight, okay? Really low and really slow, I promise."
Nat: "Only if your chaperone is tagging along, or you know Njall will ground you." [a laugh] "Cate's welcome, too, obviously. If she feels up to it. I'll see if Felix can make dinner stretch. He usually makes enough for leftovers."
Tony: "Ugh, your babydaddy is getting really boring in his old age. Don't tell him I said that. But yeah, that would be great. I'll ask my sweethearts and text you. Tell Felix he's my favorite." [A brief pause.] "I should tell them. Cate and Kent. Right?"
Nat: "You haven't told them yet? TONY. Yes, you need to tell them."
Tony: "Well, I had to tell you first. They know I hired the PI, anyway, I just... no, you're right, I'll tell them now." [Sound of the door opening and footsteps.] "Love you, Natalino. I'll see you in a bit."
Nat: "Love you, too. Watch the floor when you come in. We haven't done the nightly toy round-up yet."
~~~
His spouses were already in the kitchen when Tony came back downstairs, tucking his phone into his back pocket. He smiled at them, sidling up to Cate's side to wrap an arm around her and press a kiss to the top of her head. "Hey, honeys. I know you were really excited for my famous chicken breast and roasted veggies tonight, again, but can I offer you an upgrade? I scored us an invite for dinner in Snowcap, and Felix is cooking." That really was an upgrade; Tony's twin sister's ex-boyfriend's husband (phew) was an inventive and fantastic cook, unlike Tony, whose talent with food was much more in the eating than the making. "Plus, we can hang out with Zarya," he added as extra enticement. "What do you think?"
Cate leaned into Tony's side, tipping her head up to look at him as he spoke. "What did you do to merit that treatment?" she asked with a laugh. She was a little tired after a long day at work—more tired than was normal these days, that was—but she'd have to have a far better reason than that to turn down a Felix dinner and its bonuses. "I'm game if Kent is." She shifted enough to look across at him. "You're not on call tonight, are you?"
Admittedly distracted, Kent looked up from his laptop where he was reading a medical paper and making notes in his phone. It wasn't important, really, but his head liked to drift at the worst of times. He was forestalled from giving his regrets (yet again) by twin sets of imploring looks from both wife and husband, although it was a little more pronounced in the latter. "I was about to suggest you two should go ahead because I've got rounds at 4 AM, but I'm also probably running a real danger of going into neglect territory, if I haven't already. All of that is to say, no, I'm not on call, and, yes, I would love to eat Felix's food and get in some quality baby snuggles. If I can drag Zarya away from either of you for long enough, that is." He stuck out his tongue in the height of maturity. His gaze settled on Tony, head tilting a little. "What brought this on, anyway? Did I forget a birthday or an anniversary?"
At a different time Tony might've taken the opportunity to mercilessly troll Kent, because it was rare that he forgot anything and the idea was too good not to tease him at least a little, but right now didn't seem like the time for it. "No special occasion," he assured him. "And we don't have to stay long, or you can come back early. I just have to talk to Nat, because… well, that PI I hired earlier this year to try to find our birth mom? He found her." Tony looked between the two of them, fiddling a little nervously with his phone. "Nat and I aren't really sure what we're going to do about it yet, but she wants to meet us, so… we're gonna talk about it. We thought you guys should know, too."
Cate pulled back so she had a better angle to gape at him. "Holy crap, Tony. That's big!" She ran her thumb over his cheek and let her hand fall to his neck. About a million questions ran through her head, but she held herself back from overwhelming him with too many at once. She settled on, "You okay? I know you've been looking, but that's still a lot to absorb." She glanced over at Kent again.
"I think we need to re-examine your definition of the term 'special occasion', babe. Like the incredibly smart and distractingly gorgeous lady said, it's a big deal." Kent tried to dig up something more than surprise with just the smallest seed of trepidation, but he didn't want to give either of them any false feelings. He closed his laptop and sat a little straighter in his chair, attention undivided and narrowed down to the two of them and the phantom supposed-mother in the room. "Are you waiting until you talk to Nat about the details before you tell us, or can we get a preview?"
"No, I can tell you what the PI said, I guess." Tony leaned back against the kitchen counter, his hand still resting absently at Cate's waist, where he could feel that connection with their kid so strongly. "Her name is Lalia. She lives in Chicago now, but he says she's been all over the country in the last thirty years, she's been hard to trace. She works in a bookstore. And she-- when Jesse got us--" He swallowed, looking down. Even to his family and the people he loved he'd never really known how to talk about those very early, vaguely-remembered days, and he and Nat had only recently started to compare their memories of life before Snowcap, which had led to him hiring the PI in the first place. "She thought we were dead. That's why she never looked. I don't know why she thought that, and I'm kind of afraid to find out." He laughed a little uncomfortably. "But it's important. Right? I think it's important to know."
Cate wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it definitely wasn't for Tony's naiad mother to be working in a bookstore in Chicago, of all places. Weren't they supposed to be in tune with water and nature? She didn't know it for a fact, though, and she hated to judge someone before she'd met them, so she swallowed those questions for now. "If you want to know? Then yes, it's important." She couldn't imagine giving up a child for anything less than thinking they were dead, but she wasn't about to say that—because she knew it happened all the time. She rested a hand on her belly, silently affirming that it would never happen to her baby. "And, well, if Max got separated from us—" She paused for a second, letting the rush of emotions fade. "I'd want to know him and for him to know us, you know?"
Try as he might, Kent couldn't shake his misgivings. Even worse was the fact that his misgivings had misgivings. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he tried to suppress the further urge to question everything, to find some shred of himself that wanted to be nothing but happy for his husband. "You're going to be careful, aren't you? It's just…" He drew in a deep breath and then let it out again, arms crossing over his stomach. "It seems convenient, that's all. The timing. You were big in quodpot, of course, but you're reaching more people through the 'box. At this point, I'd be suspicious of anyone claiming to be your parent. I'm sorry, I want to be happy for you, but I don't trust the timing."
The idea of losing Max, even before they knew him, made Tony's stomach turn over, and he shifted closer to Cate, spreading his fingers protectively over the side of her bump. He looked up at Kent, a frown growing and quickly deepening on his face. "No. I've been on the 'box for a year. And we haven't been looking for her for that long. This is my mom, sweetheart. I don't… I don't know how to feel about it all yet, but we have to trust her. Like Cate said, if it was us-- I don't even want to imagine how hard it was for her." He covered Cate's hand with his own, angling his body around hers like he could protect both her and their child from the heavy subject matter just by his presence. "She didn't get a chance to watch us grow up. But she could with Max. And that would be a good thing, right?"
"But he's been looking for her," Cate said, wanting to find anything that would support Tony's quest and take away the look on his face. To take away the one on Kent's, too. "Tony hired an investigator, so it's not like she came out of nowhere, right? There were background checks and stuff. It can't be because of his fame." Her own misgivings weren't entirely silent, but she didn't want to believe that someone could be so cruel as to pretend to be his mother. She leaned her head back against Tony's chest, looking up at him. "You'll be careful anyway, especially if Nat is with you. Right?"
Kent took in a deep breath. And then he took in another. He hated being the lone voice of dissent, but especially hated being the one to make his husband look like that—or his wife, for that matter. Why do they put up with me? The air didn't bring any calm, but he forced his arms down and unclenched his shoulders with maximum effort. "Whatever you choose to do, Tony, I support you. I'm sorry, I just—" He sighed and leaned against the island counter, shaking his head. "I don't want you to get hurt anymore than you already have been."
Seeing Kent upset was hard on Tony, too, and he did understand the hesitation, the questioning about what this newly-found mother might want from them and whether she would be a safe person to have around their baby. He'd had those same thoughts all day, even before talking to Nat. So he smoothed out his expression with a bit of effort and held his free arm out, beckoning to Kent to come in and hold him and Cate. "It's okay. It's okay, baby, just come here for a minute." He held Cate closer, too, his hand big and warm over her belly. "Nat and I will talk about it, and we'll be careful, and it'll all be okay, no matter what she's like or whether we want to have a relationship with her or not. I promise, I won't let anything bad happen."