Chapter Text
The first time Grayson meets his little sisters, they are fresh out of the hospital. According to Nash, they’d had to stay in the hospital for about a month because they’d been too tiny. Grayson had been skeptical, but when he saw the two girls, he could finally understand what Nash had meant.
They were tiny—their little hands barely the size of his palm. He looked up at Acacia—Caci, he’d taken to calling her as he couldn’t say her full name—eyes wide.
Caci smiled. “This is Juliet,” she said, resting a hand on the head of the one dressed in a green onesie. “And this is Savannah.” Her other hand moved to the baby in the yellow onesie. Grayson peered over the edge of the bassinet they were laying in, examining the two infants.
“What do you think, bud?” Grayson’s father knelt down beside him. Grayson had only known his father and Caci for a couple of months. The twins were born shortly after he’d been introduced, but they’d had to stay in the hospital because they were preemies, as Nash called them.
Grayson was still shy around his father. Caci, he’d quickly grown accustomed to, perhaps because she gave him cookies and toys and hugged him tightly every time she saw him. Grayson’s father hadn’t so much as touched him.
But now, his father stared at him with a strange light in his eyes. Grayson blinked and turned back to the babies.
“They’re tiny,” he said.
Caci and his father laughed.
“They were born too early,” Caci explained. “So they’re not as grown up as they should be. But it’s okay. They’ll get stronger.”
Grayson stared some more, trying to wrap his little head around what Caci had told him and the fact that the two of them had been in her stomach the day he’d met her. How had two babies fit in there?
But there was a more pressing question. Grayson looked up at Caci, and she smiled.
“They’re like my brothers?” Grayson asked. Nash, Jameson, and Alexander. Alexander was small, too, though not as small as Juliet and Savannah. And Grayson had seen how quickly he’d grown, so he reckoned that the two babies in front of him would grow just as quickly.
“They’re your sisters,” Caci said patiently. “Like your brothers, yes, but they’re girls.”
Grayson nodded. He went back to staring at the babies. Over his head, Caci and his father shared a nervous look.
Grayson’s father put his hand on Grayson’s back. For a moment, Grayson tensed, but soon, he relaxed into his father’s grip. His hand spanned half of Grayson’s back.
“Are you excited to have sisters?” his father asked.
Grayson thought for a moment. Nash, his older brother, had explained the job of being a big brother to Grayson two years ago when Jameson had been born.
You’re their protector, he’d said. It’s up to you to keep them safe and happy and loved. Sometimes, you might fight, but at the end of the day, you’ll always be brothers.
“Yes,” Grayson said finally. “I’m the protector.”
Caci’s eyes welled up with tears, and she got carefully to her knees to wrap him in a hug.
“You’re going to be the best big brother, I just know it!” she said. Grayson laid his head on her shoulder, smelling the lavender in her hair. It was blonde, too, like his and his father’s. But her hair was long and flowing. Sometimes, she wore it twisted behind her head, but usually, she let it hang down around her shoulders, and when she hugged him, he was enveloped in the comforting scent of her shampoo.
“Can I hold them?” Grayson asked. He hadn’t gotten to hold Alexander when he was first born, but now Grayson was four years old and clearly much more mature.
“Sure,” Caci said, “but you have to sit down.”
Grayson smiled and nodded. His father picked him up and set him down on a nearby couch while Caci busied herself with the babies.
“Okay, you’ll need to hold your arms like this,” his father told him, holding his arms in a cradle. Grayson mimicked the action, his shoulders stiff. He looked up to see Caci coming towards him holding one of the babies.
“This is Juliet,” she said, and carefully placed the infant in Grayson’s waiting arms. Grayson looked down at his little sister. She had a tuft of brown hair on the top of her head, and her wide eyes were a strange blue-gray shade. Her mouth was a little rosebud, and she grunted up at him, waving a hand wildly.
“Hi, Juliet,” Grayson said, making his voice higher than usual. She didn’t say anything back, which Grayson knew to expect. He might have only been four, but he wasn’t stupid.
After a while, Caci came back with the other baby, and Grayson’s father took Juliet from his arms so Caci could place the new one—Savannah—in the little cradle Grayson’s arms made.
Savannah looked much like Juliet did, but she had the beginnings of blonde hair rather than brown. She seemed much more serious than Juliet, staring up at him with curious eyes and her arms folded close to her chest.
“Hi, Savannah,” Grayson greeted. He looked over to Juliet in his father’s arms, then back at Savannah in his own. He knew in his heart that he would never let anything happen to them, that he would always be there to protect them. But soon, his arms began to weaken, having held two six pound babies in the span of ten minutes. Caci was there in an instant, swooping Savannah into her own arms and pressing a kiss to her head. Then, Caci leaned down and pressed a kiss to Grayson’s forehead. When he looked up at her, he saw tears in her eyes.
“Good job, buddy,” his father said, smiling proudly. Grayson watched as his father and Caci exchanged warm glances before both went to put the babies in their respective bassinets.
“Are you hungry, Gray?” Caci asked. “It’s lunchtime, and you’ll be leaving in about an hour.”
Grayson frowned. “I don’t wanna leave. I wanna stay here with the babies.” He loved his brothers, but Jameson and Alexander had Nash to look after them. Savannah and Juliet would have no one. Who would protect them if Grayson wasn’t there?
At Grayson’s pronouncement, Caci swallowed hard, tears threatening to overflow. She coughed, clearing her throat.
“I’m sorry, Gray, but you have to go,” she told him.
Grayson’s own eyes began to water and soon he was crying, tears streaming down his cherubic cheeks. Caci rushed over and gathered him in her arms on the couch, rocking him gently. His father was slower to move, but he knelt in front of Grayson and raised a hand to the little boy’s cheek.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” his father said. “If it were up to us, we’d let you stay.”
“We want you every day, Grayson,” Caci said fiercely.
“But your grandfather wants you back home,” his father continued. “And your brothers do, too. Don’t you want to see your brothers?”
Grayson’s sobs paused. He thought about Jamie and Alexander, how they’d come to his room at night before they all went to Nash’s room whenever one of them had a nightmare. Alexander had just learned to walk a month or two ago and was now a little terror. But still…
“What about…” Grayson hiccuped. “What about Savannah and Juliet?”
“They’ll be here when you come back,” Caci promised. “Just a few weeks.”
“Maybe next time…” Grayson looked up at his father, who’d paused and was having a silent conversation with Caci. “Maybe next time you can stay the whole weekend. Would you like that?”
Grayson rubbed at his eyes, sniffling, and nodded. He’d never stayed anywhere besides Hawthorne House for a few hours at most, but staying with his father and Caci and his sisters seemed agreeable.
“Okay,” Grayson agreed. Caci’s arms around him tightened. She pressed another kiss to the top of his head.
Grayson’s father smiled. “Okay.” He hesitated, then leaned forward and kissed Grayson’s forehead. Grayson’s eyes were wide when his father pulled back, but when he held his arms out towards his father, the older man didn’t hesitate to pick him up. Caci beamed.
“So, lunch?” she asked, getting up and heading towards the kitchen, grabbing the baby monitor off a side table as she went.
Grayson nodded and laid his head down on his father’s shoulder as they followed.