Chapter Text
“John...”
“...”
“John?”
“...”
“John!” The ursid man shot up from his pillow, using his organic arm to hold him up as an elbow embedded itself, rather painfully, into his rib cage.
“Wha’, wha’s it? Wha’s wrong?” He mumbled, blinking tiredly around the room until his vision finally focused on the woman kneeling next to him, still clad in her pink nightgown and her long, brown hair yet to be done up.
“Get up, you need to come see this” she says, unable to contain the wide smile that spread from ear to ear. John raises an eyebrow at his wife but ultimately decides not to question it, stifling a yawn as he rolls onto his back and reaches over to his bedside table where he had propped his arm and leg up against when he went to bed.
“John, hurry up will you?” Sarah urges, already up and at the door.
“I’m comin’, I’m comin’. Don’ git yer panties in a wad” John snipped, taking a moment to secure his arm in place before moving onto his leg.
“Now where the hell did I put me wrench?” John wonders to himself, looking around for the missing tool. As soon as the question leaves his mouth, a familiar blob of pink zooms toward John, shifting into a wrench that was nearly identical to the one John kept on his nightstand.
“Oh tank ye, Morphie” John says gratefully, taking the floating wrench into his hand and using it to tighten a few of the bolts that had come loose sometime during the night. Once he was finished, the wrench changed back into the cute little blob that John had come to care so much about since rescuing him on Proteus-1 many years ago. Morph wasted no time snuggling affectionately against his master’s cheek, chittering happily as John raised a hand to gently nuzzle the little creature back.
“Any day now, John” Sarah huffs impatiently. John rolls his eyes but wisely keeps his mouth shut, not wanting to start an argument first thing in the morning. With a huff and a groan, John hauls himself out of bed, taking a quick second to stretch his stiff muscles, before finally following Sarah down the hall.
John raises an eyebrow when Sarah stops just outside the nursery door, putting her finger to her lips, a silent gesture for John to be quiet, before slowly and quietly turning the knob and cracking the door open just enough for them to peek inside. Sarah chuckles quietly to herself, obviously amused by what she sees, so John moves up behind her, peeking into the room through the crack in the door.
“Wha’ the hell?” John’s jaw practically drops to the floor and his eyes go wide in surprise. Sitting on the circular carpet that covered the middle of the floor is Jim, that much didn’t surprise him, but was did surprise John was the fact that on either side of the small toddler, were the twins, Eli and Annie, awake, out of their crib, and sitting all comfy cozy in their little baby chairs, arms and legs flapping about aimlessly.
At the moment, Jim’s attention was focused on Annie, the bigger of the two twins, his little hands holding up a bottle of formula that the little ursid pup was currently scarfing down as though she had never seen food before. A second bottle, likely for Eli, was left forgotten next to the boy’s seat as Jim focused on feeding Annie, and although he had yet to make any sort of fuss about his feeding, John swears he sees the smaller pup eyeing his breakfast hungrily, a temper tantrum slowly brewing underneath his sleepy demeanor, threatening to cause all manner of chaos should he have to wait much longer.
John is pulled from his stupor by the sound of Sarah giggling, and he tears his gaze away from his children to glare down at his wife, who apparently found this whole situation to be amusing.
“The hell are ye laughin’ at?” John hissed.
“Nothing. Just thought you might enjoy seeing this” Sarah responded, taking another peek through the door and smiling fondly.
“I swear, dat boy never listens to a word I say. How the hell did he even get them outta the crib?” John laments, turning away from the nursery and trudging back toward their bedroom, not at all in the mood to deal with whatever was going on back in the nursery. Sarah quietly closes the nursery door behind her before trotting after her husband.
“Oh come on John, it’s adorable. Just a couple weeks ago you were keeping yourself up half the night, worried that Jim would want nothing to do with the twins because it meant that all our attention wouldn’t be focused on him anymore.”
“Ya, an’ now I’m up half the bloody nigh’ throwing the lad back into his room ‘cuz he can’ leave ‘em alone” John argues, easing himself back onto the bed with a huff. Sarah rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips.
“John, do you have any idea how wonderful it is that Jim loves the twins as much as he does. Most parents would kill to have a 3 year old that wanted to take care of the newborn as much as he does. And even if he is sneaking into their room at night it’s not like it’s hurting anybody and he’s been nothing but good and well behaved ever since the twins were born. So why is this such a problem for you? You don’t honestly think Jim would ever let anything happen to them do you?” John crosses his arms and avoids Sarah’s gaze, remaining silent. Sarah stares at her husband in silence for a moment, before a thought strikes her, and then a wide knowing smirk spreads its way across her lips.
“Or maybe…” she begins, sitting in the bed and crawling over to lean against John “you’re just jealous because Jim would rather spend his time with the twins instead of you.”
“WHAT?” John shouts indignantly, causing Sarah to burst out laughing, falling back on the bed and clutching her stomach as John glared menacingly at her.
“I knew it, I knew it. You are jealous” Sarah says through fits of laughter, clapping her hands together in delight. Morphe flies over to Sarah, shifting into a mini version of her, rolling around in mid-air.
“Jealous jealous jealous” he repeats over and over again until John finally swats at him.
“I am NOT jealous” John states firmly, a scowl etched into his face. Sarah smiles at him knowingly.
“Oh John, don’t be like that” she says, leaning over to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders and plant a gentle kiss to his cheek. “I know things have been difficult the last few weeks because of how busy we’ve been, but we’re pulling through. And no matter how much Jim adores the twins, he’ll always have a special place in his heart for you too.”
John doesn’t respond. Instead he uncrosses his arms and uses his mechanical arm to pull his wife closer to him. Sarah settles herself, into his lap leaning comfortably against his chest. John looks into her eyes for a moment before speaking.
“He’s growin’ up fast. Seems like he needs me less an’ less wit’ every passin’ day, an’ sooner or later he’ll be all grown up, an’ I’ll be noting more dan a pile o’ scraps he wants noting to do wit’” John says grimly. Sarah sighs, wrapping her arms tighter around the ursid man.
“John that isn’t true and you know it.”
“But i’ could be, someday. Think about i’ Sarah, dere’s no bloody fuckin’ way dat boy is stayin’ on a dead end planet like Montressor. Sure tings are good now because o’ all the tourism and business dat’s been going on the last few years, but dat doesn’t mean dere’ll be anyting for Jim. The boy’s a genius. He migh’ not be very big but he’s got more brains and scrap to ‘im now dan I ever did, an’ he’s 3. Mark my words, dat boy’ll rattle the stars one day, but to do dat he’s gotta get the hell outta dis godforsaken place an’ dat means…” John trails off for a moment, biting his tongue to keep his voice from shaking.
“An’ dat means leavin’ me behind.” Silence falls over the two adults, John makes a point to avoid his wife’s gaze. A hand places itself underneath John’s chin and gently lifts it. Sarah, the ever patient, ever kind, ever loving and wonderful Sarah smiled warmly at her husband, moving her hand from his chin to run gently through the tousled brown locks on the top of John’s head.
“Jonathan Benjamin Silver. Your son loves you with every fiber of his tiny little being. He loves you, he looks up to you, and he wants to be just like you when he grows up.” John sighs heavily but Sarah continues before he can speak.
“I don’t know when or where you started thinking that Jim would ever want to abandon you when he gets older, but it needs to stop here. That boy has loved you since the day he met you and absolutely nothing is going to change that. And even if he does decide to leave one day, that doesn’t mean he’ll be gone forever. You’re his hero John, and him taking care of the twins is just his way of trying to be like you.” John’s eyes widen in shock and surprise. Jim trying to be like him? What the hell was Sarah talking about? The brunette rolls her eyes at John’s bewildered expression.
“Oh come on John, don’t tell me you haven’t figured it by now. Jim’s copying you. Haven’t you noticed that all the little things he’s doing for the twins are the exact same things you do for him? Singing them those sea shanties you taught him, feeding them on the floor, climbing into their crib at night to keep them safe. Those are all things you used to, and still do for Jim, don’t you remember?” John remains silent as he remembers back to when he and Sarah first got together, and Jim was still a tiny pup who could practically fit in the palm of his hand. Memories of late nights sat in a rocking chair, singing the infant boy to sleep or feeding him a bottle while sat on the living room floor, or climbing into his crib whenever Jim had a particularly nasty nightmare, wrapping his arms protectively around the boy, a silent promise that nothing would ever be able to harm him so long as his Pap was there.
“Holy shite…” John said, mostly to himself, as the pieces of the puzzle slowly fell into place, and the realization that Jim was abso-fucking-lutely copying him finally crossed his mind.
“I’m surprised you didn’t realize it sooner” Sarah giggled, completely unfazed by the glare John sent her way.
“Well pardon me fer not being able to discern why my eldest son was ignorin’ me fer the past tree weeks, as easily as you could.”
“Oh don’t worry about it” Sarah says, kissing his cheek again. “Just know that no matter what happens, you are Jim’s father, you are the one who raised him and has been there for him whenever he needed you, and although he might need you less and less as he grows up, that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop being your son. Jim loves you and I guarantee that he will love you to the end of his days.” For the first time since waking up, a smile spreads across Johns lips, and he nods in understanding.
“Wha’ the actual hell did I do to deserve a woman like you huh?” He asks playfully, running a hand through her soft brown locks.
“If I’m remembering correctly, I believe you crashed into me in front of a market stall, scattering my groceries all over the place and knocking my 6-month-pregnant ass to the ground. You also might have been drunk at the time” Sarah smirked, chuckling as John rolls his eyes indignantly.
“Oh fer heavens sake, yer never gonna let dat one go are you?”
“Nope. But that’s ok, because even though you almost crushed me flat, I ended up with a kind and loving husband and Jim a wonderful father. And that’s all that matters to me” Sarah says and John’s scowl quickly melts into a smile as she leans forward for a peck on the lips.
Silence falls back over the room for a while, though not as tense as it was earlier, until a soft knock at the door calls there attention.
“Yes? What is it?” Sarah asks, getting out of John’s lap, much to the ursid man’s annoyance. Before she can make it off the bed however, the door opens, and from behind it peeks Jim, a worried look on his face.
“Jim, what is it sweetheart?” Sarah asks, a little concerned that something might be wrong for Jim to come looking for his parents when he was having so much fun with the twins.
“Eli has a tummy ache” the boy says, stepping further into the room, making the unhappy whimpers emanating from the squirming infant in Jim’s arms all the more obvious.
“Oh, poor baby. Come to mommy” Sarah says, scooping Eli up and resting him on her shoulder, beginning to firmly, but gently pat and rub his back.
“Honey, why don’t you go grab Annie and bring her in here to. You never want to leave a baby alone for too long” Sarah instructs.
“Ok” Jim says, turning on his heel and running out of the room to go get his sister. Sarah leans back against the bed, focusing her attention on burping the baby. Just as John things its about time for him to get up and start getting ready for work, Jim trots back into the room, holding Annie who, unlike her brother, had absolutely no trouble going back to sleep after her morning bottle. Instead of heading to Sarah’s side of the bed however, Jim takes the long way around, heading for John’s side. The ursid man smiles as Jim makes his was over to him, taking a second to carefully lift the sleeping Annie up so that John can take her, only to immediately fling himself up onto the bed, burying his hands and face in his belly as Jim drags himself up. John scooches over to give the boy some room, and once he’s up and in no danger of toppling backwards off the bed, Jim settles himself snuggly against his father’s shoulder, one hand gripping his shirt, the other reaching over to wrap around Annie’s, comparatively, smaller hand. John smiles warmly at the touching display of affection, wrapping his left arm around Jim and Annie, and his right around Sarah and Eli.
Any and all thoughts of going to work have been officially abandoned as John settles in comfortably with the rest of his family. At times like this, John often wondered if any of this was actually real, or if this was all just one massive dream his brain came up with to pass the time as he laid unconscious in the hospital, a few limbs short of what he started out with. But as his wife planted one last kiss to his cheek and his children all snuggled in for a few more hours of shut eye, John decided that he didn’t care, and that even if this was all one massive hallucination that he was going to have to wake up from eventually, he was going to savor every goddamn moment of it.
John might not be living the life he thought he’d be living when he was younger, a life filled with wealth, fame, glory, and whatever else he claimed he wanted for himself back when he was still an inexperienced pup. But even after all the shit that life’s thrown at him over the years, Sarah and Jim have stuck with him through thick and thin, no matter how tough things got for them, and the same was true now that Eli and Annie were here.
John might not be living the life he wanted when he was young, but he wouldn’t trade the life he’s got now for all the money on Treasure Planet, or anywhere else in the universe.