Chapter Text
It would’ve been nice if they had actually been able to spend the whole day in bed, all snuggled up together without a care in the world. However, with two energetic regressors on their hands that wasn’t a sound option.
Eventually Tim got them all up with the promise of a french toast breakfast and a surprise of his own. Martin and Jon cheered as they sprang up out of bed while Sasha sat up and gave him a questioning look. “A surprise?”
“Yup! I was thinking about it last night. But since it’s a surprise I’m not gonna tell you either,” Tim smirked as he stood up from bed. “I’ll probably head out after breakfast to get it. Could you distract the boys while I’m out? I shouldn’t be too long.”
Sasha glared at Tim before sighing, “I feel like I shouldn’t trust you for some reason but alright. Just… be safe okay?”
“Of course,” Tim said, walking in front of Sasha and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, “Don’t wanna abandon my family by being reckless, now do I?”
Breakfast went fairly smoothly aside from the few hiccups of Jon and Martin somehow getting syrup all over themselves. As Sasha guided them into the bathroom for a bath, Tim took that as his cue to sneak out, grabbing his keys, phone, and wallet.
Once the two boys were all clean and wrestled into new changes of clothing, they spent the morning watching cartoons and Jon showing Martin all the different toys he had while Sasha watched on from the couch.
“These ones are different cars! I got them with Papa when we went to the shop!” Jon excitedly held up two plastic toy cars in each hand, one red and one blue but both very obviously meant for younger children. “Me and Papa like to race them but since Papa’s not here we can race.”
Martin smiled and went to grab for the red car but stopped and looked around the room. Wait, where was Tim? He was just here a second ago. Where could he have gone? His thumb instinctively moved to his mouth and he looked helplessly at Sasha. “ ‘im?”
Sasha smiled sympathetically and walked over, sitting down on the floor next to the boys. “Don’t worry, love. Tim’s gone out to get the surprise he told you two about this morning, remember?”
“Surprise! Surprise! Mama, what’s the surprise gonna be?” Jon exclaimed, bouncing on the spot.
“Be patient, honey. He should be back soon with whatever he was planning. So how about to pass the time we play with-”
The sound of the front door unlocking cut Sasha off and before she had time to process it, Jon had shot up from his spot and sprinted over to the door, nearly knocking Tim over as he entered. “Woah, hey there, buddy. Careful, I have a lot of stuff with me and I don’t want any of it to fall.”
“Sorry, Papa.” Jon said, backing up to let Tim in. He struggled under the weight of several shopping bags but was successfully able to close the door and bring his bounty over to the living room couch. Sasha’s eyebrows shot up at the sheer volume of things that each bag held. They all looked seconds away from ripping and spilling the contents all over the floor.
“Sorry I took a while. Had to stop by a few places to get everything. But now, I have some presents for a certain special boy,” Tim smiled and beckoned Martin to sit in front of the couch. “But don’t think I forgot about my other special boy too.” Jon squealed and clapped his hands, nearly vibrating with anticipation as he sat next to Martin.
“Alright, first thing’s first. I paid a visit to Martin’s old flat to see what I could grab-”
“Tim! What did I tell you about being careful?” Sasha screamed, accidentally scaring Jon and Martin in the process. “Sorry, loves, Mama didn’t mean to yell. But seriously, Tim-”
“Don’t worry. I had an extinguisher with me and I also had 999 ready on my phone if anything went wrong. But luckily, it seemed like J-A-N-E was gone,” Tim slowly and carefully spelled out Prentiss’ name in case Martin reacted badly at the mention of her. “And on top of that, the door was unlocked and I didn’t need to break in. So that meant I was able to grab some more clothes for Martin, but I also went to the shop to buy him a few new comfortable outfits on top of that.”
Tim held up two bags and placed them on the floor in front of Martin who cautiously glanced inside and grabbed a familiar blue sweater from one bag and a soft t-shirt with a picture of a cartoon dog on the front from another bag. He gasped and brought both items of clothing close to his chest, giving Tim the biggest puppy dog eyes, “Tank you!”
“But wait! That’s not all!” Tim grabbed another bag, significantly less filled than the others, and placed it next to the bags of clothing. “I went through your dresser and closet to see if there was anything else, sorry about that. But I was able to find some things you’ve probably been missing.”
Martin tilted his head as he carefully opened the bag and peered inside. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he looked at the bag’s contents: his box of chewy necklaces and toys sat next to a small stack of coloring books and the box of Legos he’d bought one day from the clearance section of a local shop, on top of them a pencil box filled to the brim with crayons and markers and colored pencils, and the journal that he kept his personal poetry in. But none of those were the reason he was close to crying, no.
Tears blurred Martin’s vision as he reached in and grasped his hand around a soft, familiar paw. Carefully tugging at it, he brought the item out and held it out in front of him with both hands. Beside him, Jon gasped and lovingly wrapped Martin into a tight hug.
“Martin! Martin! Is that-”
“W-W-Winnie…” Martin held the yellow bear tight in his hands, squeezing his paws and frantically looking him over as if to check he was really real before pulling him into a bone crushing hug and wailing loudly. “Winnie!”
Sasha and Tim froze, trying to process whether this was a good or bad move on Tim’s end. Jon squeezed Martin once more before standing up and hugging his Papa. “That’s Winnie! He’s Martin’s best friend and Martin was really really sad because he thought he got eated by worms. But you saved him and now they’re back together! Thank you, Papa!”
“T-Tank you… Papa,” Martin sniffled, keeping his Pooh bear stuffy held in a vice grip against his chest.
Tim felt tears start to form in his own eyes before he strode over and pulled Martin into a bear hug, “You are so so welcome, baby. Are you happy that you have your Winnie back?” Martin nodded against his shoulder. “That’s great, then. Well, now the other presents must seem less exciting to you, heh.”
“I’m sure whatever you got them are still great, Tim. And hopefully not too expensive,” Sasha mumbled as she took the bags of clothes into Jon’s (and most likely now also Martin’s) room.
“Yeah, yeah! What’s in the other bags, Papa?” Jon said, his hands already digging into the remaining bag. He gasped as he unceremoniously tipped the bag over, sending various stuffies and toys scattering across the floor.
“Jon! There’s a proper way to take things out of bags,” Sasha stepped back into the room and placed her hands on her hips.
“Sorry, Mama. But I can clean it up!” Jon hopped off the couch and quickly started to gather the toys, placing them near the toy box on the other end of the room.
“Mama!” Sasha whipped her head around to see Martin looking up at her, his plush bear held up for her to see. “Mama, Winnie!”
Warmth flooded into her chest as she walked over and took one of Winnie’s paws in her hand, shaking it and smiling, “It’s very nice to meet you, Winnie. I’m very glad that you’re safe and sound and that you’ll be staying here with us.”
Martin giggled and the sound brought on a fresh round of tears for Tim and Sasha. They watched as Martin stood up and joined Jon in looking over their brand new toys, talking amongst themselves about what they wanted to play with next. Though, Jon did most of the talking while Martin nodded along, holding Winnie tight against his chest.
He was happy. He couldn’t really remember the last time he was this happy. Surrounded by his friends- no, his family, and with Winnie at his side, Martin felt like he was finally home.