Chapter Text
Thomas stared at his phone. It had been a week since 'the event', a week since he had gone to work, a week since he promised Dolley he'd get back in touch with his siblings. Sure, he'd had his ups and downs during the week of getting used to living with four kids, and said way too many sentences that he'd never even thought possible. but he'd also learned a bit about each of them, and how they differed, and yet remained quite similar to their adult selves.
Alex would add his opinion to literally anything and everything that was said, but he was the boy with the most normal sleep schedule much to Thomas' surprise. The kid went to bed at 7:30 every night and woke up at 7:00 every morning.
John was the rash one, never thinking before acting and Thomas had quickly learned to anticipate his many tricks. He was always the first one up in the morning, and the last to bed, effectively keeping Thomas on his toes at all hours of the day save a few when he was napping.
Gilbert, though small, had boundless energy, he'd run till he dropped, scaring the living daylights out of Thomas the first time that had happened.
And Aaron was the most chill baby Thomas had ever met. He had only heard him cry once, and that was when he'd accidentally knocked his little head on the doorframe, causing tears on both ends, and a trip to the emergency room. And while he was there, he found out that Aaron was much younger than Dolley had guessed, only two months old. Thomas had also found that he loved to have skin to skin time, though the only time he could really get comfortable with the baby was after the older boys had gone to bed, and in the early mornings before they got up. So that was how they were now, Aaron on Thomas' bare chest, clad in only a diaper, as Thomas worried about the day to come.
After Thomas' constant avoidance of his calls and email for the past week, George had invited (read ordered) Thomas to come to his house for the day to 'talk'. And Thomas was nervous not only because he had not taken the boys more than ten minutes from his home, but also because he hadn't the nerve to tell George what had happened. He was scared that George wouldn't believe him, or that he'd think that he had done something to cause it, as he and Alex had never had the best history together, though they had recently managed to put aside their differences long enough to start a shaky friendship, they still had quite a bit of tension left over from past conflicts. And while he was waiting for the boys to get up, he tried to muster the courage to text his sisters. Dolley had added him to the group text, but he had been avoiding it. He had no idea what to say, where to start. So, he just stared until he heard noises from his bedroom that told him the boys were up. They were sleeping in there until the renovations on the rest of the bedrooms in his home were finished.
Thomas sighed and placed Aaron back in the bassinet. The baby looked at him with his wide brown eyes. "I'm sorry, but there's a million things I need to do before we go see George."
Thomas had decided to feed the boys a quick breakfast, then give them a bath so they would be as clean as possible. Alex was ecstatic at the prospect of a bath, John was not, and voiced his protests loudly as Thomas ushered the three older boys into the bathroom. He figured that it would be easier to bathe three at once and then do the baby, then to have two little boys needing him while he was unable to leave the wet one.
"Can we have bubbles?" Alex asked excitedly.
"Sure." Thomas was in no mood to listen to any protests as he lifted a screeching John into the tub.
"NO! NO BATH! NO BATH!"
"No bath!" Gilbert copied.
Thomas sighed. He really had not thought this through.
Fortunately, it turned out that the actual bathing part was not as bad as he anticipated. Unfortunately, He left the boy's clothes in the bedroom, and had to carry two naked boys across the house, Gilbert because he couldn't be trusted not to wander away if something caught his interest, and John, well he just wouldn't get out of the tub despite not wanting to get in. Thankfully, Aaron was easier.
Thomas flopped down on the couch, it was only 9:00, and he was already exhausted. But he still had to drive to George and Martha's. He was not looking forward to 40 minutes of screaming, then having to explain why he had four of his coworkers de-aged into small children with him.
“Alright guys,” Thomas said more cheerfully than he felt. “We’re going to go and see my boss from work, okay?”
“We’re going on an adventure?” Alex chirped.
“Yes.” Thomas replied. “So, can you go potty please Alex, it’s a long ride there.”
“Okay!”
Thomas then looked to John. “Sometime I’ll get around to potty training you.”
John glared back at him.
35 minutes into the ride, Thomas was grateful for a slight break in Gilbert’s screaming. Then He heard gagging.
“Gilbert’s throwing up, Papa.”
“Thank you, Alex. I can hear him.” Thomas replied, he swallowed hard and was glad he had quickly learned to keep a spare set of clothes in the diaper bag for each kid.
He pulled into the long driveway of George and Martha’s home and steeled himself. He pulled a handful of napkins he had stored in the little drawer in front of the passenger seat and went to clean Gilbert up a bit. Alex unbuckled both himself and John, whose fingers were not quite strong enough to work the seatbelts.
“Alex, can you hand me Aaron’s blanket please?”
“Okay Papa!”
“Thank you.”
Thomas tried not to gag as he wiped as much of the vomit off of Gilbert with the napkins as he could before picking the little boy up using Aaron’s blanket, he always kept an extra blanket for the baby, and today wasn’t super chilly. Thomas was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that George had come out and was standing beside him. He turned and gave a high pitched shriek.
George chuckled. “That never gets old.”
“And it still isn’t funny.”
“Need some help?”
Thomas nodded. “Could you get Aaron?”
“The baby?”
“Yeah.”
“We’ll talk about how you came into possession of four kids when we get inside.”
“Sir, these children are Hamilton, Burr, Laurens, and the Marquis.”
George raised an eyebrow. “Then we’ll talk about how this happened.”
When they entered Washington's home, Martha immediately fussed over Gilbert. “Poor baby, you just give him to me and we’ll make sure he feels better.”
Thomas handed her the boy and his bag. “He has extra clothes in here. Are you sure you’ve got him?”
“Thomas, I’ve cared for kids since before you were born, I think I can handle a little puke.”
“Why don’t we go sit in the living room Thomas, and you can explain.”
Thomas swallowed hard. This was the part he was dreading. He followed George to the sofa.
“So,” George asked gently. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t really know sir. They just came over to go camping in my yard, and there was this storm, and I went to check on them and they were children. And I have no idea what to do!” It all came out in one rush of words, and Thomas didn’t realize he was crying until George pulled him into a hug.
They sat like that for a few minutes before Thomas pulled away. “I’m sorry.”
George sighed. “I have to tell Alexander this all the time, and I’m telling you now. It’s okay to cry. You don’t have to keep it all looked up inside.”
“Alex was always bad about that.” Thomas remarked.
George chuckled. “No, and Aaron’s just as bad. In fact, I think the only one who wasn’t was Gilbert.”
They were interrupted by Alex, who was covered in flour. “Papa, Nana and us made cookies. And she says to get in there if you want some.”
“Tell her we’re coming.” George stood up, and held his hand out to Thomas.
“You better hurry, or we’ll eat all of them before you get there.” Alex said seriously before scurrying off to the kitchen.
“Do you think they'd actually eat them all?” George asked.
“Alex has a bottomless pit for a stomach.”
Both men laughed before heading into the kitchen.
“So Thomas, what are you going to do for work now that you have the boys?” Martha asked.
“I’m not really sure yet. Dolley offered to watch them, but she has to work too.”
“You only work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, don’t you Thomas?” George commented.
“Yes, shouldn't you know this as well as I? You’re my boss.”
“Well, what I’m thinking is, you bring the boys to work with you on Fridays, it’s only half a day then, and everyone there will be willing to keep an eye out for them, and it would stop all the questions of where they are too.”
“I’m okay with that, but what about the other two days?”
“You just drop them off here!” Martha said gleefully. “I don’t have anything to do those days that I can;t take them along with me, and it would be nice to have children around the place again.”
“Well, I guess that’d work.” Thomas said hesitantly. “And your house is on the way to the office, I don’t want to bother you though.”
“Thomas, we both know you just don’t want to let them out of your sight.”
“Okay, you got me there. It’s just that, well.” Thomas stopped, searching for the right words.
“You feel responsible for what happened?” George offered.
“Yes.”
“Here, We’ll make a compromise, You can take Aaron with you, and Martha gets the older boys.”
“Fine.”
“Now, with that settled, how are they handling the transformation?”
“They don’t remember anything sir, but seem to be settling in well.”
“Good.”
Thomas was able to get George and Martha up to date on all the events that had occurred since he had taken in the boys. Martha was delighted over the fact that they would be with her for two days every week, and if she had her way, they’d be over for dinner on weekends too.
The boys all adored her, and they adored George too, especially Gilbert. Noone was surprised when he insisted on being attached to George the entire time they were there. Alex and John were content to ‘help’ Martha cook. All three were sad when Thomas said they had to go home. They bightend when told they would get to come back and see Nana tomorrow. Thomas suspected that Martha had convinced them to call her that. She had also convinced them to call George Grandpa, despite the fact that George thought that made him sound old.