Archive of Our Own ^beta

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xxxx

Leonard sighed in relief as he shut the front door quietly behind him before taking his messenger bag off and hanging it up on one of the coat rack hooks. He rolled his shoulders back and tilted his head from side to side, groaning softly at the crackling pops that accompanied the movements. It was damn good to be home, especially after such a long, nightmareish shift at the hospital. He was seriously in need of a million CC's of family time and epic cuddles.

Leonard set off down the hall to see just what his family was up to. He'd worked through most of yesterday evening and into this evening, so it was only about 5 o' clock, and Leonard was in that state of being so tired that sleep wasn't actually going to come for a while yet.

He turned into the living room and stopped in the archway as he took in the scene before him with adoring eyes. He found himself creeping forward quietly toward the couch where Jim was asleep and stretched out across the cushions, head pillowed on the armrest. Aidan was passed out on his chest, mouth agape and mushed to the side from the way his cheek was resting against Jim's collarbone. A trail of drool was seeping into the neck of Jim's shirt at a steady pace and Leonard almost laughed out loud, but instead managed to smother it to whispering snorts.

Jim had his left arm curled around Aidan, his hand resting over the three year old's head, fingers threaded through the messy short brown locks. His right arm was pressed along his own side, the remote to the television in his grip.

Leonard turned around to look at the TV and smiled at the muted picture of rambunctious monkeys running around on the screen. It was one of those discovery channel episodes, something Aidan loved watching, and the louder the animals were, the better. It was at times, completely endearing when Aidan copied animal noises like tigers or zebras, and then at others it was brain-meltingly piercing like when he imitated elephants, monkeys, or wolves.

Of course, Leonard wouldn't change it for the world. He loved every little quirk in Jim, Aidan, and Caleb. His amazing, beautiful boys. It made all the hours at the hospital worth it, and it was infinitely heartening to know he had them to look forward to at the end of his shifts.

Leonard grinned as he grabbed some tissues from the end table before gently grabbing Aidan's chin and lifting it to wipe the drool away. The little boy snuffled softly but otherwise remained deep asleep, lips smacking together a couple times before settling in a closed position, lucky Jim. Seeing as the drooling was taken care of, Leonard straightened up and looked to the stairs, wondering about the location of his other son.

Caleb's brown plaid blanket was crumpled up in the recliner like he had been laying there earlier, but had probably grown bored when Jim and Aidan had passed out. Caleb, despite his Jim-like looks, acted more like Leonard. He was quiet and sometimes moody, often regarding Aidan with the same level of annoyance that Leonard had when he first met Jim during his med school years. Not that it wasn't obvious that Caleb loved his fraternal twin and vice versa, but not everyone got along every minute of the day, especially if you were kids.

Leonard passed by the dining room table where Jim's laptop was open with the screen-saver on. He reached out and closed it before heading upstairs, careful to step lightly unlike Jim and the kids who sounded like a herd of cattle anytime they went up or down.

Leonard peered into the twins' room, noting in exasperation that the tent maze the boys had constructed with Jim's help two days prior had yet to be cleaned up and put away. Leonard grumpily reminded himself to get on to Jim about it later. While the tent maze had been a fun and somewhat constructive thing to do with the kids, it wasn't meant to stay that way. More than likely, one of the boys would end up collapsing it on themselves and someone would end up crying.

“Caleb?” Leonard inquired softly, kneeling by the opening of the sheet-constructed fort. “Hey, bubba, you in there?”

“Daddy?” Came the equally soft reply, before he heard rustling over by the corner of the room that grew closer to the entrance. Leonard only saw a curly blond head before he was suddenly tackled around the waist. “I'm glad you're home. Papa made the TV quiet and I wasn't even tired.”

Leonard smiled and sat back, pulling Caleb into his lap so he could wrap him in a big hug. “What were you doing in your fort, huh?”

Caleb huffed, chubby little arms locked tight around Leonard's ribs. “I was lookin' at my picture books. I like the one with Doctor Teddy Bear.”

“Yeah? I like that one, too.” Leonard said, running his hand over Caleb's head before tickling his sides a bit just to hear the little boy's cute hiccuping giggles. “You wanna help me make dinner, booger bear?”

Caleb pulled away and nodded rapidly, hazel eyes lit up in joy. He loved helping Leonard with everything, even folding the laundry, which thank goodness for that, cause if he had to live with three rowdy mess-makers, he didn't know how he'd survive.

“What should we make for Papa and your monkey of a brother?” Leonard prompted, lifting Caleb into his arms as he stood.

Caleb giggled, clinging around Leonard's neck. “Noodles, please! I mean... uhm... I bet they'd like noodles.”

Leonard smirked in amusement at his son's attempt at being coy as he padded softly back downstairs to the kitchen. “Okay, I don't see why not. Noodles it is.”

“Yay!” Caleb cheered, and Leonard kissed the top of his head affectionately when he noted that Caleb had consciously kept his voice down, mindful of the two snoozing in the living room.

“I think we'll make some chocolate chip cookies for dessert, how does that sound?” Leonard asked as he set Caleb on the counter near the stove but not close enough to risk getting burned by anything.

“Yay times a gajillion!” Caleb responded, wiggling excitedly on the counter. Leonard snickered at his little wiggle worm before handing over a big plastic mixing bowl for Caleb to hang onto. He was already prepared for this to become a messy dinner prep, but the delight on his son's face was completely worth it.

xxxx

Jim woke up to the interesting smell of both pasta and cookies in the air. A slow smile spread across his face at the hushed sounds of his husband mentoring Caleb on his batter stirring. He felt a little bad that Bones was making dinner after being on call for so long, but he knew the other man wouldn't hold it against him. Jim would just make a point to pay Bones back later tonight once the kids had been put to bed.

He let his eyes shift down to the top of Aidan's head, the young boy still fast asleep on his chest. “Hey, monkey.” Jim murmured, wanting to wake Aidan up since dinner would be ready soon and he didn't want Aidan to be bouncing around the house at 9 o' clock cause he'd napped too long.

Aidan grumbled unintelligibly and shifted some.

“Come on, daddy and bubba are making cookies.”

“Huhwuh? Cookies?” Aidan blurted, head lifting and one eye half open.

Jim grinned and ruffled the boy's hair. Cookies was the magic word, of course. “Yeah, let's go see how they're doing.” He said, sitting up and letting Aidan slide into his lap.

Aidan yawned hugely and rubbed at his eyes with curled little fists before looking up at Jim. The little boy giggled the next second and Jim raised a questioning brow at him. “I drooled on you.”

Jim looked down and pulled the neck of his shirt back. Yup... he had definitely been drooled on. “Yeah, thanks a lot.” Jim chuckled good-naturedly as he dived down and blew a raspberry into his young son's neck.

Aidan squealed loudly and did his sneaky snake maneuver, sliding out from under Jim's arms and off the couch where he landed on all fours between the couch and coffee table. Jim laughed as the boy crawled swiftly away, hissing like a cat over his shoulder at Jim before disappearing into the kitchen where he heard his son meow excitedly.

“Hey there, kitty cat!” Jim heard Bones exclaim. “Are ya hungry?”

“Meow, meow!” Aidan responded, dutifully in character.

“Well, I don't think I have any kitty food.” Bones said with exaggerated concern.

“Yeah, kitties can't eat noodles or cookies.” Caleb chimed helpfully.

“Okay, I'm not a kitty no more!” Aidan immediately replied, and Jim chuckled to himself as he stood up and stretched.

“Ah! There's my monkey man!” Bones said, Jim listening as Aidan giggled happily to his husband most likely swooping the little boy up into his arms and... yep, giving him a loud smacking kiss on the cheek. “Ew!” Aidan yelled to which Bones cackled evilly.

“Alright, help me stir this, muscles.”

“Okay!”

Jim walked into the kitchen grinning. Bones had Aidan perched on his hip by the stove, letting the little boy sloppily stir the spaghetti sauce in its pot with a giant wooden spoon. Caleb was sitting on the counter beside them, arms deep in the mixing bowl with a sheet of haphazardly balled up cookie dough chunks spread over it.

“What's up, doc.” Jim greeted, coming in on the side Bones didn't have an armful of kid.

Bones turned to look at him, eyes lighting up happily. Jim would never get over that glow in his eyes when he looked at him. It was a glow that hadn't faded with time, sometimes it only seemed to grow brighter. “Hey, sleeping beauty.”

They leaned together and shared a lingering kiss, the boys giggling quietly.

“Thanks for making dinner, Bones. I'll give the boys their bath tonight so you can relax. And a little something after, too.” Jim mumbled against his husband's lips, his own lips curving devilishly. He gave a teasing nip to Bones' bottom lip as he pulled away, purposely turning from the other man's flushed expression to lavish attention on Caleb.

“Lookin' good, bubba. Those are going to be some yummy cookies.”

Caleb looked up at Jim with a shy smile, his hands in the process of rolling another ball of cookie dough. “They'll be yummy cause, uhm, cause I make them with love, like Spongebob when he makes krabby patties and all the fishies are happy.”

Jim smiled wide, recalling the episode Caleb was referring to. When you were a stay-at-home parent, you became way more familiar with kids' shows than you ever wanted to be. He supposed there wasn't anything to complain about though. Jim actually enjoyed Spongebob, not that he would ever tell Bones. “Are you going to be a Chef when you grow up?”

Caleb splatted his current cookie ball onto an open spot on the aluminum sheet and dug his hands back into the batter. “Uhm, yeah, maybe. Or a doctor like daddy.”

Jim shared an endeared look with Bones.

"Well, I'm gonna be a pilot like Uncle Pike!" Aidan piped up, making airplane noises and almost flinging spaghetti sauce all over with the spoon when his arms winged out but thankfully Bones saw it coming and gently stilled the appendage before it could flail.

"Me and papa are gonna be rich with a pilot and a doctor in the family, huh, Jim?" Bones said with an amused lift of his brow, stirring the sauce himself now and bouncing a grinning Aidan on his hip.

"Yeah, you guys gonna send us on awesome, fun vacations when we're old, saggy grandpas?" Jim said, poking Caleb in the side and smiling when he made a pillsbury doughboy-esque 'hehe!'

"Only if we get to come, too!" Aidan said loudly, hugging around Bones' neck and killing Jim's heart with the utter adorableness of it all. This was definitely one of those perfect family moments that you looked back on and recalled with startling clarity because it had just meant that much to you.

"You got a deal, munchkin." Bones said softly, eyes warm with affection.

The oven dinged then and Bones looked over at Caleb. "Almost done, bubby? The oven is ready."

"I'm done!" Caleb chirped, wiggling cookie batter covered fingers at him. When Jim looked in the mixing bowl it was apparent that he had been done for a little bit but had been playing in the leftover batter coating the bowl. His eyes crinkled happily at the noticeable hearts etched in various places and one that looked like a wrinkly cat.

Jim set the mixing bowl aside and picked Caleb up under his arms to carry him over to the sink. “Let's clean you up so we can set the table.” He said, turning the water on to a lukewarm setting and helping Caleb stick his hands under the flow.

Bones was being his multi-tasking self with Aidan still glued to his side as he lowered the setting on the sauce and then pulled out the fresh batch of cookies that had been baking and set them on the counter to cool. Then he grabbed the second pan and slid it easily into the oven before setting the timer again and moving on to stack the plates on the counter to set the table with, the strainer for the noodles landing beside them with a well-practiced flourish.

Jim got Caleb nice and batter free, and dried him off before setting him to the floor and taking Aidan from Bones. “Okay, let's set the table, boys.”

“Yayyy!” They both cheered, Aidan tearing off into the dining room as soon as Jim set him down and handed him four plates. Luckily, they'd decided early on to just buy some nice plastic dishware while the kids were young to avoid any glass breaking incidents. Jim refused to blame it on himself... so what if he happened to drop stuff a lot... the dishware change wasn't because of him, nope.

Caleb was more reserved, patiently taking the silverware from Jim and doing a strange prancing dance off into the dining room.

“Paaappaaa, you left your lappy-toppy in here!” Caleb called a second later, voice a perfect replica of Bones' 'I love you but right now I want to throttle you' voice.

Jim winced and quickly scooped up the drinking cups, but Bones was already speaking.

“That reminds me, someone hasn't cleaned up a certain tent maze they helped build.”

Jim avoided his husband's eyes and hurried from the room. “I know not of this tent maze you speak of.”

“Jim!”