Work Text:
“Noah, come on buddy please stop crying,” Carlos begged as he bounced the sobbing toddler on his hip.
“Daddy,” Noah whined out again, fat tears rolling down his chubby cheeks.
“I know. I know you miss daddy but it’s okay. He’s gonna be home soon, but I need you to take your nap.”
Noah continued to cry, pressing his cheek to Carlos’ shoulder. Carlos had tried everything on T.K’s mile long list of ways to get him to stop crying. He’d tried milk, pacifiers, skin to skin, everything he could think of. Nothing worked.
“Okay, let’s go for a drive yeah?”
Carlos buckled his son in his car seat, a last ditch attempt to soothe him to sleep. He drove aimlessly while Noah continued to cry. He didn’t even realize where he was going until the 126 came into view.
“Alright Noah, let’s go see daddy.”
“Hey Carlos. Hey little man,” Marjan said when she saw them, rubbing a light hand over Noah’s curls. “T.K, you’ve got visitors,” she called upstairs.
“Who is it?”
When T.K came into view, Carlos watched his face light up the way it always did when he looked at Noah. He took the stairs two at a time to reach them and immediately took his son from Carlos’ arms.
“Hey baby boy,” he cooed, rocking him gently. “Why the tears honey?”
“Well it’s nap time but daddy isn’t home and apparently papa is chopped liver. So we took a drive and ended up here.”
“He did the same thing when you went back to work. It’s an adjustment for all of us. I mean the past four months it’s been all three of us at home. Now he has to get used to us being away from him. It’ll get better, won’t it buddy?”
Noah didn’t reply, just nuzzled into T.K’s neck.
“I’m glad you guys are here,” T.K said, pulling Carlos into a soft kiss. “I missed my boys.”
Carlos wrapped an arm around him, rubbing Noah’s back with his free hand, “Well we obviously missed you too.”
“Who is that I see?” Judd thundered walking toward them. “Is that Noah? C'mere you rascal.”
Noah giggled and held his arms out to Judd. Carlos laughed at how tiny he looked in Judd’s arms.
Noah gasped when he caught sight of the rigs. “Daddy, truck,” he said pointing.
“Yeah. You wanna go see the truck?”
Noah nodded quickly and Judd and T.K laughed, carrying him inside the rig.
“Carlos,” Owen greeted him.
“Hey captain.” He and T.K had been married for almost two years but it still felt weird to call his dad Owen.
“What are you doing here?”
“Some little boy was missing his daddy. Four months and he’s already the biggest daddy’s boy on the planet.”
“T.K was the same way as a baby. It probably didn’t help that I babied him. But he’s my boy and my only kid. He deserved to be babied a little.”
“T.K babies Noah. I can’t say anything because I do too. He’s such a good dad though,” Carlos looked on at T.K playing with their son in the rig.
“You’re a good dad too. That little boy looks at both of you like you’re the greatest thing on Earth.”
“He is the greatest thing on Earth.”
Owen clapped Carlos on the back, “Congratulations, you officially understand what it’s like to be a parent. Give him a couple of years though, you’ll want to choke him one minute and kiss him the next.”
“So basically like with T.K.”
Owen chuckled and waved his son over.
T.K crossed the floor and handed Noah off to Carlos before leaning into his dad’s side. Noah cuddled into him and laid his head on his shoulder. Carlos pressed a kiss to his soft hair before kissing the side of T.K’s head.
He was convinced that he had the best family in the world.