Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bravo Cages:

Clay was busy gathering his things in his cage as he listened to all the guys around him plan their evening. “Hey Blondie” Sonny hollered from across the room. “You coming to hang with all the guys tonight?”
“Yeah. We’re meeting up with Alpha later, all the families for dinner, you can ride with me and the kids if you’d like.” Jason added.
“Sorry guys. I’m gonna have to make a rain check. I’ve already got plans for the night.” Clay informed them as he finished zipping his bag, grabbing his jacket, and turning to lock his cage door.
“What you found another group of people to paint the town with?” Sonny asked with only a little actual offense in his tone.
Clay chuckled “Yeah Son. Something like that”.
“Well, we don’t know where we’re going yet, but if you change your mind we can text you our location and details,” Ray said kindly. Clay slung his bag over his shoulder, nodding his head in a quick thanks towards Ray, saying a quick goodbye to the rest of the team as he exited the room. Once Clay had made it back to his apartment, he stripped off all of his clothes and hopped in the shower. After lathering up and cleansing himself of all of the grime that had built up over the recent mission he stepped out of the warm shower. Clay dried off and pulled on a pair of clean jeans; then he walked over to his closet and picked out a red T-shirt, and put on a pair of boots. After taking a quick glance in the mirror to make sure he was looking presentable Clay grabbed his keys and walked out the door.
Fifteen minutes later Clay was standing on the front porch of a little white house, which he was all too familiar with. He knocked on the door, hearing a faint, but excited “coming”, he took a step back. He heard the padding of tiny feet coming to unlock the door. Seconds later a little boy leaped from the ground into his arms

“Uncle Clay!! The little boy exclaimed

“Hey B, how are you buddy?” Clay said

“I’m good… guess what?”

“What?”

“I’m four years old now!”

“No! You’re not four years old! No way I don’t believe it” Clay teased as he started to tickle the young one. Suddenly a woman appeared in the doorway, a smile reaching her face as she listened to her son’s laughter. Noticing the women, Clay put the boy down, ruffling the brown mop of hair on top of his head.

“Clay”

“Hey Angie”

Looking at the boy the women said “Brian Armstrong Jr. what’ve I told about answering the door by yourself”

“But Mom, I knew it was Uncle Clay” the boy argued

“Yes it was, but what if hadn’t? Gotta listen to your mom bud” Clay said to the boy.

“Okay… I will” Brian replied sheepishly

Making eye contact with Clay and mouthing a quick ‘thank you’, Angie ushered the two males inside. Clay followed the women into the kitchen. He saw boxes full of party decorations and a beautifully decorated cake sitting on the table. “Josie Leigh!! Your uncle Clay is here. We’re about to leave!” the women hollered up the stairs.

Clay turned around and started placing the rest of the party supplies into the remaining boxes before picking them up and walking out of the home, setting the boxes in the back of Angie’s car. Turning, he saw Angie and Brian exiting the house, the cake in Angie’s hands. Behind them was an older little girl, Josie.

“Hey Uncle Clay!” she exclaimed

“Hey Jo Jo Bug. Long time no see” he greeted as she ran over to give the man a hug.

“Mommy, can we ride with Uncle Clay?” One of the kids asked

“Well my car is pretty much full of the supplies, I’m okay with it. So I guess you’ll have to ask your Uncle Clay if it’s alright with him.” Before the kids could ask, Clay had already given them a positive answer. Then he walked over to Angie’s car and grabbed the two car seats, safely securing them in his. Once he had got the children situated in the car, Clay headed to the restaurant.

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“Alright Derek, We’ll see you there” Naima heard her husband say as he hung up the phone. Al l the guys had been conversing on the phone occasionally for the last couple of hours trying to make plans for the evening. Naima smiles as she walked by Jameelah’s room, seeing her daughter happily pick out her outfit. Her children were so excited to go out tonight, it had been a very long time since they got to see so many of their aunts and uncles in one place; plus all the team's children were very close.
Ray walked into the hallway. “So we’re all going to meet at this restaurant in about a half-hour. None of the guys have ever been there, but Trish has a couple of times and has nothing but praised their cheeseburgers.” Ray informed her.
“Okay well Jam is already picking out her outfit, has been for the last hour” Naima replied.
“Oh so what you mean to say is well be picking up every article of clothing the girl has here in a little while”
Naima laughed “Pretty much, but she’s excited so I can’t get too upset”.
“True.

Fifteen minutes later the Perry Family was on the road headed to meet up with everyone.

Chapter Text

If Clay had to name his favorite activity to do when he had downtime, it would be doing literally anything with his godchildren. Clay had been in Josie and Brian Jr's lives since before they were even born, and he planned to one day embarrass them by telling stories of how he used to change their diapers when they were babies. Clay loved spending every moment he could with little Brian and Josie even if it was just little things like picking them up from school and helping them with their homework, but he was especially glad he also got to be around for bigger events like birthdays and other significant holidays. No matter what, Clay spent the time they were together with a big smile on his face and a warm heart.

After reaching the restaurant Clay, Angie, and the kids began decorating the party room with dinosaur-themed tablecloths, streamers, and placemat cards that had Dino jokes on them. Clay’s personal favorite dinosaur joke was “You should never get in a fight with a dinosaur because you’ll get jurasskicked”. He was not too surprised to notice that the joke was not included in the decorations. However, the most extravagant part of the party was up to Clay, and Clay alone.

Jason was the last to arrive at the restaurant with Alana, Emma, and Mikey. Someone had called ahead to make a reservation since there was going to be such a large group joining them, and the rest of the team, plus Derek and Full Metal from Alpha were already inside. Jason had been to this restaurant multiple times over the years and was met with smiling faces and pleasant welcomes from the staff and owner. All of the team members had been seated for a few moments and the waitress had started to ask their drink orders.  Jason told the waitress what he wanted and began to navigate his way to the bathroom. As he rounded the corner, he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. Now, Jason Hayes was not an easily surprised individual; however, it was not every day that he saw his youngest team member through the eyes of an inflatable T-Rex costume.

Clay stood in the bathroom waiting for a text from Angie stating it was his time to come inside. A few weeks back as he and Angie were planning Brian Jr’s party, they came up with the idea to surprise him with an inflatable dinosaur suit. A perfect surprise for a four-year-old absolutely obsessed with the pre-historic animals. Clay stared at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, dumbfounded at how he ended up here, bending over backward to make a few kids smile. His best friend has been on his mind a lot today, Clay knowing if Brian was still here, he would be seeing two men in inflatable dinosaur suits in the mirror. Breathing in deeply he exited the bathroom, sending some quiet thoughts of how he hoped he was honoring his friend in the best way, through his son. He only made it a few steps before coming to a stop, nearly running into someone, he started to apologize, when suddenly all the air in his body left him.

Oh God Clay thought.

He was standing face-to-face with his boss. Squinting through the plastic eyes, he could feel his face begin to heat.

“Clay?” his boss asked curiously. A chuckle of humorous disbelief following

“ummm, uh Boss, Hey, what are doing here?” Clay sputtered, mentally berating himself for his loss of speech control.

“What are you doing here Clay?” Jason replied, not even trying to hide his humor, as he gripped the back of Clay's costume and began to lead him down the hallway.

“Hey guys look who I just found” Jason announced loudly as he entered the room adjacent to the bathroom. A room Clay was now realizing held all of Bravo and their family, and most of Alpha and theirs. Suddenly all eyes were on him, and a brief second of silence followed before the room erupted. Bellowing laughter, whistles, and snickers filled the air.

“Well looks like our rookie decided to show up after all,” Sonny exclaimed.

“Aren’t you a little old to be playing dress up little Spenser” he heard one of the Alpha team members say.

Clay just stood there as both teams took turns getting creative in criticizing his “outfit choice”.
Then he felt a sudden push into his legs, tiny arms wrapping around him.
Clay looked down and saw Brian Jr, face angled up towards him and the biggest smile on his face.

“You guys’ better stop making fun of my uncle Clay, he’s just trying to be nice for my brother’s birthday” Clay heard Josie's voice pipe up. Turning his head to find her in the doorway, Angie was standing behind her, clearly trying not to smile. Unaware if it was because of his humorous situation or over her children’s clear protectiveness of their Uncle Clay.
The room fell silent as all of the team members looked from the doorway, down to the little boy, still attached to Clay's leg, and up to Clay.

After a few moments, Clay found the strength to speak.

“Umm everyone this is Angie, Josie, and Brian Jr” Clay said pointing to each of them “It’s uh, Brian’s Birthday, and he really likes Dinosaurs."

He looked around the room and saw the realization hit his team members and a few of their family members, who had no doubt heard of the tragic training accident that had occurred a few months before Clay had joined Bravo.

After a few moments of silence, Jason turned around and faced Clay. Looking down on Brian he began to speak.

“It’s your birthday? How old are you turning?” he asked.

Brian looked up at Clay for reassurance as Clay nodded.

“Four” He replied sheepishly, hugging Clay’s legs tighter.

Jason smiled, “Wow, four? That's a pretty big number!”.

“So, if you had to pick what would say is your favorite dinosaur.” He heard with a southern drawl that could only be Sonny’s.

Clay could feel Brian giggle a little and he began to loosen his grip and turn towards the other people in the room.

“A T-rex, obviously” he replied with a lisp that made others in the room grin.

Over the next few moments, Clay listened as Brian Jr named every fact he could about the species and his team members listened with intent. Clay stood, looking around the room, at Bravo, Alpha, and his best friend’s family. Watching his two worlds colliding he felt more content than he had in a long time.