Chapter Text
Henry comes over in July.
Ted's pretty desperate to see him by then, and not just because they're having a slightly depressing summer in Richmond. Oh, he talks the good talk and he and Rebecca and their respective staffs are spending a lot of time (a lot of time) messing with budgets and revamping their training programs and planning for how they're going to make a comeback next season; but the fact is, that comeback is still a long way off and people haven't stopped frowning sympathetically when they pass him on the street.
Except for the ones who yell things like, "haven't gone home yet, wanker?"
Rebecca's pretty low too, and that doesn't help. She's having a real bad time with the tabloids and Rupert and that's on top of the sponsors pulling out and the minority owners yelling at her all the time. She tries not to take it out on Ted, and in fact she doesn't take it out on him, but the false brightness in her face when she sees him kind of breaks his heart. He actually likes it better when it's late and they've been working too long and she's too tired to look anything but . . . tired.
So anyway he's so grateful to see his son; so grateful to Michelle's sister and her family who decided to take a trip to London to see Harry Potter and were willing to escort him. Technically he could fly as an unaccompanied minor, but it's an entire day of travel and a connection, and Ted can't picture an eight-year-old sitting alone on a plane for ten hours.
Ted does still have to work some, of course, even though Rebecca's bent over backwards to tell him to take time off. So Henry's going to a football day camp a few days a week while he's here, and Ted's just really hoping either the kid turns out to be a football genius or the other kids never figure out who his dad is. That could be a tough road.
They arrive bleary-eyed early in the morning, and Ted hires his old friend Ollie to drive him to the airport so he can pick Henry up in style. His son runs excitedly into his arms chattering about how Aunt Debbie invited him to the Harry Potter studios with them and can he go? and that on the plane he had cookies and watched all three Aladdin movies, which is at least one more than Ted thought existed. Ted manages to thank Debbie and Matt and hug the kids before whisking Henry away, not wanting to waste any of the time they have together.
(He will, of course, let him go to the Harry Potter studios.)
Henry comes home from the first day of football camp confused about what boots are but not crying, and says he's made friends with David and George and Rahim, so that seems all right. They have dinner at the pub and then FaceTime Michelle, and Ted mostly sits across the room out of sight while Henry tells her all about the drills he learned and that the bus to camp is called a coach.
On Friday afternoon they stop by Rebecca's on the way to see the Eye, because Ted needs her to sign a bunch of paperwork that as far as he can tell achieves nothing but giving a file clerk somewhere something to do. Henry is fidgety and ready to go on the giant Ferris wheel, but Rebecca immediately asks him if he'd like to go and explore the garden (actually a small backyard?) and he's off like a happy rocket. Ted hands Rebecca paper after paper as they perch at her table, and they smile at each other when Henry yells, "I see a frog!"
They both wander outside when all the papers are signed, and Henry's lying on his back in the grass staring up at the sky. "I like this garden," he says. "The grass is fluffy."
"I will pass that compliment along to the landscapers," Rebecca says.
"Come on, buddy." Ted can just about pick Henry up from the ground like this, though another few months and he won't be able to manage it. "Gotta get our sightseeing in, 'cause tomorrow you have to work on your summer reading." It's the last thing Michelle says in nearly all their FaceTimes when Ted gets on - make sure he does his summer reading. He's supposed to finish at least five books of approved length and the going has apparently been slow.
"Can I do it in the garden?" Henry asks from Ted's hip, and Ted gets stuck on the fact that his apartment doesn't have a garden before he realizes what Henry's asking. He's about to suggest gently that they can't bother Rebecca, but she's a step ahead.
"Of course you can," she says. Mostly to Ted she adds, "I don't have to go to training tomorrow. And actually I started a novel three weeks ago and haven't gone back to it since. We can have ourselves a reading day."
"Are you sure?" Ted asks, at the same time that Henry asks, "Can I?"
"It'll be fun." She comes closer to give Henry a pat on the arm. "Your dad will tell me what you like for lunch and I'll make sure I have it in."
"Don't worry about that," Ted says, slightly mortified that he's somehow deposited his child on Rebecca for babysitting. "I'll send something with him."
She shrugs, but she and Henry exchange a look as if to say Dads, am I right? It's kind of hilarious but also this is the least depressed she's looked in weeks.
Henry doesn't throw up on the Eye, which is a pretty great victory. Afterwards they stop at Marks and Spencer so Ted can assemble a box lunch for both Henry and Rebecca for the next day. She looks touched when he leaves it, and Henry, with her.
Training goes reasonably well that afternoon in the sense that everyone is more or less listening and no fights break out and no one is injured. But Ted's in his head all day, hoping that Henry isn't driving Rebecca insane.
Rebecca doesn't answer her door until he texts that he's outside. To his relief, she's smiling. She also has a bit of color on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. He asks if everything went okay and she replies breezily, "Fine," as she leads him through to the yard.
Henry's lying on a lounge chair basking like a turtle with his sunglasses on. "I finished The Borrowers," he announces. "And we played Go Fish."
"Your child is a card shark," says Rebecca.
"What does that mean?" Henry asks.
Ted tells him, "Because the shark gets all the fish, right?" and wrestles him until he falls off the chair, giggling and shrieking.
"He can come back any time," Rebecca says.
Ted's honestly kind of surprised that Rebecca actually enforced reading time (though, what was the alternative? letting him go feral in her house?), but just to make sure he settles into the lounger with Henry half on top of him and asks what The Borrowers is about. When he tries to ask follow-up questions, Henry good-naturedly remarks, "That's what Rebecca asked, too," and Ted's heart nearly explodes.
Rebecca, now lying on her own lounger, only comments, "We had a long talk about badgers."
"And I learned about," Henry says, followed by a word that sounds like "hopsicles" but which Ted eventually gathers is "harpsichords," except that of course Henry's never heard anyone say that word other than Rebecca and so he's unintentionally copying her accent.
It's so painfully cute Ted can barely stand it.
The following Friday, as Henry is following Ted around the training center, Rebecca stops them and asks if Henry would like to do his reading with her again tomorrow. Henry lights up, an effect which only increases when Rebecca promises pizza; so Ted gives in despite the pangs of his conscience. It probably is better for Henry to sit quietly at Rebecca's than try to do his reading on the side of the pitch, where they all know he'll be distracted by watching the team practice. Ted just feels bad about imposing on her time and space this way.
When he goes to pick Henry up that afternoon, he lets himself in with the key Rebecca gave him last time "just in case". He can already hear shrieks of joy from the backyard, where, when he steps out the door, Henry is trying to dribble a soccer ball - football ball? - past Rebecca. She's barefoot but looks surprisingly handy with the ball, tapping it neatly with her insteps and then letting Henry steal it back.
Well, "handy" probably isn't the right word. But that's the idea.
"I finished half my book!" Henry shouts as he takes the ball in a circle behind Rebecca which, Ted assumes, she's letting him do. "It's boring!"
Ted meets Rebecca's eyes and sees that she's also laughing at the cheerful way Henry announces this.
On Monday Henry goes to camp, and when Ted stops by for biscuits with the boss he thanks her for watching his son. Rebecca lifts her chin in some surprise and says, "I'm not watching him, I'm just - spending time with him."
"There's a difference?" Ted asks.
"Yes." This is apparently completely obvious, in her opinion. "Watching him would be doing it as a favor to you. I'm enjoying his company."
"Oh," says Ted.
On Friday he's not surprised when Rebecca stops by his office to ask when he's bringing Henry by the next day.
This time when he lets himself in, he hears Henry's voice, halting but enthusiastic, from the back. "The moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself - tree - treek - treekers?"
"I think you're going to have to spell that one," Rebecca says as Ted steps out into the yard. She's stretched out on one lounger with her eyes closed; Henry lying on the other holding a book up in the air.
"T-R-E-A-C-H-E-R-O-U-S," Henry spells.
"Oh, treacherous," says Rebecca without opening her eyes. "It means . . . not trustworthy. Someone who's going to betray you."
"Treacherous," Henry repeats. Then he sees Ted. "Dad! My book was boring so Rebecca got this one! It's about a lion!"
"Wow!" is all Ted can manage, as Henry starts reading again. "He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and has eaten her food. You can always tell them if you've lived long in Narnia, something about their eyes."
He's doing remarkably well, and Ted just stands there in the doorway taking in how much fun he's having; the peaceful expression on Rebecca's face.
"Your turn!" Henry exclaims, holding out the book.
"Maybe your dad would like to read a chapter," Rebecca says. It's the first time she's turned her head to look at him since he arrived.
"Would you?" Henry asks, thrilled.
"Well sure." Seized by some devil, Ted grins at his son and says, "Should I sit with you or should I sit with Rebecca?"
The devil apparently runs in the family, because Henry grins and says, "I think we should all sit with Rebecca."
"Uh-oh." Ted sizes up the lounger Rebecca's lying on and deems it capable of handling the weight. "Someone's about to get Lassoed."
Rebecca's eyes widen with theatrical alarm, but she pretty clearly scoots over on her chair to make room. Ted stretches out next to her and doesn't have time to consider how that feels before Henry is stretched out beside him, mostly on top of him.
"Okay," Ted says, clearing his throat and holding out a hand for the book.
"Careful, dad," Henry says as he passes it over. "It's really old."
It is an old copy, the pages nearly falling out. Ted carefully holds it up and feels both Henry and Rebecca settle in on either side of him. "Okay. 'And now of course you want to know what had happened to Edmund.'"
When Ted finishes the chapter, he closes the book and says with real regret, "Time to go."
"Rebecca?" Henry says after they've all, carefully, climbed off the chair. "If we don't finish The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before I go home, can we finish it on FaceTime?"
Rebecca kneels down to his level and says, "Tell you what. Even if we finish, if it's okay with your mum, we can read the next one on FaceTime."
"Awesome!" Henry says, and hugs her.
Rebecca stands up and hugs Ted, too, and kisses him on the cheek. As he's gathering Henry to go he sees her stop and pause with her hand to her mouth, as if she's just realized what she's done.
"So you had a good day?" Ted says to Henry as they're walking through Rebecca's apartment to the front door.
"I had sushi!" Henry exclaims.
Ted reflexively looks at Rebecca, and she shrugs. "I asked him how he felt about trying it," she says. "He said, 'curious.'"
"Good answer," Ted says, beaming at his son.
"That's what Rebecca said," Henry replies.
"Did he actually eat it?" Ted murmurs aside to Rebecca.
"Oh, yeah. He liked the ones with crunchy bits and sauces best, but honestly, who doesn't?"
Ted leaves wondering how he's going to explain to Michelle that Henry still won't eat broccoli but Rebecca got him to try raw fish.
That's the first night that it comes up - they FaceTime Michelle and she asks if Henry is actually doing his reading or just playing around at the field, and Ted says casually, "Actually he's been hanging out at Rebecca's on Saturdays and doing his reading there."
Michelle's face is still enough for Ted to wonder if she's frozen, and then she says, "Your boss, Rebecca?"
"Yeah," Ted says, wondering if this is the kind of thing he should have mentioned before. Surely Michelle doesn't tell him about every single person who ever watches Henry, though? "They're halfway through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
"Is she reading it to him?" Michelle asks, in a tone that somehow simultaneously conveys that this would be an unacceptable way for Henry to satisfy his summer reading obligations, and her doubt that Rebecca would do such a thing in the first place.
"I think they're taking turns," Ted says. "He sounds like he's doing pretty well."
Michelle's doubt is pretty clear on her face.
It's also that night that Henry says, as he's being put to bed, "Rebecca's your girlfriend, right, Dad?"
Ted freezes a little and just asks, "Why do you say that?"
"Well, we see her all the time and you like her."
Ted nods, rejects language about "men and women" as accidentally homophobic, and says, "But people can be just regular friends, too, even if they're a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman."
Henry considers and says, "So the difference is, if you kiss them and stuff?"
"That's right," Ted says, relieved at his understanding. "Or else you can just be friends. Like mom and Uncle Dan." His friend from Wichita State.
"Mom kisses Uncle Dan," Henry says.
"Right," Ted says, trying to act as if this isn't news to him. "Right. So no. Like . . . mom and Mr. Healy." He hopes Michelle isn't also kissing the scoutmaster.
"Okay," Henry says, fortunately.
"Okay," Ted repeats. He kisses Henry on the forehead and says, "And Rebecca is your friend too. Right?"
"Right," says Henry, smiling.