Chapter Text
It starts, as expected, with Sam. Luke was the one who went to pick her up while Deckard stayed home, prepping water bottles and snacks for after practice and getting all her things ready. He hears them both come through the door now, Sam chattering excitedly to her dad about the movie and all the things she did with Mary-Ann. By the sounds of it, he’s amazed they managed to find the time to sleep at all. Hopefully Colleen made sure they didn’t actually stay up all night, because no-one wants to spend their Saturday with a cranky, tired kid.
“Morning poppet,” Deck calls from the kitchen where he’s cleaning up the last of their breakfast dishes.
“Deck!” he hears her speed walking towards him and then there’s a pair of small arms wrapping around his middle for a tight hug from behind.
“Hey, did you have a good time?”
“Amazing!” She’s beaming when he turns to properly return her hug. “What did you and Daddy do yesterday, did you have a good time too?” her smile is sweet and Deck leans in to drop a kiss on her curls just because he can.
“The best,” he smiles at her. “And I heard that some of that is thank to you.” She looks confused, so Deck takes one arm from around her, and places his left hand to where she can see it. “Your dad gave this to me yesterday. Look familiar?”
Sam’s eyes grow wide, and her smile stretches even wider, until it seems to reach from one ear to the other. “You got engaged!” She’s doing that little jumping in place dance while she hugs him tightly, squealing happily. “This is just amazing!”
“You told her then?” Luke, who has followed after her into the kitchen, asks, and Sam promptly throws herself to her father’s arms.
“You finally asked him Daddy! Oh, I’m so happy!”
“Glad to know that,” Luke chuckles, lifting her up a bit.
“Did you tell anyone else yet?” Sam demands to know once her feet touch the floor again and the giggles from being spun around subside.
“No, you’re first,” Deck reassures her, and then takes a look at the clock. “Okay, you need to get changed now, poppet. We need to be out of that door in about ten minutes.”
“Aww, but I wanna celebrate this!” she whines.
“Tell you what, baby girl, you go get ready before poor Deck gets fed with us slipping from the schedule, again, and after the practice we all go out for a nice lunch to celebrate.”
This seems like an acceptable offer, because Sam nods and heads to the direction of her bedroom.
“Your things are on your bed!” Deck calls after her.
“Thanks Deck, you’re best!”
“Hhm, I agree with that,” Luke murmurs, wrapping his arms around Deckard’s body and pressing a kiss to that soft skin right below his ear.
“You should, I’m your fiancé,” he answers, tugging Luke down enough to press a kiss to the corner of the Hulk’s up curved mouth. This morning, it seems that neither of them can’t stop smiling.
“Are you gonna tell people now?” Sam asks once they are finally all in the car and on their way, and more than five minutes after the time they should have been.
“About the engagement?” Luke checks her from the rear-view mirror, while Deck turns enough on his seat to see her. She nods. “Sure, no reason to keep it a secret.”
“So, it’s cool if I tell my friends?”
“Of course, if you want to,” Deck tells her.
She smiles brightly. “I want to! This is so amazing!”
Deckard has stopped counting how many times she has already made that declaration. But at least she’s happy about it, so that’s good, not that he actually expected anything else.
“It is pretty amazing, right,” Luke says, his smile just as wide as his daughter’s. Deck smiles because the two most important people in his life are happy. Sam laughs, nodding.
“I can’t wait for the wedding!”
“Well, we haven’t even talked when that might happen, so there might be a bit of a wait,” Luke informs her. Sam makes a face, and then sighs.
“Fine. But can I help with the planning?”
“You better, we need someone with a sense of style to help us,” Deck grins at her and Sam beams. She starts talking about the stuff needed for a wedding, which immediately makes Deck regret that they ever let Lisa and Hattie show her those chick-flick movies, because he’s pretty sure that’s where all this information is coming from. The tirade comes to a close only when Deck spots a familiar car in the lane next to them and point towards it. “Oh, look who’s there.”
Luke glances over, before nodding his hello for the woman behind the wheel while Sam yells excitedly from the back seat.
“Mary-Ann!” Somehow, she makes it sounds like she hasn’t seen her best friend possibly in weeks, when in reality they said goodbyes, not even an hour ago. The rest of the ride is spent with the girls making faces and gestures Deck has no hope of understanding – not that he really wants to – to one another whenever the two cars line up enough for them to do that. He decidedly doesn’t think what that must look like to anyone else who might spot them, but then again, anyone else with kids will understand anyway.
Luke reaches out to capture Deck’s hand onto his bigger one, resting them momentarily on the central console. The Samoan’s thumb brushes gently against Deck’s ring. He smiles, relaxes onto his seat, and enjoys this moment.
The football practice – or just practice, which is how they call it at home, since it’s the only sport Sam does currently and the endless argument between football and soccer only least to frustration between all of them – takes place at the field of Sam’s school. They find parking space easily enough since it’s not too crowded at 9:45 on a Saturday morning. Sam wants to shoot off to find Mary-Ann, but Deck puts the water bottle on her hand, takes the backpack for himself and then steers them all towards the field. Once there, he sends Sam to go with her friends, and receives a kiss to the cheek from Luke before the man makes his own way to where Lenora Hogan – the other parent who coaches the team since Luke can’t always guarantee his presence – is standing.
Mary-Ann runs up to Sam before she even makes it to the rest of the team. Deck smiles at Colleen as she catches up to him and they start towards where the rest of the Dragon Mothers, already in attendance, are gathered on the edge of the field.
“Did you have a good time last night?” Colleen asks slyly.
“I did, and apparently thanks for that, goes partly to you.”
“Well, I was happy to help. But now I want all the juicy details. I swear Mark and I haven’t been on a date since Jody was born!”
“Really, not a single date in the last four years?” he quirks an eyebrow at her. Colleen rolls her eyes.
“Fine, probably a few. But those where friends or family’s weddings or some work functions. Not any nice just-the-two-of-us times, you know?”
“Your life is so depriving,” Deck informs her.
“I know, so at least give me details of your date so I can believe that it’s actually possible to have both family and some romance in your life. Although I might just accuse you that you can still have romance, only because you’re still living in the honeymoon phase, instead of the sad life of being married for twelve years.”
Deck snorts at that. “Believe me, our life is not in honeymoon phase any more than yours is. Unless you count bullets as part of that. Thought the marriage part might chance at one point.” He casually wiggles the fingers of his left hand under her nose and Colleen gives a very satisfying gasp of surprise, followed by a small squeal.
“My God! Is that what I think it is?”
“Depending on if you think it’s an engagement ring. Because then, yes.”
“Deck! Oh God, did he actually propose you last night?!”
“He did,” Deck can’t help the wide smile that spreads on his face from just saying that. Colleen sighs, looping her arm through his and leaning against his forearm.
“Now I really must know the details!” She bats her eyes pleadingly at him, before breaking into a wide grin. “Ooh, tell me he did it all romantically!”
“You will just have to wait and see, I’m sure the others want to hear this too,” he tells her teasingly, before returning the wave Trina sends their way. It feels surprisingly good to have her so exited for him, and Deck finds that he can’t to wait to tell his friends all the details – or well, maybe not quite all of them – but the gist of it anyway. Because he’s happy, and it feels good to have others share that excitement.
He and Colleen exchange the usual greetings with the others, and then chatter idly while waiting for the last slackers to arrive. Surprisingly Emily is the last to hurry to the field, shooing her daughter ahead of herself. She’s cursing her husband when she catches up to them, apparently Mr. Holland had not put away the lawnmower like he was supposed to, but rather left it standing just outside the garage doors so she couldn’t get her car out without moving it first.
“Hopefully you lot have had a better morning than me!” Emily exclaims at the end of her tale, finally taking a seat between Martha and Judy. Colleen is quick to answer, while sending Deck a sly smile.
“Well, Deckard surely had a good morning.”
Sensing a good gossip, like sharks with a blood in the water, the group turns towards him as one.
“Ooh, do tell,” Leticia grins, the others nodding along.
“Mmm. Wonder if I should start from this morning or last night…” Deck teases them, causing a few giggles to broke out.
“Now, that sounds very promising,” Trina says, mouth stretched into a wide smirk. “Start from last night, please, I got the feeling that that’s where the juicy details are.”
“You’d be right,” he grins, flashing his ring and getting immediate reaction from his audience. It takes a while before everyone has gotten their chance to inspect the ring properly and calmed down enough to hear the details.
The story of his proposal surely holds the attention of his friends enough, that most of the “Mommy did you see?” yells that morning, are answered with rather half-hearted and distracted “yeah, good job sweetheart” reactions. That then is followed by a questioning look towards the others, asking if any of them caught what their kid actually did. They all do love their children, but truthfully, it’s not the most exiting hour and half of Saturday morning that they got to spend watching them kick the ball and practice different manoeuvres, and since they are not even doing mock games today, it’s even less inspiring to watch. Truthfully, to most of them, the real fun of sitting on the edge of the field comes from the uninterrupted gossip time, and today the Dragon Mothers have one hot story to discuss.
So, they pick apart the details of Luke’s proposal, and evaluate them. And Deck enjoys it all, because out of all the people who they’ll eventually tell the news, these ladies are the only ones who are completely on his side. They are his friends, without being Luke’s friends, too. Even his own sister is friends with Luke. But these ladies, they have no problem with shredding Luke to pieces verbally, if needed.
So, they go over the surprise date, and the restaurant and whether Luke should lose points for not remembering the flowers – really, carnations shouldn't be that hard to remember – or gain them from his creativity of using the ones in the garden. And then they go back to the ring, talking in length about its style, the fact that it’s the right size and that Sam helped Luke to pick it up. Luke, for his part, keeps shooting apprehensive looks to their direction, likely guessing what they are all talking so excitedly about.
Oh well, he should be used to it by now, since Deck’s never hidden the fact that most practices are used to swapping gossip and recipes – or complaining about their spouses. Last part particularly is rather therapeutic, he’s come to find out, and since Deckard doesn’t trust shrinks but gets to achieve the same results – mainly has a lot less urges to just shoot Luke after having shared complains and stories with the others – his partner should only be happy that Deckard has found friends in this city to talk to.
The practice wraps up with the kids starting slowly dissolve towards their water bottles at the edge of the field. But since these are preteen girls, it will take another good ten to fifteen minutes, and on average three calls, reminders and orders, to actually get them to say goodbyes to their friends and start to move towards the cars. Emily has to hurry again – dragging her daughter behind – to get her son from swimming practice so she can get the twins to barber appointment in time, but the rest of their group is taking their time when starting towards their children, still chattering among themselves.
The ever-fearless Captain America takes an honest half-step back, smiling rather uncertainly as Deck’s friends all greet him with wide, almost predatory smiles. If they are sharks, his Hulk just turned into a small, tasty little fish. Sam crashes into Deck middle, distracting him momentarily from the show of the Dragon Mothers eagerly lining up to exchange few words with his Twinkle-toes.
“Are we going to go celebrate now?” Sam asks.
“I think that that was the plan,” Deck says, tugging one slipping hair bobble off to redo the end of the plat. “Assuming we can extract your father away from them…” he nods towards the ladies now surrounding Luke. Sam giggles, seeing the look on his face.
“I can go rescue him!”
“You do that poppet, and we can go,” Deck tells her and she’s off again, with wide smile and a bounce in her steps. How she still has so much energy, after running around with the ball all morning, he can only wonder.
They end up going to the Diner, because when you have kids, celebration lunch means sugar and grease and just generally lot of unhealthy food. Deck’s not that big on diners, but Luke and Sam love it, so he’s willing to make sacrifices every now and then. He will just balance it out in the number of vegetables on their plates during dinner tonight.
With Sam around, constant conversation last through the whole lunch and all the way to the shop where Deck drags his family before they head back home. He will do the real shopping on Monday after dropping Sam off, but right now there are a few things they need.
Deckard is currently in progress of picking few courgettes when Sam let’s out a happy yelp of “Aunt Lisa!”
Turning around Deckard spots Luke’s sister walking towards them with a shopping basket. They live close enough to each other, so it’s not unheard of to bump into her while running errands, especially since they stopped at the local shop today. And while this is not how he planned this to go – Deck was actually thinking of inviting her for dinner on Monday or Tuesday – he’s learned to just roll with changes.
“Hey,” Deck greets her when Lisa reaches them.
“Hey you, shopping?”
“Just popped in to get a few things, although your brother is taking a long time getting a simple bag of pasta, so I’m starting to wonder what else he might have picked up…”
Lisa laughs at him, starts to say something and stops, her eyes going wide. “Is that a ring on your finger?!”
It’s Deck’s turn to grin while he raises said hand for her to take a better look. “Yes it is.”
“When did he…?”
“Yesterday, I was planning on inviting you for dinner soon to tell you but…”
“It’s beautiful, congratulations you two!”
“I helped Daddy with choosing it,” Sam pips up.
“You did a good job,” Lisa praises her niece before turning towards Deck. “I will definitely want to hear the whole story, but I got to get going now. Dinner soon? Or lunch, whichever.”
“Assuming we don’t get called into work, we could do family dinner sometime next week?”
“Sounds good! We can settle the details later? I really need to go; I’m meeting a friend soon, only just popped in myself for a few things.”
“Just text or call me,” Deck tells her, and Lisa nods, gives Sam a quick hug and continues on her way. Deck turns back toward the courgettes, thinks he hears distantly Lisa give a quick greeting to Luke and soon enough, the man wanders to stand beside him, with the pasta Deck send him to get. And surprisingly nothing else, how long it actually takes to get a bag of pasta?
“You saw your sister?”
“Yeah, congratulated me from our engagement so I take it that you told her.”
“More like she saw the ring and realised what it meant. She was in a bit of a hurry, but we’re having dinner next week so don’t worry, you didn’t miss any of the grilling for details.”
“Lucky me,” Luke rolls his eyes.
Deck smiles up at him sweetly and then sends him off with Sam to get her some breakfast cereal and while they are at it, milk, because they are almost out again.
“Do you think we should call Hattie?” Deck ponders on the way home.
“About our engagement?” Luke checks.
“Yeah, I was thinking maybe skyping her today, since we already told you sister, kind of.”
“I wanna talk to aunty Hattie!” Sam chimes in from the back seat.
“Pretty sure she wants to talk with you too, baby,” the Samoan informs their daughter, before turning towards Deck. “Well, like you said, we already told my sister, it would only be fair to tell yours as well. Why don’t you text her and see if she’s available sometime today?”
Deck does just that and Hattie, who’s a bit of a night owl, says she should be home by eleven. They don’t have anything much planned for the day, so they spend the next few hours simple enjoying their Saturday and by three in afternoon their time – eleven in Hattie’s time – the whole family is settled on the sofa with Deck’s laptop, waiting for his sister to call them.
Sam is squirming impatiently, Luke however, is sitting frozen on the same spot he has spent the last ten minutes in, ever since Deck offhandedly commented how surprised Hattie will be, having had no idea that Luke had even started to plan on proposing. Deck would be lying if he said he doesn’t enjoy torturing his Twinkle-toes from time to time and the opportunity to make him sweat about his sister’s reaction, was just too great to be passed by.
Finally, the call comes and Sam eagerly accepts it, greeting her aunt with wide smile. Deck lets them have a minute together, before even attempting to say anything. Hattie has really taken to this role of aunt and Deck has a sneaking suspicion that his spot as Hattie’s favourite has been taken over by their little girl.
“Hi Hats,” he says, when there’s a short lull in the conversation for him to do so.
“Hi Deck, how’s my favourite brother doing? And hi Luke, too!”
“Owen would love to hear that…” he laughs, and then since it seems like Luke hasn’t quite yet managed to find his words and since Sam’s practically vibrating between them, anxious to let the cat out of the bag, he lifts his left hand towards the camera and, in what is becoming a familiar manner, wiggles his fingers a little. “And to answer your question, I’m doing brilliantly.”
Hattie’s eyes go comically wide as her mouth drops open. The reaction is quite satisfying actually, it’s not that often that Deck has opportunities to surprise his little sister and then enjoy seeing the reaction.
“Deckard! Is that an engagement ring on your finger?!”
“It is!” Sam exclaims quickly. “Daddy proposed to him last night!”
Hattie’s gaze flits to Luke so quickly Deck wonders if her neck doesn’t twinge because of it. “You proposed, without telling me anything about it?!” Then she turns her gaze back to Deck, which is all for the best probably, since Luke seems to be frozen still. That, or Hattie just re-froze him. Anyway, she shouldn’t hold her breath waiting for his reaction, or explanation. “Does mum know?”
“She knows he was planning on it but doesn’t know yet that he did it,” Deck tells her.
“Or at least probably doesn’t…” Hattie says, to which Deck has to nod in agreement. He wouldn’t quite put it past their mother to having someone here keeping tabs on them. “Oh well, let’s see the ring then.”
Deck obediently puts his hand close enough to the camera and holds it there so Hattie can take a proper look. Sam proudly tells her how she helped choose the ring. Hattie seems impressed, although she does points out to Luke, she would have expected a few diamonds. Deck tells her that if she wants to see diamonds in a ring, she can go and find herself someone who to get engaged with.
“Unlikely,” Hattie answers with an eyeroll. Then she smiles in a way Deck has learned a long time ago to be wary of. “So, when’s the wedding?”
The following conversation lasts well over an hour and is uncomfortably full of all the details one should apparently think when planning a wedding. The fact that neither Deck nor Luke has even started to think about when, let alone how, doesn’t seem to faze her. On the contrary, she seems only more determined have them start thinking about it. Also, they can apparently expect her to come and visit them some time in the next few weeks. Well, at least she is courteous enough to inform them about that, instead of just shoving up, unannounced. Deckard wonders how long he can keep the little detail of their engagement from his mother, because he heavily suspect that she will skip the announcing part and he will just one day get a surprise when opening their front door to find his mother there. That is, if she doesn’t just decide to skip that part too and let herself in and he can then walk into his house to discover her making herself home in here.
“Okay, Hattie, I need to go prep dinner now, and you are already up way past your bedtime, so I think it’s time to say goodbye,” Deck informs them finally, cutting in the middle of a debate of flower arrangements, in which he and Luke both feel hopelessly lost in.
“I haven’t had a bedtime in good many years,” Hattie grumps.
“You aren’t being a very good role model to your niece right now,” Deck only tells her. Hattie rolls her eyes, but starts finally the goodbye ritual, that takes a good ten minutes because either she or Sam will suddenly remember some detail they have forgot to share during the last hour and half and the talking starts again.
Deck lefts them to it, saying only “Bye Hattie” before getting up and starting towards the kitchen. Sam’s occupied for now, but in about half an hour she will starts to get hungry and then she starts to beg for a snack, which Deck doesn’t approve right before dinner. He’s found it a lot easier to just plan ahead so he can have the food ready by the time she’s hungry, rather than only start thinking about cooking when she informs him of the fact.
He hears the last goodbyes both Sam and Luke tell his sister, and soon Sam bounces towards him, stopping on the other side of the kitchen island.
“Can I watch something while you cook?”
“One episode,” he tells her. “After that, something else than screen, okay?”
“What if I play the math game? Just until dinner?”
Sneaky kid, Deck thinks fondly. Her math teacher had introduced the class to the game, so it’s actually educational, and he can’t really with good conscience tell her not to play it, if by allowing her to use her tablet for it, she is happy doing additional math exercises.
“That’s fine, but no more screen today after dinner, then.”
“Yep! Where’s my tablet?”
“Ask Daddy to give it to you.”
Luke goes to retrieve the tablet, and Sam disappears into her own room quickly while the elder Hobbs ventures into the kitchen.
“What’s for dinner?”
“What is it for you?” Deck smirks, already guessing his partner’s motive to inquire after dinner.
“Just wondering…”
“If it’s something that needs my constant attention?”
“Maybe,” Luke doesn’t even pretend to hide what’s on his mind, the heat in his eyes and the way his hands sneak to take a hold of Deck’s hips are clear enough sings.
“I’m not having a quickie with you,” Deck informs him, keeping his gaze on the vegetables he’s chopping to hide the look on his own face.
“Even for the celebration of our engagement?”
“No, and I need to stay in the kitchen.”
“Fine,” Luke sighs, and then starts to press kisses to Deck's bend neck. “How about some kissing then? It’s not like Sam will notice anything else that’s going on, until someone removes her from that screen.”
Well, that is true. Which is why Deck doesn’t feel too bad for the long make out session they end up engaging in against the kitchen counter in between him attending to the dinner. After all, they are still celebrating, aren’t they?
“…it just seemed so, don’t you think? I mean, both of them did take it quite well,” Deck glances at his partner, who’s immersed in the baseball game. Because he’s nice like that, he gives Luke a minute to indicate that the man has actually been listening Deckard for the last quarter hour, as he has been going over the reactions of their sisters for the news. No answer. He glares at the Samoan. “And because I’ve been feeling little unwell lately, I took the test today and guess what, I’m pregnant.”
“Hmm, yeah that- I… Deck what?”
“So, you actually do listen to me,” he rolls his eyes at the Hulk’s wide-eyed stare. At least the man has the grace to look somewhat sheepish.
“Sorry, Princess. Of course, I listen.” Luke scratches his neck. “You’re not really…”
“Oh for the love of-! Really?!”
“Just checking,” the Samoan grins.
They go back to what they were doing, but now Luke keeps shooting him – what he probably thinks are surreptitious – looks. They really aren’t, his partner is more of a brute force than delicate spy work kind of man.
“What?” Deck finally growls when it becomes apparent that his partner isn’t actually going to say anything. Just keeps sneaking looks.
“Do you want children?”
The question throws him completely. Deck stares Luke like the man has lost his mind, which, kinda yeah.
“Isn’t it a bit late for that questions?” he asks, gesturing with his hands the candy floss pink t-shirt he’s folding on top of the pile that already has a turquoise top with butterflies on it and dozen other bright coloured, small shirts with distinctly girly themes on them. He puts the shirt down and reaches for the next one – yellow with the text Daddy’s personal Sunshine on the front in cursive glitter letters.
It’s Saturday night, they have started the morning in football practice with their daughter, followed by lunch out and some light sopping and spend the evening playing strategic board games as a family. And now Luke is watching some game and Deck is hanging in the living room with him, folding the laundry he did yesterday while their kid was at school, because he won’t have time for it tomorrow since they are going to the team barbeque, and he doesn’t want to leave it for tomorrow night because he wants Sam to back her backpack and pick her clothes for Monday before bedtime. And his partner is asking him if Deckard wants kids.
“I just meant that did you ever want kids on your own,” Luke clarifies under Deck’s look that clearly questions the sanity of the bigger man. “Before we… Or sometime in the future, maybe.”
Deck keeps staring. “I know I joked on it, but you do realise that it doesn’t quite work like that between the two of us, right?”
“Huh?”
“Pregnancy, you dimwit. You can’t actually get me pregnant, and I already signed up with you for the rest of my life yesterday when I said yes, if you remember.”
“I do, but there are other ways, adoption, surrogate…”
They keep staring at one another. Deck’s feeling lost about where this conversation even came from. They have had a lot of conversations during their relationship, deep conversations, but this one is somewhat a surprise still. Does he, do they, want kids? More of them, that is.
“Do you want more kids?” Deck asks finally, trying to imagine a life with another child. Maybe a baby, or at last a small toddler. One with Luke’s smile and big brown yes. The picture isn’t as scary as he would have thought it to be, before. But with the lives they live now, it’s hard enough for Sam, let alone a baby.
“I never really thought of it, I wasn’t planning to be a father until Sam came along and afterwards, with just the two of us, the whole question of more children never just crossed my mind,” Luke says honestly.
“Well, I decided a long time ago that my life wasn’t one for children, so as long as I was happy doing what I did, there was never even a question of it. And I never had any biological needs for reproducing either,” Deck tells him.
“But you love Sam.”
“Of course I do, but you also notice that I’m no longer living in an active war zone and I have a legitimate employer, which means I’m not in constant danger of being arrested – well, at least most of the time.”
“So you do want children? Or don’t?” Luke looks at him intensely, his game all but forgotten.
“I don’t feel a need for more children, we have a daughter, and she’s perfect,” Deck tells him and Luke grins, agreeing with him. She’s theirs now.
After that, Luke turns towards the game again and Deck starts hunting pairs from the pile of socks that all have different patterns or pastel colours. Sam’s an active kid, and a growing one too, she goes through clothes fast and there’s absolutely no need to buy expensive socks, so Deck has started getting her the packages of half a dozen pairs of cheap ones where they all have different coloured stripes or polka dots or some other patterns. They fill their purpose well, but they are a bit pain to pair, especially since the lighting in the living room is currently dim so pale pink and purple dots and the differences between blue and mint green stripes require some squinting. For a moment Deck’s mind flashes to an image of doing this with two different sock sizes.
“If you wanted to, I wouldn’t be opposite, you know.”
Luke glances him, raising an eyebrow.
“Another kid,” Deck continues, feeling both a bid ridiculous to even be talking about this anymore and at the same time, like they really should probably talk about it more at length. Because this is BIG, and if Luke feels like he might be willing, or if Deck himself might actually want… Well, they just need to talk about it, have to find out where both of them stand on the matter. “I would be okay with it, just, not with the job right now. If we had another, a baby even, then I don’t think I’d be able to do what we are doing now.”
He half expects Luke to make a joke about Deck becoming a housewife, but his partner’s face stays serious, and he nods. “Yeah, I hear you.”
The talk gets put to rest after that, for now, but it feels like they have achieved something again, an understanding to one another. Luke continues watching the game, Deck finishes folding the laundry and then goes to put it away, telling Sam that it’s time to turn off the lights as he goes. Closing the bedroom door behind him, Deck admits to himself that the idea of exchanging the guns and adrenaline to just this domesticity might not be the end of him after all.
He goes to the kitchen and starts pulling out the ingredients he needs for the pasta salad for tomorrow. Team barbecue at the Toretto resident is usually potluck style, due the amount of people in attendance, since they use the term team rather loosely. It’s actually more of a family affair, with the whole group and the kids. That makes him think again. Dominic and Letty seem happy with his little godson, and Mia and Brian have managed to seemingly find content happiness in life where the only guns around shoot nerf-darts or water. So why couldn’t they too? It’s definitely something worth thinking about.
But now, Deck thinks, looking at his new ring as he starts to prep the food, one thing at a time.