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“Got the brat down” Mickey made his way into the bedroom. He beelined towards the bed, immediately collapsing into the mattress beneath him. A little theatrical but Mickey felt that it was warranted considering the day he had.
Ian gave a little chuckle at the dramatics of it all. His attention went from the computer balancing on his drawn up lap to watching Mickey run a frustrated hand over his face before recuperating. He had landed next to Ian’s drawn up leg. His hand blindly reached out to grab Ian’s thigh. He squeezed it once, then twice settling back down to Earth. “Fuckin kids man” He finally managed to huff out.
Mickey had unceremoniously been throttled into the role of babysitter for the day. The kids had a stupid teacher workday meaning they got to stay home all day. Mickey, who had decided he would stay home with Ruby - Ian was just getting out of a pretty serious depressive episode and insisted that he worked for lost time.
It was barely 9 AM when Mickey got a phone call from Tami. She was feeling extremely under the weather and asked if Mickey could watch Freddie and Robbie for the day knowing he was home with Ruby.
His first question was of course in relation to the baby. In the most guileful way he could, as to not freak her out, he hinted if her sickness had to do with the baby in any way. The baby that Tami was currently harbouring for Ian and Mickey.
She laughed a little “Lip and I already ruled that out”. Mickey didn’t like to wallow on the fact that he technically had the same baby mama as Lip so he hesitantly took her word for it. She shrugged off any concern as she tried to assure him that she wasn’t far along for it to be anything baby related. Probably instead just a case of a bad taco.
So Mickey picked the kids up, told her to feel better. Spent the day with his two nephews in conjunction with his daughter. They were all pretty well-behaved kids as it was but that didn’t make the day any less tiring trying to keep up and entertain three kids under ten. He managed by himself. At least the whole day, as much of a whirlwind as it was, reminded Mickey that he was going to be able to take care of two kids once the baby arrived. There was a little peace of mind over that fact.
The day was over. Freddie and Robbie had been dropped back off with Lip a few hours ago. Everyone was showered, fed and put into their pyjamas back at the Gallagher-Milkovich home. Ruby was now down for the count snug in her own bed. It was just a matter of settling in for the night and turning their brains off. An easier said than done task for the two patriarchs those days.
Mickey ran a hand over his face a few times, collecting his exposure once more. He pushed himself up with his arms, slowly snaking up to sit shoulder to shoulder with his husband against the headboard. “Whatcha doing?” He gave a tired huff, lazily trying to steal a few glances at Ian’s computer screen.
He didn’t have to try hard, Ian immediately tipped the screen in his direction. “Looking at baby shit” Ian gave a little sigh. “Feel like I haven’t contributed anything to her nursery”
Mickey tipped his head over a little more, staring up through his lashes to see Ian’s pained look. There was a certain sadness that painted his expression in a subtle way. He figured if they hadn’t been together for so long he wouldn’t have been able to pick up the minuscule details of his guilt. A slightly curled bottom lip, brows creased just enough to create a tiny wrinkle between them, sad eyes.
He knew that Ian was still feeling the guilt of the lack of his involvement for the last few months. He tried his hardest to remind him that he wasn’t harbouring any resentment towards him. Ian was sick. He couldn’t do much then. He was fine now and Mickey knew he was trying his hardest. That’s all that mattered.
“Hey, S’okay” Mickey reaches his hand outward, landing on the same patch of skin as it did earlier. He ran his hand over Ian’s upper leg a few times over, watching as he relinquished some tension in his stiff shoulders.
“She ain’t due to pop out for another few month” Mickey squeezing hard. Securing Ian’s overactive mind back to Earth. “Don’t gotta worry so much about it”. Another squeeze.
Mickey knew his words were performative. That as much as he wished he could sear that phrase into his husband’s brain and make him believe in that. Alas, he knew that no matter how many times he had to remind Ian that they were in a good place together. that they didn’t need to be stressing, Ian would always harbour some worry. He understood that all too well. He was always going to be worrying too. He just wished he could take that stress off of Ian’s shoulders.
Ian must have been able to pick up on that as his hand snaked down to meet Mickey’s fingers immediately interlocking. “Yeah” he sighed. His other hand pushed the lid of the laptop down giving Ian the chance to look over the baby wraps one last time before the screen went dark. He lazily transferred the computer over to the nightstand, giving Mickey’s hand another squeeze. Ian pulled their hands up, a soft tender kiss landed on Mickey’s knuckles.
“I promised Ruby we’d go to the park tomorrow” His speech was slightly muffled by Mickey’s hand still pressed firmly against his top lip. “Maybe we can take the time to try and come up with a name?” His voice was meek, still so unsure.
The unwarranted shyness of his tone brought an instant smile to Mickey’s lip. “Sure thing tough guy” He wrangled his hand free immediately reaching up to push a few stray hairs off of his husband’s forehead. He played with his overgrown hair for a second, taking the ends and twisting them in between his fingers.
“Probably gonna take us a few hours. Ruby will love that, might colonise the whole fucking playground in that time” A more teasing grin replaced his previously sweet smile. He patted Ian’s head a few times before his arm returned next to him. Ian reciprocated a smile that time around as he leaned down placing a hard and sure kiss on Mickey’s lips.
“Let's go to sleep before Bee gets any ideas” Ian pulled away. They were still in the process of weaning her out of sleeping in the ‘daddies bed’ phase. She would try to sneak in every night, snuggle in between them. A habit they were trying to cut short of happening before the baby arrived.
For what it was worth, they did manage to get a few good hours of sleep in. It wasn't until a few hours later that Ian was slowly lulled awake by a persistent noise. His immediate instinct was to call out for Ruby. She was usually the culprit of any middle of the night racket.
Once she didn’t call back, Ian peeled open his very tired eyes, trying to figure out what was waking him. It took him another second of intense listening before he realised it was his phone vibrating from beside him.
“Fucking hell” He grumbled out a slow breath. He blindly reached towards his nightstand, almost dropping his phone through a yawn.
He squinted at the phone. The entirely too bright screen illuminated his scrunched expression. His mouth instantly went dry the second his tired eyes managed to focus on the caller-ID. Lip. There was no good reason anyone would be calling them in the middle of the night. Especially not his older brother, the husband of their surrogate. He could barely swipe to answer with shaky hands.
Ian turned his head, squinting to see the 3:45 am. His phone then rose to his ear. He managed to croak out a sleep-heavy “Hello?”
“Ian” Lip’s voice was rushed, uncharacteristically stern, clinically cold. He took a moment. Sucking in his lips, breathing through his nose in order to brace himself for the news he was having to deliver. “Tami just went into labour”
At that moment he felt his entire body cold. Yet somehow at the same time, he felt a warm wave go over him, a layer of goosebumps settling in its wake. Every nerve ending in his body was fighting to take charge, but he couldn’t move. He felt frozen. paralysed by a newfound fear that he wasn’t going to be able to shake. He tried to swallow. His mouth was suddenly full of cotton riding him off any of his natural coming senses.
He made a fist, pressing his nails deep into the palm of his hand to ground himself. He was brought back to reality as he felt his skin break. “It's too early” was the only thing he managed to make out. He didn’t realise he was on the verge of crying till the tightness of his throat stifled his speech.
He could hear Lip shuffling on the other side of the line. Trying to give Ian a little time to process. At a loss for what was supposed to be said after you tell someone that their baby is coming eleven weeks earlier than expected. “I’ll text you all the hospital information if you and Mick wanna come now. I-”
“If we wanna come now? The fuck Lip? Think we’re just gonna sit around and not be involved? Of course, we’re coming that’s our fucking baby” Ian bit his bottom lip before any other venom-filled words could slip out. He really didn’t mean to snap but the stress was already eating away at him. He swallowed again, trying to get his throat to stop constricting. “F-Fuck I’m sorry didn’t mea-“
“Don’t worry about it” Lip solemnly cut off. Ian went quiet, not daring to say another word. He didn’t think he could formulate something to say even if he tried. Luckily Lip managed to chalk up everything that he knew, which granted wasn’t a lot. He said that Tami apparently was having contractions all day. She didn’t think they meant anything as she had bad Braxton-hicks her entire pregnancy with both Freddie and Robbie.
It wasn’t until she woke up a mere twenty minutes ago and her water broke that she was concerned. That left them exactly where they were now. Both were a little scared, definitely unsure.
The sleep completely rid itself from Ian’s body the second Lip started to talk, he felt pure adrenaline take over his senses. Lip said they were in the car, a few minutes out from the hospital. He formulated a plan with Ian.
Since Freddie and Robbie were lugged out of the house with their parents, Lip would wait till Ian and Mickey arrived at the hospital. Then switch off so they could be home with Tami and Lip could take the boys home to Mr Tamietti who said he could be at their house in an hour's time.
They figured that they still had at least a few hours before the baby came out and everything would be fine as long as they were at the hospital. Maybe a little naive in their plan but their sanity couldn’t handle anything short of assuring themselves everything was going to be okay. That the baby and Tami were okay.
The brothers went their separate ways. Instantaneously Ian was scrambling to get out of bed. “Fucking hell” The sheets went flying off of him as he immediately rose to his feet. “Fuck” He collected the loose pair of clothes scared sporadically around the room.
He stumbled through the darkness not caring what he was currently tossing onto his body. Then in his sleep-hazed furry it finally occurred to Ian that he forgot to wake Mickey.
He stumbled over his two feet trying to land by his husband’s side. He aggressively shook him awake, to the point that once Mickey came too he had to push Ian’s hands off of him.
“What’s happening?” Mickey was pretty quick to catch onto Ian’s painstaking expression. Ian was half-convinced that his heart was beating so loud in his chest was audible to Mickey too. “Tami’s water broke, we gotta get to the hospital”
“Fuck” Mickey repeated his husband’s early sentiment. He wasted no time in collecting himself. He stopped for just a second, grabbing the half-full diaper bag they had prepared from the back of their closet.
He locked eyes with Ian across the room who was scrambling to turn the light on. Mickey blinked back any tears that threatened to spill. The same question was on repeat in his head. He couldn’t physically stop himself from vocalising it. “Do you think she’s gonna be okay?” he pulled the bag up past his shoulder. “Its like months early, man”
Ian ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He just blinked back a few times at a stalemate at what to do. “She has to be” was the only thing he could settle on.
Mickey just gave a nod. He wanted, needed, to believe that too. They both gave a knowing nod of understanding before disbursing again. Mickey resorted to desperately calling Debbie. They still had the matter of dealing with Ruby.
They didn’t want to bring her to the hospital with them. Didn’t want to expose her to the high-stress situation they knew they were bound to enter. Plus they had no clue how long they would be camped out in the hospital. Mickey’s phone was on a loop of a ringing till the tired voice of Sandy called back. “Hello?”
“Thank fuck” Mickey muttered under his breath. He explained the situation in as little detail as he could because granted, he was a little fuzzy himself. Mickey just made sure to communicate the bottom line: the baby was coming now and they needed to be at the hospital.
Sandy shook Debbie awake the second she realised that nothing short of an emergency was happening. The two women sat up a little better, listening to Mickey like his words were gospel. Once he managed to finish the whole ramble he very quickly added. “So can you take Bee for the night?”
Debbie was silent for a second, leading the conversation with a very hesitant “Mickey, breath”
Every defensive bone in his body wanted to bark back at her but Mickey knew she had a point. He swallowed a hard breath through his mouth, his vision going a little blurry from the pressure.
Once Debbie heard the telltale sign of Mickey releasing the breath out through his nose a few seconds later she continued to talk. “And Mick, of course, we’ll take her as long as you need. Sandy and I will be in the living room. Let us know when you get here we’ll come and grab her out of the car so you don’t have to come in”
Mickey’s eyes darted around the room trying to process everything. He squeezed the mattress under his hands so hard his knuckles turned white but tried to continue on. “Yeah, okay. Thanks”
“No problem. Text us updates, okay?”
Mickey’s mouth went dry as the situation of it all hit him again. Each punch of reality was worst than the last. He swallowed again barely making out “Yeah sure” before he hung up the phone.
Meanwhile, Ian was in his daughter’s room pacing back and forth as he tried to formulate how to handle the situation. He settled on doing the same thing Mickey had done. He hoped minimal details wouldn’t lead to more questions.
“Bee” Ian tried his hardest to stay calm as he shook her awake. “Ruby-girl”
“Dadda?”Her eyes were squinty as she looked up to see Ian’s face hovering over her. It took her a second to properly wake up, rubbing her eyes before they settled on Ian confused.
“Why’ya dressed?” She yawned. Ian huffed, reaching out to scoop her up in his arms.
“The baby is coming” His tone was calm, he was proud of himself for that.
“Wait right now!” She squeaked. Her arms automatically wrapped around his neck as he secured her in his grasp. “I thought she wasn’t comin till June?”
The comment stifled Ian’s breath a little. He had to physically remind himself that he needed to stay calm for her sake.
He tried his hardest to fight against his muscles going stiff. Another deep breath as his hand rubbed up and down her back. “Mhm. she was ‘posed to but she’s coming now”
Ian was grateful that in her sleep riddled state she seemed to not question the semantics of it all. “Oh okay! Are we going to the hospital?”
Another deep breath. “Uh- no baby. It's gonna take a little while for her to be born” Ian rubbed his thumb across her cheek this time, her eyes drawing up to his.
“You’re gonna have a sleepover with Aunts Debbie and Sandy. Daddy and I are gonna go to the hospital thought” he tried to keep his voice brinking on excitement to try and push back any of the overwhelming fear he felt about the situation. He didn’t want to freak her out any. “It’s gonna take a while for her to come so we’ll come get you when she’s born so you can see her, okay?”
Ruby seemed a little peeved that she wasn’t allowed to go with them at that moment but didn't push it. She was tired and just wanted to go back to sleep. She was okay with seeing her sister later when she was awake. “Yeah, okay Dadda” she easily surrendered. She nuzzled against his shoulder, head hiding in the crook of his neck so she could fall back asleep.
The rest of the morning was a blur. Ian remembered dropping Ruby off in her car seat, draping a blanket over her and watched as she instantly dozed off. A few minutes later they were at their old house. Debbie picked Ruby up, the little girl didn’t bother to wake up. Debs waved them a goodbye, followed by a mouthed ‘good luck’. Then Mickey and Ian were on their own again. The car ride over to the hospital was awkwardly silent, tense. Neither of the boys made a single peep, too caught up on what was happening in their own minds.
They made it to the hospital after what felt like a lifetime. They managed to memorise all the details given to them in Lip’s text as they both barreled towards the wing they knew Tami was in. Lip rushed past them the second they made it to Tami’s hospital room. Said that Bob was arriving at their house and needed to drop the boys off.
Tami was sitting in the hospital bed looking unbothered. She wasn’t dilated at all as the nurse told her the last time she was checked on.
There was a stalemate of absolutely nothing happening. It was nice for them all to have a moment to breathe and collect themselves despite the chaos of it all. Then it was over. The doctor came in as Tami complained of more heavy cramping. She ran a sonogram to check up on the baby. Grimaced at the sight.
Ian heard the doctor radio in for some backup. The hairs stood up on the back of his neck as Ian settled in closer trying to make out what the doctor was planning. She turned to the three with a calm demeanour. She explained that the baby was breech and Tami needed to have a C-section. Once she explained what that meant they all swallowed hard again.
Less than forty-five minutes after they were told that they were whisked away to the delivery room. They stood on the side of the curtain that didn’t have a view of Tami’s organs on a table. It was all happening so fast.
Half an hour later they heard the nurses announce the baby was born. No crying followed. Ian and Mickey shared a concerned glance as the nurses rushed around them.
Babies were supposed to cry when they were born. The nurses shared their sentiments. One of them blew on the newborn's face. Everyone was uneasy trying to see if she was responsive. Tense shoulders fell back down once the crying finally followed. Mickey and Ian both let out the breath they hadn’t realised they were holding. Their baby was alive.
Once she was crying, her umbilical cord was immediately cut and the baby was rushed out of the room before Ian and Mickey could even get a proper look at her.
The doctor tried to assure them that it was standard procedure. She was premature and they needed to run a few more tests to see where her health lied.
Tense paces up and down the hospital corridor as they waited for the news. Any news. Eventually, one of the delivery nurses caught up to them and told them the doctor had some news for them and they needed to follow her. They were so tired of all the news.
Mickey and Ian have been whisked away into yet another room. The doctor congratulated them on fatherhood, said the baby was mostly healthy. They knew a ‘but’ was to come. The doctor explained that once they ran their tests they found she had an irregular heartbeat. With that came more tests. They were able to find out that the baby had a hole in her heart. Atrial septal defect as she specified.
The room went black for both of them as they were forced to nod along. They gripped one another’s hands hard, trying to let the news settle. The doctor’s voice echoed in their ears as she explained that they would be able to perform surgery on her later that day.
They eventually relayed the news to Tami who burst into tears the second she was told. She relinquished guilt saying the same thing happened to her sister’s baby. That it must have been something that ran in the family. Ian and Mickey of course couldn’t blame her for that. Shit happened. They were learning to deal with it.
It was a few days past the baby’s birthday when they were finally able to see her. Her surgery had been successful, with no complications. It was just a matter of her recovering. They both grimaced as they saw her lying in her incubator. Tubes of all kinds came from her nose, her arms, her chest. There was a huge bandage that took up the majority of her bare chest. A battle scar was given to her before she even had the chance to properly live.
Mickey let a huff out, biting his lower lip. “Shit she’s so,” his eyes scanned over her again. “Tiny” he barely made out.
“Yeah” Ian had no choice but to agree. Slowly his hand reached out of his pocket, gravitating towards Mickey’s. Mickey looked up at his husband when their fingers laced with one another. He gave a sad smile.
There was some solace in that. A loving squeeze between linked hands. They had been through so much shit in their lifetime. Personal hardships, attacks on their relationship, they had gone from hell and back a million times over.
Both sets of eyes were back on their baby. They had gone through so many challenges before, coming out the other side victoriously. What was one more to conquer?