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Willie really hates thunderstorms on a good day. They’re loud and overstimulating and the sound of thunder is way too close to the sound of the cars smashing together in the crash that killed his mom. So on a good day, he hates them. On a bad day, they’re terrifying.
Today is a bad day.
It’s the first thunderstorm since she and Caleb moved into the Molina-Wilson house a month ago, and the still-unfamiliar place isn’t helping with the deeply unsettled feeling beneath her skin as the walls shake beneath the force of the thunder. And to make matters worse, they can’t find their dad.
He’s searched the entire upstairs and most of downstairs, but Caleb is nowhere to be seen. He can’t ask Carrie and Julie either, because they’re at Flynn’s for Triple Threat rehearsal, and Carlos is at a friend’s house. They’re just about to give up when they stumble upon Trevor and Ray in the living room.
Trevor is playing something on his guitar, and Ray is listening with his eyes closed and a blissful smile. The music stops, however, when Trevor notices Willie.
“Hey, Willie,” he grins. “What’s up?”
“Have you seen my dad?” Willie asks.
“He had to deal with an emergency at the Club,” Ray says. “He said he texted you. He didn’t want to wake you up.”
“Oh.” Willie’s brain has been so scattered by the storm that he hasn’t even thought to check his phone.
“Do you need something?” Trevor asks.
“No,” Willie says immediately. He loves this family, really, and Julie and Carrie and Carlos have made him feel so welcome, but when it comes to Ray and Trevor, he can’t help feeling like they don’t really want him. Like he’s some extra piece of baggage they have to put up with to have Caleb. This feels like too much to ask of them.
“It’s fine,” they continue. “I can wait for him to get—” Their breath hitches as lightning illuminates the room. They squeeze their eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable sound to follow.
“Willie?” Ray asks. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Willie insists. “It’s nothing, it’s—” And there’s the thunder, and suddenly Willie can’t breathe.
“Hey, hey,” Ray calls, leading Willie to sit down on the couch. “It’s okay. Is it the storm?“
Willie nods, squeezing her eyes shut. “It’s—it reminds me of when my mom—” A sob rips through her throat, cutting her off.
“Oh, mija,” Ray coos. “I’m so sorry. What can we do to help?”
“I don’t— you don’t have to—”
“Willie,” Trevor cuts them off gently. “That’s what we’re here for. We love you. Let us help.”
Willie blinks up at him through her years. “You—you do?”
“Of course we do,” Trevor says. “How could we not?”
Willie looks to Ray, who nods in agreement and kisses Willie’s forehead. “Let us take care of you, mijo.”
“What can we do?” Trevor asks.
“I— can you hold me?” Willie asks, their voice small. “Please?”
“Of course.” Ray pulls her into his arms, allowing Willie to rest their head on his chest. His hand finds Willie’s hair and starts to card through it, a slow soothing rhythm.
Willie lets his eyes flutter shut. “Could you— um, Dad usually hums to me?”
“I think that’s a job for you, Trev,” Ray chuckles.
“Don’t pretend you don’t have pipes,” Trveor laughs, but he starts to hum anyway. It’s something slow and moving, but Willie can’t place it. It definitely sounds like Trevor Wilson, but it’s not a song Willie remembers ever hearing before.
“What song is that?” Willie asks after a minute. “I like it.”
Trevor stops humming, and both he and Ray are silent for a moment.
“We actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Trevor says.
Willie pops his eyes open. “Me?”
“Me and Trev have been working on this song for your dad,” Ray says slowly. “To ask him to marry us.”
Willie sits up, staring at them with wide eyes. “Are you serious?”
Trevor nods, taking Ray’s hand. “As serious as we’ve ever been.”
“But we wanted to check with you first,” Ray says. “To see if it’s okay with you. If… you’d be willing to have us as your dads.”
“Absolutely.” Willie doesn’t even have to think about it. He and Caleb have never been as happy as they have since Caleb started dating Ray and Trevor. They were content to have their family be just the two of them, but the Molina-Wilsons showed them that they had a lot more room for family in their life. “You guys really want to be my dads?”
“I think I wanted to adopt you from the moment I met you,” Ray admits.
“It’s true,” Trevor chuckles. “I remember the first time you mentioned your dad, Ray turned to me and said ‘We have to meet the man who raised this kid.’”
Willie doesn’t know what to say to that. Knowing that Ray and Trevor loved her first , before they even met Caleb, it means more than she can put into words.
So instead, he says, “I really love you guys.”
Ray grins and pulls Willie back into his chest. “We love you too.”
They sit like that for a while longer, Ray squeezing him a little tighter and Trevor humming a little louder every time there’s a clap of thunder.
After about half an hour, the front door slams open and Caleb runs into the living room, dripping rainwater.
“Willie, baby, I’m so sorry,” he pants, rushing over to kneel in front of Willie. “I tried to come home as soon as the storm started but the roads were a mess and—”
“It’s okay, Dad,” Willie assures him. “Pops and Papi got me.”
Caleb blinks, surprised at the terms, then grins and pulls Willie into a hug. “Thank you,” he says to Ray and Trevor over Willie’s head.
“Of course,” Ray says, pulling Caleb in for a kiss. “Anything for our kid.”
Trevor grabs Caleb’s jaw to claim his own kiss. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up, love? We can stay with Willie.”
Caleb pulls back to look at Willie. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Willie promises. “I’m okay. Besides,” they shoot a grin at Ray and Trevor, “they have a song they want to play for you, and I think you’ll want to be comfy for it.”
Caleb blinks in surprise, then kisses Willie on the forehead and stands up to go get changed. Twenty minutes later, Ray and Trevor play their song for Caleb, and suddenly Willie has a new memory to associate with thunderstorms. They don’t just mean losing family anymore; now they mean gaining new family too.