Work Text:
TK stood at the island in the kitchen trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. He'd gotten up with Carlos, intending to make his husband breakfast before he set off for work that day, but had wound up just standing there while Carlos bustled around making a pot of coffee and a plate of bacon and eggs. He'd offered to cook for TK, but TK's brain wasn't firing right at the early hour and he'd managed to just grunt at him while Carlos did everything he usually did before he set off to work. Carlos kissed him goodbye and told him to go back to sleep for a little while as he walked out the door. TK'd intended to do just that, but he found that he wasn't tired enough so he stood in the kitchen until he was motivated enough to make himself breakfast.
Walking toward the fridge to dig around and see what there was to eat, he noticed a covered pan on the stove with a piece of computer paper on top with his name on it. He tore the paper off and saw that Carlos had written out a quick note. '350 for 20 minutes. Love you, Tiger'. TK uncovered the pan lid that was on top with Carlos' mom's chilaquiles in it, that just needed to be cooked. He felt himself get misty eyed and groped around until he saw his phone on the counter. He opened it and sent a quick text to Carlos.
'You didn't have to make me chilaquiles.'
'I know.'
'Love you, Carlos.'
'I know.'
TK rolled his eyes lightly and put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. He popped upstairs and took the world's quickest shower and dressed, getting back downstairs as the smell of the food permeated the entire lower level of the apartment. His stomach groaned at him loudly and he blushed as he went and poured himself a cup of coffee. He set it on the counter and took a dish towel, reaching in to grab the food just as his phone started ringing.
"Shit." He blurted out, spinning around. He dumped the pan on the counter and shut the oven door with his foot, reaching over to turn it off before he scrambled to grab his phone. "Don't hang up...hello."
"TK, you ok, honey?" Grace's voice came through the speaker.
"Yeah, just getting a late start to the day." TK admitted, laughing at himself. "What's up?"
"I have a favor to ask." She said. "Is there any way you could babysit today? I wasn't supposed to go into work, but Francine got sick over the weekend and they don't have anyone to cover her shift."
"Is Charlie still in her nap fighting stage?" He asked, making a face.
She laughed. "Oh yeah. She fights for a while, but if you just let her wear herself down, she usually drops eventually."
"Great, yeah I'll see you when you get here." TK looked over at his chilaquiles and calculated the distance in his head. He knew Judd and Grace lived sixteen minutes away from where he and Carlos lived, and from listening to Judd and Grace talk, he knew it usually took at least half an hour for them to get out the door with everything they needed to pack up for Charlie, and TK figured that it would take even longer to pack what she needed to stay over since he and Carlos had practically nothing for the toddler.
"Ok, see you, thank you, TK." Grace said.
"I'm happy to help." He said honestly, smiling. They said their goodbyes and TK served himself two chilaquiles and fixed his coffee like he liked it (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and ginger...gingerbread in a cup, and a splash of almond milk) and he practically wolfed down the food, debating on if he needed another two...and then wolfing those down as well. He told himself he needed the energy to keep up with a newly turned one year old. He managed to get half his cup drank before he heard the knock on the door, eyeing it with a wide eyed look, his cheeks chipmunked out as he hadn't swallowed yet. He raced over to the door, barefoot, and swung it open as he swallowed, making a face as it went down the wrong way.
"TK, are you ok?" Grace asked as she eyed him as he coughed into his arm.
"Fine, I'm totally fine." He promised. "I swallowed my coffee wrong. I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon."
"I was half out the door when I called." Grace admitted.
"Ahhh, better to ask forgiveness or whatever?" TK joked.
"That." Grace said.
TK reached out and took Charlie from her, kissing her cheeks as he moved out of the way so Grace could bring in the two bags, stroller and carseat for him. "Hello, little miss Charlie. How are we? Huh? Are you excited to spend time with uncle Ty, huh? I bet you are."
"Are you real pissed at Mateo for getting her to call you uncle Ty?" Grace asked, grinning as she looked up at TK as he walked over to her.
He snorted, shaking his head. "Nah, she can call me uncle Ty. Mateo can..." He looked at Charlie who was fiddling with his necklace in fascination. "Well I'm sure you can fill in the blank."
"I sure can." Grace laughed as she walked over and kissed Charlie's cheeks. "Be good for uncle Ty, baby. Mama will see you...well actually daddy may see you 'fore mama does. Be good." She walked out as TK walked over to the couch with Charlie, who was distracted. He sat down with her and looked forelornly at his coffee cup.
"Has mama and daddy introduced you to Bluey yet, Charls?" TK asked, remembering the name from Carlos talking about his cousins talking about it to him.
"B'uey!" She exclaimed, beaming up at him.
"Yesssss. Bluey." He looked through the tv channels for the tv show and when Charlie started pouting he winced and then let out a small cheer when he finally found it on. He plucked Charlie down on the floor and went and filled his cup up again, sipping on it as she got absorbed with the show. He remembered hearing that Buck had watched his niece sometime back and took out his phone.
'How'd it go with you watching Jee?' He asked, wondering if Buck was at work or even up. He did the mental math in his head and hoped Buck didn't kill him for waking him up.
'I absolutely adore my niece with everything I am.' Buck sent back.
'That bad, huh?' TK smirked.
'I still don't know how she unraveled three rolls of toilet paper, and I don't want to talk about the reaction she had to trying pear, kale and spinach puree.' He sent back.
TK gagged and took a picture of Charlie, who was mesmerized by the tv.
'Dude, engage her! Don't just put her in front of the tv, that's a cop out! She's at the age you have to stimulate her mind. At least get out some crayons.' Buck lectured him.
TK rolled his eyes. 'I'm pretty sure all she'd do is drool on them or stick them up her nose and it's my day off, I am not prepared to dig a crayon out of a toddler's nose today.'
'You never know. But enjoy it while you can, you can't go all day without changing a diaper.' Buck pointed out. A few seconds later another text came. 'You have changed a diaper before, right?'
TK went to answer that this wasn't his first time babysitting, but he stopped and thought about it and groaned. All the other times he had, Carlos had been there and he'd sweet talked his husband into changing all the diapers, while TK got feeding duty. Plus they hadn't babysat since Charlie had been switched to solid food.
'Is solid food diapers worse than formula diapers?' TK asked. He groaned again when Buck just sent back a line of crying laughing emojis. "That can't be good." He said to himself.
He pulled up a text to Carlos and sent the same picture he had to Buck. 'Look who's spending time with her favorite uncle.'
'I'm not there.' Carlos sent back. It took far longer for TK to get what he meant by that and when he did he gaped at his phone, just imagining Carlos smirking to himself.
'Do you want to sleep on the couch tonight?' He sent back, glancing over at Charlie.
'We both know that's an empty threat. Remember what happened the last time I slept on the couch?' Carlos asked.
TK did in fact remember. They'd gotten into a spat before bed because Carlos was wired from his shift and wanted to stay up studying for one of his classes he was taking to get a bachelor's degree since he wanted to one day be promoted to detective and TK had worked overtime by six hours that day because of a heinous call and wanted to go to sleep. TK had made it about two hours before he went and curled up beside Carlos, falling asleep to him running his fingers through TK's hair.
'Jackass.' TK sent and Carlos sent back a smirking emoji knowing that he had TK because he wasn't able to come up with a better comeback. TK huffed and went over to Charlie, who looked up at him and gestured to be picked up. He put his empty mug down on the coffee table and picked her up, kissing her forehead. "Did you get breakfast before mommy brought you over, cupcake?"
Charlie shook her head and rubbed at her eyes while TK carried her over to where her bags were. He sat down and put her on his lap as he dug around in them and found a few pouches of baby food. He saw a note stuck on one and tore it off.
"What's with everyone leaving me notes today?" He muttered, reading it.
'Make sure she has a savory pouch before a sweet one, or all she'll eat is sweets.'
TK snorted. "It's like they don't think I've done this before." He tickled Charlie's stomach, making her giggle loudly. He read a few of the labels and raised his eyebrows. "Organic Roots. Sweet potato, carrot, beet and olive oil. Hmm. Let's try this one." He twisted the cap off and squirted a little on his finger, sticking it into his mouth. He almost gagged and made a face making Charlie burst into loud giggles. "Oh yeah? Well let's see how you like it." He handed the pouch over and she stuck it in her mouth, sucking on it happily.
TK was distracted by his phone going off and he grabbed it up, seeing a text from Judd.
'Charlie giving you any trouble?'
'Dude, she's been here like...not even an hour. She's fine. We're fine.'
'Just checkin' in. You're on Mateo duty next shift. He's trying to get me to agree to make him a tape of me readin' some weird book series about gods and goddesses or some shit.'
TK chuckled as he replied. 'I told you to get him an Audible account for Christmas.'
'He has to wait for credits! Do you know how much that would wind up costing me in the end?' Judd returned.
'I hope you have fun with Percy Jackson then. Mateo likes it when you do voices.'
'You know what you little shit...'
'So will you be home regular time?' TK asked, grinning to himself, knowing when to rile Judd up and when to not. It just wasn't any fun over texts.
'If the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise.' Judd replied, making TK frown.
'The fuck does that mean?' He asked.
'You doin' all that cussin' around my baby?'
'Yeah Judd, she's reading my texts as I'm typing. No, you hickory smoked hick, she's eating her breakfast.'
'I hope you're keeping an eye on her, she tends to get messy.' Judd replied.
TK took the Organic Roots from Charlie absently when she thrust it out at him and gave her another pouch of banana and mango, smiling when he heard her let out a 'mmm' sound. 'She's fine, don't worry. It's like you don't trust me.'
'If Grace trusts you, I trust you.' Judd said.
TK scoffed. 'Gee thanks.'
'If I didn't trust you, city boy, I'd be on my way there to get her, shift be damned.' Judd pointed out.
'That's a long way to go on horseback.' TK sent back cheekily.
'You're lucky the alarm just went off. I'm going to remember that crack.' Judd promised.
TK tossed his phone aside and snickered to himself. "Well, Miss Charlie-Bean, how about we take uncle Buck's advice and see if your mama packed some cra..." He turned and faced her, seeing that she was absolutely covered in baby food. He was pretty sure her hair would've been dyed blue if it wasn't so dark already. "How in the f...udge did you...oh no...oh Carlos is going to kill me if that doesn't get out of the couch." He dug through the bags and found a baby bath tub and clicked it open.
"Noooo!" Charlie tossed her pouch at him and scrambled off the couch, taking off as fast as her little feet would carry her.
"Oh come on, Charlie, you have to get clean!" TK got up and darted after her. "If you get clean, I'll let you watch more Bluey."
"No." Charlie said as she ducked around the island in the kitchen.
"How are you so fast?" TK asked. He yelped when Charlie threw open the fridge door and it crashed into him. "Charlie May Ryder, you get back here." He groaned, shutting the door. He looked around for her, frowning when he didn't see her at first. He could hear her little bare feet slapping on the wood floor though. He turned just as she ducked under Carlos' white linnen curtains and groaned. "Oh yeah, he's totally going to kill me." He muttered as he chased after her.
A few hours later, TK was laying on the couch, one arm draped over his face, when his phone chirped with an incoming video call. He clicked on it absently and grunted.
"Hey, Tiger. I'd ask how it's going, but you look exhausted." Carlos chuckled.
TK peeked out at him, giving him a dirty look. "Do you know how quick a one year old can be?"
"Actually, yes I do." Carlos said, grinning.
"Don't you dare." TK said. "She's so cute, how can she be so...oh my God, Carlos. Do you know what solid foods do to a baby's..." He gestured absently and Carlos burst out laughing. TK could see he was sitting in his cruiser, the door open.
"I in fact do know that, too." Carlos said when he got himself under control. "Is she giving you trouble?"
"Not at the moment, no." TK turned his phone to show Charlie, who was sitting on the floor playing with some toy that was a green puppy that had buttons that counted to three and repeated colors when she pressed on them. She had a stuffed animal, an elephant that was almost as big as she was, tucked up against her as she focused on what she was doing.
"She looks like Judd when she does that." Carlos said when TK turned the phone back around.
"Yeah, tell me about it." TK snorted.
"TK." Carlos said.
"Yes, baby." He said, eyeing him.
"Why are my curtains purple?" He asked.
TK's eyes bugged out and he sat up quickly. "I gotta go, it's lunch soon."
"You know I got off early, I'm on my way home." Carlos smirked.
"Oh great, see you when you get here, love you!" TK ended the call and groaned. "Crap, Charls, we're in so much trouble."
"Crap!" Charlie said, looking up at him.
TK gaped at her for a moment and then groaned again. "Noooooo. Of all the words I say, that's the one you choose to repeat?"
"Crap!" Charlie giggled.
"No. No, crap. We do not say crap, Charlie May." TK said, trying to be stern.
Charlie just giggled at him.
By the time Carlos got home, TK had thrown the curtains in the wash with bleach, and had flipped over the couch cushions to hide the stains on them. He'd managed to get Charlie distracted and not saying crap anymore, and had given her a pouch of zucchini, apples, peas, quinoa and basil, thinking it sounded like something Owen would've fed him as a kid, so it sounded appropriate for lunch. He smiled at Carlos as he took his shoes off and padded over. "Hey, Charlie, look who it is."
Charlie looked up and beamed. "'Los!"
Carlos beamed, all the tiredness he'd been feeling seeping out of him as he bent and scooped her up, kissing her cheeks. "Hey, mi dulce sobrina." He murmured. "Have you been running your uncle TK ragged?"
"Huh uh." Charlie giggled, curling into him.
"Well she's not wrong." TK chuckled, curling up against Carlos when he sat down. "You smell like work."
Carlos raised an eyebrow at him. "Is that a good thing?"
"It's not a bad thing." TK said honestly. "Just means you worked today."
"You aren't wrong." He said, shaking his head. "But mostly it was a bunch of nothing. There's a reason I came home early."
"Because you told your boss your husband was home with a one year old on his own?" TK asked.
Carlos choked on a laugh at that. "No. Because there was too many cooks in the kitchen."
"Yeah I just bet." TK said.
Charlie reached up and grabbed the string on TK's hoodie and gave him a certain look, grunting softly.
TK eyed her. "Oh no, don't look at me. Look at your favorite uncle."
"Why am I her favorite uncle when she needs a diaper change?" Carlos asked incredulously.
TK smirked at him. "Since you said it in a text earlier. I can find it if you want me to."
Carlos groaned and swatted at him, standing up. "I'll remember this."
"So will I, I keep my texts." TK snickered as Carlos grabbed Charlie's diaper bag and started upstairs. TK stretched out along the couch and hugged a couch cushion to him, closing his eyes.
"Don't you dare fall asleep, Tyler Kennedy." Carlos called from upstairs.
"Damn it." TK muttered to himself.
"Come up here." Carlos called.
TK rolled off the couch and trudged upstairs. "But whyyyyyy."
"Because." Carlos picked Charlie up. "Little miss here is nodding off so if she's napping that means we can nap."
TK's eyes lit up. "Grace is going to love you for getting her to take a nap."
"Like it's hard." Carlos said, heading toward their bedroom.
"Don't let Grace hear you say that." TK said, following him.
"So how bad are the curtains again?" Carlos asked as he put Charlie in the middle of the bed and went to change out of his uniform.
TK groaned, rubbing his face. "I put the stupid curtains in the wash, and look at your niece, she's the one that did it."
"Yeah, but she's cute, she can get away with it." Carlos walked over and kissed his cheek. "You, too, I guess."
"You guess?" TK raised his eyebrows.
Carlos grinned and got on the bed. "Yeah and if Charlie wasn't here, I'd let you convince me."
"Yeah, yeah." TK grumbled, moving on the other side of the baby.
A little while later, as Grace was getting ready to head to grab an early dinner, her phone pinged and she saw that it was a text from Judd. Opening it, she smiled at the picture he'd sent her of Charlie in the middle of TK and Carlos, all three of them sound asleep. Charlie had somehow turned around and her tiny little foot was shoved up against Carlos' nose, while TK had a hand buried in Charlie's shirt and had his face buried in her soft curls.
'Seems a shame to wake them up.' She sent.
'I guess I can stick around for a bit.' Judd said. 'They got a huge pile of dishes in the sink.'
'You big ol' softie.' Grace teased.
'Don't ruin my rep, wife.' He replied.
She giggled to herself as she started toward the break room. 'Wouldn't dream of it, husband. I'll be home in three hours, see you then.'
'Love you.'
'Love you, too.'
Alternate ending:
Carlos grunted as TK got up to make them more popcorn. They were doing their monthly catch up on new movies that had come to streaming and had just finished Top Gun: Maverick (both drooled over the football scene, but had otherwise thought there was too much Tom Cruise and not enough of the rookies and their growth) and were going to start The Menu, which Carlos was nervous about since he didn't much like scary movies. "The couch feels weird."
"That's weird, why does it feel weird?" TK asked.
"I don't know...it's like the cushions aren't right." Carlos said.
TK watched the time count down on the popcorn and got out the nutritional yeast as the events of a few days prior came back to him and he remembered Charlie smearing baby food all over the cushion and flipping it over to hide the evidence. Wincing, he wondered if he should just keep quiet incase Carlos didn't find out what happened, but a few seconds later, he knew he was fucked.
"TYLER KENNEDY!"