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Kelly has been a pharmacy tech for 18 months. It’s a good job, it pays better than working the checkout in the grocery store, and they hadn’t minded that she only had her GED. Dan, a soft-spoken omega, had been the new pharmacist when she’d come in to ask about cashier positions, desperate to find something, anything, to get her and Cam out. He’d asked if she’d be willing to get licensed to work in the pharmacy with him. He’d helped her apply to associate programs, even babysat little Cam while she’d been studying. It’s thanks to Dan that she could afford their new apartment, one that is decidedly not in a poorly insulated basement with only two shitty half windows. Kelly has a lot of regrets in her life. Cam isn’t one of them, that boy is her entire goddamn world. But leaving Cam’s dad and taking Dan up on his offer are the best things she ever did.
And she gets to people watch.
A lot of people don’t realise she can see the whole store from the pharmacy counter. Some of those people seem to have forgotten that this is a suburban CVS, not a gas station, and behave accordingly.
Thankfully, the stores only other occupants right now do not fall into that category. A dad with his two children – twelve or thirteen, if she had to guess – had walked in together and made a beeline for the ‘Intimate Care’ section. She hasn’t seen a lot of dads venture there willingly. Alex certainly hadn’t, forcing her to wrench herself out of the apartment by herself to buy postpartum pads almost as soon as they’d brought Cam home. He’d claimed total ignorance as an alpha the first time she asked him to add tampons to his grocery list. Which, in hindsight, should have been a red flag. After all, his sister was an alpha as well and that didn’t exempt her from the necessity of braving the menstruation aisles. This dad looks a lot like an alpha too, if she does say so herself, and he seems to be doing fine.
All three members of the little family are staring intently at the available options. There’s already two large boxes of overnight pads in the basket the dad is holding.
Something about this little family is incredibly familiar to her. But Kelly cannot come up with the reason why. Her dad had never wanted anything to do with this aspect of his wife and daughter’s lives. And Alex would have rather cut off his own dick than think about another person’s needs. The man reaches up and pulls a box from among the many, showing both children.
“These are the ones Mama likes, do you want to try with these first?” both children nod, and suddenly she knows a lot more about the little family than she probably should. The boy must be an omega. Her heart breaks for him, a little bit, and she is violently reminded of Dan, in the office behind her, and the way he sometimes flinches away from louder noises, or people coming up behind him. Not for the first time, she thanks every lucky star in the sky that she was born a beta. The boy does look startlingly like her boss. The dad reaches out again and offers another option, this time it’s “Aunt Sarah’s” preference, and it gets added to the basket. Then they’re bearing down on her.
Kelly doesn’t think she can help the way she stares. The man looks so familiar. In some bizzarro world where her pharmacist got transformed into an alpha, she could picture him looking a little like this guy.
“Hi, I need to pick up a prescription for Pete Mitchell?” the man’s voice is pleasant, but there’s an edge to it. So he definitely noticed the staring. She really can’t help it, it’s completely uncanny. Dan doesn’t have any family. But she can’t shake the familiarity in his face. She goes to retrieve the prescription in a daze, sorting through the paper bags for M.
Mitchell, Peter E., has a prescription for Thorafin-C. There’s a little ‘Ω’ next to his name. If she doesn’t know that many dad’s who would do the first period-shop with their kids, she knows even fewer who would have anything to do with their partners suppressants. And Thorafin is expensive. It’s the high-quality type meant for prolonged use. She’s never seen a mated omega fill this prescription before. She fixes her smile and turns back towards the checkout.
“Can I pay for these at the same time?” he gestures to a pile of menstrual supplies in his basket. Both children look mortified. They stare at her with wide eyes and flaming cheeks. She remembers that age. The first time her mom took her to buy tampons she nearly passed out in the check-out line from the weight of the embarrassment.
“Sure! I just need to check your ID for this.” she hold up the little paper bag. Her instinct still braces for a fight, but the man just keeps smiling politely, and pulls a wallet out from his back pocket, handing over a little plastic card.
“Y’know what?” she hears him say, while she checks it over “Why don’t you guys run grab a new detergent as well, I know you didn’t like the scent we got last time.”
Kazansky, Thomas J., is on the approved pickup list, and the little ’A’ on his license isn’t a surprise. He’s staring straight at her when she hands it back to him.
“Is there a problem miss…” his eyes flick to her nametag “Sterling?” She is suddenly and viciously reminded of being ten years old and stared down by her math teacher, knowing she was in trouble but not understanding why.
“No!”
“If you have an issue with myself or my children - ” Oh! The staring.
“No, no! it’s just – You look a lot like our pharmacist, it kinda threw me I guess” And a glacier melts.
Mr. Kazansky smiles, and chuffs a laugh. “I usually only get compared to my father.”
The daughter thunks a gallon jug of Tide onto the counter, the one labelled for scent sensitive folks.
She rings them up and puts everything together in a bag. Mr. Kazansky smiles politely, says thank you, and guides the children out of the store with a hand on each shoulder.
She immediately retreats to the office. Dan is staring at his computer screen and idly swivelling his office chair.
“Dan!” she declares, “You would not believe what I just saw!” Big blue eyes stare out at her from behind his slightly grubby glasses.
“There was an alpha in here with his kids, Thomas… K-something, came in to fill a suppressant ‘scrip for his mate. It was adorable. The kids were at that first-period kinda age and he walked them down the whole isle. Seemed to know his stuff too, not squeamish at all!” She takes a breath. “And I swear to shit Danny, he looked just like you!” An eyebrow raises. “I’m serious! Tall, blonde, and chiselled could have been your brother! You don’t have a secret family I don’t know about, do you?” She wasn’t expecting him to go pale. “Dan?”
“No, sorry Kelly.” He takes his glasses off, and uses one corner of his white coat to buff the lenses. He won’t look up at her.
Oh well, it not his first weird mood. And it’s not like she’s never had a bad day either. They settle in for a quiet shift.
Daniel Miller will not admit to searching the prescription chart after Kelly leaves his office. He’s not sure what makes him do it, just that he’s compelled to know. If his hunch is correct. If it really was Tom in here, just a few feet away. He tells himself it’s paranoia, the same paranoia that made him change his name and move three states over before he’d stopped looking for his father over his shoulder.
Only one prescription has been dispensed since Kelly’s shift started: Mitchell, Peter E., ‘Ω’. And right there next to it, in the list of approved names: Kazansky, Thomas J., ‘A’. His heart beats faster. Tommy is here. His brother is in the same town as him for the first time since he was sixteen years old and desperate to get out of their father’s house. Another thought shocks him into stillness; Tommy is mated. Tommy is a dad. Kelly had said he was here with his kids. Plural. Kids who were old enough to be starting puberty. For the first time in decades, he thinks about how long it is since he’d last seen his family. His siblings, like him, will be adults now. Does Sarah have children too? Would they like him? Was their childhood anything like his and Tommy’s and Sarah’s? And then another thought; could he meet them? The home address attached to Mitchell, Peter, is blinking just under his cursor. He could go see them. For the first time since Tom moved away to the academy, Daniel knows exactly where he is.
The pharmacy closes at 10pm. It’s Maya closing with him, Kelly goes home to Cam when the daycare closes at 5. He waves goodbye to Maya and gets in his car. The address is on a post-it note tucked into the front pocket of his bag. He’s taken it out to look at it every twenty minutes since he stuffed it in there. He’s got it memorized by now. He dithers for another minute before he pulls the map out of his glovebox and starts to drive.
There’s still a light on when he arrives. He hadn’t thought about how late it was, that Tommy might be asleep. But the glow of a TV is still visible from the front window, so he knocks on the door.
A gangly teenage alpha opens the door. Daniel has to lock his muscles so he doesn’t flinch.
“Who’re you?” he looks rumpled, like he’d maybe been asleep, or nearly there, in front of the still-bright TV.
“I – I’m – I” he can’t speak. What does he say to this boy? He’s a stranger, visiting his house in the dead of night. “I need to see Tom.” They stare at each other.
“Bradley? Who is it?” He hasn’t heard that voice in nearly twenty years. It still sounds the same. Safety. Home.
And then he’s there. In the hallway. Looking tanned and older and like he’d seen a ghost.
“Daniel?” His voice is gone again. He nods.
And then Tommy is here. Big warm hands on his face and that scent. Safety. Home. He has missed his brother’s hugs. They stand on the threshold of his brother’s house until the boy in the hallway clears his throat behind them.
“Uuuhhh, Uncle Ice?” He is cold, when Tommy lets him go. But one big hand settles over the back of his neck and draws him into the home. He nearly purrs. The kid shuts the door behind them. Tommy is still looking at him like he might vanish if he takes his eyes off him for a second. He leans back into the broad chest and presses their foreheads together.
“I think I’m gonna… get Mav” the boy scampers away.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Tommy whispers against his hair. Daniel knows the feeling. He can’t quite believe he’s here, either.
Footsteps, and a new scent, come closer. The new person is sweet and warm, their scent sits tart on the back of his tongue.
“Tom?” his brother pulls away again, and Daniel looks up to meet a pair of hazy green eyes, still blinking away sleep.
Tom’s mate is compact and well built, Dan can see the muscles in his arms shift where he crosses them over his stomach, he’s looking between the two of them with an eyebrow quirked in confusion.
“Pete” He has never heard Tommy sound that way, so full of affection and warmth. He’s never heard Tom in love.
“Pete, it’s Danny!” Tom’s arms constrict around his shoulders. Pete’s face goes soft.
“Daniel Kazansky?” He hasn’t been a Kazansky in years, but he still nods.
There’s a shuffling noise in the recesses of the house.
“Ma?” up at the top of the stairs, a pair of sleep-mussed pre-teens, staring at them. They’re holding hands. Pete turns to the children. His children. His children with Tommy. These are Tommy’s children.
“Jake, Tasha, come down here and meet your uncle.” Tommy’s mate beckons them down the stairs.
Standing under the overhead light in the living room, the boy looks so much like his brother it’s uncanny. The girl is shorter, ever so slightly rounder, and she has his mother’s eyes.
“Ducklings” he greets the children, it’s adorable. “This is my brother, Danny.” They look up at him, eyes wide with suspicion or awe, he can’t tell.
“You’re Uncle Daniel?” the boy is looking at Dan with a kind of disbelieving wonder. “You’re real?”
“Yeah.” He laughs. It sounds wet. “Yeah, I’m real.” The boy hugs him. The girl hesitates until Tom’s mate gives her a gentle shove and says “He’s family.” Then she, too, let’s Dan wind an arm around her and pull her into the group hug. They smell like the ocean, like Tommy, and something warm and sharp like his mate. They smell happy and safe. They smell like home.
The boy, Jake, looks up at him with big soulful eyes. “Will you stay? Please?”
He wakes up on the couch. Alone. The scent of the children is still pressed into the pillow under his head, and the blanket that’s been draped over him on the couch. There are chaotic noises and the smell of strong coffee coming from the kitchen. Feet pounding on the stairs. A mug comes down in front of him, clicking gently onto the coffee table.
“I don’t know how you take it.” Tom apologizes. Their father hadn’t thought coffee was appropriate for omegas. Apparently, it could affect his fertility. His cup has a little bit of milk and a lot of sugar. It’s perfect. “Do you have somewhere you need to be? I can drive you?” In fact, he has today off.
“Perfect!” Come’s his mate’s voice from other end of the room. He’s in a military uniform, tan from collar to cuffs. Dan recognises the bars and flags pinned to his chest. He matches with Tommy, in his cleanly pressed uniform. He snakes an arm around Tommy’s waist and noses behind his ear. “I called you out sick, said you picked something up from the kids, I told them I thought it was just a 24 hour thing. Vera is a gem, by the way, do not let that woman go.” The way Tommy looks at him. Daniel aches. Tom doesn’t say thank you, he just turns and kisses his mate. He says “Mav” like it’s a benediction.
An alarm rings, somewhere in the house.
“You’re gonna be late, do you want me to take the terrors to school?” Pete glances back at him, still on the couch, and shoots him a little grin.
“And risk my brilliant cover? Nah. It’ll be fine.” It won’t be. Not if Dan’s memory is in any way accurate.
“I can take them?” The gangly teenager from last night – Bradley? – looks vaguely hopeful where he’s standing between them and the front door. The twins have reappeared as well. All three turning puppy eyes onto Tommy, who sighs, put upon.
“All right.” He reaches into his pocket and brings out a bunch of keys. “But you take my car, we still don’t know if the Bronco will start, and I don’t want you stalling out halfway in.”
“Yes!” Bradley cheers. He takes the detached car key from Tom and tosses long arms around his shoulders, “Thanks Uncle Ice!” and all three clatter out the front door.
“You’re going to regret that.” Pete says, though he’s smiling.
“Mmm, probably.” But he doesn’t sound bothered. He reels Pete in with one hand on his waist and Dan watches them kiss. They lean into each other, comfortable and easy. Then Pete is gone too, his parting edicts, “Have a good day!” and “Call Sarah!” linger in the air, only drowned out by the roaring of a motorcycle engine.
And then they’re alone. Just the two of them, Tommy and Danny, together again.
“So.” His brother says, sitting down next to him, “Tell me how you ended up a pharmacist?” it feels like home.