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“Come on bud. Put on the jacket.”
“Noooo.”
Derek drops his head and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself.
“Please? For Daddy? Put on your coat.” Derek says and tries to make his sentence more firm.
Chase frowns, his eyebrows scrunching up, and gives Derek as menacing a look as a three year old can give and refuses to budge.
Derek really needs to work on his commanding skills. Honestly Braeden, Chase’s mother, is so much better at this. One look and their son automatically listens. But Braeden isn’t here right now. She’s a U.S. Marshal and on a very dangerous assignment and they had both agreed that for the sake of their son, Derek should be the one with full custody. They may not be together anymore, but they’re pretty good parents (if he does say so himself) and still great friends.
Derek looks at his watch and sighs before giving up. If he ends up cold, Derek will just dig up the jean jacket and put it back on him. To be honest he’s not surprised at all by Chase’s crankiness.
Since Derek’s babysitter had to cancel on him (family emergency) and none of his friends had been available to babysit, his son was forced to wake up three hours earlier and come to class with him. Miraculously, Chase had made it calmly through two of his earlier classes. So this was bound to happen. Derek didn’t want to skip another day of class. He’d already skipped two and he just couldn’t afford another absence. It was a good thing that his professors had been so understanding.
He gathers up the huge baby bag full of diapers, snacks, drinks, a coloring book with crayons, (and the forsaken jean jacket). He also has his iPad in his bag with 6 hours’ worth of SpongeBob for Chase to get through. His next class, History of Spanish Language, is only an hour and twenty minutes but Derek wants to be prepared.
“Be good for Daddy, ok bud?” Derek pleads. Chase holds out his arms so that Derek can pick him up.
He’s glad that he’s arrived in the classroom a good half hour before everyone else. This way he can pick a seat close to the outlet in order to set up and not be in the way. He’s just finished putting Chase in the seat next to him when the door opens.
Scott McCall comes strolling in and stops in the middle of the room.
“Hey. Oh…who’s this?” he asks with a smile on his face.
“My son, Chase. Chase can you say ‘hi?’” Derek answers and then turns to his son.
Chase looks up at Scott shyly and mouths a “hi” and a small wave.
“Hey.” Scott smiles at him. Chase actually giggles at him.
“I had to bring him. My babysitter cancelled.” Derek explains.
“Oh. Ok.” Scott says without judgment and goes to take his regular seat which happens to be right next to Chase incidentally.
“How’d you find those translations?” Derek asks for something to say after Scott sits down and takes out his notebook and textbook. Their assignment was to translate Latin sentences to Spanish. Derek had struggled a bit.
Scott shrugs, “They weren’t too bad. Kinda fun, actually. You can look at my notes if you want to compare answers.”
“Really? I’d really appreciate it.” Scott beams at him and flips through his notebook until he finds the appropriate page.
When he hands over his notebook, Derek sees Chase look in awe at the sleeve of tattoos Scott has on his arm. They’re pretty impressive: flowers, a zombie hand, and other intricate designs weave up and down his arm.
“You like those?” Scott directs at Chase who nods vehemently. Scott brings his arm a little closer, “wanna touch?”
Derek takes a few looks from comparing notes to his son who, little by little, becomes more in awe of Scott. Derek is surprised because he can at least admit that he doesn’t have the friendliest kid. Chase likes to keep to himself mostly and only really shows any personality to family or those close to him. But he touches the tattoos on Scott’s arm and asks questions as best he can which Scott answers ( Scott doesn’t talk to him like a baby. Derek appreciates that).
“This one is your favorite? My favorite is the one where Squidward takes the day off and at the end SpongeBob goes ‘Look Squidward we forgot to flip the closed sign to open. It’s like we could have taken the whoooole day off’” His voice gets high at the end and Chase, who by this time has settled in Scott’s lap, giggles.
Derek thinks his son has found his new best friend. That fact is proven when more and more students start to trickle in and Chase practically hides in Scott’s neck to avoid them. And even more so when the professor walks in and his son almost has a tantrum when Derek wants to take him off of Scott’s lap and put him back in his seat.
“It’s ok, he can stay here.” Scott says to Derek and then turns to Chase, “but you have to be good during class, ok?”
Today is full of surprises because Chase actually listens to Scott. He makes hardly any noise during the rest of class. He watches his SpongeBob episodes and even covers his mouth sometimes to hide his giggles.
It’s a day of miracles.
Derek feels a small poke in his shoulder. He knew it was too good to last. Scott is probably tired of having this toddler in his lap. He’s tired of having to work around him in order to type on his laptop. But when he turns to him, Scott is handing him an iPad since Chase is sleeping soundly in his arms.
“I think my son may have imprinted on you.” Derek tells Scott once class is over and they’re walking to his car. Scott had insisted on carrying Chase because he didn’t want to wake him. Derek had insisted then on carrying Scott’s bag for him.
“Feeling’s mutual.” Scott smiles, “my mom’s side of the family is pretty big so I’m used to kids. Call me if you ever need a babysitter.”
“You say that now but I might just take you up on that.” Derek says to him. He takes Chase back once they reach his Jeep and settles him in his car seat. He whines for a few seconds but doesn’t stir much.
“You should.” Scott says and once he gets his bag back, reaches in and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen to scribble his number on, “now you don’t have an excuse. If you need a babysitter or, y’know, whatever.”
Derek feels his face heat up, “I’ll do that.”
“Good.” Scott smiles and bites his lower lip.
Derek does end up calling him. Only one of those times ends up actually being for babysitting.