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It's a beautiful bright, sunny day when Tommy and Buck sit down on the grass outside their house. They are both wearing brand new, white shirts and old jeans that have a similar wash. Tommy's hair is still dump from the shower he just took after sleeping like the dead for almost ten hours straight after a long, very exhausting, 48-hour shift. In their backyard, Riley wears a white t-shirt that they bought just for the occasion. It's quite large on her, but it's mostly to protect the outfit she's wearing underneath than anything.
"Come here, princess," Buck calls their daughter, who runs towards him, all excited for what they are about to do. A couple steps away from them, sitting on the steps that lead to their porch, is Amy, their surrogate, the same one who carried Riley almost five years ago now, setting up the camera and getting everything ready.
It was a surprise to have Amy coming to their interview, after they went back to the agency for another surrogate for their second kid. They had interviewed four women when she showed up, and both Tommy and Buck felt relieved that she was willing to go through that again. She was so easy to work with when they were trying to have a kid the first time, so easy going, and very funny as well. It was her choice to not keep in touch after Riley was born, and they both respected it. At first, they felt a bit nervous to sign a contract with her again, a bit scared of how she would react when she met Riley, but everything went okay, and Amy promised them she didn't feel any connection to the little girl.
Now, she was pregnant again with their second kid, and it had been her idea how to do the gender reveal. Neither Buck or Tommy actually cared too much about it, but they had a small gathering for Riley's gender reveal - Maddie and Athena's idea - so it felt right they would do something for baby number two. The difference is that this time, they wanted something small. Back then, even though it were only their 118 and 217 family, and their actual blood related family, it felt too much. Especially for two guys who enjoyed not getting too much attention. When they brought the subject up, Amy suggested what they are about to do.
"Alright, bug, do you remember what we talked?" Buck asks their daughter, who has a big smile on her face. He's pretty sure is more about the mess she's about to do than anything else. "Remember the cards you did for us for Father's Day? When you painted your hand and put it on the paper?"
"Yes, daddy."
"So, that's what you're going to do, but on our shirts this time," Buck explains, for the second time, just to make sure she's captured the idea.
"Remember, sweetheart, you can't say what color is in there." Tommy reminds her.
"Okay!" Riley smiles big.
"Alright, let's do this," Buck gives his daughter a kiss on the cheek and softly nudges her to go meet Amy, where the woman is sitting, waiting for them.
Buck and Tommy sit facing each other, with nervous smiles. They both nod as they put on their eye-masks - neither of them trusting the other, or themselves, to keep their eyes closed during the entire thing.
From a distance, they hear Riley giggling all excited and they both chuckle.
"Oh, man, we should have someone else here to keep an eye on her," Buck says under his breath.
"We have Buzzer. And Amy."
"A dog and a pregnant woman," Buck points it out, much to Tommy's enjoyment.
He hears Riley running back, and it doesn't take long for him to feel her wet hand coming in contact with his shirt, from the sound Tommy lets out, he's been targeted as well. For the next ten minutes or so, they keep smiling over the excitement coming out of their daughter, who takes her time imprinting her tiny hands on their shirt. And it doesn't take long for her to be taken over by the fun of it all and press her wet hand on his face and bare arm. Probably doing the same to Tommy from the gasp the pilot lets out, followed by a soft “Hey!”
"Hey, that's not..." He fakes annoyance, grabbing his daughters and bringing her closer to him, hugging her tight, no doubt getting her smudged with paint. The little girl squeals. "You little troublemaker." He says before kissing her cheek.
"Daddy!" She calls out, trying to escape his hold.
"I think she painted you enough," Amy says from where she's still sitting. Tommy and Buck agree with her.
"On three?" Tommy asks towards him, and Buck nods before he remembers his husband can't see.
"One..."
"Two..."
"THREE!" Riley screams, escaping his hold, but staying closer.
At the same time, Buck and Tommy remove their eye masks and look at each other. They are both a mess from their daughter's antics, but they don't really mind. Pink handprints cover their t-shirts, there's some on Tommy's hair and beard; Buck's tattoos are colored in the pink paint and they both smile at each other.
"We really are girl dads," Buck says, remembering what Maddie had told him back when they found out Riley was a girl.
"I wouldn’t have it any other way," Tommy tells him, leaning in to give him a soft, chaste kiss. "You're gonna have a little sister," he nudges Riley, who answers by pressing her still wet hands on both of their faces as she tries to smush them.
~ * ~
“Taylor?” Tommy suggests from where he’s sitting on the floor of the living room, helping Riley to paint a card for Maddie’s birthday.
“We’re not naming our daughter after my ex,” Buck scoffs from the kitchen, where he’s finishing putting together a snack for Riley. “It also doesn’t... It doesn’t match with Riley,” he adds as he joins them in the living room, putting the plate with cut fruits on the coffee table near where their daughter is lying on her belly, drawing a very weird, shaped flower, or maybe is a cloud? He’s not sure. “There you go, princess.”
“’anks, daddy,” she says, kneeling so she can grab a pineapple and pop it in her mouth.
“I didn’t know you wanted them to match,” Tommy tells him, looking at his husband.
“I don’t know...” Buck shrugs. “Mine and Maddie’s doesn’t really match, yours and your siblings neither, but I kinda like the idea, you know? I know it’s cheesy.”
“Hey, no, it’s not...” Tommy tells him, reaching out to pat his knee. “I like it. We can work something out. I mean, it would be a lot easier if we had chosen a simpler name, but we can look it up.”
“Unless you have a name you want to choose,” Buck offers. The first time, they both came up with their own lists to choose Riley’s name, but in the end, the moment Buck saw the name during a q-word night at the firehouse, there was no other option for him. He just felt something inside of him that told him it was the right choice, that their daughter was a Riley . Luckly, Tommy didn’t try to fight him, so Buck decided that if they ever agreed to have another kid, he would let Tommy pick the name. “Like, if you like Taylor, I guess it would be okay.”
“Evan...” Tommy chuckles, reaching for him and scooching closer so he can give him his undivided attention. “I don’t mind that you chose her name the first time, or that you’ll have a big say on the second. We can work on it together; I don’t have a preference.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, sweetheart,” Tommy smiles at him. “What matters to me is to have her in our arms, no matter the name. If you want to match Riley’s, we’ll find something. Besides... It’s not like I’d enjoy naming her after one of my exes either.” Buck snorts a laughter with that, especially considering they share one name in particular. Tommy reaches for his phone and opens the browser, typing in it for a while. “Okay, let’s see what names match with Riley.”
“Me?” The little girl lifts her head.
“Your sister, baby,” Buck tells her, leaning forward so he can see the card she’s making. “That’s a pretty card. Auntie Maddie will be very happy.”
“Can we have tickers?” She asks, pointing to the drawer where he knows they keep them, away from her hands otherwise she’ll put stickers everywhere.
“I’ll get it for you,” Buck tells her. “Only on the card, nowhere else.”
“’kay.”
“How about Sylvie?” Tommy asks as Buck crouches down to help Riley with the stickers.
“Don’t you have an aunt with that name?” He asks his husband, frowning as he tries to remember his relatives. “Sounds like an old name.”
“Mackenzie?”
“We all have short names,” Buck points out, a similar argument they had the first time around. “It’s a lovely name, though. But Buck, Tommy, Riley and then... Mackenzie. That’s a mouthful.” From where he’s sitting, back against the couch, Tommy chuckles while he keeps reading the names until he finds one worth of his husband’s approval or denial.
“Jamie?”
“That’s... Riley and Jamie,” Buck tests the names, his eyes glancing towards Tommy’s direction. “You don’t like it.”
“Sounded nice until you put them together,” the pilot shrugs. “Katie?”
“Eh... I do like a ‘K’ name, though...” Buck mulls over, trying to think of another name starting with the letter K.
“I’m done, daddy!” Riley calls him, nudging her card towards him. Buck looks down, smiling at their daughter and picking up the card to take a look before either he or Tommy write down what she wants to address to Maddie. They’ve been teaching her the letters of the alphabet and she’s quite good at spelling sometimes if she has her alphabet stickers, but writing is still a bit tricky.
“That’s beautiful... Is that...” Buck frowns as he takes a look at the stickers Riley glued to the card, spelling a word that is nothing like Maddie’s name. “What’s written here, baby?”
“That’s her name,” Riley says, trying to reach for another piece of paper so she can keep doodling.
“This isn’t how you spell Aunt Maddie’s name, sweetheart,” Buck tells her gently. From where he’s sitting, Tommy frowns and looks up from the list of names on the phone, Buck shows him the word.
“Not Mad-Mad,” Riley tells him like it’s the most obvious thing. “Baby sister.” Buck’s eyes go wide as he looks at Tommy. “That’s her name.”
It’s on the tip of Buck’s tongue to ask how their daughter knows that, but if there’s one thing that actually freaks him out a lot more than he’s willing to admit is this whole kids-with-a-sixth-sense thing. He’s heard Maddie and Chimney telling a few stories from Jee, and he always feared one day they’d have to live that with their own kid. He should ask where Riley got that name from, but he’s not going to, he doesn’t want to know. And Tommy seems to be on the same page.
“That’s actually a pretty name,” the pilot agrees, testing the name on his tongue right after, and putting it next to Riley’s. “What do you think? It’s not a ‘K’ name, but it kind of matches and it’s different as well. And it has four letters, to match your name.”
“I think I like it,” Buck smiles softly, staring at the little card. For a moment, it’s like he goes back five years in time, sitting on the firehouse’s couch, mindless scrolling through baby names on a random website he found and came across Riley. He immediately called Tommy, even though the man was very much asleep at the time. “ Skye Kinard ... It has a nice ring to it.”
“Riley and Skye,” Tommy puts them together, both of them smiling as they like the way it sounds.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Buck agrees, leaning down so he can give Riley a kiss on the top of her head. “Good one, princess.”
“You do know what...”
“No, I don’t wanna touch that.”
Tommy is still laughing as Buck goes to the kitchen to grab some water for him and Riley.