Work Text:
Calypso
Buck is woken up from what had been a really fun if not weird dream by his bladder. Buck's grateful for this pregnancy. He is. They had tried so hard to get pregnant with this little girl so of course he is thankful for her and she hasn't even been born yet. That doesn't mean Buck loves being woken up at two-seventeen in the morning to pee for what feels like the millionth time that night. In reality it's only the forth time his bladder has woken him up, but still.
Getting in and out of bed at thirty-two weeks pregnant isn't exactly a cake walk.
Tommy is awake as well, but clearly not for bladder related reasons since he's reclining against the headboard reading in the dim light of his bedside lamp. Buck will deal with that after he pees. Tommy can wait his bladder can not. Besides Tommy's insomnia isn't exactly a new phenomenon. Tommy has that skill where he can sleep anywhere at any time with only a moments notice before springing away looking fresh as a daisy no matter how little sleep he'd gotten. Buck was honestly kind of jealous of his husband's sleeping habits. The flip side of that is Tommy suffers from terrible insomnia whenever he's stressed.
And Tommy is stressed. Granted it is stress of his own making, but he is stressed out non the less. Tommy has been freaking out about the fact Buck is now thirty-two weeks pregnant and they have only managed to pick out a middle name for their daughter.
Maddie was such an easy choice. Because Maddie isn't just his big sister, but she's also been his best friend, and the person who had raised him, loving Buck unconditionally. Of course he wanted to honor her. The only reason Evan hadn't pushed for Maddie to be their daughter's first name is because it feels weird to honor his healthy, living sister in that way.
But every time since they had initially talked about baby names Tommy has shot down every single one of Buck's suggestions while offering none of his own. And it's not like Buck was making weird or off the wall suggestions. They were perfectly nice normal names like Riley or Mel. And okay maybe he had been needling Tommy a little bit when he suggested names like Katniss and Pelagia. Or the time he had cheekily suggested they use the alphabet method to name their kids while him and Tommy had been binge watching Bridgerton.
That last one had been a little more pointed than anything since Tommy had just shrugged and mumbled something that sounded like maybe. Buck had even tried giving Tommy the patented Athena Grant stare that was guaranteed to make the most hardened criminal or petulant teenager confess their deepest most embarrassing secrets.
Buck isn't stupid. He knows what name Tommy wants to use he just doesn't know why his husband vetoed the name.
Once his his bladder has finally been relieved and his hands have been washed thoroughly Buck waddles his way back into their bedroom.
"You want to talk about it?" Evan asks slowly maneuvering himself across their large bed until he is curled up in Tommy's side looking at the book in his hands. Tommy doesn't say anything as he turns the page and Buck lets him have a moment.
"Our daughter doesn't have a first name." Tommy finally says still staring at the words on the page.
"I know." Buck says keeping his voice neutral. He doesn't want to further stress Tommy out now that he is finally talking about what's eating him. What's stopping him from having this conversation.
"It's my fault she doesn't have a name." Buck keeps his mouth shut so that Tommy can say whatever it is he needs to say. "I want to honor my mom. You know how much I loved—love her." Buck makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. He does know. "But I just—I can't name our little girl Daphne. That grief… I've pushed it all down so long that now it all just feels to raw and—and I'm not ready to name our little girl Daphne even though I want to."
"Okay." Buck says easily, pressing a tender if absent minded kiss to his husband's chest, accepting Tommy's feelings on the name. "But that doesn't explain why you are reading the Odessy at" Buck glanced at the clock on Tommy's nightstand, "almost two-thirty in the morning." Tommy shrugged turning the page again.
"Looking for inspiration I guess. You know how much my mom loved mythology." Tommy says with a nonchalant shrug. Buck can't help it he roles his eyes.
"I thought the Arthurian Legends were your mom's favorite Thomas Percival." Buck rotors being a bit of a brat and Tommy pinches his ass cheek for it.
"It was her favorite." Tommy defends emphatically. "I was raised on the legends of King Arthur and his knights." Tommy replies defensively as if Buck doesn't already know this and hadn't seen the battered old compressed wood desk in Tommy's shop that was covered in dents, scratches, and faded, chipped neon glow in the dark paint. Buck had heard the story about how a very angsty teenage version of his husband had painted scenes from his favorite Arthurian poem on the desk as well as the actual poem.
"Okay. So why not name our daughter after…" Buck trails off trying to remember the actual name but can't. Stupid pregnancy brain. "Why don't we name our daughter after the Lady of Shalott?" He asks because Tommy will know exactly what Buck is talking about.
"Evan!" He says all flustered and exasperated. "We are not naming our daughter Elaine, and I love that poem but it is about isolation and—" Tommy rambles about the themes of his favorite poem getting more worked up and flustered the longer he rambles. It's sweet and Buck loves the way his husband is so passionate about it. "And she dies at the end. We are not doing that to our daughter." Buck half laughs at Tommy's determination and half grunts when their daughter kicks him in the ribs.
"I think you're daughter also just vetoed the name." He says wincing when another hard kick lands. Tommy starts rubbing one of his massive hands over the swell of his belly, letting his book falls closed on his chest. "So why the Odyssey?" Buck asks relaxing into Tommy's side as their daughter is lulled back to sleep inside of him. Tommy hums thoughts fully.
"Daphne was a figure in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of a river god and a beautiful nymph who rejected all suitors." Buck listens contently as Tommy tells him the full myth before circling back around to his original thought process. "And I just… I thought that we could pick a name from Greek mythology to honor my mom since I'm not ready to use her name."
"Okay." Buck replies agreeing. He knows they should both be asleep, Tommy has a shift in the morning and so does Buck. But Buck is riding the desk until the start of his family leave. But they are finally having a real conversation about baby names. Besides he's enjoying this quiet moment in the soft light of their bedroom. "Did you have any ideas of names you'd like to use?"
Buck fights off sleep as he listens to Tommy ramble of names and explanations. He can't help it. Tommy had a soothing voice and Buck has been struggling with pregnancy insomnia since week twenty-nine. He occasionally gives his inputs on names as Tommy lists off names like Medusa, Circe, Selena, Althea, and Andromeda.
"But, umm, there's one name I really like and I was going to bring it up to you in the morning but—" Tommy waves his free hand indicating the conversation they are already having.
"What's the name?" Buck asks with a sleepy hum.
"Calypso." Tommy rambles a bit about Calypso and her complex nature,her part in The Odyssey, her relationship with Odysseus, and how there are contradictory narratives about if Calypso was a nymph or a minor goddess. Without meaning to and without thinking about it Buck interrupts Tommy's rambling.
"Isn't Calypso the name of the sea goddess in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?" Tommy beams with pride at Buck's question. He is clearly very proud of how far Buck has come in his cinematic education.
"It is. And um that's why I was going to suggest Calypso." Buck blames the insomnia and the pregnancy brain for whatever connection he wasn't making to the name.
"Uhhhh…" Buck trails off still trying to puzzle out why this name has risen to the top of Tommy's list. "I think forgot to share one half of your equation babe cause I don't get it." Buck teases and it makes Tommy laugh.
"Darlin." Tommy says slowly kissing Buck's birthmark. "How did we meet?" That's a stupid question, Buck thinks. His pregnancy Brain isn't that bad.
"You stole a helicopter to fly Hen, Chimney, Eddie, and I into a hurricane because Hen had a hunch that something bad happened to Bobby and Athena and then you helped us lead the charge in pulling off a major water rescue on a—Oh!" Buck rambles finally connecting the dots. "Oh!" Tommy is smiling at him brightly as Buck finally figured it out.
"What do you think?" Tommy asks all soft and happy but clearly nervous.
"I love it." Buck replies matching Tommy's smile. "Calypso Maddie." Buck says testing the name out on his tongue and receives a sleepy nudge from their daughter. Tommy and Buck look at each other exchanging smiles and giggling since they had both felt that sleepy nudge. "I think someone else approves as well." Buck says making Tommy laugh.
Andromache
Naming the twins is surprisingly easy compared to the ordeal that had been naming Caly. Well naming 'Twin A' had been easy. She's the smaller of the two and Tommy seemed to know instantly that he wanted her name to be Daphne Nicole. Evan had been perfectly happy with that name choice. He's glad that Tommy finally felt ready and comfortable to use the name he had so clearly wanted to use when their pre-schooler had been born. So Buck absolutely was not going to veto them naming one of their daughters after Tommy's mom and his Auntie. Not when those were the two most important women in his life and the women who had raised him.
Buck did bite his tongue to stop himself from suggesting Nicole for 'Twin B' only because Nicole doesn't fit with that whole Greek mythology theme they had stumbled ass backwards into for their daughter's names. Besides Tommy's Auntie Nikki is still very much alive and kicking. It wouldn't be fair to Maddie to use Nicole for a first name when they hadn't used his sister's name as one.
And really Nikki is the perfect person to honor. It doesn't matter how much work his mom has put in to be better parent, Buck doesn't think Margaret Buckley deserves to be honored in the same breathe as Daphne Kinard. But that meant they had to come up with a name for 'Twin B' and Buck doesn't want to depend on Tommy and his impressively vast knowledge of Greek mythology this time.
Buck had half jokingly suggested Athena as a name while they were at dinner with Bobby and Athena.
"Oh that would go over well." Athena had responded dryly making everyone laugh because she wasn't wrong. Plus Buck would feel like a dick using her name in case May or Harry want to use it for their hypothetical future children. So he spends a lot of time researching different names of women in Greek mythology. Specifically the lesser known ones.
It becomes a common place occurrence for him and Tommy to stand around the kitchen island as they cook together throwing out baby names. Buck throws out suggestions for first names while Tommy throws out suggestions for middle names.
It's… It's rapidly degrading into a completely unhinged experience.
"What about Dido?" Buck asks while in the middle if dicing vegetables.
"Pass, it sounds to close to Dildo and you just know some shit head kid will start calling her Dildo Kindard because kids are assholes. "What about Salvatrice?"
"Hard pass." Buck replied vehemently setting down his knife. He fully supports Tommy's dedication to finding a middle name to honor his best friend. It's just that... "Where are you even finding these names?" He asks.
"Uhhh. I found Salvatrice on reddit. Apparently its a Sicilian name." Buck sighed but it's his turn to throw out a name.
"Kallisto?" He suggests.
"Solid choice, but we already have a Caly." Tommy counters nodding into the living room where their little girl is watching Elmo's World in a trance. "What about Soleil?"
"Pretty, but we can't give our daughter two obscure names." Buck counters back making Tommy sigh. "Phoebe?"
"People will think we named her after Phoebe Buffay or Phoebe Halliwell." Tommy replies washing his hands now that he has finished seasoning the roast.
"Who?" Buck asks sliding over the diced vegetables to go in the roasting pot.
"Evan!"
"Hold that thought I have to pee!" Evan called over his shoulder waddle running towards the bathroom while supporting his massive and ever growing belly. He thought he had to pee constantly when he was pregnant with Caly, somehow he has to pee even more frequently with twins sitting on his bladder.
The game goes on for another week until they are standing in the middle of the children's library waiting for Caly to finish choosing her weekly hoard of books. Tommy had just thrown out the name Salvia in response to Buck's suggestion Iphigenia. Buck will admit it was actually a pretty piss poor choice.
"Why don't we just use Deluca as a middle name?" Buck suggests. It might not be the most traditional choice but it is Sal's last name and they have yet to agree on a single girls name that bares any sort of phonetic similarity to Sal or even Salvatore. Tommy blinks slowly as if the thought never occurred to him.
"Oh. Yeah. I like that. Deluca would make a great middle name for Baby B." Buck snorts. They really need to come up with a first name for her or she's going to come home from the hospital as Baby B Deluca Kinard. "How do you feel about Andromache for a first name?" Tommy asks as if reading Buck's mind. This time Buck is the one blinking slowly as Caly kneels by their feet talking to herself. Their oldest is ranting to herself debating if she wants to check out the big book of fairy tales again.
"It's beautiful and I love it. But I thought we agreed to avoid naming our daughters after women with tragic endings." Tommy shrugged nonchalantly asking Caly if she was ready to check out yet.
"Not yet, Papa." Caly snapped making Buck raise an eyebrow at their daughter.
"Calypso." He says her name in a low tone, warning her about her attitude. An attitude she very much inherited from both of her parents.
"Sorry Papa." Caly replies looking up at Tommy with a sweet and apologetic grin.
"It's alright sweetheart." Tommy replies soothingly accepting the final book for their daughter's stack and sweeping her up into his free arm.
"We didn't, and Andromache does have tragic ending at the end of The Iliad." Buck hums listening as they family if three, soon to be five, make their way to the librarians desk to check out their books. "But she also embodies perseverance. I was also thinking of Andromache the Scythian from the Old Guard. She's a bad ass and I have a feeling Baby B is going to be one." Tommy rambles handing the books over to the librarian. Buck loves the name and the thought Tommy had put into it. But he can't make this to easy for his husband.
"You've said that about all our girls so far." Buck teases and Tommy just shrugs with one arm.
"I said what I said."
"I like it!" Caly piped up joining the conversation. "Cause then we can be Caly, Daphne, and Andi!" The two men exchange a look having an unspoken conversation as Caly turns her attention back to her conversation with the librarian about planets and the solar system.
"Well I guess it's settled then." Buck finally says and Tommy nods with a smile.
"Andromache Deluca Kinard it is." Tommy agreed.
Daphne
Finally the chaos of the day has died down allowing Tommy and Evan to begin bonding with their newborn daughters. It doesn't matter what Evan had said, and continues to say. He still feels incredibly guilty for missing the birth of Daphne and Andi and he doesn't know how he can ever make it up to Evan or to the girls. Logically he knows that's stupid because Evan doesn't hold it against him and he doesn't think their daughters will either. It was supposed to be Tommy's last day of work before he goes on family leave. He'd already felt guilty enough for missing out on taking Caly trick-or-treating tonight.
Besides, it's not like he'd been screwing around at the station or something. He had been on a call when their twins decided to make their grand and dramatic experience in the world. And as Evan had pointed out Tommy was doing his job, and because of that a teen boy gets to go home to his parents tonight. That doesn't mean he doesn't feel like the worst sort of bastard for missing the birth of their twins.
"Got another one." Evan says passing his phone over to Tommy. Athena had sent Evan a picture of Caly dressed in her Princess Belle dress holding onto an orange plastic pumpkin bucket. Bobby is crouched down next to Caly dressed in his Captain's dress uniform as their oldest daughter clings to her Grandpa Bobby's neck smashing his face into her wild auburn curls.
[Athena]
Not to shabby for a last minute Prince Adam costume.
Another text comes through as Tommy is staring at the picture.
[Athena]
Don't worry, she is having a blast with us. Bobby has been doing a great job of distracting her from insisting we go meet her sisters tonight.
The second text makes an unexpected laugh escape Tommy's lips as he passes the phone back to Evan to reply. Andi is settled against Evan's chest while Daphne sleeps soundly in the crook of Tommy's arm while the parents fill out the all important paperwork that comes with having children.
"You forget the name we picked out for Daphne or something?" Evan teases as he sets his phone aside. Okay, Evan was filling out the paperwork for Andromache, Tommy is supposed to be filling out Daphne's paperwork. But he'd gotten stuck once he got to that all important question. Her name.
It had been so easy to fill in the box for her first and last names. It was the middle name that had tripped him up.
"Actually about that." Tommy says slowly making Evan turn his head and look at Tommy through narrowed eyes. His husband doesn't even have to ask before Tommy answers the question Evan is sure to ask. "What if we didn't use Nicole for her middle name?" Tommy asks wincing as Evan's eyes narrow further.
"And why wouldn't we use your Auntie's name?" Evan asks suspiciously and maybe a little annoyed. Which is fair considering the fact it had taken them damn near forty weeks to name Caly and almost a full month to name Andi.
"I just…" Tommy trailed off swallowing thick with nerves. "I just think there is someone more deserving is all." He grumbles looking down at Daphne who is frowning in her sleep and starting to grunt.
"More deserving that the woman who was, in your own words, a second mother to you?" Evan asks in annoyed disbelief. Tommy nodded. "And who is that?" Evan asked flipping his own stack of now finished paperwork closed, making Andi official.
"Hen." Tommy says slowly before continuing. "I was thinking we should use Henrietta as a middle name." The suspicion and annoyance disappears from Evan's face as he looks at Tommy with a soft and fond sort of nervousness.
"Are you sure? I know how much your Auntie Nikki means to you. " Evan asks his voice all soft and hesitant as if he is scared Tommy will change his mind. But he won't.
"And so does she." Tommy says in a rush to reassure his husband. "Us not using her name won't change that. But Hen was there with you today when I couldn't be. And she quite literally delivered Daphne—"
"I was there too you know." Evan sniffles wiping away a tear even as he cracks the joke and it makes Tommy smile.
"Yeah, you were and you were an absolute rock star, Darlin." Tommy says making sure Evan knows just how incredible he was earlier in the day when Tommy had been half way up a mountain and their daughters had refused to wait until they got to the hospital to be born. "But Hen kept you, and my girls safe today. It feels like the least I can do to thank her for that." Evan is still crying those happy tears and cursing fourth trimester hormones under his breathe.
"We already decided to make Hen and Karen Daphne's god parents." Evan argues as he wipes away more tears. It's a weak, token protest at best.
"Evan—" Tommy cuts himself off deciding that this is a situation where actions will have to speak louder than words. He picks his pen back up filling in the box for the older twins middle name. Their baby girl is officially Daphne Henrietta Kinard.
Tommy sets the paperwork aside and adjusts Daphne in his arm. Then he goes to kiss those happy tears from Evan's cheeks before taking their daughters for that all important first diaper change.
Robert
It had taken Tommy more time, therapy, and a newly constructed outdoor kitchen to get excited about having a son then he would like to admit. Tommy has loved every loud, glittery, pastel colored moment of being a girl dad. With the girls Tommy had sworn that he didn't care about the sex either way and had exuberantly celebrated each of his three incredible little girls. Tommy didn't think he'd have a different reaction to having a son but as it turns out emotions and trauma aren't logical. Evan hadn't been upset or angry with Tommy for his panicked reaction. He'd worried about Tommy, but he wasn't mad that Tommy'd freaked out.
Tommy has finally worked through his bullshit and as Eddie had kindly pointed out in his own almost assholish kind of way. Tommy is not his piece of shit dad and he would never do anything to purposely hurt Evan or his kids and there is nothing his son could do to make Tommy stop loving him.
So Tommy did what Eddie suggested. He curled up in bed with Evan, opened his big mouth, and told Evan all of the thoughts that had been running through his head since the anatomy scan and how they had been torturing him. Tommy apologize ls to Evan, not for his feelings or his trauma, but for scaring Evan. He hates that he made Evan worry about him when the only things Evan should be worrying about are gestating and enjoying the final trimester of pregnancy.
This is the last one, Evan keeps joking that they have the kind of luck where if he gets knocked up again they'll wind up with another set of twins. Or worse, triplets.
Evan kisses Tommy enthusiastically when he announces what he thinks is the perfect name for their son. When Evan finally pulls back he strokes and thumb over Tommy's cheek and whispers.
"Are you sure?" He knows the name bucks their established pattern of picking names from Greek mythology. But Tommy can't think of a better name for their son. "You dont want to name him after one of your uncles?" Tommy snorts amused.
"Which one?" He teases leaning across the bed for more kisses. "Joe's great but he wasn't around when I was a kid—"
"Which we both know wasn't his choice." Evan interrupts. Tommy is the one to interrupt this time, kissing his husband to preemptively stop him from defending the honor of his mom's brother. That drama is long in the past and has already been forgiven.
"Can I finish now?" Tommy asks when he pulls away from this kiss. Evan nods sheepishly and the smallest grin. "Gene was short for Eugene Harlan the fifth and the man went to his death bed swearing there wouldn't be a sixth. I want to honor that." Evan nods at the explanation. Tommy sighs scrubbing a hand over his face as he shifts in their bed getting more comfortable. His back just isn't what it used to be. "And Scott…" Tommy takes a deep breath.
Tommy loves Scott. The man has been so many things to him over the years. He'd been his football coach, his mentor, he'd been Tommy's rock when he was twenty and his mom died. Scott is… Scott is his Bobby in so many ways. But he still doesn't feel right honoring Scott in this way.
"You remember how we agreed to leave the name Athena for May and Harry?" Tommy asks feeling unnecessarily nervous, Evan hums in acknowledgment, running his fingers through Tommy's hair to comfort him. "That's how I feel about the name Scott. I love him and he was one of the most important men in my life. But I also want to leave it for Kate and CJ to use if they want it." Evan nodded, cupping Tommy's cheek in his hand and leaned in as much as possible at thirty-two weeks pregnant. Tommy met him in the middle.
"Okay." Evan says when they finally part again.
"Okay?" Tommy asks with a smile looking at Evan's own smiling face. And Evan nodded.
"Our son's name is going to be Robert Howard Kinard." Evan announces with a grin just as warm and bright as it had been ten years ago when they had chosen Caly's name.