Falling For a Nepo Baby (Danny Gonzalez X Fox SZN)

Prologue

Chapter song: "Shut Up" - The Black Eyed Peas

Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden had a good life together.

They lived in a beautiful countryside chalet – that they built from the ground up – complete with a white picket fence, a two-car garage, and carefully color-coordinated flower gardens.

They even had a son.

Joe Pail-Gonzalez-Gooden wasn't Danny's, biologically anyway, but he may as well have been. A goofy kid with a strange but understandable affinity for media literacy, Joe was the byproduct of a one-night stand between Drew and Logan Pail nearly seven years ago. Danny had been there every step of the way. From helping with Drew's medically complicated pregnancy, to the potty training (Drew's potty training, not their kid's), the terrible two's, and the now; Danny loved and cared for Joe as if he were his own.

Yes, the three of them (four, if you counted their dog) had a very good life.

So, Danny wondered to himself, if his life was so good...why did he want to throw it all away?

Danny splashed himself in the face with cold water from the leaky faucet in his bathroom sink, hoping, PRAYING -- that these thoughts would go away.

After Laura went missing in Afghanistan all those years ago, he wasn't sure he could ever love anyone else. But he found that spark again with Drew, for a while. Now, their relationship was growing monotonous. Danny was bored.

"Everything okay in there, babe?" Drew's words cut through the eerie silence, and Danny stifled a groan.

"Yup. Go back to bed," he answered.

Drew said nothing.

When Danny opened the bathroom door, they came face to face. Drew's arms were crossed, and in the gentle glow of Joe's night light down the hall, Danny could just barely make out the frown on his husband's lips.

"Yes?" Danny asked, one eyebrow raised.

"What's wrong with you lately?" Drew drawled.

"Nothing, can't a guy go to the bathroom without a thousand questions?" Danny snapped, regretting his words immediately as he watched the frown lines on Drew's face harden.

"You know that's not what I mean," Drew's voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "You're restless. You've gotten out of bed four times tonight, five yesterday, and you're just – so damn defensive."

"Yeah? Well maybe if you didn't nag me about every-"

Drew shushed Danny, actually shushed him, like a toddler!

"Don't yell. I don't want to wake Joe," he said.

Danny refrained from rolling his eyes, he hadn't been yelling, had he?

"Maybe if you didn't nag me about everything, I wouldn't be so defensive," Danny repeated, quieter.

Drew took a deep breath, considering his next words carefully. The only sound between them was the slow but steady drip drip drip of the faucet and the gentle hum of electricity pulsating through the walls, a white noise Danny could usually tune out. Now, it was all he could focus on.

"I don't nag you," Drew argued, voice cracking.

"You do. All the time."

"When? When did I nag you? When I caught you saving all those edits of Ned Flames to your spank-bank folder?" Drew seethed, ignoring his earlier advice about keeping things quiet for Joe.

Danny's face reddened, "Yeah, that's one example."

"What am I supposed to do, Danny? Tell me." Drew's voice was more desperate than angry. Danny couldn't really see his husband's face in the dim lighting, but he could tell from the way Drew was breathing that he was close to tears. "What am I supposed to do when," Drew paused, and then finally said aloud what had been unspoken between them for months now, "when my husband doesn't love me anymore."

A small part of Drew Gooden hoped that Danny would object; hoped he could fall to his knees and profess his undying love.

But all Danny said was, "I don't know."

Now it was Drew's turn to fixate on the faucet.

"I'm sorry," Danny began.

"Don't. Just don't. Go. I don't want to see you," Drew spat, masking his pain with anger. He turned around, unable to face his husband.

"What about Joe?" Danny asked.

"He'll survive. You're not really his father, anyways." Drew managed, before turning on his heels and marching back into their bedroom.

The words stung, but Danny didn't object. More than anything, he felt guilty. Guilty for losing feelings, guilty for abandoning the life they built together, and guilty...for feeling relieved.

That night, Danny packed his things and left, and Drew cried himself to sleep.