Baby Daddies

Chapter Thirty-Five: Absolut-ly

There had never been a night sweeter than this one. They'd gotten Robert back, Anthony had gotten what he deserved, and no babies were harmed in the process. To celebrate their victory ride home, Laura cranked on the radio and rolled all of the windows down, proudly blaring music as they drove through the city streets. Digging his phone out of his pocket, Cole dialed Paul's number. He answered a few seconds later, clearly worried about what was happening.

"Are you guys okay? Did Anthony get Robert again? I tried to stop him but he hit me in the stomach and I nearly puked again," Paul rambled.

"Calm down! We got him!"

"You got him?"

"We got him!"

"They got him!" Paul exclaimed. In the background he could hear Kacey cheer with excitement. Cole laughed and looked up at Naomi. She waved her hand to him, ushering him to hand over the phone.

"One sec, Naomi wants to talk to you," he said, leaning forward so that she could take it from him. She brought his phone to her ear and said,

"I pepper sprayed him. Yeah! Pepper sprayed the shit outta him for hitting you." Cole was eagerly eavesdropping to her conversation when he was startled by the sound of crying. Robert wailed for exactly six seconds before Noah rolled his sleeve up and placed the bracelet to the baby's back. There was a high pitched chime to let him know it recognized him as the parent. Noah opened the diaper bag and removed the diaper and bottle. Cole watched as Noah pressed handed off the carrier to Kendall and placed Robert on his back between his knees.

Off went the diaper with the green fabric in the middle. He pressed the diaper with the yellow fabric inside to see if Robert stopped crying but that wasn't it. He wrapped the green diaper back around Robert's waist and put the bottle to his mouth. He smiled with relief and looked up at Cole. "We never picked a middle name for him."

"We should name him after you. What's your middle name?"

"Snow," he sighed. Cole snorted and tried to hide his laughter.

"Snow? Noah Snow Whitaker?"

"My parents are from Alaska. They like that season. Ian's middle name is Winter."

"Oh my god," Cole chuckled. "We're following that tradition. His middle name will be something like... Flurry or something."

"Blizzard," Laura offered from the front seat.

"That's perfect!" Cole said, looking down at Robert. "His full name is Robert De Niro Blizzard Whitaker-Forbes."

"That's a mouthful," said Kendall. Noah couldn't help but smile. At first he hated what Cole had named the baby. It was a girl and Robert wasn't traditionally a girl's name. But with the back story he'd came up with for the baby, Noah had come to love the name. It was the perfect amount of queerness that complimented their untraditional family.

"Robert De Niro Blizzard Whitaker-Forbers," Noah repeated. "I love it."

Rather than stopping by Cole's place where his parents surely would get onto them for being too loud, Laura drove them back to Noah. His dad and step-mom were out of town on their first anniversary and Ian had moved in with a friend. They'd have the whole house to themselves. Once they were parked in the driveway, the group climbed out and headed up the front steps, unable to keep from giggling about nothing in particular. Paul and Kacey would be there in twenty minutes, so in the meantime, Noah volunteered to throw pizzas into the oven. In their attempt to save Robert, they'd all skipped dinner.

Cole probably would have thrown up like Paul had he eaten before their rescue mission. Once the pepperoni pizzas were inside the oven and cooking, Noah returned to the living room to find his friends lounging around, surfing through television shows. He took a seat next to Cole and Robert.