When I Return || Perrentes

Chapter 13: Those We Leave Behind

Tony woke up remarkably slowly, and didn't dare open his eyes. He could hear a kettle boiling, and a pair of feet shuffling around; he could hear quiet voices. He could smell coffee brewing. He could smell oatmeal - ready made oatmeal, the kind that comes in a pot and only requires boiling water to bring to life, that Frank often had for his breakfast. He could feel a warm, heavy lump near his feet, pinning down the bedsheets; Sammy, still sleeping. After a while, he could also feel an itch and a tingle and an ache on the side of his face. Oh yes. He'd got slashed with a knife there.

Reluctant to wake, feeling like he could do with another two straight days of sleep, Tony shifted slightly and pressed his head into the pillow, shuffling further under the sheets, and he tried to go back to sleep, but his brain was telling him not to. Instead, he lay with his eyes firmly closed, and listened, smelled, felt.

"Kel," Tony heard Mike start, who was still lying in bed beside him but a lot more awake. "Are you and Katelynne still in the same house or did you end up moving?"

"We moved," Kellin replied happily. "We're in a semi-detached now, it's got a tiny garden but she loves it, she's growing fruit out there all the time. Front garden is a mess, but we're fixing it up. We're making up a spare room as well."

"Not a nursery?" Vic asked, and Kellin laughed nervously.

"Perhaps not yet. Only been married for about seven months."

"No time like the present," Jaime added, and Kellin snorted.

"For some, maybe. For now, we're just enjoying married life. I can't wait to get home to see her."

"Okay," Patty piped up from somewhere else. Each of them were speaking quietly in an effort not to wake Tony. "But say if you were going to have a kid, would you want a boy or a girl?"

"It wouldn't matter to me. But I've always wanted a little girl."

"How about names?"

"I really haven't thought," he laughed. "There'll be time for thinking when this is all over. At the moment there aren't enough hours in the day."

"Plenty of hours for that one to sleep though," Frank said dryly, and the others huffed with laughter at the comment. Tony still did not stir, reluctant for the perfection to pop. "Is it breathing?"

"Likely," Mike said softly, and Vic huffed fondly.

"Kid needs sleep for the next forty eight hours."

"Don't we all?"

"He really should be up by now," Patty chuckled. "Think if I play the Star Wars theme tune enough times he'll wake up?"

"We should just watch him," Jaime said. "Creep him out when he wakes up and we're all staring at him."

"I'm sure I can see his eyes moving," Vic said, a smile in his voice. "Is he awake?"

"Don't know."

"Tony, you up?" Vic said, and Tony didn't reply - but then started to feel a giggle bubbling up, and a smile twitched at his mouth. A few other threads of laughter sounded in the room.

"Tony, I know you're awake!"

Tony snorted and laughed, yanking the covers up over himself as the others chorused him awake, and he groaned, shook his head. "No-oo," he moaned, and then he felt Mike's hands come to jab into his ribs. Violently he jerked as he laughed, kicking his legs and squirming. "No! Mike, no, get off."

"Wake up, princess," Mike laughed, and bowed his head, nuzzled into his neck and kissed his shoulder, and Tony whined again, even more dramatic than before.