Full House
Carlos was at the kitchen table working on a few things that the station had sent over for him to do while he was on leave. Since the fire two weeks ago, things had been a bit tense. They'd temporarily moved in with Owen who was still housing Mateo, so five people and a dog in a house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms was not a good idea, no matter how you tried to configure it. Bailey had been sleeping on an air mattress in the bedroom that TK's old room while TK and Carlos slept in the bed. That wasn't an issue, they'd shared a room before, however the bathrooms were what were currently causing an issue. TK had taken to sharing a bathroom with his dad so that left the second bathroom to Carlos, Mateo, and Bailey. You didn't have to be very imaginative to figure out how that was going.
On top of the current living predicament, Bailey had still needed to complete her school work. She'd been given a leave of absence that gave her until the end of Spring Break but she'd still been asked to complete her assignments. With no space to do her work in private, she was struggling in every edge of her world.
"It's my turn in the bathroom, you already had it this morning." Bailey called, knocking on the door.
Mateo was yet again in the bathroom and Bailey was close to losing it. She was covered in paint, had somewhere to be in an hour and was far too exhausted to try and argue with people.
"I'm almost done, I promise." Mateo's voice came from the other side of the door and Bailey bit the inside of her cheek and rolled her eyes in spite.
"Yeah you said that fifteen minutes ago." She mumbled, dropping her towel and clothes in a neat pile next to the door and slumping back down the stairs.
She walked through the house and her body language caught her papá's attention.
"I thought you were gonna shower Bails." Carlos said looking up from his laptop.
"I thought so too. But Mateo is in the bathroom." Bailey sighed, plopping onto one of the stools at the counter.
"Again?" Carlos asked.
"Yeah." Bailey mumbled.
"Hello hello." Owen said, happily walking into the kitchen from the back yard, TK not far behind.
Bailey smiled glumly and TK furrowed his brow, stopping next to his daughter. Bailey leaned her forehead against his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her gently, avoiding her hands and portions of her shirt which were still covered in paint. TK looked to Carlos with a look that clearly asked, 'what happened?' to which Carlos only shook his head. TK rubbed at Bailey's back for a bit before he could clearly feel his shirt growing damp and when he looked he could see that she was crying.
"Hey, Bails, what's going on?" He asked hugging her tight to his chest, paint covered shirt be damned.
Bailey shook her head gently, never pulling away.
"Okay, how about we go upstairs and go sit in the bedroom for a little while." TK suggested.
Again though, Bailey shook her head, harder this time.
"I just wanna have space again." She mumbled after a few minutes.
TK's heart ached. This was definitely not what he wanted for his daughter and when he looked over to Carlos he could see that he felt the same way.
"I know you do kiddo; I know." He said gently.
Owen watched as TK just pulled Bailey into a tighter hug. He knew that they were having a hard time, he knew that Bailey specifically was struggling with more anxiety and without her own space, she had very little outlets that she could turn to. The fire had thankfully spared the shed in the backyard so they'd been able to move her art supplies to his backyard but Owen knew that it wasn't the same.
"Hey Bailey, why don't you grab your stuff and use my bathroom. I've gotta run to the grocery store so it'll be empty and you can take your time." Owen said.
Bailey looked up and turned to her grandfather.
"Really?" She asked, wiping at her cheek.
"Yeah really kiddo," Owen said gently and waved her to his side. "I'll walk up with you."
TK watched Bailey walk away with his dad and sat down on the stool that Bailey was previously occupying.
"You okay?" Carlos asked.
TK briefly nodded before shaking his head and then nodding again. Carlos laughed.
"Well that was telling." He said.
TK chuckled.
"Oh, was it?" He asked.
Carlos laughed again.
✵✵✵
"We really need to get out of here." Carlos said, leaning against the kitchen counter as TK closed the fridge.
TK looked over at him and nodded.
"Yeah, Bailey is on the verge of a mental breakdown and I honestly can't blame her. Sharing a bathroom with Mateo wasn't my favorite thing to do either," He replied. "I'm glad my dad stepped in this morning cause I was at a loss."
Carlos nodded.
"Have you thought about what your dad talked about last night?" Carlos asked.
"The conference in LA?" TK asked.
Carlos nodded.
"Yeah, I mean it's technically over Bailey's Spring Break so she wouldn't have any homework to do, it'd give us some family time and we could stop in and visit the 118." Carlos said.
"And we wouldn't have to share a bathroom with my dad." TK mumbled.
Carlos laughed.
"Yeah, that does help." He said.
TK nodded in thought.
"It's not a bad idea. I don't remember the last time we had a real vacation. And it'd be our first with Bailey." He said.
"And it'll be our last before she graduates in May." Carlos added.
TK held up his hand.
"Do not start with that," He warned. "My dad was talking about it the other day and I just about lost it."
Carlos pouted at him mockingly before walking over and wrapping his arms around TK's waist and rested his head on his shoulder.
"Awe, I'm sorry." He said.
TK smiled lightly and leaned back into Carlos' chest.
"I just can't believe how fast time's gone. I swear she was just moving in last week." TK laughed.
"I'm pretty sure all parents feel that way carniño." Carlos said.
TK took a deep breath.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," He said. "And you're also right about LA. I think we should do it."
TK could feel Carlos smile against his neck.
"I'll start looking at flights." He said.
But when he went to pull away, TK caught his arms and pulled him back against his back.
"Maybe in a little bit," He smiled. "This is nice."
Carlos chuckled and tightened his grip around his boyfriend.
"Is it now?" He teased.
"Uh huh," TK hummed. "Very."
Carlos pressed open-mouthed kisses to the base of TK's neck and TK had to bite his lip to keep from moaning. This was the first time they'd had any time alone since the night of the fire and damn did it feel good to have Carlos' mouth on him again.
"I missed this." TK said quietly.
"Yeah?" Carlos mumbled.
TK nodded subtly.
"AHH!" Somebody shouted.
Carlos and TK sprung apart and saw Mateo standing at the entrance to the kitchen with his hands thrown over his eyes.
"Damn it Mateo." TK groaned.
Mateo peeked through his fingers before putting his hands down. Both Carlos and TK looked at him with looks that could kill.
"When the hell did you even get back?" TK asked.
"Like five minutes ago," Mateo said, slowly walking into the kitchen as if he were unsure if it was safe. "Are you making dinner?"
TK glared at him.
"No, dad's picking up tacos on his way home from the station." He said.
"Where's Bailey?" Mateo asked.
"At Noah's," Carlos replied before shifting and looking at Mateo with his brows furrowed. "Is there a point to this line of questioning or are you just trying to make yourself feel better?"
Mateo opened his mouth to reply but TK held up a hand to stop him.
"Don't answer that." He said grabbing Carlos' hand and leading him out of the kitchen and up to their room.
As soon as they closed the door TK practically dove for his computer.
"What are you doing?" Carlos asked.
"Booking three tickets to LA," TK replied looking up at his boyfriend. "We gotta get outta here."
✵✵✵
Bailey quietly opened the door to her grandpa's house when Noah dropped her off. She was technically ten minutes later than her curfew dictated her return but she and Noah had gotten caught up in a few things, and time had gotten away from them. She'd hoped that her dads would be busy with their own evening activities and wouldn't notice the time but what she wasn't expecting was the whole of the 126 sitting around the living room together. She froze in the entry way when she saw them, the door closing had caught their attention and the conversation had petered out. Judd looked over at her with a small smile and then glanced at TK and Carlos.
"Welcome back kiddo." He laughed.
Carlos looked over to the door with a cocked brow.
"Little late mija." He said.
"Uhh, yeah, sorry about that." Bailey muttered.
Bailey shifted around the entryway, not entirely sure what to do. Carlos laughed.
"Come in here Bails, we're not mad." He said.
"You're not?" Bailey asked taking slow steps into the living room.
"It's ten minutes Bailey, not ten hours." TK said.
Bailey's shoulders relaxed as her dad spoke.
"It is getting pretty late though." Judd said looking to his wife who nodded in agreement.
"Definitely," Grace said. "I think it's time we headed out."
Slowly, everybody began to trickle out of the house leaving the home's occupants in their own company. TK gave dad a look that was unmistakable and Owen nodded.
"Okay Mateo, let's give them some privacy." He said.
Mateo looked to his Captain with a furrowed brow.
"Why do we have to leave?" He asked.
"Because I said so." Owen said, grabbing Mateo's shoulder and guiding him upstairs.
TK and Carlos waited until they heard the footsteps reach the top of the stairs before turning to their daughter. Bailey had taken refuge on the end of the couch that TK and Carlos had already claimed, she'd pulled her knees up under her and curled comfortably around a pillow. She looked to her fathers now, wondering if they'd changed their minds about being mad about missing her curfew.
"Are you mad at me?" She asked.
Carlos immediately spoke up.
"What? No." He said, quickly dashing Bailey's worry. "We just wanted to talk to you about something."
Bailey nodded.
"Okay, what about?" She asked.
TK spoke now.
"We know that things have been really crazy the past few weeks with school, the fire, having to move and lose a lot of your personal space," He said. "So, we were thinking that it might be fun to take a vacation for Spring break."
Bailey's eyes widened.
"Really?" She asked. "Where?"
"Yeah," Carlos said. "There's a conference in LA that we were originally thinking about going to alone but we think that it'd make a cool family vacation. The conference is only over the weekend which would give us the rest of the week to go see the sights, visit with some friends, and just have a good time."
"Maybe we could go to Disneyland?" Bailey asked.
TK and Carlos looked to their daughter whose eyes were sparkling with hope. They looked to each other and TK laughed a little bit and shrugged. He certainly wouldn't be against a Disney day. Carlos smiled.
"I think that could be arranged." Carlos said turning back to Bailey.
Bailey's face lit up in a smile and she bounded across the couch, pulling her fathers into a hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you." She said.
TK and Carlos couldn't stop smiling, this was going to be fun.