Paul Matthews & Hannah Foster autistic icons.
No TWs because I wrote so much angst I felt like I needed to write some fluff to balance it out :)
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"Emma?" Tom asked as soon as Emma picked up the phone. "Are you home?"
"Yeah, Paul and I just got home from-"
"Great," he interrupted. "Listen, can you watch Tim for like, an hour? Hannah too, if it's not too much trouble, Lex asked me to watch her, but-"
"Tom, what's going on?"
Tom sighed, and she could hear the panic in his voice. "Becky's been in a car accident. They said she's fine, but I recently became her emergency contact and I really need to get to St. Damien's. I'd take the kids, but I don't know how severely she's injured, and I don't want to expose them to that."
Emma nodded despite him not being able to see, knowing he must be thinking about Jane. "Yeah, sure, we can watch them."
"Thanks, Emma, I'll be there in five."
He hung up, and Emma walked to the kitchen, where Paul was putting the groceries away. "Tim's coming over," she informed him. "And you remember Lex and Hannah, right? Hannah will be there too. Tom's going to the hospital to see Becky."
"Okay." Paul smiled. He liked spending time with Tim. And though he'd only seen Hannah a few times before, something about the girl made him drawn to her.
It wasn't long before they heard tires screeching in front of their house, and Emma opened the door for Tim and Hannah, waving at the red car as Tom drove off, probably high above the speed limit.
Paul set up their Nintendo Switch, smiling at Tim and Hannah when they walked into the room and dumped their bags on the floor.
"Minecraft!" Tim exclaimed excitedly, looking at the screen. "Sweet!"
"Have you ever played Minecraft, Hannah?" Paul asked the girl, who he knew always took a while to open up. She shook her head. "Well, I'm sure Tim will teach you," he assured her, knowing the boy was pretty good at the game. They often played it together when he came over.
He quickly made a new world for them, and went to the kitchen to grab them a snack as they went to gather materials for their house.
"Hey, Em," he said as he found Emma sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through a cookbook.
She smiled at him. "Wanna eat pasta tonight? I don't know how long the kids will be here for, so something easy is probably our best option. Or maybe we can get takeout?"
He kissed the top of her head, grabbed a bag of popcorn, and put it in the microwave. "I know Tim loves McDonald's."
Emma laughed. "Yep, I'm sure you're his favorite uncle."
Paul smiled, waiting for the popcorn, when he heard yelling coming from the living room.
"But I don't want to!"
"Come on, Hannah, you're gonna die!"
He came into the room just in time to see 'Hannah was slain by spider' on the screen.
"What's going on?"
"She refused to kill the spiders!"
Hannah looked like she was about to throw the controller across the room, so Paul took it from her. Tim was still focused on the game, swinging his sword at the horde of monsters around him.
Hannah crossed her arms as Paul kneeled next to her, refusing to look at him. "You like spiders?" Paul asked.
She nodded. "My friend's a spider."
Paul smiled at her, even if she didn't look at him. "Oh yeah, what's her name?"
"Webby."
"I bet she doesn't say a lot if she's a spider."
Hannah looked up at him. "No, she talks lots. She tells me about her brothers." She went silent for a moment, just staring at him. "She says one of her brothers likes to play with you."
"What does she mean?"
Hannah shrugged. "Blue. Singing. Apotheosis."
None of that meant anything to Paul, of course, but he just smiled. It was then that he saw Emma standing in the doorframe, the bowl of popcorn in her hand, just smiling at him. She set the bowl down on the coffee table, before leaving to grab some drinks.
When she came back, she leaned over to whisper in Paul's ear. "I hope you'll be as good with our own kid too." He almost spat out his water, and she chuckled, winking at him as she left the room again to work on an essay.
Paul listened to Hannah talk about Webby and her brothers as Tim played. Sure, the things she said were a little concerning coming from a fourteen-year-old, but she seemed happy that she finally had someone to talk to. She had her sister, of course, but she didn't really believe her.
It's not that Paul actually believed everything she said, like most adults in her life, but he didn't judge her.
When Tom came back a few hours later, empty McDonald's bags were scattered across the floor.
"How's Becky?" Emma asked.
"She's fine, she already got released, I just dropped her off. I guess I freaked out more than I should have, because... you know..."
Emma nodded. "Well, the kids are fine, I think they had fun."
"I did!" Tim yelled, running into the hallway and jumping into his father's arms.
Tom smiled. "What about you, Hannah?" he asked the girl, who stood in the doorway, clearly tired from talking so much.
"Paul's nice."
"Yeah!" Tim chimed in. "Uncle Paul is the coolest!"
Tom looked up at Paul and Emma. "Thank you for watching them."
"Anytime, Tom."