When they went out into the waiting room, Abra was there, still dressed in his tuxedo with his long, dark hair loose down his back. Cooper walked over to him and hugged him. He didn't know why he'd done it, but Abra being Abra hugged him back without question.
"Everything good?" Abra asked when Cooper finally pulled away.
Cooper nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Obviously the baby's coming a little early, but it sounds like it's not early enough that it's a big worry."
"That's good. Are you two coming back to the house or staying here?"
Cooper exchanged a look with Mason, though he'd already made up his mind. "I think I'm going to stay. I hate waiting rooms and sitting around for unknown lengths of time so bad, and it's only a short drive, but I think it's important to be here."
"They are kinda naming the baby after us, so yeah," Mason said. "Gotta be good uncles."
"Okay," Abra said. "I might head back, if that's okay. I left Ellie to figure out how to manage dealing with the wedding party after the sudden disappearance of the bride and groom all on her own. She is very good at that sort of thing, but even so."
"Yeah, of course," Cooper said. "Check in with Sasha as well. I'll text him in a sec, but it's hard to judge how he's really doing without being there."
"He was fine when I left, but I will check on him," Abra promised. "Give me the keys and I'll drive our car back, and then you can call me when you need to be picked up. I realise that could end up being at two in the morning, but that's fine."
Cooper patted down his pockets, realised he hadn't driven, and then helped pat down Mason's pockets until they located the keys. As Abra left, Cooper pulled out his phone and texted Sasha to update him on what was going on. Sasha sent back a picture of the kitten tucked into their bed with his head pillowed on a folded up shirt, fast asleep.
"Aw, there's my baby," Mason said as they sat down on the uncomfortable plastic waiting room chairs.
"Got any name ideas yet?" Cooper asked.
"I was thinking maybe Monty," Mason said.
"That's a nice name."
"It's short for Monster Truck. Because he's going to get really big."
"Ah."
"We're going to hang out and eat tuna straight from the can together. It'll be great."
Cooper nodded, but his mind was elsewhere. "I can't stop thinking about, like... childbirth. It doesn't seem like it should work. I mean, you put parts of your body that are adequately sized but relatively small when compared to a baby inside a vagina and it feels tight. It feels close to the limit of how much it should stretch and you have to be gentle and patient or things can hurt. How does a whole baby come out of there?"
"Well, I mean, there is tearing sometimes. I've also heard that it's not a comfortable experience."
"I have also heard that."
"Think about it this way. An asshole is even tighter, but you can fit a whole raccoon up there."
"...You can?"
"Ah, finally an animal fact you didn't know."
After that, Mason decided he might as well get his ten thousand steps in for the first time ever so he spent some time walking in circles around the waiting room as the nurse at the reception watched them with not-unfriendly bemusement.
Once Mason was finished, Cooper decided he wanted to do it as well so he borrowed Mason's smart watch and started walking. He'd added about eight thousand steps to the counter before he remembered that his phone also tracks steps, a feature he used often. When he checked it, he found he'd hit his ten thousand steps for the day about five thousand steps ago. He finished them out on the watch anyway.
When they were done with that, there were magazines to keep them entertained for a while. Neither of them really wanted to read them, but they served as a tool to spark conversation as they flipped through them and found interesting things to share.
After a while of that, they were both getting pretty tired, so Mason sent Cooper to ask the nurse for a pillow because he said Cooper was far better at the puppy eyes. Maybe he was, because it worked. As a reward for his effort, Cooper got to take the first turn napping on the floor.
It was hard to sleep with all the excitement of the day and the hospital noises and bright lights and Mason idly rocking his foot against Cooper's shoulder as he scrolled on his phone. Cooper had always struggled any time he didn't get straight off to sleep, because just laying there was boring and then his brain would try to entertain itself and he'd end up wide awake.
That was fine, though. He hadn't really been expecting things to be any different. He switched out with Mason and texted Logan for a while. Apparently Bianca was doing well according to all the tests they'd done, but she was pretty tired and miserable. Logan was nervous about what the birth would be like for her, but Bianca was more than ready to get it over and done with.
It was just past two in the morning and Cooper was scrolling on his phone while Mason lay on the floor making farting sounds with his mouth when Logan appeared from down the hallway. Cooper gave Mason a gentle kick in the arm to alert him as he got up to meet Logan in the middle of the room.
Logan let out a long breath. "It's done. She's healthy. The baby, I mean. And Bianca. They both are."
Mason rumpled a hand through his hair as he joined them, though it always looked a little messy. "Does the baby look like a really tiny old person? Sometimes babies look like the elderly."
"Would you like to come and see for yourself?"
"Only if you're prepared to get my honest opinion on whether or not she looks like a tiny old person."
"Come on," Logan said as he turned and gestured for them to follow him.
They walked down the hall and Logan let them into the room, and there was Bianca in the bed holding a tiny bundle against her chest. As they walked around the side of the bed, little eyes squinted up at them from a chubby-cheeked face.
For a moment, all Cooper could do was stand and look at her. He'd seen babies before, but never one so fragile and fresh. Never one that made him feel like she held his whole heart in the vice of her tiny little hand. He didn't know if he'd ever find out what it felt like to have a child of his own, but being an uncle was more than enough to make his whole body feel like it was going to explode with love.
"Well, that doesn't look like my sim at all," Mason said. "Or an old man. Congratulations."
Cooper leant against Mason's arm. "She's so little."
Mason leant closer to get a better look at her tiny face. "I guess she's kind of small. My kitten's smaller."
"Well, I'm very glad she's as big as she is," Bianca said as she offered Abigail a finger to clutch in her tiny hand. "The doctor says she's a well-developed thirty-seven weeks."
Mason sat down on the edge of the bed as he stared down at Abigail. "Man, it's so hard to comprehend that a human can be just this little helpless thing. What do you think a baby's thoughts are like? Does a teenie tiny newborn really think at all, or are they just head empty for the first few weeks? I'm naming the kitten Monster Truck, by the way. Monty for short."
"If she grows up to be anything like her uncles, she should cherish every minute she has left with a quiet mind." Logan leant over and planted a kiss on Bianca's forehead. "We'll be in the hospital for a few days, so we won't be back in time to see you off, but help yourself to anything you need in the house. Don't worry about cleaning up or taking care of the pets. We've made arrangements for everything."
"Keep me updated with your plans for Monster Truck," Bianca added. "I'm definitely going to use my emergency childbirth as an excuse for any unconventional choices I have to explain away for where that kitten ends up."
"Call me when you're ready for guests, okay?" Cooper said. "I want a chance to meet my niece properly."
"We will," Logan promised. "Will you two be okay getting back?"
"Abra's picking us up, apparently," Mason said. "He said he didn't mind doing it at two in the morning, but we'll see how he feels about that now."
"He'll come," Cooper said. "That man is unbreakably zen."
"I'm gonna eat his hair," Mason said. "I bet that's where he keeps his powers. I think I read a book like that once."
"The... bible?" Logan asked.
Mason contemplated that for a moment. "No. Anyway, good job on the baby. We'll let you rest now."
They left the room, and on the way back down in the elevator, Cooper called Abra.
"Mh?" Abra answered. Cooper wasn't surprised that he had been asleep. In his position, Cooper would have been awake all night anticipating the call, but Abra wasn't the type of person to let things keep him up at night.
"Bianca had her baby," Cooper said. "Baby and mum are healthy. Are you still good to give us a ride home?"
Cooper heard Abra take a breath in and out as he sat up in bed. "Yep, I'm awake. Give me... mm, fifteen minutes?" Cooper heard Ellie murmur something in the background, and Abra let out a quiet laugh. "Ellie's going to keep the bed warm for me. Okay, be there soon."
"He'll be here soon," Cooper told Mason as he ended the call and they stepped out of the elevator.
"You know, if there's one thing this trip has made me realise, it's that I don't have any friends," Mason commented. "Fucking zero. I was aware of that before, but I told myself I just didn't want friends. Now I'm realising that when I was imagining what it would be like to have friends, I just assumed they'd be awful people."
"I have been really lucky with my friends, to be fair. It's hard to find people I really click with, and there was a while when I was going to university where I did drift apart with Abra and Ellie a bit. I don't know why I let that happen. I always knew how much happier it made me to be around them, but I kept prioritising other things."
"Because mum brainwashed you into thinking your happiness doesn't matter, duh," Mason said. "But I guess I can relate. I might not have friends, but I do have a brother, and I hardly see you."
"Well, we do live on other sides of the country."
"Still. Planes exist, and flights aren't that expensive."
"Hey, if you want to visit more, I won't complain. I don't know how Sasha's going to feel about you staying with us right now, for weeks, but in general I'm sure a few days would be fine."
"Yeah, I might do that," Mason said as they sat down on a bench outside to wait for Abra.
"I miss you, you know. Yeah, I have good friends, a boyfriend, but none of them are my brother. None of them can understand me in the same way you can."
"I'm sorry I left you. That I just... ran away as far as I could go, as soon as I could. I don't think my therapist really understands why. Or maybe she does, I don't know. Maybe I'm just projecting my own struggles with fully articulating everything I was and still am feeling. I mean, I like to watch a little true crime, and what we went through wasn't that bad by comparison. In a lot of ways, we were spoiled. I think the ADHD really mixes with the kind of people our parents are in a really toxic way, though. We're hyper tuned into any signs of rejection or disapproval, and they both offer that in spades in their own ways. Maybe mum does actually care. I don't know. I guess it's been easier for me to just decide she doesn't. To just close that door entirely instead of letting myself keep on wanting her love. And of course dad's an easy write off in that regard."
"Ah, yeah, I think everyone's given up on dad. Including mum, honestly."
"Sometimes I think about, like... man. I've learnt so much stuff in the last few years. Grown so much as a person. Getting better at managing my mental health, and maybe even my physical health a little bit. Sure, I'm still a disaster of a human being, but at this rate, I'm going to have mastered life by the time I'm forty. Then I look at old people and I'm like... oh, okay, maybe not. Maybe you can spend your whole life being a person and still just suck."
"I think it's more of a generational thing," Cooper said. "I doubt dad spent his youth being great at talking about his feelings and then one day just stopped. He never learnt those skills, and that's why he's miserable now. I don't think he's ever given a thought to self improvement outside of work and education."
"True. I hope I don't accidentally get too enlightened and become a monk. They seem pretty cool, but it's not for me."
"They might have superpowers. I'm not sure. If anyone has superpowers, it's monks."
A familiar car pulled up in front of them, and Cooper bounced to his feet. Abra had come to pick them up. When they got in the back, Cooper noticed that Abra was still dressed in his pyjamas with his long hair loose and messy from sleep.
"Did everything go okay?" Abra asked as he looped the car around to head back out onto the road.
"I assume the process was brutal and gruesome, but no more so than a typical birth," Mason said. "I can't stop thinking about how I want to kiss the baby on her head. I feel like you probably shouldn't do that to a newborn, at least when you're not their parent, because of like... germs, I guess. But I want to."
"Babies are very cute," Abra said.
"Mm. And bald. Don't let me around any old people or we might find out which one of those is the real driving force behind the impulse."
"Old people can be cute as well, though I can't say I've ever felt the urge to kiss any of them."
"Well, you are in a relationship," Cooper said. "Is kissing old people on their bald heads a form of cheating?"
"This conversational thread started with me wanting to do it to my infant niece, so let's go with no," Mason said.
"Mm," Cooper said before he was overtaken by a yawn. "Is Sasha okay?"
"Well, you know him," Abra said. "I checked in on him when I got back, but it's hard to know when he really is and when he's just pretending because he doesn't want to go through the social ritual of being cared for."
"He's a real menace with the masking when he wants to be."
"It's fine as long as he's doing it as the most efficient way to get what he needs in that moment. Then it's just logical. He doesn't need to share his emotions if that won't help."
"Mm," Cooper said. The gentle vibrations of the car and the way it rocked him back and forth as Abra took a turn was starting to make it hard to keep his eyes open. "I want him to cuddle me."
"We're nearly back at the house."
Cooper very nearly fell asleep in the few minutes it took them to finish the drive, and he was overcome by a long yawn as he dragged himself out of the car, but by the time they were inside, he found himself half-jogging up the stairs. He slunk down the hallway and knocked quietly on the door of the room he was sharing with Sasha before cracking it open.
Sasha was cuddled up in bed, but he was awake. He had the lamp on and the kitten with him.
"Baby?" Sasha inquired.
Cooper nodded. "Successfully birthed. Everyone's doing well."
Sasha mirrored the nod.
As Cooper went to sit down on the bed, Mason appeared in the doorway behind him. "I'm here to pick up my son."
Sasha pushed himself up in bed and picked up the kitten, which flopped bonelessly in his grasp and didn't wake up.
"Ah, he's died, I see," Mason said as he took the kitten. He finally stretched a little as he settled in against Mason's arm, though he still didn't look like he planned on waking up any time soon. "Thanks for taking care of him for me. I knew you were the man for the job."
Sasha murmured something that sounded vaguely like 'you're welcome' as he rubbed at his eye. "I fed him at eleven, so..."
"I'll go see if I can get him to wake up to take a bottle now before I head off to bed. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
As Mason shut the door behind himself, Cooper wriggled and squirmed his way onto the bed, then lay there face down as he attempted to kick his shoes off. Eventually he had to give it and sit up to loosen the laces. Formal shoes were so annoying.
Sasha took the opportunity to help Cooper out of his suit jacket.
"Thanks," Cooper said. "You good?"
Sasha nodded.
"Okay." Cooper shut his eyes as Sasha started on his shirt buttons. "Sorry this ended up being so chaotic and just... more than what you bargained for. I know that wasn't really a choice that anyone made, but still."
"It was a lot more for you than for me."
Cooper helped Sasha tug his shirt the rest of the way off. "Yeah, but you know me. I'm a chaos machine. I'm fine."
"Mm," Sasha said. They both knew it was more complicated than that and his chaos machine mind could crash and burn with the best of them, but he really was okay. Ultimately, nothing bad had happened.
"There was one more thing I needed to talk to you about. I've been debating whether to bring it up now or tomorrow morning and I've come to the conclusion that both of those are terrible options. But, well, it has to be one of them, and I think it's probably better just to get all the stressful things covered so that you can properly start de-stressing."
Sasha nodded. He was trying not to show his feelings, but he'd laid back down and his arms were tangled with themselves over his chest.
"So, Mason's decided he wants to keep the kitten, which I think we all saw coming. Problem is, he lives on the other side of the country and the kitten isn't old enough to fly. Even worse, if Mason doesn't raise the kitten himself, he might not be allowed to adopt him. He needs somewhere to stay within driving distance, and it can't be here because our mum will be around, so, well, staying with us would be one solution."
"Oh, okay," Sasha said as he reached up and patted Cooper's arm. Cooper had long since learnt that such things weren't intended to communicate anything. Sasha just felt like touching.
"How would you feel about him staying with us? Like, maybe for a few weeks?"
"Where would he sleep?"
"We'd probably get him a futon mat of his own or something and he'd share my room. Or the couch, but that'd get pretty uncomfortable."
"Okay."
"Okay? You wouldn't mind that?"
"Yeah, it's fine. He's nice to me."
"Thanks." Cooper began to wriggle his way under the blankets, made twice as difficult by the fact that he'd decided to unbutton his pants at the same time. "I didn't want to put any extra stress on you, but it does make things much easier for him if he can just stay with us. Plus it would be great to get more time to hang out with him."
"Mhm."
Cooper put a final burst of energy towards kicking his pants off, then he let out a sigh as he relaxed. "I know it's late and you probably haven't slept at all, and you won't be able to sleep while I'm touching you, but... can we cuddle for a bit? Would that be okay?"
"Yeh," Sasha said as he shuffled closer. "I don't feel very sleep tired anyway."
"Put your head on my chest and I'll draw squiggles on your back with my fingers like you like. Maybe that will help you settle down."
Sasha made a string of sounds that weren't quite words as he did as Cooper had instructed.
Cooper wrapped an arm around Sasha and pressed a series of gentle, rapidfire kisses to the top of his head. "I'm so glad that I have you to come home to."
Sasha picked Cooper's hand up, put it in his mouth, and gently bit down on the meaty part at the base of his thumb.
Cooper let out a quiet laugh. "Yeah, I know. Too much talking, but you love me, too. I get it."
"Mmhm," Sasha said as he let Cooper's hand fall out of his mouth. He snuggled down as Cooper began raking his fingertips up and down his back.
Cooper's eyes drifted shut as he continued the motion. He was exhausted, but he was happy.