Work Text:
TK was confused, to say the least.
He understood why he was there in the first place, he just wondered what the hell had happened from point A to point B.
TK was a little over 28 weeks pregnant and he had gone in for his biweekly check-up on the baby. He was patiently waiting in the room, Carlos was called in last minute to cover for someone for a couple of hours, and he was messaging the group chat. He was still in uniform since he expected to return to work as soon as this was over. The nurse came in and started to check his vitals while answering the millions of questions that he had.
After everything was done, the nurse asked him to change out of his uniform and into the hospital gown. He did so and sat on the bed, folding his clothes into a neat little pile. The doctor came in and started doing his check-up and the next thing he knew, the doctor had turned pale, paged the nurses, and was being set up in a room and hooked to the machines.
TK tried to get someone to tell him what was going on, but they were just monitoring his vitals, and then Dr. Kilian came into the room.
“Did something happen, doc? Cause I’m somewhat confused. I’m supposed to be going back to work after the appointment.”
Dr. Killian sighed and took a seat on the chair next to the bed and removed his glasses from his face.
“TK, you’re 5 centimeters dilated.”
TK felt his jaw drop open in shock. What? He was what now?
“So, am I in labor then? I don’t feel any different and I don’t remember my water breaking?”
“Right now, you are under a lot of stress. I’m assuming from your job. You’ve told the nurses that you’ve been experiencing painful cramps as well. For now, we’re going to try some medicine to see if it’ll stop you from dilating, if not we’ll either have to jumpstart the process or you’ll get a c-section. Is there anyone that we can call for you?”
“I can do it.”
The doctor nodded and patted TK’s arm.
“Don’t stress too much, it won’t help you or the baby.”
TK nodded and grabbed his phone, he saw the message from his Dad that was responding to a big accident on the freeway. That means the firehouse and his husband were out. Time to call for the non-first responders.
///
Andrea Reyes was on a mission when she stepped into the hospital.
After getting a frantic call from her son-in-law, most of the conversation was incoherent through TK’s tears, she texted her husband, daughters, and son (just in case TK hadn’t gotten to it) and made her way to the hospital. She walked towards the reception desk, got a guest band and information, and made her way towards the room.
She inhaled and knocked on the door. She heard a quiet ‘come in’ and opened the door to see her son-in-law on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
“Mijo?”
TK glanced at her and the tears welled in his eyes.
“Mama?”
Andrea made her way over to the bed and brought TK into her arms. She felt the tears landing on her shoulder as she whispered comforting words in Spanish into his ear. She waited until he was a little more calm, rubbed his back one more time and sat back on the bed, and looked at him.
“TK, what happened?”
TK sniffled and wiped at his eyes.
“While I was at my appointment, the doctor was examining me, and then next thing I knew, he was calling for the nurses and they were bringing me up to the room to have me admitted. The doctor finally told me that I was dilating without being in labor, so they’re gonna try to stop it. If not then...”
TK’s eyes filled with tears again and he nearly burst into tears again.
“...‘m so scared. I just saw the text that Dad and the others were at the accident on the highway and Carlos was probably going to be there I didn’t want to be alone and I-i just wanted you here, Mama.”
Andrea felt the tears in her eyes. Her heart was hurting for her son-in-law. He did not have the easiest of times before and after getting here.
He had the suspicion that he was pregnant during a rescue mission in the middle of the night and he had gotten lost and twisted his ankle, but found the missing children. The doctor confirmed his pregnancy while he was in the hospital. From there, it was debated whether TK could return to work or not with how bad his morning/all-day sickness was. It was so bad that TK could barely get out of bed and everyone had been on rotation for a month and a half to watch over TK, as much as the paramedic hated it. When he’d felt better, he threw a small thank-you party at the loft and he organized it by himself (much to Carlos’ dismay). After that, it was smooth sailing and the boys found out that they were expecting their little boy.
A knock soon came from the door and it opened to reveal a doctor and a nurse. They greeted each other and TK introduced his mother-in-law. They exchanged pleasantries and the doctor turned towards TK.
“Are you ready to begin?”
TK swallowed nervously and felt Andrea squeezing his hand. He squeezed back with equal force.
“...yes.”
///
As soon as the clean-up was finished the others pulled the vehicles to the side of the road and decided to take a breather for a bit. Carlos decided to pull his phone out and see if TK checked in about his appointment or not. His eyes nearly popped out when he saw the amount of missed calls from his husband and a missed call and a voicemail from his mom. He turned towards the fire crew.
“Hey, did TK try to call you guys?”
They looked at him in confusion before pulling out their phones from the truck and a pained sound came from their throat when they realized that they had a lot of missed calls from their paramedic.
“How?”
Carlos shrugged.
“Figured if he called me, then he called you guys. My mom also called and left a voicemail.”
Paul gestured at him to play it.
“Mijo, I know that you’re busy right now. TK said something about an accident on the highway. Wanted to let you know that I’m on the way to the hospital. TK called me and I couldn’t get much out of him through the tears, but whenever you’re free, please call me back. Love you, Mijo, and stay safe. ”
They looked at each other and jumped into their vehicles. If you asked anyone who was driving that day, they would say that the emergency vehicles were going like they were being chased by someone.
///
The first responders of Austin drew the attention of everyone in the hospital as they made their way toward the maternity ward. They coincidentally met Carlos’ sisters and father in the lobby. They slowed down into a semi-calm walk and knocked on the door. They heard Andrea’s familiar voice telling them to come in and they slowly opened the door to see it blackened out with a little lamp on the side to lighten up the room. Andrea, somehow, was knitting something.
“Mami?”
Andrea looked up and saw her son, and everyone else, standing at the doorway. She gestured for them to come in, but to keep it down cause TK was sleeping. Everyone turned their attention toward the pregnant male on the bed. He was hooked up to a couple of monitors, had an IV drip going, and looked a little pale.
Carlos made a sound and made his way towards the bed, sitting on the edge to not disturb TK. He ran a hand through TK’s fluffy locks and kissed his forehead. He leaned back to stare at his husband and turned to his mother in question.
“The doctor said that he’s under an extreme amount of stress, so his body started dilating without being in labor. They gave him some medicine to see if it’ll stop. If not, then they’ll proceed with a c-section. If it does stop, TK will need to go on maternity leave and be on strict bed rest.”
A pained sound came from almost everyone in the room. Carlos sighed and looked at TK, his husband was suffering and he didn’t know. He needed to reevaluate everything that he’s been doing and have a talk with TK to determine if he should start taking a step back at work and be home with him more. He nodded to himself, resolving to do exactly that. He looked around the room and saw that their friends and family were thinking of the same thing. Between all of them, they were going to make sure that TK was safe, happy, and healthy for the rest of his pregnancy.
///
What they didn’t account for, however, was how stubborn TK was going to be about sitting around all day. Yeah, he understood that he needed to stay in bed and not move around much to keep himself and the baby safe, but god was he bored as shit.
Yeah, someone was with him at all times, but it was so boring and he missed being out on calls. He also didn’t want to watch any new shows cause he wouldn’t NOT be able to tell Carlos the plot without spoiling it and he didn’t want to watch the shows that they were already watching without him.
Andrea recommended some telenovelas for him to watch to help with his Spanish and he could confidently tell someone the general plot of the telenovela that he was currently watching.
Would he be able to tell someone what they were saying word for word? No
Does he know enough Spanish? No
Does he think he’ll know enough Spanish? No
Would he be able to hold a decent conversation in Spanish? Only if the person he was speaking to was a baby, then yes.
Does he want his kid to know the language? Obviously.
TK would love for their children to know their spoken languages and since TK knew 4, Spanish should’ve been easy for him. It completely flew over his head though. Maybe if he was listening to it and he was distracted, then he’d be able to speak it off-handedly.
At least he hoped...
(Secretly, (not so secretly) TK had been trying to use Duolingo to learn Spanish. He hates the little green owl with a passion.)
TK still found it shocking that he could speak Dutch with his Dad. Hell, he was shocked when he found out that his Dad could still speak it fluently after all these years. With a heavy sigh though, TK told Carlos that he was going to leave the other languages to the grandparents, his husband laughed and agreed.
While they were having life debates with each other, TK spent the time listening to all of the stories and calls that the crew went on, if one of them was coming to spend the day with him. He also loved the time that he spent talking about pregnancy with Grace. Learning how to knit from Andrea (he managed to knit a pair of yellow booties for the baby). He also loved talking about random things with Gabriel. He also loved spending time with Ana, Luisa, and their husbands and trying to steal the favorite uncle title from Carlos.
Everything was crazy for a while, but everything was perfect when TK gave birth to their healthy 8-pound baby boy.