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Rushing into the elementary school with Rio at her side, Agatha’s heart is pounding in her chest. She knows the woman on the phone had said it was little more than an upset stomach, but it didn’t do much to lessen her mom-panic. It doesn’t take much to send her there. She’s just glad she and Rio were out having lunch together instead of being occupied by class or clients.
“Hi,” she says as soon as she enters the front office, her hands falling down on top of the desk. “I’m here for my son, Nicholas.”
“Mama?”
Agatha whips her head toward her son’s voice and immediately follows after it, vaguely aware of Rio trying to placate the office worker. She enters a small room off to the side and lets out a breath of relief at the sight of her son. “Nicky.”
He smiles weakly at her from his place in the lap of a slightly older boy with tight curls and dark eyeliner. “Mama, I don’t feel good.”
Agatha approaches and crouches next to the cot, reaching out to run the back of her hand over his forehead and then just under his chin. “You do feel kinda warm. Is it your stomach?”
Nicky nods. “Uh-huh. Billy said it’s a bug but I don’t eat bugs, Mama.” His tiny lips quiver, on the verge of tears.
“Oh, come here.” Agatha scoops her son into her arms in one fluid motion as she stands and sits on the cot, pushing the other boy off. She settles on it and holds her son close, wrapping her arms around him and pressing a kiss to his hair. “Of course you don’t eat bugs,” she says while trying to hold back a laugh. It never ceases to amaze her the things she says as a parent.
“Too bad that cot isn’t big enough or I’d get in on these cuddles too.”
Agatha smiles up at her wife standing in the doorway. “Maybe when we get home.”
Rio smiles back and moves toward them, crouching so she’s at eye level with Nicky. “¿Cómo te sientes, mijo?”
“Estoy emfermo, Mamá.”
Rio chuckles. “Enfermo,” she gently corrects. “Should we get you home, then? You might feel better if you can be in your own bed.”
Nicky nods.
Agatha presses another kiss to her son’s head and then looks at her wife. “Do we need to sign him out?”
Rio shakes her head. “I took care of it.”
“We’ll need to go get his stuff from his class.”
“Uh, actually, I’ve got his stuff. Or, well, I’m having my boyfriend go get it.”
Agatha looks up at the other boy she’d completely forgotten was even there. “Who exactly are you?”
“He’s my big brother,” Nicky mumbles.
Rio laughs. “Something you want to tell me, sweetheart?”
Agatha rolls her eyes. “Shut up. You, talk,” she directs at the teenager.
“Uh, I’m Billy. I’m in this mentorship program through my high school, some of the students come and visit the elementary kids a couple times a month, we all get assigned to a different classroom. We help them with school work, play with them during recess, eat with them at lunch, that kind of thing.”
“How long does this arrangement last?”
“All year, I think,” Billy says. “This is my first time doing it, but I’m probably gonna do it again next year too. Nicky’s kind of…latched onto me whenever I’m here.”
Agatha raises a brow at him. “That sounds like you’re trying to make it a negative.”
Billy’s eyes go wide. “Oh, gosh, no. I uh, I love spending time with Nicky, he’s a great kid.”
“Of course he is, he’s ours.” Agatha shifts a bit, adjusting her hold on Nicky. “I’m assuming you were with him the whole time he’s been feeling sick?”
Billy nods. “Uh, yeah. He was fine at first and then he just started complaining about his stomach hurting. He hasn’t been physically sick, though.”
Agatha sighs and looks at her wife. “Guess we have that to look forward to later.”
Rio just smiles, reaching out to run a hand over Nicky’s hair.
“Well, I suppose I should thank you for looking after him until we got here,” Agatha says to Billy. “So…thank you.”
Billy smiles. “It was no problem. Like I said, he’s a great kid.” There’s a sharp trill and Billy pulls his cell phone out. “Okay. That’s Eddie with Nicky’s things, I’ll be right back.” He flashes them a smile and then darts out of the room.
“That boy seems very excitable,” Agatha remarks, glancing down at Nicky again. “Feeling any better, kiddo?”
Nicky shrugs silently.
“Let’s get you home, then. Come on.” Agatha stands with some assistance from Rio and carefully adjusts her hold on Nicky so she doesn’t jostle his stomach too badly. The boy clings to her like he has all the other times before when he’s been sick or just plain sleepy. And it always makes her heart melt a bit.
Once they’re out of the nurse’s office, they spot Billy and another boy standing in the middle of the main office, chatting quietly. Nicky’s belongings are laid out on one of the chairs near them which Rio immediately heads toward.
“Feel better, Nicky,” one of the office ladies says, tossing a sweet smile at the six-year-old.
Agatha smiles back politely, rubbing a hand absentmindedly on her son’s back to hopefully help soothe him. “I’m sure he’ll be fine by tomorrow.” She turns to face her wife. “You ready?”
Rio holds up Nicky’s backpack and coat. “Yep. I can drive if you want to sit in the back with Nicky.”
Agatha sighs. “I love you.”
Rio chuckles, leaning up to kiss her quickly. “Love you too.” She presses a kiss to Nicky’s head and then starts toward the door.
Agatha follows behind her, eager to get her son home and as comfortable as possible to wait out his stomach bug. And if there’s one silver lining to having a sick child, it’s that she’s able to get significantly more cuddles out of him than usual. Though, to be fair, Nicky is already a pretty cuddly child.
“Um, excuse me? Mrs…Nicky’s moms?”
Agatha stops and turns. “Agatha is fine. That’s Rio,” she says, nodding toward her wife. “What do you want?”
“Nothing, I just…I wanted to say bye to Nicky.” His eyes drift down. “Feel better, okay? You owe a rematch at tag.”
Nicky’s head lifts slightly. “Are you coming with me?”
Billy chuckles. “No, buddy, I’m not. You’re going home with your moms and I’m going back to my school. But I’ll see you the next time I come by your school to hang out, okay?”
Nicky nods, dropping his head back to Agatha’s shoulder. “Okay. Bye, Billy.”
“Bye, Nicky.”
They exchange a few more goodbyes and then she and Rio finally make it out to the car with Nicky. Agatha gets him strapped into his booster seat and settles in the seat next to him while Rio takes the spot behind the wheel.
Agatha leans her head back against the seat as the car pulls out of the parking lot, her eyes closing as she focuses on the sound of her son’s breathing. In the back of her mind she knows she needs to send an alert to her students, or at least her TA, to let them know she won’t be in for her afternoon class, but she really can’t be bothered to at the moment. They’ll figure out sooner rather than later that she’s not showing up.
.
.
.
Heaving out a sigh, Agatha makes her way down the stairs with Nicky’s pajamas bunched up in her hand, already reeking of vomit. Thankfully, Nicky had been sick in the bathroom, but most of it had ended up on his clothes rather than in the toilet. It’s nothing she isn’t used to, of course, and she’s just grateful Rio has handled the whole situation with such grace too.
There’s a knock at the door right as she’s turning to head to the laundry room. She stops briefly, looking down at the clothes in her hand. The knock sounds again so she makes a quick detour to see who’s showing up at this time of day. Maybe smelling the vomit-covered clothes will deter them away.
Yanking open the front door, she blinks at the figure standing on the other side. “You look familiar.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m Billy, we met earlier at Nicky’s school.”
Agatha nods, the memory slotting into place. “Right. What are you doing here? How’d you even find us?”
Billy shrugs. “Wasn’t too difficult, you’re one of the few lesbian couples with a kid in the area. I just asked around.”
“Right. So what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to check in on Nicky. I know it probably could have waited since it’s getting late, but I think I’ll sleep better tonight knowing how he’s doing.”
Agatha’s quiet for a moment. It’s certainly nice to know there are others out there who genuinely care about her son, even if one of them is a scrawny teenager. She sighs, stepping back and opening the door wider. “Fine. Come in. Nicky’s getting cleaned up, wait here. I’ll be right back.” She doesn’t wait for a response, simply turns on her heels and continues the path to the laundry room.
She quickly gets the small load going and then heads back toward the staircase to join her son and wife upstairs. She nods her head toward the upper level when she passes by Billy, silently beckoning him forward.
“Somebody’s got a visitor,” she announces as she gets closer to her son’s bedroom. “I hope everybody’s in their jammies with their teeth brushed.”
“Mamá isn’t.”
A gasp. “Traitor.”
Nicky’s quiet giggling drifts through the open door to the hallway.
Agatha smiles to herself at the exchange, sometimes still not quite believing that she’s found the happiness she has. She can’t help but linger in the doorway to her son’s room when she reaches it, admiring the view in front of her.
Nicky and Rio are lying side by side in the boy’s bed, several storybooks spread out in front of them. Their heads are bent together as they talk in hushed tones, wide smiles on both their faces.
After a moment she pushes off the doorframe and settles on the bed, taking up the space that she suspects was specifically left for her. “Hey Nicky, look who came to see you.” She nods toward the doorway, a small smile on her face at the way her son’s eyes light up.
“Billy!”
Billy laughs, moving into the bedroom. “Hey, buddy. Are you feeling any better?”
“I threw up on my space jammies so I had to take another bath and then get in my dinosaur jammies and now we’re gonna read a story.”
Billy smiles. “I see. Well, let’s hope that’ll be the only time you throw up tonight.”
Agatha snorts. “With our luck, probably not.”
“Mama, can Billy read my story?”
Agatha looks down affronted. “I thought you liked it when I read you stories.”
“But I want Billy to do it, Mama. Please?”
Agatha sighs. “You’re gonna have to ask him yourself, kiddo.”
“Billy, can you read me a bedtime story please? Mama says you can.”
“I mean, technically I never said that…” She looks over when Rio lightly smacks her arm. “What? I didn’t.”
“If it’s okay with your moms, then I’d be more than happy to,” Billy says, wandering closer to the bed.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Rio says, giving Agatha a pointed look. “Nicky’s got a lot of options so choose wisely.”
Billy sits on the end of the bed and shuffles through the selected books. “Oh wow, you really do have some good choices here.”
“This one’s my favorite,” Nicky says, sitting up and crawling across the mattress toward Billy. He shifts the books around and picks one up, holding it up for the teenager to see. “Do you have this one?”
“Uh, probably not anymore. But I take it this is the one you want me to read?”
“Yes please.”
Billy chuckles. “Alright. Go sit back with your moms, okay?”
“Okay.”
Agatha smiles at her son when he settles back in between her and Rio, pressing a kiss to his head and snuggling closer. She wraps both arms around him while Rio simply has one arm over the pillows and the other resting comfortably on Agatha’s arms. This has always been one of her favorite nighttime routines, and it only got better and sweeter once Rio joined their family. And while she loves getting to be the one to read the bedtime story to her son every night, it’s a little sweet to have someone new involved, even if they’re not family.
Though, with the way her son seems to be so infatuated with the older boy, they may just have to find a spot to carve out a little space for this new person. It might be nice for Nicky to have someone to look up to other than his mothers (even though she’s positive that she and Rio are plenty for him).
It doesn’t take long for her to feel the heaviness of her son’s body against her. A familiar weight that she has loved and craved from day one of holding him in her arms.
Billy’s voice carries through the room as he continues to read the storybook, getting softer and softer with each word until he stops speaking altogether. He closes the book and sets it down on the bed. “I better get home,” he whispers. “Sorry for intruding, but uh, thanks for letting me stay.”
Agatha smiles at him. “Hey, just means we’ve added one more to the babysitter list.”
Rio laughs quietly. “Agatha…”
She looks over at her wife. “What? You’re telling me you weren’t thinking the same thing?”
Nicky stirs, a small breath escaping past his lips, and he turns more into Agatha’s side.
Agatha locks eyes with her wife, silent words being exchanged between them, something she was only mildly surprised they got so good at so fast, being together for a little over a year. They both carefully extract themselves from around Nicky, tucking him in more securely and making sure his favorite stuffed animal is next to him. They both kiss his head and then make their way out of the room, Billy already in the hallway, all the books now on top of Nicky’s bookshelf.
Pulling the door closed with a quiet click, Agatha lets out a breath and looks at the teenager in front of her. “Thanks for indulging him.”
Billy shrugs. “I didn’t mind. And uh, if you were serious back there about babysitting…I don’t really have any experience with that.”
Agatha waves him off. “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got plenty of others who watch him for us when we need them. Though, I can’t say he won’t start begging to hang out with you on occasion. Especially now that you’ve come by the house.”
Billy smiles. “I’d be more than happy too. I should get going, but uh, have a good night.” He waves and then heads down the stairs, the front door opening and closing moments later.
“We’re definitely going to be seeing more of that boy,” Agatha remarks, instinctively leaning back when Rio’s arms wrap around her from behind.
Lips press gently to her neck and then a chin is on her shoulder. “Good. Nicky could benefit from having an older brother-type figure in his life.”
“Just as long as he doesn’t start asking for any actual siblings. One kid is plenty for me.”