London Calling

About an hour later

After pruning for longer than anyone ever should; Zacky and Brian were finally ready to join the others and head out for some shopping.

“What took you guys so long?” Matt yelled as they walked in. “Actually I don’t want to know.”

“We we’re just getting dressed.” Brain said in their defence.

“But you were dressed earlier! It’s not even like you two look any different, just a bit sweaty.”

“Well Zack may have undressed me slightly and I had to get dressed again. No biggie we’re here now aren’t we so we can go.”

“Not quite Zack disappeared again.”

Brian looked towards the spot where Zack had been standing, if this were a cartoon there would a have been a flashing outline in his place. He looked around for a while only to see Zack walking towards him with a worried look on his face.

“Hey baby, is everything ok? You look a little pale...er than normal.”

“That was Alice’s sister Tina; Alice has gone into hospital she was in some kind of accident.
She needs someone to take of Tommy for the day.” Zack mumbled, feeling scared that Brian might get angry.

“Well sure we can look after Tommy; it will give us a chance to get to know him a bit better. Do you know what happened to Alice?”

“Car accident I think. She didn’t go into details, but Alice needs an operation so it must be serious. Tina’s going to drop Tommy off in about an hour; you guys can go on ahead we’ll catch up.”

“Nah it’s cool we can wait, I mean we were planning on stopping by Hamley’s anyway so we can get him some toys or something.” Jimmy said bouncing up and down on the spot.

“Jim, you just want an excuse to play around in a toy store.” Matt laughed slapping him on the back.

“Yeah that is true but can you blame me? You love playing with toys just as much as I do.”

“But I’m sure Matt and Val prefer a different type of toy.” Brian sneered.

“Yeah like you’ve never used any.” Matt snapped.

“Well excuse me; I don’t need any toys to satisfy my man.” Brian beamed with pride.
Zack blushed and walked towards the elevator; Matt looked at Brian with disgust then followed him.

“What did I say?” Brian asked looking dumbstruck.

“You’re sick dude.” Johnny joked.

They joined Matt and Zack in the elevator and headed up to Brian and Zack’s suite. Zack anxiously paced up and down the room for about forty minutes, opening and closing his phone to check the time every two seconds.

“Baby what’s wrong? There’s something you’re not telling me, I can tell and will you stop pacing you’re making me dizzy.” Brian asked, trying to stop calm Zack down.

“It’s Alice; she’s in a critical condition. There’s a strong chance that she might not make it, I’m just worried about Tommy that’s all. I know I haven’t known him that long but I want to know that he will be looked after if anything happened to Alice.” Zack grabbed himself a glass of water and finished it in one gulp.

“Don’t worry. Even if, heaven forbid something should happen to Alice Tommy still has Tina to look after him.”

“That’s just it. She can’t look after him. She has three kids and both her and her husband works full time, they can’t take him. Which is why-“

“You don’t even have to ask.”

“What? AHHHH!” Zack almost jumped out of his skin as his phone vibrated in his hand. He answered and mumbled something that sounded like ‘yeah I’ll be right down’ without taking his eyes off Brian who was already heading to the door with the rest of the guys.

“Come on Zacky boy.” Jimmy yelled, holding the door open.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Zack hurried after them and downstairs to meet Tina in the lobby.

“ZACKY!” Tommy screamed running and jumping into Zack’s arms.

“Hey little guy you ready to have some fun today?” Zack asked lifting him onto his shoulders. Tommy made himself comfortable, happily grabbing onto Zack’s perfectly styled hair. Zack would have made more of fuss and taken him down but Tommy was making too many squeaks of excitement to burst his bubble.

“I take it you’re Zack then. Hi I’m Tina.”

“I would shake your hand but this guy might wriggle his way off.”

“He seems to have taken a great liking to you, when I told that he would get spend the day with you he got really excited.”

“That’s a good thing I guess, wouldn’t want him around someone he didn’t like.”
Tina laughed softly and then stopped to stare at both Zack and Tommy for a while. Zack began shifting uncomfortably between his two feet trying to get out of this sudden attention.
“Oh I’m sorry,” She said after realising that she had been staring. “It’s just that he looks so much like you; same face, same hair, same big green eyes. It’s almost like looking at you as a child.”

Zack laughed weakly, not wanting to say anything that might get Alice in trouble. Tina hadn’t mentioned anything about Tommy being his and although she had noticed the resemblance he thought it best not say anything just in case she thought it was merely a coincidence.

“Well I better be getting back to Alice. I told her that I wouldn’t be long.” She walked towards Zack and gave Tommy a small pinch on his cheeks.

“You behave for Zacky and his friends. I’ll be back for you later.”

“Ok, bye Auntie Tina!” Tommy replied with growing enthusiasm.
After Tina left Zack took Tommy off his shoulder and sat him down on a counter in the lobby. He fluffed his hair back to its previous state with one hand while still holding Tommy in the other. He was getting looks from his friends that either meant he was being too vain or he would make a great dad, whatever it was Zack had already chosen to ignore them.

“Ok little man, do you want to Hamleys toy store?” Zack asked Tommy knowing full well what his reaction would be.

If it wasn’t for Zack holding on to him, Tommy probably would have shot off like a rocket. Zack felt sudden surge a emotion, looking at Tommy’s happy little face reminded him of how happy he used to be growing up; when everything made you smile and all problems could be solved with a sweet or toy.

Matt signalled that the car was ready. Zack scooped Tommy off the counter and carried him under his arm to the car. Once in the car Tommy settled himself in between Brian and Zack, causing Matt to start making cooing faces at them. Brian was ready to fly off the handle when he looked to down to see a little sponge ready to repeat whatever fell out of his mouth. Instead he shot them a nasty look and planned what he would say once the little one was out of earshot.