I'll Paint You Wings, and I'll Set You Free

| one month later - February |

When Alex comes back to the hospital, he looks as if he’d never even been admitted once, let alone three times.

It was weird after Martin passed away, and it just got even weirder when Alex was released. Since September, they were a part of his every day routine and they kind of gave Jack a purpose. As of last week, he was assigned to a couple of short-term patients who are in for simpler (but not any less serious) things like appendectomies and tonsillitis. The kids are nice. They’re the exact opposite of Alex.

But when Alex comes in, Jack doesn’t notice him at first. The beginning of March means getting ready to change themes from Valentine’s Day to St. Patrick’s Day. Jack is sitting on the floor in the community room, helping a few of the younger kids glue foam shamrocks onto construction paper. Sierra likes to think that a personal touch from the kids really makes the hospital more welcoming. He’s in the process of wiping glue off a four year olds fingers when he notices someone is standing in the doorway, watching.

At first, Alex looks like he could just be a brother of one of the kids in the room. He looks healthy and normal, dressed in jeans and a blue sweater. His hair isn’t brown anymore – it’s black with a messy style and no beanie to be found. At first Jack just stares at him. Thirty seconds later, he realizes exactly who he’s staring at. And then thirty seconds after that, he smiles.

“Never thought we’d see you back in here,” he manages, having a hard time getting his brain and his mouth to agree on exactly what he wants to say. He gets up from the floor, taking the bottle of glue with him, and leaves the kids to color in the rainbow on their papers. It’s not that hard. He’s sure they can handle it.

“You know as well as I do that I’d be back here as soon as I could,” Alex tells him, pushing off the door and following Jack out into the hallway. They stop at the front desk, where Gabe is doing a crossword puzzle and ‘hiding from Ashley’.

“Did your parents come home like they said they were going to?” Gabe asks after giving Alex a quick hug and telling him how great he looks, “Or are they still ‘stuck’ in Europe?”

“Still stuck in Europe,” Alex responds, and Jack already knew that. Alex told him the other day when he called him. “I moved into an apartment close to the city. They paid for it and everything so I don’t really care if they’re stuck in Europe for good, to be honest.”

It sucks that his parents can’t be bothered to be there for him. But Jack thinks that Alex is going to be alright without them. He’s spent the last few months learning how.

“One reason I came back was to show you guys just how nicely I clean up,” Alex jokes, holding out his arms and putting himself on display, “But mainly because I wanted to ask Jack if he wants to go see a movie with me on Friday.”

He knew that this was coming, but it doesn’t make Jack prepared at all. He glances at Gabe, who looks just as shocked as he should be, but he doesn’t look angry or anything. This is legal. There’s nothing to be worried about. But still. It’s weird. He’ll agree with that.

“I uh. Yeah. I’d like that,” Jack finally responds, still smiling.

Gabe exhales loudly, shaking his head and laughing a bit as he admits, “Wow…I definitely was not expecting that. I mean…like…really?"

“Nothing ever happened while I was still a patient here,” Alex is quick to assure him, rolling his eyes, “Jack is apparently a good nurse and obeys the rules. I just so happen to think that Jack is an attractive guy and I would really like it if he would go see a movie with me.”

“I didn’t really doubt that,” Gabe tells him, mimicking his eye roll. “I guess it makes sense. Jack was the only one to ever get through to you. I guess you’d make a cute couple.”

“John thought so too.”

And that is news to Jack. “Wait, what?”

Alex blinks at him, feigning innocence. “John thought we would go well together. You think I didn’t go to therapy without telling him at least once about my feelings towards you? He’s the one who convinced me that it would be okay to ask you out after I left.”

If Jack didn’t think that John was awesome before, he totally does now.

When Alex leaves again, claiming he has plans to go sign up for a gym membership and start getting back the washboard abs he lost before he started chemo again, Jack rolls his eyes and Gabe names ten other things that would be more likely than Alex ever having ‘washboard abs’. Alex just winks at Jack, tells him he’ll call him later before he turns for the elevators, and Jack blushes, unable to hide how happy he actually is.

“Are you sure you can actually handle that?” Gabe questions, looking skeptical, “Patient Alex is probably much different from Non-patient Alex.”

One of the little kids from the community room comes up to Jack then, holding out his finished St. Patrick’s Day project with a proud smile. Jack ruffles his hair and takes it, taking in the rainbow with way too many colors and an odd shape. “Thanks Peter,” he says with extra enthusiasm, holding the paper out for Gabe to see, “Gabe, doesn’t this look awesome?”

And Gabe starts going on about Leprechauns and gold coins and Peter looks fascinated and Jack finds himself not having to answer that last question from Gabe about Alex. Which is great – because honestly? He’s not sure of the answer.

This thing with Alex could be easy. Jack already knows of Alex’s past and what it did to him and he helped him get through it. He knows how bad Alex can get and he’s handled it. But then again, it could be difficult. Sure, he knows Alex, but that’s in a hospital setting. Now Alex is out in the real world, doing whatever he wants. Only time can tell, but Jack thinks he’s pretty well prepared. Hopefully.

| two months later - April |

Turns out, Alex isn’t anything like Jack expected – in good ways. He’s not a rebellious teenager who thinks the world is out to get him. He’s not a party-goer. He doesn’t sleep all day and get drunk at night. Sure, he has his angsty teen moments but even Jack still sometimes has them so that’s not an issue at all. Alex is as normal as a kid who’s had leukemia three times can get.

He gets a job at the library and works every weekday from eleven to closing. He takes a bus there if Jack isn’t around to drive him. He cleans his own apartment. He buys a fish tank and a couple of fish and puts it next to the microwave in his kitchen (despite the number of times Jack wondered out loud if having fish in the kitchen is sanitary). He functions like a normal person who didn’t spend a good portion of his vital growing up years in a hospital room. Jack’s not sure why he’s so shocked at this. Alex is nothing if not out of the ordinary when it comes to expectations.

The only thing that Alex totally sucks at? Making himself dinner. Jack can’t count on two hands anymore the number of times he’s stopped by and found Alex eating saltine crackers for a meal. Saltines are fine, sure, but not for dinner three consecutive days in a row. And Jack is not about to let his boyfriend (the fact that he can call Alex that is still baffling) lose any weight. So cooking him dinner every now and again is fine. Totally doesn’t mean that things are more serious than they are.

“You wash, I dry,” Alex says on Friday night, standing in front of the dish rack on his kitchen counter. He’s dressed in sweats and one of Jack’s t-shirts (Jack totally did not leave that here because they are totally not at that point of sleeping over each other’s places) and Jack can’t help but let his hands run over the small of his back as he passes him to get to the sink.

“Fine.”

Jack washes the dishes from dinner, passes them along to Alex who dries them and puts them on the dish rack. They are totally taking this slow. Totally.

| three months later - July |

When they pass spring and get thrown headfirst into summer, it doesn’t surprise Jack at all that he and Alex also get thrown headfirst into a relationship that’s much more serious than they expected it to be. It comes out of nowhere and they settle into it just fine. So much for taking things slow.

“You ate all the cheese again,” Alex complains, standing shirtless in front of the refrigerator in Jack’s apartment. He’s wearing a pair of Jack’s boxer-briefs. He hasn’t been to his own apartment in days. Jack wonders if maybe he should go home later to get new clothes.

“I did not – that was all you,” Jack protests from his spot on the living room couch, textbook in his lap as he studies. The certification exam is coming up. He’s not sure if he’ll ever be prepared enough. “Go to the corner store and get more.”

“It was you. You made grilled cheese yesterday.”

Jack shrugs. That’s true. He did. So he keeps quiet, listening to Alex grumble about not having cheese and how badly he wants to make nachos and how nothing ever stays in this fridge for longer than a day or two. After a while, the younger boy finally settles on having cereal instead of nachos and he sits down on the opposite end of the couch from Jack, glaring at the contents in the bowl in his lap.

“It’s too hot to go outside,” is his reasoning.

“Yeah,” Jack agrees, highlighting a passage in the book, “It is summer.”

Alex huffs in annoyance, mumbles ‘moron’ under his breath, and turns the TV on to full volume. Typical.

| four months later - November|

November means over one year since Jack and Alex have known each other. It means they've been dating for eight months. It means, despite how hard Jack tried to take it as slow as he possibly could, they're as serious as they can get. It's not a bad thing. It's just a thing that Jack is aware of.

Alex is turning nineteen in a couple of weeks. Jack needs to think of a gift. He's tried talking to Alex about it and tried to force some info out of him to figure out what he wants, but the kid hasn't been very cooperative. In fact, he's been basically the opposite.

"Your boyfriend is in the worst mood today," Gabe tells him, looking annoyed as he comes out of one of the exam rooms. Jack has been working full-time since he became certified in August, under Gabe's supervision rather than Ashley's, which is kind of awesome. Not that Ashley wasn't great (after she finally started to act like she liked Jack) but Gabe is better.

"He's extra volatile this morning," Jack agrees, going back to the charts in his hands. He has to force himself not to ask Gabe what Alex's test results are. Alex will tell him when he comes out. And everything will be fine.

"Can't say I missed getting insulted every time I stuck a needle in his arm."

Jack laughs, but he doesn't really mean it. He can understand and why Alex is acting like this - he's afraid the results are going to tell him bad news. Jack will let this slide. Alex comes out of the exam room a few seconds after Gabe walks away, eyebrows furrowed and mouth set in a seemingly permanent frown.

"Everything good?" Jack asks, offering him a smile.

Alex's anger dissipates as his expression softens, and he pulls his jacket on and shrugs. "Everything's fine. Still cancer free. For now."

"That's awesome, Alex!"

"Yeah, I know," Alex nods, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I have to go, I have work in a half hour. See you at home?"

Jack's not sure when his place turned into 'home' but he nods back, sure that whatever is bothering Alex so much right now can't be that serious. "See you later."

Alex kisses him goodbye and Jack relaxes. Everything's fine.

Jack doesn't get home until a little past four in the afternoon. He finds Alex on his couch, wrapped in the blanket from the bed and watching the home shopping channel, and not at work where he was supposed to be for another hour or so.

"Alex, what's going on?" Jack questions, sitting on the edge of the couch and brushing Alex's bangs away from his face. The black is fading. He'll probably get it colored again soon.

Alex pouts and tries to push Jack's hands off of him. "Nothing's wrong, aside from the fact your giant head is in my way of the TV."

"Does it have anything to do with your test results?"

Alex doesn't answer him at all, staring at the TV screen with such determination to blatantly ignore Jack, that Jack figures he should just stop pushing. There's only so far Alex will bend before he snaps and Jack's not very interested in finding out just how far he has to push.

Instead, he decides to sit down on the couch, letting Alex put his legs in his lap as they watch the woman on TV try and sell an ugly watch.

Thankfully, Alex gets bored of pretending to be fine. That’s one of the great things about him – Jack knows Alex can never keep the things that bother him to himself for longer than an hour at most. He flips so his face is pressing into Jack’s stomach and his arms wrap around Jack’s waist.

“I’m just nervous,” he mumbles into the fabric of Jack’s blue scrubs.

“About?”

“Getting sick again.”

Jack should have seen that one coming, but he didn’t. The idea of Alex’s leukemia returning occurred to him of course, but it never occurred to him that Alex would get so worked up about it like this. Which is ridiculous – who wouldn’t get worked up over something like that? In fact, if he weren’t so concerned, it would be weird. Jack’s feeling a little nervous himself now, thinking maybe Alex’s tests weren’t as great as he implied at the hospital earlier.

“I thought all your tests came back okay?”

Alex sighs loudly, “They did, moron. Just because they came back fine today does not mean that it’s never going to come back. I’ve been diagnosed three times before, Jack. You don’t think I ever had good test results in between all those times? Before it came back the last time, barely a month before I had gotten really great results back. So forgive me if I happen to get a little bit nervous!”

“I didn’t…I didn’t mean for it to sound like that,” Jack says quietly, lifting his hand and letting it rest on top of Alex’s back. His fingers trace circles and squiggles into his back in an attempt to be soothing or calming or something. Jack’s not sure if it’s working but Alex seems a little bit less tense than he did a few moments ago. “If - and that’s a really big if - anything happens…we’ll deal with it.”

| five months later - April 2014|

Jack thinks that being with someone for a whole year means you should probably introduce them to your parents. So, since he has been with Alex for a full year and Alex has yet to meet his parents, that’s what happens on a Sunday in mid-April. Alex is obviously not looking forward to it (he hates everyone except for Jack and a small handful of carefully selected people he trusts, who are mainly just hospital staff) and he keeps trying to come up with excuses as to why he definitely should not meet Jack’s parents.

“We live together and we aren’t married,” he tries one last time, but it’s pretty useless, considering they’re already parked outside of Jack’s parent’s home. “That has to be like, a sin or something! They’ll hate me automatically because I’m leading their son into a sinful life!”

“That’s the worst thing you’ve come up with so far. Grab the pie and let’s go inside. The faster we get in, the faster we get out. Don’t you want to watch American Idol at nine?”

“I do,” Alex huffs, grabbing the pie box off the dashboard. “But I’d rather watch American Idol while still being unacquainted with your parents.”

Jack doesn’t take it too personally. “I know you’re just acting like a little bitch to cover up the fact that you’re terrified that they won’t like you. Because you’re afraid they’re going to be just like your parents.” Blunt, but it’s true. “But listen, Alex. They love you already. Because they know that I do.”

Jack’s had boyfriends before Alex – a few of them – and he’s said those words to them at least once (if not quite often) in the relationship. And none of them ever lasted as long as Alex has. But this is the first time either of them has said those three words to one another, and Jack isn’t really sure how Alex is going to handle it. At first, he continues on as if he didn’t hear it at all, and Jack thinks he’s in the clear. But he watches as Alex picks at the strings on the pie box and then he notices the bright red tint to his cheeks and yeah. He definitely heard.

"Haven't heard that in a long time," he says softly, after a long moment of silence. "Sounds kinda weird."

Jack isn't sure if it's a good weird or a bad weird. "Well...I mean it. One year into this and I can definitely say I love you."

He doesn't expect Alex to say it back, and he's pretty sure Alex knows that he doesn't. And Alex just smiles and nods and whispers 'thanks' and pushes open the car door, pie box in hand. Jack watches him adjust his tie in the car mirror with one hand and yeah. He's definitely in love.

| six months later - September 2014 |

September brings weddings and college and puppies. Sierra and John get married and Jack finds himself in the wedding party. Two days later Alex starts his first day at the community college and he spends the entire morning in the bathroom throwing up from the nerves. Jack feels so bad for him that he comes home from work that night with a six month old puppy that is definitely not allowed in their apartment. Alex looks happier than he has in a while and he tells Jack he loves him for the first time in their year and a half long relationship, so Jack decides that it's totally worth having to start looking into buying an actual house. September is a good month.

| seven months later - April 2015|

Jack meets Alex's parents in April, on their two-year anniversary while they're out to dinner. Everything was fine and normal for the first hour, getting them through an appetizer and their main course and a bottle of wine (Alex might be only 20, but he looks old enough so waiters at restaurants tend not to even ask). Then, Alex started acting weird and kept glancing across the room and it didn't take Jack that long to figure out exactly who he was about to meet.

"This is Jack," Alex mumbles when his parents corner them outside while they're waiting for the car to be brought around. They don't go out to nice places very often but Jack thought they needed to do something nice for their anniversary. Now he just wishes they'd stayed home and rented that movie like Alex had wanted.

"Nice to meet you," Jack says politely, shaking the hand that Alex's father offers. He's tall and good looking and his suit is probably worth more than all of the clothes Jack owns. "I've heard a lot about you." And that's true. He just doesn't add the 'bad' that should be in that sentence. Or maybe 'horrible' would be more fitting.

"What are you two doing here?" His mother questions, and she looks nice and sweet and motherly.

"Date," Alex chokes out, blushing under her stare. He coughs and clears his throat after realizing he's not quite speaking in full sentences anymore. "Uh. We're on a date. Together. Jack is my boyfriend."

They're not disgusted or disappointed or offended or anything that Jack expected to be. They're the opposite, in fact. His mother smiles warmly and his father pats him on the back and they make a comment about how cute they look together and ask him if he ever got the birthday gift they sent in January. They're not cruel people - not in the obvious ways, anyway. But they don't ask Alex how he's doing or how he's feeling or anything. They don't do anything that even slightly indicates that they are in fact his parents. It's almost like Jack is just meeting a pair of his boyfriend's long lost high school friends. Which is sad in its own right.

By the time they get home, Alex is miserable. While he would normally go right back to packing their things into boxes, preparing for their big move next week, he goes straight to bed without saying a single word. Jack spends five minutes walking the dog and making sure he has water before following Alex to bed, cuddling him close and reminding him how much he loves him.

| eight months later - December 2015|

Their new house is small, but not as small as Jack's apartment was. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room and it's all on one floor. Max (because that's as creative as Alex will get when it comes to giving things names) has a backyard to run around in and Jack doesn't have to go down six flights of stairs just to take him to pee. It's five minutes from both Alex's school and the hospital. It's definitely on Jack's list of 'top ten decisions I've ever made'.

They also got all new furniture, and Jack is almost positive that they've had sex on every surface possible (except the kitchen table, because Jack is really not interested in fucking Alex in the same place he eats breakfast every morning. He does have morals. Kind of).

But the living room couch is fair game (don't tell Tay or Matt or Sierra) and it's Alex's birthday. So of course all the lights are off and Max is locked in the guest bedroom/office and Alex is on his back on the couch, has his legs wrapped around Jack's waist and Jack is having a hard time comprehending the fact that this is the fourth time they have had sex in the last hour. He's not a teenager so he has no idea where the sudden stamina is coming from. But Alex appreciates it, judging by the way he arches his back at a seemingly impossible angel and cries Jack's name every time Jack pushes into him.

"You're going to kill me," Alex pants, jerking himself off with one hand while tugging on Jack's hair with the other. And Jack doesn't have a good response for that, so he just fucks him even harder and hopes the neighbors aren't hearing any of this. And even if they do and they get pissed off, Jack probably won't care. You only turn 21 once, right?

| nine months later - September 2016|

They get engaged in September, on the same living room couch with their dog chewing on the edge of the coffee table. Alex rambles about one of his professors and Jack decides it's now or never and he asks the question right there in the middle of a statement about how hard the professor's grading is.

"What?" Alex asks once he's finally comprehended the ring in Jack's hand. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Marry you?"

"Three years together. I love you. You love me. We live together and have a dog together and I really think the only logical thing to do is get married," Jack insists, and he might sound super confident about this but really he's practically pissing himself. "So?"

Alex blinks at him a few times in an attempt to be dramatic before shrugging and saying, "Sure. Why not."

Jack translates that into 'holy shit fuck yes'.

| ten months later – June 2017|

“It’s about time you’re getting married,” Matt says as he adjusts Jack’s tie for him, “You’re practically an old man now.”

“I’m only twenty-seven!” Jack protests, rolling his eyes and resisting the urge to move away from Matt. “Besides, we’re the same age and you only got married a year ago so shut up.”

“At least Alex is only twenty-three,” Matt continues, with that stupid look of fake-pity. “So much life ahead of him.”

Jack doesn’t give him anything more than an eye roll in response. He’s been tormenting Jack since Jack woke up in his living room (all thanks to Tay trying to keep the whole thing as traditional as possible and not letting him see Alex until the wedding actually starts – which is ridiculous, because they are as far from traditional as they can get already), and Jack is learning that the more he ignores him, the less he says. It’s taken a long time to realize that strategy but better late than never, he supposes.

It took them hundreds of setbacks, five minor freak outs from Alex and two major freak outs from Jack and ten long, long months to get to this day but Jack thinks everything’s fine now. Everything is going to go off without a hitch and by the end of the afternoon he’ll be able to actually call Alex his husband. If you told him this four years ago, he’d have cried from laughing so hard. Because Alex four years ago and Alex now? Completely different Alex.

“Alright, Jack,” Matt says when it’s finally time. “Ready to start the rest of your life?”

As cheesy as it sounds, Jack is definitely more than ready.

| eleven months later – May 2018|

It’s two in the morning and Jack can’t sleep. And judging by the way Alex keeps rolling over and shifting sleeping positions, he can’t sleep either. It’s mid-May and the weather has taken on an annoyingly out-of-the-ordinary pattern lately, with high temperatures and no breeze and their air conditioning system has decided to mysteriously stop working. So until someone comes and fixes it, they’re stuck with the windows open and that’s not doing them much good anyway. Not being able to sleep is not surprising.

However, it might not just be the hot and humid air that’s not letting them sleep. It’s probably that combined with the fact that they submitted the last part of the adoption forms today, meaning the process is going to start moving a hell of a lot faster now. Their background checks have come back to the agency just fine; their references equally as fine; the couple and individual interviews stellar. All that’s really left to do is go to the numerous parenting classes that the agency requires, pass the home inspection and observation and they’re pretty much set. That doesn’t mean they’re going to be parents within the next few months, but maybe this time next year is more realistic. And that thought alone is absolutely terrifying and is definitely a valid reason to not be able to sleep.

“I’m going to be the worst dad on the planet,” Alex whispers, breaking the silence and pulling Jack back from the edge of restless sleep. “Why are you letting me do this?”

Jack struggles to untangle his legs from the sheets he kicked away from him barely an hour ago. Alex is facing away from him, towards the window that’s wide open in hopes that a rare breeze will come and cool off the room a bit. He puts one hand on his shoulder as he tells him, “You sound ridiculous. Worst dad on the planet? That’s dramatic, even for you.”

“I’m serious – I’m going to suck at it. The kid’s going to grow up to hate me and-”

“If I was stupid, I would hit you so hard right now. But I’m not stupid and I know that if I do that, I’d never live it down. However, just know that I really, really want to hit you right now. Because what you’re saying is ridiculous. And you know it.”

Alex finally sighs and rolls over so he’s on his back. He looks up at the ceiling, avoiding Jack’s eyes. “I don’t know how to be a dad. I barely had one of my own. How am I supposed to figure this out?”

Jack laughs, despite knowing better than to laugh at Alex when he’s being emotional. “Man, if you think every guy on the planet just ‘knows’ how to be a dad, you clearly haven’t been paying attention at all during this adoption process. Besides, we’ve got a while before we really need to worry about being ‘award-winning dad’ material.”

Alex sighs again in his usual dramatic fashion as he kicks the sheets off the bed entirely. Jack wants to pull him closer and hold him but it’s really too hot for that and Alex will get pissed off and the moment they’ve got going on will be totally ruined. So instead he just kisses him quickly and lies back down, trying his best not to make Alex’s concerns seem trivial. “I know it’s scary to think about, but I know everything’s going to work out fine. You’re going to be a great dad and the kid’s going to love you and think I’m totally lame. But in the meantime, you need to stop thinking so much about it, and focus on school and graduating and finally doing what you want to do.”

The younger boy grumbles something about photography and college and classes but Jack can’t quite figure out what he’s talking about, so he just lets him roll over again and attempt to go back to sleep. Knowing Alex (and Jack definitely knows Alex), he won’t be able to sleep at all tonight. And Jack would normally try and convince him to see reason with this whole ‘terrible dad’ thing, but he thinks that maybe this is just something that Alex needs to handle on his own. For now anyway, because if it starts to carry over into the upcoming months, Jack’s going to need to do some damage control. But for now, everything’s fine.

| one year later – May 2019|

“She’s the worst baby model I’ve ever met.”

“She’s not a baby model!”

“Exactly, and she never will be,” Alex sighs, dropping his camera down from in front of his face. “She’s just…impossible.”

Jack rolls his eyes and picks their daughter up from the blanket-covered grass. She’s barely five months old but she’s hyper aware of everything going on around her, so naturally she’s not going to sit still and be a good model for Alex’s portfolios. Jack’s tried to explain that to him numerous times today but Alex is a stubborn person on a normal day, let alone a day he’s trying to get some pictures taken. Apparently, his online blog about being a dad is in desperate need of some photo uploads. Whatever. Jack will pretend he totally understands the way blogs work.

“It’s okay,” Alex finally says as he starts packing away his “super expensive and super high-tech” camera into its case, “Payton doesn’t need to be a baby model. And quite frankly, I’m glad she won’t be. Baby models turn into child stars and child stars turn into…well. Lindsay Lohan is a prime example of that.”

Payton squirms in Jack’s arms but she thankfully doesn’t start crying. She’s watching Alex carefully as he packs his stuff away and Jack is pretty sure she likes Alex more than she likes anything else. He doesn’t blame her at all, considering Alex is the best thing that ever happened to him. She just always seems to quiet down when Alex is within reaching distance, and every time she hears his voice, she’s smiling like crazy. Jack has noticed all these things, but he’s pretty sure Alex hasn’t.

Ever since they brought Payton home from the hospital those five months ago, after a surprising turn of events and key contacts that made the adoption process go a little bit quicker for them, the idea of being a bad father apparently disappeared from Alex’s mind completely. Everything comes so naturally for him and Jack is glad he let that concern fizz out on its own.

“She’s probably hungry,” Alex states when he notices his daughter is still refusing to stay still for even a second. And Alex is pretty much always right, so Jack will agree with him on this one. He hands her over to his husband and watches as she instantly lights up at the contact, reaching up to tug on his hair and while Alex grumbles and moans about it, Jack knows it barely bothers him at all. He watches them head back into their home through the sliding glass doors, wondering how he managed to get so lucky.

Alex has been cancer-free for six years and counting, and while he still has to go for yearly exams and blood work to keep checking on that, the pressure and anxiety seems to lessen as each year passes. Jack will never say it out loud, but he thinks that Alex is in the clear this time. And even if he’s not, they have the support system to get them through it one more time.

Jack is barely a few steps from the back door when Alex is yelling from inside, “Come inside, moron!” and the word has long since become a term of endearment rather than what the insult it was originally intended to be all those years go.