Yes

I let out a huge sigh and looked at my phone for the millionth time.

What was taking so goddamn long?

My eyes wandered around me only to see my impatience reflected in the faces of the people that surrounded me. My eyes stopped at the sight of a little girl who was frantically pulling at her mother’s shirt.

A smile spread across my face as I heard her exclaim: “But mommy, you said daddy was gonna be here soon! Is it soon, soon?”

My eyes wandered on, only to rest on the blonde boy that stood beside me. He seemed to be buried in his phone, texting away on the black iPhone he was holding in his hands, a smile on his lips and his cheeks a slight pink color.

I popped an eyebrow and poked Mingus on the shoulder.

“Who’s the girl?”

Mingus’ eyes widened as he saw me eyeing him and quickly put his phone down the pocket of his jeans.

“Um… S’ not a girl,” he mumbled and put his hands down his pockets as well, pushing his shoulders out a bit and looked down on the ground.

He reminded me so much of Norman right there, and I couldn’t help but to chuckle.

“Oh sure…” I said and jabbed his ribs lightly with my elbow, “Spill it, Pinocchio!”

He looked at me from under his blonde curls with innocent eyes and a smile curling his lips.

“You’re just gonna tell dad, aren’t you?”

My mouth formed a small ‘o’ and I crossed my arms while trying to look as offended as possible.

“You know, Mingus? I thought we’d become friends. And friends don’t go around revealing secrets to other people, especially not their parents.”

Mingus let out a small breath and shrugged his shoulders lightly.

I giggled.

“Okay, I tell you what; if I promise you not to tell your dad anything about the girl, will you promise me not to tell him we stayed up all night?”

He let out a raspy laugh.

Fuck, he was just like a blonde mini-Norman...

I’d invited Mingus over to watch the first episode of season three of The Walking Dead with me last night; I was staying in Norm’s apartment for the time, watching over Eye in the Dark while he was in Philadelphia doing a panel with the Walking Dead cast. And since I knew Mingus was going to watch it as well, I’d thought that it would be cool doing it together, I mean, we hadn’t exactly spend much time together and I really wanted to get to know him better.

So he’d come over, after I’d asked Helena, which by the way hadn’t been as awkward as I’d thought; I mean, it had been the first time we’d spoken together, me, Norm’s new girlfriend asking whether her son could come over to watch a late-night zombie show with me and then stay the night… That’s got to sound a little weird, right?

But she’d been so cool about it. So he came over and we ate dinner, I cooked him one of my favorite Danish plates: ‘frikadeller’ with potatoes and red cabbage salad, and then we’d played X-box until the show started. And we’d both been too hyper, both of us yelling out cheeringly every time Norman’s face filled the big TV-screen.

In the commercials Mingus joined me out on the balcony while I had a smoke, and we would discuss what was going to happen next.

“I just don’t think that Rick’s gonna hold it together,” Mingus said, his eyebrows furrowed, “I mean, he has done a good job so far but it’s just like… There’s something off about him, you know?”

That kid is so mature in many ways…

And now we were standing in the middle of the airport, waiting for Norman to go down the big escalators in front of us. But his plane was delayed and we didn’t really know whether it had landed yet or not.

So we just stood and waited as the minutes ticked by slowly.

After the rumors going around about me and Norman’s relationship, I didn’t really like just standing here with his son.

What if the paparazzi showed up and cornered us?

That would be a nightmare; I wouldn’t know what to do. But it was a good thing Mingus seemed so calm.

Just like Norman; composed and silly at the same time.

He was smiling from ear to ear at me, his eyes sparkling.

“Mh, okay, I can agree to that,” he said as he looked to the escalators again.

I laughed.

“So, who is it?”

“It’s this girl named Jenna. She’s one of my friend’s cousins, she’s 15 and yeah… We’re just texting.”

I whistled.

“Fifteen, huh?”

He nodded and grinned at me as he pulled out his phone again.

“I can show you a picture she sent me,” he said as he started searching through their conversation on the phone.

I couldn’t help but to giggle; his face had a goofy grin spread across it. He handed me his phone and my eyes widened as I studied the picture on it: it showed a beautiful girl with long black hair, brown almond-shaped eyes and pink lips. She didn’t look fifteen at all; this looked like a girl who was definitely over eighteen.

“You sure she’s only fifteen?” I asked as I gave him back the phone.

“Yeah. She looks older, though.”

I nodded as he started texting again, the same goofy expression on his face. I shrugged my shoulders and looked back to the escalators.

Several people were starting to show and I saw a tall guy with a big suitcase coming down.

“Look mommy!” the little girl from before yelled and she started running towards him. I smiled widely as she launched herself at him into a big hug and I felt warmth surround my heart. You could see relief and happiness coming off the father as he lifted her into a bear hug, a tear escaping the corner of his eye.

“Dad!” Mingus exclaimed next to me and I yelped in surprise as he started half-running towards the escalators.

Norman and Mingus hugged warmheartedly and I once more felt a joyful sensation enclose my heart.

Why was I being so sentimental today?

I giggled to myself as Norman’s eyes met with mine and he winked at me from over Mingus’ shoulders. I’d missed him so much; after being used to having him around all the time during Boondock, it had been so strange suddenly being on my own again.

We’d finished filming two weeks ago and Norman had been busy ever since; he’d been to both LA and Philly doing interviews, photo shoots and panels for The Walking Dead and I’d just been hanging around his place in New York. My sister had spent a week with me and it had been so nice to spent time with some family again; after all, I hadn’t been to Denmark ever since I moved here, so it was nice seeing her again.

I walked up to them and was pulled into the hug as well.

“Fuck, I’ve missed both of you so much!” Norman smiled and tightened his grip so his strong arms pulled us closer together.

He planted a firm kiss on my forehead and I immediately threw my back head and then kissed him back on the thin lips I’d missed so much.

My blood seemed to twirl happily through my veins as I felt his stubble tickle along my jawline.

“Eeew, you guys! Let me go before you start eating each other!” Mingus’ voice sounded from beneath us.

Norm’s arms dropped as I chuckled and he jabbed Mingus lightly on the shoulder.

“Punk!” he laughed.

...........................................................................

“You watched it together? Ah man, wish I’d been there…” Norman pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

We were sitting in a cap on our way back from the airport. It had taken us so long getting out of there because of those fucking paparazzi bastards that jumped us just as we'd headed outside.

“Yeah!” Mingus exclaimed happily, “and she cooked me Danish food, you know, that type mom always talks about, what were they called?”

“Frikadeller,” I smiled.

“Frikadeller,” he continued with the cutest American accent I’d ever heard, “and then we watched the episode which was killer! And then we…”

I kicked his leg before he got to finish the sentence.

Both Mingus and Norman looked at me with curious eyes.

“And then we went to bed, right?” I said with a raised eyebrow.

I looked at Mingus and narrowed my eyes.

“Um, yes, yeah, then we went to bed.”

Norman shook his head and chuckled.

“Of course you did,” he said and nudged my shoulder.

I leaned in and let my head drop to his shoulder and he reached over to lay his arm around me. I felt so happy as I sat there; the man I loved and his awesome son on our way home to just be together. I sighed out in content.

We spent the night eating take-out and watching Mad Men on Netflix. A perfect night.

................................................................

I tried to hold it in but I couldn’t help but to giggle as Norman planted small quick kisses down my neck as we were lying in bed; I knew Mingus was in the other room and even though he was probably already asleep, I didn’t want to risk him hearing anything and maybe thinking that we were doing something else than what we were.

I was on my period and Norman was respecting that, even though he’d been a little disappointed when I told him, given thought that we hadn’t seen each other for two weeks. Not that he’d said anything but I’d seen it in his eyes.

“Norm, please!” I laughed out breathily as he held me down with one hand and tickled me at my ribs with the other.

He chuckled out a raspy breath as my body squirmed under his hands. I helplessly tried to release my arms from his grip but he was too strong. I started kicking my legs half-panicky and suddenly felt his arms disappear as my knee hit something.

“Son of a…” Norman breathed as he rolled away from me to have his face buried in his pillow.

My hands flew to my mouth as I saw him curl into a ball, hands between his legs.

“Oh my god, I’m sorry!” I exclaimed embarrassed and quickly threw my hands over to stroke his now red face, to try to soothe him somehow.

He groaned out, still all curled up.

“I got it, I got it, you’re on your period,” he hissed out in a raspy pain-filled voice, “Jesus, not like I was gonna rape ya.”

My cheeks burned and I breathed out: “No, no, that’s not what… It wasn’t on purpose!”

Silence fell between us as he slowly came back to his normal self again and was able to send me a crooked smile so that I knew he was okay.

Had I really hit him that hard?

“Fuck babe, you almost killed me right there… It hurt all the way up my stomach,” he breathed and reached over to grab his cigarettes.

“Oh Norm, I’m so sorry!” I spat out and covered my face with my hands, “It really wasn’t on purpose!”

I could hear the flicker of a lighter.

“You sure? Thought it was to emphasize the fact that you weren't feeling like having sex tonight.”

A cloud of smoke escaped his lips.

It was only on nights where Norm felt either too tired or too lazy to go out on the balcony that he smoked inside. I guess tonight was because he was in too much pain…

I shook my head: “No, what are you talking about? I always feel like having sex with you, why would you think otherwise?”

That was really true; there hadn’t been one single time where I hadn’t wanted him in that way, I mean, even when I was angry at him, I couldn’t resist him. Little fucker.

“But, I just thought, you know, since you’re on the pill and everything, you’d have, I don’t know; had it like last week? You knew I was coming home today…”

My heart sank a little.

“But sweetie, I can’t just go around messing up my schedule all the time. I don’t want to fuck something up inside of me, you know?”

“Oh,” he breathed and took another long hit from his cigarette.

His facial expression changed into something I really couldn’t read.

“What?” I asked, curious to find out the reason for his sudden change of mood.

What had I said?

He pulled out a clean ashtray he kept in his nightstand and smashed out the cigarette butt before turning to me, resting on his elbow and curious eyes.

“You want kids?”