All Kinds of Time

Gerard was in his studio, inking out some scenes for JLA, now that he could finally take DC up on their offer. Oliver was five and had started school recently, and Joshua was four and had begun going to nursery so that Gerard could finally get his career back on track. He had been having to work slowly while having both the boys at home due to the constant care they needed and so only worked on Grant’s comic, but once Oliver was going to nursery he was able to work at little more, and when they were both gone during the day, he had enough time to actually work, like he could before the had children. It was strange, having concrete deadlines again, but he had begun to miss working on his comics after a six year break.

He was carefully inking, preferring to do it by hand instead of computer, when the postman knocked on the door. He rested his pen down and went to the door, signing for a few parcels and taking some letters. He set them down on the table in the hallway as a few were addressed to Frank, and placed the thick letter from the hospital down carefully in the centre of the table. He would open it when Frank got back.

*

At four, the childminder down the road dropped Oliver and Joshua home. Gerard went to the door and Oliver and Joshua ran in, Oliver dropping his bag on the floor.

“Thanks, Flora.” Gerard smiled, closing the door. “Oliver! Shoes! Off! Now!”

“Yes, Daddy!” He called back, kicking his shoes off and racing to the box of Lego in the living room. Joshua hugged Gerard’s leg and Gerard picked him up.

“How was your day, Josh?” He asked, kissing his nose.

Joshua giggled. “Miss Ellie teached us alphabet. I writed my name.” He said proudly.

“Wow, Josh.” Gerard said. “Do you have it in your bag?”

Joshua nodded enthusiastically and he wriggled around, so Gerard let him down and he scrambled to his bag to unzip it. He pulled out a sheet of card, with his name written in shaky writing.

“That’s amazing, Josh.” Gerard praised. “I want to put it up in my study.”

Joshua beamed and toddled off to play with his brother. Gerard smiled at the drawing for a few moments before taking it into his study and putting it on his desk. He filed away his panels and put away his inks and pens to go and spend time with his boys.

Oliver was busy building a tower when he got there, and Joshua was chewing on some Lego bricks. Gerard pulled Joshua onto his lap and took the plastic out of his mouth and helped Oliver to build his tower.

“Dinosaur!” Oliver yelled, taking his large plastic dinosaur and smashing it into the tower.

“Run for your lives!” Gerard shrieked, acting out the little Lego people as they ran away from the dinosaur. Oliver giggled and threw the dinosaur on the tower as a means of attacking it. Lego sprayed all over the carpet and Gerard knew it was going to be a fun evening not only cleaning it up, but making sure that Joshua didn’t swallow any of it.

“Today Danny threw up in class.” Oliver chatted while he stacked bricks up randomly. “Miss Katie had to call his mom and he went home.”

“Poor Danny.” Gerard said, giving Joshua the dinosaur and letting him chew on its head.

“He ate a slug.” Oliver added. Gerard screwed up his face.

“Well surely he saw it coming.” Gerard replied, shifting Joshua on his lap.

“Patrick gave him a marble for it.” Oliver said, standing up as his stack of plastic blocks had become too tall. “What’s for dinner, Daddy?”

“I’m going to make some pasta when Dad gets back.” Gerard smiled. Joshua crawled out of his lap to nudge the tower.

“No Joshua!” Oliver scolded him, pushing his head backwards.

“Boys.” Gerard warned. Oliver scowled and sat down to poke Joshua.

“Daddy, he’s trying to ruin my tower.” Oliver whined, his finger dangerously near Joshua’s mouth. Joshua opened his mouth wide.

“Joshua, no!” Gerard snapped, picking him up off the floor. “You don’t bite your brother. And Ollie, he was only trying to play with you.” He sighed. Joshua frowned at Gerard and Gerard kissed his nose.

“Come on then, I’ll get the paints out and cover the table.” He said, putting Joshua down on a seat at the kitchen table.

“Paints!” Oliver yelled, scrambling up onto the seat at the table and waiting for Gerard to cover the table. Soon there was paint all over their hands, the plastic protective tablecloth and pieces of paper.

At six thirty the familiar sound of keys jingled in the door.

“Dad!” Oliver shrieked, jumping up with his paint covered face and hands.

“Ollie...” Gerard trailed off, watching with a smile on his face as he jumped on Frank as soon as he was through the doorway.

“Dad!” Joshua chimed, wriggling off the chair.

“Woah, there!” Frank exclaimed as he picked up Oliver, paint going all over his suit and his face as Oliver placed a hand on his cheek. “This is now the third suit you’ve ruined, Trouble- hey Josh.”

Joshua had run up to him and had his arms around Frank’s legs. Frank bent down to scoop him up too, holding them both with a bit of difficulty.

“How were your days?” Frank asked both of them. Joshua put a hand on Frank’s face, leaving a blue handprint on Frank’s face and giggling. Frank made a mock-shocked face and pretended to drop Joshua.

“No, Dad!” He shrieked, grasping onto Frank’s neck. Oliver laughed and snuggled into Frank.

*

Gerard and Frank collapsed on the couch at eight after having read to both the boys and tucked them in.

“How was your day?” Gerard asked, turning on the TV and then wrapping his arms around Frank’s neck, kissing him.

“We signed this new band who I reckon are going to be pretty big in the next few years. They’ve already got some airplay on some smaller radio stations. What about you? Did you manage to get your panels done?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Gerard smiled. “While I’m doing the scenes for JLA I can just feel my sixteen year old self inside of me just, like, imploding or something.”

Frank chuckled. “What do you mean ‘the sixteen year old inside’ you?”

Gerard laughed and hit him lightly. “Shut up.” Frank kissed the top of his head. “Oh. Also the postman came today with a letter from the hospital...”

“Oh yeah?” Frank straightened up. “Did you open it?”

Gerard shook his head and stood up. “No, I was waiting for you to get back...wait, I’ll just go get it from the table in the hall.”

He picked up the official looking letter addressed to him on the table and wandered back into the living room, sitting back down next to Frank.

“You gonna open it or just stare at it for a while longer?” Frank teased, pulling Gerard by his waist so that he was lying across him.

“Yeah...” Gerard mumbled, thumbing open the envelope. He unfolded the letter.

“Dear Mr. Way,” Gerard read aloud, “We have written to inform you that all three of your fertility tests came back negative, and so as of the 19th February you are biologically unable to carry children and are medically infertile."

They looked at each other for a moment before Frank held up his hand and they high fived.

“Yes!” Frank yelped.

“Fucking finally!” Gerard laughed. “Think of the money we’ll save on condoms!”

“Congratulations!” Frank said. “What’s all the rest of the crap about?”

Gerard scanned the letter. “Stuff about how it’s normal for fertile men to become infertile in their late twenties and thirties and medical advice about contraception. This is so weird.”

“You know what this means, right?” Frank asked, fiddling with Gerard’s hair. “When your mom takes the boys this weekend, we’ll be able to have sex without a condom and it’ll be so great.”

Gerard exhaled and smiled. “I can’t wait...”

*