We Don't Belong

Four years later
Andy's POV
February 2
Sophia: Age 5 years

Ashley was holding Sophia and I stood behind them with my hands on Ashley waist. My chin rested on his other shoulder.

"Daddy, how old is Aunt Lizzy?" She asked.

"Same age as daddy. She's older than me though."

"She can't be older if she's the same age as you. You're silly daddy. Isn't he Papa?

"Yep. Just like you my silly little Munchkin. That's where you get it from."

She laughed and buried her face into his shoulder. I smiled, admiring the two.

"I'm not silly!"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Daddy! Tell papa to stop calling me silly!" She said as she made a frowning face and put her hand on her little hip.

"Ashley stop calling our daughter silly."

"Okay, silly daddy."

Ashley and Sophia both laughed. I shook my head and kissed both of them on the cheek.

"Ew daddy! Why did you kiss papa!"

"The same reason I kissed you. I love you both."

"Ew! You're giving me coodies!"

Ashley and I both laughed.

"Hey Ash, can you take her back to the car. I want to talk to Lizzy alone."

"Sure babe."

"I want to stay with Daddy!" She said while holding her hands out to me. It filled me with happiness.

"No sweetheart. If you behave, I'll give you a treat later."

"Same thing you tell me, but my treat happens late at night." Ashley said.

I hit him in his arm. Sophia laughed and did the same.

"Ashley, you're holding our daughter. Watch what you say."

"She doesn't know what it means." Me mouthed.

"Yeah, but I don't like it. Now please take her to the car."

He kissed my lips before turning and walking back to the car. I heard our blonde hair, blue eyed daughter softly hit Ashley.

"Stop kissing daddy in front of me papa!"

Ashley said something that I didn't quite understand then they got in the car. I picked up the candle that we put by Lizzy's grave a long time ago. I pulled the lighter from my pocket and lit it. I sat on the grass and closed my eyes.

"Hi Liz how's it going? I just wanted to let you know that everything has been great. I haven't been here since Sophia spoke her first words. Sorry for not coming out here that much anymore. I promise to start bringing Ashley and Sophia here more often. You know she told me that she met you. It scared the shit out of me honestly. I can't tell her that she was imagining things because she described you completely. She said you had dark red hair and greenish eyes. I knew it was you. She said you hugged her and left. That was really sweet. She only met you that one time but she's really fond of you. Are we going to go see aunt Lizzy today? She's so sweet. I love her so much. I wish I could see you, or at least feel you here. It would be so ironic if something happened."

The wind blew and a leaf from a tree fell right into the candle. It quickly burned away. Another one fell from the tree and right on her gravestone. I reached for it to remove it, but as soon as I reached for it it moved and flew in the candle. The ash got in my nose and made me sneeze. After that I laughed.

"Thanks. I know it was you. You were always messing with me. Anyway, now that I know you're listing, Ash and I are having our anniversary later and it's the first time we'll leave Sophia home with someone other than mom an dad. Jeremy and Christian can watch her, but I'm her dad and of course I feel like no one can watch her better than me or Ashley. I just don't know."

I always asked her questions even though I knew I wouldn't get a reply. It just felt right to do it. A gust of wind hit and it made me shiver. My body temperature dropped then I heard a faint whisper. If I was home I would have paid no attention to it.

"It's all okay." I heard a faint voice say.

"I'll watch over you." I heard again.

The wind stopped and a smile went over my face.

"Thank you. I trust you. I'll be on my way now. Say hi to grandpa and Alison for me. Tell them I love them. I love you."

Then just like that the candle went out. The smoke of the cinnamon scented candle flew into the fall air. I sat the candle down and touched the grave before walking back to the car.

Ashley was messing with Sophia by poking her in her nose and stomach. She was twisting and turning, but she was laughing. I sat in the drivers seat.

"Who's up for ice cream?!"

"Yay! Hurry daddy! I want chocolate!"

"We're getting there sweetie."

We stopped at DQ and went to a park. We got Sophia a small chocolate cone and Ashley got a double scoop strawberry with a waffle cone. I didn't get anything. I just wanted to treat my two favorite people.

Ashley and I were sitting on the bench watching Soph play with this little boy. They looked so adorable together. I turned to Ashley who was already looking at me and smiling. He ran his hand through my hair that I've been keeping short.

"I miss your long hair. I liked running my hands though it. I do like that I can kiss the side of your face without getting it in my mouth though."

"I like that you grew your mustache back. Now I have reason to lick ice cream off."

With that I licked the top of his lip and snatched the come from his hand.

"Hey that's mine! You should have gotten your own."

"But I'm your husband, you should let me have as much as I want."

"Only because I love you Andrew."

I smiled at him as I bit a piece of the cone. I handed it back to him when I was satisfied. Just then Soph came back holding hands with the little boy she was playing with earlier.

"Daddy, this is my friend Jacob. His name is like uncle Jake's."

"That's nice Soph. You gonna introduce him to papa?"

"Papa this is Jacob like uncle Jake."

"Hi Jacob. Nice to meet you. Do you have a mom or dad around?"

"Right here actually. I've been watching him the whole time. I'm Amber, Jacob's mom."

"I'm Andy, Sophia's dad."

She shook my hand and reached out for Ashley's hand.

"And you are?"

"I'm Ashley, Andy's husband and Soph's other dad."

"Oh...well I wasn't expecting that."

There was an awkward silence. Ashley and I just looked at each other. Honestly it was entertaining for us to see this happen. Instead of the woman getting too weirded out she sat beside us.

"So how does it work? Did you adopt her?"

"I guess you could say that." I told her.

"We met her biological mother before she was born. We got to know her real mother a lot and she liked us so now we're her dads."

"So did one of you like... I don't want this to sound weird, but how? She looks like you two. Blue eyes like you. And your noses are adorable."

Ashley blushed at her nose comment but he continued to explain to her.

"No. She wasn't a Surrogate or anything. Honestly we had nothing to do with the creation of her. She just ended up like us. We were lucky that the woman picked us. They warned us that it would be hard for someone to accept a gay couple."

"So why did she pick you?"

"She told us that she was tired of seeing these people come in and talk about how perfect their marriage was and talking about what they did as a job or how their parents were raised. She told us that she thought we were the right couple because we didn't try to make it seem as if we were perfect. She said that she wanted us because we weren't perfect. She wanted someone who's been through a lot and who could teach her kid that even though many things happen you could get through it because we're all human and we'll all make mistakes."

"That's beautiful. Sorry about asking theses personal questions. My brother and his wife are looking to adopt and they are nervous about their first meeting."

"Tell them to be theirselves. It's why they married right? Don't try to be perfect. Be you. In the long run that's why a person will love you. That's what my Ashy taught me."

"Thank you. I'll tell them. How long have you two been together?"

"We got together in high school, got engaged on our sixth anniversary, got married on our eighth anniversary, and our twelfth anniversary is in exactly seven days from today."

"That's nice. What are you going to do for Sophia?"

"She was going to stay with our best friends Jeremy and Christian, but it's the first time we've left her alone with anyone other than our parents for a really long time. We plan to be gone for a few days. The longest we've left her alone was a day because we kinda got stuck with something. We were at their house at two a.m. to pick her up though."

"And our honeymoon." Ashley corrected.

"Yeah that too."

"Have you ever though about day care?"

"Well, to make this weirder, we're in a rock band and we tour a lot. She came with us the last tour, but Andy's parents watched her when we were out or performing. All four of our parents are busy on our anniversary."

"I'm sorry to hear that. So you two haven't had alone time since she was born basically?"

"Yeah pretty much. I mean we still hang out, but people have to come over our house or she coed with us We haven't eaten out alone in a really long time either." Ashley said.

"Well me and my husband Derrick are going out tonight. Our kids seem to like each other. Are your parents available?"

"Yeah, mom just got back from that nurse thing." I said.

"She did didn't she? I'll call her and asked if she can watch her."

"Great. Well Jacob and I have to go. We'll see you tonight. Oh wait I need one of your numbers."

"I'll give you Ash's."

She handed me her phone and I put his number into it. She thanked us before grabbing Jacob's hand and leaving.

"Bye Jacob!" Sophia waved.

"Bye Sophia!"

"I see you've made a friend." I said.

She nodded with a smiled and started playing with her hands and looking down.

"I think he's nice Soph. How about we have him over sometime?"

Yay! Thank you Papa!"

"You're welcome sweetie."

"Can we go home now? I'm really sleepy."

"Okay BatKitty. C'mon."