Allister’s little eyes drifted upwards and to the right like he was recalling something. “Mommy calls him Apple.”
Zane snorted. “There’s no way Cricket would Gwenyth her kid.”
“Or that August and Lucas would agree to it,” Noah added.
“That’s not his name, it’s his nickname,” Allister said, sounding embarrassed at having so many eyes on him. “His name is—” He looked at the others, then leaned in and put his lips to Lucas’s ear, whispering.
Lucas sucked in a breath. “Oh. Yeah. Actually, that does sound…right?”
The room felt like it tilted, just slightly. Lucas whispered to August, then Cricket, who both seemed to contemplateit, then nodded.
“Well, what is it?” Noah asked. “What’s his name?”
Cricket looked at August and Lucas, then the others. “I’ll tell you after he’s here and I can confirm it.”
“Is he saying he’s seen the future?” Felix asked quietly, his voice stripped of its usual humor.
Cricket continued to comb her fingers through Allister’s hair, slow and steady, like she was afraid to stop touching him. “You see the new baby? Like in your dreams?”
Allister nodded again. “He has hair like me and eyes like Mommy and a red mark right here.”
He lifted one small finger and pressed it to his temple.
“A red mark?” Lucas asked softly. “Like a birthmark? Like this?”
He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the small strawberry mark Thomas had somehow never noticed before, unremarkable, easily overlooked, the kind of thing you didn’t see until someone pointed it out.
Allister nodded. “But his looks different. Bigger. Like an apple.” He paused, then added, very matter-of-fact, “That’s what Mommy calls him Apple.”
“Apple…” Cricket echoed, one hand drifting instinctively to her belly.
Her breath stuttered as another contraction rolled through, sharper this time, her fingers curling into the sheets as she waited it out.
“So it’s like a nickname?” Noah asked gently.
Allister nodded. “He sees things… like me.”
The room went very quiet.
Cricket’s eyes filled with tears as she looked from Lucas to August, emotion flickering across her face too fast for Thomas to name, fear, awe, something like relief.
“Am I in trouble?” Allister asked suddenly, eyes wide, fingers hovering near his mouth again.
Lucas was there instantly, cupping his face. “Of course not. Why would you be in trouble?” His voice softened. “But why didn’t you tell us you were seeing these things?”
“You didn’t know?” Zane asked.
“We knew he got impressions like Lucas,” August said slowly, “and that he has nightmares, but not that he could… see more than that.” His voice trailed off, the weight of it settling on him.
Thomas watched August’s expression carefully. It was clear he was struggling, not with believing Allister, but that he had somehow missed something so huge. He understood Lucas’s gifts, understood that as a scientist there was still so much about the universe they just didn’t know. But knowing his husband and child picked up impressions from objects was not the same thing as learning your child had seen glimpses of the future.
Thomas had no doubt Allister was telling the truth. The boy didn’t know how to lie, not about things like this. Not about things that felt this heavy. He knew that nobody in this house doubted his words. It didn’t make them any lighter.
“Dude,” Avi said, breaking the tension like only he could. “Hurry up and pop out this baby so we can see if he has the birthmark.”
Cricket rolled her eyes, though the corners of her mouthtwitched. “I’ll get right on that.”
A ripple of soft laughter moved through the room, easing something tight in Thomas’s chest. He felt it then, the same feeling he got every time he looked at them all together. The quiet certainty that this was something rare. Something real.
