For all that Derek wished he could have slept most of the day away, he was grateful for the call. Not just because it was one more step closer to Sam being able to finalize the adoption, butalso because he was starting to realize that every time he stood still, he pictured Basil in his mind. He could still smell those flowers, still feel the warm weight of his hand pressing Derek’s to his chest. He could hear that laughter, and he could see his deep, rich eyes staring at him once the lights went back on.
Derek hadn’t felt this way in too damn long—frankly he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt like this before—and it was getting to him. They’d been ships passing in the night, nothing special, nothing destined. It would be a miracle if he ever saw the guy again.
By the time he arrived at his house, Maisy was sleepy and let Derek carry her into the house and set her on the sofa with some princess show on Netflix. She declined her waffles, so he threw them into the freezer, then grabbed his softest blanket and laid it over the both of them. She curled up against his chest, a warm, comforting weight, and he started to drift off.
Derek joltedawake some time later, unsure how much time had passed. It took him a second to realize what had roused him, and he realized after a second it was his phone. Trying his best not to jostle a still-sleeping Maisy, he managed to dig the phone out of his pocket and saw Sam’s number on the ID.
“Yo, everything cool?” he asked.
Sam sighed quietly into Derek’s ear. “If you mean being forced to drive to fucking Denver to sit through another psych eval, then yeah. It’s peachy with a hefty side of fucking keen.”
Derek pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to clear the sleep-fog from his head. “Seriously? Again?”
“Beth’s boss wasn’t satisfied with the initial report, so they want me to sit through a psych eval, they want my OT records, and she thinks they’re going to make me sign up for some sort of like…coping with paralysis and how to live your life class in spite of the fact that I’ve been like this for an eternity and have taken care of May since she was nine goddamn months old.”
Derek felt a slow, simmering rage burning in his gut, but he swallowed it back. Sam had warned them all they’d need to get on board and help him jump through hoops rather than fight the system which would have been their first instinct. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually. “What can I do?”
“I called Kat. She has two early appointments today, but she said she can take May off your hands before your first booking if you want to just meet her at the shop.”
“I’ll give her a call,” Derek said, “but that sounds fine. And if she needs me to cancel,” he started.
“Dude, no,” Sam said in a rush. “You’re not going to cancel on anyone because of this. If Kat gets booked for whatever reason, Mat said he was only doing walk-ins today so he can cover, too. We’ve got this, and I’m going to breeze through and get the hell home.”
“Alright,” Derek said. He didn’t tell Sam that he would have almost welcomed an excuse to clear his schedule for the day. His head was still in a little bit of a post-panic fog and though he could work through that just fine, he could use the break. “Just drive safe and get home when you can. You know she’s in good hands with us.”
“The best hands,” Sam told him, his voice warm. “Kiss her for me and tell her to be good. I’ll call when I’m back on my way.”
“Will do. Talk later.” Derek ended the call, then pulled up his texts and shot off a quick one to his brother.
Derek: Where u at?
Sage: Work, u lazy fuck. Why?
Derek: I have May for the afternoon, more fuckery for Sam. Wanna grab lunch?
Sage: Hell yes, I miss the munchkin. Come in at 12. I’m helping Kat with Jazzy so we can get something.
Derek checked the clock and saw it was just gone eight, whichwould give him enough time to ease her awake, get her some breakfast and play time so she wouldn’t be a total monster when he took her down to the shop. Easing out from under her, he settled her against the cushions, then wandered into the kitchen to start his coffee maker. By the time his pot was brewed, Maisy was shuffling into the kitchen, her bare feet padding along the tile. She scrubbed at her eyes with one small fist, her other arm raised for him to pick her up.
Derek didn’t hesitate as he lifted her up, propping her against his hip as he walked to the freezer for her waffles. “You hungry, munchkin?”
She shrugged, yawning. “I want chocowat.”
Biting back a laugh, he said, “How about I toast them with a little butter and syrup?”
Wrinkling her nose, she squirmed in his arms. “Noooo. I wan’ it wike dis!” She made grabby hands at the open package, and before Derek could stop her, she’d seized one of the frozen discs and immediately started chewing on it. With vague horror, he let her slide down and stared at her before grabbing his phone and sending Sam a text.
Derek: This so-called child ur raising is eating a waffle frozen.
Sam: LOL yeah she does that. It’s fine. Pick your battles, man, and this ain’t one of them, trust me.
Derek: Gross, but ok.
It was the simple fact that Sam wouldn’t let Maisy do anything that might put her at risk that he let her continue eating the frozen breakfast, though he turned his attention to his coffee instead of the way she was tearing it to bits with her tiny little gremlin teeth.
When she was done, she skipped out of the room to play with her dolls, and Derek poured himself cereal just to keep his energy up. Hestood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room and stared out the window. The morning was grey, the pavement still wet from the rain before, but it looked like it would clear up. It meant the day would be humid and a little ugly as they were hurtling from spring to summer faster than he cared about, but it also meant his semester was almost over and he wasn’t sad about that.
He felt a little weird being as old as he was and sitting in a classroom full of eighteen and nineteen-year-old kids. He understood, on a fundamental level, that there was nothing wrong with it. He and his brother had both been dealt a shit hand in life, and he’d just taken longer than Sage to reach a place he could be around large groups of people and balance both school work, his art, and his clients all at the same time.
