Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“Is Dad in yours bed, Daddy?” Tori seemed very worried about JP being upstairs.
“He is. He’s sleeping hard.”
She nodded, eyes wide. “Through supper!”
“I know. Poor Dad. He missed grilled cheeses.”
“Mmm…grilled cheeses.” She crawled into her bed, holding her stuffy. “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you, Tori. Do you want a story?” He already had Z is for Zamboni in his hand. Petey had been exhausted and had fallen asleep in the bathtub.
“Uh-huh. I like a bomboni.”
“I know you do.” He read her the story, her eyes slowly closing, just like JP’s had earlier today.
Once he got her settled, he peeked in on JP. He didn’t know if he needed to wake the man for food and pills, but he’d check in.
JP grunted and blinked his eyes open. He frowned and leaned up on his elbows, looking around, seeming confused.
“Hey. You okay?” Ian smiled from the doorway. “I was just checking on you.”
“Oh. I’m upstairs. Wasn’t sure for a moment there.” JP rolled his neck and nodded. “I think I slept hard.”
“You did. You slept through supper. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Needing to pee?” He had waited to eat too, so they could order a fancy pizza.
“Starving, but I should probably pee while I’m up. I should be good to manage the stairs back down now.” JP did not sound enthusiastic about that.
“Do you want to sleep up here with me tonight? You could. We could share a pizza…” He wanted to, sort of.
“I would like that. A lot. And not just because it means no stairs.” JP looked right at him as he said it.
“You can take a shower even. I have the pull-down shower head and a built-in seat…”
“Tabernacle! Really?” JP’s eyes were huge. “I would like that. So so so so much. A shower.” He shook his head. “That would be heaven. Even better than this bed, which is a treat, Chou, I have to tell you that.”
“Well, let me set you up with that, then I’ll order a pizza, and get us both a Coke.
” Ian grinned and went to put towels on the seat and in the floor of the shower so it wasn’t slippery, and then he pulled down the removable shower head.
The tankless water heater made things so much easier, so he didn’t have to warm the water up.
JP came in, moving pretty well with the walker. “Would you mind getting new dressings for my leg? I’ll take these off. The wound is allowed to get wet at this point, as long as I don’t put hard spray on it.”
“No problem. I’ll get you some clean clothes, too. What do you want on your pizza?” He could get JP some freshly washed pajama pants, too.
“Meat, please.” JP grinned at him. “You know what I like.”
“I do.” He made sure that JP could move around pretty well. Then he got a carnivore pizza, a salad, and garlic bread. After that he gathered up dressings and clothes, along with JP’s toothbrush and meds, carrying them upstairs.
He could hear JP in the shower, making happy noises. He could only imagine how nice the flow of hot water would be after weeks and weeks of sponge baths.
He poked his head in the en suite. “I ordered the pizza, and I have your dressings and everything.” He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to look or not.
“Can you come in and help me, Chou? I’m a bit stuck here.”
“Of course.” He had seen every inch of this man. He could help JP out. “Let me grab more towels.”
“Yeah, the ones in here are soaked.”
When he returned with the towels, there was JP, in all his glory, one leg looking rather Frankensteinish, but everything else looking very studly.
He helped get JP dried and sitting on the toilet, before cleaning up the floor and taking the sopping wet towels to the washer.
JP had managed to get himself into the shirt and the pants of his pajamas up to his thighs by the time he got back.
“I know that made a big wet mess,” JP said. “But it was pure heaven. Thank you.”
“It’s fine. It cleans up easy. Let me doctor your leg, and we’ll get you settled.” He loved the way JP smelled, and he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs.
“You smelling me, Chou?” JP breathed in deep. “I know you smell good. I finally do too. First time in weeks.”
“You can shower anytime, love.” His cheeks burned. “I bet you feel amazing, though. A real shower.”
“It was pure heaven. And I really feel clean.”
He could tell that it had taken a lot out of JP, though, and the sooner they got him back in bed, the better.
He slathered ointment on the scar and then bandaged JP up before hauling him to the bed and getting him settled.
Then the doorbell rang, and Ian ran downstairs, taking a second after grabbing the pizza to have a minute to rest and breathe and focus.
JP was in his – their really – bed. Sitting there, looking like a stud in their bed. And he was staying the night.
Ian just needed to get everything closed up down here, take the pizza up, and try to breathe.
He locked all the doors, checked that the oven was off, along with all the lights, and then grabbed paper plates, napkins, and cups, along with their Cokes and the pizza. He headed upstairs, going straight to the bedroom where JP waited for him.
Please don’t be asleep. I’ll just cry.
JP was in bed and had managed to figure out how to tilt the bed up so he was essentially sitting instead of reclining. He looked so good. Ian was almost drooling.
“Hey, you. We have pizza.” Hopefully he didn’t look exhausted.
JP inhaled and grinned. “There’s still nothing like the scent of food when you’re hungry.”
“True, and it’s still hot.” He had to grin. Had to. “I have our Cokes, too. Did you want to watch TV?”
“Sure. It’s good to have something to cover the sound of chewing.”
Ian blinked at JP, then started chuckling softly, tickled as anything.
“What?” JP pouted at him.
“Nothing. Nothing — are you traumatized by chewing?”
“It’s just weird, eating with people and having the sound of everybody chewing. It’s nicer not to hear it.”
“Oh. I’ll chew very quietly. I promise.” Weird. So very weird…
“Just turn on the TV, and I won’t even notice.” JP patted the space next to him. “Come and sit already instead of hovering.”
“I haven’t shared our bed with you in a long time.” He climbed onto his side of the bed and opened the pizza box. Oh, it looked amazing.
“I know.” JP’s gaze was heavy on him. “It feels like a lifetime.”
“It has been.” The kids’ lifetime, one way or the other. “I missed you. I—”
He needed to talk. They needed to talk. He just didn’t know how.
How could JP just have ignored them for so long? How could JP have walked away from their babies?
“I missed you too, Chou. I swear every time my phone rang, I was hoping it was you.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know what to say. You have your big love affair. It isn’t me. I was…well, it doesn’t matter. I can be your second. I want you to be happy.”
And he knew that, eventually, JP would be home for good.
“That’s not fair. I love you, Ian. I always have.
But I was traded to Florida – I couldn’t just say sorry, my partner doesn’t want to go.
How was I supposed to support you and the babies if I just up and quit?
” JP shook his head. “And after our fight… well, you made it clear you weren’t interested in discussion, so if I wasn’t coming home, you didn’t want to know. ”
Well, he’d said that in anger, hadn’t he?
“I couldn’t take them to Florida. You travel so much.
You’d have never been there, and I would have been in a strange place with the twins as babies.
At least here, I was home.” He sighed softly, shook his head.
“I was hurt. I should have been…I don’t know.
I wanted to be the most important thing in the world. That was selfish.”
“I don’t know about that. I made myself the most important thing in the world, didn’t I?
And that was selfish of me. I made you feel less than, and that’s not what I wanted.
I…” JP was silent for a moment. “Everything’s different now, though, isn’t it?
I’m home for good. I guess you need to decide if you can forgive me for it taking an injury to bring me home. ”
“If you went back, I’d still be here for you.” Maybe he’d even go with. The kids were at a better age.
“Yeah?” JP smiled at him. “Then I’m a lucky man, Chou. Very lucky.”
“You so are.” He smiled back, then blew his lover a kiss. “Eat. It’s going to get cold.”
“Yes, boss.” JP gave him a wink but also took a bite of the pizza. “Oh, this is good. Delicious.” The word was slurred around the half-eaten bite of pizza.
He chuckled and nodded, digging in himself. He just needed to work this out, one little bit at a time.
He had anger and pain, but he also had hope.
Love.
And JP, for at least as long as the man couldn’t skate.