Chapter 28
A moaning noise woke him up. Blinking in the dim light he rolled to see the girls shaking awake Tripp.
“Go away.”
“No we need your help.” Mel hissed at him.
“It’s too early.”
“It’s 8 o’clock.”
“Exactly it’s too early. Wake me at noon.”
“Tripp.”
“No.” He rolled away pulling the covers up over his head to ensure they couldn’t tickle him to wake him up.
“Leave him. He’s being a typical teenager.” Jemma commented as she peered at him.
“I won’t behave like that when I’m that age.”
“No. Because you take after dad who seems to think it’s not insane to get up at the crack of dawn.” Came the muffled reply from the blankets. “Now do you mind? Trying to sleep here.”
“Mel.” Leo slid to the floor finally joining them.
“Good you’re up. We’re going to make breakfast in bed for mum and dad.”
“We can’t cook.” He thought he ought to point that out.
“Sure we can. It’s just science really.” Jemma pointed out, bouncing up and down on her toes.
“Are you going to help or not?” Mel glared at him.
“Sure. I’ll grab Phil.”
“He might get in the way. He can’t do much to help.”
“If we leave him he’ll cry then mum and dad will get up.”
“He has a point Mel.” Jemma considered it.
“Fine! Just keep him away from the hot stuff. We don’t want to burn him.”
Smiling Leo reached over into Phil’s bed where he lay watching them.
“Leeeoooo.”
“Shh Phil.” He propped him on his hip as mum did and followed the girls out of the room.
It turned out making breakfast wasn’t as easy as they thought. They’d already abandoned trying to do eggs. The first two had ended up on the floor when Jemma had cracked them against the bowl. The rest had turned black when they’d attempted to scramble them. As the coffee machine was complicated it was his job to make them. He had a knack with machines and though he would much preferred to dismantle it to understand how it worked, he had managed to make two cups of coffee. The coffee might be slightly burned but nobody would notice. Unfortunately as he was doing coffee it had meant him climbing up on to the work surface leaving Phil on the floor. He could come up on the bench with him as he couldn’t climb and he might fall. This had meant that he’d already rolled in the egg on the floor and was currently trying to find cookies. With his job done he dropped back to the floor and began removing Phil’s pjs, wincing at the slimy egg that covered his hands.
The girls had been in charge of the rest of the breakfast, eventually resorting to simple cereal and toast as bacon and eggs were beyond them. There was no point even considering attempting pancakes. With Phil toddling in front of them they slowly made their way upstairs each carrying on of their carefully made items. There was a nervous moment on the stairs when Phil wobbled slightly, nearly falling backward. Mel managed to quickly prop him up, spilling only a small amount of orange juice in the process. A slice of toast made a bid for freedom but was quickly rescued by Jemma. They slowly made their way to the bedroom. There was a slight pause as they tried to work out how to open the door before Phil solved the problem by pointing at the floor and then the door. Eventually getting the message Leo placed the cups on the floor so he could open the door before picking them up and entering the room.
As they had found before mum was snuggled against dad, her head on his chest, hair covering her eyes. Dad’s poorly arm was at his side while his other was around mum’s waist holding her close to him.
“Go on Phil.” Jemma whispered, nudging him forward with her leg, nearly loosing her balance and sending cereal over the floor. Needing no more encouragement Phil surged forward, using the blankets on the bed to pull himself up. Eventually finding himself beside his parents he crawled over until he was sat above his mum’s head while sat on his dad’s chest. Leo watched as his dad’s eyes flickered open at the extra weight.
“Hello Phil. How did you get in here?” He blinked sleepily at the little boy.
“Daddy.” Phil pointed at the others, drawing dad’s attention for the first time.
“Morning guys. What’ve you got there?”
“Breakfast. We made you breakfast.” Jemma stepped forward showing him the cereal and toast.
“Do I smell coffee?” Mum mumbled, nose wrinkling slightly.
“We brought you coffee as well. I made it.” Leo stepped forward to hand over the cups.
“I made the toast.” Mel piped up.
“I made the cereal and poured the orange juice.”
“Thank you guys. Why don’t you put them down on the side and come and join us?” Dad took his coffee and took a sip while they watched anxiously. “Its great.”
Leo grinned at him, before launching himself onto the bed, taking up the space where mum had been just minutes before.
“We tried to get Tripp to help but he just went back to sleep.” It was clear Mel was still put out by that.
“Don’t mind him. You guys didn’t need to do this.”
“We wanted to.”
They watched as their parents ate their food, refusing to eat anything they were offered, as the food wasn’t for them. Once only crumbs remained mum spoke again.
“Have you guys eaten?”
They all shook their heads.
“Well how about we make some pancakes then?”
“Be we do you mean me?” Asked Dad as he scooped up Phil who was beginning to gnaw on the bedclothes.
“Of course.”
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The ringing of his phone interrupted his washing up. Recognising the ringtone he quickly dried his hands before answering.
“Hey Nat.”
“Hey how’d it go down?”
“I haven’t done it yet.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“The right moment.”
“That’s a cop out and you know it.”
“Nat.”
“Don’t Nat me. Just give it her. You know she’ll love it.”
“No. I don’t.”
“For a confident specialist you’re not very confident in real life.”
“I can control things as a specialist. But feelings… I don’t understand them.”
“Yes you do. Just give her it. Anyway where is she right now?”
“Supervising the kids. They made us breakfast in bed this morning. Well everyone apart from Tripp did. He’s still asleep.”
“Aww. They’re cute. I’ll have to steal them from you.”
“Have your girls day. Then you’ll get to spend some time with them.”
“Good idea. You and Clint could then sneak off and start your Christmas shopping for us.”
He groaned at the thought.
“Don’t remind me! Besides it’s Leo’s birthday before then. We’ve got to plan something for that.”
“Get him a monkey.”
“Don’t you start!”
He heard her laughing as she hung up. Sighing he returned to the washing up pondering what she’d told him. She was probably right, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t worried. He knew he wasn’t good at the feeling thing. There was a reason Skye called him a robot. He believed he’d got better looking after the kids but it wasn’t easy. He’d never really been the person who told everyone what he felt. Sighing again he turned back to his job.
“That’s a long sigh.”
“Just thinking about Christmas.”
“And that makes you sigh?”
“More the fact that I’m aware what a task it’s going to be getting presents for all of them. Also Leo’s birthday.”
“Hey we’ll do it together.” He felt a gentle pressure as she wound her arms around his waist, forehead pressing in the centre of his back. “Besides they’ll be happy no matter what we get them.”
“Its just buying presents is such a big responsibility. I was never very good at it.”
“We’ll do it together. I’m sure you’re better than you think.” She clung to him for a moment before gently letting go. “Now I think it’s time the teenager got up.”
“How are you going to manage that?”
“Why do you think I came in here? I need a jug.” Cold water filled the jug she’d selected. Picking up the fully jug she moved toward the stairs giving him a slightly evil grin. “I’m sure this will persuade him.”