Current music:	The Taylor Hanson Band - Hey (From Underneath Acoustic)
Entry tags:	happiness is

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Wall-E

Plaything

Title: Wall-E (38/??)
Author: so_jayded
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2100
Genre: Hancest



Taylor

When we got home, I sat on the couch with my iPod on and hurried through finishing Tabby's sweater. I'd promised her that I'd have it done next time I saw her, and she'd reminded me when she and Isaac had slept over that it was the next time. I'd pinched her cheeks and told her that I hadn't expected it, but the truth was, I was just being lazy about it. Aside from having to put the buttons on it, I was mostly done.

Zac was in the other room, working on the FUTY and after I'd tied down the last button on Tabby's sweater I went in there, mostly to change the sheets and put Tabitha's pink Princess comforter on the bed. Zac was sitting there with his legs tucked under him, watching the screen intently with his headphones on. After I smoothed down the sheets, I went over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. He jumped a little and I laughed, pulling his earbud out and kissing his jaw. "Hi," I said.

"Hi." He turned around and smiled. "We should think about dinner."

I nodded. "She's going to be here in like an hour."

"I'm going to make baked chicken. Will you eat it?"

I sighed against his shoulder and nodded. "As long as you promise to make sweet potatoes and salad."

He grinned and kissed my temple. "Lemme get this done, first." I nodded and pulled away from him and he squeezed my hand before I totally pulled away. "Ten minutes."

I nodded and went back out into the living room. Then I turned on the stereo and started straightening out everything we'd left lying around over the last two days. Tabitha might've been almost five, but she was also still a little too curious for her own good, so I wandered around for a while, picking up things she might be able to hurt herself with and putting little plastic plugs into all the open electrical outlets.

By the time I'd made it to the kitchen, Zac had started working on the chicken - he'd even put an apron on - and I kissed his cheek as I stuck one of the plastic things into the outlet by the counter. "Babyproofing?" he asked, glancing up at me.

I nodded and wandered over to the table. "Do you want me to make the salad?" I asked, glancing down at all the stuff on the table.

"Yeah," he said as he slid the pan into the oven. His jeans were really nice, with a little rip back where the pocket was sewn on that sort of made me drool. And also notice that he wasn't wearing underwear. I stood up and pulled a knife out of the block - which I had to remember to put under the cupboard so Tabby wouldn't play with them - and started chopping vegetables.

By the time I was done with the salad, Zac was cooking up the sweet potatoes and making gravy. "It's five of," he said after a minute of silence. "You wanna call Ike and see if he's on his way?"

I nodded and pecked his cheek when I pulled the cordless down off the charger. It rang twice and then Isaac answered with a rushed "Hello?"

"Hey," I replied, hopping up onto a stool and petting Princess, who had settled on the breakfast bar like it was her bed. "Are you on the way?"

"We're almost there, actually. We had to turn around because Tabby forgot her teddy bear."

I smiled and picked Princess up. "I hope you didn't feed her, because Zac's like, cooking Thanksgiving dinner or something."

"Oh, awesome," he said, sounding relieved. "I was going to take her to Arby's or leave you guys some cash to get her take-out because I know you don't always eat dinner."

"I'm on a schedule again, actually," I said, kissing Princess fur. "But he's being stupid because he won't eat sweet potatoes so he had to make like fourteen kinds of potatoes."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Who doesn't like sweet potatoes?"

"Tay. You're. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh!" I smiled and jumped off the stool, bringing Princess into the living room and setting her down on the couch. "Tell Tabby Zac's making broccoli and melting down Velveeta for her."

"I'll tell her. I'm hanging up, now." The phone went dead and I sighed, going back into the kitchen and setting the table while Zac hummed and stirred something in a pot.

I wandered over and took a spoon out of the drawer and tasted Zac's potatoes. "They're almost here," I said. He grinned, tapped me on the ass, and told me to set the table.

***

"Uncle Tay?" I looked up from my book and down at Tabby, who was sitting on the floor with her coloring book.

"What's up, Tabs?" I asked, setting the book down and patting my lap. She jumped up onto the couch and crawled into my lap before curling up and yawning.

"Daddy said you're gonna be a daddy."

I nodded and smiled as her little arms wrapped around me. "Yeap," I said. "Hopefully."

"Did you get Uncle Zac pregnants?"

Laughing, I shook my head. "No, angel. Boys can't get pregnant."

"Oh." She frowned. "But how are you gonna get a baby?"

I picked up a little section of her hair and started braiding. "We're gonna adopt. Do you know what that means?"

She shook her head and I smiled before I gave her a dumbed-down overview of what I was going to have to do.

"So you're not gonna wanna play with me anymore?"

My fingers froze. "What? Of course I'll want to play with you, Tabby. I gotta give you lessons and I love having you visit us."

"But you're gonna have your own baby."

I lifted her up into my arms and gave her a big hug. "Hey," I said quietly. "I'll still love you to pieces. That's not going to change. You're just going to have some cousins that you'll have to share me with, is all. And you can help me and Uncle Zac with them, if you want."

"Will I be like a big sister?"

I smiled and squeezed her before I set her back down on the floor. "Something like that, yeah. They'll look up to you, I bet."

She smiled at me and jumped down. "When are we going to the movies, Uncle Tay?" I shrugged and she turned back to her coloring book. I'd almost forgotten that I promised that I'd take her to the movies, but I had, so I got up, reached down and pinched her cheek, and went into the other room to look up movie times. I settled into my chair next to Zac's and he shifted, giving me a smile before turning back to whatever he was doing online.

"We're supposed to take Tabby to the movies," I reminded him as I logged onto Fandango and looked up what was playing and when. "There's an eight o'clock showing of Wall-E. Do you think Ike already took her?"

Zac made a noise in the back of his throat and I frowned. He was playing video games, of course, and he never paid attention to me when he was busy with his games. Even when I'd been addicted to The Sims 2, I still found time to at least pay attention to what he was saying. "Well," I said. "I'm going to take her to the movies."

"Yeah," he said, distracted. Wrong answer.

"And then I'm going to go bring her by Mom's house."

"Sounds great."

I crossed my arms and glared at the side of his face. "And then I'm going to go have kinky sex with a groupie."

"Have fun," he muttered and I groaned. He wasn't listening to a single word. I sighed and stood up. I'd leave him a note, or something, but there was no way I was going to be prying him away from his computer any time soon, even if it was supposed to be a special weekend. So I just picked up my bag off the floor by the door and looped it over my neck before I gathered up Tabby and brought her downstairs.

The movie theater wasn't very busy and those two girls - Nancy and Jodi, I remembered - had followed us there, but they bought tickets to some other movie that was, thankfully, playing on the other side of the cinema. I'd let Tabby walk once we'd gotten to the sidewalk, but she couldn't see over the counter so I lifted her up and we peered at the candy choices together. She finally decided on peanut butter M&Ms and a small Powerade. I ended up getting popcorn, no butter, and a small Diet Coke. I had to put her back down to carry all the snacks, but she held onto the side of my pants tightly, and I kept my eyes on her until we were sitting down, dead center in front row. Tabby always liked to sit right in the front, and I didn't mind because I had more than enough leg room to stretch out.

She was chattering excitedly to me about the movie, about how she'd wanted to see it but Ike hadn't taken her yet, while I shut off my phone and then carefully dumped her M&Ms into a little plastic container that I kept in my bag. She tended to get candy everywhere because she didn't seem to understand that bags weren't rigid and it was easier for her to keep the container in her lap. By the end of the movie she would still probably have crushed up candy and peanut butter all over her pants, but I had to do laundry later, anyway.

"Why didn't Uncle Zac come?" she asked after I'd stuffed my phone back into my pocket and had finished fiddling with the food and the drinks.

"He didn't want to, I don't think. He was playing his little game."

She sighed and crossed her arms, staring up at the trivia thing that played before movies. "He's stupid," she muttered and I laughed at that.

"Daddy wouldn't like to hear you saying that, Tabs."

"That's cause Daddy's stupid, too." She frowned and popped an M&M into her mouth.

"Tabs, that's not nice. Take it back." I set my popcorn down and turned to look at her. "Why would you say that about Dad?"

"Because he wants to send me to live with Mommy," she said quietly. "I don't want to go live with Mommy."

I frowned at her and smoothed her hair down. "Why would he do that?"

"Cause of my bad dreams," she said before she munched on another M&M. "Daddy doesn't like staying up with me. I hearded him on the phone with Mommy."

I sort of wanted to turn my phone on, call Isaac, and ask him what the hell was up because that was so unlike him. All through the divorce he'd fought so hard to keep Tabby - and it had been easy, in the end, because he offered Lindsey a settlement and she wanted fifty grand more than she wanted her own daughter - and the idea of him just giving her up to Lindsay was ridiculous. And it kind of made me angry. She didn't need to be around Lindsay and her bad attitude and her string of drugged up boyfriends that she seemed to be going through. I put the arm rest up between us and pulled her into a hug. "I won't let that happen, Tabby. I'll talk to Dad, okay? Maybe he'll let you stay with us more if he's not getting enough sleep."

She nodded against my shoulder and then the lights dimmed, finally. She stayed half in my lap for the whole movie, and by the end she was smiling again.

NEXT