Chapter Text
High-pitched screams can be heard outside the house, which could put those who can hear on alert, if it weren't for the joyful laughter that follows between each breath of air.
The small girl squirms beneath the heavy body on top of her, trying to escape the mischievous fingers tickling her sides, but failing.
From the living room couch, with a blanket covering his legs, a mask, and a cup of hot tea in his hands, Ethan watches the scene unfold on the floor in front of him.
Chris and Rose have been playing this game for a few minutes and, even with his stuffy nose and fever that has his body aching and prevents him from joining in the interaction, he gets a lot of satisfaction from just seeing the two people he loves the most in the world have fun with each other.
When he met Chris a little over ten years ago he never imagined that such a stoic and strong man could have a sensitive and playful side. Back then, he realized that this side only came out in his presence and, a little later, in little Rosemary's presence too.
Not even Chris could imagine behaving that way at his age. His job required him to be a full-fledged soldier and, if his former superiors saw him make strange faces and heard him speak in a voice higher than his timbre allowed just to make a six-year-old girl laugh, they would be quite disappointed in him. Fuck them, then.
In any case, Chris was still very careful about his behavior in public places, where there were people who knew him, but were not that close to him. For example, Ethan had only seen him make a fool of himself for Rose in front of Berkhoff, John, Charlie, and the rest of the original Hound Wolf Squad, although Chris quickly tried to compose himself after doing so, so as not to lose their respect, in his words.
He had no shame whatsoever to do it in front of Claire, Barry or Jill, but he did avoid doing it in front of Leon, simply because of the mockery that the agent always made of him and the strange friendship that those two had. He never behaved in that playful way in front of Mia, because Chris never relaxed around her and to this day they still shared a certain dislike for each other. Sheva, Moira, Sherry, and Ethan's parents have also had the privilege of seeing him at his most vulnerable, always just for Rose and Ethan. In front of the rest of the world, Chris was just another heartless soldier.
"Daddy, he-elp me-he!" Rose shouts between laughs, extending her arms above her head, asking Ethan to take her little hands and get her off of her father.
"Chris, stop it," he orders, fighting back a sneeze. "You'll make her pee on her."
This only elicits an even more uproarious laugh from Rose and Chris laughs too.
"Alright, alright," he finally leaves Rose alone, but not before placing a kiss on her head while the girl tries to calm down and she lies on the floor to catch her breath.
Chris stands up and goes to sit next to Ethan on the couch, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He tries to kiss him on the cheek, but Ethan quickly turns his face away from Chris. "No! You're going to get sick, and then you're going to infect Rose and she barely recovered from her flu."
When he turns back to Chris, he sees him pouting and Ethan laughs. "Why're you laughing?"
"It still surprises me to see you acting like a child, all tender and playful and sensitive," he expresses the thought he has had during his family's interaction. He can see Chris becoming slightly embarrassed.
"And it's just for you. You're the only one who can make me act like this."
"Aw, baby. I want to kiss you so much right now."
"Yeah, me too. Once you're all healed, let's vent our want," he says the last in a whisper, not wanting Rose to hear. Ethan laughs again.
They both see the now composed girl jump up from the floor and run to her room to continue playing.
"I love you," Ethan says when they are left alone in the living room, staring at Chris and hoping that only his eyes, that is the only part of his face not covered by the mask, can show his husband his intense feelings.
Chris smiles fondly and strokes Ethan's hair with the hand around him. With that same hand he brings Ethan's head closer to place it on his shoulder and leave him in a more comfortable position. He can feel Ethan's body shake with fever, and the heat exuding from him. He places a kiss on his head and with his lips still attached to his hair he says: "I love you even more, honey."
A few minutes pass and Ethan has fallen asleep in the hug. While Chris watches the movie playing on television, he hears his work cell phone ringing on the kitchen table. He has to answer, it's never good to ignore a work call, but Ethan is so comfortable on him, even wrapping one of his arms around his torso, that he's embarrassed to wake him. Fortunately for him, he hears Rose's light footsteps entering the kitchen and assumes that she has grabbed his cell phone because he hears the ringtone getting closer and closer to him.
The girl enters the room almost running to pass the cell phone to her father before he misses the call. Chris is grateful that she did it without having to ask. "Thank you, princess."
Inevitably, the loud sound wakes Ethan up and he gets up from his position on top of Chris, where he was using him as a pillow. "I'm sorry, love," Chris apologizes, seeing his husband with his hair disheveled and his eyes half-closed, and feeling tenderness at the sight.
"Don't worry, go answer."
Chris immediately answers the call, getting up from the couch and walking briskly towards his office before answering privately.
"Do you want me to bring you your medicine, daddy?" Rose offers in her small voice.
"What time is it?" Ethan asks to himself looking at the time on the wall clock. "Yes, please, princess."
Rose runs to the kitchen island to grab the plastic bag with Ethan's medicine, completely happy to help her dad with that task. She gives the bag to Ethan, he thanks her, and then Rose disappears, running to the kitchen for a glass of water. "Be careful, Rosey!"
A "Yes!" answers him from the kitchen.
The girl returns, this time walking slowly so as not to splash water on the floor and carpet.
"Thank you so much, little lady," Ethan says, gently taking the glass from Rose's hands.
"You are welcome!" she responds, laughing shyly.
Ethan takes his pills one by one, hoping that they will soon take effect and he will feel better, while Rose positions herself in front of the coffee table to play with her dolls.
About twenty minutes pass until he hears footsteps again down the hallway, and when he turns around he sees Chris wearing his uniform.
"Why?" Ethan asks immediately, he has lowered his mask to wipe his nose, and his flushed red cheeks and nose are in view.
Today was supposed to be Chris's day off, and if he has to go to work it's because it's something serious.
"Rolando says that they have found something important and that it is necessary for me to go. I am sorry."
"Oh, baby. It's OK, I can be alone for some hours. You go do your work, OK?"
Chris moves in to kiss him on the head, as he whispers an apology again.
Then, he walks over to Rose, who has been watching them silently since he entered the room, and picks her up in his arms. The girl hangs on him and receives her father's kisses on her cheek. "Take care of your daddy, okay?"
Rose nods her head. She is very happy when Chris tasks her with protecting Ethan. They maintain an agreement where, if Chris is not present to do so, Rose will be in charge of being her father's protector. Ethan doesn't like that pact, because the little girl shouldn't believe that she carries such a responsibility, but no matter how much he tries to make her understand that he is the one who protects her in that house, Rose clings to believing that her father is the one who needs her protection.
Chris allows himself to hold Rose for a while before the girl becomes anxious to return to her dolls, so he puts her back on the ground.
"I'll check on the situation. It doesn't seem like it's anything serious, so I should be home by nightfall," he says as he places his coat over his vest. "When I get back I'll prepare dinner and make you more tea."
Ethan nods smiling. Chris smiles back, soft for his husband's red cheeks.
It doesn't take long for Chris to finally leave the house with more goodbye words until he closes the door completely. Rose runs to one of the windows to wave goodbye until she sees the car disappear, like she normally does.
Spending the rest of the afternoon without Chris is really difficult for Ethan, not only because he has been used to his presence for several years and his time as a single father was so short-lived that he no longer remembers how hard he had it back then, but also because of his illness, which he feels is getting worse even after he has taken his pills.
Fortunately for him, Rose is an intelligent little girl with quite well-developed empathy, so she understands that her daddy feels like shit and the last thing he needs at that moment is a tantrum from her. So she stays quiet, playing with her dolls, watching television, and only getting him up when she can't hold back the urge to go to the bathroom anymore and she has to be cleaned by her father because she still doesn't know how to do it properly.
Afterwards, the two take a short nap in the living room. Ethan only gets up again when he sees that it's time for dinner and Chris hasn't returned, to heat up food from the day before for Rose. He feels nauseous, so he avoids dinner.
The little blonde finishes her meal and returns to the living room. At this point Ethan begins to question whether he should shower and bathe Rose as well, but just thinking about the whole ritual where Rose screams to avoid being bathed and escapes from his hands to run around the house, makes his head start to pulse. He decides not to bathe Rose and let Chris take care of it, even if it's on the next day, because it's getting close to his daughter's bedtime.
He repeats to Rose the protocol of not opening the doors and not going near the windows and pretend that no one is home if someone rings the doorbell, so that he can shower without problems.
The water must be cold because his fever hasn't gone down since the afternoon.
All his bones hurt and even walking becomes a complicated task. He feels like he can't keep his eyes open for much longer.
He finishes his shower shaking and he doesn't feel better.
He goes to his room to put on some comfortable pajamas and lets his hair dry with the natural air, his head hurts too much to use the dryer and having to endure the noise.
Seeing that the sun has already set and Chris has not yet returned, and Rose has started asking about him, he decides to call him. It goes to voicemail within a minute. He tries again, but gets the same result.
"Maybe he's on his way," he says to himself, looking at his cell phone, imagining Chris driving his truck home with the intention of putting their little girl to bed.
"Where's dad?" He hears Rose ask for the thousandth time. The previous times he had responded he didn't know and that he was going to call him to find out.
"He's still at work, love," he kind of lies, lowering his cell phone. "Wanna keep daddy company while dad arrives home?" Ethan extends his arms so that his daughter catches the invitation and climbs into his lap. It's still early for him, but it's best to sleep now, before he can't stand up any longer.
"I wanted to wait up for him," Rose pouts.
"I know, honey. But dad will be late, and we both have to be in bed early," he says, brushing unruly hair from Rose's face. "Daddy's not feeling good."
This seems to convince Rose, because she immediately gets up and runs to the bathroom. "I'm gonna brush my teeth!" She screams, running down the hallway.
Ethan has already finished his bedtime routine, so he only struggles to get out of bed to turn off the TV in the living room and the lights in the rest of the house.
In the living room, he takes the opportunity to call Chris again some more times, but he doesn't answer any calls.
The only time Chris has done this to him before, he'd had to travel to Japan to control an outbreak, and he had accidentally left his cell phone on the base, so he was incommunicado for two weeks. At least that time Ethan had found out because Emily contacted him not even an hour after the plane took off, plus he already knew what was happening.
Now, Chris had been gone almost ten hours and had shown no sign of life since he walked out the door.
He calls Emily, Dion, John, Charlie, but not even Rolando answers him. He wonders if it would be a good idea to call Jill, but he doesn't know if she's even in town. It would be best not to alarm more people.
I'm worried, please call me back, says the message he sends to Chris' chat. The message appears to reach the recipient, but is not opened immediately, as always does his husband with Ethan's messages.
He feels anxiety growing more and more, but his head begins to pound strongly and he can no longer keep his eyes open in front of the cell phone screen. He decides to stop worrying and just go to bed before throwing up in the middle of the living room.
In the dark, he walks to his room, where the small body of his daughter is already waiting for him under the covers. He climbs into bed trying not to move too much so as not to alert Rose, who is already asleep, but as soon as he settles down, Rose leans into to him, placing a small arm over his chest. Ethan smiles, thinking that his daughter always seemed to know where her father was since she was a newborn, and she always tried to seek warmth from him.
Ethan tries to sleep, holding Rose's smaller hand in his.
Chris keeps appearing in his mind. He is too worried, but decides to continue worrying in the morning. He hopes that by then Chris will be back. After all, he must take their daughter to school.