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The sun shone warm on his face. These days the sun could get merciless but it was still early this morning so it was a nice warmth. Though the sun wasn’t the reason that woke Drew up. It was the bittersweet smell of coffee.
“Wake up, sleepyheads!”, Brianne shouted with a soft but confident voice. “I made you breakfast.”
“You know what?”, Drew heard his husbands saying. “We should have adopted a child much sooner, they make great slaves.” A yawn interrupted Ricks wide grin what made him look like one of those creepy clowns from ancient times.
“Come here, little angel.”, Drew said and reached out his arms to his newly daughter. Brianna set the tray with the steaming coffee and pancakes at the drawer and jumped on the bed where she instantly got hugged by her two dads.
--
“OK. You can stop kissing now. Or I’m never gonna make Sunday breakfast for you guys again!”, Brianna said with a devilish grin on her face.
They have been cuddling for the longest time and Rick and Drew seemed to get a little carried away in their perfect little comfortable hug.
“OK! OK. Just let me taste some of that delicious food you made.”, was Drew’s answer, but he couldn’t forbear stealing one last kiss from Rick, a soon as Brianna turned around to climb out of the bed.
“This tastes delicious!”, Rick murmured with his mouth full of a by now cold pancake. “Where did you learn cooking so well?”, he asked.
“Avery told me.”, was Brianna’s answer. Her voice was full of proud a she spoke of her dead foster mom. Although it has been some time since her death and Brianna has found a new loving family, she still couldn’t control her voice not to break at the end of the sentence.
“She would have been a great mom.”, Rick agreed and pulled the girl closer to hug her. Her felt a tear dropping on his collarbone as she laid her head on his shoulder, not sure if it was hers or his.
She raised her head a few seconds later, wiped away the tars with her pullover (it was actually one of Drew’s, that didn’t fit him anymore. He gave it to her the first night she slept at Drew and Ricks place, because they haven’t gotten all her stuff to the house jet and she managed to spill water all over her last clean pajama. She slept in it since that night, Rick says it might be a psychological thing, that it gives her confidence, that she will be part of their family from now on.)
--
“Listen, everyone!”, Drew just came in to start his shift, as he heard Topher’s voice raise. “There is a job presentation at the middle school tomorrow afternoon, where some professions give an idea of what they do. Since the dayshift is chased by the flue, the doctor who was supposed to go is impeded, so they asked me to find one from the night shift to go. Do we have a voluntary?”
Murmur was raising all around Drew. “I already got an appointment tomorrow.”, he heard Scott say. “Me too, sorry Topher.”, this was Jordan’s voice.
“Come on! Anybody? Please? I know, kids these can be stressful, but the hospital promised, they’d send someone.”, Topher’s voice started getting desperate.
“Why don’t you go yourself?”, someone in the background asked.
“You’re serious?! I got one of these at home, and two cranky toddlers on top of it!”
“I’ll go.” Everyone looked in Drew’s direction. “Somebody has to tell the kids what an awesome job we do, doesn’t it?”
--
“Drew! Why didn’t you tell me, you were representing the hospital?”, Brianna pulled him into a hug before he even had the chance to answer. Instead, he kissed her on the head.
“Fag!”, he heard a young male voice shouting behind him. The shout turned into a giggling. Drew released his daughter from the hug and turned around to look at the boy who insulted him. The kid was tall for his age, had an athlete physique and a few pimples on his forehead. He was the ‘captain-of-the-football-team-type’, the one with the big mouth and little brain. Drew could hear his blood whoosh in his ears and feel his face getting red. Brianna noticed how he stiffened and put her hand on his arm to hold him back.
“So this is one of your two daddies, Brianna?”, the boy asked while coming closer. The boys who surrounded him followed him like hungry puppies their mother.
“You know, at least my two daddies love me more than your drunk alcoholic father loves you!”
“I’m sure they love themselves more than you, since you don’t have a dick!”, was the prompt answer.
“Hey! HEY!”, Drew interrupted. “What is your problem, kiddo?”
“My problem is that you’re a fairy!”, the boy answered pertly. “Are you even allowed to be here, pervert?”
“Watch your mouth!”, Drew started to get really pissed. Instinctively, he put his arm in front of Brianna to shield her. Before he could say anything else a teacher disrupted the scene. She must have heard some of the conversation.
“What is going on here?”, she asked. Before anyone could answer, she continued: “Brian. I told you to stay away from Brianna. Now go help the janitor, as far as I know, you are still on his duty.
Brian turned around – not without making a face at Brianna first – and left the gymnasium. The others followed him murmuring.
“Hi. I’m Ms. Hollister. You must be Dr. Alister. I am so glad you could make it. You know, when I heard that is was Brianna’s dad who would come to represent the hospital, I was very pleased. After all what happened last year, that the media talked about and now the adoption … I’m sure you are a great role model to the children. …” She probably could have been going on for hours, but someone at the other end of the gym was calling for her. “Oh! I’m sorry. Looks like I’m needed. We’ll talk later?”, with that words she turned around and hurried through the room.
“What nice teachers you have.”, Drew told his daughter.
“Yeah...” She glanced back at Ms. Hollister before she turned back to Drew. “Did you see how she looked at you?!”, she asked him.
“No. How did she look at me?”
“Like you were a big piece of chocolate cake she was going to eat any second.”
“She did not look at me like that. She was just nice.”, Drew said and made a hand gesture.
“Well, I know you might not be the best in interpreting women’s signals, because you are only interested in men, but I’m telling you, she was hitting on you!”, Brianna insisted.
“OK, listen young girl! First of all, she wasn’t hitting on anybody. Since she followed the news so closely last year, she knows that I’m married to a man! And secondly, I am very well able to interpret anyone’s signals, because that is my job as doctor and solder. Now, aren’t you supposed to go around, interview some adults what their job is like and find out about what your dream job is?”
“What if I already know what my dream-job is?”, Brianna asked. She looked down at her hands and twisted her fingers. Drew sat on the edge of the table in front of her, so he was almost at the same height as her. He took her hands, untwisted her fingers and put them into his.
“So what is your dream job, smartass?”, he asked her. She looked up at him and he could see her eyes glowing.
“I want to be doctor like my dad.” The glow in her eyes disappeared for a second. “When I first thought about it, I wanted to become an Army-doc like you. Go to foreign countries and help where help is mostly needed. But I know the Army would never take me with my medical history, so I decided to become an ER-doctor, and be able to help people here.” When she finished, Drew felt a tear rolling down his cheek. He was usually very good at hiding his feelings, considering his past as a closet case. But when it comes to his young but already so smart daughter he always felt this proudness inside of him and it becomes very hard to hide his feeling.
When he looked back up in her eyes her look was confused and hurt.
“Don’t you like the idea?”, she asked with a broken voice.
“Yes. Yes! I love the idea!”, Drew hurried to say. “I am so proud of you.”, his voice broke, too, and he felt another tear rolling down his cheek. “I’m so proud”, he repeated and pulled her into a close hug.
--
She woke up early. It was Saturday morning, so no school today, but she couldn’t sleep anymore, so she decided to go downstairs to wait for Drew to come home from his shift, so that she would see him before he would go to bed.
She stopped at the middle of the stairs, there were two voices coming from the kitchen.
“Drew talk to me! Tell me what is bothering you!”, Rick asked.
Brianna took a few more steps down the stairs. She stopped when she heard one of the steps creaking. She held her breath to listen to the two people in the kitchen. As none of them showed up in the hallway she risked taking another step, still trying to be as silent as possible.
“Drew!”, Ricks voice became more insistent.
“I … I think Brianna is getting bullied at school.” Drew let out a breath.
“Why would she be bullied?!”
“Why!? Because of us, of course!”, the anger in Drew’s voice was impossible to overhear. “I was at school yesterday, for this job-presenting-thing. One of boys got off with Bri and called me a fag. I’m sure this wasn’t the first time.” He paused for a moment. Brianna could hear them move.
“It’s okay.”, Rick’s voice was very low now.
“She shouldn’t have to deal with this. First her biological father, now her classmates. She deserves so much better…”, his voice broke at the last word and Brianna jumped from the last step off the stairs to run into the kitchen. Drew and Rick were standing in the middle of it, embracing each other.
“No!”, she screamed. The two men looked up. “I don’t deserve better, because I already have the best family I could wish for.”
A smile appeared on Drew’s face and he loosened his arms from around Rick to reach out for Brianna. They pulled her in a tight hug and stood like this for a few minutes. Brianna broke the silence first.
“You know, I can handle Brian.”, she said looking up at Drew.
“But you shouldn’t have to. Just because he is a dick doesn’t give him the right to treat you like this.” Rick raised his eyebrow when he heard his husband using a cuss. Drew usually ponders about every word before speaking and disclaims to use any cusses at all, especially in front of children. ‘It’s a sign that this really goes under his skin’, Rick thought.
“I really don’t mind. It is annoying sometimes, yes. But I think deep inside Brian is just jealous of what great parents I have.”, Brianna said, smiling. Her braveness made her fathers also smile, but Rick knew that whatever Brianna says, Drew would still go see her teacher first thing Monday morning and if necessary, visit Brian’s parents himself. He is a problem-solver and would do anything for those he loves.