A/N: This fic was inspired by a tumblr post I made a couple months ago that I felt needed to be fleshed out. You can check out the post here, and find the fic on ao3. Also shout out to @singlemaltantiseptics for naming the baby girl, because I was drawing a B L A N K lol. Maggie will probably hate this fic because I went overboard on the pet names, but thank you nonetheless 💜 lol
In Jack's opinion there was no better way to wake up than hearing his husband's whispered voice and his daughter Hope’s muffled giggles. Jack's eyes had yet to open but he could hear Mikey whispering, “Shhhhhh Papa's trying to sleep. We've got to be quiet, bubbelah.”
Typically Jack was the furnace in the marriage, but he could feel the heat from Mikey's back and hip resting against him, where Jack was curled up on his side. Jack happily traveled back and forth between conscientiousness and unconsciousness, never opening his eyes but grinning every time we woke up to Mikey reading a storybook in very distinctive character voices, or his little girl babbling about everything and nothing with Mikey's quiet hums of agreement, or the plethora of stuffies he could feel littering the bed.
Jack listening to his internal clock could tell it was approaching noon. His eyes still groggy from sleep, open to where he finds his little girl nestled against his chest and his husband gently pressing a kiss against his temple as he brushes his fingers through Jack's salt and pepper curls. Seeing his eyes open Mikey smiles at Jack, and he leans down, kissing him on the lips “Good morning husband.”
With the rough grumble of sleep still in his throat Jack greets Mikey back “A very good morning husband.” He is completely unable to stop the curl of a smile from tugging on his lips.
As if afraid of being forgotten Jack feels his baby girl cuddle even closer to his chest, with a small furrow of her brow despite being asleep. Jack grins and presses delicate kisses all over her hair and face, and he ever so gently moves so he can cradle her in his arms. She gives the most gentle sigh of relief and her brow completely relaxes.
While looking and honestly just appreciating his baby girl, Jack feels Mikey's hand cup his cheek and caress it with his thumb. Looking up into the most intense brown pair of eyes, Mikey explains what is on his mind. “I got called in to cover the back half of Shen's shift, some type of family emergency.”
Many years as colleagues, friends, and husbands had afforded them the ability to have completely accurate conversations without actually speaking. Jack nodded, and without the need of saying it out loud, expressed “I'll call and check in on the kid later.” Mikey nodded in agreement.
“What time do you have to go in?”
“12:30.”
Jack nodded and glanced at his digital clock 11:48am. Twelve more minutes to enjoy, before he needed to leave. Jack pulled Michael as close as possible, sandwiching their little girl between their bodies.
Those twelve minutes pass in the blink of an eye, and before Jack knows it, he feels Mikey carefully disentangle himself from the blankets as well as Jack limbs. As Mikey stood he kissed both his husband and daughter on their cheeks. Knowing that even though Hope was still sound asleep, without a kiss from her Tati before leaving, a very large pouty lip, with even larger crocodile tears would follow. “Bye baby girl. Bye my love.”
Jack sees Mikey quietly sling his backpack over his shoulder and sneak out of their bedroom, making sure to give Jack one last wave as he quietly closes their door. Jack cuddles into his daughter for the last 30 minutes of her nap before he needs to wake her up, enjoying the quietness that encircles them.
Exactly 30 minutes later Jack had woken up his very sweet, and ever so slightly grumpy little girl from her nap. And over the course of many hours later, had a full day of playing with dolls inside, chasing Sarge the Abbot-Robinavitch’s protective nanny german shepherd around the yard, and finally watched countless Bluey episodes with a variety of snacks.
Typical days Jack would pack up their freshly bathed little one and head to the hospital in her cutest footie jammies and favourite stuffed animal in tow, arriving at the hospital right at 6:30pm. Proceeding to do rounds and hand off with Tati, then the eventual swap from Jack's arms to Robby, where those two would be home just in time for bedtime at 7:30pm.
Tonight though was one of Jack's nights off, so no need to head to the hospital. Bath time tonight was quite eventful, Jack was sure despite his little girl being in the bath, he and Sarge were more wet in comparison. His shirt was soaked and sticking to his skin, his sweatpants hung lower from the sheer weight from them also being wet, and poor Sarge's snout was wet in addition to the copious amount of bubbles still behind his ears.
Seeing her Papa and best friend Sarge in such dire state only made her giggle harder, continuing to slap the bath water.
Eventually Jack pulled her out, dried her off, lotioned her up and placed her in her fuzziest jammies, never forgetting to blow frequent raspberries on her tummy and cheeks. Done with this step Jack pointed Hope towards her bedroom and patted her bum. “Go find a story for Papa to read to you.”
Hope nods her head, kisses Jack on the cheek and motions for Sarge to follow her as she heads to her bedroom. With one quick shaky shaky of his coat Sarge is without bubbles and much dryer. Instantaneously Sarge is beside his charge and ready to protect her with his life or wear a tiara, whatever his little girl needs.
Jack chuckles before haphazardly stripping off his wet clothes and tossing them in the empty tub to be dealt with later. After one cartoonishly close slip as his prosthetic met wet floor, Jack walks over to his and Michael's bedroom in his boxers to find some dry clothes.
Once dry and dressed, Jack heads to Hope's bedroom where he finds many books strewn across the floor, with even more stuffed animals and blankets found in the eye of this book hurricane, but no Hope or Sarge.
No real panic in his voice Jack starts to call out, “Hope! Where are you?” He looks in each room without any luck and finally on his way to the kitchen, thinking maybe Hope and Sarge were raiding the pantry once again, he finds his little girl, sitting in the front entrance. Hope has her coat on, and her little tongue is sticking out in concentration, just like her Tati, as she puts on her Velcro sneakers, on the wrong foot, with Sarge sitting right beside her, leash in mouth.
Jack can't help but smile and lean down “Where are you going sweetheart?”
Matter of factly Hope answers, “Work.”
Jack laughs. “Work?”
“Yeah work! Tati is at work, at The Pitt, and we have to go.”
Jack groans and rubs his eyes as his daughter parrots back to him, The Pitt. He still can't believe her first word was Pitt, not Papa, not Tati, not even Sarge, Pitt. Oy vey.
“Honey, Papa doesn't work tonight, and Tati is coming home soon. We don't need to go to work at the hospital tonight.”
“The Pitt”
“Sure baby, The Pitt. But we still don't have to go.”
“Yes we do. Tati is there. We have to go.” Sarge lightly barks, in total agreement.
Jack looks at his daughter as her bottom lip starts to wiggle and tears start to make her eyes glassy. He knows this will be a major problem when she gets older, his complete inability to say no to her, but he also knows this will not be the day he starts saying no to this sweet face.
With a sigh Jack stands up already grabbing his own jacket. “Okay hun, let's go pick up Tati.”
He can't help but smile as she gives out a happy squeal and hugs his prosthetic. Jack clips on Sarge's leash, holds Hope's little hand that she held out for him, and heads towards the truck.
A short six minutes later, Jack pulls up to the emergency exit, tucking his truck away from the incoming ambulance chaos.
Leaving Sarge happily curled up in the backseat with the windows rolled down. Jack scoops Hope up in his arms, she naturally cuddles into his neck and starts to hum.
As Jack walked in he could feel the comforting buzz of The Pitt. Things always moving, people always talking and the simple buzz of electricity through the walls as well as the natural energy between people.
It's second nature for Jack to head to the central hub first, chat with the nurses, check in, but he only gets three steps into the ED before he hears, “Is that my baby girl!”
Hope immediately starts to wiggle in his arms recognizing the voice.
“AUNTIE DANA!”
Knowing it was too dangerous for Hope to run across the ED he walks directly to Dana, who has her arms out stretched.
Immediately scooping her up Dana starts hugging and cooing at Hope, which is incredibly common. Dana's whole family loves his and Robby's little girl. Dana's daughters regularly babysit, Benj constantly calls her his little princess and Dana is always willing to take her for a night when Jack and Robby need a night together.
“Not that I don't love to see my Goddaughter, but I thought you were off tonight Jack-Rabbit?”
Jack good-naturedly rolls his eyes at Dana's nickname. “I am, but little miss over here-” Jack tickles his daughter's tummy. “-Was dead set on coming to The Pitt to see her Tati.”
“Aaaah, well nightshift is slowly rolling in, handover should happen aaaaany moment.”
Dana looked around The Pitt, for what Jack assumes to be a very tall man, with a beard, and a matching ring to his own. “Last time I checked, he was in central seven with a young girl with a suspicious broken arm.”
Jack raised his eyebrow, subtly asking for more details. Dana rolled her eyes and pressed her goddaughter's ear against her chest and covered the other with her hand. Happily Hope lays her head down and starts playing with the stethoscope around Dana's neck.
“Potential DV, but she's not talking. Says she tripped, and caught herself wrong.”
Jack's hand clenches. “Suuure.”
Dana raises her hand as if saying “I know, you don't have to tell me twice.”
It takes only this short interaction for all the nurses, pittlings and any other doctors within the vicinity to circle around their precious ‘Baby Chief’ as they have been calling her since she was born. Jack always pouted because she was his baby too, couldn't she have been ‘Baby Cowboy’ or something else? Though with all the love that came from his coworkers, and found family he couldn't help but smile as he saw just how many people loved Hope.
Everyone came by to pinch her cheeks and tickle her toes, someone even gave her a sucker, which Jack obviously glared at because it's 6:30 at night and he had already brushed her teeth but all Dana can do is shrug like she had no idea who first produced the sucker.
Jack kept a hand on his daughter's back, as she was perched on the counter, enjoying the endless attention and love she was receiving from her adoring crowd but his eyes couldn't help but continue to scan for his husband and his deep chocolate eyes.
Because Jack is always on high alert, he eventually hears some muffled arguing from one of the western rooms. He instinctively corrals his daughter between his two forearms, as her back rests against his chest. His knuckles go white from the intense grip he has on the countertop, ready to do whatever it takes to protect Hope.
After a few moments he sees Robby guide what Jack can only assume to be the, not yet proven, abusive partner or just an asshole visitor, out of the room and try to discuss something in private in low voices.
Jack was excellent at reading body language especially when he knew something was escalating and about to go wrong, but he was truly best at reading his husband.
Keeping an eye on his husband and his surroundings, Jack quickly saw the asshole visitor's shoulders tense, his jaw clench and his hands flex like they were warming up to do something drastic.
Without leaving physical contact with Hope, Jack raised his hand to the air like a periscope and simultaneously snapped and whistled. Ahmad looked for Abbot's hand in the air and was at his side in an instant. Jack was thankful everyday he made up this signal with Ahmad.
“What's up Major?”
Ahmad was the only staff in The Pitt allowed to call him Major. Jack knew it was a sign of respect in that brother in arms kinda way especially as his junior. Ahmad and Jack first bonded when Ahmad was freshly out of service and got the job working nights in The Pitt. Now many years later Ahmad was the lead security supervisor for The Pitt.
Jack pointed with his chin to Robby and the quickly escalating situation in front of him. “Deal with this, before I have to step in and do something drastic.”
Ahmad views the situation and comes to the same conclusion as Jack. “Yes sir.” Jack watches Ahmad nod and head out to deal with the eventual incident. As Ahmad approaches he signals for one more of his guys to follow him.
To everyone else, it all erupts out of nowhere, but Jack knows better. With Robby's back to him he sees him doing his best to explain something to the asshole visitor, which the visitor is not happy about. The visitor snarls something towards Robby, and turns to go back into the room, but Robby is too fast, his hand is on the door handle and his body is now placed in between patient and what Jack now knows to be the abusive partner.
Don't get Jack wrong, protective Robby is hot, he just wishes Robby wouldn't put his body on the line like this so often.
As the abusive partner realized Robby was a new obstacle he yelled something explicit at Robby and pushed him against the glass door.
Thankfully, one push was all he got before Ahmad and his team mate were pulling him off and dealing with him.
Only after a deep breath does Robby look around and make eye contact with Jack. His mood immediately improves, as he sees his husband as well as their baby girl sitting on top of the nursing station.
Walking towards them he scoops up Hope from the counter and gently rubs Abbot's upper arm in hopes of calming him down. Despite how calm and collected Jack looked on the outside, Jack knew Robby could tell the stress knotting his shoulders. But with his husband's arm on him everything felt much better.
Robby saw Ahmad drag out the abusive piece of shit boyfriend past him and his family, who was still screaming his head off.
Without absolutely any prompting Hope matter of factly states “This fokin guy” while rolling her eyes, continuing to suck on her sucker, and casually kicking her feet back and forth. Jack and Robby turn to look at their daughter and are absolutely gob smacked.
Robby felt his jaw drop and his eyes darted towards Jack. Who's eyes were already on Robby, all with a combination of shock, sheepishness, and pride.
Robby scooped up his little one who naturally nuzzled into his neck while all the nurses giggled, Dana included, even though she shooed everyone away and back to work.
Robby's eyes say to Jack, "Are you kidding me?”
Whereas Jack couldn't help but chuckle as he kissed both Robby and Hope on the temple, shrug, and say. "At least it wasn't her first words.”
Robby groaned “Oh don't remind me of her first word.”
The little parrot Hope is, she squawks, “The Pitt!”
Everyone: *Freaking out that Oisin has been a bad guy the whole time, and he never really had a crush on Adaine*
Me: *Tip tapping on my computer for the past 11 weeks writing a fic, where Oisin and Adaine have been dating, which progressively makes Fabian more and more jealous. Finally leading to the dramatic reveal that Oisin has been a bad guy the whole time!*
