Chapter Text
Dear Tom,
I’m sorry you’re finding out this way about your kid. Trust me, I never wanted any of this to happen.
I guess I should just start at the beginning.
After you left Texas I found out I was pregnant a few weeks later. Truthfully, I didn’t want to keep it from the beginning. I’d intended to take a trip to New York with some friends and have an abortion, but my parents found out before I left. Long story short, they guilted me into going through with the pregnancy. I wanted to let you know right away, but my parents wouldn’t have it. Despite me telling them the truth about us just being friends who helped each other when we got too pent up, they didn’t believe me and started saying you were a deadbeat alpha.
Anyway, after Jacob was born I didn’t have that epiphany of suddenly wanting to be a mother. Despite what my own mother told me. Jacob was born a month early via c-section. I slipped the nurse your name for the birth certificate because my parents wanted me to leave it blank. Shit, Tom I didn’t want to have a pup to begin with. If I could have, I would have called you or mailed you a letter before now but I couldn’t get anything done in between taking care of a premie and my parents.
My parents, Daniel and Beth Seresin, died a month ago and I still can’t deal with this. I tried, really, but it’s not for me.
I’ve signed away my parental rights and the trust fund my parents set up for him is in Jacob’s name. He’ll have access to it when he turns twenty-one. Tom, if you do not want him my lawyer will handle everything for you, but I thought you deserved the right to know about him. As far as pups go, he’s not horrible. It’s me that’s the terrible one. I yell too much, I leave him alone too long, and I’m just not a mother. He hasn’t spoken yet, and I know that’s my fault. I tell him to be quiet whenever he screams for something and I’m just not the kind of person that wants to do this.
You know what I did for a living, so I found you. I left him with Mrs. Bradshaw because I knew you were deployed and because you told me how kind and caring she is. It helps that your permanent address is listed as hers too.
If Jacob ever asks about me, tell him I love him, but I couldn’t be his mother. If he has questions, he can contact me when he’s eighteen, not before then. I’ve set up a monthly child support deposit for him. It should be more than enough to help with his expenses. If you need anything beyond that, please contact my lawyer and he’ll get in contact with me.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was a coward who couldn’t send you a letter or pick up the phone. It took my parents dying to realize that I don’t have to live the life they want me to.
~ Rose
Tom’s hands shake as he stares at the letter. Rose, of course, remembers her. Like Charlie, she’d been a civilian contractor for the Navy bases in Texas, but she wasn’t an instructor. She worked with the mission experts to vet other contractors for construction and other base jobs.
They’d been friends while he was there. She’d been the one who told him not to give up on Pete, the omega who he wanted so badly but didn’t know how to allow into his life. The one who pushed him away because, as he later found out, he didn’t think he deserved Tom.
Jacob was left in a basket on the porch with a folder filled with legal documents and his birth certificate. That’s also in his hand, two very tiny footprints on either corner of the paper along with the hospital information.
Jacob Thomas Seresin
Born October 21, 1994
Sex: Male♂
Gender Dynamic: Omega Ω
Parents: Rose Seresin β & Thomas Kazansky Α
Saint David's North Austin Medical Center
Austin, Texas
According to the medical documents Rose also gave them, Jacob was born a month early, just like she said in her letter. He’d been in the NICU for a week to help him finish developing but otherwise, he’d been perfectly healthy.
A noise from the hospital cradle draws his attention and he looks up. Pete’s there, looking down at the sleeping pup, that soft smile on his face that he usually only gives to Bradley. The one that makes Tom’s alpha sit up at attention and preen at the happiness on his mate’s face.
Thank God, Carole had opened the door when she did. Rose hadn’t even bothered to knock on the front door to let her know that Jacob was there. There’d been a storm, a big one, raging on and Jacob had been soaked. Carole and Charlie rushed him to the emergency room and he’d been diagnosed with pneumonia. The entire thing was reckless. How could she just not let someone know Jacob was out there? He’s so tiny and young, his immune system barely had time to develop and now he’s sick.
“He’s got your smile,” Pete whispers.
Tom wipes away the sudden tears on his cheeks. Viper managed to get him and Pete pulled back stateside given that this constituted a major family emergency. They’d finally solidified their bond a couple of weeks before their most recent deployment, something that the Navy doesn’t actually have any problems with. They sort of prefer it since mated teammates actually get results. Having their bond official with their personnel paperwork allowed Pete to be able to come back at the same time. Slider and Merlin will remain as spare RIOs and will assist with the mission planning for the remainder of their deployment. “Pete…I’m sorry.”
Pete looks up at him but doesn’t leave Jacob’s bedside. “Why are you sorry?”
“I…I want to keep him.” As soon as he’d been told about Jacob he knew that would be what he wanted. “Ho-how can I ask you to raise someone else's pup?” He’d held Pete as he cried and told him how he’d been coerced into having his tubes tied, it’d been the reason why the omega was so reluctant to allow Tom to court him. At eighteen, fresh out of foster care and alone in the world, a Navy recruiter had convinced Pete it was the only way for him to join up. By the time he’d found out it was a lie, it’d been too late.
Viper, when Tom finally convinced Pete to report it, had gone red in rage. He’s not sure what happened after that, only that Viper had come back to them a week later and said that the man would no longer be a problem and neither would the doctor who performed the surgery.
Tom had never seen Pete more relieved than he was at that. He also knows that it’s a deep-seated pain that Pete won’t ever be able to have a pup of his own. One he can watch grow and become a person. It’d been a painful conversation. Tom had been so angry at what had been taken from his mate, but not once had he considered leaving Pete.
The omega holds his hand out. “Come here.”
He’s powerless to ignore the plea as he stands up to join Pete at Jacob’s bedside. The pup, his pup, is wrapped in a soft green baby blanket and he’s so pale. The doctors have been plying him with antibiotics to get the infection down. Despite how sick he is, Jacob has the sweetest little smile on his face. “If you think I’m turning away from him just because I didn’t give birth to him, you don’t know me very well.”
Of course, he’s already planning on being there. On loving and raising this beautiful little pup without a worry or care in the world. “Pete…”
Jacob gurgles and holds one hand up to Pete. A big gap-toothed smile stretched across his lips.
The omega laughs and very gently picks Jacob up into his arms. “Hi there, sweetie, you’re just so happy to be here, aren’t you?”He keeps one hand on the back of the pup’s head and the other wraps around his small body.
Tom sucks in a sharp breath as he takes in his mate and his son. They're both so beautiful he can’t stand it.
“He needs us, Tom,” Pete says. “Both of us, if you think I’m running away because of this then you’ve got another thing coming.”
He laughs a little and rests a hand on Jacob’s back. His breaths are stronger than they had been when they first got there. Dr. Kenley thinks they’ll be able to take him home in the next day or so. “Viper said he can get us on parental leave.” Leave for an alpha is much shorter, six weeks as opposed to the nine that an omega gets. The extra time is supposed to be for an omega to recover from birth. They’re obviously in a different situation now.
“Good, it’ll give us time to get to know him.” Pete turns his shining green eyes to Tom. Jacob has green eyes too, big ones that fill with tears when he’s uncomfortable and wants someone to hold him. “We’re going to be ok, Tom.”
He closes his eyes and leans his head on top of Pete’s. Neither of them had grown up in the best circumstances, Pete in foster care after his mother died from heartbreak, and him with parents who were too busy with their own lives to care for their pup. He’s seen how Pete is with Bradley, the young alpha practically crawls after the omega wherever he goes whenever they’re not deployed.
Carole pokes her head in. “Hey, I have a little visitor here if you’re up to it.”
Bradley’s big brown eyes peek around the corner at them. Tom can’t help but smile. All the flyboys from their Top Gun class have made it a point to remain in Bradley’s life. None of them were ever as close to Goose as Pete but they’d all loved the man like a brother and they refuse to leave Carole and Bradley out in the cold.
“Of course, we’re ready for a very special visitor,” Tom says. He gently nudges Pete into the chair behind him since he knows that Bradley is going to want to cuddle with the omega and he does not seem like he’s going to set Jacob down any time soon.
“Do you want to come meet your little brother, Baby Goose?” Pete asks.
Bradley looks up at Carole, the normally exuberant little boy suddenly quiet and nervous. “It’s ok, sweetheart, Jacob is feeling lots better so you can say hi now. You just have to be gentle.”
Tentatively, Bradley walks up to Pete and peers up at the bundle in his arms. Tom lifts the boy up into Pete’s lap, so he can get closer.
Pete smiles and lowers Jacob just enough that Bradley can see him. “Bradley, this is Jacob.”
Bradley tilts his head in the way that children do when they’re puzzled by something. “He’s so tiny.”
Tom smiles. “For now, but he’s going to get bigger.”
“You were this small once,” Carole says. She comes around to take the seat next to Pete. “Ok, maybe you were a little bigger, but you were nearly a nine-pound baby.”
Tom winces. Ok, yeah, even he knows that’s not a fun pregnancy for anyone, and Carole is a petite woman there’s no way that was easy.
Bradley looks up at Pete. “You’re still gonna love me, right?”
Pete makes a wounded noise in the back of his throat. “Baby Goose, I could never stop loving you.” He raises one hand and runs it through Bradley’s hair. “You are always going to have my love, that will never change, but Jake here needs us too.”
Jacob makes a soft whimper and reaches one hand out to Bradley. The young alpha responds by taking the offered hand and smiling down at the younger pup. “Where’s his mommy?”
Tom crouches down so he can see both kids. “His mommy can’t take care of him anymore so she made sure to give him to me and Pete.”
“And we’re going to need your help,” Pete says. “He’s going to need someone to teach him how to play hide-and-seek and tag and all those other games that we adults don’t know how to do.”
A large smile breaks across Bradley’s face. “I can teach him to build sandcastles?”
Tom laughs. Of course, that would be what would be his first thought. Bradley absolutely loves the water and he’s got a feeling that’s going to get passed down to Jacob. “You can absolutely teach him to build sandcastles.”
Jacob’s big green eyes blink up at him and Tom feels his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. Dr. Kennley said that while Jacob is smaller than he should be, he’s healthy (other than pneumonia, of course) but he’s far too quiet. His silent tears break both his and Pete’s hearts each time they notice he’s crying. It’s like he’s too afraid to let them know he’s uncomfortable or hungry. They’re going to have their work cut out for them.
Carole’s smiling at her son as he continues to chatter to Jacob about all the things they’re going to do together. Not for the first time he wonders what would have happened if she hadn’t opened the front door when she did. Would Jake have been found in time? Had Rose expected Jacob to start screaming after she left?
Pushing away those thoughts he instead focuses on the adoring smile Pete is sending their pup. They’re going to be ok, they’re going to figure things out and Jacob is never going to wonder if there are people out there who love him.
They’re going to be ok.