“I… when I do photoshoots for my books I… feel better if I embrace the more masculine side I suppose,” I rubbed the nape of my neck and Dorothy gently touched my arm, “but I pretty much wake up, look in my closet, and decide who Hyacinth will be that day. This is a far more toned down outfit. I wore my favorite maxi skirt covered in flowers and a red turtleneck to work today. My dad’s don’t care and actually Sparrow is the one who buys a lot of my clothes. He loves it.”

“I remember reading your biography on the website. Two dads, one brother, and you’re non-binary. I won’t misuse pronouns, don't worry. It’s really really nice to meet you even if it’s… not for a fun reason. I’m Dorothy Ann O’Ryan. Or just Doe. I don’t really care.”

“Your middle name is pretty. I always liked the name Ann.”

“Oh no,” she shook her head as Stephen talked to a nurse that had come to find him, “my first name is Dorothy Ann. Middle is Marnie. Stephen’s is-”

“Don’t you dare,” Stephen quickly covered Dorothy’s mouth and I laughed softly, “no one needs to know.”

“Oh come on,” she smacked at his arm, “it’s nice!”

“It’s weird!”

“Mine is Orion,” I shrugged, “Hyacinth Orion. Phoenix’s is Osian. His fiance Cove is Declan and Cove’s brother Ocean is Ocean Eden. My parents have semi-normal names. Sparrow Jasper and Thomas Adrian. Just named me and my brother weird.”

“Leslie,” Stephen whispered, his cheeks pink, “Stephen Leslie O’Ryan. I was supposed to be a girl too but the doctors were wrong. Stephanie became Stephen but my parents didn’t give me a different middle name.”

“Leslie is gender neutral. It’s nice,” I smiled, “now come on. We need to check on your son.”

“R… right okay,” Stephen nodded and Dorothy and I followed him down the hallway to a pediatric wing, “excuse me?” he called to a nurse and Dorothy took my hand, making me jump but I relaxed as she was clearly worried, “I’m Maddox O’Ryan’s father?”

“Oh he’s right here,” she opened the door on our left and Stephen immediately rushed in, Dorothy and I right behind him.

“Max?” Stephen whispered, going to the small medical crib that Maddox was sleeping in, “oh my sweet boy what…”

Maddox was adorable, the same alabaster skin as Stephen, what small amount of hair he had a light brown that curled. He was sound asleep, a small pacifier in his mouth but what had made all of his stop was the nasal cannula and the IV in the back of his tiny hand that was entirely wrapped to stop him from touching it.

“We have to keep him,” a voice called and I turned to find a familiar face, “oh! Hyacinth!”

“Hi Dr. Warner,” I waved, “I didn’t think you did pediatric care.”

Dr. Warner was not only my best friend Jenna’s birth mother, but the same woman who once a year checked my eye socket to ensure that there was no damage as I had no feeling from the top of my eye brow to the bridge of my nose on the right side and was unaware if anything damaged it. Jenna and her family were no longer close, they had thrown her out when she was 17 for being transgender but her mother had disagreed with this and divorced her father a few years later. Jenna and Dr. Warner were now working through their problems, hoping to be close once again. Dr. Warner had also been the person to fix Phoenix’s arm twice and his leg once when he had broken them, a constant in our many hospital stays.

“I do emergency pediatrics. Sir? Are you his father?”

“Adoptive father. I’m still navigating all of this. I'm not sure if I need to tell you that or not. Biologically, I’m his uncle,” Stephen nodded, softly touching Maddox on his chest, “but yes. I’m his dad.”

“No it’s good to know that he’s adopted by you even if you’re blood. It helps us medically. So. He aspirated some of the vomit and we’re concerned it’s going to give him pneumonia or possibly what’s called a dry drowning. We’d like to keep him for a few days. You’re welcome to stay here as well, in fact it’s encouraged to help him stay calm.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here. Doe, can you-”

“I’ll take care of Star and gather up clothes and things for the both of you. Don’t worry,” Dorothy patted Stephen gently on the back before hugging me and leaving.

“Sorry. She’s affectionate.”

“I don’t mind,” I whispered, going closer to Maddox, “why was he vomiting?”

“He’s lactose intolerant,” Dr. Warner called softly, “are you using soy formula?”

“No, because I had no idea. They haven’t released his previous medical records to me. I thought he was just a spit up baby. That makes… so much sense. I…” Stephen started to cry and I gently took his hand, squeezing.

“Not your fault,” I whispered again, “it’s absolutely not your fault. There’s no way you could have known. You told me yourself, Stevie. You’re learning as you go. This isn’t what you planned and it’s hard. I know. But you have this information now. So you can make the little changes he needs. Soy formula is easy to get. Don’t get discouraged. He’s your son and he needs his dad in whatever way he can get him. Okay? So don’t worry. It’s not your fault.”

“I know but… he’s in the hospital because of a stupid bottle. All because I didn’t…”

“Hyacinth used to be here a lot,” Dr. Warner began and Stephen looked over at her, “my daughter is their best friend. Anyway, kids are… resilient. Even when their bodies are a little different than what’s considered normal. Imagine, you’re three. You know you look different because you have to wear a sticker over one of your eyes but your brother doesn’t. So you take it off one day and realize you don’t have an eye. So you start putting stuff in the socket and your parents constantly have to bring you back to the hospital so I can take it out. But it does nothing to hurt you because everyone realizes you have no feeling around that area. Kids heal from anything given the right treatment and care. If Hyacinth can get through sticking actual food in his empty eye socket which flooded his sinuses, then I promise you Maddox can get through a little vomit in his lungs. We simply keep an eye on it and can help drain the area without it being invasive if we need. I promise he’s safe here.”

“Thank you,” Stephen nodded and Maddox whined, kicking his legs, “shh. It’s okay, Max… it’s okay baby.”

Maddox opened his eyes, blinking a few times before scowling and finally smiling, “dada.”

“Hi,” Stephen laughed softly, “hi baby.”

Maddox babbled a few times before trying to pull the tape off of his nasal cannula and I reached down immediately, stopping him.

“No baby,” I shook my head, gently rubbing his cheek, “you have to wear it. I do,” I pointed to my eyepatch, knowing he was unlikely to understand me, but still talking to him, “we’re twins.”

Maddox blew a raspberry before sticking his legs up and grabbing his toes, his deep brown eyes full of joy.

“What a silly boy you are,” I continued to talk to him, running my fingers through his curls as he smiled at me, “you’re so cute. Hi buddy.”

Maddox wrapped his hand around one of my fingers and I let him hold onto it before turning back to Stephen who was watching me curiously.

“What?” I pouted.

“Just… you… surprise me is all. You don’t even know us and… you’re still here.”

“I told you. It would be terrible to abandon a father in his son's time of need. Plus… I enjoy being around you,” I whispered, my cheeks warm and Stephen slowly pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear, his hand coming to rest on my cheek.

“Yeah? Me too. That’s why I came over to you. Something pulled me in your direction. No idea what it was but I won’t complain. Can… we be friends?”

“Mhm.”

“And I will buy you another drink. It just might be a bit before I get the chance to do so.”

“I’m patient,” I covered the hand he had on my cheek with my own and he smiled brightly, “I can wait.”

“I won’t make you wait long. Maybe a few days.”

“Hm. Is Dorothy the only family you have close?”

“She’s the only one I still talk to and yes.”

“Do you want to come to dinner with me on Monday? That’s 3 days. Max should be fine by then. You can bring him.”

“I suppose. It’s been a long time since I went to dinner.”

“Um… great. Be ready then.”

“Be ready for… what exactly?”

“Do you own nice dress clothes? A button up and slacks? Something similar for Max?”

“For me, yes but not for him.”

“Then I’ll get him something. Wear that and do your hair nice. We have to go to Boise.”

“For dinner?”

“Oh yeah. I’m bringing you to a very special dinner I didn’t want to go to alone.”

“What’s it for?” he continued to stare at me confused, his hand still on my cheek.

“It… my…” taking a small breath, I steeled my nerves, “my best friend Jenna is having a massive engagement party and there will be a ton of people from our high school there that used to pick on me and I really don’t want to go alone and I… I’m using you as a blocker and I’m sorry but it’s also an excuse to spend time together because I’ve never tried to make a friend before and I don’t know what to do but ask if you want to come with me,” I rambled, “also if you don’t want to bring Max I know a really good babysitter. Well two who would be happy to watch him for the night if you want to meet them.”

“I have never heard someone talk so quickly my God,” Stephen laughed, his hand sliding to the nape of my neck and Maddox gently squeezed the finger he was still holding, “I would love to. Calm down. That sounds nice.”

“Okay,” I nodded, “thank you.”

“Of course. Thank you for inviting me. I wouldn’t want to bring Maddox to something like that so I’ll hire a babysitter. I can afford to just fine.”

“Um… if it’s not weird… my parents wouldn’t mind. You wouldn’t have to pay them. They’re really good people. Ask anyone in town they all know Sparrow and Thomas Williams. Or even about my grandparents Shiloh and Kai. Everyone knows our family. We’ve lived here for generations.”

“Well… yeah. Yeah okay but I’d need to meet them first. When Max is released and better.”

“Tell me when and you can come to dinner with me and my parents. I go every day. I hate to cook. I’m not able to use a knife, I have bad spatial reasoning. Oh and uh… My parents are vegan. I’m a vegetarian so the dinner will be mostly… not meat… Um…”

“You’re nervous,” he whispered softly, rubbing my jaw and I slowly nodded, “it’s okay. I don’t care at all. Stop panicking. There’s no need to worry, I'm a vegetarian too. So it’s fine. Perfect actually. I wouldn’t want you to have to go out of your way to make me something special. Max can eat food. Little bits of vegetables and bread. He’ll enjoy it. We might come covered in fur but we’ll be there. Just tell me where to go and give me a time.”

“Rewind a bit. Fur?”

“I have a samoyed,” he smiled, picking Maddox up as he had started to whine, careful of the cannula and IV tubes to not cause any harm, “a fluffy white dog. Her name is Star.”

“Oh is that who Dorothy was talking about! I thought Star was a girlfriend and you’d lied to us about being single.”

“Got it. Overthinker and negative. You always look for the bad in things, don’t you?”

“Little bit,” I shrugged, “always have. Can’t help it to be fair but I try. I’m good at balancing the dark and light.”

“I am very much single and haven’t dated in… shit… 10 years? My last boyfriend was when I was 15. High school. Haven’t been with anyone since.”

“Huh? But you… you’re so…” I gestured vaguely at him before a word he had said hit me like a ton of bricks, “boyfriend…”

“Yes. Boyfriend.”

“Gay?”

“No. Bisexual. With a preference for men but I have been attracted to women before.”

“S… same here,” I nodded, my hands coming to rest in front of my chest, “but women don’t… well I haven’t really tried putting myself out there to see if any women would be interested in dating me. Most people assume I’m gay. I can understand why and it’s too exhausting to keep correcting the notion.”

“Yeah I uh… people assume I’m straight ‘cause…”

“Let’s see. The cowboy boots, baggy jeans, button up flannel and the height and muscles?”

“Little bit,” he laughed and Maddox cooed.

“Oh he likes when you’re happy,” I smiled, coming a bit closer to look at Maddox, “I’ve never been around a baby before. Phoenix and I are the youngest. I have one cousin who is close to my age. Elijah. But there’s no babies. My fathers would freak over Max. Absolutely adore him.”

“We’re coming to dinner aren’t we?” he whispered, rubbing my arm softly and I nodded, “so they’ll get to see him then.”

“Sparrow is mean. Just a warning. Always. Thomas is… well Phoenix but older. They even look similar but you’re a foot and a half taller than both of them.”

“Wait really? You have such tiny dads!”

“Well. Thomas has a pituitary issue so he stopped growing really young and Sparrow is trans. Female to male. He’s taller than Thomas and very proud of that.”

“Oh so he actually carried you and Phoenix then?”

“Mhm.”

“I already like your family. Especially… parents that could raise a person like you.”

“You don’t know me yet,” I laughed softly.

“Well no but you went out of your way to help a stranger. You’re spending a perfectly good Friday night in a hospital with me. It tells me you have a good heart. That’s something I care about. Good hearted people.”

“Well… I… I just care about others and you looked really upset. You wouldn’t have liked teenage Hyacinth. I didn’t like them much either,” I nervously rubbed the inside of my arm and he watched me.

“Why do you do that?”

“I’m not comfortable sharing that yet.”

“Okay. I’m patient,” he smiled, setting Maddox back into the crib, “I can wait.”