A/N: I didn't have a chance to mention it after the last chapter because I posted in a rush on the way to work, but it was in fact the last chapter of Safe - and now, an epilogue to finish.
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"C'mon, Lucy, just gotta put something cleaner on so we can head out and see all our friends, yeah?" Shayne encourages, gently, as their daughter squirms on the changing table and tries to roll herself over so he can't reach the zipper on her onesie.
(The change table is enclosed so she can't fall off and, as much as she's strong for her six-months age, she still has nothing on her parents. Shayne very quickly rolls her back over and does up the zip as she scowls in his direction).
"Hurry up Lucy we gotta go play!" Charlie calls out, toddling excitedly into the nursery with Courtney trailing behind him and quickly scooping him up into her arms.
"Hey buddy, just wait a little for your sister to finish getting ready, okay? Or how about you come help me pack the picnic bag?" she asks, Charlie nodding rapidly and squirming to get down from her arms only so he can rush back into the living area and start helping – loosely, anyway, he's still not the most coordinated at 4-and-a-half, although he has shifted firmly from delicate infant to apparently invincible toddler, too, so they can deal with the clumsiness – pack the things on the kitchen bench into the bag Courtney has mostly already packed up.
Lucy calms down as soon as she has finished being changed, evidently realising that they are in fact going out somewhere. Shayne has joked, ever since they brought her home only 8 hours after she was born, this time, that she was basically just a mini-Courtney: she always wanted to be going out somewhere, doing something, engaging with any person she could manage to lock eyes with.
(She was, as far as they were both concerned, the most gorgeous baby ever – on par with Charlie, of course – so it didn't surprise Shayne that almost everyone she met was enamoured by her. She had also mastered puppy eyes already, so there was that.)
"Dadda, I wanna fly!" Charlie enthuses, bouncing on his feet, when he wanders out into the living room with Lucy in his arms. It makes him laugh, and he glances over to see Courtney has already packed the things into the car before he hands their daughter over to her.
"Come on then, buddy," he encourages, moving over near the couch and reaching out for Charlie to lift him up to his side. Charlie squeals happily as he does, and he winces and glances over to see if it will set off Lucy's bad mood again – but instead, she giggles along with Charlie.
He knows it would be a moment where he just fucking melts at how absolutely perfect his life has turned out, if not for the fact that they're already running late and they have no time for emotional outbursts from anyone.
He still glances back, grinning at Courtney and seeing her knowing smile in response before they both rush the kids out of the house and strap them into their respective car seats.
Charlie chatters away about nothing as they drive through annoyingly heavy traffic – it's a Saturday, for fuck's sake – towards the park they're meeting everyone at. It's a park not far from where the Smosh studios used to be – one they even filmed in, a couple of times – but it's a little far from where Shayne and Courtney have ended up living in Thousand Oaks.
(It's a long way from where Courtney still works in directing and writing for another company in Burbank, and from where Shayne does the occasional TV guest role amongst his mostly stay-at-home Dad life, too – but they really couldn't turn down the opportunity for a perfect 3-bedroom house, in their budget, and only a few streets from her dad's.)
YOU ARE READING
Safe
Fanfiction"I got you, Court. You're safe. You're gonna be okay," he tells her in almost desperate reassurance, barely above a whisper and feeling his words stumble slightly as his breath hitches. She seems to push closer in response, her tears flowing freely...
