Ice, Love & Building Blocks

"Do you think he doesn't like me?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the latest Manstead related Fanfiction I've written; I always loved when we got moments with Natalie, Will and Owen together in the show so I decided to write something of my own related to these three.
They would have been a very cute family if things didn't end they way they did, but whatever, that's what fanfictions are for. Enjoy!

It had been just a little after 8 am when Will Halstead and Natalie Manning were woken up by the sound of her alarm annoyingly inserting itself into their ears; none of them was supposed to be at the Hospital until later in the day so they had gotten a bit more sleep than the amount they were actually used to. Also, this time Will did not even have to get up at 4 am and spend an ungodly 20 minutes getting the ice off of his car's windshield while freezing himself, as Natalie had pulled him back into bed just saying: "Tomorrow's gonna be the day we'll tell him about us, so no need to go anywhere"; with such nice premises, it was set to be a good day.

However, while Natalie was in the bathroom putting on her scrubs and getting ready, Will had been left alone in the bedroom with his thoughts: today Owen would be seeing them together for the first time and he was absolutely shit scared about how the little man would take to the news; he cared so much about the kid's feelings and he knew this was going to be a big change for him: perhaps he would have some difficulties sharing his mommy as he had gotten so used to being just the two of them.
After some time, Natalie got out of the bathroom and quietly gasped when she was met with a rather pale looking Will; she had a feeling she knew the reason for it so she said nothing, just sat on the bed and hugged him tight for a few seconds. Seeing Will this worried about facing Owen, she couldn't help but feel her heart melt with tenderness: the red headed man cared so much about her son and she loved it; too often, above all in her work life, she had seen men reject their own children, their own blood, for such futile reasons, so seeing as Will was so affectionate towards a child that wasn't even his biologically was like a pure breath of fresh air. It completely filled her with love and pride. The two stayed like that for a moment, with Natalie holding Will in her arms and him hiding his face into her hair in search of some type of comfort, until she finally pulled away to whisper "It's gonna be okay. He'll love you."
Will nodded with a smile, and then it was his turn to go to the bathroom to get changed while Natalie made her way into her son's room to wake him up for kindergarten.

Twenty minutes later, the three of them were downstairs; Will and Natalie were finishing the last of their scrambled eggs while Owen had already got done with his breakfast so he was now playing with his building blocks in the living room: the little happy noises he made while building up and then knocking down his towers made both of the adults smile in between forkfuls of food.
After swallowing the last bit of her breakfast, Natalie looked at Will with waiting eyes, as if to tell him he was good to go and properly introduce himself to the boy; as soon as he got done with his meal too, Will took a long breath and mouthed "Wish me luck" to the woman in front of him, to which she lightly rolled her eyes to but did anyway.
He then slowly but surely got up from his seat and started to make his way to the living room, where Owen was a bit too busy to notice him coming: "Hi buddy, do you mind if I sit here?" Will asked the little boy, who just looked at him briefly and shook his head before quickly going back to his tower building. As he had the man of the house's approval, the doctor pulled out a very small chair at the corner of the table next to Owen's and carefully placed himself on top of it: it had obviously been a very long time since he had sat around a table this tiny but he was going to make it work.

"Wow, that's a very tall tower you got there buddy; did you build it all by yourself?" Will asked Owen, trying to get his attention; it worked, as the boy looked at him again and said a very loud and excited "Yes!". "That's great, you're really good" The man praised the little guy and smiled. Alright, it was going pretty well so far so he could only hope it'd stay this way.
Will just looked at Owen play for a few seconds before he asked him a question again: "Do you think I could help you? You know, when I was your age, I used to build so many things too. Especially towers, just like you do, so I think I'm quite good at it. Not as good as you are though."
The small child stopped putting blocks one on top of the other to look at the man with red hair with uncertainty in his eyes, but finally handed him one slowly anyway; Will carefully took it from Owen's hands and thanked him with a sincere smile. Afterwards, he pointed at the half built tower on the table silently asking Natalie's son permission to put it on top of the other blocks and when Owen nodded he took it as his cue to do it; as soon as the blue brick was secured, Will backed away and turned to the boy: "I did it! Does it look alright?".
This time though, Owen didn't nod his head like he had done before, instead just looked at the man for a moment and then threw his own block at Will's face, hitting him right in the eye; "Ow!" The Doctor said, bringing his hand to it.

Natalie, who had been watching the interaction between her boyfriend and her son all along, was quick to get closer to the little boy to scold him for his mischievous act: "No Owen, we don't throw our toys at other people, that's not nice. Not to say, it could also be very dangerous. - She then turned to Will - Are you okay? Come with me, let's get you some ice on that" and got back to the kitchen to retrieve what she needed to get.
Will quietly whispered "I'm alright" while looking at Owen, who still hadn't gone back to playing with his toys but was rather looking at him with a child's innocent expression; he managed to give a weak smile to the little man and then got up and made his way to the kitchen where his girlfriend was already waiting for him holding a small pack of ice in her hands. The light-haired doctor took it and put it on his eye, before looking at Natalie with a sad face and asking her: "Do you think he doesn't like me?".

Upon hearing his tone of voice paired with his sad puppy eyes, Natalie burst into a fit of laughter which only confused Will: "What - What's so funny?" He asked, to which she replied after another minute or two of muffled laughter. "Of course I don't, Will. That's normal; we're talking about a three year old here, do you have any idea how many times that same thing has happened to me already? Don't worry baby, a little black eye doesn't mean my son doesn't like you. Actually, he has never let a stranger help him build his towers before so that's a win for you. Relax, ok?".

Knowing that that treatment wasn't something the little man had reserved to him specifically made Will feel a little better about what just happened, but he was still unsure he had gotten on Owen's good graces yet; after throwing a small smile in Natalie's direction, he turned his attention back to the living room where he saw that her son had resumed playing, having seemingly forgotten all about the previous accident already.

"Your shift starts in twenty minutes, so why don't you get going? I'll take Owen to kindergarten and meet you at Gaffney. Maybe we could have lunch together today?" Natalie reminded Will, who swiftly turned his head back to her and looked at his watch to see that it was indeed best if he started to make his way; he put the ice pack on the table and leaned in to give his girlfriend a kiss: "See you at lunch then" He said, before grabbing his jacket from the coat rack and putting it on. Will then casted one last look in Owen's direction, which earned him another reassurance from Natalie that it was all good, and got out the door.
He wanted the little man to like him more than he wanted anything else in the world, so he spent the drive it took to get to Med thinking of ways he could win Owen's heart.