For Fiona

7. Welcome Home

Tim started his day looking at Lucy and Fiona curled up in the hospital bed together, and that made his heart leap. "Good morning," he said to Lucy when she woke up.

She smiled back at him. "Good morning," she replied to his greeting of the day and was about to try stretching when she felt Fiona cozied against her, and upon glancing at how she was still sleeping, her heart threatened to burst at the way she woke up with Fiona and him in her sights.

"Did-did you sleep okay?" He asked, his whole body shaking internally in a way he hoped to conceal.

"Yeah, did you?"

"Mhm," he hummed.

She knew he did not so much as blink for longer than a millisecond let alone sleep, but she let him lie. "Is something bothering you? Well, aside from the fact that our daughter is in the hospital?"

Between realizing that Lucy had FEELINGS for him and the fact that she referred to Fiona as "our daughter", which were two things he was still trying his best to get used to, his brain could barely process the basic function of breathing let alone composing a reply.

"Tim?" Lucy whispered as she lifted her head up higher in alarm. "Hey, I know it's scary, but it's just food poisoning. She'll be okay." Lucy dropped a kiss to Fiona's forehead.

"R-right, yeah," he finally said.

Fiona stirred and rubbed at her eyes before seeing Lucy. "Lucy," she murmured.

"Morning, sweetie," Lucy responded. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay," she sighed as she clung to Lucy's warm and soft body. Then, her empty stomach rumbled. "My tummy sounds like a lion," she noted with a giggle.

"I don't know if you can eat yet, but we can get you some water."

Tim sprung up onto his feet to get to the water pitcher on the windowsill and poured a glass of water for Fiona. He offered it to her with a smile. "Here you go, kiddo."

She sat up and accepted the cup. "Thank you." Fiona drank her water and reached for Lucy again. "Did you mean it when you said I would live with you?"

"Yeah, of course we did. Tim already painted your bedroom a pretty green. We don't have everything set up yet, but we'll make sure you feel comfortable in our house," Lucy explained.

"Green? Really? For me?"

"Yeah, green just for you. We hope you like it and the bed we picked out for you."

"Oh, the furniture delivery! That's today!" Tim realized.

"I don't know when Fiona will get discharged. We might have to push back the delivery by a day."

"Fiona needs to sleep in a bed tonight."

"She can take mine in my apartment, and I'll sleep on the couch."

"Or, I can ask Nolan to take care of it."

"You trust Nolan?"

"He knows the house well. He's been there almost as much as I have since I bought it, and he's a contractor, but just to be safe, I'll make sure Bailey goes with him." He looked down at Fiona. "I've gotta make a call, and then I'll be back. Make sure your mommy stays out of trouble." Fiona beamed at him, and it was the kind of incandescence he had only ever seen on Lucy's face; it was uncanny how similarly they looked and acted despite not sharing a shred of DNA. He dialed John once he was alone in the corridor.

"Tim, hey, I'm headed to the house now. I want to take some measurements to build a bookcase for Fiona," John said.

"I'm sure she would love that. Thanks. Listen, I know you've already done a lot, but I was wondering if you could do me another favor. Lucy and I are with Fiona in the hospital. She's got a little food poisoning, but she'll be okay."