Six

7.

"I want Dad, not you, Papa."

That's what Rada had said this morning.

He knew the kids loved him just as much as they loved Derek, and if it had been Angus and Lottie who had said it, he would have been fine. (They were eight, they didn't know much about shit like this and Will knew damn well that they could say they hated him one minute and the next, they'd be begging for him to sing them to sleep). He would have been fine if any of the other kids had said it too, but it was Rada who had said it, theirsixteen year old daughter, the one that had been with them the longest.

Truthfully, he knew Rada didn't mean it in a harsh way, she'd meant it in a logical way because it was true, she needed Derek at that point, not Will, because Derek was the one who was always the parent that had the solutions.

In a turn of events, after Samwell it was Derek who decided to pursue a career in teaching, going on to teach English at a college level andit was Will who owned a garage that was a fifteen minute drive from the house, though after the triplets came into their lives, he played the role of stay-at-home dad more than he did the role of mechanic. He didn't mind it, he liked it. Staying at home meant he got to spend more time with his children and that they wouldn't be raised by a nanny like Derek was, it also ensured that the kids had someone to go to no matter where they were.

They weren't Nursey and Dex; the d-men any more, they were Derek and Will; the parents.

Will was the one who made the rules which should have made him the bad cop but it was Derek who punished the kids for breaking them, automatically making him bad cop. That was only because Will really didn't like handing out punishments to his kids, he'd never liked the idea of taking something away from your kid to teach them a lesson. Derek was the fun parent, he guessed (even if it was a bit of a contradiction). Derek was the parent who went to parent-teacher conferences, who dropped the kids off at parties, who stopped to chat with the PTA moms after school was out and Derek was the one the kids introduced to everyone first.

Will was sort of just in the background because it was Derek who was the funny English professor, Derek was the fun parent and Derek was the sociable one. Will was the regular stay-at-home dad/mechanic, he was the parent who made the rules and he was the quiet one.

He and Derek had been together for 14 years now, they'd gotten engaged at 22 and married six months later. They adopted Rada when they were 24, they both had stable incomes and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Rada had grown up in the foster system, her mother hadn't been able to take care of her properly due to the fact that she was broke after her father had died, and had left Rada on the steps of an orphanage when Rada was 2. Rada had spoken to the two of them in Arabic only at first, in hopes of deterring them from coming closer, her case worker then told the two that Rada had been fostered and then sent back many times. Rada was hesitant to trust the two of them, which they understood but after coming to the orphanage and playing with her every other weekend for a consecutive six months, she'd asked them if they were going to be her new parents. It all changed when they took her home, Rada had resorted to speaking Arabic again, like she had when they first met her. This time, instead of hoping she would start speaking in English again, Will learnt Arabic for two reasons, he wanted to understand his child and asking Derek to keep translating was getting annoying.

They'd adopted Angus and Lottie 4 years later, after consulting and talking to Rada, making sure she was alright with the entire thing. As soon as Rada had spotted the two ginger twins, she pulled at Will's hand and said, "I want them to be my new brothers." The twins were a lot more open than Rada was when they met her, they'd only been in the system for six months when they met Derek and Will. Apparently, there had been a house fire at their family home and the twins were the only survivors due to the fact that they had been staying at a friend's house the night it had happened. When they came home, Derek and Will realised the twins had a habit of asking the two of them where they were going and when they would come back, it had taken a while but they had stopped doing it after they realised that they would always have one parent with them.