Dan The Dad (Phan)

28

When we got home Phil and I sat Megan down on the couch. I sat beside her and Phil kneeled on the floor beside me.

"So." I said catching her attention. "What do you think of babies?" I asked her.

"I like them in pretend but I don't like them in real life. They poop everywhere and they scream all the time." She said.

"Um, okay, Fair point." I said.

"But babies are really cool." Phil said enthusiastically "You can play with them, and feed them and you get to watch them grow bigger and bigger. Trying to make them laugh is like a fun game." Phil said as she grimaced at him.

"But they poop all the time." She said.

"It's probably not that bad." I added.

"Why are we talking about babies?" She finally asked making Phil and I exchange glances for a split second.

"Because... we are having a baby!" I said and put on a grin as she froze and looked at me. "You get to have a baby brother!" She stayed frozen for a second before looking at Phil.

"Isn't that great?" Phil asked.

"No?" She replied "Boys can't have babies together."

"Someone else is having him and they're giving him to us." Phil explained.

"Then he's not my real brother." She said in confusion.

"If I wasn't your real dad would you love me anyway?" I asked her making Phil's head snap to my direction.

"Yes? I think so." She answered.

"Good. Because he is. That was only hypothetical. Sometimes family doesn't have to be your real family for you to  consider them family. If you care about someone enough they can be just like family." Phil explained to her.

"But I don't want a baby brother." Her face went sad, I felt bad for her.

"Just wait until he's here and you might change your mind." I told her.

"No I won't." She said sadly as she looked up at me with her big brown eyes. I could tell she was about to cry any moment. But instead of her crying, she jumped up off the couch and took off down the hall most likely to her room. Seconds later we heard her crying, as it echoed through the house Phil and I looked at each other once again.

"I'll go take care of it, this is all because of me anyway." He said and walked off.

I knew she was mad at me specifically because I had been the one to tell her, that's how children were.

I started on dinner as Phil talked to her. By the time Phil found me in the kitchen, she was quiet.

"How did it go?" I asked him.

"That is one angry child. She's like really really angry." Phil said.

"Fuck." I muttered.

"She's little Dan, she'll get over it. I'm sure once the baby is here she'll want to hold it and play with it and everything." Phil said.

"I suppose you're right." I said.

That night, Megan was so mad that she refused to eat and just glared at me from across the table.

The next day on Saturday, her loads presents arrived while she was still asleep. Phil was locked in our room for at least half the day wrapping all of them while she still continued to glare at me from across the living room as I sat on my computer. Phil then went out to the nearest book shop and got tons of books on how to take care of babies. And Megan and I went to two more paternity places and had more tests done.

We spent most of Sunday gathering information on babies. Sunday was the hardest day with Megan I've ever experienced, I had to actually put her into time out for purposely knocking over a vase and breaking it. Luckily, Phil figured out that she just wanted our attention and she seemed to act quite a bit better when we decided to play Candy Land with her that night. I could tell her bond with Phil was growing and growing especially when the end of the game somehow turned into a tickle fight between them which in turn turned into her riding Phil through the flat like a horse. It was times like these that I wished I could take a video like a normal dad and post it on social media because I just felt so happy with my family.

Monday after I walked Megan to school Phil and I quickly got to work on putting things together and taking what was left of my old stuff out of my room. My grey and black duvet was replaced by a brightly colored pink one and all of my things came off the walls and those were replaced by more girlie things. I left some of the black things such as my dresser and of course the bed because I couldn't get them out anyway and she liked black too. There was soon a large corner of the room that just contained toys. This was when Phil and I talked over actually moving to a bigger flat for the first time because he would only be able to stay in our room in a bassinet for so long.

We actually ended up finishing her room just in time for me to pick up the cupcakes and head to her school.

I checked in at the main office and headed down to her class with two boxes of cupcakes in my hands. It was weird because I actually felt nervous. I had never in my life felt so nervous about being around a bunch of children, and I've even had teenage girls screaming in my face about how much they loved me.

I walked into the classroom to see a bunch of small children sitting at little round tables in tiny chairs all following along in books as the teacher read. I noticed my little curly haired girl with her hair tied up (yes, I finally mastered it)
The young teacher stopped reading and looked over at me, and I gave her a smile.

"Daddy!" I heard Megan yell in the silent room.

"Everyone, this is Mr. Howell, Megan's dad. He's brought cupcakes for Megan's birthday." She announced and the children went wild. "We can all have them when we're finished with our story during free time." She said. "Mr. Howell, if you'd like to you may have a seat until then, just pull up a chair from the big table over there." She pointed to a table with average sized seats in the back of the room. I put the boxes down by Megan and took a chair (which was still comically too small for me) and sat next to her at her very small table. Megan scooted her book between us so I could follow along with her and the class.

A few minutes later they were done and I suddenly had twenty small children crowding around me for a cupcake.

We all sang happy birthday to Megan who just grinned from ear to ear. All the children wanted to sit at the table where me and Megan were.

"Daddy tell them what you do." Megan insisted and I explained.

"How are you so tall?" A boy asked me and that started the barrage of questions the children shot at me. I was totally unprepared for this. Lucky for me Megan didn't shout out that I was gay or famous so I'd have to say it went smoothly. I stayed the full hour until school was over because Miss. whatever her name is insisted. As I walked Megan home she seemed so happy and me doing the extra little thing and going into her class made me feel like it had really made her day. She seemed to forget about how upset she had been over the weekend as she skipped up the stairs to our flat.

I unlocked the door and I called for Phil letting him know we were home. Megan and I shed our coats and gloves before heading for the lounge.

"Phil?" I called again but almost didn't get it out.

"Surprise!" A chorus of the word came suddenly and I looked to see Phil with my mum, my dad, my brother, his brother, his mum, his dad, Louise, and Darcy. Covering our coffee table was a mountain of presents that even seemed to extend onto the floor.

"What the f-"

"Are they back already?" Came a voice that interrupted me from behind us and I turned around to see Pj. Megan squealed and ran for Phil who caught her and picked her right up for a hug.

"Thank you daddy." She said to him as my jaw dropped in confusion and also astonishment and surprise.

I didn't even know this many people knew about Megan.