Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby

chapter 1

 Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby 1 (Synacky):

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"Come on, assholes. Move!" Brian Baker-Haner growled at the traffic sitting at almost a complete standstill in front of him.

After ten minutes of moving at a pace that would even annoy a snail on its slowest of slow days, Brian put his SUV into "PARK" with a long, drawn-out sigh of complete frustration. He was due to be at his sister-in-law's house in less than ten minutes and he was stuck more than an hour away.

"Shhhiiittt," he groaned, letting his forehead resting on the steering wheel.

Brian let his eyes slip closed, trying to calm himself down before he picked his kids up. The stress he felt seemed to melt away as thoughts of his little boy and little girl played through his head. He was on the verge of falling asleep when he was startled by his cell phone ringing. He lifted his head, pressed the "CALL" button and sighed.

"Hello?"

"Hey, baby. Did I wake you?" Zachary Baker-Haner asked, a grin obvious in his voice.

Brian smiled, his heart fluttering. "Hey, Zacky. You didn't wake me, babe."

"Oh, okay, then. What are ya doin'?"

"Sitting in traffic," Brian groaned.

"Ewww, harsh," Zacky laughed.

"Like you enjoy traffic."

"I don't. But I'm not stuck in traffic right now."

Brian rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he sighed.

"Don't get snarky with me, Brian."

"I'm not getting snarky, Zachary."

After a brief moment, Zacky burst into laughter, which caused a huge grin to stretch across Brian's face. Brian missed that laugh and the way Zacky's face would just open up with complete glee. Being the husband of a Marine deployed in Afghanistan for months and months at a time wasn't an easy thing to begin with, but it was even harder for Brian. He and Zacky had literally been childhood sweethearts, holding hands and saying they'd get married before they were even halfway through elementary school. Their parents had found it cute and didn't really object to their sons being together. All they asked was that they think about things as they grew up and that they <b>had</b> to finish high school before making anything permanent.

Brian and Zacky had remained best friends as they grew up and had seemingly forgot about their promise to each other as 7-year-olds. They had even dated girls on and off through out middle school and some in high school. But it was a seemingly innocent comment made by Zacky's baby sister that made them realize that they'd be trying to substitute somebody else for each other and they began dating towards the end of their freshman year.

Zacky had proposed on bended knee on Valentine's Day of their senior year, and he and Brian had gotten married as soon as he'd finished boot camp and found out where he was to be stationed. Their wedding had been a small, intimate affair on their favorite beach at sunset less than a year before Zacky's first deployment.

Zacky had missed many things: birthdays, anniversaries and holidays. He had barely even made it back home in time for the birth of their twins, Phoenix and Liberty.

"So are Nix and Bertie with you?"

"Nope. You'd definitely hear them, baby. They get so excited when they hear your voice. You know that."

"Oh," Zacky sounded a little disappointed.

"They're at your sister's house, which is where I'm trying to get to."