Sunshine (Take Two Sequel)

Chapter 32: Joe

"I cannot believe you are even considering this!" Ben said as he paced back and forth in the kitchen.

"It's not so crazy," I said. "Rory and I have known each other for a long time, and I have always wanted kids."

"I know you want kids, but with Rory?" Ben snapped.

"Well it's not like you and I can make one without a woman," I said. "Would you please stop pacing? It's driving me crazy!"

"I just don't get this," Ben said, continuing to pace. "Why would she ask you? I know she doesn't want a stranger, but she has so many other male friends she could ask!"

"Like who?" I questioned. "Freddie and Rami are married, Roger is already expecting twins with his wife, John has a kid and we never even see him anymore, Gwilym is engaged, Brian would feel too weird about it and he's also in a relationship."

"So are you!" Ben said.

"I'm aware of that," I said. "But you and I are the only couple who can't have children on our own, and Rory's closer to me than any of her other male friends. I feel like asking me just made sense to her." Ben sighed and kept pacing across the room without saying anything for a few minutes.

"For the love of God, Ben, stop pacing!" I yelled. Ben finally came over and sat next to me.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just don't know how I feel about you being the father of a child that's not... ours." I smiled softly.

"Are you saying you want to have children with me?" I asked him. Ben smiled and nodded.

"Of course I do," Ben said. "I love you. And I know Rory really wants to be a mom and you want to help her with that, but I always thought if you ever fathered a child it would be our child." I smiled and nodded in understanding. I thought for a moment and my eyes suddenly widened.

"I have a brilliant idea," I said. "Instead of being just a sperm donor for Rory... why don't I just be the baby's father?"

"I don't understand," Ben said. "What's the difference?"

"There's a huge difference," I said. "A sperm donor is just the guy who provides the right ingredients and then leaves the mother to raise the baby, but a father... a father helps raise the child."

"You want to raise a child?" Ben asked. "With Rory?"

"No," I said. "I want us to raise a child with Rory. The three of us could co-parent!" Ben just stared at me for a second. "You think it's insane don't you?" I asked him.

"You may think I've gone mad," Ben said. "But I actually don't think that's a terrible idea. I'm not sure that Rory will want to do it though."

"Only one way to find out," I said.

We ended up calling Rory over to tell her our idea. She was hesitant at first, but she didn't think it was such a bad idea either.

"Just one question," she asked. "Would you still be the father, or would Ben?"

"Why would it be me?" Ben asked. Rory shrugged.

"If we're all raising the baby, we'll all be the parents," she said. "Shouldn't we all have a chance of being the baby's parents biologically?"

"That doesn't make sense," Ben said. "We can't both be the biological father, it's impossible."

"That's true," I added. "But we can both have a chance to be the father. We could mix our sperm together and then we would have no idea which one of us was the biological father. We would all be parents and nobody would feel left out."

"Oh yeah," Rory said. "Like Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka did with their twins!" Ben thought for a minute.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do it. Let's all have a baby."