Lauren and Camila

Epilogue II - November 11th, 2021

The tall, famous man walked quickly to the reception desk. He looked harried despite the expensiveness of the suit he was wearing and, in fact, he had rushed straight to the hospital from the airport. He was late, he knew it. He'd desperately tried to make it but the peculiarities of his schedule made making his own time something of an impossibility. The peculiarities of his situation made asking for time off somewhat problematic. So he'd tried his best to get here as soon as he'd gotten the phone call but he'd been in Portland at the time and it was a 4 hour flight even without the trips to and from the airport.

"Lauren Jauregui's room please." He asked the young woman behind the desk. She looked up at him and he saw the recognition in her eye.

"Hey, aren't you..."

He nodded and checked his watch for no reason. It wouldn't tell him if he was on time but it did have a great many diamonds in the face, and that always made him a little happy. He did get around to answering the question.

"Usually, yes, I am. But right now, no. I'm just a lookalike. I might be later though. Lauren Jauregui's room please." He repeated the request

"2203, just down the hall and on your left."

He nodded and took off with some of the speed he was famous for but still tip-toeing as best as he could, he was trying to keep quiet though for the respect of the other people in the ward and even what he might find when he got to 2203. So when he did find the right room he very delicately opened the door to look inside. His heart sank just a little. He had missed it. Inside was Lauren, looking as ragged and worn out as he could ever imagine a person looking but yet beaming uncontrollably, sitting upright in her bed. Just to her left was Camila who looked nearly as ragged. She had, in her arms, a new born baby boy.

"Hey guys." He said softly

"Hey Daddy." Lauren smiled at him, looking like she could faint at any moment.

"Hey Fitz" Camila practically whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping child and not even taking her eyes off him for a second say hello.

"Hey Mom and Dr. Mom" Tim smiled as he walked into the room, giant teddy bear in one hand and balloons in the other, both of which he set down on a nearby chair. "Missed it huh?"

"I tried holding him in for you but I thought it'd a weird experience for him." Lauren shrugged "Give him some sort of complex."

"But 10 fingers, 10 toes, no tail, all that good stuff, right?" Tim took a few tentative steps towards them

"Perfect, Timmy, just perfect" Camila added "You do good work."

"It was the first time I've ever had to do....that for the benefit of my friends. Good to see I've still got it." Tim finally got a good look at his biological son. He looked. Baby-ish. Small and red and weird. But, still, pretty cool.

"You look good, Fitzy" Lauren said warmly

"Well, you know, west coast living and millions and millions of dollars will do that to a guy."

"You're still settling for the jump shot too much instead of crashing the rim." Lauren scolded

"Hey I'm still recovering from an ankle sprain and those guys hit hard and I'm not going to talk to you about pain right now." Tim wisely changed his tone as he saw Lauren's expression changing

"If you two are through..." Camila interrupted "Want to hold him?"

"Oh no, no." Timmy shook his head and held up his hands. "Maybe in a few years when he's not as soft and breakable."

Finally, Camila did look up at him, she clearly had tears in her eyes.

"Tim, look, I know I said thank you a million times but...."

"Oh stop." Tim waved her away "This is fantastic for me. All of the biological satisfaction of propagating the species with my DNA, absolutely none of the socialized responsibility of active and involved parenting."

Lauren and Camila both shot him a cold glare

"Ok, like 10% of the socialized responsibility. During the off-season. And just the fun stuff. Ball games and zeppelin rides and the like" Tim said as he looked at the family he had played some small role in helping to start "Settled on a name yet?"

"Well, after about 80 hours of negotiation and lots of senseless bloodshed we settled on Cabello-Jauregui instead of Jauregui-Cabello." Camila said with some degree of satisfaction.

"Which was supposed to come with first name control, I should point out, so that's still a dispute." Lauren countered

"I'm not naming my son Elvis, Lauren." Olivia returned her attention to the child

"Awww, Elvis would have been cool." Tim said with disappointment "But you know, there is a famous basketball player we all know and love that we could name him after"

Lauren looked up at him with a broad smile.

"That's such a great idea, Fitz."

"Right?" He agreed

"You thinking what I am?" Lauren asked

"I think so."

"Dikembe!" Lauren exclaimed

"I was thinking Shaquille but, yeah, Dikembe is even better!" Tim nodded his agreement.

"I know kid, I know" Camila said with a sigh to the child in her arms "But trust me, it's mainly nurture."