Take Me Home, Camp Man

Chapter 4: A New Life

"Good morning, Max," David sing-songed as the boy wandered into the kitchen. It was a tradition now for David to make breakfast for everyone on the weekend. Max didn't usually get out of bed until David brought the pancakes and bacon upstairs, but he hadn't slept well the night before and was now sleepily making his way over to David.

Max didn't bother replying, as he ducked under David's arms, and buried his head into David's stomach. David's hands would have normally wound themselves around Max's shoulders to return the hug, but he was holding a hot pan and a spatula.

"I'm cooking here, bud, I can't really-" David tried to untangle himself from Max's arms, but he couldn't quite get there. He sighed and moved the bacon in the pan off the stove and set the spatula down before wrapping his own arms around Max's shoulders. "What's up?"

Max shook his head.

"Max, I can't help you if I don't know what happened." They were still working on Max opening up and being honest about his emotions. David thought for a moment before he realized what was probably the problem, and then gave a little gasp. "Was it another nightmare?"

Max hesitated for a split second before nodding. David scooped him up easily, abandoning the food on the stove, and headed back up to his and Gwen's room. It was something of a habit now. Nightmares used to be a bigger problem, with Max screaming and then locking his door so Gwen and David couldn't come in to his room, but they were slowly starting to work on better coping skills. One of these coping skills was letting Max crawl into bed with Gwen and David.

David pushed open his bedroom door and let Max crawl into the bed before getting in himself, so Max was squished in between him and Gwen.

"Let's try and sleep in today, okay? You can close your eyes and I'll stay here." David pushed some loose curls away from Max's face. It seemed like such a basic thing - letting a scared child into the bed so they felt safer - but Max had told them his first week there that his biological parents used to lock their door at night, and if Max woke them up, he would get in trouble.

"David?" Gwen asked groggily, her eyes barely open. She tossed and turned, trying to figure out who was in bed. "Max?"

As soon as Gwen saw Max, she was awake and pushing herself up on her elbows. "Max, you okay?"

David put a hand on her shoulder. "We're just a little tired this morning." Gwen didn't need to hear anything else to know what had happened. She just pulled Max in closer, her arms going around the boy to hold him protectively. Max's breathing evened out quickly, and he was snoring in a matter of minutes. He must have been exhausted.

"Nightmares?" Gwen asked quietly, her big eyes finding David's.

David nodded. "He came and got me this time, which is good."

Gwen hummed a little and nestled her chin over Max's head. David slung an arm around her waist, boxing Max in.

"Mmm," Max turned over a little, his hands finding the blankets and balling up into fists. "Dad."

David froze for a moment, fully expecting another nightmare, but then Max wiggled his way closer to David and pressed himself against David's chest. "Love you, Dad."

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They didn't address it. David was just 'Dad' from then on, and Gwen was 'Mom'. Max was still a little shit, and he still cursed David's enthusiasm to hell, and Gwen was still an annoying, nagging, drama queen, but Max loved them in his own way.

"Hey, Dad? Can we go to the mall today?"

David was leaned up against the kitchen counter as Gwen sorted the mail on the dining table. It was a cold Friday when all of them had the day off. It was some district-wide vacation day - something about grading. Since Gwen worked at the school district office, and David was a teacher at one of the middle schools, they were all at home and still dressed in pajamas at 3 in the afternoon.