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“Offspring in the house!”
Charlie stood quietly, listening for a moment before nodding to himself when he heard the telltale sound of scrambling coming from the family room. Sighing, he turned to shut the front door, and started slowly making his way through the foyer of his mother’s DC home, walking past the recently rearranged photos on the entryway wall.
Stopping for a quick moment, he took note of the new additions, and despite all his best intentions not to, couldn’t help the small smile that danced across his lips when he noticed the expression on his mother’s face in the last picture, standing with her arms wrapped around the now seemingly permanent fixture in this house.
After a moment Charlie cautiously turned the corner, peering into the sunken family room at the back of the first floor to find his mother and the paleontologist casually sitting on opposite ends of the couch, each with their glasses on and an open book in their laps.
“Hi honey, this is a surprise!”
“It wouldn’t be if you read your texts,” Charlie joked, leaning against the doorframe, and shooting his mother a wry grin.
Ellie frowned, looking around for her phone. “Oh I left it in the kitchen... What are you doing here?”
“Just grabbing cleats. Might throw disc with Jake tomorrow.”
“Jake Turner?” As Charlie nodded, Alan suddenly stood up from the couch, and Charlie pushed off the wall to stand straighter, making room for Alan to pass.
“I’ll let you catch up with your mom,” he said, quietly trying to sneak by.
“You don’t have to leave.”
“It’s okay, I have a coffee brewing.” Alan started to walk past, before stopping and half-turning to Charlie, raising a finger to awkwardly point towards the twenty-something in front of him. “You know, you don’t have to announce yourself like that when you come in. This is your home first and foremost.”
Charlie grimaced and glanced down at his feet, breaking Alan’s gaze. “Well, I wouldn’t have but uh--” he looked back to Alan, meeting his eye with a smirk as he pulled his hand from his side. “This was in the foyer.”
Alan glanced down as Charlie reached out to hand Alan his belt.
“Oh!” Alan took the belt from him, his face immediately turning a bright red, while Ellie cringed from the couch behind him. “I was unpacking. I- I must’ve-”
“Alan.” Charlie had to hold in his outright laughter at the panicked expression on the paleontologist’s face.
“No I uh – I just got back from Utah, and--”
“Your shirt is backwards and inside out.”
“Shit.” Alan looked down, confirming, and immediately walked past Charlie down the hall.
Laughing Charlie rounded the edge of the couch and flopped down in Alan’s vacated spot, before lifting his arms suddenly and shooting Ellie a disgusted look. “Is it even safe to sit here?”
Ellie smacked her son’s shoulder, laughing. “Charlie!”
“Never know these days.”
“Stop it,” Ellie said, scooting towards Charlie and reaching down to squeeze his knee, a ticklish spot since her son was a toddler.
“Mom!” Charlie flinched away, throwing himself further back into the cushions. Ellie laughed, while the two of them settled into a comfortable quiet. Charlie leaned his head back over the arm of the couch to peer down the hallway where Alan had disappeared.
“Think I scared him off.”
Ellie shot a small smile towards Charlie but didn’t say anything. When he turned back to her, Charlie couldn’t help squirming under the intent gaze Ellie had fixed on him.
“Are you okay with all this?”
“Mom,” Charlie sighed, throwing his head back onto the back of the couch.
“I mean, really.”
“We told you we were. We’re happy for you.” Ellie stared at her son, and eventually Charlie glanced away and sighed again. “I like Alan.”
“But-”
“Why do you assume there’s a But?”
“It’s okay if there is. This is very new.” Ellie frowned, shaking her head slightly. “For you and Lily, it’s very new, and I understand if you aren’t... 100% on board.”
“It’s not that, really.” Ellie frowned and Charlie finally met her eye. “I promise.”
Ellie scooted closer to Charlie, his legs still splayed out towards the middle of the couch, and she tucked herself up into his side and laid her head on his arm. “Will you tell me what it is?”
Charlie sighed and strained his neck again, glancing back down the hall. “Don’t you think he’s coming back?”
“Did you see that shade of red? We’ve got at least 20 minutes.”
Charlie snorted and leaned back against the couch, relaxing into the cuddle with his mom. “It’s not that I want anything to be different, and I really like Alan. And you together, I promise. I just…”
Charlie paused and Ellie adjusted her head on his shoulder but gave him a quiet moment to think through his words.
“It’s so different. Than how it was with Dad.”
Ellie briefly closed her eyes and nodded against his shoulder.
“It sounds so dramatic, but it makes me wonder if… what was real?”
“Oh, Charlie.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Ellie sat up, pulling her knees under her so she was facing her son cross legged, and reached out for his hand.
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Alan heard the front door close, and walked out from the first-floor study, slowly making his way to the back room.
“He left already?”
Ellie glanced up and shot Alan an unamused glare, with just the hint of a teasing glint in her eye. “Already? You’ve been hiding for half an hour.”
“I wasn’t hiding,” Alan grumbled mock-indignantly, moving to sit next to Ellie, his hand immediately falling to the knee that was bent up under her. He leaned his head back on the top of the couch and rolled it towards Ellie to meet her eye, a soft smile in his gaze. “Not quite the impression I was going for.”
“Practically made an impression on this couch, the way you were grinding--”
Alan groaned and clenched his eyes, “Ellie, Jesus.”
Ellie laughed, squeezing his knee and swinging her legs up and over his lap, Alan’s arms coming to rest across her thighs.
“I missed teasing you,” she whispered, her elbow resting across the back of the sofa, and her fingers dangling down to gently brush the fallen locks of hair back from his forehead.
Alan hummed in contentment and opened his eyes, turning his head slightly to catch her gaze with a sleepy smile. “Was he upset?”
“No,” Ellie replied with a sigh, and scooted further forward so she was practically sitting on Alan’s lap and her head could instead rest on his shoulder.
He waited for her to continue and when she didn’t Alan dipped his head to meet her eye. “Are you upset?”
Ellie shot Alan a sad smile and reached up to brush his lips with the pad of her thumb. Alan held her eye while he kissed the digit, before she slid her hand to his chest and dropped her gaze, snuggling back into the crook of his shoulder.
“Mark and I didn’t do… this,” Ellie finally said quietly, motioning between the two of them. “When we first got together, he wasn’t much into PDA, and we went to a lot of official functions, and eventually we just settled into… something else.”
“When we first got together, I wasn’t much into PDA either.”
“But I couldn’t keep my hands off you and didn’t care,” Ellie laughed, squeezing his ribs, while Alan grunted and flinched away. “It only took a few discreet public gropings to change your mind on that one, honey.”
Alan shrugged, the ghost of a smirk on his lips. “You were very convincing.”
Ellie softly smiled, humming her agreement before falling quiet, her fingers fidgeting with the slightly raised logo on Alan’s t-shirt.
“Charlie said he feels like his childhood was a lie.”
“What?” Alan sat up straighter and tried to meet Ellie’s eye. “Ellie.”
He reached his thumb down and raised her chin to look at him, a look of concern etched across his brow. Ellie shrugged and pulled back from him, but not before Alan caught a glistening in the corner of her eye.
“I did love Mark.”
Alan swallowed and nodded, not particularly wanting to dwell on those years spent apart but knowing that this wasn’t a comment that Ellie could leave unexamined. “I know that.”
“How do you explain to your child that their father--” Ellie’s voice broke and she shook her head as Alan wrapped his arm tighter around her hip, pulling her to him. “He said it feels so different. You and I. And he’s right.”
Alan took a deep breath and tried to meet her eye.
“Ellie...”
“…You’re the love of my life, Alan.”
Alan struggled to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat, his heart swelling in his chest as she finally looked up to him, a single tear finally tracking its way down her cheek. Alan reached out and cupped Ellie’s face, his thumb brushing away the wetness, before he leaned towards her and gently grazed his lips against hers. Ellie raised her own fingers to his cheek to pull him closer, consciously trying to imbue everything she was feeling into the way her lips ardently pressed against his.
When they slowly pulled back, Alan’s jaw tensed against her fingers as he struggled to gain control of his emotions, holding her gaze for a long moment. He took a shaky breath and smiled, his voice coming out in a whisper. “Forever forged together.”
Ellie returned his smile and leaned forward, meeting him again for a chaste peck.
Pulling back and wiping the back of her hand across her nose, Ellie sniffled before leaning again to rest on his shoulder. “I just don’t know what to say to him.”
“What did you say?”
Ellie sighed and shrugged. “That things aren’t black and white. Everything is a spectrum, even love.”
Alan hummed in agreement, nodding. “That’s true. He’s just young, Ellie. It might take some time and some relationships, but he’ll understand.” Alan paused, reaching down to push an errant lock of hair behind Ellie’s ear. “And you could tell him there are different love languages.”
Ellie leaned back from Alan, a shocked laugh on her lips.
“What?”
“How do you know about Love Languages?”
“I know things,” Alan grumbled, pulling back a bit from Ellie.
“Did an ex make you read it?”
“What does that mean?”
Ellie laughed at the indignation in Alan’s voice, and shrugged, “Nothing, I just-- I’m surprised.”
“Glad I can still surprise you.” Alan said, crossing his arms, unable to keep the grumpiness out of his voice.
Ellie grabbed Alan’s forearms and physically pulled them apart, wrapping one back around her waist. “You’re always surprising me, Doctor Grant.”
Ellie leaned towards him, sliding her right leg to the side, and pressing her chest into him to gently brush her lips against his. Alan’s hands drifted down to rest on her backside, and Ellie leaned further into Alan, straddling him now as she deepened their kiss. She felt him moan into her mouth and pulled back, Alan’s lips chasing hers.
“But seriously.”
Alan groaned and flopped his head back against the couch. Opening one eye, he squinted, a grimace on his lips. “I may have been told that Grumbling was my Love Language.”
Ellie tried not to laugh in his face, but the more she held it in, the less she could breathe, and finally she gave up, a snort bursting through her lips.
“By who?”
“A student.. or two.”
“Oh, Alan,” Ellie said, laughing and leaning her head against his chest.
After a few moments of Ellie continuing to shake against him, Alan grumbled, “It's not that funny,” which only set Ellie off on a new peal of giggles. When she finally looked up at him, the look on his face sent her into one more round, with Alan finally picking her up and tossing her next to him on the couch.
“Alright, enough of that,” he said, standing and starting back towards the kitchen.
“Alan!” Ellie laughed, scrambling to get up from the couch to follow him.
“Nope.” Alan rounded the kitchen island, turning away to pour some fresh coffee into the mug on the counter.
“Alannnn…” Ellie walked up behind him and pressed herself to him, her hands sliding up his chest.
Alan turned in her arms holding his mug, forcing her to drop her arms from around him.
“Maybe my Love Language is being properly appreciated,” he quietly grumped, keeping his gaze down on his coffee.
“Alan.”
He raised his eyes to meet hers, and she could see the grin that was threatening on his lips.
“Properly appreciated, huh?” The change in Ellie’s tone immediately set Alan’s blood on fire, and he was suddenly very happy he had already lost his belt.
He could only swallow and grunt as Ellie held his eye and slowly reached out to take the mug from him, setting it next to them on the kitchen counter.