hawk_shot | for @theodorelasso

Entry tags:

ted,
theodorelasso

for @theodorelasso

Kate's barely been able to sleep these last few days. It's a huge milestone, after all. It's been months since she and Ted started dating and, even with a werewolf in the mix, the prospect of meeting his son has been both the most surreal concept and the thing Kate has feared screwing up the most. It's just strange, being aware that they are into something serious and that would make her ~~a step-mom~~ part of this kid's family. Is she ready? Geez, according to her own mother it's surprising Kate can even look after a dog.

Remembering how Ted introduced himself to Lucky, Kate decides to bring a little something that hopefully will excite Henry even if he turns out to hate her guts. It's certainly more than just a steak. Getting out of her Uber, Kate's got her arm wrapped with Lucky's leash as she makes room to pull out the box they somehow managed to fit along in the back of the car.

"Ted? Can you give me a hand?" She calls out the second she sees her boyfriend step out of the house to come greet her.

The basketball hoop is not terribly heavy, but when a retriever is super excited to mee his own step-dad? Yeah, it becomes a bit of a challenge.

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"Oh, uh, apple cake," he answers, glancing towards the kitchen. "But Henry doesn't like the texture of the apple bits, so I shred the apples to put it right in the mix. Makes the cake more moist, y'know. Uh, I actually burnt the top of the first one, but the bottom half is delicious, if you wanna help me eat some of that."

While Kate is maybe a bit more cautious, Ted has maybe a hint of something frantic about him. Not overwhelmingly so, but there's a bit more nervous energy to his chattiness today.

She lights up instantly as he describes his process, the way he simply adores his boy and will take care even of the smallest of details to please him something that makes Kate's heart swell. "I think I can put myself through eating some of your amazing baking, yep."

Stepping away from the couch, she stretches her arms and, almost in what could pass for slow motion, Kate holds onto his neck, leaning into Ted. "It's gonna be so hard, you know. Eating what you bake. A total commitment."

He knows what a huge fan of it she is.

"You're such a sweet dad," Kate whispers, showing nothing but adoration in the way she looks up at him.

"I mean, I could always throw it out instead," he answers teasingly, steadied a little by her presence and her sweet playfulness and the comfort of her touch.

He smiles down at her, looking touched and grateful, his nerves slowly settling. "Come on, then," he answers softly, giving her a peck of a kiss, then turning to take her to the kitchen.

"Don't you dare," Kate states, her tone a mocking warning.

It helps, messing around, pretending this is almost like an ordinary day. But, nervous as Kate is, she's also incredibly excited for him, for how clearly blissful Ted sure feels to have his kid back, even if it's for a brief time.

Weaving her fingers with his, she holds his hand as they head to the kitchen, the smell of freshly baked apple cake so much stronger there. "Anything else you need to get ready for tomorrow?" She pauses. "I mean, aside from the hoop and your ass ready to get kicked."

"Nope, it's pretty much down to those two things," Ted answers with a chuckle, cutting off two pieces of Disaster Cake and plating them, handing one to Kate.

"And, you know, cleaning up this mess," he adds, gesturing not just to the kitchen, but the entire house. It's not a major job, but there's definitely more things strewn around than there should be. (And there will likely be way more again, once Henry arrives.) Though the basement is locked, and anything Adult™ is buried deep in a closet, so the most important child-proofing has been taken care of.

Thanking him for her plate, Kate takes it towards the dining table just as Lucky walks past them both, heading to the water bowl always waiting for him in Ted's kitchen. Maybe the signs are not massive, but there's little signs here and there that sure remind him every day of Kate's presence.

Following his gestures, not only does she notice the mess he's left by the sink, but gets what he means about the rest of his home. "Well, between the both of us we'll get things done in no time." She might not keep her place immaculate, but Kate's capable of doing a very good job, specially when helping him cleaning up. "You know, with a spoonful of sugar and stuff?"

"Or a forkful," he says with a twinkle, joining her at the table and handing her a fork. And as he sits down next to her, he shakes a can of whipped cream he just got out of the fridge, giving her plate a nice big dollop of whipped cream, and then one for himself.

"What about you? How was practice?" he asks conversationally, always interested in hearing about her day.

The second she sees him coming with the whipped cream, Kate pulls back on her chair to give him an arm's lenght of room. The sound she makes as she crowns the cake being simple obscene. "Oh, that looks so good!"

Of course, the second Ted sits down Lucky settles between the both of them, staring up at the table as he silently hopes to get a bite of whatever it is they're having.

"Practice was good. Lots of cardio and then Beard forbid me from using my right hand as the domiant one." That could have ended up as a total disaster, but her coach knew how to guide her. "He's reading more about fencing lately, I think he's gonna accept my offer to coach me on that too."

"When we get the hoop up, I can start coaching you in basketball," he answers, half-serious. Serious in that he'll absolutely do it, but not-so-serious as in they won't have any specific athletic goal in mind.

He takes a single bite of cake, before he pops to his feet again, noticing Lucky begging at the table. He grabs a bag of dried fruit dog snacks from a kitchen cupboard, then gently slides Lucky's pillow over towards the table with his foot, and spends a few moments getting Lucky to actually lie down on it, before giving him a treat as reward. It'll probably only work temporarily, but hey. It's better than either of them buckling and giving him cake.

"Don't be your usual great self or I might end up super disappointed once you turn down my offer for a job," she quips right back at him, only half serious herself. Her coaching team has been going through changes and, knowing how well she works with Beard? Asking him to take over and train her in more than just the one discipline had felt natural. Now, working with Ted too? That would be at least interesting.

Digging in, she watches him take a moment to actually try and get her dog to behave. Sure, Lucky might not obey for long, but compared to how things were when they started dating? Her dog would practically put his paws on the table to see if he could steal a bite. "You're so good with him," Kate points out through a mouthful of cake.

It's Ted's patience that's proving to make a difference.

"How was work?"

There's been several days where Ted has dog-sat Lucky where he's made some effort to make him behave. Which, yes, did take many hours. But it made it a bit easier to maintain those things whenever Kate was also there, and led to overall improvement.

"It was alright. Didn't really get much done, honestly," he answers, getting back into his chair to enjoy his cake. "No practice since most of them were off on a field trip, so I tried to do some paperwork and planning, but, you know. Couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow." He smiles and shrugs.

The loud tapping on the pillow is a sign that Lucky is tempted to sit up again and double his efforts on begging for some cake. Kate holds a finger at him. "Bud? Behave. Down," she says firmly until her dog finally lowers his head, properly laying down.

Taking another bite of cake, she listens to Ted, reaching out to give his arm a squeeze as he once more proves just how excited he is about Henry's visit.

Nervous as she is, Kate knows she ought to ask her question, see what's waiting ahead.

"So... You've made any plans for tomorrow? I mean, out of the obvious. Like, are you taking him to Central Park or something? Legoland?"

Is she gonna be part of some of those plans?

Ted smiles warmly as he watches Kate, proud of both her and Lucky. They've come a long way.

"Tomorrow's probably gonna be pretty relaxed, no big plans except for hanging out. But, after that..." he says, leaning his elbows on the table as he leans forward a little. "One of the next few days, I'd love for you to come along for something. Like a show, or, sure, Legoland."

He's alluded to it enough by now that he figures she'd know he'd want her to. But he hasn't had a chance to make specific plans. And he just wants that chance to talk to both Michelle and Henry about it first.

It just makes sense. It's not like they have too many chances for this, for Ted just to decide when it's the right time to introduce them. But this is a big deal. It's been months already, but they're serious enough for Ted to want to introduce her to his kid.

For all they know there might be months before they have another chance.

"That's cool." Nervous as she is about this whole deal, she can't deny that at the same time she's pretty touched by the whole situation, by how Ted wants to make it official. "Yeah, I was't sure if you wanted..." She shrugs, focusing on slowly digging into the cake with her fork, how it cuts through the cream. "Like, if you just wanted time with him. It would be totally understandable."

"You're both really important to me. I want you guys to meet each other," Ted says sincerely, putting his fork down and focusing entirely on her. "Doesn't have to be a big deal. Just... spending some time together." He pauses, watching the way she's stabbing the cake. "How do you feel about that?"

Noticing how Ted's put his fork down, she turs to face him, well aware that they both know about the many unsaid things related to Henry's visit. Kate puts her fork down too.

"Sorry, I didn't want to worry you or anything," she chuckles, clearly a little flustered. "I was honestly wondering like... When it would happen and, you know, how." She knows Ted won't make a big deal of it, for both her and Henry's benefit. "It is a big deal. But..." He will make it as easy as possible for all three of them.

No. Not just that. It won't be only Ted's doing.

"But I know we'll make it work."

Ted smiles warmly and nods in agreement. "We will," he agrees. "And, you have input here too, you know. On how you think we should handle it. Like.. if you want to have a proper chat with him about it, or if I should do it and then introduce you... What we should tell him. And what we should get up to together. Stuff like that, yeah?"

If they're gonna be together for the long term, there is a solid chance Kate will be an important figure in Henry's life as well. Potentially she'd eventually become his step-mom. And while they're nowhere near that, he does want Kate to feel like she has a say.

Finally addressing the elephant in the room is not as terrifying as Kate had expected it to be. She's well aware that Ted knows what a scary situation this is for her ad he's supporting him the best way they can manage.

Chewing her lips, she leans back on her seat, slowly exhaling a very deep breath as she smiles nervously at him. There's responsibilities with this too, it's something Ted has warned her about since they started dating.

"I think you should probably warn him at least. Me having a chat with him and being all like 'hey, I'm your Daddy's girlfriend' is just cringey. Just ask Jack." Jacques, boyfriend to Kate's mom. Who Ted is well aware that Kate can barely stand. "Do you have any idea of what he told me the other day?"

Ted chuckles at her example, picking up the fork again to continue eating. He definitely agrees with that. He's gonna have a conversation about it with Henry, both before and after.

"No, what'd he say?" he asks curiously, popping a forkful of cake and whipped cream in his mouth.

It's like a weight's been lifted off her shoulders, even if it's something brief. Because until this whole visit is done, Kate has no idea of how things are gonna be.

"Okay so, I'm at my mom's office, right? We're hanging, the guys walks in and makes himself at home." She sounds way more like her usual enthusiastic self right now. Even if she's ready to talk shit about Jack. "Starts pretending like it's all cool between us. And then the asshole looks straight into my eyes-" She turns her hand towards herself, grabbing her fork at the same time and cutting another slice of cake. "And tells me he's bought himself a book about 'how to be a step-dad'! Can you believe it?"

Ted nods along enthusiastically, always ready to hear her stories, even if doesn't usually engage in gossip or dirt-talking. And he sits there listening, attentive and curious and...

He keeps sitting there, eyebrows raised, like he's waiting for a punchline.

"...So... he's making an effort to have a good relationship with you...?" Ted prompts, trying to figure out exactly what she's so annoyed about.

It's nothing like what Kate had been expecting. No 'oooh, that's so wrong' or the "what a bag of dicks' Greer had offered over texts. No. Ted's actually...

Is he siding with Jack?

"Yeah, no. If you had been there you would have noticed that shitface smile on his face." Just because he comes over and has invited her to have dinner along with him and her mother doesn't mean that Jack is trying and really means it. "He was like... Poking me."

"Hmm," Ted answers thoughtfully. "I mean, it's... definitely pretty awkward to announce it to you like that. But are you sure he just... doesn't know how to connect with you?"

Ted's trying to frame it gently. He knows she doesn't like the guy. But he is also trying to get her to try to give Jack the benefit of the doubt. Even if the guy's being kind of weird about it. Buying and reading the book? Sure, great effort. Telling Kate about it to maybe score some points or convince her he's trying? Awkward at best.

"You think?" The tone in her voice clearly states that to call it pretty awkward is really nothing but an understatement.

It was probably the wrong turn to take, bringing up her own shitty relatioship with Eleanor's boyfriend, specially when she's what? A couple of days away from meeting Ted's son. It does put things in a good perspective though, reminding her of everything she's not gonna do around Henry.

"Yeah, announcing that he thinks he can replace my dad is not the way, I can promise you that."

This is different. Henry's got both his parents. Jack has no idea what he's talking about.

"Hmm," Ted repeats, mulling that statement over for a second, trying to decide how to address the glaringly huge fallacy in it, nodding slowly and staring at the table.

"Do you think that, for me, you're replacing Michelle?" he asks gently, cautiously. And then quickly adding, "Not in regards to Henry. Just me. As a girlfriend, as a partner. Do you think you're just... overwriting her, in my heart? You don't, right? It's not like... a single slot in my heart, that you're kicking her out of."

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