A/N: Finished! Just took me 2-1/2 years! That's even longer than it took me to get my own babies! *g*

Part 17 – Homecoming

Don checked his watch again then went back to tossing flower petals at his cats. Monster batted at a few but mostly let them settle on his fur, then twitched them off. Dragon just gave an occasional flick of his tail and was otherwise slowly being buried under pink rose petals. The cats were as distracted as everyone else.

Colby and Charlie had specifically said they didn't want a party when they brought home their new baby. They would have all been travelling and would just want to crash. The baby would undoubtedly be grouchy after his or her first plane flight. But Don had to be here, of course, and Will, and the cats always came over to the house with them. Then Don had mentioned it to David, who had showed up with Matt, and Charlie must have called Larry because he and Megan had come over. Larry must have let it slip to Amita, because she was here with her physics department husband, Joseph Saha, and their toddler, Ojas. Megan had called earlier, asking if they could bring anything, and she'd talked to David, who'd talked to …

Somehow they'd ended up with a party, complete with snacks, drinks and cake, and a banner across the front door that said, 'Welcome Home Baby Eppes'. Don suspected that Megan had ordered the banner weeks ago, since it was personalized with name but not gender, but he didn't call her on it. Everyone was excited about the newest addition to their extended family and Don wasn't going to spoil the fun. Don half-expected Coop to come strolling through the door, though he was in D.C. at the moment and, anyway, avoided family events like the plague.

Don let everyone set up the party and just told his dad that he better explain to Charlie and Colby when he picked them up from the airport.

"Stop looking at your watch," Will said from the patio chair next to him. Will was sitting slumped down in the chair, with his legs stretched out and his eyes closed. He was in the middle of a week of all-night undercover teaching sessions, but he wasn't going to miss this either.

"How did you know I was looking at my watch?" Don asked with a wry grumble. "Your 'keen detective senses'?"

Will chuckled and opened his eyes. "No, just good odds." He stretched and looked around. "They should be here soon."

"Soon," Don agreed. "Dad probably saved a half-hour by having his 'grandpa's car seat' already installed in his car."

"It only took us two hours to do it," Will replied.

"Yeah," Don said and tossed his remaining handful of flower petals at the cats. At the floral onslaught, both cats jumped up, shook themselves off, and padded into the house. Don and Will followed, then stopped to take in the tableau before them.

Ojas, Amita's boy, was toddling around in that stiff-legged, arms-out Frankenstein's Monster walk. He would head in one direction, bounce off a person or piece of furniture or some invisible obstacle, and then head in another direction. Larry and Joseph were watching him and estimating possible trajectories based on physics. Amita and Matt were discussing the difficulties of writing a computer program to model Oja's walking path. David and Megan were enjoying some red wine, with David on the couch next to Matt and Megan standing by the window.

"Look at David and Matt," Will said under his breath.

Don looked closer and saw that David had his arm around Matt's shoulder – in public, with strangers around – and Matt didn't seem to be minding at all. In fact, Matt was leaning a little towards David and the hand of Matt's, the one that wasn't waving in the air as he talked, was resting on David's knee. Don gave Will a subtle thumbs-up and a smile.

"They're here!" Megan called.

Amita, Matt and Joseph immediately stopped talking and stood up, but Larry continued unabated, "… the degree of angular displacement is affected by linear elasticity, as I'm sure you're aware, but—"

"Larry, they're here," Megan repeated and the physicist stopped talking and blinked at her.

"Who? Oh, right," Larry said. "I was merely stating that—"

Whatever else Larry was 'merely stating' was lost in the general rush of people towards the front door. By the time Don scooped up Ojas and give him to his father, and then made his way through the others, Colby and Charlie were already getting out of the car.

Colby looked tired but energized, just like he did after a successful raid, especially one that involved shooting. Charlie looked somewhat dazed and disoriented. Nena got out, looking grumpy.

"Nena!" Will called.

Nena perked up and ran to Will. Will lifted her up into the air.

"I haven't seen you in ages," Will said, setting her down again and giving her a big hug. "Did you bring anything back from Portland?"

Nena grinned at him. "A t-shirt."

Will grinned back. "Is that all?"

"No," Nena laughed. "Some chocolate."

"Anything else?"

Meanwhile, Alan had climbed out of the car, a big smile on his face. Colby and Charlie ducked back in the car and Charlie came back out with a small bundle.

Charlie had hardly set foot on the sidewalk when he was surrounded. Everyone wanted to see the baby, even Ojas. Charlie pulled aside a flap of blanket and there he was, little and cute and very much an Eppes.

"Whoa, déjà vu, Dad," Don said.

"Yes!" Alan beamed. "He looks just like Charlie when we brought him home."

"The worst day of my life," Don teased. He made his way through the crowd to put his arm around Charlie.

"Good job, bro," Don said with a squeeze. "How was the plane trip?"

"Loud," Nena said from her where she was standing and swinging on Will's hands.

"He didn't like it?" Don asked.

"Take-off was the worst," Colby said. "We had the bottle ready in time for landing."

"Did—Hey, where's Evie?"

"Dropped her off at her place," Alan said. "She'll unpack and be over later."

"After the party …" Charlie said pointedly.

Don winced and looked at all the people cooing and commenting over the baby. "We just all wanted to share in your homecoming."

"So, maybe we could go inside then?"

"Oo, grouchy," Don said. "It must be a whole 70 degrees out here, too cold for a baby."

Charlie glared at him and Don grimaced an apology and said, "Inside everyone." He knew that Charlie had to be feeling stressed and stung-out and he wasn't helping. I can be a better uncle than that!

"Go ahead," Don told Charlie and Colby. "I'll get the suitcases."

"We want to hear the whole story of his arrival!" Megan said. "We've just heard pieces."

"Okay, maybe not the whole story," David said. "There are parts I'd be happy to never know."

"Me, too," Matt said with feeling. Everyone laughed and people started to make their way back inside.

"There's cake," Will told Nena.

Nena instantly let go of Will and wormed her way through the others to get inside as fast as possible.

"You haven't had lunch yet!" Colby called, then gave an all-purpose shrug and shepherded Charlie and the baby inside.

"Worst day of your life, eh?" Will asked Don quietly.

"I thought that way for a while, yeah," Don admitted, then grinned. "But the little brat is starting to grow on me."

"It's just taken thirty-plus years?"

"I promise not to take as long with the new one." Don pulled out one heavy suitcase, set in down on the sidewalk and reached for another. "What are the odds that he'll be another Charlie?"

"No one is ever a copy of another person. Parents have tried. Really hard."

Don grimaced at the reminder of Will's childhood but continued, "I mean, what are the odds that he'll be a math genius?"

"Pretty darn small."

"But not zero."

"No. Maybe this genetics place they used will find out how much 'math' passes on through genes."

"True." Don hefted an ugly diaper bag over one shoulder and then grinned. "It would serve Charlie right, though, to get a super genius and have to deal with that."

"Maybe he'll be a superstar basketball player."

Don laughed, shifted the diaper bag and picked up a suitcase. "With Eppes genes? Not gonna happen."

Will took two suitcases and they made their way up the sidewalk. "He could be a superstar FBI agent."

"Oh, man," Don said, shaking his head. "Wouldn't Dad love that!"

Inside the house, the party was just getting started. Nena was hovering around the cake with a cake knife, moaning that she was 'dying of hunger'. David and Joseph were bringing out a pile of presents while Amita was trying to get some small object away from Ojas. Megan was holding Gabriel and Larry was, for some reason, talking about wormholes. Alan and Matt were bringing in extra chairs for the dining room table.

"Looks like things aren't going to quiet down here anytime soon," Don said wryly. Will started to respond and Don continued, "I know, I know. It's just going to get louder. "

Will grinned. "I think the cats are hiding."

Charlie stood in the semi-darkness of the nursery and watched Gabriel sleep. The tiny baby was exhausted from all the travel and noise. There was a reason why they hadn't wanted a party, but it seemed to have worked out okay. Gabriel hadn't minded being passed around for the first hour of the party, especially when whoever held him also held a bottle. Eventually he'd started fussing and Charlie had whisked him away from the visitors and introduced him to the nursery. He'd been unimpressed with the mural and other decorations but had liked Charlie rocking him in the rocking chair. Colby had come in and turned off all the lights but a small nightlight and then had turned on some soft music for white noise. When Gabriel had fallen asleep, Colby had gently lifted him out of Charlie's arms and settled him in his crib. Both Charlie and Colby had held their breaths for a minute until it seemed like the transfer had been successful.

"Goodnight, Gabriel," Charlie whispered as they watched the baby settle. "Your daddies love you."

Colby wrapped his arms around Charlie from behind. "It's an amazing thing we've done," Colby murmured in Charlie's ear.

"We had a lot of help," Charlie whispered back.

"We still will, Angel," Colby said, tightening his arms. "But he's ours. That's pretty amazing, I think."

"Yeah." Charlie leaned back against Colby. In a few hours, Gabriel would wake up and cry and demand some more milk and probably have one of those nasty, smelly diapers. Colby and Charlie would be neck-deep in it then, no room-service, midday naps or helpful birth-center attendants. They'd both have to get back to work to pay for the bills they'd been accumulating and would continue to accumulate. Colby would have to resist getting Nena everything that caught his eye. Charlie would need to be more aggressive than he'd like in going after grants and publications. They'd both sacrifice some of the niceties and comforts of life for a while, but Charlie knew that would be the last thing on their mind for quite some time.

"Remember this moment," Colby said softly, reading Charlie's mind like only he could. "The night we brought Gabriel home. The night we added the missing piece to our family."

"Love you," Charlie whispered, gripping Colby's hands in his own. "More and more each day."

"Infinity plus one," Colby murmured.

Charlie chuckled under his breath. "You know I hate that phrase."

"Love you, too," Colby said and gave him another squeeze.

They stood like that, holding each other in the near-darkness with the soft strains of a lullaby washing over them. They stood silently, watching Gabriel's tiny chest rise and fall with each breath, and felt absolutely, utterly, complete.