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Tommy feels like quitting.
Don't get him wrong. He loves his job, he does. There's nothing he loves more than getting on a helicopter and flying away, helping save people. That is, until he became a father.
He still loves his job and flying, but he loves his family more. And, sometimes, he really hates how much time his job keeps him away from them. Especially now that they are short on one pilot, so he and Jess keep taking turns to cover the calls until someone is deemed good enough to be transferred to Harbor. This means working overtime – financially good – and spending less time with his family – emotionally daunting.
He gets hourly updates from Evan on the girls, but he can't stop feeling like he's missing so much. Especially with Skye, she's so young, and he knows from experience how fast time flies with a baby. He finds it lucky that he didn't miss her first crawling or tentative steps – he did miss the full spring she did towards Evan's arms when he was out in the park with the girls, Maddie and Jee. Watching your daughter waddle-run towards her dad through a video is exciting, but not as much as watching it live.
He is almost taking matter into his own hands and finding a pilot himself so they can go back to their usual schedules. Anything to get him back to his family.
"Kinard," his captain calls out, coming from the office. Tommy looks up from where he was checking the supplies, making sure they had everything for a repair on a bird that was starting to show signs of failure. "Mind if I put you out of rotation for a few hours?"
"Ma'am?" He questions. They are shorthanded and she still wants him to play man behind if a call comes?
"We just had a last-minute request for some guided tour, and Jess really hates giving those," the woman tells him, which is not a secret to anyone. Jess loves talking about machinery, and the aircraft and all the mechanics, but she hates discussing them with people who don't understand, especially if they are... "There are two children and an adult." His captain supplies. Jess really shouldn't be near any of the guests.
"Yes, of course ma'am."
"Thank you, they should be arriving any... Oh, there they are." His captain smiles as she points and waves towards the newcomers. Tommy hears excited babbles and a too-familiar voice trying to contain them. And as he returns, he fights hard with tears as he watches Evan, holding little Skye in his left arm, while his right hand reaches for an excited Riley. "Take your time, Tommy." Susan tells him and walks away before he can say anything to her.
"Papa!" Riley screams excitedly as she lets go of Evan's hands and runs towards him. Tommy hopes she never stops doing that as he crouches down to take on the hit of her incoming hug. Ignoring all the curious looks his colleagues cast towards them before smiling affectionally at the moment between father and daughter.
"Hi, princess!" He says, squeezing her in his arms as he picks her up. Riley rests her head on his shoulder and hugs him as hard as she can with her tiny arms, that barely cover half of his broad shoulders. "Oh, that's a good hug!" He kisses the side of her head, while watching Evan getting closer. Skye squeals in excitement as she sees and recognizes him, arms reaching for him even though Evan is still quite out of reach.
"Think you have space for one more in there?" His husband asks, laughing at the antics of their youngest. Little does Evan know that, ever since they've decided to have a second baby, Tommy started to hit the gym harder, dreaming of this exact moment.
He reaches for both of them, even though he knows Evan will allow him to have his time with their babies. Skye comes easily and Riley adjusts herself in his arms so her sister can fit in. Tommy breathes both of them in, the soft smell of Skye’s baby shampoo, and Riley's mango one, it takes him back home as he closes his eyes and leaves a soft kiss on Skye's head.
"We missed you, papa," Riley tells him, sighing contently as she rests on his arm.
"I missed you too, baby," he tells her.
He opens his eyes to find Evan with the camera of his phone towards them and Tommy can’t help but smile and mouth a “thank you” before leaning down so Riley can go back to the ground as she starts to squirm. Evan just shrugs like that’s a given, the most obvious thing to do. It’s not so different from when Riley was only a few months old and someone from B-shift had to take some time off for some health issues and Evan offered to cover for them. Tommy did the exact same thing, taking advantage of a calm day at the station to go have lunch with Evan and take their daughter so the man could spend some quality – awake – time with her.
“They were driving me a bit crazy at home, not gonna lie,” the man confesses as he takes a step forward to give the pilot a kiss. Tommy chuckles because he can imagine the chaos, even though Evan tends to be very good at dealing with the kids and convincing them to collaborate. But, sometimes, kids just want to be kids. “It was either this or go to Maddie’s… Your captain said she could give you a couple of hours.”
“I appreciate it,” he says, cooing at Skye when she moves in his arms. The little girl gives him her toothless smile, his favorite, showing the two small pointy ends of her teeth starting to show. She laughs as he blows raspberries.
“Papa, can we see the pelicotepers?” Riley asks, tugging at his pants. He smiles at the word she still struggles with, even though Evan taught her it could also be called chopper, she insists on the hardest one.
“Sure, princess, come on,” he adjusts Skye on his arms and reaches for Riley, taking them to where the helicopters are, Evan walking next to him, looking around. No matter how many times he comes to see him at Harbor, he always looks excited, Tommy finds it adorable.
Lucy crouches down when she sees the family approaching, welcoming the tight hug Riley gives her and then spends some time asking her questions about how’s life lately, giving her every bit of her attention as Riley tells her about the latest gossip between the six-year-olds in her school. It never ceases to amaze him how much their close friends and family loves their kids, how they give their undivided attention whenever the girls demand it – Riley a lot more than Skye, but even the little one gets to be as spoiled as her older sister. Whenever Riley starts talking, whoever’s the target of her attention treats whatever subject with the utmost importance, like it’s a really big deal how Macey stole Jack’s favorite pencil during recess just because he put her foot out for her to trip when she was on her way to hand their teacher her homework.
Maybe because they are her parents, but even Tommy and Evan get tired of hearing her stories sometimes, and he loves her more than anything in the world. Once Lucy agrees that Macey’s reaction to Jack’s tripping hazard was very deserving, Riley gets her attention back to the helicopters and Lucy stands up and claps her hand to Skye, who reaches for the blonde woman and starts babbling away. She started speaking a few things a couple of months ago, but it’s just the basic “papa”, “dadda”, “Chiwee” – the last one caused a huge argument between Howie and Eddie about who was Skye’s favorite uncle, with Howie arguing that her saying his name first was the most obvious giveaway. Eddie still claims that Riley loves him more, and Tommy and Evan just agreed to never share that the first name she said was actually Ravi’s.
“Papa, can we fly it?” Riley asks, standing in front of the helicopter, near the landing skid. He goes to her, leaving Lucy and Evan catching up with a bubbly Skye, who tries to go down. Lucy crouches so she can help the little girl to stand up so she can get steady on her legs.
“Not today, baby,” Tommy tells his eldest, but grabs her so she can stand inside the cockpit.
Riley always loved the helicopters, and messing with the controls inside, making rotating-blades sound as if she’s actually flying. He has no idea where and when she heard a communication over the radio, but she loves to pretend she’s communicating with the tower and dispatch whenever she sits inside it. He makes sure the radio is off before reaching for it and doing a fake mouth-static.
“Is this Pilot Riley Kinard?” He fakes it and gives her the small device. Riley smiles big and reaches for it, imitating his mouth-static sound.
“Pilot Riley to tower,” she says, looking at him excited. She looks adorable with her dark blonde hair tied in two pigtails on either side of her head and her summer dress stamped with small flowers. She keeps playing with the buttons and pretending to talk with the tower.
“Tommy!” Evan calls for him, and he looks back, keeping his arms firm on the sides of the helicopter so Riley doesn’t fall, even though she’s sitting. He looks at where Evan and Lucy are crouched down, helping Skye to stand up, but his daughter is not with them anymore, instead, the little girl is, very slowly, waddling towards him on unsteady feet. Lucy has her phone out, probably filming the moment, while he crouches down to reach his arms out for the toddler approaching him.
Skye smiles big, clapping excitedly as she picks up her pace, almost falling, but reaching with both her hands on the floor to stop her tumble. Tommy encourages her, Evan is not far behind but letting her do her thing. Skye falls on Tommy’s arms when she gets closer and they all cheer.
“That’s my girl,” Tommy tells her, grabbing her in his arms and standing up. Skye looks at him with the biggest smile and Evan approaches them to hug them both and praise their daughter on her newest unlocked skill.
“Such a brave, good girl for taking her big steps,” he tells her when she coos at him. Riley claps excitedly from where she’s sitting.
“Where those really her first…”
“Yeah, I promise,” Evan tells him. “I mean, apart from that day at the park, she really didn’t try anymore. And that was a very small distance, I was practically by her side. This was a big run,” Evan assures him, ever the most caring person ever. They promised each other a long time ago that they would never keep their daughter’s firsts from the other if it happened while they weren’t together – which was very prone to happen. “She missed her papa so much she just had to run towards him.” Evan adds, causing tears to poll in Tommy’s eyes.
“Dork.”
“Sap,” Evan tells him back with a smile, leaning for a quick kiss before Skye interrupts them trying to reach for the helicopter.
“Come, Skye, you can me by po-pilot.”
“Co-pilot,” Evan corrects politely. “Be careful.”
“Yes, daddy,” she says, tone of her voice showing how used she is to hear him say those words.
They help Skye inside the helicopter, not missing the sound of Lucy’s phone going off as she takes a couple of pictures of the family near the machine, but ignoring her presence for the moment so they can enjoy the moment with the girls. Evan hugs him on the side, arms around his shoulders, and drops a chaste kiss on his temple. Tommy smiles, contentedly, squeezing his husband’s waist in response.
Maybe quitting is a too-drastic decision, after all.