Baby it's cold outside

Standing on the other side of the nurse desk, she was typing in the journal on another child that had been admitted three weeks ago. It finally seemed like the treatment was starting to work, which would mean that the small girl could go home to her family. Even if she had missed Christmas. Sophia looked up as she heard Diego address her. A small smile formed on her lips, noticing how he had almost called her by her name. “I’ll come check on him on a moment, then we can assess the best plan for him, but with children we typically would like to observe them a little longer. However,” she let out a small sigh, and placed her elbows on the desk, folding her hands together.  “Given that he is a werewolf and that he seems awake and alert, I’m hopeful that you can do so as soon as I’ve just checked up on his vitals and made sure that everything is fine, I'm confident that you will get him home soon” she added, nodding before turning her gaze towards the screen again.
Now it wasn’t because she didn’t want to discuss the unsaid things between them. Apologise and maybe find a way to mend what they had broken. Especially for their daughter’s sake. But it wasn’t the time nor the place to do so. “If there is nothing else?” she asked, lifting her head again letting out a small breath of air.

Diego nodded a little as she assured that she would check up on him in a moment. He folded one of his hands around the other, which had been folded into a slightly nervous wrist. He simply wanted Derek home as quickly as possible, though he of course wanted him to get the best treatment possible. He smiled a little wider as he mentioned there was a however. “Thank you,” he said with a more confident nod and an even wider smile. He stood a little conflicted for a moment because he too knew there were things that needed to be discussed and mended, but was this the right place to do so? Besides she was working. “Yeah, I’ll let you be,” he said with a nod before he turned around and walked back towards Derek’s room where Danica sat with him.
“Rawr!” he roared as he got in, which made the little boy jump followed by a joyful laughter as Diego ran into his son’s assigned room and started tickling his boy, which made the book they were reading jumping a little up and down, which made the pages flap a little. At some point he lessened how much he was tickling the boy giving him a kiss on the side of the temple, “Mhmm, my boy,” he mumbled with a voice full of love, followed by running a hand over the curly hair, before he straightened a little up and gave Danica a kiss on the cheek. “What have you been reading?” he wondered, looking down at his boy before he looked at the book.

Diego even made Danica jump a little, when he entered the room with such a roar. A laugh left her, especially as she heard and saw how much joy it brought Derek. She turned her eyes, looking adoringly at Diego. For a moment, she had completely forgotten what had transpired before this. Because right now, she was simply just filled with love for the two werewolves in the room.
She closed her eyes, as she felt his lips against her cheek. Then she turned her eyes towards the book and picked it up. “Well, we were reading about Jack and the beanstalk, weren’t we Derek?” he quickly nodded and started explain into great detail how Jack had traded his cow for five magic beans, and his mother had gotten so angry. And now he was climbing up the giant beanstalk to see what was up in the sky. She couldn’t help but look at Derek, there was using his hands to show the things that he tried to explain with words he might not really understand yet. A couple of times Danica had to help him with some words, but other than that, then it was clear how bright a little boy he was.

Diego noticed how Danica jumped a little, also being surprised by Diego’s sudden appearance. It joyed him a little. He looked from the book and up at Danica as she explained what they were reading. Diego corrected his gaze to Derek as he suddenly started to explain the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. He kept his eyes on his son, completely mesmerized by the story Derek told – or maybe just how smart he was. He was so proud of his son, and it was painted all over his face, nodding, verbally agreeing, and asking questions and even asked Derek for his own opinion and reflection of different things. He did everything to make his son think as vividly as possible. He didn’t want his son to have as narrow an imagination as he himself had had. He even shortly looked up at Danica, whenever she helped with words. It was something so wholesome about the moment – except for how they had gotten where they were right now.

She was reminded how she had been as a mother. It was still such an extraordinary feeling to have forming in your chest, especially after how deep down in the gutter she had been when she had met Diego the first time. A meeting that many wouldn’t believe, when they saw the two of them together now. Sometimes she had a hard time believing it herself, and therefore also understood the concern of those people that she had shared the experience with. But things would get better, she had to believe it, because there was no way that she wanted to go back to what she had once been. If anything, it had strengthened her belief in something greater in herself. Besides, it seemed like her brother needed family to be there to help him up again. She still had a hard time believing that he was almost twenty years prior her.
There was a knock on the door and Sophia stepped into the room with a bright smile on her lips when she looked at Derek. “Well, are we ready to go home?” she asked, keeping her eye contact with the little man that nodded eagerly. He reminded her so much of Mateo, it was almost pressing painfully down on her heart. But she couldn’t let herself fall into old wounds and memories. She walked over and handed Danica the form. “If you’ll please read and sign the release forms, and then you’ll be ready to leave” Sophia explained, and for a moment Danica was stunned by the fact just how well this fallen angel knew Diego, her eyes wondered towards him. How else could she explain the fact that she had gotten the forms to read and not Diego? Not that Sophia did know if Diego had learned to write or read yet, but it felt nicer to just give Danica them instead of Diego having to hand over the papers anyway.
When they were signed, she took them again giving all three a small smile. “Keep each other safe” she said, before turning around leaving. “Ready to go?” Danica breathed out, as she got out of the bed and started packing together the stuff they needed.

Diego looked up when Sophia entered the room. He had felt how she had approached from far away. He looked back at his son when he nodded eagerly. It was incredible how Derek could make Diego so, so soft. But maybe it was because he didn’t want to lose a child again, even though it was in a completely different way. Diego didn’t even protest or anything when Sophia handed a form to Danica to make her read and sign. It wasn’t after all something Diego was capable of, even though there were some letters he could recognize and did know how to sign things, but one would be questioning whether it was Derek or Diego who had signed caused by the handwriting. He remembered how when Sophia and he had met many years ago, he could none of that. He had made progress, even though it was small.
Diego gave the angel a confident and assuring nod as she told them to keep each other safe. “Of course,” he spoke softly, almost about to tell her to keep herself safe too, but he knew that she was safe and that she knew that he wished that for her. “Ready as ever, right boy?” he asked and got up from his seat opening his arms for his son who was quick to jump into his father’s arms, wrapping arms and legs around him. Diego chuckled a little before he tried to tickle his son a little, making the boy scream in a laugh. It also made Diego cautious of maybe keeping it down a little. “Is there anything I can carry?” he wondered looking towards Danica but was ready to interlock his fingers with hers and head out and home.

Danica chuckled and then started gathering the things that Derek had been wearing. There wasn’t all that much, because they had been driving as soon as something had been seeming off. “No, you just take care of this little monster” she hummed with a cheeky grin as she let her fingers tickle Derek for a few seconds before she let her hand fall and placed a kiss against Diego’s cheek. “Come, let’s go home” she whispered, wanting nothing more than to just fall back into the couch had forget this whole day. Because nothing about it had been great, because she had ended up putting Derek in danger, now Lauren was going to jail. Something she really didn’t want, but she couldn’t keep protecting the girl, and hopefully this would be a wakeup call for her. If not, she wasn’t sure what would make Lauren see the error of her ways. If she would ever want to become clean, because there wasn’t really anything in her life driving her to stop using.
She walked back to the car in silence, not really noticing the many people around them. Her thoughts somewhere else completely. When they finally reached the car, she took Derek and placed him in his car seat in the back, making sure that everything was secure, she suddenly felt fingers grabbing her nose. She looked up with wide eyes as Derek showed how he had taken her nose. A laugh left her, and she quickly grabbed it back before she smothered him with kisses.

“Monster?” Diego gasped and looked at his son in his arms. “What kind of monster have you been while I’ve been gone?” he continued to ask his son with a flabbergasted voice, which made the boy laugh. A smile formed on Diego’s lips as he received a kiss from Danica onto his cheek. “Let’s,” he agreed before he received a kiss on the cheek by his son, which made him laugh, almost like a Santa Claus.
With his son in his arms, he walked next to Danica to the car. For every step they took, he could feel how the stress started leaving him, and it certainly got him tired. He let her take their son and while she got him addressed in his seat he leaned up against the car, just resting for a moment. God, how he felt worn out for the day. A smile bloomed on his lips as he heard how both Danica and Derek laughed. Feeling a little restrained he managed to open the door to the front seat and put himself into the driver’s seat before he turned around to look at how fair Danica had gotten with the little monster.

When she was finally done, she leaned down and smothered Derek with kisses, before giving her a smaller one against his forehead. How he had stolen her heart, much like his father. “There we go, all set up to get home” she said, not really taking her eyes away from the small guy in his seat. But after a while she pulled herself away and closed the door and got herself to the front seat and got in. As she leaned to put in the seatbelt she looked up, giving Diego a soft smile; “It’s going to be good to get back” she whispered, before she clicked the belt in and leaned back in her seat. Feeling how relief washed over her. When they had driven towards the hospital, her mind had gone a thousand kilometers on how things could turn out, and some of them had her in handcuffs on the way to the precinct. But luckily, she was on her way home instead, feeling the bond between her and Diego stronger than ever. Now she just hoped that Julianne would just let the matter rest, and they wouldn’t have to fight for Derek to stay in Diego’s care the next couple of months, maybe year even. If anything, she could call Zitora and ask if she knew any one that could help with the matter, if she wasn’t available herself.

When Danica had gotten Derek into his seat and closed the door, he turned and grabbed his seatbelt to get himself fastened. Diego looked towards Danica as she got her seatbelt on too, “Indeed,” he said before he turned to the wheel. Shortly, he looked over his shoulder to check that everything seemed to be alright with Derek before he turned on the engine and started driving. It was quite nice to have to concentrate on driving, because it made him relax in another way than when he had been in the hospital. As soon as he was on a straight road where he didn’t have to shift gears, he let his hand grab Danica’s and caressed it.

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Out