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Andrea had a right to be worried.
Carlos hadn’t answered her calls all morning. She had wanted to verify when Carlos was coming over, and after he hadn’t responded to her texts, she began to call, and still he didn’t answer. When he finally did, he sounded exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days. She’d asked if he was okay, if he needed to cancel the family lunch with Tia Lucy, and Carlos had coughed awkwardly and stammered out a strange apology before admitting he was sick. She asked if he was okay, what was wrong, if he needed her to come over, but none of her questions got a concrete answer except the last one, a resounding no. It had unsettled her, that Carlos was avoiding her questions and almost pleading with her to leave him alone. He sounded nothing more than tired, but Dios, how bad was it that he felt he couldn’t even tell her what he was sick with? She tried to get any more answers out of him, desperate for any kind of reassurance, but Carlos made a strange sound and quickly hung up the phone. She hadn’t been able to get a hold of him since.
So, yeah. Andrea Reyes had a damn right to be worried.
She let her husband know what was going on as she quickly shifted from cooking ropa vieja to her tried and true homemade soup. At first, Gabriel was skeptical, but after he’d also spent so long trying to talk to Carlos to ensure he was okay, and only getting a brief I can’t talk now, I’m sorry, before Carlos hung up the phone… Well, Gabriel was also sufficiently worried. And while Andrea knew he would have left it alone if it was just himself, she was Carlos’ mother, and that meant Gabriel knew he shouldn’t fight her on this.
Andrea put together the soup so that it only needed to be brought to a boil for a bit before it could be eaten (emergencies such as this called for cutting corners) and they put the soup into the car’s backseat, and Gabriel drove the two of them to Carlos’ condo in the city.
“Mi amor,” Gabriel said as he drove. “I’m sure he’s fine. You know Carlos, he probably just doesn’t want to worry you.”
“The less he tells me, the more I worry.” Andrea said firmly.
Gabriel nodded, acquiescing. “I know. But he’s a grown man, and he’s always been independent. He probably didn’t want you to come over.”
“Then he would tell me what was going on,” Andrea snapped back. She sighed, frustrated. “The only thing he’s done is assured me that he does not have a handle on whatever he has. What if he’s really sick, Gabriel? He’s my son. ”
“I know,” Gabriel said, his grip on his calm loosening, giving way to his own concern. “We will go and see what’s wrong. But it’s probably nothing.”
Andrea hummed, but neither said anything else and they slipped into a tense, but comfortable silence. The rest of the drive was easy, and Andrea was relieved to see Carlos’ Camaro in the drive. That meant he was home. She wasn’t sure where else he would be, but at least it meant she knew she could get eyes on her boy faster.
They collected the uncooked soup from the back seat and made their way to the front door. Gabriel knocked hard against the wood, and they waited for nearly a full minute before there was the sound of someone rushing to the door. It swung open, revealing a perfectly healthy Carlos.
“Ma? Dad?” He asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. The shock on his face was clear, and it stung just a bit to see it. “What, uh…” He swallowed and asked slowly, “What are you guys doing here?”
“We brought soup,” Andrea offered, holding up the container.
Carlos eyed it, then looked back at the two of them. “Um… thanks.”
They stood there for a moment, watching each other. Finally, Andrea asked, “Can we come in?”
He nodded, then opened the door for them. He took the container of soup from Andrea with a nod and a thanks, and the couple took the time Carlos had his back turned to look around the condo and see if they spied anything amiss. Andrea couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something strange. There was something different.
“You really didn’t have to come by,” Carlos said awkwardly. “Everything is fine here.”
“Well, our son was sick. We wanted to come see him.” Andrea gave him a pointed look, and watched Carlos avert his gaze to the floor as a blush rose to his cheeks. “You don’t look very sick to me.”
Carlos nodded. Swallowed. Took a deep breath in, held it, let it out slowly. “I’m not sick.”
Andrea raised her brows, mouth tightening. She watched her son at his spot by the dining table, where he fidgeted uncomfortably. She had her back to Gabriel, who was standing close at her shoulder, but she wasn’t sure if he was portraying anger the way she was. “We can see that, Carlos. So what is going on?” He opened his mouth, and she added, “The truth, Carlos Reyes.”
Carlos nodded again, and the anxiety on his face was plain as day. It made Andrea want to cry, knowing that she made her son so anxious. “The truth…” He cleared his throat. Took another deep, slow breath. “The truth is…”
There was a creak on the stairs, and before Andrea could even turn to see what it was, Carlos was brushing past them. She turned in time to see Carlos catch a man on the bottom stair as he chastised, “TK, what are you doing out of bed?”
“You didn’t come back,” the man whined. Andrea took the time that Carlos was staring at him in shock to take in the newcomer–TK. He was wrapped in Carlos’ duvet, tucked over his head and swaddled tight around his body. His face was pale, though his cheeks and nose were red and the skin under his eyes was dark. His voice was stuffy, and a cough rattled from deep in his chest.
“TK,” Carlos said admonishingly. “I told you I’d be back.”
“You said you’d be gone for a minute,” TK shot back, as angry as he could be. “But you weren’t! You were gone for way more than a minute.”
“I did not mean it literally, TK,” Carlos muttered, though the frustration was gone from his voice the moment TK swayed forward. Carlos gasped and wrapped his arms around TK’s padded form, saying, “Come on, let’s get you on the couch.”
TK coughed harder than he had before, sounding like something was trying desperately to come up but was stuck in his chest. He whined as Carlos led him to the couch, then tugged at Carlos’ shirt until he fell beside him. TK slumped into Carlos’ side, and Carlos pressed his lips to TK’s forehead. His brows furrowed in concern. “You’re burning up, Ty.”
TK gave nothing but a weak cough and a pitiful groan in reply.
Carlos rubbed what Andrea assumed was TK’s arm as he thought, then he sighed and pressed another kiss to TK’s sweaty hairline. “I’m gonna go get the first-aid kit, okay?”
TK made a sound that pulled at Andrea’s heart, and he held tight to Carlos’ shirt with surprising strength. “No, don’t go.”
“TK, your fever’s back, you need your meds.”
“I don’t need anything, I just need you, please.”
“TK, I’ll only be gone a minute.”
“That’s what you said last time!” Carlos sighed, and Andrea was alarmed to see tears filling TK’s eyes. “Please don’t go, don’t leave me, please.”
“I’ll get it.” Carlos jumped and turned in tandem with Andrea to see Gabriel, and they both watched as he shrugged and gestured to the stairs. “I’ll get the kit. Just tell me where it is.”
Carlos stared for a moment, then relaxed into the couch and nodded. “The kit is on my nightstand by my bed. There should be four prescriptions next to it; two bottles of pills, one bottle of cough syrup, and an inhaler. Oh, and I’m not sure if the thermometer is in the kit or beside it, so you should double-check that it’s in there.”
Gabriel nodded and disappeared up the stairs without another word. Andrea turned back to her son, and the man who had so clearly caught his heart (and an infection).
“Carlos, I’m hungry.”
The relief on Carlos’ face was something Andrea had rarely ever seen before. She couldn’t describe the way he went boneless for a moment, eyes closed and body relaxing. “That’s good, TK. You need to eat something.”
TK huffed, then coughed. The cough kept coming, and Carlos sat them both up. Gabriel came down in time for Carlos to be able to snatch the kit from his father’s hands, rifle through it, and stuff an emesis bag under TK’s mouth right before he coughed up a yellow glob of phlegm. A moment later, TK was gasping to catch his breath, and Carlos coached him through it until TK was able to relax again.
“Ugh,” he said eloquently.
Carlos raised his brows and huffed a laugh. He turned to Gabriel and thanked him for the kit, then pulled out the thermometer. He gently patted TK’s cheek and said, “Babe, open up.”
TK grunted, face screwing up in displeasure. “Not now, Carlos, I’m not in the mood.”
“It’s a thermometer, TK, get your mind out of the gutter.” Carlos shot back, sounding appalled, while Andrea tried very hard not to think about what else that could have meant. TK slit an eye open to see the thermometer, then closed it again and opened his mouth. As Carlos took his temperature, Andrea made herself busy. Her son may not be sick, but his boyfriend was, and judging by the looks of him, he’d need her miracle soup.
She’d just put the soup on the stove to cook when she heard the thermometer go off and heard Carlos mutter, “102.6. That explains it.”
“Is that bad?” TK muttered.
Andrea rounded the counter in time to see the incredulous look on Carlos’ face as he said, “Not as bad as the fact that my paramedic boyfriend doesn’t know the answer to that question.”
“Ha. Joking.” TK coughed slightly and winced at Carlos’ unimpressed glare. “Sorry, bad timing.”
Carlos sighed and shook his head. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, and Andrea could hear the buzzing it made. “It’s your dad,” he told TK as he hit the green accept button and put it on speaker. “Hey, Owen.”
“Hey, Carlos! How’s T–”
The man on the phone was cut off by an absolutely terrible cough, and they all winced as TK hacked his way through another fit. Carlos thrusted the emesis bag under his chin once again, but nothing came up this time. Eventually, the coughing subsided, and TK sat back, drained. Carlos watched him for a moment, then asked, “That answer your question?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” said the man on the phone. TK’s father. Owen. Because apparently her son was on a first name basis with the father of the boyfriend Andrea didn’t even know he had. “You want us to drop by with the bus?”
Carlos assessed his boyfriend with his gaze before answering, “I think that’s a good idea. Just for some nutrients and some fever reducers.”
“On our way,” Owen said before they hung up.
TK coughed and leaned back into Carlos’ side, seemingly unable to hold himself up anymore. “I don’t like this.”
Carlos sighed and pressed his face to TK’s duvet-covered head as he held him.
“Gabriel,” Andrea said softly. He turned to her, and she gestured to the kitchen. He followed her, and they stood at the stove for a moment and just listened as the boys whispered to each other on the couch.
“I’m sorry, Carlos.”
Andrea could hear the frown in Carlos’ voice as he said, “What? Why?”
“Your parents,” TK answered plainly. “I didn’t mean to.”
Carlos sighed and there was the sound of movement on the couch. It settled and Carlos said, “You have nothing to apologize for, TK. It’s not your fault. And I would never, ever be mad at you for needing me.”
“Even if it outed our relationship to your parents?”
“Even then.”
There was a short silence, then TK huffed. “I hate this.”
“I know, mi amor. But I’m here to help you through it. And your team–” The knock on the door interrupted them, and Carlos said, “is here.”
TK whined. “Don’t go.”
“Ty, I have to open the door.”
Andrea and Gabriel shared a look, and Gabriel went to open the door while Carlos got TK to sit up. Andrea shuffled back into the living room after checking on the soup, and she watched three first responders shuffle into the house like they’d been here before. Hell, maybe they had.
“Hey, TK,” the older woman said.
“Hi, Cap.”
“Hi, Tommy,” Carlos added. He shifted, and TK’s hand shot out to grab onto his shirt. Carlos eased his grip and said, “I’m not going anywhere, I’m just sitting up to help out.”
The captain, Tommy, smiled at the two of them. “He’s been trouble?”
Carlos shrugged and smirked at his boyfriend as he lowered the cover from his head. “He’s manageable.”
“Don’t go into detail please,” the younger paramedic said. Carlos raised a brow at her, and she rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything else.
As the paramedics took his vitals, the three first responders introduced themselves to the elder Reyeses; there was Captain Tommy Vega, her paramedic Nancy, who also called herself TK’s work partner, and Captain Owen Strand, TK’s father.
“I just tagged along so I could check on my boy,” he explained as he ran a hand through TK’s hair. The man leaned his head into the touch. “How’s he been?”
“Grouchy,” Carlos answered easily, paying no attention to the side eye that earned him. Instead, he just offered his boyfriend a bright smile.
Tommy smiled at the two of them as she rested her stethoscope around her neck. “Bacterial pneumonia will do that to a person.”
“Especially if that person is TK,” Owen offered with a smile, even as he continued petting through his son’s hair. “When he gets sick, he’s always been, oh, what’s the word?”
“Cranky? Clingy? Needy? Snappy?” Carlos offered easily.
TK glared at him. “I thought you loved me.”
“With my whole heart,” Carlos said, “you’re a cuddly monster when you’re sick. Don’t even deny it, Strand, you glared at me when I left to answer the front door.”
“You didn’t come back!”
“It was two minutes.”
“Two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, which is a whole minute and thirty-seven seconds longer than you said you’d be!” TK was working himself up, and he launched right into a coughing fit. Carlos lurched forward to steady him, running a hand up and down his spine, whispering soft words as TK coughed.
After the fit subsided, Tommy gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’d say it’s best to avoid any excitement for a while. Just until you can keep your breath, okay?”
Carlos nodded and answered for them both, “Yes, ma’am.” He turned to his boyfriend and pressed a kiss to his temple, muttered, “I’m sorry, TK.”
TK sighed and leaned heavily against Carlos’ side. “I’m sorry, too. I know I’m cranky. And needy.”
“And I will happily fulfill every need you could possibly have. I wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re my everything, baby.”
“Besides,” Nancy said fondly, “you deserve to be a little clingy after you tried to save a boy from drowning and instead he just ended up using you as a floatie.”
“He was scared,” TK defended weakly.
“He held your head under water,” Owen shot back.
“Not as bad as the kid who shot him last year,” Nancy shot back, to Andrea’s surprise. Tommy simply chuckled at the exchange.
Carlos had a strange look that, at first, Andrea couldn’t name. Then, she realized exactly what it was: fear. Even at the mere mention of what happened, of TK being in danger, Carlos looked terrified. He squeezed TK closer to his chest and pressed a kiss to his sweaty hair, then glanced over at his parents. If it was possible, he somehow looked even more scared, as if Andrea and Gabriel were a threat. The idea of him being afraid of them, for whatever reason, stole Andrea’s breath away. She stood and went to the kitchen under the guise of checking the soup. Gabriel followed.
“I don’t know what we did wrong,” he said softly.
Andrea stirred the pot of soup as she stood, silent, unsure of what to say. She didn’t know, either. Apparently, her son’s boyfriend almost died, and he felt he couldn’t tell her. Carlos felt the need to lie to them so he could stay home and take care of his boyfriend. Carlos was on a first name basis with the man’s father, and she didn’t even know he existed. She didn’t know what they’d done wrong, but it was apparent that there was something.
“How do we fix this?” Andrea asked softly. She turned to her husband, seeing her own pain mirrored in his face. “I don’t even know where we went wrong, how do we fix this?”
Gabriel gathered her against his chest and she sighed, calming at the familiar scent of her lover. “I don’t know,” he said calmly, “but we’ll figure it out.”
Andrea scoffed and pulled away from their embrace. She turned back to the soup just for something else to do. “Our son felt he had to lie when his boyfriend is on death’s door, meanwhile he’s on a first name basis with his father. His boyfriend was shot; he told us that last year, that a coworker was shot, but it was his boyfriend. He couldn’t even tell us his boyfriend was in a damn coma. I don’t know how we can fix this.”
“There’s still time,” he said. He pressed a hand to her back, and she sighed again and leaned into the touch. “He’s our son. There’s still time.”
Andrea shook her head, then moved to the cabinet where Carlos typically kept his bowls. Instead, she found snacks. She took a moment, staring at the food before her, food she knew Carlos would never eat. Food his boyfriend must eat. Pre-packaged cookies and bags of granola and… boxed oat milk? Dios, her son must really love this man if he was buying boxed oat milk.
“The bowls are in the cabinet by the sink.”
Andrea jumped and whipped around to see her son, standing by the island, looking strangely out of place in his own kitchen. He nodded to the cabinet in question and added, “TK made a point about how it made more sense for the dishes to be closer to the dishwasher.”
She nodded, trying not to let it show how surprised she was that this man had convinced her son to reorganize at least part of his kitchen. “Well, he’s right about that,” she said shakily as she went to the cabinet beside the kitchen window. “I will never understand why you put your dishes all the way across the kitchen.”
“Easier to grab them to eat,” he said, voice monotone and face blank.
Andrea didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything. She simply pulled out bowls for the soup, ignoring the way her hands trembled as she did. “Will his team be staying for lunch?”
Carlos was quiet for a moment before he said, “No, they’re just gonna stay until TK finishes the IV and gets his oxygen up a bit. Should be maybe an hour.”
She scoffed and shook her head, reaching for the bowls. “So, they’ll be staying through lunchtime, then.”
Carlos didn’t reply, just watched as she took the bowls back to the soup at the stove. Gabriel was standing awkwardly beside her, and she felt oddly uncomfortable knowing her son was watching her. It used to comfort her, knowing her little boy liked to watch his mama in the kitchen, liked to soak up anything he could learn from her. Now, she felt like she was one slip up away from ruining everything she’d ever had with her youngest child.
“You should probably wait,” Carlos finally spoke up. Andrea glanced up at him from where she was deeming the soup complete. He continued, “They’re out in the ambulance right now, so TK can sit with the oxygen mask for a little while.”
Andrea nodded and turned off the stove, though didn’t move the soup off the burner. “You didn’t go with him?”
He shook his head slowly. “No. His dad took my spot. TK figured maybe we should… talk. The three of us.”
Andrea nodded and set the ladle down gently on Carlos’ holder. She noticed another one on the left side of the stove, but figured she would ask about it later. “You have a boyfriend.”
Carlos’ voice was oddly detached as he said, “I do.”
“For how long?” Gabriel asked next.
The couple watched their son as he hesitated. He had his eyes on the floor, the big brown eyes that Gabriel always said he’d gotten from his mother. Now, as she was looking at them, she thought the hard, emotionless set to them was all his father.
“It depends when you start counting,” Carlos finally settled on. “But officially, it’s been about nine months.”
Andrea held her breath, not wanting an answer to the next question. But if he’d been keeping this for so long, and his ‘coworker’ had gotten shot nine months ago, and that was officially , then… “And… unofficially? How long?”
Carlos bit his lip, tucked his hands into his pockets with a one-shouldered shrug. “About a year and three months.”
Andrea gasped, and Carlos squeezed his eyes shut as Gabriel’s hand shot out to steady her.
“You’ve been seeing this boy for over a year?” She asked. “And you never told us?”
“I didn’t think you wanted to know,” he shot back, finally looking at them. There was a hint of defiance in his eyes that she almost didn’t even recognize.
“What is that supposed to mean, huh?” Gabriel’s voice was rough, and he sounded angry, but Andrea knew from his tone that he was so, very hurt. She hoped Carlos knew the difference, too.
From the looks of it, he did not.
Carlos looked angry now, his hands out by his sides as he gave an incredulous shrug. “I came out to you when I was seventeen, and we never talked about it again. You never asked me about anyone I’m seeing or when I’m gonna settle down like you always asked Louisa or Ana, I figured you didn’t want to know. I thought… I thought you were okay with me being gay when you could just… ignore it. I didn’t know how you’d react if I told you.”
Andrea was shocked silent. Gabriel, however, spoke with a weak, thready voice. “We… we don’t care, mijo. We love you, we always have, and we always will. You being who you are, it… it doesn’t change anything.”
“Who I am?” Carlos asked incredulously. He scoffed. “You can’t even say it. You can’t even say out loud that I’m gay, and I’m dating a man. I have a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend, I’m going to have a husband instead of a wife, and you can’t even say it out loud!”
“You think we care about any of that?” Gabriel shouted. “We don’t care! We don’t care that you’re gay, we don’t care that you’re dating a man, we don’t care. We love you, Carlitos.”
“You’re our son,” Andrea added in a teary voice. “That’s all that matters to us.”
He stared at them, then shook his head. “It’s been twelve years. I’m almost twenty-eight years old. You never asked. You never cared that I didn’t say anything about being with someone? You didn’t ever think that I was dating?”
“We thought you knew,” Andrea said pitifully, but it sounded like a weak excuse to her own ears. “We thought you knew that we loved you. And we figured, maybe you were dating around, and if there was someone serious, you’d tell us when you found him.”
“Well, I found him,” Carlos said with a glare. “I found TK. And I intend to marry him one day. And I know that he wants to marry me, too.”
Andrea’s eyes filled with tears too quickly for her to blink away. “Mijo, I–that’s wonderful. That’s what we’ve always wanted for you.”
He nodded, blinking rapidly. “Well, it’s here. He’s here. And he’s my everything.”
“Good,” she said with a watery smile. “I am so, so happy to hear that.”
“Me too,” Gabriel chimed in. “If you want, maybe we could meet him sometime, more properly. When he’s not…” He waved his hand through the air. “You know, having trouble breathing.”
Carlos gave a weak smile. “I’d like that. He would too. He’s been dying to meet you guys.”
“You’ll have to let me know what he likes to eat,” Andrea said with growing excitement. Carlos nodded with a little laugh, and she took the few strides between herself and her son to gather him into her arms. She squeezed him tightly, and he held her, too. Gabriel clapped him on the shoulder and held his hand there, and she knew that, right now, that was the best they’d get from the stoic Ranger. She also knew that later, when Andrea was in bed and Gabriel was squirreled away in his office, he’d shed his own tears, knowing they made their son feel like he couldn’t come to them. But to their surprise, Gabriel wrapped an arm around them both, and held his wife and son.
Soon, they’d join the paramedics outside the bus, where TK would reach for Carlos the second his eyes landed on his boyfriend. Carlos would intercept him, would sit beside him and hold him through the discomfort of the IV in his arm and the oxygen mask on his face. Andrea and Gabriel would talk with the two captains while the other paramedic would chat with the boys in the rig. The captains would commend the Reyeses on raising such a wonderful man, and they would go on about how amazing their son was, how fantastic he was with TK, how great he was with the rest of the team. Owen, as he would insist they call him, would tell them about how much he loved Carlos, too, and how much he loved their boys together. He would joke about how long it took to convince Carlos to stop calling him ‘Captain Strand’ and just call him by his name, and he would add that the kid’s manners were something to behold. He would joke that he’d probably be kind to kidnappers while he was tied up in their basement, and Tommy would laugh and agree. Andrea would feel a new sense of pride in her son, in the way he charmed so many people, in the way he found camaraderie and love in, not just his boyfriend, but all the people his boyfriend loved. She would feel a relief from a fear she barely even realized she had, that Carlos was spending his time alone, that he didn’t have much of a social life now that Michelle and Iris had left. She would look at her son, at the man who so clearly found comfort in just his presence, and she would think the word soulmates with a certainty she had never felt before in her life.
For now, though, she held her little boy as her husband held them both, and she reveled in the knowledge that a tougher conversation would come later, but at least, for now, there was still time. This could all be fixed. She still had her son. And their relationship would only grow from here.