Title: What really matters
Part: 1/1
Word Count: 3,077 (although WP tends to be off by a couple numbers usually)
Characters: Shaun, Zach, Cody.
Pairings: Shaun/Zach
Rating: PG
Genre: Fluffy family stuffs.
Warning: Spoilers for the movie, obviously.
Disclaimer: The movie, characters and actors are not mine. Which is rather disappointing.

Un-beta'ed, sorry. Any and all mistakes are my own (i'm known as the typo queen around friends), and i apologize for them.

Author's Note: This was written because i had a block while working on a fic for my Writing Meme and needed to step away from it for a moment. This is pretty much based in the same universe as my other two fics - All in a days work and Adays work is never done, where it's a year after the movie has ended and Cody's been adopted by the boys.

Summary: Shaun starts to lose his way but Cody and Zach remind him of what really matters.



Shaun was sitting in the den of his condo, staring at the screen on of computer. His case of writers block was really starting to annoy him, up too the point where he had actually started snapping at his family. Zach had gotten fed up with his snappy attitude the night before which ended in a bit of a row between the two men, both of them going to bed angry. When he woke up in the morning, he was disappointed to find Zach already gone. A short note left on the fridge let him know that the younger man had obviously not gotten over their fight, not that it said anything besides the fact the he was dropping Cody off at school and that he’d be late coming home. But Shaun could tell from the sharpness of the scrawl and the fact that it didn’t end with an ‘I love you’, that Zach was still mad.

It was mid morning, and he had written and re-written the same paragraph about twenty times. With a heavy sigh he snapped his laptop closed, not wanting to look at the damned machine any longer. It was moments like that, that made him wonder why in the hell he had ever decided to become a writer in the first place. He rubbed his tired eyes with one hand, looking at the clock. It was barely eleven, and already he wished the day would end. Getting up from where he sat, he walked into the kitchen lazily, his flip flops making a dragging sound as he walked.
He opened the fridge only to end up staring into it, the various shelves of food and colorful packaged afternoon snacks that Cody enjoyed all blurred into a smear of colors as he allowed his eyes to unfocus. He may have ended up standing there staring for the rest of the morning had it not been for the telephone suddenly ringing, snapping him out of his refrigerator stupor.

He quickly grabbed the receiver from the counter. “Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Andrews?” A woman’s voice rang out from the other end.

“Yes?”

“Hi, I’m calling from Cody’s school. He is in the nurse’s office and we’d like you to come pick him up.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Shaun asked as he started walking toward the door, picking up his keys as he went.

“Cody’s not feeling well, and we think it might be best if you took him to your family doctor.” The woman informed him in a rather official sounding tone of voice.

“I’m on my way.” Shaun said before hanging up and tossing the handset onto the table by the front door, quickly leaving the apartment.

Cody’s school wasn’t far from where they lived so the drive over was quick, although Shaun thought it could have been quicker.

Once there he walked into the front office and asked about Cody, the woman at the front desk told him where the nurse’s office was located and handed him a visitor’s pass once he signed in. No one was allowed to walk the school grounds without signing in first, just one of the many half assed attempts to keep the grounds safe from unwanted strangers. It was a system that Shaun doubted worked all that well, but he wasn’t about to voice that doubt, he just wanted to find out what was wrong with Cody.

He surprisingly found the nurse’s office without much trouble, knocking on the door he was met by an older woman in a white uniform. It sent his head for a spin, he didn’t know school nurse’s still had to wear those silly little uniforms.

“Mr. Andrews?” She asked.

“Yes, is Cody all right?” Shaun asked, walking into the room.

“He’s laying down.” The woman pointed to standing curtain divider, cutting the rest of the room off from where Cody was. “I took his temperature and he’s running quite a high fever, it think it’s best you took him to the doctor.” She informed, walking him over to Cody.

The little boy was laying down on a cot, his school bag and jacket on the floor next to it. His cheeks were flushed with a feverish red and his sandy hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat. He was pale and looked like he was about to pass out.

“Cody?” Shaun said softly, kneeling down next to the cot. “Hey buddy, you awake in there?” He said, running one of his large hands over Cody’s hair.

“Shaun?” The child’s voice was small and horse, and his eyes held a glassy look to them. “I don’t feel good.” He said softly.

“Yeah, I can tell buddy. Come here.” Shaun carefully picked the boy up in his arms, hugging him to his chest. He could feel the fever’s heat coming off of Cody’s body through his shirt, he was burning up. Cody just wrapped his arms around Shaun’s neck, his head resting on his broad shoulder. The nurse handed Shaun Cody’s things, and held the door open from him. With a quick stop at the office to sign out, the two were on their way.

Shaun hated having to place the child in his car seat in the back seat when he felt so horrible, but he knew that he had too. When Cody protested, he assured the little boy that it would be a fast drive and that he wouldn’t have to stay in the seat for too long. Of course even a short ride in the car when you felt sick wasn’t fun, and by the time they got home, Cody had begun to look a little green.

“My stomach hurts.” He said to Shaun as he was carried into the house, Shaun sitting him on the sofa in the living room so he could take his shoes off.

“I know, I’ll get you something to settle it in a second.” Shaun said, crouching down to untie Cody’s shoes. He had only gotten the first shoe off when Cody suddenly leaned forward and very unexpectedly vomited onto the floor, some of it catching the front of Shaun’s chest. He paused, leaning back as he looked down at himself. He knew a bit of kid puke wasn’t gonna kill him, but it was still a little gross.

Cody burst into tears, hugging his arms around his little body. “I’m sorry.” He sobbed, obviously embarrassed.

“Hey, it’s fine.” Shaun assured him, quickly and carefully pulling his shirt off and dropping it onto the ground. “See, all better.” He said, even though there was still a slightly damp spot on his grey undershirt where the bring-up had soaked through the t-shirt.

He continued to remove Cody’s other shoe and once again picked the little boy up, carrying him to his room. Cody was content to curl up against Shaun’s chest and weep, the flu that was wreaking havoc in his body obviously making him clingy. It took a bit of coaxing to finally convince the child to let go of Shaun’s neck and lay down in his bed. “I’ll be right back buddy, I’m just going to get you something to feel better.” He told the boy, quickly making his way too the bathroom. Shaun wasn’t use to having to deal with a sick kid, but he remembered the basics from watching his mother take care of Gabe when they were kids. It only took him a moment to locate the thermometer, some chewable asprin and a face cloth that he dampened with cold water. On the way back to the room he also swooped up the phone, figuring that he ought to call Zach. As he re-entered Cody’s room he saw the little boy was on the verge of sleep so he moved and knelt down by the side of the bed quickly.

“Hey Codes, don’t go to bed sleep just yet. Come on man, sit on up.” He spoke softly, putting a hand under Cody to make him sit up. “Take this for me first.” He handed the child the pills, and the bottle of water that was on Cody’s night stand.

“I can’t, it’ll make me sick.”

“No, this will make you better, I promise.”

“What if I puke again?” Cody asked.

“It’s fine, but we gotta get your fever down okay?” Shaun prodded, knowing that he child really did need to take the medicine. After a few minutes of ho-humming over the pills, Cody finally took them, making a face as he chewed them quickly. Shaun would never understand why companies even bothered to pretend that the flavoring they used on children’s medicine made it taste any better. Because if Cody’s face was any indication, the pills obviously didn’t tastes like grapes at all.

“Good boy.” Shaun said before getting up to find a pair of pajama’s for the boy to wear, pulling out a pair with Spongebob printed all over them. He helped Cody get dressed and put him back to bed, tucking him in. “Cold.” He warned before he placed the cool cloth across Cody’s forehead, which caused a shiver to run through his small body. “Sorry buddy.” Shaun said with sympathetic eyes.

“Shaun?” Cody’s voice was small and weak.

“Yeah?”

“Can I call you daddy?”

Shaun paused momentarily, smiling softly. “Yeah kiddo.” He nodded, leaning in to place a kiss in the child’s cloth covered forehead. “You sure can.” That seemed to placate the Cody as he closed his eyes, the illness and the meds quickly causing him lose the battle against sleep. Which was exactly what he needed right then. Shaun knew that he had been told to take Cody to the doctor’s, but he also knew how schools loved to over exaggerate when it came to illnesses. So if the boy was still just as ill by the next day, the doctor’s was the first place they would go. But he thought he’d give Cody’s body a chance to fight off the sickness itself first, because that usually worked.

With a sigh he walked out into the living room, and saw the throw up from when they had first arrived home. With a little chuckle and a shake of his head he went and gathered what he would need to clean the mess, pulling his undershirt off as he did.

It was mid afternoon when Zach walked into the condo, still a little ticked off at Shaun and was fully expecting Shaun to still be a little ticked off at him. What he hadn’t been expecting to find was Shaun on his knees in the living room, topless, while trying to scrub something out of the carpet. He couldn’t help the little smile that snuck onto his face as he watched his lover, the anger he had be holding onto all day beginning to slightly dissipating.

“You know, if this is what you look like scrubbing floors then I think we should fire our house keeper. You can do all the cleaning, topless.”

Shaun looked up when he heard Zach’s comment, a small chuckle escaping his lips. “No thank you, but I’ll do other things topless to make up for it.” He quipped.

Zach laughed a little, dropping his skateboard and bag just inside the door, making his way into the living room. “So, what’d you do? Drop a glass of whine or something? You know it’s only two, it’s a little early for booze.” He said as he flopped onto the love seat across from the sofa Shaun was kneeling in front of.

“Well.” Shaun sighed, getting up with a small groan and sitting heavily on the sofa as he dropped the sponge he had be using on the table. “It’s five o’clock somewhere.” He reasoned, which only got him a look from Zach. “I was cleaning up puke.” He said with a chuckle.

“Were you sick?” Zach asked.

“Cody was.”

“What!?” Zach was up in a shot, quickly making his way down to Cody’s room.

“No, no Zach!” Shaun attempted to grab his lovers arm as he passed by the couch, but to no avail. “No Zach, he’s asleep!” He called out softly over his shoulder before getting up with a huff, following the younger man down the hall.

Zach stood in Cody’s doorway, watching the little boy. He had rolled over sometime in his sleep, causing the face cloth to slip down off of his forehead and land on his pillow leaving a wet mark on the pillow case. His breathing was coming in small shallow gasps, his stuffed up nose making it difficult for him to breathe properly.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Zach asked when he heard Shaun walk up behind him.

“I meant too, but what with him and the cleaning, I got a little sidetracked and forgot.” Shaun admitted. “It’s just the flu, he should be fine but we can take him to the doctor’s tomorrow if you’d like.”

Zach just nodded, arms folded over his chest as he stared into Cody’s room. He was very protective of the child, always afraid that his mother would come back, change her mind and attempt to take Cody away. True, Cody was legally theirs, but that didn’t stop Zach from the occasional worry every now and then.

“I’m going to go finish cleaning up.” Shaun said before leaving, moving back toward the living room.

Zach walked into Cody’s room and sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching over to remove the now lukewarm face cloth from the little boy’s pillow. He chanced a light touch of Cody’s forehead, wanting to check to see if the fever had broken. The brush of his hand causing Cody to stir.

“Daddy?” Cody asked, his mind still sleep fogged.

“Hey kiddo.” Zach smiled.

“Dad?” Cody seemed a little surprise to see Zach sitting there.

“Yeah.” He chuckled lightly. “Who did you think it was?”

“Shaun.” The child stated simply.

“Shaun? Since when have you started calling Shaun daddy?” Zach asked.

“Since today.”

“Since today huh?” Zach smiled softly, noting that Cody didn’t feel very hot. Whatever Shaun had done when he brought the child home was obviously working. Cody just nodded at Zach, yawning slightly. “How you feeling?”

“Not good, sleepy.”

“How about your stomach? You still feel puke-y?”

“No.”

“Good, you want anything?” When Cody just shook his head, Zach smiled. “Okay, then you go back to sleep, I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.” He leaned forward and placed a kiss on Cody’s forehead, mussing his hair a bit with his hand as he did.

When Zach walked back out into the living room he found the carpet clean, the cleaning materials put away and Shaun no where to be found. “Shaun?” He called out softly, not wanting to shout and bother Cody.

“In the den.” Shaun’s reply was muffled slightly.

Zach made his way into the den where Shaun was sitting at his desk, now fully clothed, hunched over his laptop typing something. “Writers block lifted?”

“A little bit.” Shaun admitted, looking up at his lover. “How’s Cody doing?”

“Okay, tired, the flu’s really taking everything out of him..” Zach walked up to where Shaun was, wrapping his arms around the older man’s shoulders. Hugging him against his body, back to chest.

“Well sleep is the best thing for him right now, it’ll give his body a chance to fight off the virus.” Shaun reasoned.

Zach hummed in agreement before speaking up again.“I’m sorry about yesterday.” He said softly against Shaun’s neck, kissing the small exposed patch of skin just above his shirt collar.

Shaun sighed, leaning back into the embrace. “It was may fault, I was being an ass.”

“Yes, you were.”

“Glad you agree.” Shaun chuckled. The two were silent for a few minutes, just enjoying the feel of each other. The rise and fall of Zach’s chest against Shaun’s back, the way his warm hands were rubbing small lazy circles across Shaun’s broad chest. It’s was a familiar comfortable, a homey kind of feeling. Full of love and warmth, and just everything right. Shaun wasn’t a stupid man, he knew he was lucky to have his family. To have a partner that loved him and a son that adored him, but it seemed that sometime’s he just needed to be reminded of that. “Cody asked if he could call me ‘daddy’ today.” Shaun said in a lazy sort of tone.

“I know.”

“You do?” He turned his head slightly so he could look into Zach’s beautiful eyes.

“Yeah, he told me when I checked on him.

“You don’t have a problem with it do you? Because I can tell him to just call me by my name.”

Zach smiled one of his bright and rather infectious smiles, one that lit up his face completely. “Why would I have a problem with him calling you that? That’s what you are.”

Shaun grinned. “Really?”

“Really.” Zach smiled as he spun the chair his lover was in around so they were facing one another. “I’m glad he loves you, that’s a good thing.”

Shaun didn’t think it was possible for him to ever love Zach more than he already did, but right then, he felt his love grow even more. True, they were a family but that was the first time Zach ever admitted that he was Cody’s parent as well. “I’m so lucky to have you.” Shaun said in a hushed tone.

“Yes you are.” Zach nodded.

Shaun laughed. “Shut up.”

“Hmmm.” Zach made a mock thoughtful face as he moved to sit on Shaun’s lap, managing to place his knees on the seat of the chair on each side of Shaun’s hips, wrapping his arms around his neck in a loose hug of sorts. “Make me.”

Shaun smirked, resting his large hands on Zach’s waist. “Oh, you’re gonna be like that huh?” He arched an eyebrow playfully.

Zach chuckled. “You know it.”

Shaun just smiled, moving one of his hands up to the back of Zach’s head and pulling the younger man down to him. Their lips meeting in a passion fueled kiss, the world stopping for one breathless moment. It was that second that Shaun realized, it didn’t matter if he never wrote again. Because the life he had, the money, the small semblance of fame, meant nothing without the people he loved. His beautiful partner, their wonderful child, they were what really mattered. Nothing else came close.



Love it? Hate it? Wanna take it home and cook it dinner? Let me know! Comments are love!

Side Note: I know i don't reply to everyone's comments on my fics, but that's just because to be honest, i'm really awkwardly shy and i never know how to respond to comments lol. But be sure that i do read them and am thankful for all of them, and will respond if anyone has a specific question or 'heads up' for me ^_^