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you’ll always have my shoulder when you cry // I’ll never let go, never say goodbye, you know // you can count on me like one, two, three // I’ll be there
Count on Me – Bruno Mars
“’Dolph! Thank God. Hi. Listen… I, um, I really need a favor.”
The young man’s voice is frazzled and disconnected, and Randolph scrunches his face up at the unexpected call. “Is everything okay?” He asks his stepson.
“Yeah, I just – okay, D, you’re going to have to help me out with these shoes, alright? There we go, much better when we put the left shoe on the left foot. Sorry, we’re a little out of sorts this morning.” Randolph smiles at the image and waits for a moment of calm on the other end of the line. “Okay. Right. I hate to ask like this, but is there any way you could watch Damien today?”
“Today?” Randolph rolls the sleeve of his coat up to glance at his watch. “I –”
“I know it’s the definition of last minute, but I got called in for a craniosynostosis, the daycare is full, and Gregg caught Sammie’s stomach bug, so…”
“You’re between a rock and a hard place,” Randolph answers with a nod. “I’ve got a light day. I’ll be finished with rounds in about half an hour, but we don’t have the car seat set up for a trip home… are you alright with him spending a day at Chastain?”
“There are worse places for a three-year-old.”
“Okay. Okay. Yeah, of course, Jake, I can take him today.” Randolph agrees before he has a chance to consider the ramifications of entertaining a toddler at work for eight hours. “I’ll be in my office, so just st–”
“You are a lifesaver, ’Dolph. Seriously, I owe you one.”
He waves his hand in front of his chest. “No, you don’t. I’m glad you called. This is what grandparents are for,” he says with a nervous smile. “Just… bring some snacks for him and a toy or two, and we’ll call it even.”
Jake laughs and promises to be by within the hour, equipped with plenty of finger foods and whatever toys are in the back seat of the car.
The hand-off happens so fast that before he knows it, he’s got a toddler in one arm and a backpack of gear in the other, barely having had time to change out of his scrubs. He messaged Kit just before Jake arrived, but it was more of a professional courtesy than anything else. As much as he would love experienced reinforcements, she’s tied up in the third day of annual board meetings and could not get away even if she wanted to.
“Alright, munchkin,” he says, adjusting the boy and giving him a wide-eyed look that he hopes conveys confidence, “Looks like it’s just you and me today.”
Damien is small for his age and very shy, more than he thought children could be at that age. But the world is still so new and so unknown to the boy that after a few trips around the floors, he decides that having nurses fawning over him is not the right approach. GiGi soaked up the attention at every chance and he was always able to make the babysitting hours pass more quickly by handing her off at a nurse’s station, but Damien is much more reserved and opts for burying into his coat whenever they go down the hall.
So, Randolph detours into the supply closet to pick up the closest things he can find to new toys before heading back to his office. Nitrile gloves can be blown up and tossed around, and there are a few pads of paper that can become coloring books if he can find the red and blue pens he uses for editing reports. Plus, you could never go wrong with a reflex hammer. Once they’re stocked, he settles in to his office with his grandson.
Finally, around 4 o’clock, the board meetings have wrapped up and Kit is free to visit her favorite small room on the seventh floor. She knocks on the door to his office and when there’s no answer, she peeks inside, expecting to find the inevitable chaos that remains after an afternoon with a toddler.
The scene she’s met with makes her heart skip a beat and she shuts the door behind her quietly.
Damien is curled up in his grandfather’s lap, worn out from a day of excitement, and Randolph’s head has fallen back against the back of the couch. The boy is drooling a little on his shirt and clutching a stethoscope and even in sleep Randolph makes sure that his hand is wrapped safely around his back. Kit snaps a picture of the scene for safe keeping, and rounds the edge of the sofa to get a better look.
Randolph has never had a child this young, but he’s a natural. He was with GiGi, too, despite his own protests of not knowing how to handle babies, but with Damien it had always been second nature. The minute he met the boy he fell in love, and there was no learning curve to becoming grandpa – it was immediate. Like the instincts were there all along and just waiting for an opportunity to be called upon.
She almost doesn’t want to disturb them, but she can’t keep herself from joining the scene.
She bends to his level and touches his knee gently, just enough to rouse him without startling awake. Randolph blinks a few times and smiles back when he sees who’s in front of him.
“Hey,” he says hoarsely, “what time is it?”
“A quarter after four. It looks like you two had a good day.” She comes around and sits beside him on the small sofa and her eyes fall to the boy’s sleeping frame. “He is out cold.”
“You want to take him for a bit?”
The request hangs in the air. He’s still waking up and she’s not sure he has thought this through. She’s met Damien only once, and family is… different. Kit has been a part of Sammie’s life since the day she met her, and Randolph has never kept her from his family, but she kept him at an arm’s length from Josie for longer than she wanted. It was partially per Molly’s request, because of the history with her second husband, but was still a challenge to navigate when it came to involving Randolph in her family. Everything has been on different timelines and despite having been with him for nearly a year, she’s still really not sure where she stands with his growing family.
His eyes catch hers again. “Please? Kit, I really have to pee.”
She chuckles and nods, no longer reading into the request as more than a simple question. Randolph gratefully passes the sleeping child off, shushing him as he starts to stir, and Kit curls two arms around his back. The look of sheer relief on Randolph’s face when she takes him is one she knows well from the toddler years and she will always welcome the chance to hold onto a sleeping child for a few minutes. He’s a beautiful boy; small and shy, but curious, intelligent, and very perceptive. A lovely addition to a loving family.
When Randolph gets back he plops dramatically into the couch and rubs at his eyes. He exhales slowly and loudly, drawing out another quiet laugh.
“How in the world do they fit so much energy in these tiny bodies?” He mumbles.
“Metabolic reserves, I think. They are much sweeter when they’re asleep like this.” Kit hands the boy over reluctantly but keeps an hand on the back of his head. Her heart soars when the boy curls into Randolph’s chest and unconsciously seeks the comfort that she knows he can provide. “How are you doing, Grandpa?”
He twitches a smile that grows slowly, uninhibited. “Better than I have ever been.” His voice is earnest and warm, almost disbelieving. It goes even quieter when he says, “I mean, just look at this kid. And he’s… he’s my –”
“Family,” she finishes.
“My grandson.”
He has a family. One that seems to be growing in every direction. Today, his former stepson called him first thing in the morning and handed off a toddler, knowing that he could count on him and that he would move mountains for his family. He almost has to pinch himself that this is a life he’s living. After everything in his past, after every mistake and selfish decision that led to a life of solitude, he’s been granted some sort of second chance at the white-picket-fence kind of life that he scoffed at for years. It’s a life he thought had passed him by and yet here he was, holding a sleeping three-year-old and sitting next to the woman he loves.
Just as the thought materializes her hand is on his, like she can hear what he’s thinking and is thinking the same thing.
“I have some work to finish up this afternoon, so I can’t stay long,” she says gently, “Are you alright until Jake comes to pick him up? Do you need anything?”
He turns her hand over and brings it to his mouth to kiss the back of her knuckles. “I have everything I need right here.”
The corners of her mouth turn down in an incredibly false frown, the one that appears when she’s too overwhelmed to say anything, reserved for moments where he’s able to take her breath away with one sentence of pure adoration. Kit kisses the top of his head as she rises from the couch and runs a thumb over the sleeping boy’s cheek.
“Okay,” she mutters to herself, “If I don’t leave you boys now, I never will.”
“I can volunteer us the next time Jake needs a sitter,” he says. Kit turns around and only then does he he realize that he’s said it out loud. It’s not a thought out plan and there’s a hesitation when he meets her eyes. “That is… if you want.”
Her question from earlier is answered in a few simple words, and she nods back to him. “I would love that.”