The morning was early and bright, the sweet summer wind carried a scent of freshly mowed grass and blossoming plants. Sunshine flooded the windows, tinting everything with gold. The whole world had turned into an enchanting scenery filled with beauty that would make people stop and tell each other what a beautiful day they were having, on their way to work.
Of course all this was lost on the six men inside the two stories brick house surrounded by a large garden. The kitchen found one Josiah Sanchez standing perfectly still, functioning as the eye of the hurricane. He was scratching his greying hair as he wondered just where he had put the document case he had brought home from the office Friday before the weekend.
Cooking up a storm by the oven was one of his house mates, Buck Wilmington. The tall brunet was usually assigned kitchen duty and the unfortunate task of keeping control of the usual early Monday morning chaos. A chaos that transcended well into the rest of the week.
Looking up from the frying pan where several eggs with accessories were making out a sunnily yellow omelette, Buck caught Josiah’s bewildered expression. But before he could say anything, his younger cousin JD Dunne entered the large room.
“You,” Buck pointed with the spatula at JD. “Breakfast.”
“But I’m late for classes!”
“Don’t care. Sit down. Eat.” Buck turned to Josiah. “Go ask Chris about your files. He put them somewhere after tripping over them in the hallway Sunday morning.”
Josiah winced. “Oh dear. He ok?” Pushing the memories of the last similar incident and two broken toes out of his mind, he didn’t wait for an answer before going in search of Chris.
Along with Buck, Chris Larabee was listed as the official owner of the house. They had bought it together and fixed it up together, and over the last few years they had gained four house mates.
As Josiah was searching for Chris he ran into another member of their household. Nathan Jackson was as far as Josiah was concerned, their organized alibi. The tall black man was most of the days up earlier than the rest of them, avoiding the stampede as he put it himself.
“Good morning, Josiah.” Nathan looked up from his own document case.
“Good morning, brother,” Josiah replied. “Tell me, you haven’t seen Chris this morning? I have been told he knows the whereabouts of my papers.” That earned him a smile.
“Christ, ‘Siah. Don’t tell me you left it in the hall again?”
“Uh…yes.”
Nathan shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen him. Don’t know if he’s up yet, I don’t think he went to bed before early this morning. He was up painting when I came home last night.”
“Then let’s not wake him,” Josiah decided. “The files can wait. You going to ride with me downtown, right?”
“Yes, I have an early meeting with the hospital board. There are some new budget regulations coming that they need to make sure we don’t understand.”
Josiah grinned. “Is that so. Well, should make for an interesting morning.”
Nathan returned the smile. “Not really. Well,” he clicked the case shut. “I am going to need some coffee to get me through at least…” He straightened and fixed Josiah with a sudden wary look. “Please tell me that Vin didn’t make the coffee this morning?”
His friend shook his head to the negative. “I believe brother Buck did. I think that after Chris told Vin he uses his coffee to clean his paint brushes our young friend took the hint.” He had made Nathan laugh.
“That should do the trick. Speaking of Vin, where is he this morning?”
“Running, I guess. He’s usually back by breakfast.”
They entered the kitchen to find that the four others had congregated to the same room. Vin Tanner had indeed returned by ways of the back door from his usual morning run and was seated around the kitchen table with JD. Buck was still by the oven, enjoying the company of a sleepy Chris.
“The flock is gathered!” Josiah exclaimed.
“Amen,” Buck replied. “Now sit your asses down and have breakfast.”
JD grinned. “Just getting the paper. I’m going to be late anyway, so I might as well be properly late.” He took off before anyone could give him a lecture on getting up earlier, that would be either Buck or Nathan, Josiah was usually quite flexible in these matters and Chris was apparently sleeping, leaning against Buck’s chest. Buck merely hooked one arm around the blond’s waist and went back to cooking.
The kitchen was filled with its regular morning conversations and activities, nobody noticing that JD was taking an extraordinairily long time in getting the morning paper. It wasn’t before JD was standing in the kitchen again; carrying a lace trimmed bassinette that conversation died a natural death.
“That’s not the morning paper,” Vin commented. Silence was his only answer. Then Buck snapped out of it.
“Of course it’s not! JD, where did you get that?!”
“I… I found it on the steps,” the youth bravely replied. He hurried to place the bassinette on the table, pushing away some plates. “It… It has a baby in it…”
The four heads starting to bend over the baby carrier suddenly drew back.
“A baby!?”
“What had ya’ll expected?” Chris calmly commented from the stove. "Puppies?”
Ever practical, Nathan raised the most pressing issue. Or issues. “What was it doing on our porch? Who put it there? Who would just put a baby there and leave? Where are its parents?”
“It must be belonging to one of us.”
In an instant everyone turned to JD who reeled back.
“Well, that’s what usually happens, right? The mom can’t take care of it and she leaves it with the daddy, only that she can’t tell him who she is or about the baby in advance because then he might not want it…” He trailed off looking at the others with a hopeful expression. “Right?”
“No! You’re no Steve Guttenberg and I’m sure as hell no Tom Selleck.” Buck stared at JD. “God, I promised your ma I’d keep you out of trouble…”
“It’s not mine!” JD stared back. “It could be… Be…” He swivelled around to stare at the others. “I bet it's Nathan’s!” At the round of raised eyebrows he shrugged. “Or not.”
“It’s definitely not mine either,” Josiah hurried to say. “It’s too small. Nothing that small could ever come from me. Besides, I’ve been out of the country. I’m sure it’s Buck’s.”
“Hey!” Buck hugged Chris tighter. “Do I need to remind you all? Unless Chris has gained the power to bear children, that little bundle of joy didn’t come from my joy.”
Everyone turned to Vin. Who blushed furiously.
“Just what are you doing on those early morning runs of yours?” Nathan inquired, hiding his smile behind his coffee mug.
The Texan glared at them all. “It’s not mine either!”
In the midst of the discussion Chris had taken the opportunity to reach into the bassinette and lifted out the baby. “Don’t worry,” he told the child in his arms. “I know they sound like total idiots now, but they’re not so bad when you get to know them.” Big green eyes looked back at him, the small face studying him with a suspicious look. Then a determined hand caught hold of one of Chris’ finger, making the blond smile. The baby seemed to think for a second then a smile formed on the fine features as well.
Once the threat of a real live baby had been removed JD had searched the bassinette and had come up with a note.
“It says here that it’s a boy,” he told the others. “He’s five months, and his name’s Ezra Patrick…”
“What kind of sissy name is that?” Buck cut in. “That’s not a proper name for a little boy.”
The baby glared at him.
“Or maybe it is,” Buck meekly offered. “Sheesh, Chris, are you sure that the little guy isn’t yours?”
“Of course he’s not.” But Chris didn’t have the same fervour in the denial as the rest of them. “Obviously somebody had the wrong address or something…JD, does the note say anything else?”
“Oh. Hold on a sec.” JD had nearly forgotten about the note. He quickly scanned it. “Just that the one who wrote it can’t take care of him anymore. So she left him here. That’s all.”
“Then we’ll take care of him,” Chris decided. “Poor little thing,” he said, holding the child a little tighter. “God knows how long he was out there…”
“Uh, aren’t we forgetting something?” Nathan spoke up. “He’s obviously not any of ours; shouldn’t we call social services or something? They might be able to find his parents…” He didn’t get any further as Chris cut him off.
“No! You can’t just hustle him off like an unwanted package, Nate. His mother just abandoned him; he needs someone to take care of him right now.” Turning away from them, Chris headed for the living room, the baby still in his arms. They could hear him cooing softly to the little boy.
Buck raised an eyebrow. “Well, that was…interesting.” They all mulled over that for a few seconds before there was a concerted rush for the living room.