"Which is most of the reason she's not like that anymore. You're good for her, Johnny. I couldn't ask for a better brother-in-law." She smiled over at him encouragingly. "So what do you think of your namesake?"
"Thanks, Luce. You're pretty awesome yourself," he replied, smiling at last. They might not have made a very good couple, but as family, there were pretty tight. Johnny chuckled a little at her question. "I think he takes after his Dad," he said, which meant the boy did have a slight resemblance to his uncle, as well. "You ever wonder why Steve and I look so much alike?" he asked, out of the blue.
"You know, I never really thought about it," she admitted. "You're both so different, it never occurred to me to consider why you have so many similarities. At least with AJ, we know that it's because he's distantly related to Steve, but with you? No idea."
"You're the doctor," he said, with a shrug, all the science of it a little over his head. "Could just be the Nexus' idea of a practical joke," he suggested. Stranger things had been known to happen. Twin sons of different mothers falling in love with identical twins. That couldn't just be a coincidence, could it?
"I never pretended to understand the why, just the what and the how to fix it," she said, leaning back against her pillows again. "We should be home sometime in the morning, so we'll be able to take our collection of small nutcases off your hands relatively soon."
Johnny frowned as he looked over at her, remembering she'd just given birth and all that entailed. "You must be tired. I should get going and let you rest." And that meant, taking Martin with him. There'd be plenty of time to visit when she got home. "Luce, I want you to know ... Everything happens for a reason, and I wouldn't change a damned thing."
"Neither would I," she agreed softly. "We made a mess together, but Liv fixed it. And without you, I wouldn't have gone to New York to find Steve. So, like I said, you're the reason all this happened for us, Johnny."
Johnny smiled, a little shyly, despite his usual brashness. "I wouldn't go that far, but I'm happy, Luce, and you are, too, and I can't argue with that." He got up off the chair and moved over to set the little man in her arms and brush a rare kiss against her cheek. "You're my favorite sister in law," he told her. She was, in fact, his only sister in law.
"Cutest brother in law ever," she countered, returning that kiss with one of her own to his cheek. "So what do you think, should we keep him, or wait for the stork to come check on us and return him to sender?"
Johnny might have remarked that he was her only brother in law, but instead he only chuckled and drew back a little to give her space, his gaze shifting to the bundle he'd returned to her arms. "If you don't want him, we'll take him. He is my namesake, after all," he teased.
"Yeah, I think Liv might have something to say about that," Lucy chuckled, absently tucking the blanket just a little closer about Danny as he wriggled to get comfortable.
"Steve, too," Johnny added, knowing Lucy wouldn't dream of giving away her newborn son. "Anyway, he's happy and healthy and adorable. What more could you ask for?"
"Absolutely nothing." Her answer was soft, given as she looked down at her newborn son, stroking his cheek with one finger tenderly. Who would have thought, five years ago, that Lucy would ever have been so happy to be a mum?
"Then I think you should probably keep him," Johnny remarked, knowing Lucy wasn't serious about giving him back to the stork anyway. Never mind that there was no such thing as the stork. "Seriously, Luce ... I'm really happy for you."
"We did good, didn't we? All of us." She smiled up at Johnny, cocking her head at the sound of Steve and Martin outside the door.
"Yeah, we did," Johnny agreed with a soft smile in return. Sometimes he thought it was nothing short of a miracle, but it was Liv he really credited with his own happiness, and maybe Steve for Lucy's. "We were a disaster as a couple," he added with a chuckle, just in time for Steve and Martin to overhear part of it.
"Who's a disaster?" Steve asked, as he and Martin rejoined the pair.
"We really were," Lucy laughed in agreement, reaching out to hug Martin as he came within range once again. "You about ready to fly home, petit? I think we all need to get some sleep about now."
Martin frowned a little at the mention of flying. He wasn't afraid of heights exactly, and he trusted his uncle to keep him safe, but the thought of being that high in the air and so close to fire made him a little nervous.
Johnny saw the look on Martin's face and chuckled. "Don't worry, kid. I'll call a cab," he said, ruffling Martin's hair and stepping back so the boy could bid his mother farewell.
Handing off Danny to Steve, Lucy slithered to the edge of the bed to hug her boy more fully, kissing his hair. "Thank you for coming to see me," she murmured to him, choosing to speak in French now she knew he wanted to hear more of it in his day to day. "We'll be home tomorrow."
"Thank you for letting me see him first," Martin replied, also in French, before throwing his arms around his mother's neck. "Je t'aime, Mama! Come home soon!"
"Sleep sweet, darling!" She hugged him tight for a moment, letting him go so he could say goodnight to his father as well.
Martin hugged her tight for a moment before very gently kissing his new brother on the forehead and whispering a good night. There wasn't much he needed to say to his father, as they had talked together while they'd been getting their soda.
"Bonsoir, Papa!" he told his father, as Steve turned to hug his son close.
"Bonsoir, Martin," Steve replied in return. "Tell your siblings we'll see them tomorrow, okay?"
Martin nodded obediently, trying hard not to yawn.
"You look after our boy on the way home, Everlast," Lucy told Johnny with a grin, giving him a salute since they had already said goodnight in their way.
"Yes, ma'am," Johnny replied, returning her salute. "Don't you worry. I'll get him home safe and sound."
Martin gave his father one last hug before turning to Johnny, who slid an arm around the boy's shoulders.
"Get some rest, Mama! We'll see you tomorrow!" Johnny called back as he led Martin out the door.
"Are we really flying or driving home, Oncle Johnny?" Martin was overheard asking as they started down the hall, but Johnny's reply was too quiet for them to hear.
Lucy smiled, leaning back against the pillows again, a vast amount of tension gone from her body. "Well, I feel better for that," she told Steve cheerfully. "What about you?"
"So long as Martin feels better for it," Steve remarked, reclaiming his place beside her. "You want me to take him for a while?" he asked of their son. "And don't worry about Martin. Johnny will keep him safe," he assured her.
"He seems happier for it," she mused, tipping her head onto his shoulder affectionately. "Johnny's got a few issues he needs to talk to a more experienced parent about, though."
"Oh?" Steve mused, casting a sidelong look at her from where he sat with the newborn in his arms. "Why's that?" he asked, more curious than concerned about Johnny's issues.
"He's having trouble with the whole concept of Fliss getting married," she said quietly. "I'm not sure quite what's giving him trouble, but I think he's feeling guilty about feeling sad that she's growing up. He keeps talking about how she belongs to Lucas now. I told him to talk to Miranda or Humphrey."
"She's probably grown up a little too fast for him," Steve reasoned. "I mean, what if we'd adopted Lianne as a teenager?" he asked. Then they'd be in Liv and Johnny's shoes. "I'm sure he'll get used to it in time. It's not like she's going anywhere."
"I know," she agreed. "He's just struggling with it. I told him I'm probably going to be in the same state when Martin eventually moves out." She chuckled.
"I don't think we have to worry about that for a while yet," Steve remarked, carefully turning so that he could face his wife. "Is everything okay between you and Martin?" he asked.
"Yes," she assured him with a smile. "He's a worrier, love, just like me, but hopefully he knows he can talk to us about whatever's worrying him. He needed to see us, that was all. Oh, and he'd like everyone to speak French more often. I think he's afraid of forgetting how to."
"Speak French?" Steve echoed, brows arching upwards. That was an easy enough thing to fix. "We can do that. We can be bi-lingual. Jamie already understands a little," he said, though Jamie probably understood more than he let on.
"It'd be good for all of them to have another language they can speak fluently," she nodded. "As well as signing, which we all know as a matter of course by now."