uncle calum •cth•

uncle calum: three

The pews were filled with people dressed in black. The sound of tissues being pulled from their boxes accompanied the occasional sniffles that echoed around the room. Calum sat along the aisle in the back with his daughter in his arms. He would've sat closer, but he needed a quick exit if the small child decided to get fussy. She had been acting different since they arrived, almost like she knew the upsetting event going on.
"It is not something that we can understand. We will never know why some are taken from us too soon."
It was as if the small child in Calum's arm could understand the words coming from the man up front. She was wiggling around, making a frowning face, and Calum swiftly left the room. The door had not been closed behind him for two seconds before she was crying. He wasn't sure what to do to calm her down. He knew it wasn't time for her bottle or a diaper change, and she had slept the whole ride there. He decided to sit out on the front step, and rock her in an attempt to calm her. After a few minutes of that not working, he began to pace in front of the steps.
"What's wrong? Do you miss your mommy? Because I do, too, little one."
She calmed down after a few more minutes of pacing around. Her eyes were wide with wonder as she tried to take in the new sites around her. Soon enough, the front doors were opening and soft voices were drifting through. Calum caught sight of his friends and their wives and went to them. He stood with them, but kept his attention on the baby in his arms who was fascinated by her uncle Luke's hair blowing in the wind beside her. He heard them talking about the beautiful ceremony, the sadness, the flowers, and he just nodded his head absentmindedly.
Calum was exhausted when he finally made it home. He ended up at Ashton's house with the rest of the guys' families to eat and unwind a bit. He had dealt with his unusually fussy daughter all day, and he was in need of sleep, and a break, but mainly sleep. He gave her a quick bath and a bottle before she was out like a light. He kept the baby monitor beside his head as he settled into the couch for a nap. Calum woke up to the cries coming through the baby monitor. He checked the time to see that it was almost midnight, and he had laid down shortly after six. He started to worry that his daughter had been crying for a while, but he found a happy baby in her crib that was wanting attention. He laughed and giggled with her before she was yawning. After making sure she was ready to sleep, he softly sang to her as he rocked her to sleep.
Calum watched his daughter in her swing as she reached up at the little animals hanging down. Her feet kicked as she decided her fist was a better alternative to her pacifier. She alternated between reaching for the figures spinning above her head and slobbering on her hand. Calum took out his phone when he decided she was content to be left alone for a little while. He scrolled through his contacts until he found who he was looking for. His finger hovered over 'Wife', and he knew he shouldn't call, but he had clicked before he could stop himself. He wanted to hear her voice, so he listened to the rings and prepared to hear the voicemail.
"Cal, how's my baby?"
"I'm great. What about you?"
"You know that's not what I meant."
"She's good. A bit fussy. I know you're busy, but-"
"Actually, not at the moment. You're call was timed perfectly, I've got about an hour before I have another meeting." She paused for a moment, "Wait, she's fussy? Aw, does she miss me?" Calum rolled his eyes knowing that his wife had a theory that she was the favorite parent. He kinda believed it and wasn't too happy about it.
"Of course she misses you, but I think she's starting to accept that you abandoned her so I'm the new fav." He heard her scoff through the speaker.
"Calum Hood! I did not abandon her. I had to go on a business trip. Don't tell my daughter lies!" He just laughed.
"How was she at the funeral? Did she fuss? I hate that I couldn't have been there for the girls." The funeral had been for Ashton's wife's mother, and Calum had to go without his wife due to her business trip. He had heard her apologize a million times before she left because she hated to not be there for someone that she looked at like a sister. 'The girls' had become the name for all the wives. They had argued one day that if the guys had a band name, they could have a name, too. The guys thought it was unnecessary, but started referring to them as the girls because they all knew better than to argue with their wives.
"The funeral was nice. She got too fussy towards the middle, so I took her outside."
"I texted my condolences. I just can't wait for this trip to be over and get back into my normal routine. I've been waking up every three hours through the night."
"I thought you would be able to catch up on some sleep, but I guess I was wrong."
"Yeah. Let me talk to my baby."
Calum spent the next twenty minutes listening to his daughter giggle and try to talk to her mother in her baby language. The call didn't last much longer since the baby started crying, and his wife needed to get ready for her next meeting. He missed her a lot, but he was happy to know that he only had a couple of more days on his own.
"She doesn't like kale, Calum." His wife sighed as he continued to try to coax their daughter to try the green mush on the spoon.
"How do you know it's the kale? It could be the, uh-," he paused to read the label on the jar in his hand, "the pears. Yeah, she could hate pears. Wait- pears and kale? That's gross." He turned to the baby who was leaning as far into her high chair as she could to get as far away from the spoon as possible. "I'm sorry, baby girl. I don't know why Mommy would buy such gross food for you."
"You bought it! Here, this one is just peach."
"Finally, something I could get behind." He turned to his daughter, getting her to smile at his baby voice, "Let's eat some mushed up peaches. Yummy!"
He kept feeding their daughter the orange mush as he thought about their first encounter. He remembered picking out baby food just moments before having a run-in with the nosy stranger who ended up stealing his heart. It felt like yesterday, but it was over seven years ago. Calum was so happy to finally have a child of his own to make memories with. He loved his nieces and nephews like there was no tomorrow, but there was something even more special about his own baby.
On Baby Hood's sixth birthday, all she wanted was a sibling. Her mom and dad didn't have the guts to tell her that it was something that would probably never happen. She saw her cousins all the time and adored them, but she always asked why they had siblings while she didn't. Ashton has his five, Michael was done with his two, and Luke had his little girl to accompany his two rowdy boys last year. The Hoods were the only one child family, and while there was absolutely nothing wrong with having just one, they knew something was missing. At her party, she got baby dolls, barbies, and dress up clothes, but when it was over, she still asked her parents about a sibling. This time the answer was different from all the other times before. She was used to hearing 'maybe one day' and nothing more. Today, her mom and dad sat her down and talked more.
"Baby, we need you to know that having a sibling doesn't happen overnight, okay?" Little Hood nodded her head.
"We just have to give it some time, little one. Mommy and Daddy know how much you want someone to play with, but we can't promise anything." She nodded again at her mom's words before it was time to go to bed.
The married couple sat on their bed after tucking their daughter in. They had a discussion about how their life would change soon. They had a secret. Going along with the definition of a secret, their friends, family, and daughter had no idea what the Hood family had up their sleeve.
Two weeks after their little one turned six, they got the call they had been waiting for. They were finally able to sign the papers to adopt three-year-old twin girls. The girls had been living with a foster family for their whole lives. The girls and their foster family had met Calum and his wife months earlier when the process was in its early stages. It had been a long process that was hard to keep a secret, but they knew the end result would be worth it. The hardest thing had been remodeling the guest bedroom without their little one getting suspicious. Little Hood spent many days with her cousins while her parents were busy shopping, painting, and putting together furniture.
Now that they had gotten the confirmation call, it was time to let their daughter in on the news. As they sat at the dining table eating pancakes, the nervous parents shared a look.
"Little bit, we need to talk. We've got something to tell you." Calum started off the conversation.
"We know you've been wanting a brother or sister." The little girl perked up at her mom's words as she nodded. "Normally, you get siblings when they are babies after they've been in mommy's tummy."
"Yeah. I remember when Ms. Taylor had a baby in her tummy!" She said referring to her preschool teacher.
"Yeah, baby, and you were in Mommy's tummy, but sometimes babies and kids come from different places." Calum cut in.
"Well, sweetie, we're telling you this because we're going to meet two very special people today, okay?"
"Okay. Who are we meeting?" The little girl's excitement was still high.
"We are meeting two little twin girls, and they're going to be your little sisters."
"Can we go now? I can't wait! Let's go! Mommy, Daddy, I love you! Let's go get them!" The parents couldn't help but laugh at how excited she had gotten. They expected her to take it well, but they didn't expect her to be jumping out of her seat trying to go meet her sisters.
"We'll be meeting them after we eat breakfast, and then we'll be seeing everybody for dinner tomorrow night."
"This is the best day ever."
She had waited patiently while her parents put in the two new pink car seats while moving her purple one to the third row of the SUV. She was even more excited that she got to be a big girl and sit in the third row. The drive was about half an hour away filled with plenty of 'are we there yets', and as much dancing and singing a girl could do from a car seat.
"I'm your big sister!"
Before her parents could stop her, she had already run over to the two girls and wrapped them in hugs. The girls knew that they were getting their forever family today and knew who their parents would be since they had met before. After spending time at a picnic table outside of the adoption agency, the girls got restless and wanted to play on the playground. Little Hood stood up to grab onto a hand from each of her sisters before walking away with them. Calum couldn't help but snap a picture at the cute scene. He knew this was the beginning of something great for their family.
For years they believed their family of five was complete. All the girls were in school and three peas in a pod. It sometimes amazed those close to them that they hadn't been together since birth. They were sassy and sweet, and, of course, they all had their dad wrapped around their fingers.
Right after the twins turned ten and their older sister was thirteen, their mom started getting sick. After two weeks straight of vomiting, she couldn't avoid the doctor any longer. She started having insane thoughts about what could possibly be wrong, but she tried not to think too much into it. She was nervous and knew she needed to get better quick because her kids needed her. Waiting for the doctor to come back in after the tests was taking forever, but it was better now that Calum was by her side after Luke had come to watch the girls. She felt like she couldn't breath when the doctor opened the door.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Hood. You're pregnant."
It was the last thing she expected to hear, and the best possible outcome, but frightening at the same time. There had been tests done after she gave birth that let her know her chances of ever carrying another child of her own were slim to none. This was exciting news, but she had nearly lost her life the last time she was in a delivery room. All the excitement and fear was pushed aside as they met Luke in the lobby to get their daughters. It was an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't tell anyone until they were sure they wouldn't lose this baby like they lost the one all those years ago.
They had a baby shower at six months since they were anticipating that this baby would deliver before full term. The baby shower was a welcome necessity since they had no leftover baby items. It had all been given to the other guys or donated. The nursery was filled once the shower was over. The walls were a light grey while there were yellow accents around the room. Just like the first time, they didn't want to find out the gender until birth because it gave a little added surprise. The girls were excited but argued everyday about if it was a sister or brother. They changed stances depending on their moods, but secretly all wanted a sister just because they had never had a brother.
Over eight months into the pregnancy, it was time for a baby. Calum gathered everything they needed before dropping the girls off with Micheal down the road. Michael was in charge of calling the others to let them know of the arrival of the newborn when it happened. Everybody believed that the last baby of the group was Ashton's sixth that was now approaching age three, but they were over the moon that Calum would be the one to have the baby of the group. They had talked about adopting again, but having one another one of their own had never crossed their mind until it happened.
Calum kept Michael updated and he kept the others aware, so four hours later, they were all waiting in the hospital waiting room. It took a little while longer before Calum walked in from down a long hallway. He was smiling while trying to hold back tears.
"Mom and baby are doing great." He stopped talking there because he knew everyone was wanting to know the gender, but he wanted to keep them in the dark a little longer.
"Dad, do I have a brother or a sister?" One of the twins shouted at him. He chuckled before smiling.
"It's a boy! The Hood name lives on!"