“Man, it’s been hours.” I look down at my watch, biting my lip. “Is it - supposed to take this long?”

“I have no idea,” Aiden yawns.

Of the two of us, Aiden is obviously the more relaxed. He’s sitting back in his chair, long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. He’s blocking anyone from getting down this row of seats, but it doesn’t matter. It’s late now, and the hospital traffic has thinned considerably.

Emergency care is on the first floor, which means it’s been mostly peaceful up here. We saw one rush of activity - one doctor and two nurses, clearly in a hurry, almost running - but they were headed in the opposite direction of the doors behind which Raj, Noah, and Melanie disappeared.

We’re the only ones left in the waiting room.

“You want to go?” Aiden asks. “It’s fine, if you do.”

We’ve only left once, to pick up some food for Raj and Noah, but neither of them came out to get it. They didn’t even respond to my text.

“No,” I answer, rubbing my eyes. “I should stick around in case the shift changes again, and I have to talk someone else into letting Noah stay.”

I’ve had to do it twice already. First with Zara, and again with Julian, the nurse who took over for her when her shift ended.

Aiden looks up at me, his eyes soft and warm, marine under the hospital lights.

“Hey,” he rumbles. “Come sit down.”

Distracted as I am, I only sort of hear him, so I don’t answer, or move.

Aiden gets up and comes to stand in front of me, smoothing his hands down my arms.

“Why are you so worried?”

“What do you mean?” I blink up at him, confused. “Because - they’re our friends?”

“Well, yeah,” Aiden says slowly, his eyebrows furrowing, “But you do realize that everything is going fine?”

“What? How do you know?”

Aiden tips his head to the side, a little smile rising on his face.

“Jamie, did you - did you forget that I can hear? Like, hear if something is about to go wrong?”

I stare at him, then smack a hand to my forehead.

“Oh, my fucking god. Yes. I did. I fucking forgot, holy shit. I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be sorry.” Aiden huffs out a laugh, then taps my nose affectionately. “I like that you can still see me without it.”

I start to smile at him, but an alarming thought occurs to me.

“Wait, won’t you only hear it if it’s like - something we could prevent?”

“I’ll still hear it, it just won’t sound the same.” Aiden sits down again, pulling me into the chair next to him. “I can’t pick out Mellie’s specific note, but it’s been a pretty uneventful day at this hospital. Few jumps here and there, nothing too crazy. If something serious went wrong with Mellie or the baby, it would affect Raj’s note, Mellie’s note, and Noah’s note, so. I would definitely hear it.”

I let out a breath, then snuggle up against Aiden’s side, grateful for him in a hundred different ways. No, a thousand.

“You monkey. Here I’ve been all worried, when you could have just said all this hours ago!”

“Dude!” Aiden starts laughing again. “I seriously didn’t think there was any chance you forgot! Your brain must be full of holes.”

“It’s not! I’m just really distracted, and I always think of you as Aiden first, not a Guardian, so-”

I stop, watching a ridiculously sweet, heart-melting smile spread over Aiden’s face.

He leans forward and presses a soft kiss to my mouth, then sits back again.

I sit back, too, blushing hard.

I feel Aiden’s hand reaching for mine. I take it, without turning to look at him.

The elevator doors slide open, and - Ripley comes out through them, his skateboard tucked under his arm, his green curls windblown and wild. He spots us, waves, and comes over to sit down.

“Got your text!” He takes the chair across from us, dropping his board and his backpack to the floor. “Sorry, took me a while to make it over!”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that you had to come, man!” I tell him, taken completely by surprise. “I just thought you’d be excited!”

“No, I know I didn’t have to, but I brought-” Ripley unzips his backpack and pulls out a small stuffed animal. It’s a fuzzy grey elephant, with a cutesy smile and big round eyes. “Just - for when the baby gets here, you know?”

“Aw!” I feel a smile come over my face. Between Aiden reminding me that everything’s okay, and now Ripley’s unexpected but welcome arrival, I’m feeling much less stressed out than I was before. “That’s so cute, Ripples!”

“Did you skate here, dude?” Aiden asks, as Ripley shrugs out of his denim jacket. “Seriously? It’s so fucking cold out.”

“My mom couldn’t give me a ride, and I don’t - don’t like having to use my license for shit.” He tosses his curls out of his face, then smiles. “So? How’s it going?”

“So far as we know, Mellie is okay," Aiden answers. "Raj is a little worked up. First kid, and all.”

“Well, that makes sense. And how’s Noah? It’s-” Ripley breaks off, then lets out a laugh, shaking his head. “Oh, my god. I was about to say that it’s his first kid, too. Ignore me, I’m tired.”

Aiden starts catching Ripley up on what he missed, and I get to my feet again. We’ve been sitting in this room for hours. I need to stretch my legs.

I drift down the hallway to the closed double doors, go to turn around, and stop. I didn’t notice before, but there’s a small glass window set into each door.

Curious, I stop just outside, looking in. I see another hallway, lined with closed doors.

Raj and Noah are there, standing together.

They both look exhausted, leaning back against the wall, too tired to pace or fidget. There’s some space between them, but Raj is tilted towards Noah. At first, I think he’s saying something into Noah’s ear, like he was earlier, but - nope. He’s got his head resting on Noah’s shoulder.

Neither of them are moving, or saying anything. They both have their eyes closed.

It strikes me as sweet, something Melanie might want to see later. I slip my phone from my pocket, hold it up to the glass, and snap a picture of the two of them. I open my camera roll to see if it came out, then pause, remembering something.

I have to scroll far back to find it: the video I took this past summer. The message that Raj had me record for his baby.

I turn the volume low, then play it.

There’s Raj, groaning at his horrible attempt at the message. “Noah, help me.”

I can hear Noah’s laughter in the background. “The fuck do you want me to do?”

“Come here, be in this with me.”

I watch as Raj reaches for Noah, drags him into the shot. Noah’s face turning red, his repeated objections.

I find myself looking, not listening, so I mute the video and start it again.

The anxious expression on Noah’s face, which dissolves when Raj says something that makes him laugh. And Raj, his smile becoming broader and brighter the instant that Noah is in this with him.

I watch it again, then look up at them as they are now, standing together in the hospital hallway.

Noah told me that Raj is important to him, but he really didn’t have to. I’ve never once doubted that. I can tell that their relationship is deeply important to both of them.

Maybe particularly to Noah.

It’s not that I think Noah cares more about Raj than Raj cares about him. Not at all. It’s only that Raj already had Melanie’s love and support before Noah came into the picture.

Noah, on the other hand, was living with Ralph. From the sound of it, doing so basically robbed him of any other meaningful connections. It left him with only Ralph, and what was that like? Noah came out of it lost and broken and battered. He won’t talk about it, but it shows in his behavior, even now.

He’s always preparing to be tossed aside, removed from the equation the second he’s not useful anymore. It’s to the point that he’ll actually take himself out if no one else does. And then he has to be dragged back in, even when he wants to be there. Even when he’s dying to be there.

You have to really feel like you’re in hiding, to put up as many walls as Noah has.

And Raj… Raj is knocking them down one by one, then helping Noah make his way over the rubble. He’s made it obvious that they’re not going forward unless they can go together. Why else would he pull Noah into the baby video? Or into the delivery room, for that matter?

It’s so abundantly clear that in Raj’s vision of the future, Noah is there.

With Raj, Noah gets to be central, not tangential. Generative, not destructive. He gets closeness, not just proximity.

It’s so different for him, and I had ascribed Noah’s extremely close attachment with Raj to the fact that he’s never had this kind of friendship before.

Maybe that's how it started, but…

Watching them right now, then thinking about how they both behave with Melanie, and how she behaves with both of them...

I’m doing the math, and I’m suddenly thinking that this equation has three parts, not two.

“Oh,” I say, to no one in particular. “Oh - oh. Oh, my fucking god.”

The first domino falls in my mind, setting off all the others.

Noah’s reaction when Melanie kissed him. That Melanie kissed him at all, even by mistake. The way that Noah smiled at me when his eyes were closed, and he thought I was Raj. What Raj said to me and Aiden, after Noah told him about Ralph.

I just can’t believe anyone could look Noah in the eye and hit him. I mean, don’t hit anyone, but Noah? His face is so fucking adorable, how could you ever do it?

Raj, going out of his way on two separate occasions to ask Aiden about what it was like having three parents.

But he sharply changed the subject when Noah showed up, and he purposely waited until Melanie wasn’t around to ask.

Now that I think about it, Melanie seemed confused by her own reaction when I suggested that Noah and Dahlia might be cute together. And Noah seems like he has no idea what the fuck to do when Melanie touches him, or leans on him, or reaches for him. He’s always turning to Raj with a guilty look on his face, always backing away, freezing up.

Which means...

Raj is the only one who’s figured out what’s actually going on between the three of them.

Raj, and now me.

They must not have talked to each other about it, if that’s the case. So what does Melanie think is going on? What does Noah think is going on?

I snap out of my thoughts as Noah glances over and sees me in the window.

I quickly raise my hand in a wave, trying to make it seem like I just got here. Noah gently pokes Raj’s arm, and Raj lifts his head.

“Hi!” I say, leaning in through the doors. “Anyone around to get me in trouble, or can I come back for a sec?”

“Coast is clear,” Raj answers.

I step into the hallway, letting the double doors close behind me. They both come over to meet me.

“What are you guys doing out here? Did Melanie kick you out?”

“She just wants to be with her mom for a bit.” Raj is clearly still anxious, but too tired to show it beyond his expression. “It’s all good though, you know? Think we needed the break. Look at this!” He holds out his hand, showing me a small white bandage on his index finger. “She bit me! Really hard, too. Contractions must be fucked up.”

“Oh, Jesus!”

“Yeah, I still can’t feel any of the fingers on my right hand,” Noah puts in, his voice equally as exhausted as Raj’s. “Mel is doing okay, though. A nurse comes by to check on her like, every half hour. There’s one in there right now. The doctor came this time, too. We don’t know if that means anything, or what, but. Yeah, so far everything is alright.”

“That’s great!” I answer, smiling at him. “And you guys seem a little calmer, too.”

Raj runs a hand over his face. “Well, Aiden is definitely helping.”

“What?” I turn to him, surprised. “Helping how?”

Noah gestures to the doors.

“We can see him through the window, and he seems pretty chill out there. I swear that Aiden just knows when something bad is gonna happen. You were right, Jamie, it’s like he’s got a sixth sense. It’s weirdly helping us out, that he seems fine.”

I glance through the window and realize that Aiden is just visible, down at the end of the hallway. He’s kicked back comfortably in his seat, chatting with Ripley, twirling his snapback around his finger.

Love wells up in my heart, warming me from head to toe.

My Guardian. Helping even when he doesn’t know it.

I turn back to Raj and Noah, but before I can say anything, the door that they’d been standing next to swings open. A nurse leans out.

“Hello,” she calls. “This baby is very much on the way. Think it’s a good time for dad to come back in!”

Raj slaps Noah’s arm, suddenly wide awake again. “Dude, that’s us!”

“That’s you, man!” Noah says, but they both turn and sprint back to the hospital room.

“You’re not allowed back here, Jamie!” the nurse calls, and disappears into the room before I can even see who she is.

I slip back out through the double doors, then stop. I lean my shoulder against the wall, my head spinning.

I did okay holding it together in front of Raj and Noah, but honestly, I need like, hours to go think through the realization that just hit me.

I end up standing there for much longer than I intended to. The minutes that slip by feel more like a handful of seconds.

Finally, I start to walk, moving to rejoin Aiden and Ripley in the waiting room.

I’ve only made it about three steps in their direction when Aiden suddenly sits bolt upright in his chair, his blue eyes widening.

He tips his head to the side, and listens.

I freeze where I am, watching him.

Slowly, he gets to his feet. Ripley does, too, asking a question I can’t hear from this distance.

For almost a solid minute, Aiden just stands there.

He spots me by the doors, gives himself a shake, and starts striding towards me. Ripley trails after him, a puzzled, faintly alarmed expression on his face.

I rush to meet Aiden, then grab the front of his sweater, fear rising within me. “Hey, what’s-?”

“I hear it,” he says quietly.

“Hear what?”

A bright smile comes over Aiden’s face. “A new note."

I stare up at him. “A new-?”

The double-doors come crashing open, and I whip around to find Noah there, grinning from ear to ear.

“We’ve got a baby, people!” he shouts.

For a moment, Ripley, Aiden, and I just stare at him. Then all three of us start yelling at once, and run right for him. The result is a sort of tangled group hug with a laughing Noah in the middle.

“Congrats, Noah!” Ripley says, when we break apart.

“Seriously, man!” Aiden puts in, beaming.

I clasp my hands beneath my chin. “Noah! We’re so happy for you!”

“Thanks!” Noah says, dazed, and then - “What? No, that’s - save that for Raj and Mel, obviously!”

“Is Melanie okay?”

Noah laughs again, then points to his own giant grin. “Shit, Jamie, would I look like this if she wasn’t?”

Raj leans out of the hospital room, his face glowing.

“Noah, come back!” He reaches for him. “You have to come hold her! I just did, and it was fucking amazing!”

“Gotta go!” Noah tells us excitedly, spinning on his heel.

“What happened to nobody better hand me that baby?” Ripley shouts after him, cupping his hands around his mouth.

“Changed my mind!” Noah yells, and takes off running down the hallway.