Am I gonna turn out fine?
Oh, you'll turn out fine
But you gotta keep your head up
And you can let your hair down

--"Keep Your Head Up," Andy Grammer

June 2013, Eight Years Later

Things were going great for the Liberty Avenue gang.

Ted and Blake celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary and were happier than ever. Blake just earned his doctorate in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and hoped to start a residency at their inpatient rehab center as an addiction specialist very soon. Ted was experiencing great success at Kinnetik, handling some of his own accounts, running a tight ship in the accounting department, and raking in lots of money, both for the company and for himself.

Emmett and Drew got back together five years before and were now proud parents to their adorable adopted children, Lyla and Sawyer. Emmett's catering company was a big success and Drew had retired from football and became a sportscaster on the local news.

Justin had returned from Manhattan, earned a degree in media design, and now ran the art department at Kinnetik. Brian was happy that his Sunshine was back in his arms and bed for good. He was also a lot more pleasant to work with, making everyone in the company happy. Blake and Justin had become very good friends over the years, with Brian and Ted calling the blonds "Our Twinks."

To Ted's delight, Emmett and Blake had developed a nice relationship, allowing the couples to share many dinners and even a few vacations together. Most importantly, Emmett was happy that Ted was happy, and Emmett respected Blake for the man he had become and how well he treated Ted.

Depending on who you spoke to, another great event was Michael being out of their lives. He had become a complete asshole following the Babylon bombing. Debbie blamed his downward spiral on his near-death experience in the bombing and JR moving to Toronto, but it was mostly due to his excessive alcohol consumption and addiction to painkillers. He refused to admit he had a problem, so no one could help him. At first, Ted didn't want to be around an addict, Emmett barely tolerated him, and Brian had only clung to his "best friend" because he thought Justin was going to break up with him while he was still in Manhattan. Once it became known that Michael was actually attempting to orchestrate their break up so he could have Brian for himself, everyone but Debbie turned their backs on him.

Both Blake and Ted had each thought about starting a family, although they hadn't talked about it with each other. They both loved Lyla and Sawyer and enjoyed babysitting and playing with them. Blake was the oldest child in his family and loved being a big brother, but he was unsure how he would be as a father, without having his parents to pass a screaming or unruly child onto like he usually did with his siblings. He was also just starting his career and didn't know if he would have the time needed to devote to a child. Ted had just turned forty-seven and thought maybe he was too old to be able to raise a child.

One night after Emmett and Drew had picked up their kids from an evening of babysitting, Blake decided to bite the bullet and ask Ted what he thought of possibly raising a child together.

"Ted, could I talk to you about something?" Blake said as they got ready for bed.

"Of course. What's on your mind?"

"Well, I was wondering if you ever thought about what it would be like to have a baby with me."

Ted looked at his husband's toned body. "You wouldn't mind ruining your waistline to have a baby, would you?"

Blake chuckled. "Of course we'd have to adopt or get a surrogate."

Ted smile wistfully. "Yes, I have given it some thought over the years. You'd be a great dad, for sure, but I'm getting too old. I have more salt than pepper in my hair, if you haven't noticed."

"I'm not nearly as blond as I used to be," Blake pointed out, running his fingers through his darkening hair.

"Shit, you still look like a teenager walking down the street with me," Ted said.

"You're only old in your mind. You still keep up with me in bed," Blake countered, leering at his husband, whom he had always regarded as classically handsome, like George Clooney.

"That's true, and I do manage to keep up with Lyla and Sawyer when they're running around here. Maybe it's something we should look into. Em and Drew would be a big help, since they've been through it twice."

"I agree, but right now I'd rather concentrate on the two of us," Blake answered, pulling Ted onto the bed and rolling on top of him.

Blake started laying soft kisses on his husband's face, wanting to build the fire between them slowly.

Ted stretched his arms up and closed his eyes. He loved when Blake took charge. He was thrilled that they were both versatile. Whoever felt like taking the lead, just did. With his eyes closed, he could lay there and feel like he was floating on the sensations Blake was causing with his talented mouth and hands.

Ted moaned as Blake's tongue licked at his nipples before softly biting on them. Lowering himself down the bed, Blake wrapped his hand around Ted's cock and licked around just under the flared head. Ted reached under the pillow and pulled out the lube, handing it to his partner.

Blake moved up and kissed him thoroughly while reaching down to prepare Ted for his thick cock. Once Ted was stretched and bucking back on his fingers, Blake moved over him as his husband wrapped his legs around his hips. Blake slowly pushed in until he was fully seated in Ted's heat. They had stopped using condoms in the first year of their marriage, loving how much closer they felt with nothing between them. They kissed deeply while Ted adjusted to being filled.

Once he knew Ted was ready, Blake started moving slowly as they stared into each other's eyes.

"God, I love you so much," Ted whispered to his man.

"I love you, too," Blake answered.

Every time one of them would get close, they would pause before starting up again. Finally, they both needed release and came together, shouting each other's names.   

Blake was about to start on dinner late one afternoon when there was a frantic knock on the door of his and Ted's home. He looked through the glass insert in the door and found his youngest sister, who appeared very distraught.

"Heather, what are you doing here?" Blake said after opening the door. "I haven't seen you in-"

"We need to talk," the twenty-two-year-old said, pushing her way past her brother to take a seat on the couch.

"Nice to see you too, Sis," Blake mumbled as he shut the door.

"I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do," Heather said, tears welling up in her blue eyes.

Blake took a seat next to his sister, who looked like a younger female version of himself. "What happened, Sweetie?"

Heather started sobbing. "I'm pregnant!"

"Uh-oh," was all Blake could say at first. "Uh... I guess, by your reaction, this is a bad thing?"

"Yes, it's bad! I don't know how I'm going to tell Nolan."

"And Nolan is the...?" Blake said.

"Father," Heather confirmed. "We've been seeing each other for a few months, here and there, nothing serious. We can't have a fucking kid right now! He's going to Harvard Law in the fall and I'm... I guess I'm not going to Pitt anymore."

"You got accepted?" Blake asked, knowing that his sister wanted to become a dentist and had applied to University of Pittsburgh dental school. She had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a Bachelor's in Biology the previous month.

"Yeah, I found out in February. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, I've been so busy with this last semester."

"It's okay, I've been busy with school, too," Blake said. "I was taking a final on your graduation day, otherwise I would have been there. You can still go to graduate school, you know. Lots of parents go to college and graduate school - our parents, for instance. Many of my classmates had kids and a few of the women were pregnant."

Heather shook her head. "No... I... I can't fucking deal with this right now! I mean, I still live with Mom and Dad. I work part-time at the mall. I'm going to have a shitload of student loans to pay. How the fuck am I supposed to afford a baby? I'm definitely not going to ask Nolan to drop all of his plans for me. Hell, I may not even tell him, just to spare him the pressure."

"So, what are you going to do? You're not going to get an... uh... are you?"

Blake had never personally been against abortion, mostly because it wasn't something he'd ever have to deal with in his own love life. He supported a woman's right to choose what happened to her body and with her future, but now that it was his sister's baby, his potential niece or nephew, he didn't feel comfortable with it.

"I don't know," Heather said, sniffling. "That's why I came over here. I was hoping maybe you'd know what I should do."

"Why me?" Blake asked, suddenly breaking into a sweat.

"Because you're my big brother! You've always been there for me. You're the smartest person I know... minus those couple of years when you were a methed-out party boy."

Blake flinched, hating to be reminded of the bad old days. He still had a tense relationship with his parents and some of his other siblings as a result of his addiction. 

Heather was only six years old when Blake came out as gay and moved out of the family home. He started using drugs after failing out of his first year of college. Prior to that, Blake had been her idol, by far her favorite of their other siblings. She was the most forgiving out of all of them after Blake got clean, mostly because she was so young and didn't really know what was going on at the time.

"Have you talked to Mom about this?" Blake asked, needing to get up and pace the room.

"I haven't told anyone but you. I've thought for a few weeks that I might be pregnant because I was late, but I hoped it was just from the stress of finals. I started having morning sickness last week and finally got the nerve to take a test. I got it confirmed at Planned Parenthood and came straight over here. I'm due in early January. Mom and Dad are going to kill me."

"They have six other grandchildren, it's not like they've never been through this before," Blake pointed out. "Sophia had her first when she was twenty."

"But I'm the baby of the family! I'm not supposing to be having a baby!" Heather buried her face in her hands and started crying hard again.

Blake sat back down and rubbed his sister's shoulders. "Do you want me to go with you to tell them?"

"I'd prefer you tell them without me," Heather blubbered.

Blake chuckled. "Sorry, Kiddo. You're the one who's pregnant, you need to be there, too."

Blake followed Heather to their parents' house in his car. With Blake holding her hand, Heather broke the news. Their parents were a bit upset at first, since Heather had always been responsible and "the baby", as she had said, but they soon warmed up to the idea of another grandchild.

"Nolan is a handsome young man, so your baby will be very cute," their mother, Carol, mused.

Heather bit her bottom lip. She couldn't find the nerve to tell their parents that she was considering ending her pregnancy. She looked at Blake for help, but he seemed to be too happy with becoming an uncle again.

It was decided for Heather by their parents that she would postpone going to dental school for a year so she could have her baby. Their father, Stan, was near retirement and was happy to help take care of the baby once Heather started back up at school. Once the ball started rolling, Heather felt like she had no choice but to become a single mother.

Heather's pregnancy was completely normal and healthy. She found out at her twenty-week scan that she was having a boy. Blake helped his mom and sister decorate the nursery, the bedroom that he used to share with one of his younger brothers.

Heather went into labor three days past her due date. She only wanted her mom to be in the delivery room with her, so the rest of the family sat out in a waiting room.

Blake rushed over to the women's hospital in the UPMC campus after his shift ended, learning from his dad that Heather was almost ready to start pushing. His mom walked into the waiting room about an hour later.

She didn't look very happy for having just witnessed the birth of a new grandchild.

"What happened?" Stan asked his wife.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Blake's sister Sophia asked.

"Is Heather okay?" Blake chimed in.

"The baby?" his brother Jason asked.

"They're... they're both okay," Carol finally said.

A chorus of voices demanded to know what the problem was.

"Well, the baby looks... different. His face is... I don't know. He doesn't look like anyone else in the family, not like any of the other babies we've had. Heather only held him for a few seconds before the doctors took him away to be examined. They asked me like, five times the name of our pediatrician. Apparently, they're trying to get her in here..."

It was rather chaotic in the hospital for the rest of the evening, with members of the Wyzecki family demanding answers from nurses and doctors who wouldn't tell them anything. Heather was very tired after her long labor and quite distraught. She had asked to be left alone to rest after being moved out of the delivery room into a regular room, but Blake went in to see her before visiting hours were to end at 9 PM.

He sat in a chair next to the head of the bed. Heather was asleep and looked as she did when she was a little girl. Because Blake was thirteen years older than her, he always looked at his baby sister as if she was still just as precious as she had been during her childhood.

Heather woke up a couple minutes later. Her blue eyes met Blake's and she started crying.

"The baby..." she choked out.

Blake didn't know what to say, so he just nodded.

"He... I think he has Down syndrome," she said. "I studied it in school, he looks just like the pictures I've seen. His face is flat and his nose is wide. It couldn't have just been from being squished during the birth because everyone else in the room knew something was wrong as soon as they looked at him."

Blake was afraid of that being the case. Down syndrome had been the first thing to pop into his head when his mother had described the baby's face looking "different" and unlike anyone else's in the family. He went to high school with a guy that had Down syndrome, who had the classic facial features and looked nothing like his older brother a year ahead of him.

"Well, the doctors haven't told us anything," Blake said, trying to comfort his baby sister in any way that he could. "They're running tests and won't let us see him."

Someone announced on the hospital's intercom that visiting hours were over.

"I've gotta go, Kiddo," Blake said before giving Heather a kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back in tomorrow morning to see you, okay? I love you."

Heather rolled over away from him and sighed heavily.

Ted was waiting out in the hall. Blake walked into his husband's open arms and began crying on his shoulder.

"She thinks the baby has Down syndrome, but the doctors won't tell us anything," Blake said.

Ted sighed and held his love. "Even if he does, he's going to be okay. It's not a deadly disease, is it?"

"No, but he'll never be normal."

"He's going to be okay," Ted repeated before he walked with Blake out of the hospital.