“Petey,” Tyson said, walking into the bathroom where Petey was soaking in a hot bath after his workout. “There’s some guy in a three piece suit downstairs that wants to talk to you. You suing for divorce?” Tyson asked, chuckling.

Petey had a confused look on his face as he stood up, letting Tyson wrap a towel around him. “Yeah, we got married two weeks ago and I’m already divorcing you.” Petey said, stepping out of the tub and walking into the bedroom he shared with Tomko. “By the way, I’m taking half your shit for my time and suffering. Could you tell him I’ll be down in a minute cue ball?”

Tyson laughed and walked downstairs. Petey was the only person that could get away with calling him that. Anyone else would have been on their ass, but Petey had stolen the big man’s heart a year ago with Jason Reso introduced them during a taping. Since then, if Petey wanted it, he got it. And that included getting away with calling Tyson Tomko, cue ball. “He’ll be down in just a minute.” Tyson said walking into the living room where the stranger sat with a briefcase open in front of him. “Can I offer you a drink while you wait?”

“No sir.” The man said, shuffling papers around. “I’ll just wait for Mr. Williams”

“Not to be rude,” Tyson said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “it’s Mr. Williams-Tomko. He hyphenated it.”

The man looked at Tyson and shifted in his seat. “Sorry about that Mr. Tomko. It’s not in my records.” The man said, not doing a very good job of hiding his intimidation.

“What’s this all about?” Petey said, walking into the room and wrapping his arm around Tyson’s waist.

“Mr. Williams-Tomko,” The man said, standing up and reaching out to shake Petey’s hand. “my name is Robert Lemon. I’m the executor of your cousin, Rachel Williams, will.”

“What are you doing here then?” Petey said, giving the man a confused look as Tyson tightened his grip on his husband, having a feeling of what was coming next.

The lawyer looked between the two men. “No one told you about Miss Williams?” The lawyer said, knowing by the look on Petey’s face that he had not been informed. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your cousin has passed away. She died at home of a massive heart attack. She didn’t suffer, it happened while she was sleeping.” The lawyer stopped there seeing Petey break down in Tyson’s arms. “I’ll give you two a moment alone.” He said, stepping into another room.

Tyson led Petey to the couch and sat down with him, holding the smaller man in his arms, whispering loving words in his ear. “We were thick as thieves when we were little.” Petey said, through the tears. “She was the only member of my family that wanted anything to do with me after I came out. Now she’s gone.” Petey cried on Tyson’s shoulders for a few more minutes. “What’s gonna happen to her kids? She had twins about two years ago. What’s gonna happen to them?”

“I’m sure there being taken care of sweetie.” Tyson said, trying to calm Petey. “I’m sure their dad is taking good care of them.”

“They don’t have a dad.” Petey said, looking up into his husband’s eyes. “The ass hole got her pregnant and then vanished. His name isn’t even on their birth certificates.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt.” Mr. Lemon said, re-entering the room. “Mr. Williams-Tomko, you were named as guardian of Rachel’s two minor children, Caine and Christian Williams.”

Petey and Tyson sat next to each other in stunned silence for a minute or two. One look in Petey’s eyes told Tyson all he needed to know. Petey wanted these children. “When do we get them?” Tyson asked.

“Actually, there in a car outside.” Mr. Lemon said. “I thought Petey had already been informed about his cousin’s passing. We would have never brought the children today if I’d known he wasn’t informed. We also thought he knew he was the guardian of the children in the event of her death. I’m sorry. The children can be put in foster care during the grieving process.”

Tyson looked at Petey, knowing it was his call. “No.” Petey said, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Those kids have been through enough. Give us a few minutes to straighten things up and then you can bring ‘em in.”

Mr. Lemon stepped outside. “You sure you’re up to this?” Tyson said, taking Petey’s hand and pulling him up to his feet. “You sure you don’t want to take a few days to absorb all this?”

“I’d love to.” Petey said, looking around their living room and noticing a thousand things that a small child could get chocked on, or hurt by. “But I’m not putting those kid’s through any more than they’ve already been through. Are you alright with this? I mean it affects you too.”

“I’ve never been around kids.” Tyson said, scanning the room, much as Petey had done. “But how many men become father’s that have never been around kids? I’m just a little nervous, but I want them. I think we’ll make good parents.”

The two men rushed around the house picking things up and doing their best to child proof their home in the little time they had. Petey went to the door after about fifteen minutes, and motioned to the lawyer that they were ready.

One hour later, the lawyer and social workers were gone, leaving Petey and Tyson with two, identical twin boys. “Make a list of things we need.” Tyson said, looking at the two boys as if they were aliens that had just landed in the yard. “I’ll go get everything.”

“List?” Petey said, giving Tyson much the same look Tyson was giving the boys. “Try everything. Unless you have two toddler beds stuck up your ass.”

“Ash.” One of the boys repeated.

Petey looked at both of them, not knowing which one said it. “That’s a bad word.” He said, trying not to sound to forceful. “I guess we have to watch what we say from now on. Oh, don’t forget car seats. We really need those.”

Twenty minutes later, Tyson was standing in the middle of the baby department of the local Wal-Mart... overwhelmed to say the least. “You can’t tell me they need all this shit.” Tyson said to himself as he started looking at some items. After an hour, though, Tyson admitted defeat. He picked up his cell phone and called the only person in the world he knew that had a kid. “Mommy. Help.”

After explaining the entire situation to his mother, she talked him through what the boys would need. Six hundred dollars, and a major dent in his credit card later, the trunk was full and Tyson was on his way to a furniture store. Two thousand dollars, and a promise to deliver in an hour, and Tyson was on his way home. Fear welling up inside him.

“Where the h... Where have you been?” Petey said, when Tyson walked in. “These kids have a whole new vocabulary because of me. Not to mention that they’re wrecking the house.”

Tyson took a look around their home. Magazines were everywhere, some of them not for little kids. DVDs were thrown all over the living room. The cushions of the furniture were halfway on the floor, which had some stains on it now. And there was a very unique odor about the house now. “What’s that smell?” Tyson said, sitting down the first load of bags he’d carried in.

“That smell came out of their butts.” Petey said, watching as Caine and Christian ran past him again. “They’re goin’ nuts.”

“Carry in the rest of the stuff. You look like you need a break.” Tyson said, walking into the living room where the boys had ran, noticing both boys, sharpies in hand, doing their best Michael Angelo on the walls. “Alright. That’s enough. Sit down.” Tyson said, in a voice that would have scared most grown men. Both boys dropped right were they stood. “It’s time you know the rules.” Tyson said, starting to pick things up off the floor. “Number one. No writing on the walls or furniture or anything else except paper. Number two. We look at magazines at a table. Not on the floor. And only one magazine at a time. Number three. If you have to go to the bathroom, let me or Petey know. We’ll take you. Now you two sit there and be quite while I help Petey.” Tyson said, confiscating the markers the boys were using.

Petey and Tyson carried in the remainder of the bags and started unpacking everything. “You didn’t get any furniture?” Petey said, noticing the trunk was empty and everything had fit in a bag.

“It’s being delivered in about an hour.” Tyson said, putting the bottles and sippy cups away in a cabinet.

“They’re being awful quiet.” Petey said, glancing toward the kitchen door. “What’d you do?”

Tyson looked at Petey, chest puffed up with pride. “I gave them rules. In a stern voice. They listen.”

“Cool.” Petey said, and continued putting things away. A few minutes later Petey turned to leave the kitchen and go put things away in the boys room he’d picked out earlier. “What the fuck!” Petey shouted, scaring Tyson who turned around so fast he almost fell. “Caine, what happened to you?” Petey said, dropping everything he was carrying and grabbing a wet cloth.

“Kistian color.” Caine said, smiling at Petey.

Petey started to rub the cloth on Caine’s face, very quickly noticing that nothing was coming off. “Caine? What did Christian paint you with?” Petey said, worry and anger starting to take hold of him.

“Pen.” Caine said, pointing in the other room.

Tyson walked past Petey and Caine and into the living room where Christian was sitting quietly drawing lines on his own arm with the sharpie that Tyson had put on the coffee table. “Christian.” Tyson yelled. “Put that down.”

The boy dropped the marker and sat there. Petey came in carrying Caine, still trying to wipe the marker off the boys face. “Not so scary Tyson.” Petey said, sitting down on the couch with Caine on his lap. “They’ve been through a lot. Don’t yell at ‘em.”

“Don’t yell at ‘em?” Tyson said, putting his hands on his hips. “Petey look around. These kids are out of control. They need discipline. We can’t just let ‘em run wild.”

“They’re probably just acting out because they miss their mom.” Petey said. “This isn’t working.” Petey added, throwing the wet cloth on the table and picking Caine up again. “I’m gonna try alcohol.”

The rest of the day went fairly well the same way. Petey coddled, and Tyson tried to discipline. All the while arguing with each other about which method should be used. After the boys were in bed and asleep, a very weary Petey and Tyson were able to go to bed themselves. “You sure we should sleep together?” Tyson said, sliding on his pajamas. “Or do you think that would put the boys through to much?”

“What’s that suppose to mean?” Petey said, slipping under the covers.

“I mean, you coddle them too much.” Tyson said, getting into bed himself. “Those kids don’t even understand what happened to their mother. I know it’s hard to talk about, but they don’t. As far as they know she’s on vacation somewhere and she’s coming to get ‘em soon. They need rules and we need to take a firmer hand with ‘em.”

Petey sat there in bed for a few minutes thinking about what his husband had said. “I don’t think you need to take a firmer hand with ‘em. All you did was scream at ‘em all day.” Petey said, laying down and turning his back to Tyson.

“Well, one of us had to give them some boundaries.” Tyson said.

Petey sat back up and glared at Tyson. “Look, they were left to me. Not you. What I say goes.”

Tyson looked like he’d just been shot. He knew Petey was tired, but that was it. He threw the covers off of him and got out of bed, yanking his jeans on. “Wow. When you said this affects me too, you weren’t jokin’ were ya?” Tyson said as he pulled a shirt over his head and grabbed a suitcase. “I knew our lives would change, but I didn’t know that it would become your way or the highway. And if that’s the choice I have to make. If I have to choose between leaving and staying to help raise a couple of kids with no say in their upbringing. I pick leaving.” Tyson began throwing his cloths in the suitcase very hastily.

“Fine.” Petey said, getting out of bed and throwing Tyson’s cloths out of the closet. “Leave! Just remember you left me. I didn’t throw you out.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll remember.” Tyson said, as he closed the suitcase and carried it out of the room, leaving Petey to lay in their bed alone.

Tyson was just about to walk down the stairs when one word stopped him in his tracks. “Daddy?” Tyson turned around to see Christian standing in the door of the boy’s room, rubbing his eyes. “Juice?” He added reaching his sleepy arms up for Tyson.

The next morning Petey stumbled out of his room, not even fully awake yet. He looked toward the two boys room and noticed the door was open and the baby gate was down. “Shit, they’re up.” Petey said to himself and he started walking down the steps. He looked in the living room first, concerned about the lack of noise he was hearing. The sight he saw, made his eyes well up with tears. Tyson was sitting on the couch with his feet on the coffee table. One boy straddled each of his massive legs and they were all asleep.

Petey sat down in a chair and just stared at them for a while. The events of yesterday rolled through his mind, including what he’d said to Tyson. “I’m sorry.” Petey whispered toward Tyson and sat back in the chair, staring at his family once again, wishing they could stay like that forever.

“You better be.” Tyson whispered, letting his eyes flutter open.

“I am.” Petey said. “From now on, we work together. It’s our way or the highway.” Petey added, shooting Tyson the smile that won the big man’s heart in the first place. “I’m gonna go start breakfast. I wonder what time they get up?”

“Well, I can tell you one of ‘em peed about an hour ago.” Tyson said, looking down at his sons, and feeling they were his sons for the first time. “He didn’t get up, but he peed.”