trendy urbanite gay dads au: doll doctor shaw (pt. 2)
after the second week, root stops asking to bring shaw home after school
the sound of root & shaw playing is as much of a fixture in their house as much as finch’s overflowing bookshelves, or bear’s quilted dog bed
shaw only meets bear, finch’s service dog, on her fifth visit- he had been sleeping the other few
its as much of an instant bond as she had with root
“‘scuse me, finch” (she dropped the “mr.” pretty much immediately) “can i pet that dog?” she makes sure to ask because a girl at their school has a service dog too and she knows you arent always allowed to pet them
but she really wants to pet this dog
she sips on her glass of almond milk and stares him down
she doesnt realize just how intimidating she can be, for a kindergartener
bear is just wagging away
“of course, ms. shaw,” finch says after a second of internal “what if she breaks him” and unclips his harness
root is not very impressed
“the dog is always going to be here, sameen! but theres only going to be a ghost in the window right now! come on”
shes tugging the strap of shaws overalls to no avail
she is but a wispy little child against shaws solid brick form
sameen gets on all fours and puts her arms around bears neck
root is complaining loudly because she isnt paying attention to her
finch is anxiously puttering around all three making sure that no one hurts eachother
reese is watching the scene with a small smile.
or, you know. his face is a little softer. thats a smile from him
root eventually has to physically remove shaw from bears body and drag her to her bedroom to make her stop playing with the dog instead of her
theyre sitting on the purple shag rug that reese nearly teared up in interior designer agony over
(but he couldn’t say no to that smile)
(if she wants purple shag, she gets purple shag)
root used to play with barbies, before they adopted her
but finch and reese didnt like the unhealthy body expectations she might internalize from them
so, they spent nearly 300$ on custom ordering her dolls in a variety of shapes, sizes, and ethnicities
reese walks up behind finch on the computer
the page is open to a shopping cart of 286$ of custom dolls and doll parts
“that’s a lot of money, finch.”
finch huffs and looks up at him to the full extent that he can
“and how much is her self esteem worth, john?“
reese chuckles and kisses his temple. smoothes his ruffled tie
now, shaw has noticed how each of their body parts has the same sort of connecting joint
root is methodically dressing and redressing her favourite doll ("it looks like you, poppa!”) and not noticing what her girlfriend is doing
when she looks up, shaw has attached all of the remaining dolls heads to the places where the arms and legs should go
shaw holds it up and laughs. roots jaw drops
in the next room, finch and reese sit straight up as her piercing wail cuts through the apartment
they bust into the room and find shaw laughing, holding the monstrosity in front of roots face as root clutches her own doll and screams
it takes everything in the dads’ power to suppress their laughter
finch rushes to root’s side and delicately (painfully) gets down on the ground next to her. he rubs his hand over her shoulder and asks her what happened
meanwhile, little sameen is showing john her creation
“im going to be a doctor” she says
john turns over the doll in his hands
he starts finding everyones limbs and reassembling them while finch talks through the conflict between the two
“sameen broke my dolls, daddy!”
root looks at her with all the scorn and anger a 5 year old can muster
reese puts susie’s legs in her arm holes and waves it at finch with a grin. finch scowls
“and she likes bear more than me!”
“do not, root! don’t say stuff like that!”
shaws pissed now, because root doesnt know how she feels, so why is she pretending she does
“plus, i didn’t break your dolls! look!”
roots attention gets directed to john who, like a saint, has reassembled everyone into the right order
“i was gonna put em back, anyway!” shaw says and crosses her arms
“and bear isnt even a person”, she adds
root just sniffles in finch’s lap and looks at her
she realizes shes been wrong but also she is 5 years old and doesnt want to admit it
so instead, she presses her snotty face against finch’s shoulder
(“hello, yes, this is harold finch, my loyalty card is 03- oh, of course. hello barbara. well, i was wondering if the dry cleaning treatment was suitable for, erm, mucus stains? you see, my life has changed rather radically recently- for the better, and…”)
and for a second, she just stays there
everyone is quiet. reese is holding up the dolls and looking at finch, who shrugs, slightly
after about 5 seconds of silence pass, root pulls her face back
shes beaming like nothing even happened
she stands up, grabs shaws sweaty little baby hand
“come on, sameen, lets watch blues clues”
sameen grins and follows her out of the room, because in the first day of kindergarten, she watched root tell a boy that she only watches shows with her friends, and that boys arent her friends
shaws limited logic can figure out that that means that root thinks theyre still friends. girlfriends
finch sets up a torrented episode of blues clues for them on his laptop while dictating his takeout order to john, and shaw tries not to pay too much attention to the dog snuffling at her hand
(why is he torrenting blues clues when he has 300$ for dolls?)
(he spent all his blues clues money on dolls)
harold ends up sitting down and watching with them
“oh, alright, root. just a minute, though- i really should help john with cleaning”
he ends up watching the full episode
the things parenthood do to you
(john isnt mad, though- he loves to see finch spend time with their daughter)
while hes ordering the takeout, he asks shaw what she wants to eat
she doesnt look away from the screen. the mailbox is dancing
“but you don’t have to feed me, or anything”
she suddenly remembers what her mom said about how mr. finch and mr. reese might not actually want to be paying for most of the food she actually eats
reese has been a poor kid. he knows whats up- he finishes up his order and puts down the vintage rotary home phone
“you’re a growing girl,” he says as he comes to stand behind the couch, “you need to eat”
shaw is a lot quieter than usual when she replies
“my momma can feed me just fine” she mumbles
finch and reese exchange a look
“i’m sure she can, ms. shaw,” finch says in a measured voice
“but you’re at our house right now- so we should be the ones providing your meal”
shaw squints at him, and then turns all the way around to squint at reese
their facial expressions seem earnest enough for her to trust what they’re saying
she goes back to watching the show with root, and thats that
finch is grateful for how simple children’s emotions can be
plus, root is such a picky eater, when dinner actually arrives, they almost have an entire portion of the parts that she didnt like, while the rest of the family give her the parts she does like
“we’ll order more injera next time, darling,” finch says as he helps root clean the dishes
root likes to send shaw home with momentos of their visits. reese wonders how long it will be until she runs out of craft supplies
this time, she puts a sticker of a kitten on the buckle of shaw’s overalls
and very, very tentatively, kisses her cheek
she runs away to her room giggling, immediately after
shaw crosses her arms and puffs up defensively at reese and finch, daring them to say anything about it
they don’t. reese drives her home and they talk about dogs
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