#ht fic

No One Gets Left Behind

E, 20k. Chapters 4 of 5 now on Ao3.

TK and Carlos take Jonah on a night out to a very special place when the honky-tonk hosts a family-friendly event, but even while surrounded by all their closet friends, not everyone is happy to see them. When disaster strikes, Jonah unexpectedly becomes the evening’s hero.

Chapter 1: Kisses for Breakfast I Chapter 2: Wanna Dance, Mijo? Chapter 3: The A-Word I Chapter 4: Last Chance Saloon

“What’s happened, mijo?” Andrea asks. She’s wandered over, catching the tail of the conversation, and finds herself with a little nieto cuddling into her.

“There was a mean man,” Jonah says.

A squeeze to TK’s shoulder makes him jump, but it’s only his own dad here to find out what’s going on.

“A guy confronted you in front of Jonah?” Owen asks.

“Look. I don’t want to make a huge deal out of this,” TK says, and turns to Carlos. “I just think we have to watch our backs a little, babe. I’m sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry for?” Carlos stares at TK with a face like stone, a living boulder about to crush its way down a hillside.

“I just–”

“No.” Carlos slides off his barstool cooly. His cowboy boots clink as his feet meet the floor.

“Babe?”

“This is our place, and our night, with our family. Just as much as anyone else’s.”

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Good morning everyone! I'm excited to have something new to share this week! This is a moment from a fic coming soon! In which Jonah might have got a little confused between styles of dancing:

“I’m a Texas Ranger,” Carlos explained, at which the man smiled, impressed. Older men like this cowboy are always very impressed when they learn what Jonah’s papa does, Jonah has noticed. They kind of go all swoony. It’s funny.

“Are you going to be a Texas Ranger like your daddy one day, young fella?” the man asked.

“Um. No…” Jonah replied pensively. “I’m going to be a tap dancer like my other papa.”

This was news to TK and Carlos, who looked down at Jonah with surprise. Never had Jonah expressed any interest nor knowledge in the subject of tap dancing. Neither had TK.

Without wanting to embarrass Jonah, they played along. TK found himself telling the man that he was forced to retire early from his tap dancing career due to a tendon injury.

“That must have been devastating,” the man said.

“Yes. I was very upset,” TK replied while Carlos refused to make eye-contact.

“A Ranger and a tap dancer.” The man nodded. “How did you two meet?”

“Tap dancing,” Jonah supplied.

The man looked at Carlos.

“I was…undercover,” Carlos said.

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Good morning everyone! The final chapter of No One Gets Left Behind is coming soon - and I wanted to share this part that makes my own heart squeeze. I intended to write a fic that might feel like a post-season 5 Tarlos-centric episode of the show, which we never got to have. I really hope I've managed it with this one. It's been a blast to write and share ❤️

Jonah, as if sensing that he’s being watched, looks up to meet Carlos’ eye and grins back at him. Without being beckoned, because he just knows he’s wanted, Jonah hops up on his little cowboy boots and jogs to his papas, dodging their dancing friends as he goes.

“Hey!” TK cheers happily when he feels the familiar slam of Jonah meeting his side. “There you are.”

“Wanna dance with us?” Carlos asks him.

“Yeah!” Jonah replies, and lifts his arms to be picked up.

TK and Carlos look at each other, grinning with surprise. They’ll often scoop Jonah up as they please, to tickle and horse around with him, or they’ll naturally pick him up and cradle him if he’s upset. It’s rarer, these days, that their six-year-old will put his arms up like this, like he did when he was three.

TK and Carlos each grab him under a reaching arm and bring him up. While TK gets Jonah positioned comfortably on his hip, Carlos takes Jonah’s free hand, and puts his other hand on top of where Jonah clutches TK’s shoulder. Together, they swirl around, and Carlos breaks into silly shimmies and sometimes the robot – anything to make Jonah laugh and scream. Anything. Anything for that beautiful, enlivened sound that becomes part of the music. TK and Jonah, Carlos thinks, are handsome guys anyway, but when they are happy, and feel safe to be happy, and express that joy, especially at the same time, there’s nothing more beautiful in the world.

Carlos can’t help himself. He leans in and kisses Jonah’s cheek, then kisses TK’s.

“I think I’m the luckiest guy in all of Texas,” Carlos announces.

“No, I think it’s me, actually,” TK twinkles back at him.

“No, I am!” Jonah says eagerly, shooting his hand up. He doesn’t want to miss a chance to stake his claim as the luckiest of all. And it is true. Not everybody gets to have a TK and Carlos of their very own.

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Chapter 3 of No One Gets Left Behind is coming soon! And here we have a little bit of reeling from the thing I don't want to spoil:

Inside the honky-tonk, to the tune of the band playing Suspicious Minds while the line dancing really gets going, Carlos insists on paying for the whole round of drinks, rinsing his wallet by leaving Ricky a huge tip.

Joe’s eyebrows raise. “Hoo. Okay, big spender.”

“Forget about it.” Carlos shrugs. “It’s the least I could do.”

“You’re not the one who caused anything to go down, here.” Judd casts a furious glance over at the husband and wife, who sneer back at him. “They should be the ones buying us drinks.”

“I wouldn’t drink anything they bought me if my throat was on fire,” Owen says.

“Probably not a great idea to drink alcohol if your throat’s on fire anyway,” Joe ponders.

“I just hope Jonah’s okay,” Carlos says quietly.

But Owen hears him over the music and pats Carlos on the back. “Ah, he’s out there bouncing his little heart out. Doesn’t have a care in the world.”

“I don’t know.” Carlos sighs and pushes his pointer finger against the scuffed bar where the cherry lacquer has flaked away. “He feels things so deeply. Just like TK. Even when he doesn’t really understand what the feeling is.”

“Kids are resilient,” Judd tells him. “Jonah’s resilient. I mean, that boy has been through a lot worse than encountering..." he throws a thumb over his shoulder and shouts, "MR. AND MRS. ASSHAT over there!”

And even though Mr. and Mrs. Asshat probably couldn’t hear Judd, Carlos finds himself breaking into a laugh that he needs like medicine.

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Chapter 4 of No One Gets Left Behind is coming soon! There will be a bouncy house injury, caretaker-Jonah, and something strange afoot...

Tommy, Nancy and TK appear on instinct to check the injury. No blood. She didn’t bite her tongue or puncture her lip. She can open and close her mouth fine, as evidenced by the wailing. It was mostly a nasty shock and she might have a slight bruise coming up.

Yara pushes her face into Marjan’s neck. Nothing bad can happen to her if she has her eyes shut and her mom is holding her.

“She did a big bounce and she got hit on her chin with her knee,” Jonah explains, “I saw it happen. She went like–”

“No, no, don’t demonstrate!” TK grabs Jonah around the middle before he can send his knee into his own face. “We get it. These things happen.” He ruffles Jonah’s mop of sweaty hair.

“Thank you for helping Yara, Little J,” Joe says.

“Okay, Big J,” Jonah giggles shyly. Jonah is Little J, Uncle Joe is Big J, and Uncle Judd is Biggest J of All. To TK, Jonah asks, “Can I go back and bounce, now?”

“Alright, but you be careful,” TK says, giving his boy a kiss on the head. “And yes, good job at helping Yara. I’m proud of you.”

TK lets Jonah go and returns to the rest of their concerned group at the picnic tables. Jonah, heading in the opposite direction, skips off happily back to the bouncy house where he belongs. He can make out muffled thumps and laughter over the murmuring air pump, and he can’t wait to tell Parker, Erin and Charlie that everything’s okay.

But, as he clambers onto the inflated porch, Jonah hears a sharper noise. Something metal. There’s another set of cackles and uppity whisper-shouts, but they aren’t coming from within the bouncy house. Jonah freezes and listens with both ears, like he's told to at school.

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