Phen had very few hours where he truly had time to himself. Where there were no patients to tend to, no children running around underfoot, no housework to keep up on. And those precious few handfuls of minutes were spent, if he could arrange it, with Tobin. At least, usually. Sometimes his boyfriend was too busy working to deal with the level of neediness that was probably worrisome in a man Phen's age. All in all, Doctor Hartley was the owner of a consistently fully booked schedule.

Except for one Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving. Tobin had gone home to deal with something or another. Editing, or something. He had told Phen, but he'd told him over breakfast while he was trying to convince Kadrian that he didn't need to squirt an entire bottle of ketchup onto his eggs. It wasn't his fault that he didn't retain all the information. The point was, he had that Saturday night to himself. The kiddos were tucked away with minimal fighting, he had a mug of tea the size of his head, and he had settled down in front of the fire in his otherwise dark living room, laptop at the ready on the couch beside him. A sip of tea, a satisfied sigh, and the slight weight of the computer settling into his lap, and he was ready for some serious adult activities.

There were so many sales on Amazon!

Phen had just gotten into a real groove. Scrolling, clicking, adding things to his cart, price checking. He was a Christmas shopping machine, hell bent on Internet domination. But, as in most heroic tales of do-good, a wrench was quickly and suddenly thrown into the works, bringing everything to a screeching hault. And that wrench came in the form of a pink footie pajama clad child with a serious cowlick and that 'I slept for an hour and that's enough' expression on her pink little face, speaking a hesitant, "Daddy?"

"Monster girl," he sighed tolerantly, as Odette clambered up onto the couch beside him. "What do you think you're doing?" His voice was more tired than his body was, exasperated with a hint of resignation. If she was up, and not coming out of the room she shared with her brother rubbing her eyes and making a claim of thirst or monsters or just the need to pee, then he had little hope that she would go back to bed easily. The kids had the weirdest sleep schedules these days; they'd sleep for awhile when he put them to bed, but then wake up at odd hours, and be completely functional and awake despite any attempts he made to put them back down. He'd learned to stop fighting it, because if they were going to be up, they were going to be up. They always fell back out after an hour or so, and because they were still young enough not to fight naps, it didn't mess with their health or moods. So why have a battle with them that he wasn't ever going to win? He preferred if they stayed in their room, playing quietly, but they always seemed to wander.

"I'm awake now!" Odette crowed, seeming endlessly pleased with herself. She found a Poison Ivy doll stuffed down the back of the couch, and busied herself immediately with smoothing down the red nylon hair, her fuzzy little feet kicking away happily. Something inside Phen, between his stomach and his throat, warmed significantly. Like he'd downed his entire mug of tea in one go, and it was spreading through him. His children were growing up before his eyes, and it was only a matter of time before the days of footie onesies and midnight snuggles would be a thing of the past. It made him sad, a little, to think of.

As if reading his mind, Odie looked up at him and gave him a sweet smile, and scootched over to snuggle right up against his side. Stephen shifted his computer to the arm of the couch so he could scoop his daughter up and cradle her in his lap. He ran his palm over her messy hair, the way she'd done with her doll, and dropped a kiss to the top of her dark head. She snuggled closer, still holding her doll, and tried to look at his open laptop. "Whatcha doin', Daddy?"

Phen glanced at the laptop too, barely interested in it now that he had a warm, snuggly body in his lap. Still trying to get Odette's hair to lay flat, he hummed a single note, his voice soft when he spoke again. "I'm looking for Christmas presents for Papa." He barely had time to unthread his fingers from her hair when she turned her head up to look at him directly, her face scrunched into a confused expression.

"But I thought you already bought him a pretty ring, so you an' him could have a big party and eat cake!"

Smiling, Phen shrugged his shoulders once, bending his head to kiss her perfect little nose, which made her giggle happily. "Yeah well, don't you think Papa deserves lots of presents?" He grinned when Odette nodded seriously, the subject of gifts one that was extremely important to her and her brother. "Well then, why don't we look for some more good presents together?"

The look on Odette's face was priceless, like she'd just been offered the greatest gift in the world herself. "Yes please!" She chirped, and tried to lift the computer herself, eager to get to work.