Weak in the Knees Ch. 07

Things were smooth sailing for a while. Zach and Diego easily fell into step with each other again as they dated, spent time with Nadya, and then slept together at night. They seemed to match each other well where their sexual appetites were concerned, and both were left satisfied every single time they had sex. By the time Nadya turned two, Zach was considering the future and what that would look like with them together.

They had a party, which was mostly just close family and friends. Nadya had found herself enchanted with some of the Disney movies so they based the party after one of them, with cake, costumes, and photos. Zach had them take some photos of him, Diego, and Nadya this time too. The photos made Diego think they looked like a family together.

Diego had been making friends with some of the other nannies and stay-at-home parents in the area so Nadya had a few invites to some birthday parties of babies around her age, and since she loved being around people who were her size, Zach was more than happy to agree they should go to them.

Zach cleared his schedule so he could attend as well, so they showed up as a couple with Nadya before she went running off to play with her friends. Diego caught a few jealous looks from some of the nannies while Zach had his arm around him, but everyone was nice enough.

Zach tended to watch Nadya like a hawk in situations like this, because milk was used in quite a lot of foods and he wanted to make sure she didn't come into contact with it. Mistakes are easy to make when people are trying to get your attention though and your daughter is only two. They didn't see the yogurt bites that one of the toddlers was munching on that Nadya got ahold of, and thus didn't know about it until Nadya sounded like she was suddenly choking before she threw up all over herself.

Zach was across the room before anyone else could react, Diego right on his heels. He pulled Nadya's dress off before wrapping one of her blankets around her and asked for a bag or bowl they could use while he wiped her down. Diego made himself useful, fetching the things Zach asked for from their hosts and generally trying to keep everyone calm but out of the way.

They both asked what she was eating before this happened and one of the parents, who had seen the kids with the yogurt bites, answered with that information, stating "I didn't think she would choke on one! I'm so sorry!"

Zach looked at the bottle and shook his head. "She didn't choke. She's allergic to milk. We need to get her to the ER."

The mom looked even more horrified at that while Zach scooped Nadya up and stopped only long enough to let her throw up in the bowl they had now before they rushed off to the car. He asked for the bottle the yogurt bites came in so he could show the doctor. He let Diego drive them while he sat in the back with Nadya. Nadya wasn't even strapped in, because he needed to make sure she had her head forward to throw up so she wouldn't choke on it in her carseat.

Diego normally drove "like a grandpa" with Nadya in the car, according to Zach, but he was weaving in and out of traffic and driving very aggressively the entire way to the hospital. They got there in less time than Zach realized, as evidenced by the startled look of surprise Zach gave him when he opened Nadya's door and pulled her out of the seat, gently taking the bowl from Zach's momentarily unresponsive hands.

"Come on, love. Guess you didn't notice when I parked," Diego said.

Zach nodded wordlessly and followed him. When they got to the front check in, the nurse there asked if they were both her legal parents. The question caught Zach by surprise, but he slowly shook his head and looked over at Diego. "No, just me."

"Sorry, only legal guardians can go back with her," the nurse told them. "Covid rules."

Zach hesitated at that, because it didn't feel right to him, but Diego shooed him along and said he would find a seat in the waiting room. Zach carried Nadya into the back for triage and then into one of the rooms where they had him get her down to her diaper. He cleaned out the bowl in the sink before he sat down against the back of the bed and had Nadya in his lap so he could help her out the next time she threw up.

Zach had only seen Nadya this sick once before, when they realized just how allergic to milk she was. She had only been three months old, but she looked similar to then. Her skin had a sickly pallor, and she was lethargic and out of it. She was really only waking up long enough to throw up again, and then she laid her head back on her dad's stomach with a whimper and went back to sleep.

When the doctor saw her, she ordered an IV to be put in so they could give her antihistamines and saline, as well as anti-inflammatories. Nadya cried while they put the IV in, and Zach had to help keep her still even though it killed to see her in pain and upset. She calmed down once everything was done. She was splayed out on the bed, sleepily letting her eyes droop down again.

He took a photo and sent it to Diego to keep him updated. Diego could see the IV and the covering they put over it so Nadya wouldn't mess with it, and how pale and sick she looked.

It took a few hours to get everything out of her system. She slept for a good amount of time once the vomiting stopped, and by the time they went to take the IV out, Nadya's color was far better and she was alert again. They had him give her a little bit of pedialyte with her straw bottle to make sure she could keep it down before they discharged them.

"Eggo!" Nadya cried when they got out into the waiting room where Diego was waiting for them. He had been napping uncomfortably in the seat but woke up immediately at the sound of her voice.

"Hey, little one!" Diego exclaimed, taking her from Zach and cuddling her close. "Do you feel better?"

She nodded her tiny head, her auburn curls bouncing slightly. "Yes! Better!"

Diego smiled and squeezed her gently one more time before hugging Zach with his other arm and following him out to the car. Zach told him what the doctors did and how hard it was to watch them get the IV in. Zach took a moment to make sure the car seat was clean for Nadya before they put her in and took her home. She was still tired when they got back, and she grabbed a handful of Diego's shirt as he picked her up and she set her head down on his shoulder. It was simple enough to get her wiped down clean and into a sleeper before putting her into the crib-turned-toddler-bed for the night with a bottle of pedialyte for if she woke up thirsty.

While they crawled into bed themselves, Diego told Zach about the multiple texts he got from the hosts of the party apologizing and the reassurance he gave them that they weren't angry with anyone but they were taking care to get Nadya the attention she needed from medical professionals. "Honestly, I had it easy with the public relations part. If I had been back there with her I'd have been beside myself," Diego admitted.

"It was hard," Zach admitted as he put his head down half on the pillow. "I hate seeing her in pain and it was breaking my heart that I couldn't do anything to help."

"I do too. The photos of her looking pale and out of it nearly gave me a panic attack," Diego responded.

"It was even worse in person. And I just kept going over and over again how I might have been able to catch it before it happened. If I had just watched her closer, then she wouldn't have been able to eat the yogurt bites. I should know well enough by now that other people's events have food with milk in them. I need to be more diligent," Zach commented, the annoyance at himself evident in his voice.

"'Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due,'" Diego quoted. "Be gentle on yourself, love. You can't foresee everything and trying to will only age you prematurely."

Zach let out a long sigh and turned his head toward Diego again. "This parenting thing is so much harder than they make it out to be. I feel like I should be able to assess any risks ahead of time and I'm failing if I don't. Or hell, just assess what she needs. It doesn't just come naturally though." Then he chuckled. "Sometimes I think you handle the parent thing better than me with her."

"I'm just not as close to the situation," Diego explained. "The stakes are different for me. While I love her and her well-being is absolutely my priority, there's slightly less inherent stress involved in being 'only' the boyfriend of the parent."

Zach frowned at that. He could see how that could be true, but he could also see how being seen as only the boyfriend of the parent in a situation like that could be stressful too. Zach glanced over at one of the drawings of Kali he had done. "It all seemed so much easier when we were talking about our expectations. How we wanted to raise her, how we'd protect her, how we would handle boyfriends and girlfriends in the future around her. Then Kali died and...I don't know. I've been a little lost ever since."

Diego nodded sympathetically, reaching out to touch Zach's shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "Speculating about the future is a lot easier than living through the present, though. Plus, you didn't have a whole lot of time and space to mourn not only the loss of Nadya's mom, but all of the plans you two made together. That's a lot."

"I kept telling myself I'd deal with the grief later, and kept pushing it back," Zach said quietly. "I figured eventually there would be a chance, but now it's like everything has moved so fast and so much has happened. Sometimes it feels like my life just fell apart all in the course of two years, but in other ways, it's like my life gained color for the first time too."

"Is..." Diego asked hesitantly, "Is that a brown people joke?"

Zach laughed and pushed Diego's shoulder. Then he considered the darker color of his daughter's skin and laughed even harder. "Well, the two people that made it that way might make it one, but I didn't mean it as one."

Diego laughed to show he understood and that he had been joking. They cuddled up together that night and slept fitfully, one or the other of them waking up periodically to check on Nadya using the visual monitor. The time that Zach spent awake came with deeper thoughts about losing Kali and moving forward with Diego and what he should do to make that the healthiest it could be.

So later that week, Zach finally got himself into grief counseling to deal with the loss of not only his friend, but also the mother of his child and all of the plans they had made. Dealing with that grief led Zach to finally visit Kali's grave for the first time since her funeral. He didn't take Nadya with him, because he wanted her to understand why they were there if he was going to take her, but he sat at the grave for a long time telling Kali how amazing their daughter was, and how he had met the man he wanted to marry and how much Diego adored Nadya.

Zach and Zayne gave Diego some time off when his finals came up and he finished up his thesis. Diego was a nervous wreck coming up to the time he had to defend his thesis, so Zach just gave quiet comfort and support, reminded him he was the most capable person Zach knew, and made sure he had food and Monsters whenever he needed them.

Zach got to meet Diego's family for the first time when he graduated. Zach and Nadya were there to celebrate him walking across the stage, as were his parents and a few of his siblings. Brinxton and Zayne came too to help out with Nadya, but also because they were proud of Diego and knew he was going to be sticking around as family.

Everyone was standing around congratulating Diego as he got hug after hug. Zach stood back with Nadya, talking to her quietly as she nodded her head at him. When the chatter kind of died down, Diego realized neither Nadya nor Zach had come up to him yet. Diego looked over at them, standing apart from the crowd, and it made everyone else look over at them. Zach gave a nod to Nadya and she turned and ran over to Diego where she hugged him as he picked her up.

"Daddy give gift," Nadya said as she pulled a little velvet drawstring bag out of the pocket of her dress. She refused to wear dresses that didn't have pockets in them.

Diego's eyes went wide exaggeratedly, as they tended to do around Nadya to demonstrate different facial expressions for her. "Did he, now? Do you like it?"

"He want me give you," she corrected and held it out to Diego excitedly. "Open! Open!"

Diego took it from her and used his teeth and his free hand to pull the drawstring bag open. Inside was a platinum ring that had a line of red gems in the middle of it that reminded Diego a lot of the color of both Zach and Nadya's hair. When Diego looked over, Zach was still kneeling down where he had been and smiling at him.

"Are you stuck? Do you need help standing up?" Diego asked concernedly, handing Nadya off to Brinxton and stepping over to Zach's side so he could help him up.

Zach shook his head but gladly accepted Diego's hands when he offered them. "No, I just wanted to do this right, because I'm only going to get one chance to ask you to be my husband and life partner forever. You have stood by me through so many horrible things, and you love Nadya like your own. Will you marry me?"

Diego grinned, nodding his head affirmatively. He helped Zach stand up and then kissed and hugged him tightly. Zach slipped the ring on Diego's finger and then they kissed again. Nadya wiggled around until Brinxton let her get down onto the ground before she ran over and threw her arms around both of their legs happily.

Diego bent down once their kiss ended and scooped up Nadya. "Were you in on this, little one?" he asked, laughing, before leaning in close and asking conspiratorially, "Do you think Daddy will make a good wife?"

Nadya had nodded when he asked if she was in on it, and then she looked thoughtful as she tapped her finger on her chin in the same way her dad did sometimes when he was deep in thought before exclaiming, "Yes!"

Of course, the moms immediately jumped in to help with wedding planning. Zach shouldn't have been surprised that Amelia Lennox could make friends with just about anyone at this point, but her and his future mother-in-law became fast friends as they worked with the two men to plan everything out.

Zach's generally private nature reared up when it came to the wedding, as he didn't want press involved and wanted it to be intimate with just family and friends. He didn't want to throw some big affair for society.

A little before the wedding, Zach turned to Diego after they got into what had become their room instead of Zach's room. "So, um, we should probably talk about a couple of legal things before the wedding."

Diego looked at Zach with a raised eyebrow, then sat down when he saw that Zach was serious, mentally preparing himself for a conversation he may not like. Zach sat down on the bed, trying not to seem nervous, though this conversation made him nervous.

Zach cleared his throat. "I know we come from very different backgrounds. In my world, a prenup in a marriage is kind of a given. I know that sometimes, though, people can view it as a slight. I'm not meaning it as one, but it is something we should probably figure out."

Diego hesitated. "What is there to figure out? You asked me to marry you, not the other way around. I'm not with you for your money," he said, sounding offended.

"I know that, Diego," Zach said while he held up his hands to show he didn't mean any offense. "But I also know that good marriages can go sour sometimes, and not always through major fault. It's not about protecting myself and only myself. It's about protecting the assets you build up for yourself as well, and protecting what we both build for Nadya."

Diego considered that, but was unconvinced. "That sounds an awful lot like declaring an expectation that the relationship will fail before it even starts."

Zach frowned at that. "I suppose I can see how you might view it that way. If the relationship were to fail though, I really see it failing for one reason, and that would be due to my health failing to an amazing extent and you wanting out."

"That's a bit insulting, honestly," Diego accused. "Even more so than the implication that I'm only after your money. I would not ditch you because of your health."

"Diego, if I was completely bedridden and unable to do...anything, neither of us could be sure how you would feel in that situation, and I would never want you to feel trapped to watch me wither away," Zach replied.

"Well, I don't view marriage as a trap!" Diego exclaimed indignantly.

Zach's face showed the hurt that exclamation caused, but then Zach put on the practiced neutral face that Diego could almost always see through now. Zach had closed even him off with this one, though. "I know you don't. Perhaps this is a conversation we should table until both of us are calmer."

"I can't imagine my mood will be improved by stewing on the issue, Zachariah," Diego said, deliberately using Zach's full name.

Zach just gave a nod and then got up and went over to his desk. He opened up one of the drawers that he usually kept locked on any normal day and pulled out a manilla folder, as well as an envelope that was obviously holding something important. He handed over the manilla folder and let Diego open it. Inside was a rough draft of the prenup.

It gave a look at how finances might be set up once they were married, where they each had separate accounts but also a joint one. It set up a retirement fund as well, which Diego would be able to access. In the case of a divorce, they would decide which of them would stay in the home they chose to live in, and Zach would pay the other to own a home that would be fitting to raise kids in at least half of the time, outright, with no mortgage. Zach would also make sure that Diego had a working car that was safe for everyone. The separate accounts they had would also be untouchable to the other, so anything Diego accrued in his personal account would be out of Zach's reach and vice versa.

He also included an infidelity clause, where if Zach were ever dumb enough to stray, Diego would get half of all of his assets, retirement, and stocks. It also gave a stipulation that child support to Diego would be above market value to make sure Nadya, and any other kids, would not want for anything in their time with Diego.

Diego's expression became more and more confused as he read. "Okay, I'll admit, this isn't written the way I would have expected it to be at all."

"I know when Daniel had his prenup set up, it was written in such a way as to set himself up with the best outcome, and then Brielle's lawyer made arguments for what was best for Brielle, and they negotiated," Zach commented and then he shrugged, like everyone had their own way of doing it. "I could have it written in a way that protects all my assets in the event of a divorce, but I don't think that's best for Nadya."

At her name, Zach held up the envelope for Diego to take. Inside was the paperwork already drawn up by a lawyer to get adoption rolling as soon as the marriage was legal. Zach had already spoken to Kali's mom to make sure she was okay with that, as it would technically sever her legal connection to Nadya, but with the promise that Zach would never cut her out of Nadya, or future grandkids lives, she was more than happy to give her blessing. Diego read through it carefully, but it was pretty straightforward. He looked up at Zach with a tear running down his face, not daring to believe it.

The neutral mask dropped away as Zach came over to him and wiped the tear away. "You've been in her life since she was six months old, and have loved her and taken care of her with the same love I have. You're just as much her dad at this point as I am."