Nearly an hour passed by and soon it was 5, about time to leave for Cameron's and Mitchell's house for the dinner invitation.
Phil packed a bottle of wine as a gift and everybody left the house in a hurry.
At the Pritchett-Tucker household
Phil and the rest were the first ones to arrive.
As Phil rang the bell to Mitchell and Cameron's house and waited for a few seconds.
They could hear the heated whispering inside followed by a slammed door, while they all just stood there awkwardly.
Finally the doors opened.
"Hey!" Everybody greeted Mitchell who had opened the door.
"Hey How are you guys?" Mitchell said with a smile as he grabbed the wine Phil handed to him "Thank you." He said to Phil as they walked inside and Mitchell shut the door.
"Oh, don't thank us, Open the door dad is coming right behind" Claire said as she had seen Jay's car arrive when Mitchell had opened the door, just then the doorbell rang again.
"We're here! Coming in" Jay announced as he opened the door and walked in.
"Don't worry, dad. Nothing gay going on here, May I take your multi-coloured coat and bejeweled cap?" Mitchell said sarcastically.
"Yeah..." Jay responded as he took off his coat and cap without any reaction to Mitchell's joke.
"Hey, Jay." Phil said as he shook Jay's hand.
"Gloria, hi. How are you? Hi dad." Claire said awkwardly as she looked at Gloria.
"Hi Gloria. How are you? Oh, beautiful dress." Phil said making some small talk.
"Hey Grandpa" Luke said as he went ahead and hugged Jay causing him to chuckle a little.
Mitchell watched quietly as Jay enjoyed Luke's hug and felt his heart twisting with worry and hope.
"Well other than asking you all to come here for dinner I've got some big news I'd like to tell all of you" Mitchell said
"Hey, where's uncle Cameron?" Alex who was standing off to the side noticed and asked.
"Final- thank you. Thank you. Someone who's not insulting me notices he's not here." Mitchell said with his forehead creased.
"Aaah, so that's the big announcement, huh? You two broke up.
Well, a baby wasn't gonna help that anyway" Jay had known about Mitchell and Cameron talking about adopting prior to their trip which is why he said it.
"And you know, let me tell you you're a lot better off because he was a bit of a drama queen." Jay said with a laugh.
"Okay, no, no, no, stop! You come into my house and you insult me and my boyfriend who, by the way, is not that dramatic and- "
"Circle of Life" starts playing and the lights dim at this moment
"Oh god…" Mitchell murmured under his breath.
Cameron entered carrying Lily, holding her up as the spotlight shines on her.
"We adopted a baby. Her name is Lily." Cameron announced with a smile.
"Isn't it exciting?" Cameron questioned happily smiling ear to ear.
"Just turn it off." Mitchell who had his fingers rubbing his eyebrows said, filled with embarrassment.
"I can't turn it off; it's who I am." Cameron said with a laugh.
"The music." Mitchell pointed the speaker and let out a sigh.
A frown tightly pasted on his face.
"Oh, yes, the music." Cameron said as he bent down and switched off the music.
"Come say hi to Lily!" He said as he presented her.
Claire was the first to step forward.
"Did you guys really adopt a baby?" She asked staring at Lily.
"Yea, she was an orphan from Vietnam" Cameron said.
"She is so cute" Luke said as he gently poked Lily's chubby cheek.
"Can I take a selfie with her?" Haley asked.
"Maybe later" Cameron chuckled.
"Can I hold her?" Gloria asked with a smile to which Cameron nodded and carefully handed her to Gloria.
"Oh, look at this little thing" Gloria said feeling like she was melting.
"Congratulations" Phil said to Cameron as Gloria handed Lily back to him.
"Oh thank you Phil" Cameron responded with a smile.
Liam was standing beside Lily with a smile as he extended his finger and shook hands with Lily who had grabbed onto his finger.
Mitchell was still standing back, glanced at Jay who was also standing there with a blank expression.
Mitchell did not say anything, he wanted to see how Jay was gonna react to this, his throat tightening with nervousness as he waited, and Jay did not fail to notice how Mitchell was acting
Everyone else also calmed down and noticed the missing Jay, they looked back only to see him standing in the distance.
A silence formed as everybody stared at Jay.
"Um, excuse me" he said as he stepped forward.
"Okay, I-I know that I said I thought this was a bad idea, but, uh… what do I know?" He said awkwardly.
"I mean.
it's not like I wrote the book on fatherhood" Jay said with chuckle.
"I've been trying all my life to get it right and I'm still screwing up. Right, Manny?" Jay said feeling very left out seeing everybody fawning over Lily.
No matter how he felt over Cameron and Mitchell's relationship.
Lily was already adopted, that means she was going to be part of the family.
He did not want to be excluded from Lily's life.
He also wanted to see the baby, maybe even hold her.
"I wrote a song about it in the car." Manny said referring to the fact that Jay is still screwing up
"Of course you did. Uh… anyway, I'm happy for you and, uh, you should know that" Jay said,
"I'm not here to spit on your face, uh, or was it, Im not here to blow your back" everybody looked at him really confused as to what he was even saying.
"It's supposed to sound better in Spanish." Jay said with a awkward chuckle.
Mitchell who had been standing to side with nervousness to how Jay would react visibly relaxed, his creased up forehead calming down as he stepped forward.
"Right well, we also invited you all here for Dinner so let's get to that" Mitchell said with a clap of his hand gathering everybody's attention.
They had a fun dinner and by the time it was getting closer to midnight and they all began leaving.
Phil pulled into the driveway looking pretty exhausted, matter of fact everybody in the car looked exhausted.
Stepping out of the car they dragged their bodies to the house and went in.
Claire, who was a little drunk but still functional began to speak.
"Everybody Goodnight" was all she said as she locked the doors and headed upstairs to sleep.
"Alright kids time to go to bed" Phil who was not drunk said.
They all went upstairs changed into their home clothes and went ahead and crashed onto their beds.
...
It was 2:47 Am currently.
Across town the St. Memorial Hospital is nearly silent.
A nurse walks down the hall, humming under her breath, clipboard in hand.
She walks past several rooms with windows showing the inside, And in one such room.
There lies a man—Peter Hale. His body is wrapped in bandages.
Unmoving.
Lifeless.
For five whole years.