First Words

Ewan stared up at the man's face with wide eyes, inspecting every feature of the older man with intense scrutiny. After much thought and deliberation, he slowly reached out with his hand and tugged on a handful of that curly red hair.

Raleigh let out a yelp, and tried to detach the toddler's hand from his hair. Ewan, however, was finding the whole ordeal rather amusing, as was evident by the grin on his face and the cute little laugh of his. Raleigh finally managed to coerce his young great-nephew to release his hair by tempting him with a toy. Once it was in the boy's hands, the kid began gnawing away on it.

"Remind me again why I agree to baby sit these two?" Raleigh asked, looking up from the little lad on his lap to where Elliot sat on the floor - trying very hard not to laugh - entertaining Ewan's twin sister.

"Because you asked if you could," Elliot replied. "And you're doing fine, don't worry."

"Says the doctor," responded Raleigh. "I'm too young to be someone's great-uncle."

"I think its nice. Few people get to see their grandparents relatives."

"That's because usually they're dead, not just a few years older than their parents." He looked down at Ewan who was still laughing away as he shook the oddly shaped toy, watching as it flashed and made whirring noises. "I mean, think about it, when Ewan gets married - I'm going to be there at the wedding. Great-Uncle Raleigh. I'll only just be turning grey!"

"He's not even three yet, and you're thinking about him getting married?" Elliot asked. "And am I not invited?"

Raleigh grinnned, adjusting his hold on the toddler. "You're just going to be 'Uncle' Elliot. I'm going to be the dirty old man with the young, hot doctor boyfriend."

"Ahweehot...." muttered Ewan.

Both the adults stared at the boy. "Kate said he doesn't talk yet," Raleigh explained. "Wednesday can say 'Daddy', but Ewan hasn't said anything yet."

Crawling closer to the sofa where Ewan perched on Raleigh's knee, the older man's hands protectively holding him around the waist, he sat and looked at the little boy. "Say that again, Ewan."

Ewan grinned at him.

"Maybe we just heard it - or it was Wednesday."

Elliot frowned. "No, I'm sure it was Ewan. Come on, say it again."

"Ahweehot."

"I think he's trying to say my name," Elliot said, a slight blush forming on his cheeks.

"Really?" Raleigh looked down at Ewan and smiled at him. "Say Ellleeeot"

"Aaahweeeot!" In his little mind, Ewan couldn't quite fathom why the two adults wanted him to say the word, but they clapped and made a fuss over him when he did it, so it couldn't have been that bad. "AAHWEEOT!"

Raleigh was laughing now, as Ewan continued to chant his own little version of Elliot's name. "Well, I guess that's why he didn't say anything for a while. He was waiting for you, Ellie."