Maybe some dad!Shawn, please? 🥺

a/n- I actually wrote this piece a long time ago but it fits soft dad!Shawn so well??

The first time the lady at the drug store sees him, he’s buying a pregnancy test and a pack of condoms. She raises a brow but he doesn’t bat an eye. She’ll see him once a week for a month, buying another test and another pack and she’ll bite her tongue to keep from asking the boy exactly what the hell he’s up to. Kids these days.

If she were to ask and Shawn were the open sort he’d tell her that his first time with his girlfriend had been unexpected. It was supposed to be a night ride just past the city limits so Gia could see the meteor shower. It was a kiss in a field that turned into so much more, and he had fumbled in his bag for a condom while she sucked on his pulse but he had come up empty handed. They were young and reckless and so on fire for each other that he didn’t think twice about pressing into her when she muttered her consent against his lips. He had a right mind to at least pull out but when she grabbed his back and cried his name, he lost control and came deep inside of her, his body shuddering, breath puffing out like it was his first time, too. Gia takes a pregnancy test once a week for a solid two month. Every negative that rolls in find them in a tangle of limbs and a bottom drawer full of protection.

She sees him off and on for a few years. Mostly condoms and then a prescription of birth control for Georgia Mason after he buys another month’s worth of pregnancy tests. He’s gone for a while- touring, she suspects after she learns he’s some sort of famous musician- but then he’s back to pick up more birth control, this time for Georgia Mendes, and sometimes tampax and she likes that he doesn’t blush the way some young men do.

There are a few dark years where his mouth is set in a grim line as he buys pregnancy tests, ovulation kits, a prescription of fertility drugs and anxiety meds for Georgia Mendes, antidepressants for Shawn Mendes.

She doesn’t see him for a long time. She thinks of him often when she’s playing with her grandkids or making tea. She cries one night after watching a special on infertility and wonders how things turned out for him and his wife.

A month or so later, he comes in with a maternity ward bracelet wrapped around his wrist and he waits for his prescription with the happiest grin on his face.

"Congrats," she tells him.

He gives her a lopsided smile that’s full of relief. “Thanks.”

The next time he comes in, he looks a little frazzled as he prowls the aisles for cold medicine and fever reducer for an infant. She knows the look, the way his heart must be aching because his child is sick and there’s nothing he can do. She’s got a line but she takes time to tell him about warm compresses, just on the chest, to help clear congestion and a little ice bath to bring down the temp. He thanks her as the woman behind him sighs impatiently.

It’s a nice sunny day when he reappears, another maternity ID on his wrist but he’s got a grumpy looking two year old in tow this time. The boy refuses a lolly or a drink and clings tightly to his pant leg. “He’s at that age,” he offers with an affectionate smile. Shawn is actually delighted to be the center of his child’s world.

Years and years later, he’ll bring the first one back in, now a grumpy 16 year old who looks exactly as his father did as a youth. She’ll blink her eyes several times to make sure it’s real and she’s not having a stroke and watch as the man drags him to the back of the store, picks up a box of condoms and marchs him to the register. She picks up bits of the lecture (“Don’t be stupid, Jere. Don’t be reckless.”) and she bites her tongue to keep from reminding him how reckless and stupid he had been.

"Kids," he rolls his eyes.

She knows he’s upset and she doesn’t mean to say anything but- “They do have a way about them sometimes. Sometimes, though, we have to remember how badly we wanted them, how our world felt like it was crumbling when we thought we’d never have them, hm?”

He just nods and something shifts behind his eyes. He’s thinking about doctor appointments, tests, medicine, 3 miscarriages, Gia crying herself to sleep against his chest every night for 3 years, the way his heart exploded when the first was born and how he had cried holding him. “You’re right. Thank you.”

He leaves the store and she sees him wrap an arm around the boy as they walk to the car where the younger one is peering out the back window and making faces.

"No, thank you."

She doesn’t know this on that day but next year she’ll have her second heart attack but she won’t survive this one. A week after her funeral, Shawn will come in and ask after her. He’ll sit in his car for a spell and brush away a few tears and he won’t know exactly why he’s sad but he’ll remember warm compresses just on the chest for congestion and a little ice bath to bring down the temp.

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