I cracked my eyes open and looked around my room. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, picking up my phone to see how long I had before my alarm went off.

                But my eyes widened as I looked at the time. My alarm was supposed to have gone off three hours ago!

                I threw the covers off, jumping out of bed. Brennan would surely be excited to know I'd slept in an extra three hours today, but my parents were going to kill me.

                I hurried downstairs, where I could hear my parents and sister. I went into the kitchen and they all looked over at me.

                "I'm so sorry," I said hurriedly. "I set my alarm last night so I'd be up in time, but it never went off. I don't know what happened. I-"

                "Leon, I turned it off," mom said, laughing. "I went in your room this morning and turned the alarm off. I wanted you to sleep in."

                I frowned, feeling confused. "But...why? We always make you breakfast on Mother's Day."

                "I know, and it's a great gift. But an even better gift is seeing my son with no bags under his eyes," she said, and gestured to her food. "I turned your sister's alarm off too. She goes to bed on time though, so she was up early and still made me breakfast."

                "You snooze, you lose," Caroline said.

                "Lee, don't you have something to say to your mother?" dad said, raising an eyebrow.

                "Oh! Happy Mother's Day, mom! I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a little thrown off this morning," I said.

                Mom got up and came over to me, hugging me tightly. I hugged her back, truly grateful she was my mom. I knew today was a hard day for Brennan, and I couldn't even imagine having a falling out with my mom.

                She could be as strict as my father, but she could also be the kindest woman I'd ever met. She'd always loved and supported me and my siblings. And she always dragged my dad back to his senses when work started to consume his life.

                "I love you," I said.

                "I love you too." She kissed my head and smiled. "Take a seat. Your dad made waffles. Adam should be here any minute."

                I sat down and dad handed me breakfast. Mom sat in between Caroline and I, looking happy as we all ate together.

                The front door opened a little while later, and Adam appeared in the kitchen. Mom got up and went over to him, hugging him.

                "Thank you for coming," she said, smoothing his hair down despite it already being neat.

                "It's Mother's Day. Of course I came," Adam said, handing her a card.

                "Are you hungry?" mom asked, pulling him over to the table and pushing him into the chair next to me.

                "No, thank you. I already ate breakfast," Adam said.

                Mom smiled widely at all of us. "I can still remember the first Mother's Day I had with each of you. Adam drooled all over the card your father bought, Caroline was sick and slept the whole day on my shoulder, and Leon almost ate my car keys because someone wasn't paying attention to him."

                "I got the keys away from him," dad said.

                "And I got him away from you," mom said, crossing her arms. "Always scolding the kids to be responsible, and letting your baby eat the dang car keys!"

                "See, you two caused trouble and I just slept," Caroline said. "Boys are just a pain."

                "I just can't believe how big you've all gotten," mom said, looking down at the card Adam had given her. "It feels like just yesterday I celebrated Mother's Day for the first time with Adam. Now he's all grown up and moved out, and my youngest is about to graduate high school."

                "But you raised good kids, mom," I insisted. "You should be glad to see us all grown up."

                "Well, I certainly didn't raise you alone," mom said, smiling over at dad. "Adam always behaved, but you and Caroline liked your mischief. I don't think I would've made it this long with my sanity without your dad helping me. Even if he did let you eat the car keys."

                "I'm never going to live that down, am I?" dad said with a sigh.

                "Never," mom agreed.

                I smiled a little. Beckett and Brennan and their friends always asked me how someone so nice could love my dad. But they were so good together, and I really was grateful they were my parents.

                "Clean up," dad said to us. "I promised your mom I'd help her with her garden. I'll do that while you pick up the kitchen."

                Mom and dad went outside as the three of us cleaned up the kitchen. We'd made reservations to take her out to dinner tonight, but until then, we just planned to spend the day with her. Mom liked when Adam came home, so we'd convinced him to spend the whole day with her instead of split between our mom and his girlfriend's mom.

                Once we'd cleaned up the kitchen, I hurried upstairs and got ready. As I was leaving my room, I nearly ran into mom.

                "Oh, sorry Lee!" she said, catching me before I could run into her. "I was coming to see where you were. We're going to play some games down in the living room." She frowned. "Are you sure Brennan doesn't want to come? He's welcome to spend the day with us. Our reservation at dinner is only for the five of us, but he can come until we have to leave, and he can come over for dessert after."

                I shook my head. "No, I offered it to him and he said no thanks. I think it's hard for him. I also think he was worried about picking a fight with dad and Adam and ruining the day."

                Mom rolled her eyes. "Oh, that wouldn't ruin my day. Sometimes I think someone as honest as Brennan is just what your dad and brother need. They get a little full of themselves sometimes."

                "Mom...thank you," I said, dropping my gaze. "For inviting Brennan, I mean. I know you don't..." I couldn't bring myself to finish that. My mom surely wasn't pleased to have a gay son, but she'd embraced me for who I was and let me know she loved me regardless. I'd never had to feel ashamed around her since she'd found out.

                She pulled me into her arms, hugging me tightly. "Your father and I debated if we wanted to have three kids, or just two. We decided to have you when Caroline was a little older, and I'm glad we did, Leon. I'm so glad. I love you. I just wish you'd love yourself as much as we love you."

                I put my arms around her. I could remember so many times when I'd have a nightmare and I'd crawl into my parents' bed. Dad would always pull me up between them, telling me I was getting too old for it. But then mom would shush him and put her arms around me and stroke my hair until I fell back to sleep.

                When she found out that Beckett's grades beat mine for top of the class, she'd asked me why I looked so upset. "He's a smart boy. You're a smart boy. It shouldn't be a competition. Being second in your entire class? I can't wait to brag about it!" she'd said.

                And she always asked me about Brennan. She asked how he was, how we were doing, and offered up ideas for things we could do together on weekends. She treated me the same way she treated Adam when she talked to him about his girlfriend.

                "I love you, mom. Thank you for everything," I said.

                "Leon, I'm so proud of you. You've become the best kind of man a mother could hope to have for a son," she said. "Tell you what, after dinner, we'll drop dessert off to Brennan. I know he's having problems with his parents. It's got to be a hard day for him. He's part of your happiness, and even if he doesn't want to come join us today, we should check on him."

                "I'm sorry I ate your car keys on our first Mother's Day together," I said.

                She laughed. "I'm sorry I trusted your father to pay attention to you when he was trying to stop Adam and Caroline from arguing. Now, let's go so I can beat you at games and make you regret all the nice things you said."

                She put her arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to herself. We walked downstairs together, and I smiled as I sat with my family. I was proud to be a Constance, and overjoyed to be the son of such a great mother.

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A.N.- This is all I had time to write this morning, sorry if it's short and rushed! I might have time to might more in the evening (no promises). If I did have time, who else would you want to see? (and please for the love of my damn sanity just scroll through the chapters on this and see who already has a Mother's Day special so you don't request one that's already written or I swear I'll forcibly insert my head into your mouth and shriek down your throat)