This could be the saddest dusk I've ever seen turn to a miracle... high alive. My mind is racing, as it always will. My hand's tired, my heart aches. I'm half a world away...

For a week around the world and for a month in its native Belgium it was just about all that was on the news. Justifiably, too. It was a miracle in reproductive science. A male stem cell developed, somehow, into an egg cell, and successfully fertilized with another man's sperm cell, and then allowed to develop into a blastocyst before it was implanted into a volunteering woman's womb. Forty or so weeks of more or less normal development later a child was born.

For something so sensational the majority of the people involved were kept anonymous and private. It was certainly not easy, considering how effortless it was to take a photo or video from a cell phone without being super obvious nowadays. The family and their closest friends temporarily relocated elsewhere in the countryside so that their large homes (and their neighbors) in Moulinsart and Champignac villages were not swamped with unwanted attention. Only OB-GYNs and nurses, obscured with masks and headscarves, assisting them spoke to the public. The media did not even know what any of the fathers, or the child looked like, short that it was a boy.

The couple, both redheads just like their newborn, were fine with that. Many of their co-workers or neighbors knew that they were using a surrogate and they had relocated (to Brussels, they claimed) so that the two could help take care of her, but if they suspected they were the ones on the news no one dared speak a word out loud around them.

When Tintin and Spirou returned to Marlinspike Hall a few days later, with another redhead acquaintance of Tintin clutching the child she helped bring into the world in between them, they could not be happier. They were now married, with their best friends as their best men.  Housing was secure; Captain Haddock allowed them to stay at Marlinspike all year, and Count Champignac, who helped develop the technology that helped them conceive on their own, offered them the same with his in his will. Spirou wrote a very popular column with Fantasio, and Tintin became a hit author after Captain Haddock insisted he write memoirs of his adventures. After several failed attempts that resulted in failed implantations and miscarriages they finally had a child. A child, one with a ginger cowlick that resembled Tintin's quiff and with Spirou's brown eyes, and christened Francis, after his bearded godfather's beloved ancestor.

Everything was perfect.

For half a year Spirou and Tintin transitioned into parenthood, caring for Francis the best they could, and with assistance when needed. And yet even with the diaper changes and late night feedings and needing to get the boy glasses when it was discovered how poor his eyesight was, it still felt perfect.

Then came the night where two arrived back home after a much needed movie date, only to find Nestor in hysterics that Francis was gone. Only a letter demanding two hundred fifty thousand Euros for his return remained in the crib.

Money was wire tapped, the police called. Days passed, then weeks, then those translated into months and years. Never an answer received, or Francis returned.

0000

I had too much to drink. I didn't think, I didn't think of you. I guess that was all I needed to go it alone and hold it alone, haul it along and hold it, blackbirds, backwards, forwards, and fall. Hold...

0000

It was Fantasio that found the lead, albeit with (to his displeasure) Seccotine's tip to look at a video after news of a boy adopted by a dog in America resurfaced.  Later that afternoon after work Tintin and Spirou, along with Captain Haddock and Martine, watched intrigued as Fantasio moved through PowerPoint slides containing  pictures of the boy, Sherman Peabody, on the projector screen in the Marlinspike drawing room.  The pictures showed a happy boy, one with hair similar to Spirou's and eyes similar to Spirou's as well, bonding with his canine father or, occasionally, a blonde female classmate. No viewers spoke a syllable as Fantasio continued clicking to the next white background slide.

The blond observed his friend and his husband as he clicked to the next slides with pictures and a brief video clip starring Sherman as an infant. He frowned in pity at the teary eyed twosome that were first with hands to their half open mouths  before holding  each other and sobbing hysterically. The Captain and Martine attempted to counsel them however they could; Fantasio pondered how and when to forward Seccotine's similar message before placing an arm over Spirou's tear moistened shoulder.

Seven years. It took seven years of painful waiting to finally learn the truth. Little Francis was missing, but he was not gone. He was only under a new name, a new life, an ocean apart from his parents. However he arrived to the United States and was abandoned in a cardboard box was unknown, but at least now Spirou and Tintin knew what happened to their only child, at least to an extent.

How fortunate it was for Mister Peabody and Sherman to be back in the news again, and Spriou and Fantasio conveniently still in reporting, so that the group would have an excuse to do further research and to find out how the boy had been doing. New York City birthed some bad memories for the two friends but if it was for Francis would they return.  Within a couple days the two, along with Tintin, flew to the United States for an interview at the bowtied dog's  gorgeous and tidy high rise apartment.

Tintin posed as their assistant and would stare intently as Spirou asked the dog and boy questions and Fantasio snapped photographs. Only when Mister Peabody made a comment about his near constant presence did he retreat back behind a bathroom door facing the living room to listen to the conversation.

Spirou, meanwhile, attempted to keep his eye contact at the dog sitting on the black futon couch directly across from his lounge chair but mainly still focused his attention on the boy that looked so much like him at that age. Mister Peabody's interview eventually ended and it was time to focus on "Sherman."  The boy sported a wide toothy grin through every question he asked, from how school was doing to who were his friends and what his favorite activities. Aside from the usual childhood bullying, he was apparently doing very well. He was clearly happy with Mister Peabody. Occasionally he looked back at Tintin snooping behind the bathroom door and scratched the back of his neck to signal that Francis was doing fine.

Half an hour passed before Francis's adopted father requested that Sherman answer his final question and shake the men's  hands goodbye. Fantasio shook quickly and firmly before leaving for the next room with his head down, and Tintin did so until he sensed Francis slowly and silently becoming impatient. Spirou stared at his matching brown eyes while absentmindedly shaking and thinking the same as Tintin did, that this was the first time in years that he touched his child, until said child finally stated:

"Um... Thank you Mister, I'm pleased to meet you too but um, can you please let go of my hand? It's getting a little weird."

Mister. Not "father." "Mister." Heartbreaking, devastating, and yet understandable. To Francis, who did not even view himself as "Francis" but "Sherman," he was not his father and nor was Tintin. Mister Peabody was. The quirky yet charming dog was the only father the boy ever actually associated with that title, and Spirou (and from the looks of it, Tintin) had to say the odd dog was doing a damn good job at it so far. He clearly loved "Sherman" as much as Tintin and he loved "Francis."  To tear them apart would be criminal.

"Sherman" did not belong in Belgium, at least not as a child. An adult, maybe. He would need to know what his past was eventually but perhaps this was not the best point for that. But here was a safe, seemingly happy, and content environment for the time being.  Looking back at Tintin it was clear he agreed. They were not ready to make such a radical change. They, and the other duo, just needed more time.

As soon as Spirou let go he moved over to Tintin, who placed an arm around his spouse's shoulder. The quiffed one mouthed words of thanks and gratitude to the dog before they joined their puffy eyed friend at the elevator and left with tears finally falling from their eyes.

 Mister Peabody replayed the silent message in his head even after his boy asked if something was wrong with the clearly upset interviewers. For once the intelligent, gifted dog did not know how to explain it, and he wasn't sure if it was the time. But, he promised the ever eager Sherman, he would know how to eventually. He just needed more time.

This could be the saddest dusk I've ever seen turn to a miracle... high alive. My mind is racing, as it always will. My hand's tired, my heart aches. I'm half a world away...

And go...