A/N: This takes place after the end of my Renegade series.


"See, you are smaller than my bicep." James said to the bundled giggling baby he was supporting in the cradle of his left hand while holding her up to the curled muscle of his right arm, her naked pink skin a contrast to his own tanned skin and the dark black of his tattoos. "We're gonna have to bulk you up, mija. Get you working out. Get some tone on you." He dropped the arm curl choosing to nudge her plump tummy and earning a reward of a gurgling laugh, her fists pummeling his hands. "See, that's good. Real good. Keep the thumb on the outside so you don't break it when you punch. You're a natural!"

An indignant squall demanded his attention from the other side of the room, demanding attention as blue eyes glared at him seeming eerily like her mother's except for the color. A color he'd been told would change.

He hadn't known that. That babies eyes could change colors. He hadn't known a lot of things about babies.

Like how they could scare him more than facing down a herd of brutes on Tuchanka had.

"Your mamma makes that very noise when I'm not paying her enough attention, too." James cooed at the baby laying in the crudely crafted cradle before bending down to scoop her up in his free hand. "Yeah, she kicks like that, too. You gonna be a mamma's girl, Amilia?"

Lacking free hands now, he used his nose instead, rubbing against her cheek and chin as she grabbed at his thick eyebrows. He was getting good at dodging those little pinching grips, he thought with a grin as he carried his girls to the lumpy bed that doubled currently as a chair anytime they needed to sit in the small hut.

"Naw. No mamma's girls in this house." James set first Amilia down and then Toni before laying on his side next to them, propped up on one elbow as he tickled first one and then the other. Identical faces round with fat grinned up at him with mouths gummy from spit. "Just Daddy's girls here, playin' with their main man."

Shit and whoever thought he'd ever say that? That these two beautiful little ladies would be a part of him and that he'd wake in cold shock in the middle of the night and have to go make sure they were okay because they were stuck in the ass end of nowhere, no rescue coming ever and there were so many ways they could get hurt, so many things that could kill them.

All he could say was it was a damn good thing that he got two perfect girls the first time out because there was no way in hell he was ever letting Rel go through childbirth again when they didn't even have powered lights. Shit, he couldn't even believe she'd offered to try for a boy the next time. Hell, he couldn't believe she'd even let him touch her again after pushing two screaming blood covered squirmy things out of her tender place.

Although he'd touched her very well last night, if he did say so himself, James thought, a cocky grin on his lips.

And if any guy ever touched his little girls he'd break every finger in their hands. And arms. Legs, too. Oh, and the ribs. Those were always a good way to teach a lingering lesson on what not to do. Like mess with his perfect little ladies.

Toni's face scrunched going all red and James' eyes flared in alarm as he quickly scooped her off the bed just in time for the cascade of poop that exploded from her cloth diaper to overflow on his hands as he quickly moved her to the cloth covered section of the table.

"Shit." He muttered shaking his head. "Mija, how can such a tiny body make such a mess in so little time?" He quickly stripped off the soiled diaper shoving it to the side as he used some of the rags…a couple made from one of his favorite shirts ever…to wipe at her.

Amilia began to make a fussy noise, not happy at being abandoned.

"Just a minute, babe, I gotta take care of this." James called to her while Toni made a giggling noise and sent more nasty smelling poop shooting out, splashing across his shirt. "Shit! Baby, you gotta stop doing that!"

Distressed and very vocal about the matter, Amilia's fussy noise began angry, indignant cries.

"Amilia…no baby, don't start rolling…shit, when did you learn to do that? Stop it!" Alarmed, he tried to wipe at Toni's plump bottom while watching Amilia to make sure she didn't get closer to the edge of the bed.

Toni wasn't quite done, this time urine dribbling down her legs and across his hands.

"Fu…screw this." James finally said with frustration as he managed to strip his shirt off with one hand, the other holding Toni down. He managed to wrap the already soiled material around her just as he heard a thump behind him followed by a startled and distressed scream from Amilia. "Dammit! Baby, I'm sorry!" he cradled the nasty smelling Toni to his naked chest and quickly moved to Amilia wincing at the state of his hands. The beet red of the infant's face had him tossing aside hygiene as he picked her up, cooing at her.

Amilia's fussiness was upsetting Toni now and her lower lip began to tremble.

"No, no, it's okay, babies. Really. We're gonna go get cleaned, I promise." He balanced Amilia on his chest with a bicep before snagging the makeshift diaper bag and quickly leaving the foul smelling room.

Jogging both against his chest he quickly moved to the communal showers, grateful to find them unoccupied as he turned on the small round basin that had been set up for bathing children. It had been sized for one at a time, but James didn't care, stopping the bottom as he cradled both girls in one arm, his other hand quickly testing the temperature of the water before setting them both in.

The surprise of the water against her skin startled Amilia into stopping her cries. After a moment she began to kick, the water splashing up about her making her shriek with delight. Toni wasn't so fond of the water smacking her in the face but her normal good humor returned as she grinned up at James cooing at him as he began scrubbing her body clean of fecal matter. A couple of rinses later and both babies were now cleaner than he was.

Satisfied, nodding to himself, James grinned down at his girls. "Now see, this marine can handle anything tossed at him, can't he?"

Amilia grinned up at her daddy and immediately filled the clean tub with runny green poop managing to get herself and her sister all foul again.

James muttered a couple of bad words in Spanish and started all over again.