A/N: Just letting you know this story is completely separate from all my stories. Yes, I'm working on the third story in my current series but writing many stories at once is my process, and first chapter will be posted in the next few weeks.

So this story is AU and set after S2 with everything being really awesome and no one getting shot or dying and St Louis is a thriving city etc. Yes, I realise that none of this would never happen in real life. So you really have to suspend reality and enjoy the absurdity and fluff!

Chapter 1

"You said I had family." Cruz said as he looked to the baby that he cradled awkwardly in his arms like it was about to explode. It or well She seemed to sense his discomfort as she frowned at him and scrunched her tiny nose at him. She kicked her little legs around as if she was just as uncomfortable as he was and trying to get away.

"Yes, her name is Clara Alvarez-Cruz, you're listed on the birth certificate and when you submitted your DNA it flagged in the system as a match. Just kismet you both ended up in the same city. Congratulations. Now, here's a bag with some baby supplies and personal effects from the mother. That folder has everything about your daughter and her medical records thus far. The mother wrote a letter for you and the child. It's all in there." The man behind the desk told him as he placed a bag on the desk as well as a thick manilla folder that had the baby girl's name on it.

"When I signed up for this. I was told you people find my family dead or alive as long as they were registered. I was thinking you'd find my Mom or Dad, my brothers and sister. Not hand me a baby. What does the State or Child services have to say about this?" Cruz asked to him. The man whose name was 'Ted' gave him an look of apathy. Actually the whole meeting from start to finish made Cruz feel like this guy was just passing off the kid to anyone.

"Look, those departments are overworked. You checked out and so the State is satisfied for you to take responsibility of your child. I'll also remind you signed the contracts giving us permission to use your DNA and that you'd accept responsibility for any children under 18 that you're found related to. We ran the DNA, we found your daughter. What's the big deal?" Ted asked in a bored tone like he was really telling Cruz 'Why the hell are you wasting my time. Go away'.

"The big deal is that I didn't know I had a baby until now and you're just handing her over into my care." Cruz told him, he placed the baby in his lap and wrapped his arm around her tummy while he used his free hand and picked up the manilla folder.

He flicked through the file at the medical records, birth certificate seeing that it was all true but it made no sense until he saw the mother's name Elsa Alvarez. They had been a casual fling that had been one and off for 6 months before he'd been deployed for three months to Somalia to patrol for Pirates and what not. When he came back, the Nathan James had been pulled into another deployment to the Arctic. They'd barely been in port for a couple of days so he hadn't been able to get down to see her let alone his family.

He felt his stomach bottom out in sadness as it all sank in that not only was Clara his daughter but her mother had died less than two days before the ship made port in St Louis from the virus. He felt a warm wet patch on his arm and looked down to see that Baby Clara was drooling on him.

"DNA doesn't lie, now if you want to toss her back into the foster care system then that's your business. But you'll have to wait as Michener's Government is more concerned with placing kids than taking refunds. So please take the bag and folder and go because I have more people to see today." Ted said dismissively as Cruz snapped the file close.

"What the fuck is your problem? You can't just hand a complete stranger a baby and tell him get lost." Cruz told him in a dark tone. Usually it made men quiver in fear but Ted seemed immune or too stupid or maybe holding the baby was lessening his powers of intimidation.

"Actually, I just did and you're not a stranger. You're her father and you're a decorated soldier with a clean record. So be happy. You're not alone in the world and we'll call you when we have located more of your family. Oh and support her head. She's only 5 weeks old." Ted said, he turned to his computer and started going back to work.

"Unbelievable." Cruz said, he looked to the baby girl in his arms; this time he really looked at her trying to see something about her that could possibly be part of him but she just looked like an adorable baby with a pudgy face, dark brown eyes and crazy black hair that stuck out at odd angles.

He looked to Ted and knew the man was not going to help him, so he adjusted Clara so she was laying against his shoulder with his arm under diapered bottom. He stuffed the manilla folder into the bag that appeared to be filled with baby paraphernalia and lifted it onto his other shoulder and walked out the door.

"Hey, what you doing with a baby?" Miller asked Cruz as he met him outside the offices of 'People Smart' or as Cruz was calling them in his head 'People stupid'. It was a national drive established by Michener's regime to help people find their families whether alive or dead. He was really kicking himself now for not reading the whole contract.

Basically what one did was go into the office and give their name and contact details, then the names of the people they were looking for and their last known whereabouts. They had a voluntary DNA matching system, where one gave them a sample of their DNA and it went into a system that had DNA samples from people who volunteered their samples and of remains that had been recovered or found.

They said the DNA would take months to years to find matches but Cruz had won the lottery but instead of finding his family he got a baby. He felt jipped by the whole process, as they had a stupid a cure but people had still died more importantly Clara's mother had died because they'd been limping up the Mississippi thanks to the stupid immunes. It all just made him irrationally angry as he wanted some kind of cosmic balance.

"She's my kid." Cruz told him, as he adjusted Clara in his arms. He felt like a criminal holding her, like the cops would run out and arrest him for kidnapping.

"You have a kid?" Miller asked surprised as he couldn't believe Cruz would not mention before.

"I do now." Cruz told him.

"Whoa that's-" Miller tried to find the right word but he could see by Cruz's expression it wasn't exactly good news. "Something, you keeping it?" Miller asked looking at the kid like it might explode.

"Of course, I am." Cruz snapped at Miller. He wasn't going to reiterate what Ted the Asshole had said about refunds. Kids were not commodities and he even if he was struggling to believe the baby in his arms was his. He had a DNA test results as proof and he couldn't let that go, he couldn't throw his own kid into the system just because it was easy. Yet he was completely riddle with panic about what to do. His brothers and sisters had kids but he'd never been around them much when they were babies due to his work and that was years ago.

"And you're bringing it back to the apartment?" Miller asked him carefully.

"Ah, yeah. You got a problem with that?" Cruz asked in an exhausted tone.

"No, man. I'd never kick you out just cause you got a kid now. It's just the place isn't baby proofed and there's no crib or other stuff a baby needs." Miller pointed out as they had been sharing a large 4 bedroom apartment that was situated in a renovated warehouse with Wolf.

It was spacious, industrial architecture, basically very plain which was great for three of them as their bedrooms were on opposite sides of their apartment, it had two bathrooms. In the middle was the living area and kitchen space; all open plan living. There was also rooftop access that made for a great party/BBQ area. The ultimate bachelor pad and now Cruz was bringing a baby into the place.

At least they hadn't rented out the fourth room as it was now going to become a baby room. Something that was going to cost Cruz a pretty penny to pay for. But he'd suck it up as it was cheaper than finding another place to live for the moment. It'd taken them 2 weeks just to find it and another 3 to get it just how they wanted.

"I don't know what I'm doing, Man." Cruz said with a groan.

"Well, we'll figure it out, though you only have 5 months until the ship is out of Dry dock. So you'll have to decide what you'll do with your career pretty quick. I'd probably talk to Master Chief, if I were you. They might have some sort benefits to assist you." Miller suggested.

"Yeah well I'm hoping these assholes find my family. So they can take her in." Cruz said because if they didn't his career was fucked as he couldn't just leave the baby to look after itself while he went and fought for Uncle Sam. He needed help.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers mate and you said you were looking for a girl last night." Wolf told him as he held Clara in one arm like a football with ease and a beer in his other hand. He made it look so natural like he'd held babies before while drinking. It made him wonder if it was an Australian thing.

Miller and Wolf had decided to throw Cruz an impromptu baby shower. It was luckily a small group from the Nathan James that included Alisha, Burk, Miller, Kara and Danny. The engaged couple came over with a bassinet which was helpful. Burk came over with Costco box of diapers and beer, while Alisha brought baby formula and a baby book with pictures so Cruz could 'understand it' given she figured his reading skills weren't so great to realise that Condoms weren't 100% effective.

"Not funny." Cruz told him as he took a long pull of his beer. He was still in shock that there a was a baby and he was the father. Wolf didn't have a clue about his family as communications with Australia were still down so he tended to latch onto anyone who managed to find their family to keep his hope alive that his family was still alive. But he wasn't helping though he did appreciate the Australian giving a lesson in how to change a diaper.

Hell, he appreciated the guys being cool with him bringing a kid into their bachelor pad. It was definitely going to change their lifestyle a lot as they couldn't host loud rowdy parties anymore. Or at least not until they found a reliable sitter.

"She kind of looks like you. She's got your nose." Alisha said as she was next to Wolf on the couch currently making stupid and smiley faces at the baby. The baby was into it as she stared at Alisha like she was the 9th wonder of the world.

"No, she doesn't. She looks like her Mom." Cruz said, he really hoped she didn't as all he could imagine was his face with long hair on a kid in a pink dress and it wasn't a pretty picture. He hoped Clara ended up more like Elsa as she had been the whole package of beauty and brains.

He just hadn't had time to look through it all as he had spent most of the day trying not to kill the baby with his ineptness and dealing with his roommates giving him their two cents on the matter. To be fair all his friends had been incredibly supportive and good about it but then so far Clara seemed pretty content as long as her diaper was clean and she was well fed.

"We could shave her head and then you'd see it." Miller suggested.

"You are not shaving her head!" Kara told Miller in a firm tone from her place on the other couch in the room. They had two three seater couches and a couple arm chairs that faced in a circle of sorts. It seemed Clara had something to say about the matter as she gave a noisy fart. Everyone in the room just stopped for a moment and looked at her as they couldn't believe something that small could make a noise that loud.

"Well, she might not look like you but she sure has your talent for letting one rip." Wolf said as the group erupted into laughter.

Later that evening, Cruz sat on his bed with the manilla folder and the A4 envelope of Elsa Alvarez's personal effect. Kara, Danny and Alisha had gone to their respective homes while Wolf, Burk and Miller had gone out to a bar. Cruz would have gone but now he was a father who had no babysitter.

"You're really cramping my style, kid." He told the baby in a low voice as she was sound asleep in the bassinet that was by his bed. He'd plan for his R&R to be filled with booze and flirtatious women to forget that he'd already gone home to find no one there. There hadn't even been even a letter to where they went so he could find them.

He opened it up the personal effects envelope and upended the contents on the bed in front of him. Jewellery, iPhone and a wallet sat on the bed in front of him. He picked up the wallet and pulled out the driver's licence and gave a grim smile as took in the photo. Elsa, even in her DMV photo she looked like beautiful as always.

She only gravitated towards him because he was Navy. She liked that he would just show up and be there because she didn't want a partner who was clingy. He liked that she was interested in a long term casual thing and due to her work as a corporate lawyer wasn't after him for his benefits as she earned way more than him. It was just fun and gratifying. Sure he knew one day she'd leave him for some Lawyer who drove a Maserati but he didn't mind as he selfishly enjoyed her for the time he had with her.

He pulled the letter out of the file that was addressed to him and flipped it over in his hands. He looked to Clara, the more he could see Elsa in her tiny features. The same button nose, hair line, her face was too pudgy but she had dark brown eyes which Cruz himself had. He and Elsa both had the same ethnic background so Clara too shared the same lightly tan coloured skin and dark hair.

He turned back to the letter and decided to man up and read it. He tore the envelope open and pulled the letter out and unfolded it. It was completely handwritten in a beautiful scroll of writing. He pressed his hand to his mouth.

Dear Javier,

I hate that I'm writing this instead of talking to you in person...