To Be A Daddy by Maddyson Ruby
Pairing: Seth/OC
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit from this. All characters you recognise belong to Stephenie Meyer.
AN: Little something for Father's day! Let me know what you think of it and if the rating is okay. Anyone know where the quotes are from? I will do other one-shots for these characters and I will be taking requests, let me know what you think and if there are any that you want.
Seth POV – Fathers' Day
I awoke next to my wife with a large, smug grin on my face. Last night had been incredible... I may not phase into a wolf anymore but I still had some attributes from my days running patrol as a hairy beast, super stamina being just one of them. Oh yeah... I was one happy wolf. My missus was especially satisfied as well. But, for me, waking up next to her was one thing I knew for a fact I would never get tired off.
That was when I heard the tell-tale sound of tiny feet on the hallway floors. That distinctive pitter-patter is something I couldn't help but adore. Thankfully it was a sound that was becoming increasingly more common in my house. I'd always had the best hearing in the pack. Stopping phasing had done little to change that fact.
The door to our bedroom swung open with a crash; courtesy of my eldest child I was sure. I feigned sleep, merely lying in wait for them to strike.
The pitter-pattering of feet got louder as the munchkins themselves approached the bed; they had yet to master the talent of sneaking around. As soon as they were level with my side of the bed, the whispering began... or what they would class as whispering.
"Careful," admonished Brooklynn, my three year old little girl. She took after her mama in both looks and demeanour. She was probably just about the cutest little girl you ever saw, complete with pigtails and dimples. Dressed in tiny dungarees and tiny converse she could melt the heart of any doddery old folk on the Rez.
She was also quite shy and sweet in nature, a perfect blend of me and Shaylee, my wife and imprint.
"No, I won't!" came the voice of my eldest children, Harrison by the sound of it - he'd been named Harrison for my father who'd passed away years ago - mostly though, he was known as Harry.
The youngest in a set of identical twins he was constantly attached to his older brother's side. Both of my boys looked as nice as pie but underneath that façade of sweetness? They were total rascals. I once caught the twins rigging a bungee cord to jump from our roof with young William Lahote, yet another deviant in disguise.
"Yes, you will," argued Andre, the eldest of my children and Harry's twin brother. He was a mastermind in pranks and likely to be found at the heart of any and all trouble. He went by Andy, much to his mother's annoyance, she preferred the name Andre as it had been her father's/ Personally, I preferred the name Andy but you won't catch me telling Shaylee that.
"Dada," I heard from my side.
It was the voice of my currently youngest child, Parker. At only one year old the walk from his bedroom to ours was practically a marathon, so it's pretty much guaranteed that his three siblings helped him out otherwise he never would have made it. Wait a minute… how did they get him out of his crib?
I felt the edge of the mattress dip down as the twins heaved Parker onto the bed. He began crawling along the length of my body, heading towards my face. Lately pulling on my hair was a favourite activity for him, why I did not know.
The mattress dropped yet again as Brooklynn joined in. She was followed swiftly by Andy and Harry. I felt them surround me on the bed, where I lay, faking sleep.
My wife stirred. I knew from the sound of her heartbeat and breaths that she too, was wide awake. I still remember the day that she came to La Push around six or so years ago as a writer, had met me and never left.
"Happy Father's Day!" my children chorused, or tried to in the case of Parker. At that I opened my eyes to see my children grinning at me with my beautiful wife surveying the scene with a smile on her pretty face.
"Wow!" I said with a grin. "I forgot that today was father's day!"
"Oh, Daddy! You're so silly!" exclaimed Brooklynn with a giggle. Her smile never failed to make me grin too as it was the spitting image of Shaylee's.
"Yes, he is," said Shaylee smiling at us softly. She loved to see us all together as a family because it was something she had never had as a child with her lack of siblings and workaholic parents.
"Now, I think it's time for presents!" she said with a huge grin on her face. She tried to get out of bed to fetch them but her being eight months pregnant with our fifth child didn't make that easy so I stopped her and made one of the kids do it.
Harry jumped up with a grin, running around to her oak bedside table. There he pulled out a large bag with a flourish. He made certain it was safely on the bed before clambering up himself. Shaylee gave out the gifts to the children they were from before settling into my side with her arms wrapped round her belly, softly rubbing our unborn child.
"Me first, Daddy!" called out my little Brooklyn. This brought on a round of hollers from the children as they all tried to persuade us into agreement.
"Nope," Shaylee said, breaking up all arguments. "Youngest first," she ruled. Parker grinned toothlessly before handing me a handmade card. On the front was a picture of me and Parker as drawn by him. It was great to me but then again I was biased - not everybody likes potato people.
Inside was Shaylee's handwriting (I should know, I had memorised it as a newly imprinted wolf). It was simple well-wishing for me.
To Daddy,
Happy Fathers' Day,
Lots of Love,
Parker xxxxx
There was also Parker's approximation of a love heart, complete with glitter. Aww…
The next thing I was given was a macaroni necklace covered in glitter and feathers.
"Wow!" I said with over exaggerated enthusiasm. Shaylee leant over, whispering in my ear, "Be grateful, do you have any idea how many times he tried to eat the glitter and macaroni?" she whispered making me grin at the mental image she'd provided. I quickly slipped on the necklace making my children and wife giggle. Shaylee reached into her bedside drawer, pulling out the camera I'd given her for her birthday. To be fair, if I'd known she'd use it to photograph me wearing a glittery and feathery pasta necklace, I might have reconsidered giving it to her.
Brooklyn was next with her card and present. This card was a bit more… formed and decorated, with me and her on a unicorn. Much to my disgust, I was wearing pink – a common occurrence with my daughter. My little girl refused to accept that pink was more to a little girl's taste, not mine. When Parker was a baby she would try to insist he wore pink. It's safe to say that by now, I absolutely hate the colour.
My present from her was a photo frame complete with a photo of the two of us fishing with Charlie Swan, my step-father. My baby girl may love the detestable colour pink but she was an outdoors girl through and through with no desire to be cooped up inside. I blame Leah's influence as a babysitter and her aunt for that one.
The frame was covered in sequins and all other types of sparkly shininess imaginable. In short it was everything I didn't like but hey, my baby girl made it, I instinctively liked it no matter how much my mind protested.
The twins were next and had this year decided on a joint card that was simple and of us three at the park, going down what looked to be either a slide or a medieval torture instrument. I went with the assumption that it was a slide. If it was the latter, maybe child therapy sessions were in order.
Their present was a hand decorated t-shirt that had things like tools, fishing equipment and animals everywhere interspersed with things like '#1 Dad' and "Best Ever Dad". This was one of their better presents. Last year they got me several worms that they had found in the garden. Sadly, (to the twins, at least) those escaped and 'ran away' within hours.
I was given one more present. This one was huge and of considerable weight. What caught my eye first off though was that it was wrapped by Shaylee; none of the others had been. When I opened it I found it to be a scrapbook. The tan coloured front cover had 'Clearwater Family' emblazoned in black script for all to see whist he inside was a mixture of all of our family from Parker to my mother, Sue. The kid's pictures were in here from birth with space at the end to add more. Even the currently nameless baby number five had a space with the scan photos I saw at the end. It truly was a gift and one that we could keep adding to.
My favourite part was the quote on the inside of the cover. "Anyone can be a father; it takes someone special to be a daddy".
That rang true for me. My family and I were doing very well with baby number five due in a month and my kids all staying out of trouble.
I was happy. Very happy, in fact. There's no way to be a perfect parent but a million ways to be a really good one. I was proud to say that I was (at least in the eyes of my family and friends) a really good one and I was someone special because I was Andy, Harry, Brooklyn and Parker's daddy, not to mention baby number five too. What more could I want?
Okay, this was edited on Saturday the 27th October in preparation for the next one-shot I am going to do for Seth and his family.