Wee Honours by Ann3
Writer's Note - hello, folks !
Yes, it's been a long time since I've been here, but unfortunately Real Life has been rather... um... eventful, of late!
I can't say I 'did a Beckett' last year - I just came rather close!
Anyway, that's thankfully over now, and I've been able to get back to some writing for my favourite family - a great pick me up!
This is going to be a short story series, centering around Carson and Laura and the kids, of course, but with some fun and games for the rest of the gang, too. As always, I hope you enjoy!
Wee Honours
God, this was getting to be embarrassing.
A stickler for accuracy, Carson Beckett then dryly corrected himself. No, he'd gone way beyond that. This wasn't just plain, simple, run-of-the-mill embarrassing. This was pure, all out, bloody embarrassing.
He was a doctor, for God's sake...! Not just any old doctor, either, but a chief medical officer...! A CMO who was also the proudest uncle, in the world, to an ever-growing scrum of nieces and nephews. And damn it, with so many wee Becketts running around, it wasn't as if he hadn't done this before.
If there'd been nappies to change in their various broods... aye, you could always call on Uncle Carson.
All of which made this current task before him all the more... aye, he dryly reflected, that was it, alright.
Bloody embarrassing.
Maybe it was these thoughts of home, and the families that he missed so much, that was causing it. Perhaps it was Jamie's nappy, or a combination of the two, but... damn it, he was really tearing up now.
And Laura's quizzical smile, however lovely it was, really wasn't helping.
"You okay, babe...?"
Smiling back at her, through still suspiciously watery eyes, Carson then nodded while kissing her cheek.
"Aye, love, it's just... um... been a while since I've done this... I'm a wee bit rusty..."
"Hey, you're doing fine..." Laura assured him, sliding her arm around him for an always welcome hug – savouring this contact between them, this simple chance for some much needed 'love-time'.
She'd known it was going to be hard, on both of them, to adjust to the demands of two new babies. Four days into double parent-hood, and – hell, yes, Laura had to admit, it was already wearing her out.
Carson had been a complete saint, of course. A tower of strength, just as she'd known he would be. From the moment Megs and Jamie had arrived, he'd taken to fatherhood as if he'd been born to it – which made this sudden nervousness, over such a simple thing as changing a diaper, all the more puzzling.
Watching him smile now, as he slowly traced his fingers over Jamie's face, Laura felt herself smile too.
She was worrying over nothing. Fretting over a problem which, she now realized, wasn't even there. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she quietly kicked herself, for not recognising this before.
Fatherhood for Carson – her sweet, sensitive Carson – was always going to affect him, so very deeply. However well he'd settled into it, there were still going to be times when it all just caught up with him.
A week ago, he'd been an excited, nervous father-to-be. Now he was an excited, nervous father – period.
Not just to one baby Beckett, either, but two – Megan's arrival still a complete, but still blessed surprise.
It was hardly surprising, then, that he'd still be finding it all a bit... okay, more than a bit, overwhelming.
So if he needed some time here, to compose his thoughts... yes, she'd give him all the time he needed. And holding him like this, even if they didn't say anything, was always such a simple, precious pleasure – especially when, as now, he'd look back at her with those beautiful eyes, and smile that gently shy smile.
It was such a precious moment between them, made all the more enjoyable by a softly lingering kiss – a moment now broken, though, by what was sure to become an increasingly regular intrusion.
Even at just four days old, Jamie Beckett had quite the set of lungs on him, and quite a kick, too – causing Carson and Laura to laugh now, wryly shaking their heads, as they returned to the task in hand.
The demands of changing their son's diaper, it seemed, held no regard for such romantic slushiness. And, it seemed, Jai already had his own way of chastising anyone who was foolish enough to ignore him.
Still a 'wee bit rusty' when it came to the rules of nappy-changing, not even his own father was safe – remembering the first rule of changing a baby boy's nappy coming just a tad too late to Carson Beckett.
"That's my wee laddie... aye, you're my bonny wee boy, aren't ye...? An' you're jus'... gy-aaaaagh...!!"
Jumping back, in genuinely startled surprise, Carson then made another, wickedly punished mistake – an instinctive glance towards Laura, for sympathetic support, met instead with fits of hysterical laughter.
Dryly realizing he was on his own here, and would be for several minutes yet, Carson then sighed – helpless giggles overcoming him too, now, as he towelled drops of fragrant dampness from his cheek.
Fatherhood had many honours, of course, and Carson knew countless more still lay ahead, but – well, this one, however messy and whiffily lingering, surely counted as the most special honour of all.