"Your baby," Steph said after her husband leaned down to give her a kiss, "is who you should be greeting."

"Why's that?"

"She's been terrible the entire time we've been back home without you."

"Well," he said as, straightening himself, he only walked away from where he found her on the couch. "I am the best dad in the world."

"Mmmm, sorry, no."

"No?"

"No."

"You're not named Vince McMahon are you?"

He made a face even though he was already out of the room, but did call over his shoulder, "I don't wanna hear about any McMahon tonight other than you. Got it?"

Grinning to herself, she went back to watching her television show. "Got it."

Upstairs he found his one-year-old sleeping rather soundly in her crib (though the evening was still young and, more than likely, this wouldn't be the case for much longer) and only went to stare down at her for a minute or so, watching her slow breathing.

He missed her when she wasn't on the road with him. Steph too, of course, but Steph could be a bit much at times. Well, the baby could be a bit much at times too. But he liked coming back to the two of them, on their tour bus, after a show. He liked decompressing with his wife while snuggling his baby in his arms. Steph was right about one thing; the baby did need him. Not as much as she needed her mother (they'd have meltdowns if Steph was gone for too long), but during his time off for his second quad injury, he and his daughter had formed an even tighter bond than before. There were things that he got to be around for, just little, meaningless moments, that he would almost have certainly missed were he on the road all the time. Even if she was on the tour bus with him.

Adjusting to Daddy being injured, at home, had been a lot more fun than having to do some more adjustments to him being back in the ring once more. He felt for her, honestly. He was getting what he wanted back, his career being balanced against his family, but she was certainly losing out a bit in that deal.

He could still hear the TV on downstairs, Paul could, as he left his daughter's nursery, but didn't head back to Steph just yet. Instead, he went to shower off and clean up some before bed (among other things, he hoped). Steph came into the bathroom, once, while he was in there, he heard her, but whatever it was she was doing didn't disturb him in the shower stall. Through the foggy glass, he saw her over at the sink and was excited a bit more.

Brushing her teeth, eh? Good dental hygiene? Or something more?

He banked on more.

Well, he hoped for both, but definitely would appreciate one more in the short run.

The long run, now…

Bluto was with her though, annoyingly enough, when he left the bathroom. Their dog was very intently trying to destroy one of those extra strength chew toys that dogs weren't supposed to be able to break no matter how strong their grip (though he always would, eventually; just had to wear it down some first). With the fearlessness that only an idiot possessed (or a man severely in need of some alone time with his wife), Paul grabbed the rubber bone from the Mastiff and tossed it out of the room, Bluto faithfully going after it.

But they weren't playing fetch.

Oh, no.

Because the second he was out the door, Paul shut it behind him.

There.

"That was kind of rude." Stephanie, who'd been typing on her laptop, glanced up from it with a frown. "Daddy."

He only flicked off the light though, without saying a word, and this got Steph to giggle and shut the laptop and, well, he didn't say a lot that night, but he said enough.

Until two in the morning when he was forced to say a lot more.

"What's with you, huh?" he griped as he trudged into his daughter's room. She was standing up in her crib, having a meltdown it seemed. At the sight of her father, it grew more intense.

Until he came and picked her up, that is. Then they slowly morphed into whimpers, sniffles, and, finally, giggles as he tickled her tummy.

"You're," he grumbled though there was a slight smile playing at his lips, "difficult."

But happy then, and that was what was important.

Until he tired to put her back down again.

"Okay, fine," he grumbled as he turned instead to head out of the room. "We can stay up for a bit longer then, alright?"

Perfect. If her little yawn was any indication, it would be far shorter than it would be longer.

He took her down to the kitchen with him where, being sure to hold onto her (she was insistent he did so), he made a snack and she babbled some stuff at him through yawns and clear attempts not to fall back asleep. He'd just settled into the couch, Bluto once more at his side (or at his feet, rather) as, apparently, all was forgiven between the two, when she conked out in his lap.

"What are you doing?" Stephanie complained when, about ten minutes later, she apparently noticed his absence and went looking. "Paul?"

"Watching a movie."

"What kind of movie is on at this hour?"

"Not a good one," he sighed as, finally, she joined him. "But an old one."

Stephanie only gently reached over to take their daughter from him, which Paul appreciated. Holding her was getting in the way of his eating. The movements did wake the baby a bit though and, with a few whines, she settled out against her mother. No longer asleep, but looking with it in her eyes as she watched her father as she snuggled her mother's shoulder.

"Did she wake you up?"

"Did she not you?" He whistled. "Babe, you must have needed sleep, you slept through that."

"She's been fussy since we went to the doctor the other day," she sighed. "Shots aren't fun."

"That's why I make Mommy and the nanny do them." He reached over to gently run a finger down her cheek. "So baby doesn't associate Daddy with such nonsense."

"Just like with Bluto?"

"Just like."

The dog groaned a bit, at the sound of his name, but didn't move. He'd already been shipped around the house enough. He wasn't moving til sunrise.

"And she's not a baby anymore, Daddy," Steph sighed as, with the hand that wasn't cuddling her daughter, she reached over to steal one of his chips. "It's kind of rude to insinuate otherwise."

"What do you mean?" He frowned over at her. "Looks like a baby to me. Sounds like a baby to me. That makes her a baby."

Stephanie hummed some before remarking, "Well, you can't have tow babies."

"What? You need sleep." He reached over to flick her rather hard in the head. "There's only one baby."

"Yeah, but if there were two, you couldn't have two, could you?"

"What?" Now he felt like he needed more sleep. "If you had twins, you would. Or triplets. Or whatever else the fuck you call multiple babies."

"You probably can just say multiples."

"So there can be more than one bab-"

"Paul."

":What?"

"Why are you making this so difficult?"

"What's difficult?" He was growing annoyed. The movie was bad, fine, but this conversation was worse. It was clearly headed nowhere. "We don't have two babies. We have one. We have… Steph."

And he set his plate down on the coffee table and Stephanie giggled, shifting closer to the man.

"It's early," she insisted as he moved his chip residue hands up to her cheeks and pressed some quick kisses against her forehead. "I wanted to tell you though. Just you. Okay? Just for now."

"Have you gotten checked out and-"

"You didn't really think I came back home to take her to the doctor, did you?" She made a face. "Nanny does shots. Always."

"It's just so much better that way."

"It relaly is." She smiled so brightly at him that he had to lean down and brush a kiss against her lips. He just had to. "And now," she whispered as he went ahead and kissed his little one-year-old as well, just for good measure, "we get to start it all over again."

"Hell yeah we do." Gently, he plucked the girl from her mothers arms and, holding her above his head, he grinned brightly. "You ready, Rora? To be a big sister? Huh? Not yet? Tell Mommy that you're still the baby. Aren't you? Baby?"

"She was going to sleep," Steph giggled as their daughter caught a second wind and started giggling, reaching down for him. "Tell Daddy you're tired."

Never. Not if he was giving her attention.

As he brought her back down, she got some more kisses to the cheek. He hadn't been this happy in a long time. It'd been a difficult year, but it all paid off. It was all paying off.

"I love you, baby," he said, but he was looking at Stephanie then. Dropping Aurora in his lap, he reached out to pull her closer to him. "Stephie. Fuck. This is… You're so perfect. You know that?"

"Shut up."

"It's true." He let out a long breath. "It's so true."

They couldn't keep the baby up forever (plus Bluto was growing more and more annoyed with them and their loud noises), so they got her all settled out once more before getting her back in her crib and heading to bed themselves.

But he couldn't sleep then. He felt like he was too hyped up. They'd decided to start trying again, but he wasn't expecting something so quickly and, honestly, it all just felt kind of like a dream.

"You need sleep though," Steph yawned as she rested beside him, gently patting at his abdomen. "In the morning-"

"The morning's the morning. Right now is right now."

"Which is also the morning," she yawned. "Technically."

"I'mma be a dad. Again." He grinned down at her. "You ready for that, Steph?"

"Me ready? Are you ready?"

"For what? In the list of things I don't do, shots is just one of the many. And with me being on the road so much-"

"You know you're all involved in everything."

"Sounds more like a Stephanie thing than a Paul thing."

"Then you don't know Paul too well."

"I'm thinking about being Hunter," he said with a nod of his head. "This time around. I wanna be Hunter during your pregnancy. Treat ya like shit and all that."

"Again, sounds pretty Paul like."

"Shut the fuck up, Steph."

"See?"

"I take good care of you. When you're all knocked up. The rest of the time though-"

"I just hope that everything goes okay," she interrupted him, sounding a bit more real then. "When it's, you know, this early-"

"Why are you so hung up on that?" He frowned down at her. "I thought you said everything went okay? I mean, what-"

"Everything's fine."

"Then-"

"I don't. It just felt...so easy this time to get-"

"I feel good about it," he declared, patting at his chest above where she was still drumming her fingers along his abs. "I feel good about everything, since you told me. Best night."

"It could have gone better. If you weren't so dense-"

"You were confusing me," he admitted. "I'm a bit slow."

"It's Hunter that's fast then?"

"His tongue is so quick. So witty. You're so lucky to have him."

That was hard to deny.

"I don't want to blow up again."

"Blow up?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Definitely not."

"Then let me talk to Hunter. Can he keep up?"

"With you? Right now? When you're babbling nonsense?"

"I don't wanna look that bad again. That...fat."

He sighed then, frowning down at her. "Stephie-"

"I'm just saying. I hated feeling so gross and disgusting and-"

"You took care of my baby though, didn't you? Huh? That's what's important." Then he paused. "Though I guess I'm supposed to pretend like your feelings are important too."

"Pretend?"

"Hunter."

He got a gentle slap that time, instead of a drum, and she tilted her head up fully so they could stare at one another.

"Boy?" she asked, softly, hardly above a whisper.

With a very straihgt face, he replied, "I dunno. I'm kinda wanting another daughter."

"Shut up. Liar."

"You shuddup."

But she was giggling and it was making him laugh and they just always felt so right together, even after all those years.

"Right now," he told her as she shifted some, away from him then and he only moved to cuddle up once more, "I just wanna be excited in general. Two kids, Steph. Do you think you can handle two kids?"

"No," she admitted with a grin as he felt so easy. But only with her. Only ever with her. "Get back to me in, oh- Eight, nine months?"

"You gonna get the date right this time?" he asked. "It's the 27th, Steph."

"I'll try my hardest," she assured him and it got her another kiss as well as a nuzzle.

"All I ask," he sighed, pulling her close once more. "All I ask."

Alright, so request list is now on my profile, both previously filled ones and still active ones. Just review or PM me if you got something to add or wanna title for the filled ones (I was going to actually write out the title beside the filled ones and then I realized that I'm not nearly that invested). Hopefully, eventually, we'll get to everything. Always open though.