This is sort of a prequel to Golden Futures, but you don't need to read it to understand this.

Daddy's Little Girl

"AHHH! NICK I HATE YOU!"

Nicky Russo nodded and said understandingly, "I know, Parks. I know." He cupped the side of her face with his hand and used to thumb to tenderly brush her dark, sweaty bangs away from her hazel eyes..

"Don't fucking touch me!"

Faith Giancana looked down to where the two nurses were holding her best friends' legs apart, then at the doctor that was telling her to keeping pushing. Faith shivered, glancing from the couple at the top of the bed to the medical team at the foot, then she shook her head. "I'm never having kids," she cried weakly as she saw the baby's head start to peek out.

"Come on, Kelly, one more big push," Dr. Harper, with his geeky horned-rim glasses pushed to the end of his nose, said to the screaming brunette girl, who, if she wasn't preoccupied, would have jumped from the bed and beat the gray out of his head on the spot.

"KP, could you stop screaming so much? We're not going to be able to watch the video without muting it," Austin Tucker said from Nicky's left. If looks could kill, Austin would have dropped dead on the maternity ward floor right then. He had always known to be afraid of Kelly Parker, well Russo, but he almost wet his pants at the glare she sent his way.

"Austin, OUT!" Kelly's shriek was drowned-out by the sound of a baby crying, the smashing of a video camera as dropped to the hard floor , and two loud thumps as Austin and Faith both fainted simultaneously.

"It's a girl!"

xx

Nicky Russo sat at his wife's bedside, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept peacefully. He smiled at her softly before he stood up for the uncomfortable arm chair, stretching in a useless attempt to get the stiffness in his back to go away. After glancing over his shoulder and smiling at again at Kelly's sleeping figure, he quietly opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

Austin and Faith immediately jumped up from the floor, where they had been sitting since Kelly kicked from out of her room after their fighting over who would be the baby's godparent escalated to throwing the food from her untouched plate at each other. Faith, with a gravy stain on her red Christmas sweater, and Austin, the pudding still sticking in his hair, started talking at the same time.

"How's Kelly?"

"What's the baby's name?"

Nicky shook his head, but smiled at his two friends. "You two are so embarrassing," he whispered quietly to them, nodding over at the nurses station, where every person was pointing and giggling at their appearance.

"Just answer the questions," Faith said, waving at the nurses, who looked away quickly.

Nicky started to walk away from them after saying, "She's fine and we haven't decided on a name."

Austin laughed. "You mean Kelly hasn't decided."

"You don't get to help pick," Faith agreed.

Nicky stopped walking and shook his head at his friends again. "Of course I do. She's Kelly and my daughter, not just Kelly's."

Austin clamped his friend on his back, right in the sore spot. Nicky winced, but Austin took no notice. "Nicky, Nicky, Nicky, every guy knows that they get no say in anything having to do with baby names. Oh, and baby clothes, and nurseries, and pretty much anything having to do with the kid."

"But you and Payson aren't married," Nicky reminded him.

Faith broke in, "Doesn't matter. All you did to make the kid was bang your wife. She had to be pregnant for nine months, and go through twelve hours of labor. It's in your best interest to not argue with her about anything."

"I think Kelly is more understanding and less petty than most girls." Austin and Faith both gave him an you've-got-to-be-kidding look. "Yeah, you're right."

"The only decision KP will let you make when it comes to Baby Nickelly will be which boy you'll beat up first for messing with your little girl, although now that I think about it, KP would probably do a better job," Austin told him with a cheeky smile.

"Why are you even here?" Nicky asked him in annoyance.

"To give my best friend parenting advice, duh," he said, sounding more like a fourteen year-old girl than a twenty year-old father.

"I mean why aren't you with Miranda and Payson?" Nicky saw Faith shaking her head and slashing her hand across her throat, but the question was already out of his mouth before he noticed.

Austin's happy demeanor instantly dissolved. "Payson's parents still refuse to let me in their house."

"You mean they're still not over you knocking up their daughter and refusing to marry her?" Faith asked him sarcastically before placing her hand over her mouth in mock surprise.

Austin ignored her. "I told Payson she and Mindy should just celebrate Christmas in NYC with me, but no she just has to go see her parents, even if that means leaving me alone at Christmas."

"Wait. Mindy? How do you get Mindy out of Miranda?" Faith interrupted.

"I wanted to name her Mindy, but Pay said no. Calling her Mindy is my way of rebelling."

Faith laughed. "See, Nix? The guys get no opinion when it comes to babies."

"Whatever," Nicky grumbled. "Back to Austin's non-marital problems. She just took Miranda and went to Boulder without even asking you if it was okay or if you had plans for Christmas or anything?"

"Pretty much."

"That sucks and we can talk about it later all you want, but I have to go now," Nicky said abruptly

"Where?" Faith asked.

"To the nursery. Why don't you guys go get Kelly some food. Since, you know, you're both currently wearing hers," he said in annoyance.

Austin ran a hand through his hair and made a look of disgust when he saw the brown goop all over his hand. "Fine, but do you know how hard it's going to be to find an IHOP in London that's open on Christmas day at 4 A.M.?

xx

Nicky stepped off elevator on level 2 at glanced up at the signs in front of him. The sign with NURSERY written on it pointed to the left and down a hallway where he walked right to a glass window that gave him a perfect view of the five babies born that Christmas. He immediately found his daughter, the only pink little bundle of joy surrounded by two baby boys on each side.

"Which one is yours?" Nicky heard a voice say from behind him. He pointed with his finger to the little girl in the middle. "You want to hold her?" the women asked. Nicky whipped his head around. He saw one of the nurses that had helped deliver his daughter standing behind him.

"So you're the dad?" she asked with a look of confusion on her face. "I assumed it was the guy with the video camera, you know the one that fainted."

Nicky laughed. "He says his blood sugar plummeted, and he and the red head are mine and Kelly's friends."

"Oh, I just though, you know, since she was yelling at you so much-" the nurse's voice trailed off.

"I'm used to it," he chuckled.

She smiled at him pityingly. "So you want to hold her?"

Nicky nodded. She motioned for him to follow him down the hall to the closest door where she slid her electronic access card and the door opened. Nicky walked into the room as the nurse was picking up his daughter from the plastic bassinet. "Here you go," she told him with a smile.

"Thanks," he said. Nicky gently took the little girl in his arms, careful to cradle her fragile body the way the parenting class teacher had taught him. The nurse nodded and walked out the door.

Nicky smiled down at the baby girl in his arms. "Hi," he whispered quietly, walking over to the rocking chair that was in the corner of the room. "I'm your daddy, and I'm never going to let anyone hurt you. Ever," he promised.

Well?

I know it's a bit shorter than Nickelly fans are used to, but B and LCTD especially are just freaks :)

As everyone should know, Faith is the product of B and LCTD's huge fic LLD, so all the credit for her goes to them. And a huge thank you to them for letting me borrow her.

Now I'm working on writing a prequel to Payson and Austin's story, but don't count on it being finished anytime soon.