Here, have some unrepentant fluff. I think we all need this after the "Family Business" debacle... I know I needed it.


Today was really not Taz's day.

Luce left the house at eight that morning and promptly at eight-thirty, June started crying. Taz figured she was hungry. He'd heard it was something babies generally were—hungry, that is. So, keeping her carefully balanced against his chest, he prepared her morning bottle with one hand (he was getting far too good at that) and then gingerly adjusted her so she was in the best position for feeding.

Silence fell in the kitchen, a welcome relief, and for a few minutes, he enjoyed the quiet. "There," he murmured with a fond smile as she finished off her bottle. "Better?"

But apparently, she wasn't, because the moment he set the bottle in the sink, she started crying again.

"Oh, God," he muttered. He shifted her again to press her against his chest, cradling the back of her neck, and bounced her lightly. That usually did the trick. That or swaying side-to-side, which was his next move when she still didn't stop crying. Unfortunately, neither of them worked this time. She just continued wailing, as if oblivious to her papa's attempts at consolation. He quietly shushed her, saying, "It's okay, love, Papa's here, you're fine" even though he knew full well the two-month-old didn't understand a word he was saying, but he also knew that the mere sound of his voice often calmed her down.

Except it didn't this time. He tried everything he could think of—singing to her, burping her, making sure she didn't need a diaper change, setting her down and trying to cheer her up with her teddy bear, turning on the television to distract her—but nothing worked. He tried exactly once to give her the green pacifier that had been a gift from Luce's mother, but June just spat it back out and continued crying. Taz sighed and walked away long enough to drop it in some hot water to clean it before he picked his daughter up and began shuffling around the house to calm her down.

He set her in her crib, thinking maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before and was inexplicably tired. It was always a possibility—he'd worked late at the bar the previous night and didn't know how many times Luce had been up to settle her down—but as he laid her down, she coughed once. For a joyous moment, Taz thought he'd succeeded. That had to be it; she'd ceased her wailing. But she resumed a moment later, causing Taz to groan and hit his forehead against the top of the crib's rail with a thunk. If anything, she was louder now. At least the tears diminished somewhat when he had her back in his arms, but she still cried with all the might in her tiny lungs.

"Baby, I do not know what is wrong with you," he said seriously. He really didn't, either. It had been nearly an hour since he fed her and she still hadn't quieted down. It wasn't like he'd done anything differently than he normally did. He held her the same way and talked to her the same way. The whole situation was baffling and he couldn't wrap his head around it. It was almost like she didn't want to be comforted. "Little troublemaker," he murmured affectionately. "Always making things difficult for me. Just like your daddy, eh?"

The little troublemaker in question ignored him. It seemed as though she truly was her father's child—definitely Luce's biological daughter.

She shut up for about ten minutes around lunchtime, just long enough to put away two bottles of formula ("I'll have to watch out for that, or you'll start eating everything in sight, won't you?") before she opened up her mouth again and started crying. Taz ran through his options again, thinking maybe she'd just been still hungry after breakfast. This time, June did need a diaper change, but after all the hoopla, nothing changed. She just went on crying.

He still had no idea what she was fussing about. Maybe she'd had some strange sort of baby nightmare the night before and simply couldn't be consoled. Maybe she was happy and had forgotten how to express her approval. Taz just didn't know. He tried putting her down for a nap, and that worked for about twenty minutes—just long enough for him to clean out the bottles in the sink—until she woke up and started crying again. He couldn't suppress his groan. He'd just sat down and was practically half-asleep. Work the night before had been stressful and busy, and he was still exhausted. Of course, he'd also had only about two hours of sleep between coming home and Luce waking up, and his husband had talked him into a quick but altogether quite satisfying round of sex before he went to shower and got ready for work. All in all, he was dreadfully tired, but he still hauled himself off the couch and went to pick up June again.

And so it went on like that for the rest of the day. It was a relief when Luce finally came home around three-thirty.

"Oh, thank God. Can you hold her for like two minutes?" Taz asked, making a beeline right for him.

"Yeah, no problem." Luce took off his suit jacket and gave Taz a light kiss as they executed a complicated shifting of the baby from Taz's arms to his while June continued crying. "She's upset about something, huh?"

Taz started to walk away, heading toward the bathroom. "Yeah, she's been…" But then he stopped. June coughed again, and for a moment, it was quiet.

And then she stayed quiet. He turned around to make sure he hadn't just gone deaf to her crying, but no—June had really, finally, stopped crying. "Bloody Hell," he muttered.

"What?" Luce looked up, confused. So June had stopped crying—big deal. He found it a little more noteworthy that she was staring up at him like she'd never seen him before.

"She's been crying literally all day. This is the first time she's been quiet in hours."

"Huh." Luce looked back down at June, whose eyes were starting to droop closed. "Well, she's alright now."

Taz ran his fingers through his hair and chuckled. "I suppose she was just tired of looking at my face all day."

And for the next year or so (and even longer), that ended up being the case. For the most part, Taz was able to comfort June quite well and keep her entertained, but sometimes, only being held or cuddled by Daddy would do.

Taz was fine with that, though. It meant he was off the hook and got a little bit of sleep.


I know this was short, but the subsequent chapters will not be so short. I just needed to get something light and fluffy out there and what better way than by imagining Balthazar with a little infant?

I already have another 26 chapters for this planned, so this will be quite long.