"Please guys! It's only for a day." Axel whined as he attempted to contain the struggling child in his arms. "Kate said I could drop him off at her house tomorrow afternoon and I owe her from a few years back when she paid for one of my bails. Axel's voice was becoming steadily more desperate as he pleaded.

"I fail to understand," Lenny said calmly eyeing up the child with a bored look. "How you're half sister dumping her brat on you is our collective problem? Between us I don't think we have any experience with children at all." he paused. "Apart from dealing with you Axel."

"I'm not bothered by kids." Mark countered as he smiled softly at the little one while Axel made a face of mock hurt at Lenny. "Clyde once dated a women with a kid for a while and I always got on fine with it."

Lenny could feel himself being outnumbered and glanced at Mick for support. Mick shrugged. "I literally don't care. I couldn't care less if I tried. I won't be going near it and it ain't getting near me." Lenny hesitated for a second before pursing his lips and giving Axel a tight nod.

Axel broke into a huge smile and asked Mark to help him move the kids stuff into the living room of the apartment. Mark left to grab it and Axel turned to Lenny and said "Thanks Len. I really did owe her a favour."

After Mark had finished bringing the cot in, Axel placed the sleeping baby in the middle of it and all four men were left standing awkwardly around it. The front door opened and they watched as Lisa strolled in. She took one look at the child on the couch and the men surrounding it and disappeared back out the door. Lenny received a text a few minutes later from her stating that she would be back late and that child-rearing was not her thing. He swore silently as he had hoped that Lisa would take one look at the sprog and her mothering instinct would come alight and she would save them. Apparently not.

Axel and Lenny settled into the couch while Mark and Mick took an armchair each. There was a tension in the air as if the men were waiting for something to happen but as the silence wore on they started to relax.

It only lasted for around half an hour before an ear-piercing wail began emitting from the cot. Each man jumped up and made his way over as the child continued to cry.

"Is it hungry?" Lenny asked.

"Hell if I know!" Was Axel's panicked reply.

"Maybe he needs changed? Or a bottle or something?" Mark leaned into the cot and gently picked the bundle up and began to rock it. "Lenny go heat up a bottle, i've left the instructions are in the kitchen."

Mick sunk back into the couch as Lenny disappeared. He returned a minute later with the warmed bottle and Mark began the feed. The baby finished the bottle within a few minutes and settled down nicely. Mark went to place him back in the cot when Mick spoke from the couch. "You need to wind him." Lenny shot Mick a surprised look as Mark nodded and began the winding.

"I'll change him since I don't see any of you volunteering to do it." Axel volunteered from the side. He waited until Mark was done and quickly changed the dirty nappy. He lay down on the couch with the kid and Mick moved back to the armchair. "Lets get a decent movie on while Lenny cooks us all a nice hearty dinner" Axel said and winked. Lenny grumbled under his breath and moved towards the kitchen.

Dinner went without a hitch. The rogues enjoyed a nice Italian meal which Lenny had prepared while Axel took a shot at feeding the kid. Mick had been offered the chance but had rejected it with a quick "Hell no." Lenny was currently left holding the baby. He had him propped up between his forearm and leg while he enjoyed his food. "So." Mark began with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Which one of us is going to be saddled with the night feeds?"

All four men were instantly in an uproar. Axel was arguing that he had to travel two hours with the kid to return him to his half-sister while Mark said that he had plans to go out first thing in the morning which couldn't be missed. Mick just staunchly refused to get up during the night and Lenny had a similar feeling. Eventually they decided that splitting a deck of cards was the only fair way to decide and that the person with the lowest card lost. Mick jumped up to find a set of cards and each man selected one.

"Three. Two. One. TURN!" Mick flipped his card to show a 10. Axel had pulled out a 3 while Mark had pulled out a Jack. Lenny prayed for a high number and flipped his own card. "Shit!" He thought. "Goddamn two of diamonds." He sighed as Axel made a silent cheer. He was going to be in an awful mood tomorrow, it was no secret that Lenny needed a decent amount of hours sleep to be a tolerable human being.

Axel had set up the child monitor in Lenny's room so that when the kid cried he would be able to hear it instantly. Lenny settled into his bed and soon fell asleep. He soon picked up a series of mild banging noises on the edge of his consciousness but ignored them. Blindly reaching for his watch he didn't register the fact that he had bumped the volume control of the monitor.

He awoke in the dead of night. He had the weirdest feeling that he was supposed to be doing something and he lay in bed for a few minutes before turning on his side. As soon as he did, he noticed the monitor and remembered the sprog. "It's weird how quiet the sprog has been all night. I thought I would have been forced up by now." He thought. Grabbing the monitor in his hands he noticed the dial which had been turned down and his eyes widened. "Shit!" he mumbled and jumped out of bed.

He burst into the living room and bolted over to the cot. It was empty. Pure, unfiltered panic shot through Lenny as he stood there. It was gone. The baby was gone. How the fuck could the baby be gone? Was he taken? How was he going to let Axel know without the younger man killing him? He spun round quickly and made a move towards Axel's room when he froze. There on the armchair behind him was Mick. He was lying fast asleep and in his arms he had a small blue bundle wrapped up in some blankets and an empty bottle as his feet.

Leonard Snart was not a sentimental man but he sincerely wished he had a camera to capture this moment. To catch Mick unaware was a rare thing and this was a sight which could melt anyone's heart. Lenny smiled fondly and grabbed a spare blanket to tuck around the hulking man as he returned to his bedroom in the knowledge that the baby was in safe hands.

Alt Ending: How Mick ended up with the baby.

Mick was a heavy sleeper. It would take a hurricane bursting through his door to even get him out of bed (and it had many times as Mark was fond of this particular wake-up call). But he was dragged out of his dreamland by a small wailing noise and as he dragged his ass out of bed he realised that it was the tiny human in the living room. He made his way through and saw him struggling in his cot as his wee face strained with the effort of his wails. "Where the fuck is Lenny?" Mick thought as he stared at the kid. After a few seconds of internal debate he decided to pick up the kid and see what the issue was.

"You hungry little one?" Mick whispered in his deep, growling voice. "Lets go see if it's a bottle you need." They both went through to the kitchen and Mick quickly whipped up a bottle based on the instructions which Axel had left out. He walked to the armchair and sank down in it before placing the bottle in the baby's mouth and leaning back.

He patiently waited for him to finish the bottle before winding him and settling him in the crook of his arm. He decided to tell a story to the little one to encourage him to sleep and began, "Once upon a time in a place called Central City..."