Scene where John shows Pietro how to swaddle a baby…
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Pietro opened the door after a brief knock. "'Dyce? You in there?"
He saw his friend sitting at the desk, writing furiously into one of his notebooks. "Are you doing homework? On a Friday night? What the fuck, man?"
"Not now, Pietro…" John waved him away with his free hand, not even bothering to look up from his work. "I gotta finish this…"
"Not now? Come on, man! It's Friday night! Let's do something! Sam and Dom are waiting downstairs!"
"I can't… I really have to finish this. And besides that, I can't go out with you guys anyways. Rogue's got something planned tonight."
Pietro sighed heavily, dropping into the chair (no, not that one) next to his friend. "Jesus Christ…I never thought I'd live to see this day."
"See what day?" John finished writing and finally looked over at his friend.
"John Allerdyce, married man."
"What the hell are you talking about? Me and Rogue aren't married."
"Dude…a) you're working on a Friday, b) you're ditching your best mates to go do something with your girl, c) – and this probably the most important part of all – you guys are having a baby! In my book, that's married life." Pietro waited for his friend to deny it…and waited. "Well?"
John shrugged, closing his notebook. "What can I say?"
"God…you've changed, man. Where's the John Allerdyce I used to know? The one who could go drinking and chasing girls all night?"
"People change, Pietro… I've got responsibilities now…and you know I don't shirk on them."
"Yeah, I know…but damn…"
They were both silent, staring aimlessly at the wall in front of them.
"So…" Pietro started awkwardly. "You wanna do something tomorrow?"
John had a sheepish look on his face. "Err…sorry, man. We got the baby class tomorrow…"
"Oh, yeah…" Pietro tapped his fingers on the desktop impatiently. "What do you guys do in that class anyways?"
John laughed, sometimes he wondered about his friend and what might be going on in his head. "What do you mean 'what do we do'? Dr McCoy is teaching us stuff for the baby."
"Show me."
"What?"
"Show me what you've learned. I wanna know."
"Pietro…"
"No, really, I wanna know. I mean, if I'm gonna be godfather and everything, I should know some things about babies, right?"
John chuckled. "Hate to burst your bubble again, but you might be second in line for that godfather job. I think Rogue has her heart set on naming a certain Wolverine for that duty."
"Well…unofficial godfather then… So you gonna show something or what?"
"Err…well…let's see…" John contemplated for a moment. "You wanna know how to change a diaper?"
"No way, man! What? So you can pass off the piss and poops to me? No thanks!"
"All right! All right!" John thought for another moment, his eyes roaming the room…for inspiration. "I know. I'll show how to swaddle. Come over here."
John gave Pietro's shirtsleeve a tug before walking over to the bedside. John reached over to grab a blanket and what Pietro thought at first was a pillow. As he walked over to the bedside to stand next to John, he realized it wasn't a pillow. It had two pointy ears, big black circles for eyes, a button nose, even a bright red bow on its ear, but, most sinister of all, Pietro thought, no sign of a mouth. At all.
"What the fuck is that thing?" Pietro exclaimed, rather wildly.
"Calm down… Geez…it's like you've never seen Hello Kitty before…"
"What the hell is a Hello Kitty?"
John rolled his eyes. "Jesus, Pietro, haven't you ever seen some of the stuff Wanda carries around with her?"
"Wanda has this shit?"
"Do you even know your own sister?"
Pietro just gave him a blank stare – the one he usually put on when a teacher asked him a question he didn't know the answer to.
"Never mind… Just watch and learn, all right?" John laid the blanket down on the bed then folded the top-right corner a few inches. He placed the Hello Kitty pillow in the middle with her head on the fold. "Now, listen up and look closely, you pull the corner near the baby's left hand across her body, and tuck the leading edge under her back on the right side under the arm. Like this, okay? Pull the bottom corner up under the baby's chin. Bring the loose corner over the baby's right arm and tuck it under the back on her left side. If she prefers to have her arms free, you can swaddle her under the arms. That gives her access to her hands and fingers." He turned to Pietro after he was done, that same blank stare still on his friend's face. "You gettin' this?"
"Erm…maybe you should show it to me again."
They practiced like that for the next half hour…or, at least, until Pietro stopped being freaked out by the no-mouth kitty staring back at him.
"This is kinda fun…" Pietro grinned, a mischievous look coming over his face. "Just make sure that when your baby's born, it has a mouth, okay?"
"Thanks for the advice."
"Hey, I'm good for all kinds of things!" Pietro replied, laughing along with his friend. The laughter died slowly when Pietro turned somber. "Listen, man, I'm sorry about earlier…"
"Don't worry about it…"
"No, no…I'm happy for you guys. Really. I just can't believe you're going to be a frickin' dad, dude."
They grinned at each other before Pietro broke the rather comfortable silence. "Oh, come here, you…"
Pietro grabbed John in a big bear hug, practically squeezing the breath out of him.
Sam and Dominic choose that moment to open the door, startled by the sight that greeted them.
"Err…you guys having a Brokeback moment or something?"