A good fluffy chapter. I visited New York this week and went to the Central Park zoo for the first time. I decided to use that as inspiration for some family fluff! No plot really, just fluff. The children's zoo at Central Park Zoo wasn't introduced until the 60s, but this is fanfic afterall. Read and review please.
"Daniel Sousa, what on earth are you doing?!"
"She's looking at the goat."
"Daniel, you know full well this is a petting zoo. Why are you holding our daughter over a goat and not letting the poor thing pet the animal?"
Peggy should have expected this really when they came to the zoo. Daniel had a special kind of worry about Peggy, but he had something indescribable when it came to his one and half year old daughter's safety. How a goat tied to a post posed a risk to her was beyond Peggy. They had entered the petting zoo a few minutes before, but Peggy had become separated from her husband and daughter when she stepped over to admire the ducks in a small pond. When she looked over, Daniel was holding their daughter a foot above the animal. He looked ridiculous really, but Peggy knew better than to laugh at his protectiveness.
"Put the baby down Daniel and let her touch the goat," A stern but kind voice told Daniel. He looked up to see his older sister standing next to his wife, wearing the same bemused but exasperated expression.
The point of the trip was really for Amalia to get to know her cousins, aunt and uncle better. Charlie and Nicholas had flown out to California when she was born, but Daniel was happy they were getting to know her now that she was a bit older. But as glad as he was that his older sister was getting to know her niece, he could have lived without that look on her face. Since she and Peggy had met, the two seemed to gang up on him at times.
"She doesn't need to touch it." Daniel shook his head.
"Daniel, really, do I need to remind you about that summer on the farm in Albania? We touched plenty of those farm animals and we were fine."
"Bobby got sick," Daniel refuted.
"Oh for pete's sake" Charlie threw her hands up in the air. "That was a cold and you know it."
"Really Daniel, you're being a bit ridiculous, don't you think?" Peggy asked, watching Amalia begin to struggle in her father's grasp. "Look at her, she wants to explore."
For their entire day at the zoo, Daniel had held Amalia safely in his arms. Peggy had found it endearing at first and took the opportunity to hold her six month old niece, Lucy, while Charlie kept a close eye on her son, Matthew. So when Daniel held Amalia a good three feet away from any of the animal enclosures, Peggy only rolled her eyes and smiled. But they were now in the children's zoo with plenty of docile and sweet animals for the children to enjoy, and Daniel was still clutching their daughter as if a lion was a foot away.
"Okay," Daniel sighed. "But I still want to hold her hand."
"Of course you can, now put her down" Peggy said.
Peggy and Charlie watched as Daniel held onto one of her little hands and gently led her closer to the goat. The little girl let out a squeal of excitement when she pet his soft fur and even Daniel couldn't help but smiling.
"See darling, she's just fine."
"You're right Peg, you're always right."
"Oh Daniel," Charlie sighed. "What are we going to do with you?"
"Is Nicholas this bad with Lucy?" Peggy asked.
Nicholas, a banker, was working that day while the rest of the family enjoyed the day at the zoo. Peggy, Daniel and Amalia had only come to New York the day before, and they hadn't had much time to see him yet.
"He's not too bad, but he has six sisters. I think he knows girls can handle themselves," Charlie said.
"Believe me, I know girls are plenty capable of taking care of themselves" Daniel laughed. "Look at who I'm married to."
"Daniel, if you're this bad at a zoo, what are you going to do when she brings home a boy one day?" Charlie asked and a look of horror came over Daniel's face.
"She's a baby Charlie. It's way too early to be thinking about that. That's years away."
At that moment, a little boy who was walking with his mother stopped and waved to Amalia.
"Say hello little one," Peggy told her, trying to suppress a smile at Daniel's expression.
So much for years away.
The petting zoo thing came from how my dad acted with me and my sister as kids. I don't know if it's because we are girls or if it's just his personality, but he was super overprotective growing up. I have a picture of him holding me over a goat so my arms can't touch it. When we climbed the ruins in Mexico, he made me go down by going down each step on my butt. I love the man but come on haha. I think Sousa would be just as of a over protective dad.
