Entry 25
I woke up in the morning to the sound of crying. I could tell the crying wasn't coming from my room or even the house, so I wasn't sure why I could hear it. I must have been subconsciously listening for someone, someone who was either crying or close to someone who was crying.
I wasn't sure who it was, so I threw on some clothes and teleported to the location. It was the warehouse I had been in with Gabriel. I still couldn't tell where it was. He must have done something to it to throw off my internal GPS.
I wasn't sure why I was there, until I saw the basket in the corner. Little Tommy was in the basket, crying loudly.
I picked up a screaming Tommy and tried to read the note with my other hand (part of a hand?) even though I couldn't hear myself think.
Dear Keigh,
I'm leaving you the baby you loved so much. He is real and needs a home. You seemed like a compassionate person, so I only hope you will help take care of a little one who needs you.
Someday, maybe I will see you again. Your father explained to me that you really are part Leviathan and still eat only foods that humans eat. He claims you wouldn't hurt a fly. I'm not so sure I believe him, but that is for another day.
Best Wishes,
Loki
I got the important points. Real baby, Loki thinks I can raise him by myself, Loki is stupid…
Of course, I wasn't going to abandon the little guy. First, I needed to figure out why he was freaking out. I hoped he wasn't hungry, since I had nothing to feed a baby. I checked his diaper, but that wasn't it. I wondered if he was too cold in the empty warehouse. He had no hat on. I was pretty sure I had heard something about babies needing to wear hats, but maybe that was littler guys. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around Tommy. He was still fussing, but not screaming quite as loudly.
Then I started to sing to him, to see if that helped. I don't know too many songs, but it seemed to work OK anyway. When Tommy was calmed down enough, I grabbed the basket and teleported us home.
Dad was out on a job, fortunately. I think even he got pretty tired of all that new car smell. I knew I would have to explain Tommy to him later, but for the moment I wanted to let Tommy get used to his new house before we started having stressful conversations. I realized I had nothing ready to take care of a baby. I grabbed a laundry basket, stuffed the bottom with blankets, and tried to set Tommy down in his new crib. It didn't work. He fussed and clung to my shirt, so I gave up and carried him around with me. First stop, computer-land. What is a seven-month-old baby, and how do you take care of it?
It looked like the first thing to do was probably going to be buying a whole lot of stuff. Formula, baby food, bottles, a crib, baby clothes, diapers, and probably more stuff I wasn't even thinking of. Worse, I had no idea whether Crowley would be supportive, try to take over, kick me out, what. But I didn't want to scare Tommy, so I tried not to think about it too much.
After I'd pretty much gotten bored with researching, I noticed Tommy was getting pretty squirmy, so I got out a blanket and spread it out on the floor, then set Tommy down to see what would happen.
I'd set him on his tummy, but he rolled over to his back almost immediately. Note to self: Baby can roll over. He had to try a little harder to roll back onto his tummy, but he did it. Tom proceeded to roll over and over until I had to grab him and plop him back in the middle of the blanket. He rolled onto his stomach and looked up at me.
"Goo-goo. Wah. Mah. Goo," said Tommy.
I flopped on my stomach facing Tommy so we could be at the same level. He smiled and laughed at me. I laughed back.
"Hi, Tommy," I said. "Do you like your new blankie and your new housie? Is you having fun? Hmm? Mommy loves her little Tommy."
Tommy raised his fist. "Agoo, agoo!"
He sat on his bottom and scooched towards me, wrinkling up the blanket. I picked him up and found a story to read him. It was just a book that I had, so no big pictures or baby-friendly animals, but he seemed to like hearing my voice, so I just read to him. He fell asleep while I was reading to him, so I put him in the laundry-basket crib and watched him sleep until Dad came home. I wrote in my journal and just hung out.