28
Babbit was back in his room, looking out the window at the garden below.
He sighed as he considered the problem.
The doorbell sounded and he moved to the front window, looking down and seeing Bethany, looking up with a grin and a wave.
He looked around the room again and then started downstairs.
He found his Taddy in the kitchen, making sandwiches and drinks as the others moved to the back veranda.
"Hey baby" Ianto said softly, "Could you carry the jug of iced tea for me?"
"Why iced tea?" Babbit asked.
"Em can't have coffee anymore, not good for the baby. I made this instead." Ianto said without looking at him, still busy with the food.
"Coffee could make her sick?"
"I'll follow in a moment" Ianto said, not answering and Babbit walked out with the jug, carefully placing it next to Em. He then hugged Bethany who kissed his cheek happily.
"Oh, thank you darling" Em smiled, "You are such a helper. Your Taddy told me the other day that you are the best assistant he ever had. Didn't know what he would do without his little right hand man."
Babbit smiled softly as the praise and let his eyes wander to her stomach.
A small bump, not much really.
"You wanna see?" she smiled, raising the shirt so the small lump was more visible. "This is nothing. I'm gonna get huge. Bethany as a big baby, I was so hot towards the end."
Babbit watched her hand stroke the belly, then he looked over at Ton, laughing on the grass with Fen.
Ianto appeared with the snacks and glasses, sitting by Em and smiling at the small lump, then looking away.
"If … if Bethy and the bub come to stay, there will still be too little room" Babbit declared.
Everyone stopped talking as Babbit spoke.
"We need room for Bethy too." Babbit looked at Ianto, "The only way is for me to have the downstairs room. A double bunk bed so I have my big bed and the small one up top can be for Bethy. Like the bunk bed the Grandys have." Babbit pointed out, "The Grandys have the office room, then Tonny can stay with me as well. His bed will fit in the downstairs room, along with my double. A cot and a single bed both take about the same room, we can do that."
"Babs …"
"No Taddy. Tonny is my baby brother, I cannot leave him alone. Bethy needs a bed, she can seep with us too. The nursery can be for the bumpy."
"But ..."
"No! That's what I want!" Babbit folded his arms defiantly, "Bethy stays with me when she sleeps over, Tonny statys with me because it's my job. You want the bumpy, you have it over there by your room. Why can't it just sleep with you, like Tonny."
"Because Bumpy, as you call it, isn't our baby" Jack growled, "We will look after them both, sometimes. Not all the time."
"See?" Babbit eyeballed his father, "Tonny would be alone in there! No! I don't need windows as much as Tonny needs me!"
Ianto blinked and then smiled as he engulfed his baby in a hug.
"My Babbitty bum, you are so wise" Ianto crooned, "Of course we forgot Bethy's bed."
"We can't forget Bethy" Babbit muttered into Ianto's neck as he enjoyed a rare public display of affection with his Taddy, "When I marry her she will be with me always. Just like you and Daddy"
Everyone gushed as Bethany grinned from ear to ear.
