Pawnshops and Carousels

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Sunday my wonderful readers! We got another update here and it's supposed to be a cute one so hopefully you guys enjoy it. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 28

There were a lot of changes now that we were parents.

For starters, Sierra cried non-stop. And when she wasn't crying, she was eating, or pooping but she rarely slept. Which was annoying as shit, cause all we wanted to do was sleep.

Escobar had decided that he was her protector, so he slept under her crib, followed her where ever she went and he always had a disapproving glare for us when we took too long to get to her when she cried.

Sabrina hadn't been worried about Escobar at all but I had been. I heard all these stories about cats getting jealous of babies and scratching them or worse smothering them. Escobar hadn't ever liked me, he had gotten better with me now that he lives with me and Reenie, but I had my doubts that he'd treat my progeny any kinder than he had treated me.

He had proved me wrong.

I had also proved how wrong I was about me too, because I was pretty sure that I was ready to be a father. But we're two months in and I was always crabby and cranky and I was longing to go back to work. Should I have wanted to leave my wife and my newborn so shortly? No. I felt like shit for wanting it so bad.

But it's four in the morning and Sierra is screaming like she wasn't just up an hour ago. Screaming like we don't feed her at all. Screaming like we've been hurting her.

The first few times she did it, yeah, my heart hurt, and I ran right to her side to see what was wrong. But we're a month in and I just want to sleep through the night.

Beside me Sabrina groans, and I know it's my turn to get her but I'm not moving. Sabrina rolls over and slaps my shoulder. "It's your turn."

"She's hungry. She's gonna want you."

"I just fed her Seth. It's your turn!"

Oh my god, who would have thought I'd want to murder my own baby? I get out of the bed and go to my daughter's room. As per usual Escobar is sitting in the doorway his disappointed stare trained on me.

"What are you looking at?"

He merely turns his nose up on me and walks away disappearing into the shadows. I reach into the crib, pulling my daughter up into my arms. Her eyes are still blue, but she has another 4 months before they stay that way, there's still a chance they'll go green like Sabrina's.

As soon as she's in my arms she's less screamy and more fussy. Her little hands grip my shirt and her little blue eyes focuses in on me. I bounce her up and down and I swear I see a half smile on her face. Then she takes this huge deep breath and starts screaming again.

My smile fell and went about the checklist. Was her diaper heavy? No. Did it smell? No. I check for any wetness and no, none there. I see nothing that could have upset her in her crib, though I try to tuck her back in. She pauses in crying to spitefully kick her blanket off of her and then she starts to scream again.

Yep. She's hungry.

I pick her up again and she stops crying once more this time to grab my ear to yank it down to her so she can scream right into my ear. Wow, she already has Sabrina's spiteful nature, though a little bit of whatever traits were dormant in the Gold's that gave Ashley her attitude might be at play here too. God, I hope she doesn't end up like Ashley when she's older.

I take her to our bedroom where my wife, the mother of my child and the love of my life has managed to fall back asleep. I don't have to say anything, I don't even have to touch her, as soon as she hears that the screaming is in our room she groans.

"Aw, Seth!"

"She's hungry, Reenie, she's hungry."

"I swear to god, Seth, if I pick that girl up and bounce her to sleep, I will come back in here with her heaviest toy and I will brain you with it, you got me?"

I almost don't want to hand her our child, cause if I'm wrong, I don't think for a second that she won't actually hit me something.

But she gets up, takes her out of my arms, rests her on shoulder and then bounces her for second and she almost calms down before she starts to whine. I call this the calm before the storm, the sound before the wail. She's gearing up to really hit us with a big one, but Sabrina puts a hand to the back of her head and starts to hush her. That combined with the bouncing has her quieted down.

Sabrina's glare should put the fear of god into me, but instead I find myself frowning. How am I so bad at this?

"I did that, I swear."

The implication is there. That Sierra didn't want her dad she only wanted her mom, or I was just holding her wrong.

God. How was I already so fucking bad at this, it… it made no sense. I look back to Sabrina, the fucking natural mother, as she sleepily rocks our baby.

"I think… I think today I should go into work. Make sure Ashley hasn't chased all our customers away."

Sabrina's eyes open and the look is not a positive one. "Excuse me?"

"I… I… I want to go to work Reenie. I know I'm supposed to have time off, but… I unno, I haven't been away from the store this long before. You know what my family is like."

"You're going to leave me alone… with our new born…"

"She's two months old, Reenie, she's hardly freshly minted, you know?"

"So, you get to go out and be an adult and you're going to stick me here alone with the crying and the diapers and the… come on, Seth, I haven't slept right in days!"

It was true, she hadn't. "And you think I have? You think I'm going to have fun? Ashley's got nothing but attitude, my dad's insane, I bet they've filled the shop with junk! Just one day. One day Reenie and if it's as bad as you think it's gonna be, I won't go back, okay?"

Reenie groans. "Fine, but you're taking Sierra, and I'm getting some kind of sleep before you have to leave."

Okay. I can do this. I can get ready for work while I have a baby in my arms. Right? Right? God let me be right.

Seth: Yeah, getting out of the house with a crying baby and an angry wife seeing me off had been both a blessing and a curse. She was really mad and I was going to catch hell but I needed to go somewhere where I would be useful, where I was good at what I did. Was that too much to ask?

However, when I got there, I found that the internet sales were down, apparently, since I had been off a month, no one had picked new items to go online. Then you know, when I asked for help, my dad put Ashley in charge while I was gone. So, you know… great. When I got home, Sabrina was mad, and to make up for it she got to go shopping and I was left alone with the baby. She got a whole shopping/spa day experience with my mom. It was everything she needed. She came back fresher, happier and glowing. And since I had managed to get Sierra to nap I was rewarded with sex. Our first time since the baby was born.

In return I get to go back to work the following week, just for one day and I find out that Ashley sold our Olympic torch and the sucker is missing in transit. Not what I needed.

After that I knew I couldn't just… not be at the office. Not with Ashley going through my stuff like she owned it and losing things. I told Sabrina this and she was… she was okay with it. She said that while she missed me and wanted me with her, things actually went much smoother when I was at work. Like she got Sierra to nap longer, she had more time to clean.

Sabrina had sensed that this distressed me and demanded I only go back part-time. 2-3 days a week tops. I'm allowed to go to work to clear up the Torch issue tomorrow but then she wants me home the rest of the week so she can get all the time with me she can before I start going to work again.

But I still felt like I wasn't needed at all and that was not a good feeling to have.

I came into the office to find that Ashley was at her desk. I walked over to find her on the phone. So I immediately smile at her and then interrupt her phone conversation. She's annoyed, I can tell but I don't care.

She finally hangs up the phone and glares at me.

"Where's the torch Ashley?"

"That was just them. They have the dimensions of the box and they'll get back to me by six."

"You better find it, Ash," I growl. I drop my bag into my office and then sent a quick text to Sabrina who has already sent me three pictures of Sierra. God, I missed them already. Maybe I shouldn't have come back to work.

But I force myself to let go of that self doubt and go to work. Which was how I came across the family in hard times. Selling their uncle's guitars to save their house. I took the guitars, gave them what I thought was a fair price and would sort of help them out, and then went about with my day.

I showed my dad the guitars, cause I was proud at the sale I got and he told me to check out the serial number inside the guitar. That would tell me what the value of the two guitars would be.

And it was astronomical. These two vintage guitars were worth so much more than I anticipated. I actually might have undersold them. And of course that made me feel bad. The woman had been in here crying because she didn't want to sell what was left of her uncle but she needed to because if she didn't she was going to lose her house. She was the sole caregiver for her elderly father, it was tough, and normally I wouldn't buy the sob story but for some reason, this woman, I could just tell that she wasn't lying.

So I called them up. Told them to come back. And gave them an extra thousand dollars on top of that. I had never seen anyone be that grateful. Like actually properly thankful.

And that was enough to remind me why I liked being at work, it gave me a story to tell Sabrina, one that would make her proud of me. It was enough to make me happy… until I found out what happened to the Torch.

Seth called a meeting at the end of the day. Originally, I assumed that he just wanted to show us more pictures of Sierra, but he surprised me. He had us all sit down around my desk but instead of pulling out his phone he turns to Ashely with a firm glare and says: "Okay, Ashley, tell dad about the torch."

Torch? What torch?

Ashley shoots him a death glare but with a sigh she turns to me and says: "I took the Torch out of Seth's office…"

"Which torch?"

"The Olympic Torch. She took the Olympic Torch."

Ashley nods. "Yeah, that's the one. Anyway… I sold it online."

Well that sounds like a good thing, why was Seth mad?

"And?" he prompts.

"And… well… after I sent it out for shipping I… it got lost."

Well that wasn't good, but I know that things get lost in the mail and it's usually pretty easy to find them.

"Okay I?" I ask. There has to be more.

"Well, Ashley, tell us what happened to the Torch."

She's shooting daggers at her brother, and it takes a lot of effort for her to admit: "It was destroyed."

Well holy shit. Now we have to refund money, we'll have an unhappy customer, and worst of all this will really affect our reputation.

"I said I was sorry Seth. I'll pay back the money myself!"

Seth, ever practical and vindictive, turns back to me. "I want her out of my IT department. I'm going to appoint one of the back-room guys to help with what to sell and Dad, I want you to help with pricing. Just until I'm back full time."

"You're the one that wanted another manager to help you with this," I remind him and he nods.

"Yes, and I want it to be Sabrina when she comes back."

Why am I surprised?

"And you think she can handle it?"

"Yes. And I know she won't grab anything out of my office or ship it without my permission!"

It's a low blow but I let him have it. "Alright, there you go Ash, now you don't have to worry about spreading yourself too thin."

Ashley shoots ups both unimpressed glares and is half out the door when I get to the topic I' really more interested in. "So… any new pictures today?"

Seth immediately goes for his phone and Ashley stops storming away to come back, because mad or not, she too loves seeing pictures of Sierra. I just love getting updates about my newest granddaughter.

I get home to find Sabrina asleep on the couch with Sierra propped up against her chest and sleeping too. On Sabrina's lap is Escobar and he has his head resting against Sierra's butt. His narrowed eyes follow me as I walk through the house. It's a judgemental glare, a why did you leave them all alone look.

A look I deserve, but I'll be damned before I let a cat shame me like that. I drop everything off into our room, head into the kitchen to put a frozen pizza in the oven and turn on the kettle for Sabrina. After that I sit myself down beside her and then try to take Sierra from Sabrina only to be bitten by Escobar.

Yeah, he really didn't like it when I tried to pick up or take Sierra away.

My yelp wakes up both my wife and my daughter. And immediately Sierra starts to fuss, one of her little hands reaching out for me.

"Here she wants you," she says and then deposits my daughter into my arms. Sierra grabs a fist full of my black shirt and in the other fist she has my hair. Those big blue eyes staring at me.

Sabrina gets up, which leaves Escobar to climb into my lap. It's the first time he's done that too, and even though I know he's doing it to be close Sierra, to finally have that cat that hates me so vehemently in my lap purring was enough to put tears into my eyes. For the first time since leaving the house today I'm absolutely grinning.

"So how was work?"

"I uh… I did two things today. Something that will make you proud."

"Oh yeah? Tell me all about it."

She's making herself tea and getting me a beer, this woman, damn she knows me. As she bends over to check my pizza in the oven, I start my tale.

"Well, I had two people come in today. A daughter who's been taking care of her dad and they're about to lose their house."

"Oh, oh no!"

"I know right? Anyway, they bring me these two guitars, and they're old, like really old. They belonged to her uncle, he died a few years back. They want to sell the guitars to get money to save their house. I couldn't give them the full 3500 they wanted, so I give them the best I can do which is about 2000."

"Well that's nice of you."

"Yeah, I really felt for them, you know. So I give them the money, I take their guitars and then I do some research. Turns out these guitars are worth a fortune, and I feel guilty cause I feel like I didn't give them the right amount, right? So what do you think I did?"

"I unno, I bet you did something amazingly kind."

"I did, I called them back in and gave them another thousand dollars."

She came back around the counter with her tea and my beer. She leans in to kiss my cheek. "Aw my baby. You are just so damn generous you know that."

I pull her down so she can kiss me properly. "Did I make you proud?"

"You always make me proud baby." She straightens only to drop into the corner of the couch to get all comfortable before asking: "So what was the other thing?"

I take a sip of my beer and nod. "So, while I was gone I noticed that sales went down in my internet section, because I wasn't there they weren't pulling more items to sell. So, I asked my dad to let me hire a part-time manager to help me while I'm off…"

"He gave you Ashley right."

"Yes, he did. Anyway, while I was off last week, she took the Olympic Torch out of my office and sold it and shipped it without telling me." So far, she's nodding along with the story. She doesn't interrupt me either, she seems to understand that there is obviously more to this story than Ashley taking a piece of American history out of my office that I sort of wanted to keep it myself. "Any, yesterday we get this call, right, that the torch never arrived."

"Oh no."

"Yeah, so Ashley went looking for it, and they…"

"Did they find it?"

"Yeah, I was getting to that part, Reenie. They figured out that since it was a flammable hazard and we hadn't shipped it right. It had been destroyed."

"No! Really? Aw… that's… that's terrible!" she cries and then she pauses. "Wait… I thought this was another story to make me proud."

"Oh, it will. Anyway, I told dad what happened and then told him what I want to do."

"Which is what?"

"That until I'm back full time, one of the IT guys will pull products, and dad will set the price."

"But what about when you're back full time? Won't you still need help?"

"Yes, yes I will, which is why I nominated, you."

"Me?"

"Yep, as soon as you're back you're going to be a manager. You'll be helping me pick items and sell them online. You're also still my executive assistant cause I know you like organizing my life."

Sabrina smiles, her grin a mile wide. "Wow, really? You said I wasn't cut out for the pawn life."

"Well you're married into now it, babe, so you're kind of stuck in the pawn life. But I figure, if you're there with me, babe, it won't be so dangerous for you. But uh… please don't take customers on yourself."

Sabrina smiles again, she puts her mug down on the table and then leans over to kiss me again. "Aw, babe, you're so good to me." She bites her lip at me and then whispers: "If you put Sierra in her crib… and you promise to be very, very quiet, maybe we can get some… me and you time?"

Disregarding Escobar who is still on my lap, I get up, getting the cat to jump to the ground. I move towards Sierra's room to put her down, as Sabrina goes to the kitchen to turn the oven off. We haven't had me and you time since Sierra was born and even though we literally just had some a few days ago, I'm not about to pass up this opportunity.