Stephanie and the other children were playing happily in the warmth of the morning. They'd all risen with the sun, some easier than others. Sportacus had promised to join them once he'd done his morning exercises and all the kids were excited at his coming. Stephanie kept looking up at the airship to see if Sportacus was coming, her attention was arrested from the airship by a strange noise. All the kids stopped their playing to try and discover the source of the noise. They saw Robbie walking towards them holding something wrapped in the blanket. The Mayor and Bessie came over to the kids equally confused by the noise and what Robbie was carrying; they'd been walking to the town hall but stopped at hearing the odd sound. "That sounds like a-a baby!" Bessie exclaimed. It had been a long time since that sound had been heard in Lazytown and everyone was confounded as to how Robbie had come upon one.
"I found her outside my lair last night," Robbie explained, "She had this resting on her stomach."
Robbie handed Bessie the note that he'd found with the baby. She read it and gasped at the two harsh words written on it, 'keep it'. She found it hard to believe that anyone could leave a baby all alone with a note saying something like that. By reading the note she knew exactly who had left the baby with Robbie.
"If Lily is the mother than you're the-the father." Bessie was surprised.
"The father!" Robbie exclaimed.
It hadn't occurred to him that he was the baby's father. He remembered making love to Lily the first night they met but he'd never expected this. Upon reflection however, he'd remembered that night as Lily seducing him rather he himself doing anything to her. He was the father to the small infant he held so preciously in his arms. The world began to turn around him and his knees grew weak, the full shock of what he'd just realised hit him like an express train.
Bessie quickly grabbed the baby and Sportacus arrived just in time to catch Robbie before he hit the ground. He'd not noticed the baby or heard the conversation but was sure that something was wrong when Robbie started sinking to the ground in a faint. As soon as Robbie had seemingly begun to recover from his episode the Mayor ran to fetch a glass of water. Ever since Lily's attack on Robbie he'd had these episodes when his nerves had been aggravated and no one had been able to decipher why. As for the scratch marks on Robbie's cheek they had healed into scars, a constant reminder of the night Robbie had met his match and better in rottenness.
Sportacus heard a sound and looked over at Bessie; he noticed for the first time that she was holding a baby. He was absolutely positive that it wasn't hers and it certainly couldn't have been Stephanie's or Trixie's, it then dawned on him that the only person the baby could belong to was Lily.
With the thought of it being Lily's baby Sportacus had a funny turn of his own, he knew where babies came from and realised that Robbie had had his turn from discovering he'd fathered it.
Robbie recovered fully after a few mouthfuls of water, he hated it when he came over faint and it scared him when no one was there to help him out of it. When he was all alone and had these attacks it took a long time to get out of them and each one left him even more anxious of the next one. It was a great relief to him when someone was there to help him out of the attacks; most often it seemed that his assistance came from Sportacus as his crystal informed him that someone was in trouble.
Sportacus had saved his life when Lily had attacked him; she was seconds away if not less from stamping his head into two pieces. What with Sportacus assisting him back to full health with his broken arms and aiding him with his fainting attacks he had a lot to be grateful for but never showed it. He still acted as he had always done, just as he had vowed to do when his health was recovered. Affection had never been one of his strong points and whenever he tried to display his feelings they always came out in a negative way. It was a major defect of being rotten.
When Bessie was satisfied that Robbie was ok she handed him back the baby. She noticed how he looked at the child and how he held it, it was with a tenderness she'd never thought possible in Robbie Rotten. It occurred to her that there was a lot she didn't know about Robbie, it came down to the fact that he kept himself locked away in his underground prison and only came to the surface to cause trouble. There was thing she did know, Robbie would make a much better parent to the baby than Lily. She read the two cold words on the note again, 'keep it'. It was evident that Lily hadn't even bothered to find out the sex of her baby, what kind of mother could do that?
"Robbie," Bessie began, "what are you going to call the baby?"
Robbie looked up surprised, "Call her? I don't know, I hadn't even thought of naming her yet."
Robbie looked at the baby again and a name came to him seemingly out of the blue, "Robyn. I'll call her Robyn."
The kids looked at each other and tasted the name on each of their tongues. It was a nice name and they all agreed it suited. The Mayor rejoined the group, after fetching Robbie some water he'd gone back into his house and taken the liberty of searching for some old baby things he still had from when Stephanie had stayed with him when she herself was a baby. It hadn't taken long to find the crib, pushchair, high chair, a few outfits and even some unopened nappies. He hoped Robbie would accept them as a gift and keep them.
"Robbie. I found some old baby things that you could use for, Robyn, wasn't it? There is a crib, a high chair, a push chair, a few outfits and a packet of nappies that hasn't been opened." The Mayor explained, he'd been cautious of offering them to Robbie fearing a rebuke of some kind. None came.
"Thanks. If I'm keeping Robyn they'd come in handy. There's one problem though, as you can I haven't enough hands to carry them and I can't get back into my lair. I couldn't even change into day clothes before I came here." Robbie motioned his pyjamas. No one had noticed until now that he was wearing them.
"Me and the kids can help you with getting the stuff to your lair, Robbie." Sportacus offered.
"Thank you, I'd appreciate it." Robbie was surprised at what he'd just said.
He'd appreciate help? All the business of the last couple of months had done something to him. Either that or the new arrival in his life was doing something to him, something good.