I'll Guard Your Dreams
"Aren't you supposed to sleep when your baby is sleeping?"
"Who says that?"
"Most people?"
"Yeah, well, I don't care."
He chuckles at her retort, but doesn't say a word; maybe because he doesn't feel like sleeping either.
They're snuggled up in bed, very much they have done some many times before, only there's one big difference between the past and a now–and that difference is sleeping peacefully between them.
Grant reaches out and draws a careful finger along the baby's forearm. She's less than a day old–she was born that morning, and it still seems unbelievable that twenty-four hours ago it was just the two of them in the very same bed–, and he already loves her more than he would have ever thought it possible, although he's still having a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that he has a daughter–that he's a father. (It doesn't even matter the slightest that he had nine months to come to terms with this.)
Skye reaches for the baby, too–she must be feeling the same need to touch as he does, almost as if their daughter was just a mirage that can disappear any moment–, and their hands touch. Their eyes meet, and she gives him a tired smile; it was a long labor, and she should be resting, but somehow… Somehow watching their baby sleep is more rewarding.
"She's beautiful," she whispers, and he can see the tears well in her eyes. The urge to lean over and kiss her is almost overwhelming.
"She's perfect," he answers and he means it. He's never seen a creature more perfect than their daughter. Every little piece of her–her tiny fingers, that bottom nose, those pouty lips, that dark hair, those eyes–is simply breathtaking.
"I wonder what she'll be like," she says softly after a little while, caressing the baby's tummy. "Who she'll be."
"She could be anything. Whatever she wants to be."
"She could change the world."
"She could be president."
Skye chuckles softly, hiding her mouth behind her hand. "But don't start planning her campaign just yet. Let her walk first."
"And speak. That sounds kinda important too," he goes on with the joke. The baby hiccups in her sleep, almost as if she found it funny too.
"But joking put aside," he says after a short pause, slipping a finger under the baby's hand, "she's going to be smart, and kind, and compassionate, and thoroughly amazing. Just like her mother."
I hope she'll be just like you.
He could swear she blushes a little.
"And strong, and brave, and loyal, and a total badass. Just like her father," she counters.
"You think it's okay to teach her such… bad words already?" he asks with a smile.
"No. I just…" She yawns. "…I just don't feel like fighting a battle I've already lost."
He reaches for her hand, brings it to his lips, and kisses it. "Sleep a little," he pleads with her.
"I don't want to," she argues, but he can see her eyelids already drop as she places her head on the pillow. "I just want to keep watching her."
(She doesn't add that it's because the baby feels like a dream and she fears waking up to a world where she doesn't exist, but she doesn't need to; Grant feels the same.)
"She'll be right here when you wake up," he promises. "I'll keep her safe while you sleep."
For a moment, he can feel her coming argument linger in the air between them, but then her eyes finally drift closed, and she nods sleepily, hugging the pillow close. "Alright. Just for a couple of minutes." And the next moment she's already asleep, one of her hands resting on the baby's tummy.
And as they sleep, he watches over their dreams.
