Blade and Chalice was a lot more active than he had expected for the summer but most of the people here were professors celebrating not having to go into class in the morning. Professor Bennet had spotted Vera from across the room making Hamish a little nervous as she approached them. All these people coming over meant a never ending chain of germs and strangers to wake up Theo who was still happily sleeping in her carseat in the booth next to Vera. She sucked on her fingers cooing every now and then like she was trying to jump into their conversations. "Hello Chancellor Stone, I didn't think I'd see you here." Vera had always been a very busy woman who had never spent her spare time with the 'common folk' of Belgrave.

"It wasn't my first choice but Hamish thought it would be quiet." It was actually shocking that Theo was able to sleep through all the chatter in the small establishment right now. Somehow the sound of a bunch of strangers voices she could sleep through like it was nothing but if Vera sneezed she was startled awake in a second and crying about it. "I've been meaning to ask you by the way, Mr. Morton hasn't had an incident with you since last year has he?"

"Aside from being a little more cynical, not really."

She nodded her head as Hamish looked around the room trying not to say anything. Ah yes, last years trying to save her from being murdered thanks to Gabrielle's murder spell. He had to remind himself despite her being a knight now that she had actually started out as one of the biggest pain in the ass Order members he'd ever crossed. The added bonus of her and her friends hunting him down could be stacked on that list but Hamish would never tell Vera that he'd been stabbed by that knife. "See Vera, Jack has really shaped up since freshman year." Hamish smiled trying to keep a lot of that first year a secret from her.

"He's gone through some concerning phases." Bennett added and looked over at Hamish, he'd always been a good student himself, well behaved, never getting into trouble. In fact she would have listed him under the term teachers pet, the irony since she'd never understand just how true that currently was. Honestly when the rumors had started up Bennet hadn't believed them, the whole conversation that Vera and Hamish had anything going seemed silly. Not so much because of their six year age gap but more to do with the fact that Vera had always come off as cold and driven with no time for anyone else which was why she never interacted with anyone at the school unless it was completely necessary. Really Bennet had always considered her a bit of a stuck up bitch She didn't start taking them more seriously until possibly around the time Vera had gotten pregnant when Hamish seemed to spend a lot of time around her.

She had no idea how that guy could so successfully track Vera down when she was on campus but he'd always been right beside her, walking with her. It was the point when it became more obvious that Vera was pregnant that even Bennet had to pay up on the bet and say she'd been wrong. Looked like there really was someone for everyone out there. Speaking of a spawn between the teacher's pet and the ice queen Theo had woken up looking around a bit startled for a moment. From her point of view there must have been something very unsettling about falling asleep and being 'teleported' to strange new places. Worst of them was the doctor's office but when it was new like this Theo always assumed it was bad news for her. It didn't take long between her wide eyed shock and crying fit. "I'll take her." Hamish was always more than happy to hold onto his little girl.

"That must be the famous Theodora." Bennet commented having only noticed she was here since she'd been so quiet. Vera unbuckled her and picked her up carefully as Hamish leaned over the table a little to grab her.

"I don't know about famous just yet. She's not horribly skilled in anything aside from…" Vera was interrupted by Hamish as he tucked her into one of his arms and and made a few funny noises at her to make her stop crying which worked but unlike when Vera did it she didn't laugh, she just looked at him like 'what the hell dude?'

"Screaming."

"No I was going to say sleeping." Vera corrected him but screaming worked too.

"Increasing my carbon footprint by one hundred." Hamish added again. All attempts to recycle and go green with reusable bags was outdone by the amount of diapers this baby produced. He admired parents who did the washable diapers because with the rate Theo burned through her diapers he'd need two jobs to help pay for something like that and maybe a truck to come pick up twice a day. He was already the landlord of an apartment building and that was helping him pay for the slight clothes shopping addiction he had for Theo. Why did they have to make baby clothes for girls so cute? Also at the same time boy's clothes were lame. What was he supposed to do when he and Vera theoretically had a baby boy down the line?

"Well, she's very cute." Bennet added. "She looks a lot like you Hamish." He smiled, it never stopped being fantastic when someone said that to him. It never stopped being fantastic that Theo's hair had the same wavy to her bangs like his hair too and on the same side that naturally just fell into place no matter how hard he tried to give her crazy messy hair and maybe had given her a bit of a 90's boy band spiky hair after one of her baths.

"That's because she's my little Duke jr." He kissed Theo on the cheek making her stick her tongue out and gurgle. As was typical of Theo these days she turned her attention to his tie and grabbed hold of it looking at it a moment before leaning forward and trying to put it in her mouth. It was a bit rough now that she'd figured out how to grab things and dang she was strong. It's like she locked her fingers and had no idea how to let something go. Poor Vera was the one who suffered it the most since she had long hair that Theo wasn't afraid to grab by the fistfull and try to gum on it. After a failed attempt to free his tie Hamish just loosened the knot on it and slipped it off so Theo could have it.

"I think Theo agrees you should go more casual, you look good." Vera smirked and took a sip of her water.

"I think Theo just likes the taste of fabric softner." He stopped and opened the top of his shirt a little more though. "But hey, I won't argue with you if you like the casual look."

Bennet suddenly felt a little weird, it was really creepy seeing Vera be flirty. "Well you three have a good night." She cleared her throat glancing between them and almost wanting to tell them to get a room. They weren't fooling anyone while they sat there giving each other bedroom eyes.

Hamish grabbed one of Theo's arms and moved her hand up and down to make her wave bye. "Say bye bye Theo." With the tie still hanging out of her mouth she shrieked and cooed, a little drool coming out of her mouth as she did. "Close enough." He glanced at Vera give one of those utterly lovestruck sighs watching them together. It was funny how awestruck she was at every cute little thing their daughter did. It was hard not to be though when you had a baby this cute and charismatic. She might have no idea what she was doing most of the time but she was so full of personality it didn't matter that much. Theo didn't drop his tie until he started to go back to eating, taking a bite of his burger he saw Theo look up at him completely mesmerized by what he was doing and trying to imitate chewing with a weird smacking sound of her lips.

She blinked a few times turning her head sideways and smacking her lips again while reaching up for him. "Are you seriously hungry again kid? You just ate like thirty minutes ago."

"No, she's just trying to copy you." Vera was all too familiar with the monkey see monkey do game. It was a bit comical watching Theo try to imitate her after watching her with that intense baby gaze.

"Well you can't have this yet Theo, you don't have any chompers." Theo pulled her hands back to her mouth sticking pinky and ring finger into her mouth while her thumb and pointer finger got pushed under her hand. "Are you flipping me the bird?" It was a complete accidental gesture but it was pretty funny seeing his six week old give him the middle finger. "You are not around Randal enough to start doing that." Vera found some serious humor in it too.

"Hamish, have you learned nothing living with me? You really can't tell a Stone woman what she can and can't do."

"Point taken, I didn't know the sass started so early. I guess I should be careful about that in the future right Theo?" Theo looked up and smiled at him, flailing her arms and kicking her feet. "You think that's so funny don't you. You cute manipulative little puppy you." It was such a bad idea he had this baby with Vera, he was never going to be able to tell this child no to save his life. She already had him wrapped around her little finger and she didn't even know she had that power yet. Once she figured it out Hamish was utterly doomed. He wondered if all father's felt that way when they had their kids. His father certainly hadn't been like that. Did it make him a good father or a bad one? Too bad Theo wasn't old enough to write him a review. With a chitty father of his own all Hamish wanted was to be the best dad to her.

After they had finished up eating they went home and spent the last hour getting Theo to fall back to sleep. With the help of the white noise machine and actually getting her to take that damn pacifier she was out cold in her crib and gave Hamish and Vera a little time to be alone together, something that was all too rare with a baby in the house. Grabbing the monitor screen so they could keep an eye on her, Hamish took Vera down into the basement that had previously just been a secondary sitting room now transformed into more of Hamish's 'man cave'. If man cave included a typical big screen tv, a collection of first edition books, and a playstation because he wasn't ashamed to admit he played online with Jack and Randal and Theo liked to sit in his lap and watch him play games. Yes, he did put small blame on Theo for needing a playstation, it kept her entertained.

Setting the screen down on Vera's side of the couch he went back to the bar to pour them both a glass of wine. As predicted Vera grabbed the screen and sat down watching to make sure Theo was still breathing. "She's fine Vera." He grabbed the glasses of wine and walked over handing one off to her. "You have at least four or five hours before she wakes up hungry so I think one glass of wine won't get our baby drunk." Maybe even six hours since Theo was sleeping pretty good through the night. She woke up at six in the morning like clockwork though.

Sitting down he picked up the remote and turned on the playstation so they could enjoy a movie together before going to bed themselves. "Nothing with children or parenting. That means no Knocked Up, no Baby Mama, no Rosemary's Baby." For the next hour she just wanted to escape the worries and concerns of babies because if any scene showed up that made her think of Theo her natural reaction was to pause the movie and go check on her.

"How about we watch Jurassic Park then."

"No, because the kids are put in harm's way."

"Okay, Terminator?"

"No, she's pregnant at the end."

"Wow Vera, you have the rawest mommy nerves I have ever known." Hamish paused trying to think of any movie where they didn't have kids in danger. "Oh, I know, let's start watching all the Marvel movies. We can start with the first Iron Man movie."

"You just want to talk me into being Black Widow for Halloween so you can be Captain America."

"No." He responded being a little defensive because Jack wanted to be Captain America for Halloween and Alyssa was going to be Peggy Carter. He still thought he'd be a better Cap but he'd give it to Gabrielle, she was going to be a killer Black Widow with Randal being Tony Stark, not even Iron Man but just Tony Stark. "I'm going to talk you into being Gamora so I can dress up as Starlord and Theo can be baby Groot."

"I don't know any of those characters."

"Okay, we are watching Guardians of the Galaxy first then because I think you'd be a perfect Gamora. She's a strong badass…"

"She wears leather doesn't she." Vera stopped him.

"No." He paused a moment, "Yes."

"I see."

"But Theo can be baby Groot and then I can be Starlord. Starlord isn't my first choice but he's still pretty cool. He's like a space mercenary."

"I don't know." She really didn't want to even do anything for Halloween. Theo wasn't going to be old enough to even remember it or go out. Hamish seemed to think they were for sure having a party at the Den though and they had to go. Scrolling up to Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 1 Hamish sat down next to Vera and put an arm around her moving her a little closer to him. After a sip of her wine she set the glass down and rested her head on his chest placing a hand on his abs and looking up at him a little. "Hamish, have you been working out?"

He got a little smirk on his face and shamelessly flexed his muscles a bit. "Why do you ask?"

"Because, I could cut my vegetables on your abs." She put her hands on his pecs next and raised a brow. "Nice, I forgot you had those."

"I know, it's been a while." He could say that again, now Vera was starting to remember how he'd gotten her pregnant in the first place. Vera had actually been a bit shocked the first time when she'd invited him into the reliquary just how well built he was under those well tailored suits. If there was anything better about a guy who looked great in suits it was a guy who looked better out of them. Hamish pressed his luck kissing her on the neck knowing she'd given him fair warning today that he wasn't going to be getting anything for a while still. She wasn't threatening him with death just yet.

"Hamish." Vera turned to look at him, well now he had pushed his luck a little too much. Vera looked over at him, that little glint in her eye.

"Sorry Vera, didn't mean to." Vera shifted into his lap straddling him and making Hamish raise a brow and maybe not so shamefully looking down at her shirt where he could just see her cleavage. "Oh." He paused and rested his hands on her hips. "Are you sure you are ready for this?"

"I don't actually know." One part of her said hell yes while the other part of her said 'absolutely not'.

"Well if at any point you change your mind that's alright too." He wasn't going to force her to do anything that made her uncomfortable. He was also not going to lie and pretend like he wasn't interested either. Vera leaned in kissing him, her lips as soft as ever and reminding Hamish of how good she smelled to him. Her lips trained down his neck and onto his shoulder before Vera stopped to unbutton his shirt. Hamish decided to help her by starting at the bottom and moving up to get his shirt off before pulling her shirt up and almost getting her arms caught in it.

"Ouch." Vera arched her back a little pulling one of her arms out and feeling her shoulder pop a little. "Careful Hamish I'm not a werewolf." Sometimes he could get a little too carried away and forget that he had a lot more strength than she did.

"Sorry Vera." He laid back deciding to give Vera the lead on this one, it took him back a little to their first time together when he'd sort of surrendered to Vera because he hadn't known if she was being serious or not. Talk about being pleasantly surprised and awkwardly running in to tell a demon to steal everything from the woman who you'd pinned to the Zoltar not more than thirty minutes before that. Hamish pushed up her skirt stopping when he heard something that instantly was going to forever kill the mood for Vera tonight. "Theo." Fuck, it's like she knew they were about to go at each other down here. No denying that child was keen on protecting her status as an only child.

Vera got off Hamish picking up the screen and listening to Theo crying and coughing. "It's okay Vera, you can get your shirt back on, I'll go put her back to bed and then we can just watch the movie." He kissed her again silently cursing his daughter. It wasn't entirely the babies fault though, she was getting a bit more fussy thanks to typical rapid baby growth that probably gave her some little aches and pains. Right now she was letting out one of those 'I'm very uncomfortable' cries. "Poor Theo." He really wished there was something he could do to help her, unfortunately that was just life.