"Awwwww, she's so cute when she is sleeping." Hamish looked in the rearview mirror with a little smile on his face. Theo cooed trying to look behind her but she couldn't see her father, all she could do was hear his voice. Theo looked over to her side where Vera was leaning against the door sleeping. Cooing Theo kicked her back legs and looked back at Vera. "Shhhh, let her sleep. You are so exhausting to raise. Your mom needs a nap little lady." Theo started to whine a little more. "No, don't you cry just so you can wake her up and get attention." She huffed and kicked her legs again as Hamish pulled up into the campground. "Hey Theo, we are here."
Parking the SUV near the other cars Hamish put it in park and unlocked his door as Ganrielle and Randal came running over towards the vehicle. Jumping out he stopped them. "Hey, quiet she's sleeping."
"Theo?" Gabrielle asked.
"What? No she's wide awake Vera's sleeping."
"Oh, so it's alright if I grab Fluffy then?"
Hamish rolled his eyes a little. "Yeah, sure go ahead. Keep an eye on her so I can unpack."
"Nice, by the way Jack and Lilith aren't here yet. Nichole is bringing Lilith down, we had to sort of convince her to come."
"So much for this being an easy team building outing."
"I mean to be fair you started it by bringing Vera which Midnight still isn't happy about."
"Well, yeah I can't bring Theo without Vera, Vera kind of…" He waved to the SUV. "You know. Babies got to eat."
"That's okay Hamish, I get it, you don't need to be weird about it." Gabrielle opened up the door and smiled at Theo. "Hello cutiepie." She unbuckled the baby and picked her up, testing her weight a little. "You are getting so big."
"Awww, Fluffy, come to uncle Randal." Gabrielle turned away from him guarding her a little.
"Umm, no. We need to talk about girl things Randal."
As Gabrielle started walking off towards the cabin Hamish stepped forward. "Umm, careful Gabby, seriously." He put his hand down, yeah there wasn't a point in saying anything at this point. Opening Vera's door he waited a moment seeing she was still sleeping. "Alright Vera." Hamish carefully unbuckled her and swung her arm around his shoulder before picking her up.
"Aww, so cute." Randal stood there with a little smirk on his face as Hamish picked up Vera. "No I'm just saying, you two are so cute." Hamish started to carry Vera towards the cabin. "Hey I was rooting for Vermish way before you knew you were a thing so…no, okay, that's fine."
Getting inside the cabin Hamish went to the main bedroom or more so the largest bedroom here since they needed the extra space for the bassinet. Hamish laid her down on the bed looking down at her for a moment. She was so devastatingly beautiful, awake, sleeping, screaming at him. He had to go unpack the vehicle though, as much as he wanted to just watch Vera sleep he still needed to go unpack.
Hamish had spent the better half of the morning unpacking until Lilith and Nichole showed up. Being the leaderly figure Hamish gave extra help to the pair of girls, glancing at Lilith from time to time as she tried to avoid him. He still wouldn't know what the deal was against him. Things couldn't get worse and yet they did. As soon as Jack pulled up he saw Alyssa in the front seat with him. "Oh great." Vera was going to be very very unhappy with this weekend. The worst part was he couldn't actually yell at Jack because everyone else had brought someone, short of Randal since his someone was actually just another werewolf. Instead Hamish smiled and waved waiting for Jack to park and get out of the car.
"Hey Jack can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Crap." He looked over at Alyssa. Walking up to Hamish he nodded his head. "I know, Vera and Alyssa under the same roof for a weekend. Hope nobody ends up dead." He joked seeing Hamish wasn't in the mood for that sort of joke.
"Just, please Jack, please don't let those two be alone together for even a second. Vera isn't too keen on Alyssa right now, if ever."
"Prevent a cat fight, I get it." He nodded his head, "Magical cat fight."
"Happy we are at least still on the same page. Your bedroom by the way is downstairs." He paused again pointing towards the dock where Gabrielle was uncomfortably close to the water with Theo. "Also careful with Midnight and Alyssa. Vera only has amnesty with him because she's kind of busy raising a baby werewolf." He glanced over at Gabrielle again, "Speaking of baby werewolf I need to go get her."
Vera woke up again around noon which was slight perfect timing since Jack and Randal were working out lunch and Theo was getting pretty fussy. Likely because she was wanting lunch too. After the two hour drive and her mom being down for another two hours it was about Theo's cutoff time for how long she could go before dissolving into a sobfest. Trying to bounce Theo on his knee as she sucked on her fist gurgling Hamish was more than happy to see Vera was up. "Oh thank you, you're up." Theo looked over to Vera finally going into her baby meltdown mode. "And just like that you hit her hunger threshold."
"You could have woken me up if she was getting hungry Hamish." Vera was still partially trying to wake herself up but hearing Theo scream certainly helped.
"You actually live with that?" Randal commented over Fluffy's power lungs and her sharp high pitched 'I'm so pissed' sobs.
"Every day." Vera responded as Hamish handed her off to Vera.
"Well, I'm not ever having kids." Randal replied, not after hearing that unearthly siren shriek.
"Oh thank God." Vera tried to keep her voice down a little. The world didn't need more Caprio's in it, she'd met one and he was already too much. Seeing Randal struggle to start the fire Vera rolled her eyes at him, "Have you learned nothing?" Randal looked a bit confused at her as he tried yet again to get a match to catch the kindling on fire. "Incendetur." The kindling caught fire making Randal jump a little.
"Oh yeah." He paused a moment. "I should have thought of that." Theo smiled seeing the fire appear from nowhere and made her tantrum stop as she put her hands in her mouth and cooed. "Why am I not surprised your child is a pyromaniac?"
"What?"
"Nothing." Randal tried to save himself before Vera set him on fire too. Once Vera was inside the cabin Randal looked back at Hamish, "Nothing like a spoonful of sugar to help the chloric acid go down." He had to remind himself exactly why Vera was here again, Theo seemed to be the excuse but Randal thought it had more to do with the fact that Hamish couldn't be away from her for more than five hours without experiencing lost puppy syndrome. They were almost as gross as Jack and Alyssa, almost. Mostly a bit better because Vera wasn't super affectionate in public, thank god.
Later that night everyone gathered around the campfire, Alyssa was seated in Jack's lap who seemed to partially be hanging onto her more so to keep her far away from Vera. She was being civilized for Hamish, after all she sort of owed it to Hamish after what she'd put him through. Randal had tried to get Gabrielle to sit on his lap too so he could join the 'cute couples club' but instead he was left sitting in one chair while Gabrielle roasted marshmallows on a log and made both of them s'mores. Seemed Randal could scarf them down faster than she could make them though. Lilith and Nichold had curled up on a bench, Lilith holding a blanket around Nichole and trying to catch marshmallows in her mouth from Gabrielle tossing them at her. Meanwhile Hamish sat alone, at least while Vera put their daughter to bed.
"So, are we doing the wolf run tomorrow?" Randal asked chomping down another s'more.
"Wolf run?" Jack asked, despite having this be year two for him as a werewolf this was his first camping trip with the pack.
"We all go full werewolf and run around. Since this is literally the middle of nowhere we really don't worry about people coming up on us. It's really cool, a few years back we spent pretty much the whole day as wolves."
"Yeah, you ate a deer." Lilith added looking over at Randal.
"At least I didn't roll in it." He sassed back to Lilith.
"Do you think Theo turns into a werewolf pup?" Gabrielle asked a little excited to see what she actually looked like.
"Theo can't shift yet." Hamish added. "At most her eyes just do the color shift and that is about all Ember is capable of. I think really considering her champion is a baby she probably won't even try anything more than that. I don't know when she will be able to change over."
"Man that would be so cute, a little baby werewolf." Randal added. "With those big ears and wittle paws. Or do you think she'd have like these massive paws like real dogs that she has to grow into. I really hope that's how it works out. After all it's been how long since the newest hide? Silverback was the last one before Ember and that's like 400 years ago."
Hamish seemed a little concerned over the idea of Theo ever being able to change into a werewolf before she was old enough to understand that's not something you can do in public. He could see a small toddler just thinking everyone became a wolf changing in the middle of a grocery store or the toy isle when she threw a temper tantrum. The idea was alarming, parenting a child was hard enough, he and Vera had to parent a tiny werewolf. What was any of that going to entail? He really wished someone existed that could give him some advice. Even Tundra didn't have a clue since neither of her boys had ever been graced with a hide.
"Regardless, Midnight calls first dibs on teaching her to hunt and track when she can."
Hamish shook his head no, "Not happening, that's Tundra's job. My cub my responsibility."
"Not like you made her hide, that was Alpha's doing, it's really more like Alpha is her hide's parent."
Again Hamish shook his head no, "Not even a little, no, Alpha tried to kill my kid. Besides, I made the champion and I'm the leader so." He shrugged his shoulders feeling like that was a reasonable argument. Besides as far as he knew Ember and Theo were pretty much the same person since this was that hide's first champion. Whatever the personality of the hide became it didn't matter because it was Theo's personality as well.
"Is it just me or is it really weird that Vera is a mom, not only that but to a werewolf?" Randal added sitting back in his fold out chair.
"Not really."
"Hey, Hamish you really don't get input on that opinion." Randal corrected him.
"Considering how often she's threatened to kill us, plus erasing our memories." Jack shrugged his shoulders, "But then again…" He'd seen into her mind and saw her memories so no, it wasn't too weird to think of her as Theo's mom. Hamish's girlfriend, yes, that was a bit more unusual."
"Not like anyone gets to pick their parents, look at Hamish, I mean your parents suck and Alyssa, your dad is kind of a dick too." Lilith, always keeping it honest.
"Nah, Vera is like super nice and cute to Fluffy, it's mildly disturbing at the same time." Gabrielle really seemed to be the only one on her side but then again she'd been on Vera's side long before she was with the wolves.
"She's the best mother, Fl...I mean Theo is so lucky to have her." Hamish smiled, he spent the most time with her so he knew better. He struggled trying his best to never be an absentee father like his was. Always too busy with work and acting like his own children were too much of a burden. Vera made being a parent seem so easy and effortless and she hadn't even had parents to try and emulate or avoid becoming like.
"Don't sell yourself short." Hamish would have startled if it wasn't for the fact that she was so recognizable to him. He'd smell her coming a mile away. "She's lucky to have you too." Vera sat down on the bench next to him and folded her hands in her lap. "And she's finally fast asleep but I left the window open just in case she starts crying so we can hear her." Wrapping his arms around her Hamish pulled her a little closer and ran his fingers through her hair. She had the most silken textured hair. It felt a little like running your fingers over silk.
"Hey, we should tell ghost stories." Randal blurted out poking a log with a long stick.
"What are you, 12?" Lilith snapped back with a snarky tone.
"No, I just want to tell ghost stories."
"I have a scary story." Vera interjected. "A week before university starts back up all the Magistratus have to come in and deep clean the temple before all the Acolytes and Medicum return."
Randal glared at Vera a moment before pointing to Hamish, "She's not allowed to tell more stories Hamish."
"She's kidding, you guys don't have to come in a week early to clean up the temple. Last year acolytes do that." Hamish leaned down kissing Vera and making Randal and Jack cringe slightly. Even Alyssa seemed a little unsettled by the sight. "Don't frighten them Vera."
"Guys, if you are going to suck face go get a room." Randal finally spoke up and went to put his arm around Gabrielle only to have her move a burning marshmallow close to his face and startle him.
"Blow." Gabby wasn't suggesting with that tone either, she was ordering.
"Gabby, not here in public." Randal joked making her narrow her eyes at him.
"Gross, I mean the marshmallow." Randal blew out the fire before Gabrielle threw it over her back letting it land somewhere on the ground.
"Hey, I would have eaten that." Alyssa spoke up.
"You are weird." Gabrielle added. Who the hell ate burned marshmallows?
"No kidding, black olives on Hawaiin pizza." Randal was really spending too much time with Gabrielle.
"Gross, who puts pineapples on pizza." Randal slowly raised his hand only to get a judgmental glare from Gabby. "Heretic."
Looking back at Hamish Vera leaned against his chest a little more, "This is why I say I don't want more kids." She motioned to the 'children' fighting. This, she dealt with this all the time. They really didn't need this kind of bickering at home too.
Randal looked back up at them, "Dude, seriously? You want another one of those screaming things?" He was quiet a moment before cocking his head to the side. "Take this word of advice, get off her Hamish."
"Excuse you." Vera snapped only to have Hamish laugh and rub her arms trying to calm her down before someone ended up dead.
"Hahahaha, I said it would be nice someday maybe." Granted Theo was really protecting her only child status right now. If she ended up being a handful to handle then one kid was the best choice because neither of them wanted to be overwhelmed but if she was an easy to deal with kid then yeah, Hamish was going for a second one no matter what it took to convince Vera to side with the idea.