"Did you just give the baby ice cream?" Vera came in looking at Theo smack her lips and Hamish holding the spoon up fairly close to her. Theo made a strange face and shivered before shaking her head and leaning away with a whine.

"Come on, are you even mine? You don't like chocolate ice cream? Maybe you are like your mother and you prefer jalapeno cheese cake ice cream."

"My god, Hamish, I was pregnant." She hadn't considered her cravings to be super weird but there had been a few things she'd actually fallen in love with during that time and with a Ben and Jerry's close to the campus ice cream had become her best pregnancy comfort food. "Besides, she's 3 months old Hamish, I don't think she's ready for ice cream. It's too cold."

Theo stuck her fingers into her mouth looking like she was trying to get the taste out. "Daddy is being mean to you isn't he." Theo moved her hand back fast in a jerky motion and smacking Hamish in the face. She turned around looking at him like 'what are you doing?'

"Hey, why do you always hit me?" Theo smiled at him. "I was just trying to give her a little ice cream before we go watch the fireworks."

"She needs to have her sweater on." Hamish was so excited that she got to wear the teddy bear sweater. Hamish was quick to head upstairs to their room in the loft and get out her sweater from the suitcase before putting it on her and having a small internal meltdown.

"You are so precious." He put her hood up and smiled at her, she looked like an actual doll sometimes with her cute chubby baby cheeks and big bright eyes. Theo yawned a little and stuck her fingers into her mouth trying to close her eyes before Hamish picked her back up. "No, you have to stay awake, you get to see your first fireworks tonight." Normally around 8 at night Theo was down for the count until 3 in the morning for first breakfast and then out until 9 in the morning. It gave her two good six hour stints of sleep before she was awake nearly all day minus a few naps here and there. With the sun already going down Theo was extra tired and ready to go down for the night.

"She is going to get so over tired." Vera shouted up at him in the loft of the cabin. "Good luck getting any sleep tonight."

"I know but it's her first fireworks she gets to see, she hasn't even experienced them in the womb. It's completely new to her."

"I know, she's going to be terrified." Barking dogs startled her, loud noises startled her and Theo cried when the garbage truck came to pick up their trash. This was going to be an absolute nightmare but Hamish was so excited to show her the fireworks that Vera wouldn't argue with him to keep them at home.

"Guys, you all coming to the boat or what?" Randal walked into the cabin holding a beer in his hand.

"I'm waiting on Hamish." Vera pointed towards the steps as he carried Theo back downstairs. "Nevermind, lets go."

Reaching out Vera took Theo from Hamish since he was the one driving the boat out into the middle of the lake tonight. Hamish swore up and down that it was the best seat for the firework display. Following after Hamish Vera rested Theo on her shoulder listening to the baby coo and make her typical 'I'm very sleepy' noises. It seemed for a moment Theo had fallen asleep until the boat got started up and startled her awake again. Whining she grabbed hold of Vera's hair and tried putting it in her mouth. "No." Vera grabbed her fingers slowly prying them free but pulling out a few strands and making Theo cry. "You can't pull my hair."

"Awww, Hamish she does take after you." Randal joked making Vera shoot him a death glare.

"Dude, no." Hamish scolded him and pulled away from the dock. First off, he wasn't the sort to go pulling Vera's hair and second off he still wasn't getting any action right now and might not for a while. Not because either he or Vera didn't want to but because Theo literally couldn't sleep through even the smallest noise anymore. Her deep unconscious newborn sleeping powers had faded away and if they so much as stepped on a floorboard or got up to go to the bathroom Theo was wide awake and wondering what you were doing.

Life was rough with a newborn and Hamish finally understood what Vera meant when she said having a baby was both the best and worst thing at the same time. The trip into the center of the lake was short with the fast boat though it made Vera have to hold Theo a little extra tight so she wouldn't get cold or have her hood fly off her head. There were quite a few boats pulled up in the lake with people hooting and drinking. A few more 'party' boats listening to loud music and pushing each other off into the water and laughing. One of the guys on the party boats looked over at Alyssa and Gabrielle whistling at the pair of girls and making them both scoot a little closer to Jack and Randal.

"More people here than two years ago, this used to be a pretty quiet lake."

"It's probably that resort we saw when we were out on the lake earlier." Vera added as Hamish left the drivers seat and walked over to her. He moved her off her seat before sitting down and pulling Vera back down onto his lap. Resting his chin on her shoulder he smiled down at Theo who by now was already sleeping. "Sorry, she couldn't keep her eyes open, the boat's motion is pretty hypnotic for a baby."

"It's okay, she tried, maybe next year when she's a bit older she can appreciate it and stay awake for the fireworks." At least that was what Hamish thought until the first firework went off and startled Theo awake again. She looked around with wide eyes, scrunching up her face, a familiar thing she did before crying. "Shhhh, Theo." Hamish tried to comfort her before she started to scream. The next firework to go off was a crackling one that mimicked the sound of something in a frying pan. The strange sound was enough to make Theo look up at the sky just in time to see the fading light and smile a little. "Oh wow, look how cool that is."

The next firework went off, a galaxy styled one that made Theo startle again though unlike before she was actually more interested in the bright lights now than the loud noise. "Ooooo." Theo cooed and pulled her fingers into her mouth.

"Alright, I'll be honest, I didn't think she would be this okay with the fireworks until right now." Theo was getting a bit more brave. She continued to be excited by the fireworks until the end when the grand finale ended up being too overwhelming for her. "I spoke too soon." Theo started crying making a few of the dudes trying to enjoy the fireworks and drinking yell at them.

"Hey, shut that brat up."

"Hamish." Vera sounded a bit alarmed as Theo squirmed and cried harder. He turned his attention away from the rowdy boys and looked down at Theo seeing a drop of blood land on her face as she screamed more in pain than fear. Looking at her hands he could see her fingernails had shifted into long sharp claws, sharp teeth protruding from one side of her mouth and making her gums bleed.

"Shit." Hamish huffed and got Vera off his lap. It looked painful if there was anything he knew about the first time the hide had taken over. It made Hamish fear for what Ember would do to the baby's body. "Vera?"

He looked a little helpless to stop whatever was happening, it wasn't like he had control over her hide. There wasn't anything you could do to stop it from taking over unless the champion themselves held it back and Theo wasn't aware of herself let alone the hide well enough to pull something like that off.

"Sopite." Vera raised her hand over Theo knocking her out and making the teeth receded back into her gums. Luckily for her she had the healing abilities of a werewolf, the damage done to her fingers started healing as Hamish got back into the driver's seat.

"Vera, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." There wasn't anything he could say to lift the panic Vera had felt, holding Theo in her arms she felt her heart racing, that same terror she'd felt watching her daughter die coursing through her mind. She closed her eyes feeling a tear roll down her face and let out a shaky breath. He didn't know what to say but what frightened him more, he didn't know what to do.