"Ma." Theo Put her hands on Vera's side slapping at her ribs as she made a loud sniffing sound, breathing in and out of her nose quickly. The baby leaned forward grabbing hold of her shirt and biting down on her side, if you could call it biting when someone had no teeth. It certainly was effective in making her shirt wet though. Theo growled at her making Vera open one of her eyes and smirk at her daughter.

"What are you doing Theo?" Vera asked as the little girl sat up again.

"Ma."

"Yes Theo?" The baby girl leaned forward, falling into her and grabbing hold of her shirt as she kicked her back legs trying to move forward but it was a sad and sweet attempt at crawling. Didn't stop her from trying her best though. Theo stuck her tongue out trying to make the same sound Vera could make at her when she blew air through her lip like a trombone player. Theo loved that sound but she was incapable of making it herself aside from sticking out her tongue and drooling all over the place while she sort of spit and sort made a motor boat sound. Theo went off, being typically talkative with her random baby babbling that sometimes started sounding more and more like actual words. "Really?" Vera asked her making Theo go off onto more random baby babbling.

Theo leaned forward 'biting' Vera again with a growl and making her laugh."You can't eat me, what do you think you are a big werewolf trying to get my heart? Theo you have no teeth." She picked the baby up and held her up over her as Theo reached down at her face. "Plus you already have my heart." She brought Theo down towards her kissing her on the cheek and making Theo screech and smile.

"You are the two most adorable creatures in the whole universe." He'd come creeping up the steps not wanting to bother Vera since she said she was actually going to try and take a nap with Theo since she had been so cranky this morning. Looks like Theo had some other ideas on nap time though.

"Help, I'm being attacked." Vera laughed through her words as Theo laid down on her chest and quickly tried getting up to a sitting position. She slapped down on Vera again making her flinch. "Ouch Theo, that's my boob."

"Easy Theo, you have that werewolf strength." Not that baby werewolf strength was anything that could hurt Vera, it was really more just she could hit harder than most babies her age and size. Also it was virtually impossible to take anything away from her once she had it in her hands. Lucky them Theo wasn't so fascinated by Vera's hair anymore because they had actually considered having to cut her hair in order to get Theo to let her go. Problem was now Theo also understood cause and effect and if she didn't want to be taken from Vera the first thing she did was grab her hair and scream.

"She's trying to eat me." Vera laughed at Theo's hand was caught by Vera since she wasn't about to stop hitting her. Theo proved the point leaning forward and gumming Vera's hand before making a funny face and spitting on her more. "Does lotion taste icky?"

"Hey Theo, no eating your mother." Hamish walked into the room and sat on the bed. "That's my job." He smirked and tried to pick up the baby but her free hand had a good hold of Vera's shirt.

Theo screamed out as loud as her small lungs allowed, "Ma, ma, ma, ma."

"Okay I stand corrected." If you wanted to talk about jealousy issues then look no further than Theo. If she wanted Vera's attention then nobody else could have it and the same was true for him. If she wanted his attention then she would scream at anyone trying to take it away from her. There was the problem with making Theo the center of the universe and not giving her enough time to figure out how to just deal with other members of the family and friends as much. Hamish got closer to Vera leaning in like he was going to kiss her only to have Theo whine and put her hand in his face to push him away. "No Theo, she's mine." He leaned in again looking at Theo actually glare at him. "You have never looked so much like your mother than you do right now."

"Hey." Vera looked at her glaring at him a bit too but stopping herself. "Alright, yes, she does." Daddy's smile but mommy's glare? What a deadly combination of traits she had collected. She pulled the baby a little closer to her whispering to Theo and hoping the baby took her words to heart. "Theo, your daddy's had a hard few days, you should try and make him feel better." Hamish had been off ever since coming back home, he was drinking a little more than usual which wasn't so unusual aside from the fact he'd nearly stopped drinking when they had met and then went close to cold turkey through her whole pregnancy and afterwards it was only when company was over or he was trying to wine and dine her.

Theo made a strange little face raising both brows and puckering her lips. "Mmmm." She whined at Vera before looking over at Hamish and smiling at him. "Ma." Theo reached out for her father and whined making Hamish smirk. It was rough sometimes feeling like he was only second best to Vera but he knew it wasn't necessarily true. Theo was a baby just doing as babies do which was to cling to their mother. "Awwww, you just feel sorry for me." Hamish laughed a little until Theo put her hand over her mouth and pulled it away looking like she was trying to blow a kiss. She didn't really know how it worked though and the kissing sound was more or less her blowing spit into her hand. "Really?" Hamish nodded his head. "Da"

Hamish looked a little shocked. "Yeah?" He smiled at her, Theo had been using Ma as a means of talking about everything she wanted, probably because she heard the word mom and mommy the most but Hamish felt extra special being da, she didn't call anything else that. Heck she even called whatever you have in your hand ma if she wanted it bad enough. "Can you say da-ddy?" Hamish was doing his best despite the fact Theo wasn't old enough to string together words, even simple ones. Instead she put her lips together trying to blow air out of them and when she failed at that she stuck her tongue out to make another fun sound and spit all over Hamish in the process. "Wow, so close." Hamish looked over at Vera seeing her smirk at him, "What?"

"Nothing, just thinking about something."

Hamish held Theo closer to him as the little girl looked up at him, "Vera please, not in front of the baby." He joked making her roll her eyes while Theo found his tie. He could tell she was losing steam since she wasn't trying to play with it so much as she was just holding it in her hand and resting her head against his chest.

"Not that Hamish." She stopped a moment and sat up a bit folding her hands and resting them on her stomach. "Well, maybe a little but mostly just." Vera paused a moment looking over at Theo, she'd been trying to get her to take a nap since they'd come up here and after only a few minute's of Hamish not even trying she was passed out in his arms. "Thank you."

He looked down at Theo laughing a little. "For accidenting a baby into you?"

"Well, it was a little more elegant in my head but thank you for being a part of our lives."

"Vera, there is no place else I'd rather be than in your life, complicating it." He made her laugh a little as he tried to pull his tie out of the sleeping babies hand. "I love that you complicate mine too and I think Theo is just a general complication." Yeah he wasn't getting this thing away from her, she'd dug him a grave now. "Theo you little stinker, I have things I need to do." Hamish laid down on the bed next to Vera giving up. He could have just taken off his tie and given Theo back to her mother but it was a good excuse to stay here and cuddle with Vera for a little while. It was hard to be sad or haunted by the past with Vera AND Theo in the same room. "I guess I'm just stuck here then."

Vera rested her head on his shoulder and ran her fingers over Theo's back when she whimpered at her dad moving. Gingerly Hamish took her free arm and put it around Vera pulling her closer to him, this was the best place in the whole world that he could imagine being. "She's so perfect."

"Of course she is Vera, she's your rainbow baby." Vera furrowed her brow at that statement.

"Come again?"

He smiled as Vera continued to run her fingers down Theo's back. "It's a term I learned on the parenting forums." Vera was looking at him like he was a freak of nature now. "Hey, you had a head start on the whole baby thing, this is my first kid and I was really worried. I figured it was better to stop pestering you about everything and worry about every little thing. I didn't know Braxton hicks were a thing until I thought you were going into labor at the start of your third trimester." You have no idea how stressful it is being the father in that situation having a panic attack because it was completely normal and fine but the second you hear the words 'having a contraction' you are suddenly on the phone with a doctor and chewing your nails off. "I had a thousand worries about everything, including how it might be having a baby again after…"

After she'd already lost one, that was a heavy weight and sometimes Vera had told him she had felt guilty for keeping Theo like she was trying to replace her first daughter even if that wasn't true. That guilt was still there and her feelings were valid because it was scary in general bringing a life into the world, let alone one after such a horrifying loss. "I was told it might be rough but Theo was your rainbow baby, it's the term used for babies born after you've lost a baby before." She wasn't his rainbow baby because, well honestly Theo was his first child but sometimes when Vera had been grieving the loss of her first daughter Hamish felt it in his bones too. There were some genuinely terrifying moments seeing Vera break down during her pregnancy and just wanting to stop the hurt she felt but know you really couldn't. "They are the rainbow that comes after a bad storm."

"She's not the rainbow, she's the storm, have you met your daughter?" Vera's voice cracked a little though as she tried to shrug off her emotions. Vera was so strong, she didn't like showing weakness and he liked to think Theo didn't either. Even when she got frightened Theo would glare or scrunch up her face like the thing that had frightened her was just being rude. "A furious loud little thunder storm." When Theo let out a little sigh though Vera's strong bravado melted down just a little more. Theo was still the only person who could melt her down into a gooey emotional being and she might always be the only person with that ability. Hamish didn't need to make Vera a soft squishy teddy bear. He knew when she was sharp and cold that she still loved him, it's just who Vera was.

"Oh Vera, it's so obvious. You know I'm right."

"Well." She brushed Theo's cheek coaxing a little sleepy smile from her. "Sometimes she does feel like the calm after a storm." When she felt surrounded by darkness or suffocated by responsibility all she had to do was even just look at a picture of Theo on her phone and it just slipped away. Knowing no matter how bad her day got she was still going home to her made anything better. "It doesn't take away the fact you are still a vicious little monster too Theo." She told the sleeping baby making Hamish smile.

"Vera, you only have yourself to blame for that. She's all your vicious little monster, just like you are my vicious little monster." He kissed her forehead making her glare at him.

"I'm not that little."

"Okay half pint Magus."