After their lunch of sushi Hamish had brought the girls back home for some red velvet cake, after all it was Vera's favorite. This he had learned during her pregnancy when ice cream with red velvet cake in it was one of her common cravings. Damn Vera had gone through a lot of ice cream while she had been pregnant. This was why Theo liked sweet stuff but not much else. She'd been spoiled on a diet consisting of mostly pasta and ice cream before she had even been born. "Cake now or cake later?" Hamish asked, opening up the fridge as Vera walked over to the couch and sat down. She untied her red bow and pulled it out from the shirt before tossing it on the coffee table.
"Later, I ate a lot of food already." She laid back while Theo sat in her swing chair falling back to sleep. Hamish shut the fridge again and shrugged his shoulder. He kind of wanted cake now but it was her birthday. He walked over to the sofa picking up her head and moving her over a little as he sat down and clamped his hands down over her shoulders. Pressing his thumbs into her back he started giving her a massage. She had the most tense neck and shoulders of anyone he knew, maybe he'd get her a late birthday gift of a full body massage or a spa day. Vera spent so much of her time just being stressed out by everything and everyone.
"Vera, how do you live like this?" He commented more about her muscles feeling like rock under her skin.
"I don't know." She groaned. "But whatever you are doing it's working." He knew that tone in her voice. It was broken up only by Vera squirming under his touch and moving away from him a little, she was so ticklish.
"Calm down Vera, it's not that kind of birthday gift." Hamish smirked as she laid back and rested her head in his lap. Unless she wanted it to be that kind of birthday.
"Could have fooled me." Not many people could look at Vera and feel a little flutter in their chest and gasp and think she was so adorable. In fact most people looked at her and felt terrified or concerned because Vera was an intimidating woman. But Hamish thought she was cute as hell and she never failed to make her heart race. It might also help that he was actually cute for him at least. "Hamish, we have been together for a year now." Actually for more than a year, he'd tolerated her for a whole year and he hadn't run. That was impressive. She was a little ashamed to admit that this was her longest lasting relationship so she wouldn't say it. "How do you put up with me?"
He looked down at her playing with her hair. "I'm going to let you in on a secret Vera." He leaned a little closer to her, "You have a great butt."
Vera playfully slapped him in the face, just enough to make a sound but not enough to hurt him. "Well that is rude Hamish. I'm more than a nice butt."
"I said great Vera and you are right, you are a great everything, smart, funny, loving after you get past the thorns, charming, and as Tundra would point out a total alpha female which I appreciate a lot." Her being an alpha was pretty damn hot too. Damn, Tundra made him feel tingly all over when she was being a full on boss and snapping orders at others. Maybe once upon a time if Hamish had thought Cassie was his soul mate then Vera was without question Tundra's. He loved her to death too but he knew even if he was gone Tundra would still consider Vera their mate. It was a little sad in that regard knowing Tundra would exist long after Vera was gone but loss was all the hide's knew.
"An alpha female for a not so alpha male?"
"Vera, I'm hurt." Hamish put a hand to his chest. "I'm absolutely an alpha male."
Vera grabbed his tie and wrapped it around her fingers pulling him closer to her. "Really? Since when?" Hamish pulled her up into his lap and held her arms down as he dug into her, tickling her side and making Vera break down. She squirmed trying to get away from his gasping between her bouts of laughter. "Not, fair." She jerked trying to get her hands over her sides to stop him from tickling her further but it felt like she lost all her strength. "You, are…" She folded forward trying to protect herself. "Going to wake Theo."
He looked over at Theo, the swing still rocking her as she sucked on her pacifier with her crinkle cloth kitty cat in her hand. "I think she's out cold, she's alive right?" Sometimes Theo could sleep so hard even if you touched ehr or picked her up she was just unconscious and then Vera would always panic a little. A little like now. She sat up quickly resting a hand on his knee to support herself and watched Theo for a moment until she could see the baby take a deep breath and quickly out of her nose like she did when she was dreaming. "Calm down mama, your baby's fine." He rubbed her back and kissed her on the shoulder when she tensed up and held her breath. "She's just really sleeping hard, that's a good thing, she sleeps like that when she's all happy and content."
"I know." Vera let out a shaky breath and looked back at Hamish resting her head against his chest. "But you do realize what next week is."
Hamish had to stop for a moment furrowing his brow before it clicked. "Oh, she's going to be seven months old?" He stopped again. "Oh." He hugged her tight. "Vera you don't need to worry, actually you do need to worry because after this we are both flying blind. We need to really think about baby proofing everything soon. She's going to be past the halfway mark to a year old, that means the inevitable is coming." Like getting into everything even if she still wasn't interested in crawling. She just rolled to get to her destinations.
"It's just, it's really hard for me sometimes. Especially now that she's so close to her age when she…" Vera could use a Theo snuggle right now but she didn't want to wake her daughter up.
"I know, it's going to be all right and then next month you can panic about something else." This was going to be a rough month with Vera. If he had thought mother's day was horrible because Vera had already been hormonal and emotional, or her daughters birthday or even worse the anniversary of her death then Hamish knew she could make it through this too. Maybe a little bittersweet as usual but Theo's whole existence was a little bittersweet to Vera. He was really starting to wish he hadn't stepped on that raw nerve right now either, his intentions were never to make her birthday remind her of something sad or stress her out.
"Just think Vera, the darkest days of your life are behind you now."
"Don't tell me you've become a necromancer now Hamish." She looked up at him feeling him hold her tighter. "And you really can't say that when there is a dangerous wendigo running around and a crazy person who I'm afraid to admit is far more powerful than I am."
Hamish laughed at that idea, "Vera, really?" He ran his fingers through her hair. "Maybe more experienced but powerful? You are a powerhouse Vera, Every time someone tries to pull you down they fail and it's not just because of your magic. Magic helps but it's just you Vera. Magic or not you are the tough one because of all you've faced in your life, all you've been through. It's made you unflinching when faced with danger, this threat is no bigger than the ones we have already faced. Don't let it try to seem worse because this won't take you down either."
"Why do all the worst things have to happen around this time of the year?" Last year it was Praxis and now this. Always right on time to ruin her whole November.
"Because you can handle the challenges, I think the universe just misunderstands what you want for your birthday every year."
"Yes, well the universe can go fuck itself." Was one year off too much to ask for? Just one year to comfortably deal with everything she was trying to handle without all the doom and gloom?
"That's my Vera, all teeth and claws." She was a stone cold bitch when she wanted to be which was why people had trouble killing her. She was so stubborn she just refused to die, refused to fail, refused to be anything less and he admired her for that but only because under it she hid a very big heart with plenty of compassion and empathy. She was everything the Order really needed. If anyone ever suspected her of being too soft to fight then they would be horribly surprised when they found themselves on the wrong end of Ms Stone. "Do you want that cake yet? You could use a pick me up."
"I guess, since I can't drink a lot still." Hamish smiled and moved her gently so he could get up. He walked over to Theo seeing she was still out cold and whimpering in her sleep a little like a puppy dog. "I swear to god Hamish do not wake her up so you can give her some cake. No sugar until she's a year old and." Vera paused. "Just let her sleep." He put his hands up not even having intended to touch her but now he really wasn't going to touch her after mama bear Vera snapped at him.
"I wasn't. I know, no sugar." He loved her to bits but sometimes she still made him startle with that sense of terror and normally it involved messing with Theo. Talk about being Theo's guard dog. "Theo, she's going to kill me for messing with you one of these days."
"Yes, I would and just don't mess with her then you won't have to worry about that." Seemed like a simple enough request but if he was honest Theo was fun to mess with. Especially when she mimiced Vera's 'pissy' face almost perfectly.