What kind of crazy person had he been? Why did Hamish have to complain about her not crawling around? Why did he have to get all worked up that she hadn't kept pace with Vera's other daughter Maggie? He should have been telling Theo to take her time, maybe wait a whole year before she considered crawling and walking because then she could enjoy being pampered and coddled a lot longer. This child didn't want to be coddled though and she didn't want to be restrained and her newfound freedom was her greatest tool of utter destruction. Nothing was going to stop Theo now and it was scary. She had mastered a quick crawl and standing up without little help even if she still fell down a lot. Right now she was crawling at top baby speed back towards the kitchen and before Hamish even had time to jump one of her toys Theo was up at the cupboard again.
She grabbed hold of the handle and stood herself up, those stupid socks weren't even stopping her now. At least before her socks made her slip and fall down but she had just developed better balance. Once she was up she had all the strength of a tiny little werewolf at her disposal which meant those baby locks were completely useless. Theo snuck those tiny fingers into the door and grabbed hold of it before she pulled it open over and over until the baby lock just gave way to the sheer force and popped open. Once opened Theo fell back to the ground with the swing of the door and Hamish was on her just in time to grab her hand as she started grabbing for the pots and pans. He grabbed her and picked her up pushing the door shut with his foot as Theo squirmed in his arms. "Oh my goodness Theo, let's go over here, it's so much more fun."
Too late, Theo was screaming now, throwing herself back into his arms and grabbing his hand so she could escape his grip while she cried. "Look at all these fun Theo toys." What a lie, to theo everything was a Theo toy. Hamish put her back down on the blanket wondering why he even bothered since Theo started moving right back for the kitchen. "No." He picked her up again listening to her same screaming fits. "Does someone need a nap?" Hamish Bounced her a little in his arms. "Yes, and that someone is me." Hearing the knock at the door Hamish let out a sigh of relief, thank god for the backup. He was starting to think he was going to be alone with Theo all day. It was easier when Vera was around because she listened to Vera but not really anyone else. Why did his daughter have to pick that up from him? "Yes, god, please come in." Hamish shouted over the sound of Theo's screams.
Randal came in with a case of beer cringing at the high pitched cried of little Theo Duke. It's like she knew exactly which tone to use to make werewolves cringe. Sucked that kid was a werewolf sometimes. "Hey, I brought some beers because you sounded desperate as hell. So why did you get left on baby duty?"
"Belgrave Chancellor stuff came up, Vera is busy pretty much all day." It felt like they were yelling over a tornado siren.
"You need to tell Vera to stop coddling her so much and let you parent more so Theo stops freaking out every time she leaves the house." Yeah, Randal wasn't wrong about that but for the most part Vera had kind of gotten stuck in stay at home mom mode since she didn't actually always have to be at the university to do her job. "Hey Theo, Vermama is gone but uncle Randal bought a whole bag of fun." We walked up to Theo who was still throwing a tantrum and wanted down. Putting the beer down he pulled out a few tubes of bubbles from out of a bag. "Wow, I bet your freaking weird mother has never showed you these." He grabbed a fairly large squishy rainbow ball made to look like a soccer ball too and bounced it on the ground making Theo stop crying for a while. "Whoa, that's so cool, lots of crazy colors. Overwhelm small child being with shininess and brightness."
"Well she seems to like that, good choice in child taming devices, how did you know that would get her attention?"
"Umm, because kids are simple beings, they have these little bird brains where shinny bright stuff occupy's them." He waited a moment. "Plus I have a lot of younger siblings so you know, I'm pretty alright with small people." He tossed the ball back and forth making Theo's eyes get wide as she watched the mass of colors move around in an exciting way.
"Well, we should take those bubbles outside because Vera won't like them getting all over the house." Hamish was alright with Theo being entertained by the ball right now, this was great. "Can you grab her blanket on the ground so I can bring her out in the grass?" Hamish wanted to also say Vera didn't want her crawling around on the grass but he figured Randal would just make a comment about it. Vera was a little overly protective, it was fair for her to be that way considering her past. Even if he thought something was a little too extreme Hamish didn't bring it up because that was just how Vera was working through her fears and doing what she felt was best to protect their daughter. Besides at the end of the day Vera was a phenomenal mother, Theo was lucker than she'd ever know to have a person like Vera in her life and always standing behind her, ready to protect her and make her feel better at any given moment. It was a lot of work keeping up with Theo but Vera managed it on top of being Grand Magus and Belgrave Chancellor. He admired Vera for it, three imposible jobs and she sailed through them all with grace and still time for him.
Randal grabbed the blanket and the beers bringing it outside while Theo looked around the yard pointing at all the pretty flowers and making an 'oooo' sound. She started to string together a lot of noises and sounds raising her hand up in the air, palm up as she started chatting with them. She was so talkative, it was a shame Hamish had no idea what she was trying to say. "Really? Wow." He responded to his daughter as her tone went up a notch showing she was getting more excited about whatever it was she was on about. "I didn't even realize Theo. That's amazing. You are so smart." She smiled and leaned forward kissing him on the face with her sloppy drool soaked baby kisses. Even if it was gross it was moment's like that which made Hamish's heart feel so light. As difficult as Theo could be she was the most amazing thing in all the world next to Vera. "awww, Theo, I love you too."
Randal put down the beer and spread out Theo's blanket before Hamish set her down and then sat down next to her. Almost as quickly as he was down on th ground Theo crawled into his lap, suddenly no longer bothered by her father restraining her since she reached up at him and made her 'pick me up dammit' noise at him. "What?" Hamish picked her up and smiled again when she hugged him. "What, are you trying to lull me into a false sense of security?" Theo cooed at him making him hug her back. He loved when she was being a sweet little angel for him.
"Hey Hamish, you aren't a bad parent yourself." It was good to hear that sometimes because unlike Vera he had no idea what he was doing most of the time. Randal grabbed a beer out and handed it to Hamish before grabbing one for himself and twisting the top off.
"Do me a favor and put that cap in your pocket. Theo will put it in her mouth otherwise and I don't need her choking on it."
"See, total super dad." Randal laughed and stuck the cap in his pocket. Good thing too because it didn't cross his mind that Theo was in the habit of eating everything. Randal put the ball down and rolled it at Theo and Hamish seeing the little girl quickly take a seat on her dad's lap and reaching out to catch the ball. "Look at you go, your motor skills are pretty great for a kid your age Theo." The little girl stopped the ball and moved forward laying down on top of it as she pressed her face into the foam and tried to blow a raspberry on it.
"Really? You think so?" He was always afraid Theo would fall behind the curve because she was pretty petite. Her doctors always liked to remind them that she was still small for her age and had to catch up. Once Theo rolled off the side of the ball Hamish pulled the ball towards him and rolled it back to Randal. "Can you do that Theo? Can you roll it back?" When Randal rolled it back towards her she grabbed the ball squishing it with both her hands and growling as she went to bite it. "Come on roll it back."
"Bah." Theo yelled and kicked the ball making it bounce away from her a little.
"I mean, yeah that works too. You probably think you are going to play soccer with Maddox soon." Randal laughed and rolled the ball back towards her. When Hamish took a sip of his beer though Theo's attention went off the ball and onto her dad. Reaching up towards him she started making her 'I want that.' sound and making grabby hands at his beer. Randal broke down laughing at it, that sad desperate look on her face to wanting her dads drink. "Hamish, your kid is just as bad as you. Already going to be a drinker there Theo?"
"Are you kidding me? Have you seen this kid take down a bottle? Nobody told her that it's not supposed to be a race, she's constantly choking herself or giving herself the hiccups and then is pretty angry when it's empty. Vera's at a struggle point to keep up with her. At the rate she eats every day she should be like, thirty ponds at least." Hamish figured it was just a super fast metabolism and was picking up a bit more because she wasn't exactly a normal child. She was a werewolf and she was burning up a lot of energy doing something, probably something wolfy.
"Theo." Randal snapped his fingers at her. "You can't drink that, that's not for puppies."
"Did you just snap your fingers at my daughter?" Hamish looked at Randal. "She's not a dog."
"I mean…" Randal shrugged his shoulders. "Kind of is."
"No." But the snapping fingers had gotten her attention. Randal put his beer behind his back but out of sight wasn't out of Theo's mind. Luckily his beer wasn't good enough for her. Randal broke out the bubbles and untwisted the cap before pulling it out and blowing through the wand. It was pretty pathetic as one small bubble came out and the soap on the wand popped throwing soap back at him. "Wow, that was just…" Hamish paused and shook his head. "Pathetic, you need to up your bubble game Randal. No wonder why Gabby is off again with you."
Randal pointed at him getting a bit defensive. "Hey, we are not off again, we are just taking a little time for ourselves."
"You said, and I quote 'are those pants new.' and she's owned them for the past four months."
"I don't pay attention to her clothes, I'm too busy looking at other things." Randal tried to defend himself.
"You do know you are kind of dating Gabrielle right? She puts a lot of pride in her clothes."
"Vera doesn't get pissy at you when you don't compliment her new clothes or forget she's had something for a while." Hamish smirked.
"That's because I don't screw up, and…" He paused. "I actually kind of do pay attention to what she's wearing."
"Yeah and you are also kind of gay too."
"I am…" Hamish shook his head.
"You totally love clothes and fashion Hamlet."
"I admire a well dressed woman." And Vera was very well dressed and she made good dresses look very appealing. If he were a lesser man every time he saw Vera put on a skirt he'd sit back and say 'dat ass' because Vera did have a nice butt. Damn she had a fantastic one, and nice lips, and pretty eyes, and great…..personality too. Yup, her personality was also nice. It bothered him when he started thinking of Vera as body parts rather than the whole fantastic person but it was hard to fight off that primitive side of his brain going 'Vera hot, nice butt, hump Vera'.
Looking back at Randal he saw he now had two bottles of bubbles in his hands. "Oh, look at us we are Vermish, we are so perfect and hot, best couple ever, too bad Randal is only human and not freaking robots like us." He started making kissing sounds, mashing the bottles together.
"Excuse you."
"Sorry we can't hear you over making Vermlits." Randal put the bottles down. "That's you, that's what you sound like."
"No I don't."
"Okay, maybe not exactly but that's how it comes off." Randal pulled out a bubble wand again trying to blow more bubbles and this time actually getting a few out. Theo looked up at them a little startled at first because they were virtually alien to her. Shinny round rainbow balls just floating in the sky, this wasn't normal. "Sorry if I don't have a brain parasite in my head that lets me read Gabby's brain like you."
Hamish narrowed his eyes, "It's called talking and listening Randal." He poked one of the bubbles making it pop and Theo looked up crying. Why had he killed the bubble? How messed up was that? "Randal, quick, the bubbles." Randal was fast to blow more and distract Theo from the random act of violence her father had displayed upon the 'sentient' bubble people. She watched them again as they floated up and away into the sky where they could live free lives and create their empire. "Do you ever just sit down and listen to her when she has something she wants to talk about?"
"I listen." He blew a few more bubbles.
"I mean actually listen to what she is saying, not just sit there bored and wonder when you can go get food."
Randal paused for a moment. "Okay, but does that actually really do anything?"
"Yes." Oh god was Hamish giving Randal dating advice now? "When you listen to them they feel they matter to you, they feel important, they feel like you actually care about them."
"But, I do care about Gabby." Oh boy, Randal had just let the words slip out of his mouth. It was so much easier being frenemy with benefits but he'd just said those words. He cared about Gabby, he cared about making her smile and laugh, he cared about her safety, he liked her, no, maybe more? What was this gross sensation?
"Welcome to my world." Hamish laughed. Once upon a time he'd been under the rank of sleeping with the enemy because it was dangerous and fun and forbidden but then Vera because so much more than that. She'd become his everything. It hadn't happened all at once either, just snuck up on him little by little. He hadn't even realized he was falling in love with her until he'd thought Alyssa would kill her and then he knew he'd die if something ever happened to her. She was so intwined with his life and his happiness that a world without her wasn't a world he wanted to live in.
"Gross, do not compare us to you and your Ice Queen, Gabby and I are not like that at all." Randal felt like he needed a shower.
"I mean she kind of is a baby Vera." Hamish teased him.
"No, no that is a baby Vera." He pointed at Theo as she watched another batch of bubbles fly away and giggled. "Only happier and less murdery." Theo looked back at Randal and raised a brow as she blabbered, almost dissing him for insulting her mom.
"Yeah Theo, you tell him." Hamish laughed at his daughter. "Don't say mean things about my mommy." Theo stuck out her tongue spitting all over the place making another baby noise and grabbing for the rainbow ball again.
"Well tell your mommy to stop being so mean then."