Theo looked so cute in her little brown corduroy pants and white cotton vest. He'd tried to convince his daughter to wear her cute dress but Theo wasn't having it, like her mother she would go for pants over skirts every day of the week if she could. Plus Hamish loved how much Theo looked like him when he dressed her up in the sort of clothes his parents used to force on him. They had taken a trip down memory lane looking at his old baby photos and laughing a little at the realization that Theo made a lot of the same faces he used to when he was a baby. "Wow theo, you are so pretty, just like your mama." Hamish picked her up off the changing table as she tried to fight with her blanket. It was the best distraction when trying to get her dressed otherwise she grabbed her clothes and attempted to wrestle them out of your hands.
"Come on, let's go torment your grandmother you little monster." Hamish kissed Theo on the cheek making her coo at him and nearly smack him in the face. She didn't try to hurt him but she still had that quick baby arm control where sometimes the whole cause and effect concept didn't quite click just yet. He'd take a few good smacks from Theo, it was only fair since Vera was the main victim of them. Despite Theo's basic desire to get down and crawl around Hamish hugged her close and smirked when he felt her little fingers grab his vest. Hamish walked downstairs smirking as Theo leaned forward and tried sucking on his sweatshirt.
Reaching the main 'entertainment' room Hamish saw Vera standing at the bar with his sister Emma. They were talking and laughing, a sight that made his heart flutter just watching her. She was still the most stunning creature he'd ever seen in his life and while Vera took a sip of champagne and looked towards him he felt a shiver run down his back. He didn't think there would ever be a day in his life where she looked at him and he didn't instantly feel love and admiration for that woman. Walking towards her he leaned in and kissed Vera on the cheek. "Look who's up from her nap." Vera reached out for Theo and took her from Hamish. "Daddy dressed you up so cute too." She kissed Theo on the cheek. "She yet again looks just like a little you."
Vera smiled at Hamish as she brushed her bangs back. "And I think every day she starts to look more and more like her stunning mother." Hamish commented back, it was true, the more she grew the more she was looking like Vera. She had her mother's big beautiful eyes, cute little nose, perfect little lips. She even had Vera's beauty mark on her cheek though it was on the opposite side of her face. Vera leaned in to kiss Hamish as Emma looked on making an 'awww' sound. Without skipping a beat Theo whined and pushed against Hamish trying to get him back and away from her mother. That little girl was getting more and more possessive over Vera. It was a little annoying since Vera was his first but he also knew Theo was still just a baby, a very needy baby.
"Excuse you." Vera looked at her little daughter as Theo tried to be innocent. "Theo, that is your father." Theo looked up at her and cooed. "And my almost husband." Hamish liked the sound of that. Talk about being excited to wake up to Mrs. Duke every morning for the rest of his life.
Hamish reached out grabbing Vera's hips and moving her closer to him again. Theo complained and whined but she was going to have to deal with the growns ups cuddling once in a while. "Well my almost wife." Damn, he liked the sound of that too. "I can't blame her for wanting you all to herself, I want you all to myself too. Theo we just have to agree to share her. There is enough Vera for both of us, your mother has a very big heart." He grabbed Theo's little hand in his, still never stopped amazing him how tiny she was and how precious she was. Sometimes when he rocked her to sleep at night and she was passed out in his arms he had to force himself to put her down into her crib. It was so hard to do, all Hamish wanted was to hold her all night long, make sure she was safe and felt comfortable and loved. He was pretty sure Tundra would murder everything and everyone that came even close to harming this little pup too.
"I have a big heart?" She raised a brow. Of course she did, she just didn't show it very often. Everyone viewed Vera as cold and unfeeling because she always had to hide her feelings. She was the leader of the Order, Vera had to act like it. Her care for every member of the Order put her at risk and the more their enemies knew their deaths affected her the more they would go after them. Vera had to act cold towards them to protect them and so far it was working out fairly well. Sometimes.
"The biggest." He stepped closer to her and kissed her on the neck making Vera squirm a little. Bold move to make while she had a baby in her arms. He knew that was one of her turn ons, not that he was trying to get into her pants right now. Stepping back he walked over to the bar. "Would you like me to make you a drink?" Okay, maybe he was trying to rack up bonus points for tonight at least.
"If I was a betting woman I'd put money down on you trying to flirt with me right now." She raised a brow knowing him all too well because that was kind of her other turn on. Not necessarily that she would mushy for anyone who made her a cocktail but for Hamish, oh yes.
Emma stepped out from behind the bar and took Theo making Vera look a little panicked for a hot second before she realized it wasn't Theo's grandmother trying to take her. "You know we could have Theo stay in our room tonight if you guys want to be alone." Emma was just offering but Vera wasn't going to bite.
"That's very thoughtful of you but Theo doesn't sleep well without me in the room. She'll just keep you up all night."
Emma looked up at Hamish as he shook his head no and pointed at Vera. She was the one who didn't sleep well when Theo wasn't in the bedroom. They tried transitioning her over to her nursery but Vera was up about fifteen times during the night thinking she could hear Theo crying. That woman was a great mother but she was a super nervous one too. He couldn't even imagine how stressful it must have been when she was just a kid herself and alone. Vera probably didn't sleep much back then. "Yeah and Theo is still pretty little, she wakes up in the middle of the night hungry. Not all the time but enough." He'd lie for Vera just a little and he knew she appreciated it a lot.
Emma held Theo up just a little looking at the cute little girl with a sigh. "If your parents keep being this protective of you how am I supposed to sneak you home with me?"
"Hey, that's not fair." Hamish argued with his older sister. "You have two kids, this is my only one." Hamish liked to think it wouldn't be forever but if Theo was his only child forever he could be happy with that too. Maybe they couldn't even pull off perfection twice in a row. Though he felt like the odds were in their favor since they were both so pretty and good people. "Plus she eats a lot, you'd be done with her the first day because as Vera knows too well she's remarkably frustrating how much she eats and how slowly she actually puts on weight and grows." Sometimes Vera looked tempted to punch their doctor when she said Theo could really stand to put on more weight at every appointment. Hamish assumed it had to do more with the fact she was a werewolf and so young to boot. So much of her energy was going into wolfy things without her body being big enough and needing all the nutrition to grow first.
"Well if you are such a hungry munchkin maybe we should head downstairs and see if the foods done yet." His sister joked and cuddled Theo again stepping out from behind the bar. "Mom is probably burning down the house by now because god knows cooking isn't her forte but I asked to help and she pushed me out of the kitchen. Vera, maybe you should have been down there, you are a fabulous cook."
"Thank you." Hamish had to agree with his sister on that one, he had put on a bit of weight during her pregnancy thanks in part to her cooking. Of course once Hamish realized he was letting himself fall into a content and happy relationship and eating one too many brownies while spending all his free time cuddled up with Vera in bed it dawned on him that he should at least get back into being active before the baby came and ran them both into the ground. His prediction had been oh so correct too. "Cooking is my stress relief."
Hamish smirked when Vera said that, yeah, cooking was her only stress relief. Is that what she liked to call jumping him in the Reliquary or in the living room when Theo was taking a nap? They headed downstairs where the boys were all playing, currently legos were the toy of choice. The younger boys were building random 'forts' that looked just like jumbled messes while Maddox was actually trying to put together some lego kits for vehicles. "Mads, are you going to want to sit next to Theo?" Vera asked checking in on him to make sure everything was alright. He seemed like he was having fun with the two younger boys but then again he was very good at playing 'big brother' to others. It certainly was his favorite thing back at home.
"Yeah, I'll sit next to her." He smiled back at Vera. Theo hated being in a high chair and Maddox enjoyed making her forget she was buckled into it by making faces at her. It worked and normally got them through breakfast and dinner every day back at home.
"Alright, I'll make sure the high chair is between you and Hamish then." Since she knew Hamish was the number one when it came to feeding Theo. It was perhaps one of his favorite things to do because he'd turned it into a game in order to actually get Theo to eat. Walking into the dinning room Vera moved the high chair around so Maddox could sit next to her.
"Oh no, you are going to be so far away from her, she's going to be upset." Hamish looked at the table seeing that would put Vera at the end of the table. Mostly because he wanted to sit next to her. After all Vera was his future wife. That concept still gave him butterflies, she still gave him butterflies. There were moments that he wondered why that beautiful independant spitfire of a woman even bothered with him. "How are you going to eat anything, I'm not going to be able to keep my hands off you the whole time." Hamish smirked looking her over again in her dress. He was still of the opinion that red was the best color on her and she had the greatest legs in the universe.
"The idea is you are going to be so busy with Theo." Vera raised a brow and grabbed his hand. Even just the simple gesture made Hamish feel like he was on cloud nine. Vera wasn't wrong, Theo was a handful for the both of them let alone just one of them. He wouldn't trade her in for the world though and he knew neither would Vera. Even if she wasn't too excited about having the baby at first that little girl had become her whole life. Theo was more than her second chance, Theo was her happy ending. After a little while Emma came and gave Theo back to Vera to help her mother with the food and bringing it over to the table. Almost instatnyl Theo started to giggle while she was brought over to her mother, reaching out for her and letting out a high pitched scream of excitement.
Sitting her down in the high chair Theo struggled and reached up for Vera again. "It's okay Theo I'll be right over here." She pulled out her chair and leaned closer to Theo with a smile on her face. Resting her elbow on the table she settled her chin in the palm of her hand and reached over to her daughter with her free hand. Without hesitation Theo reached over grabbing Vera's fingers and trying to pull them closer to her mouth to chew on them. Not that it actually hurt since she only had two tiny teeth. Hamish sat down next to Theo, grabbing her bib and putting it on around her neck before using it to brush some of the drool off her chin. Teething babies were a nightmare as far as being soggy drool machines went.
Once he was distracting Theo Vera took off to go get the babies food ready for her. After all compared to the rest of them she wasn't going to do much to stuff herself at the dinner table. Instead the baby normally took a few bites of food and then was done for an hour or two. Hamish tried to keep Theo from noticing her mother was gone by distracting her with the napkin folded like a swan. Moving it through the air he tried to make it look like it was swimming towards her, Theo looking like she was about to break down crying until he made the swan boop her nose with a little squeak sound. Almost instantly Theo broke out in an infectious smile and giggled as Hamish before the sadness of her mother being gone overwhelmed her again and she started to whine once more.
"It's okay Theo." Maddox sat down on the other side of her and rubbed her back while she leaned forward and whined louder. Hamish started making the napkin swan swim towards her again, having it bob as it got closer and closer, singing the Jaws song as it got closer and booped her on the nose again making her laugh and smile again. This time Theo reached out to grab the swan and pull it towards her mouth to chew on it. Everything was a chew toy these days and maybe it was time to soak a cloth and put it in the freezer for her to chew on after she ate. Normally when she got very mouthy it was because her mouth hurt from her new baby teeth coming through.
As Theo chewed on the swan she made a growling sound, stretching out her legs and shaking them as she leaned back in the high chair and lifted her butt off the seat trying to get out. "Don't get angry at me, she's taking forever to get your food ready." Hamish smirked and tried to get his napkin back but it was no use. "Okay, you eat that then." His sister brought in the turkey and set it down on the table making both Hamish and Maddox perk up. Now that was a bird, it could have fed the whole family twice which meant they were going to have a lot of leftovers for the rest of the weekend.
Once Vera came back with Theo's food the baby started bouncing around in her chair and making a smacking sound with her lips. Vera gave the little bowl and spoon to Hamish. Since Theo wasn't one to wait Vera made a plate for herself and for Hamish so he could feed the practically malnourished little werewolf. At least she liked to think she was malnourished from how fussy she got when she was even a little hungry. "You get some squish for dinner and I'm sure a bunch of other things mixed in but you like the squish so we hide all the things you hate in it." It was good Theo didn't fully understand him or she might have avoided eating like they were trying to give her poison. Instead she was happy to lean forward and take a bite. "Yummy." Hamish tried to convince her. Seemed to work too since Theo tried to copy Hamish making his yum sound.
"Hmmmmmmm." Theo smiled, still trying to swallow down her food. Dammit, she was so cute, even when she had squash on her chin. As predicted she got about three good bites and then didn't want anymore, instead looking over at Hamish's plate and what he was eating. Theo got wide eyes seeing him eat the turkey and for a moment he was really tempted to give some to Theo but the fear of her choking was too great.
"You can't have my food." He pushed his plate away from her as she leaned forward, a little string of drool dripping down her chin.
"Hmmmmmm." Theo repeated again and reached for it.
"No, there is too much sodium in all of this stuff, your mommy thinks sodium will make you turn into a cranky evil monster."
Vera rolled her eyes at him and took a sip of white wine. "That's because it keeps her up all night and she can't sleep when she has too much of it, just like chocolate which she also shouldn't be having." Vera cut Hamish a rather dangerous look as he smirked a little. Yeah, giving Theo a tablespoon of chocolate syrup before bed might not have been the best idea but she had really liked it.
Hamish leaned over Theo kissing her on the top of her head. "Don't worry, you can't have any of the good stuff but when your mommy isn't looking I'll let you have some of the pumpkin pie filling." Oh Vera would be pissed if she knew he was giving her some sugar for dinner. What more he'd get some whipped cream on it too.