So sorry this took so long to get out, I got a little stuck while writing it! But it all worked out in the end. Hope you enjoy it!
Cutter woke to the sound of someone tapping on his window. No. Not his window, he realized, squinting at the brightly lit room around him, someone was tapping on the glass of the infirmary door. He pulled himself up off the bed, rubbing the cobwebs from his eyes and pulling back the curtain to see who was at the door. Claudia was already already there, opening the door for Lester, but his focus seemed to be more focused on Cutter as he motioned for them to step outside.
"You look worse than before." He commented as they followed him into the hall, "Perhaps you should try a shower next."
Cutter raised an eyebrow at the other man, "Is that why you woke me up? To comment on my appearance?"
"Not this time." Lester admitted dryly, holding up manila envelope he had with him to show them and then offering it to Cutter, "Congratulations, Professor, it's a girl."
Taking the envelope, Cutter peeked at the papers inside, trying his best to keep from grinning at the test results inside, "I told you she was mine."
"Yes, yes, what do you want, a medal?" Lester huffed dismissively, "You do realize that your life just got infinitely more challenging, right? Parenthood isn't something you can just do when it's convenient. Especially not single parenthood."
"Yeah, I know." Cutter protested.
"I doubt that." Lester continued with a frown, "I'll let you in on a little secret, Cutter, normal children are a pain in the ass when they're behaving themselves. And yours? Yours bites. And can't talk."
"I'm sure she can talk." Claudia chimed in defensively, "She clearly understands what people are saying to her."
"Right. Well, she won't talk." Lester amended, "And she doesn't have a name."
"We can give her a nickname until we find out her real one." Claudia countered, crossing her arms over her chest and giving him a defiant look.
"Honestly Lester, you should know better than to argue with Claudia by now." Cutter chuckled, shooting her an amused look, causing her to blush and look away. Sobering a little, he turned his attention back to Lester, "I want to take her home."
"Here we go again…" Lester groaned, rolling his eyes.
"She's my daughter," Cutter immediately argued, "She should be at home with me."
"And how do you plan on getting her there?" Lester huffed, "She screamed like a crazy person all the way here. You want to put her in another car?"
"I will… figure something else out." Cutter insisted.
"No, you will not." Lester countered, his voice stern, "That child is unpredictable and it is likely that Helen will come looking for her before too long. If and when that does happen, it would be preferable that she be somewhere a little more secure than your house."
"You want to use her as bait." Cutter accused, scowling at the government man.
"She is bait. I did not make her so." Lester pointed out, "Helen did when she left without her. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe she won't come back for her."
That suggestion left a bitter taste in his mouth and part of him wanted to argue, but he couldn't quite manage it, instead he let his face settle into a grim look, "Who knows, Helen never wanted children."
"And you did, I take it?" Lester raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't bother waiting for Cutter's obvious answer, "Well, regardless, for the time being the medics have not agreed to release her yet and you have no way to transport her, so she's staying put. We can revisit the issue later if your wife doesn't come back for her."
Cutter and Claudia watched Lester retreat in silence for a minute before Claudia turned to him, "You wouldn't let her take her back, would you? Helen, I mean. It doesn't look like, well… it doesn't look like she did a very good job of caring for her."
"No, I don't imagine I would." Cutter admitted, thinking about the state the little girl was in.
"I'm going to the breakroom for a coffee. Care to join me?" Claudia offered with a kind smile.
He had the creeping suspicion that she agreed with Lester about his appearance and that if he agreed, her next suggestion would also be a shower. Her caring about his wellbeing brought a little smile to his face, "I would love to, but I think I should probably have a word alone with my daughter."
Claudia nodded in understanding, "I'll bring you one. Black, right?"
"Thank you." He smiled, giving her arm a little squeeze before heading back into the room. The look the girl was giving him was immediately unnerving, it was shockingly similar to the kind of look Connor wore when he'd done something he didn't want you to notice he'd done and her cheeks bulged out a little like perhaps she had something in her mouth. Searching for what that something might be, his eyes landed on the tupperware on the bedside table. The empty tupperware. He tried to hide the small smile that tugged at the corner of his lips as he took the seat beside her, apparently even a wild child couldn't resist a kind gesture from Claudia Brown. He sat silently for a moment, watching the girl, then raised an eyebrow at her, "I think you'd best swallow whatever you've got in there, Lass."
He was a little surprised when she did as she was told, forcing down whatever was left in her mouth, and he found himself hoping that it wouldn't be coming back up in the next few minutes. He decided against voicing that, instead offering her a small smile, "It was nice of Claudia to bring you those, wasn't it?"
By this point, he knew better than to expect a reply, though he paused for a few seconds on the off chance that she decided to offer one. When she remained quiet, he held up the envelope Lester had given him, "I, uh, I've got good news. Well, I think it's good news, anyhow. These are the test results we've been waiting for. According to this piece of paper, I am your father."
A small frown pinched her eyebrows together in a look that let him know that she had already knew that and maybe thought he was a little stupid for not knowing. That did make some sense, she had seemed to recognize him the day before and it wasn't hard to imagine that Helen may have mentioned him to her at the very least. Still, he couldn't help chuckling at her reaction, "I take it that's not news to you. Well, it's news to me."
He was looking for the next hopefully right thing to say when the door slammed open. The girl jumped at the sound, straining against the restraint on her wrist like she could get away from the person who had burst in on them. It was Connor, who he considered the least threatening person in the building, but the girl was looking at him with a clear look of panic.
"It's okay. That's just Connor, he's a friend." He assured her, reaching towards her to hold her hand comfortingly, then letting it fall limply on the bed's side rail as he realized that gesture may not have it's desired effect. She shrank back and stared at his hand blankly for a second, then back at Connor.
"Sorry." Connor had the good sense to look sheepish about his dramatic entrance, "I thought that door was going to be heavier. Erm… I know this isn't a great time, Professor, but we've had a call. Something about giant boars making a mess of a community center. Lester wants us to check it out. Abby and Stephen are already prepping the truck."
"I don't know if I should leave her." He frowned, glancing at his daughter, like she might give some indication of whether he should stay or go. She didn't.
"Anomaly call?" Connor jumped at the sound of Claudia's voice behind him, side stepping so she could squeeze past him into the room and offer Cutter a coffee in a to-go cup, "I saw Connor racing down the hall and thought paper was the way to go. Speaking of which, I didn't expect you'd be in today, Connor. How are you holding up?"
She made a good point, he hadn't been expecting to see Connor today either. After all, with what had happened to his friend less than twenty-four hours ago, none of the would have begrudged him for taking a few days off. Then again, maybe he wasn't ready to sit at home and deal with all that, he realized, as Connor didn't even try to the way he dodged her question, "I, uh, I just came to get the Professor, but he wants to stay with the kid."
"Oh?" Claudia raised an eyebrow at that, "No, Nick, you should go, they might need you. I can stay with her again. I think we're sort of becoming friends, aren't we?"
The girl gave no indication that she agreed, but she didn't growl at her either, which Cutter did actually find a little reassuring. He pondered on it for a moment, then sighed, "Alright, but if anything happens, call me and I'll come right back."
"We'll be fine." Claudia insisted, making a shooing motion towards the door.
For once doing as he was told, Cutter started following Connor out the door, pausing only for a second to look back and give an amused smile as Claudia resumed her post, chatting cheerfully to the sullen girl. Feeling a little better, he let the door close behind him.
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