Disclaimer: The characters belong to Annie Proulx, and I make no profit.

AN: Many thanks to my beta, carbyville. I have no idea how often this will update, though. In the timeline, it's currently early mid-July, 2007.

Chapter Two: Pouring a Foundation

"Hello?"

"Jack? It's Naomi."

"Hey, what's up?"

"You have got to get in here."

"What are you talking about? You know I can't--"

"Jack, Billings is coming in tomorrow, and Craig doesn't understand the blueprints. You need to come in."

"Naomi, I can't." As if punctuating the sentiment, Toni woke, and, as, as had become her modus operandi over the last two weeks, began screaming. Originally, she'd been such a joy, sleeping a lot, cute when awake. She'd train her wide, blue, unfocused eyes on the things around her, trying to take in a world of colors, motions, and patterns. But weeks had passed and her little brain had decided that, by now, the appropriate reaction to everything was to scream bloody murder. The fourteen baby books they'd gotten at the shower their friends'd thrown them warned them about this, but didn't provide a lot in the way of help. Jack high-tailed it to the nursery.

"Is that her?"

"No, that's my next-door neighbor. I always said she's a big baby, didn't I?"

Naomi laughed. "You have to send in a picture so we can put her up on the bulletin."

"Not sure we should be up on the bulletin."

"You already are! We just need a picture."

"Oh. Alright. I'll send one."

"There's already a stack of cards on your desk."

Jack smiled. He'd found such a good place to work. It warmed his heart. The only problem with it was that everyone there was workaholics, and they expected him to be one too. Which, ordinarily, maybe he was, though more than likely just from the pressure to be so.

"Anyway, you have got to find some way to come in. None of this solves the Billings problem."

Jack tucked the phone under his chin while he changed his baby girl. "I can't leave Toni here all alone, and I don't think you want me bringing a screaming baby into the office. Elsdon would pitch a fit."

"Point," Naomi groaned.

"Tell you what. If he doesn't mind it too much, and it isn't going to take too long, send Craig over here with the blueprints. I can't leave here, but I've got a table. No reason I can't explain them to him right here."

"Jack, you're brilliant. A lifesaver. I'll send him right over."

"Yup. I'm not going to be anywhere," Jack grimaced. Truth was, he couldn't remember the last time he'd made a decent foray out of the house. He'd showered yesterday evening, at least. He would have to put some proper clothes on, straighten up the kitchen and living room, maybe try to eat something.

Naomi took down the directions to his house. Jack bounced Toni the entire time, recognizing in her slight gurgling noise the beginnings of her next screaming fit. She was probably hungry by now. So was he, dammit. But feeding her and burping her would have to come first, and by then Craig would be here, so maybe he could just grab a banana or something. It seemed now like every day was some sort of strategic test of his ability to multi task. Craig was a little-needed addition to the intricate ballet, but he had to make sure he had a job to go back to when his leave was up.

When Craig arrived, a very unshowered Jack met him at the door, stuffing Pringles into his mouth from a tube clutched under one arm.

"Come on in." Jack motioned towards the interior. In reality, the house wasn't too much of a mess. As long as you stayed out of the kitchen and bedrooms.

Toni was in her crib. When Jack'd laid her there mere minutes before, she'd been wide awake and had looked pretty uninterested in napping, but at least she wasn't' screaming.

He led Craig back to his office, armed with chips, coffee, and baby monitor. In the past, he'd always strictly adhered to the rule of not bringing food and drink into the office, but he'd never anticipated having to work while starving and on so little sleep.

Jack managed to get about halfway through his meeting with Craig, Craig's wide dark eyes and nodding black hair not, in Jack's experience with the man, truly indicative of his degree of comprehension, when first a gurgle (Jack held his breath), then a moan (Jack cringed), then a full-blown wail issued from the tinny speaker of the baby monitor. Craig looked up at Jack with a smart ass smile. "Guess fatherhood sucks, huh?"

Jack spun his office chair around once, then said with exasperation-- he had never cared for Craig's know-it-all attitude, although in most circumstances he was easy enough to work with-- "No it does not. Now if you'll excuse me, I think this one's mashed yams."

And it was. He didn't know if she had different cries or if he was just getting used to her schedule: shitting after eating after sleeping. He changed her quickly and with minimal breathing while in the bio-containment zone, but as soon as he laid her back onto her yellow-on-yellow polka dot crib sheets, she began to fuss.

"Aww, what's your issue, baby girl? You can tell Daddy." he picked her up again and she quieted down in easily under three seconds, so he laid her down again. Whereupon, she immediately fixed him in her big, blue, crossed eyes and started making grumpy noises again.

"Oh, no, no the 'do what I say' game. Not now, okay." Jack lifted her, feeling her tiny weight in his hand as he cradled her tiny butt, wrapped in a tiny diaper. "Daddy has to work so you can have all sorts of expensive teenage electronics when you grow up." Her fussing, by now, had grown silent.

Jack had a feeling he knew how this was going to play out by now, but he put her down one more time to be certain. Sure enough, she started crying. "Shit," he cursed. "You're an annoying little fucker. Don't tell Ennis I said that." Jack sighed and lifted Toni up once more to carry her down to his office. If he'd been iffy about having Pringles in there, there were no words for the kind of havoc he feared a crying, shitting, puking, peeing newborn could create. But he either had to brave that or to work around her squalling, and he knew which would be easier. He stopped in his and Ennis's bedroom to grab the baby carrier and rushed downstairs to meet a glazed-eyed Craig.

It didn't matter that Jack had the carrier, though, because Toni insisted on being held, or else. Jack and Craig managed. Toni's eyes glazed over before long and she was breathing heavy and peacefully on Jack's shoulder. The deep rumbling of his voice, he guessed, as he spoke to Craig, combined with his body warmth and heartbeat, must have dropped her off to sleep. Jack and Craig were nearly done when Jack was able to slip Toni into her carrier. Jack marveled at how nakedly Craig admired her porcelain beauty before he left. Jack turned to his little girl with fresh eyes to see the faint blush on her cheek, the way she suckled the air as she slept, her eyes scrunched tight, fists clenched, impossibly-light blond fuzz sticking up from her head. He ran dark-haired fingers through the fuzz. he knew he shouldn't touch her as she slept, but in such a peaceful state, resisting that temptation was too difficult.

The front door swung open, squealing its need for oil. Jack leaned back in the chair to watch Toni, waiting for Ennis to find him. They knew no yelling happened if it could be avoided.

"Hey." Ennis popped his head into the door after a good five minutes. Jack had heard Ennis's footsteps has he checked every room before this one.

"Hey."

"You..." Ennis flicked his gaze from Jack to Toni to Jack.. "You working?"

"Yeah," Jack sighed, both of their voices barely above a whisper. "The office was begging me to come in, so I had Craig run out here. I went over some blueprints with him."

"Did that work out alright?"

Jack shook his head. "It worked, but it's not an experience I'm waiting to repeat, thanks to little miss diva here."

"Hmph." Ennis placed his hands on his hips. "Well, you're lookin' nice."

"Thanks. I put clean clothes on for once. At the expense of eating."

"Dressing up for Craig?," Ennis teased.

"Yup. Now back to the point. What's for dinner?"

Ennis shrugged. "Guess I can make something real quick."

"Do that. Emphasis on the quick."

They ended up with sandwiches, eating them in hushed silence while Toni slept in her carrier on the floor by Ennis.

Ennis frowned down at her. "You know she won't sleep tonight if she sleeps this much during the day."

"It's not that much. She's only been asleep for an hour."

Ennis grunted.

"She was ranting and raving all day long. It was nice to see Craig, get back into the company of adults."

"Thought you didn't like Craig?"

"Well I don't dislike him. His bravado is just a bit much for me to take."

Ennis took a large bite of turkey sandwich in response.

"Still, he's a better conversationalist than your daughter over there."

"Mmmm," Ennis said by way of announcing he had something to say, reserving the next spot of conversation for himself. He chewed quickly, swallowed hard, and washed the mouthful down with a hefty swig of Leinie's Sunset Wheat. "I've been thinking about that."

"About what?"

"The way you say she's mine all the time." Ennis squinted over at Toni, as if examining her.

"She got your coloring, hair--"

"I heard you," Ennis interrupted, "I just..." He shook his head. "You don't see blue eyes like that every day, and going back into my family, we don't have them."

"The mother could've--"

"Not just that. They're, whattaya call it? With genes?"

"Recessive?"

"Yeah."

"Ennis, blond hair is recessive, too, isn't it?"

"It's not like blue eyes!"

Their voices were raised by now and Toni, still asleep, had begun to kick her feet. She let out a high-pitched noise and they both held their breath to watch her. When she seemed to slip back into a peaceful slumber, Jack whispered with force, "It's not just her hair. She looks like you. Look at her."

Ennis contorted his face, grimacing at Toni. "She looks like a baby, Jack."

Jack exhaled in frustration. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"Wait and see what?"

"Who she turns out looking like."

"Won't be no 'wait and see'. We decided we didn't care before we did this thing."

Jack shrugged and fixed his eyes on Toni. "I didn't say I cared. I just want to prove you wrong."

Ennis frowned deeply. "Jack, I can't do this. I don't want to do this. We already decided."

Jack watched Ennis's eyes earnestly.

"We already said she was going to be ours, not mine or yours. I don't wanna... I don't wanna know. I couldn't stand if it was just me and her--." His voice broke off, choked.

Jack sighed and grabbed one of the hands Ennis had clenched like stone around his beer bottle. "Sssh. Alright. I'm sorry. I was just having fun."

Ennis stared, unfocused and grave, and the blackness of the table top.

"Ennis. Listen to me. She's ours. I'm never going to leave you and her alone, ok? She's mine. She's my daughter, too."

Ennis's eyes, filled with worry and pain and the same fear of abandonment Jack had seen plenty of times before, met Jack's. "Sorry," Ennis croaked. "I just worry sometimes. 'Cause you didn't want her, and now you're ready to go back to work."

"I want her," Jack corrected, hurt. "Please don't say that again."

Ennis nodded stiffly.

"And I'm just not cut out for being locked in a house with a lady. If I wanted that, I wouldn't be nearly as queer as I am."

Ennis squinted at Jack.

"Jesus, it was a joke. I'm just not the stay-at-home type, I guess. I'm starting to go a little bit insane already."

"Hmph." Ennis slid back in his chair, pulling his hand out of Jack's.

"The ad runs in the paper tomorrow..."

Ennis swiped a hand over his eyes. "I still don't see why my sister couldn't do it."

"She's not going to be unemployed forever."

"Well, until she finds a job, then."

"She's been working temp jobs to make ends meet. Is she supposed to drop them?"

"We could pay her. Better to pay someone in the family than some stranger."

"I'm not sure that's so true." Jack downed the end of his beer. "I can't help but feel that actually hiring on family for pay is asking for trouble. And I bet you'd have trouble getting her to take the money, anyway. Besides, those temp jobs pay her more than we can afford to."

Ennis tilted his head to the side and stared down the kitchen floor. Jack knew it was the closest he would get to a concession.

"Furthermore," Jack added into the silence, "she already practically tries to raise Antoinette for us. I don't think I want to encourage that. Didn't we talk about all of this before?"

Ennis nodded sullenly. "Alright."

"I'll take care of it all," Jack replied, resigned.

"No, I'll help." Ennis said it quickly, like swallowing something that burned his tongue.

Jack didn't say aloud that Ennis had better help, had better show some interest in who is left it watch his child-- their child-- during the day.

Just then, Toni awoke with a warning gurgle and a foghorn scream. Jack leaned back and groaned. The never ending cycle stopped for no man.