This chapters a bit slow.
Alec woke at 7:30 on the dot like every morning, only this time it was different, there was an unfamiliar warmth against his side and the steady beat of not one but two heart beats. Memories of last night came flooding back to him. Berrisford, Rachel, Max and then trying to get Ray to sleep in her bed but giving up the fifth time she crawled back in bed with him. Now was a good time to think things through, to figure out exactly what he was going to do.
Curled up against his side was his daughter, his and Rachel's.. Rachel who he'd killed. Just the thought sent a pang of guilt and sadness through him. Could he do this, raise a kid. TC was just getting started and even though they had the approval of the government, thanks to a file of compromising photographs they'd threatened to send the mayors wife, that didn't stop angry protesters and riots. No one in TC wanted the burden of protecting a baby against that, some of the young X5s already had their own kids thanks to the breeding program. The truth was he was a dad now and there wasn't a thing he could do, he hated not being in control of the situation. Of course he could look at this a different way, look at it as a second chance to do something right in his life, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. On cue the little person beside him started to wiggle, then pull herself up so she was sitting cross legged.
"Good morning," He greeted as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. He chuckled at the sight of her blond hair sticking up in all directions.
"Were Grampa," she asked again. Alec sighed, that seemed to be her favorite question.
"I told you, Grampa's going to heaven to live with mommy, your going to live with me now," He explained as carefully as possible. He didn't really know how to explain death to a child as young as her, he barley understood it himself. He wasn't sure if he believed in heaven, but in a way it sounded nice, safe and comforting. In reality he was kinda scared to believe in anything like that, the blue lady flashed through his mind. Max had told him about that, about the stories Ben used to tell, about the good and the bad place.
"He said you were my daddy," Rachel said snapping him out of his dark thoughts, she was searching the covers for the Duck she'd misplaced during the night.
"Yep," He replied, popping the P.
She nodded, now clutching the newly found Duck against her chest. "I'm hungry," She mumbled.
"Me to," He sighed, "Lets go see if we can find something to eat."
He crawled out of bed grabbed a T-shirt off the floor, throwing it on. Then picked up the toddler and headed to the kitchen.
"Alright we have Cheerios's and bread and.. hot sauce," He sighed holding the fridge door open. Mole had been over a few days ago and he hadn't gotten time to restock. The transgenic almost eat him out of house and home.
"Cheerios," Her little voice echoed from the living room.
"Cheerios it is," He sighed, pouring a bowl and adding milk, which he obviously has since no transgenic could be to careful. That thought worried him, he hoped seizures weren't passed through generations, considering Ben had them. Being the older brother maybe it skipped through generations meaning Ray would be next, he didn't really understand how all that worked.
He sat at one end of the couch and she sat at the other, while she sat spooning messy amounts of milk and cereal into her mouth while Alec watched a little disgusted.
"Any of that getting in your mouth there kiddo," He asked wincing when she practically dumped a spoonful into her lap.
She just grinned and continued eating. While she 'eat' he thought of all the things he had to do today and introducing her to TC was one of them. He was already preparing himself for endless torturer from Mole or Dix, Max may have been cool last night but he's sure as soon and the newness wore off she'd be giving him crap about responsibility and reminding him what a screw up he was. There were somethings he looked forward to, like showing Joshua, The big dog boy would be ecstatic about her, since he made it clear he loved babies whenever he played with Eve, Gem's baby who'd just started crawling.
His phone buzzed from the coffee table beside them, he set his bowl in his lap then grabbed it holding it up to his ear.
"Alec," He greeted.
"Hey It's Max," Huh, She never called him in the morning except to ask why he was late?
"Whats wrong," He asked, hoping she wasn't calling to inform him of bad news.
"Nothing just calling to see if you made it through the night," He could practically hear the smirk planted on her face, sarcasm dripping from her tone.
"Yeah well for your information we made it just fine," He stated, glancing over at the kid who was eating Cheerios off her dress.
"Well I'm guessing your not coming in to work today so I told Normal you had some family stuff to take care of," She informed him. That was another thing, After things blew over him and Max met with some higher up officials, and with some bargaining and bribing and a whole lotta sucking up and effort, they gained their old Jam Pony jobs, to make legal money for TC. They still faced the normal discrimination, things like random hate on the street or the occasional threat, nothing a transgenic couldn't handle.. nothing like with Biggs.
"I appreciate it. And hey ya think after work I could drop by and maybe you could help me out with the whole shopping thing," He asked hesitantly. He knew it was a long shot but it was worth the chance. He needed help and Max he considered his best friend, heck his only friend besides Joshua, and the big guy didn't like going outside the gates.
"..Sure I'll see ya then," She said before hanging up.
He tossed the phone onto the couch before looking at the mess in front of him and sighed deeply.
"Are you proud of yourself," He asked sarcastically.
All she did was smile.
Alec placed the little girl on the bathroom sink, he had striped her down to her underwear and thrown the dirty dress into the laundry basket. On the way in here he grabbed a purple tank top and some shorts from the yellow bag Berrisford left and tossed them onto the toilet lid.
"Alright," he sighed looking at the toddler who had a smug look across her face. He reached up and grabbed a wash cloth off the towel rack and wet it in the sink. Honestly he was scared to give her a real bath, afraid she might drown or he'd undoubtedly get soap in her eyes, so a wet wash cloth would have to do. He felt ridicules, he was an X5 and he was afraid of a two year old.
She didn't like it much, batting his hand away complaining it was 'cold' or just plain yelling 'No'. In the end he got most of the mess off and succeeded in soaking the front of his T-shirt. He dressed her and then placed her on the floor and followed her into the living room.
They returned seated on the couch watching some pre-pulse movie on the tube about a baby deer who's mom dies, Alec wondered exactly what kinda crap the even put in kids movies. Then he started rethinking his views on hunting baby animals mothers. He decided the hunter probably didn't understand how important the mother deer was or that she had a baby and gave him a bit of credit.
They sat like that for the rest of the movie, Alec getting a kick out of the Owl explaining to the deer and the rabbit about twitterpeated and Ray asking if Alec and Max were twitterpeated, to which Alec replied immediately," Never in a million years".