A/N: In honor of Father's Day! Well, I've had the idea for a while, but I thought now would be the perfect time to write it.
By the way, I looked it up, and babies really aren't supposed to eat ice cream until they're a year old. So a bit of a lapse in parental judgment on Jack's part. Erika's ten months old in this, though, so a small amount would probably not do too much harm.
Jack had never noticed just what a piercing stare little Erika had. Her eyes were the same shape as Carly's, but while the latter had soft blue-gray eyes, Erika's were such a dark blue as to be almost black. When combined with her fair skin and shock of blonde hair, the effect was quite startling.
Right now, Erika was sitting on a mat in the living room, tracking Jack's every move with those unsettling eyes. Jack had been pacing up and down, trying to figure out what to do with her. Carly had left on a business trip to Seattle this morning, and Jack had a whole day of looking after Erika by himself until the nanny came back on Monday morning. Jack's Pro season would start the very next week, so Carly had said he and Erika should get in some bonding time.
Of course, he had the nanny's phone number, but Carly had told him to only use it in case if an emergency. And really, the only emergency here was that Jack wasn't quite sure which activities babies liked.
He had just changed her diaper (yuck) so hopefully that task was taken care of for a few hours. They'd already had lunch time and naptime. It was only 2:30, so too early for dinner. What to do?
Then, he hit on something so perfect that he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.
They could go out! They lived on Park Avenue, which, as its name suggested, was an easy walk from Central Park. Plus, it was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so it wasn't too hot. Jack thought he ought to receive some sort of award for sheer brilliance in activity-planning.
"Guess what? We're going out!" he cried jubilantly to Erika.
Erika, as cool a customer as ever, blew a spit bubble and replied, "Muh."
Jack grabbed a baseball cap and sunglasses, snatched Erika up, and moments later emerged from the apartment with Erika under one of his arms, her collapsible stroller under the other, and the going-out tote bag slung over his shoulder. He knew most people would be afraid he would drop something, but he was Jack Atlas. Jack Atlas most certainly did not drop things.
He ran down all ten flights of stairs (elevators were for wimps), and then checked his watch in the lobby. Well, not his record time, but he had had to be careful because of the baby.
"Well! What do you think about that?" he asked Erika. She looked up at him quietly, possibly a bit dazed from their quick trip downstairs.
They barely made it to the end of their block when the cameras started clicking. Looks like his hat hadn't worked (since when had it, now that he thought about it?) Jack growled a bit when the throng of people made him miss his opportunity to cross the street.
There seemed to be even more people than usual today. What was all this about? Was it that stupid tabloid article again? Someone had written some complete bullshit about Jack being sterile due to pollutants in Satellite, and that thus Erika was not his biological daughter. No one had really taken it seriously, and people had seemingly stopped talking about it weeks ago. So had they written another article that Jack didn't know about?
But then, it dawned on him. Of course…today was Father's Day! Jack didn't even have the excuse that they didn't have this holiday in Japan, because they did. Of course, it hadn't been celebrated much in Satellite, since most of the fathers had died in Zero Reverse…but that was beside the point. Now that this mystery was solved, he had to quickly dash across the street before the crosswalk light turned red again.
Once they reached the park, there was more space, so the photographers weren't as concentrated around them. Their presence was still obvious, but at least Jack and Erika had some breathing room.
Jack walked around for a few minutes until he found a shady spot near the Great Lawn. He spread a towel on the ground and placed Erika on it.
When he opened the tote bag, the first thing to pop out was a large tube of sunscreen for babies. Damn, he'd forgotten about that! Well, he'd better get that on before Erika got burned up.
He smeared a glob not-very-neatly onto Erika's face. The latter pushed him away and protestec, "Bleh!"
"If you get cancer all over your skin, your mother is not going to be happy with me," Jack explained, "In fact, she'd probably make me eat my own intestines."
Erika did not seem the least bit convinced by this logic. So all Jack could do was continue to get as much sunscreen-skin contact as possible while she squirmed around.
Finally, he thought it was good enough, and wiped his hands on a corner of the towel.
"Now what do you want to do?" he asked Erika.
Erika looked blankly at him, then crawled over to the grass and ripped out a handful. Before Jack could react, she stuffed most of it into her mouth!
"Oi! Not that!" Jack protested. He swept the grass out of her mouth and tried not to think about how the paparazzi would be loving every minute of this. She thankfully had not swallowed any of it.
Now, though, his curiosity was piqued. Over Jack's life, he had generally been led to believe that grass was not good to eat, and his childhood experiences had supported that. But what if Central Park grass was secretly some sort of delicacy?
He furtively nibbled on a blade. Nope…it tasted just the same as other grass. Why Erika liked it was beyond him. Speaking of which, he'd better find something for Erika to do before she ingested any more questionable substances. Currently, she was examining a leaf with three small ants on it.
He rummaged in the bag until he found a rattle. It didn't look familiar; Carly must have purchased it just to keep Erika entertained during Carly's trip.
"Hey! Look at this!" he said. He shook it to get Erika's attention. She slowly put the leaf down and reached across for the toy.
She then peered intently at it, gave it a couple of trial shakes, and looked at it some more. She tried putting it in her mouth, but it wasn't a comfortable fit. She looked down at it, up at Jack, then back down.
"Aaah!" Erika said as she beamed and held it out to Jack.
"Aww, you want me to have it?" Jack asked as he turned towards her. Erika used his opportunity to sharply hit him on the nose with the rattle.
Ouch…that stung like hell! It was weird…Jack could break bones and get hit on his head during Riding Duels and it didn't bother him much, but when he got struck with a plastic toy, it made him clutch his nose and howl.
He was initially quite sure his nose was broken, but after a few seconds he could feel it was intact. No blood either. His eyes were still watering from pain, but at least Erika found it amusing. She was laughing as hard as Jack had ever heard her do.
He did have to admit that he admired her boldness. As soon as the stinging subsided, Jack yelled to no-one in particular, "Does anyone have any more questions about her paternity now? I didn't think so."
That evening, they walked back to the apartment building. They had had quite a full afternoon. They'd walked around most of the park with Erika in her stroller, stopped to watch people playing in the sports fields, passed by the zoo, and had even shared a small ice-cream cone. Jack could only hope that his stomach wouldn't make him pay too much later on. He wasn't sure Carly would approve, but she wasn't there and they already knew Erika could eat dairy products anyway.
Now, Erika was fast asleep. And now Jack had to figure out how he would wake her up for dinner…