Second chapter. Carmen's about eight months in it. Mostly from Tony's POV until the end.
The Subject? Tony spends a day with just him and Carmen. Yay! Insight and self reflection and shit. Hope you like it.
Current Song: Dust Bowl Dance by Mumford and Sons
Current Thought: I am still going and it's 1:30 am. WHOO HOO.
ENJOY.
After The Storm Part Two
"… and night has always pushed up day. You must know life to see decay. But I won't rot. I won't rot. Not this mind and not this heart, I won't rot…"
She's only been with them for eight months. And she's adorable. And totally changed their life around.
Tony's not really regretting saying yes to Toni all those months ago, mind you, it's just. Well. It's different. And he never said that was a bad thing, now did he?
No. So.
Steve's out today. He's at some debrief meeting about things Tony could care less about and he has baby-duty which he is totally thankful for because although Carmen can be trouble when she wants to be? She is a damn sweet baby. He has Steve's calm temperament to thank for that, he's sure, because when Tony was a baby? Please. He was hell on two legs, thank you very much, and he is damn proud of that.
He's been getting used to it, being a parent. Being a dad, and an ok one at that. There was one month where he drank once a week, got totally wasted and felt ashamed of it because he thought he couldn't do it, but Steve was a real rock during those times. So he'd made it through.
Now though, he trusts himself just a bit more than the beginning. And hell, that's a damn good start as far as he's concerned.
"Just me and you today kiddo," Tony says to the baby that's staring at him with cerulean eyes, just like Steve's. But she's got his dark hair curling from her head, and his snub nose and full mouth. But that's definitely Steve's ears and strong chin and she just seems to have gotten all the good features from each of them. She's an adorable baby.
Carmen smiles up to him on a second thought and he sees the little teeth popping up through her gums, senses her discomfort the second before it shows on her face and gets her a teething ring from the fridge. The second she starts to gnaw on it she's all smiles again, and Tony lifts her from her play-pen and brings her down with him to the workshop.
There's a play-pen in there for her as well, and when she's in the shop he doesn't do any big projects, mostly just corporate work for SI that Pepper assigns him once in a while. He makes toys for her mostly, or puts on some soft Aerosmith when she needs to go down for a nap and makes the holograms on his screens dance with colors to the beat of the song, lulling her to sleep.
Today though, Tony just thinks he's chill with her in his lap at a work bench, show her all the cool little tools he has, the safe ones at least. JARVIS will warn him if anything is off-limits. Which is another thing. JARVIS is amazing with her, knowing when she gets fussy in the middle of the night to project pictures of Tony and Steve on the ceiling about her crib because it calms her. Softly alerting Tony or Steve (because JARVIS keeps track of whose turn it is) at her awakeness or need of a diaper change or bottle. Hell, JARVIS had helped a whole lot on her feeding schedule when she was a newborn, alerting them whenever she needed a bottle. He's pretty awesome with her and is really fond of her as well.
Tony sits on a bench with his baby in his lap and he started by showing her little wrenches, moving on to a soldering iron that was not turned on until JARVIS gets too nervous and tells him he should put it away. The entire time Carmen has one hand on the teething ring in her mouth and the other one poling and prodding at the things Tony is letting her mess around with.
He pokes her sides a bit and she giggles and his chest feels tight because he's slowly coming to accept that she is his and the only person he really has to share her with is Steve and he doesn't mind that , not one bit, since he loves Steve just as much as he loves her.
And giving his love to this small little human being? Yeah. It's a big step for him. But he has a weird feeling that his heart is totally safe in those little, chubby, dimpled hands.
She makes a squeak of a noise, says, "Ppp," and an exaggerated 'p' sound. He's impressed. He's been teaching her to call him Poppa, and this is pretty good in his eyes. He'd started forming sentences at the age of one, of course, but Tony doesn't really expect that anything out of his baby. She can take her time, for all he cares. As long as she's safe? He can't give a flying fuck how old she is when she starts talking fully. He promises to himself and, silently, to her that he will never be what his father was to him.
Again. This is so much easier a promise to uphold because Steve is around.
And that is, of course, when Tony get s a whiff and yes. Yes. He has a diaper change. Tony sighs a bit because this will always be his least favorite part of everything he does with his daughter – and yeah, he can say it easier now. He just doesn't like changing shitty (quite literally) diapers.
Still. There's no Steve around to hand her off to and he kinda of doesn't want to hand his baby off to anyone because she deserves better than that in his opinion.
So up he goes, JARVIS telling him how many diapers are left and how many wet-wipe packages are left and Tony makes the decision and asks JARVIS to order them more, since she's starting to grow out of the diapers and they need more anyway. He thinks it's time to go half a size up. JARVIS agrees. Because you know, the AI/baby sitter needs to agree on these things too.
Tony gets to her nursery and lays her down on the changing table. Carmen grins up at him and tosses the teething ring at his forehead, which, ouch, that thing was semi-frozen so yes. Painful. He rolls his eyes and huffs, undoing her diaper and trying not to make a face. Carmen catches it anyway and laughs at the look on his face.
"You left Poppa a stinky. Good for you," Tony says, trying to be bland, but he can't keep the smile off of his face. He's never remembered smiling this much and sincerely meaning it. The only person who can do this to him other than the baby in front of him is his husband and Steve is quite good at it. It seems Carmen inherited that from her Daddy. Tony can't bring himself to complain.
He remembers the first time he changed a diaper, disgusted and embarrassed and scandalized. He's gotten used to it. Especially after getting baby crap on his hand that one time. Yeah. Nothing can faze him now, honestly. Her diaper leaked last week on his Dolce suit and he just sighed and told Pepper to get it to the cleaners, please and thank you.
Honestly, now it was just a matter of getting her to stop kicking or else she'd fall off the changing table and last time that had happened? Steve had had a conniption. Tony maintains that babies are resilient and that it wasn't his fault that their daughter had kicked him in the face. Steve doesn't like to talk about it. Whatever.
Tony changes her diaper in record time and decides it's time for an outfit change. She's been in leggings and a t-shirt all day but honestly, Tony doesn't think they're leaving the house at all today so. Lounge clothes it is. He changes her into a little AC/DC onsie and black socks and calls it a day as he picks her and her toy up and heads back downstairs with the shitty diaper safely tucked away into the trash-bin as he passes the kitchen.
Tony plays with her for the rest of the afternoon, stopping to feed her some mashed sweet potato and a bottle of milk. Carmen goes down for a nap around noon and Tony takes that time to shower properly, brush his teeth, wash his hair and make himself lunch. He checks in with Steve, sends him a picture of Carmen sleeping in the middle of their bed, drool all over the pillow that serves as Tony's and he smiles at her little face as he talks to his husband over the phone.
Carmen is up and about at three o'clock which means Tony has to once again entertain her. They sit in front of the TV and Tony puts up a live aquarium so she can walk over to the screen on unsteady feet and pat at the fish on the television gleefully, leaving little grubby fingerprints behind. Tony doesn't really mind the clean up. Instead, he gets JARVIS to film the one hour scene of her playing with virtual fish and he saves it to the TV so that Steve can watch it when he gets home later.
It's an ongoing tradition of theirs. If one of them isn't there to spend the day with her, the other films the high lights of Carmen's day and saves it for them to see when they get back. If they're both away, which doesn't happen often at all, another member of their team does it for them. Most of them get the whole family thing.
By the time Tony gets dinner into her it's already late and he heads to the bathroom to run her a quick bath. She still smells like brand new baby, fresh from the box, as he likes to joke to Steve, who usually rolls his eyes and pokes at Tony's side. Carmen splashes like a fiend, like it's a strategical way to get her Poppa soaking wet and irritated and it is, sure it is. Tony also ends up cracking up like a maniac at the faces she makes when she gets into it.
She's tried off and bundled into pajamas a few minutes after the bath water war and she's already starting to drift off. Tony carries her to the living room and snuggles onto the couch with her. It's a routine they have for when Steve isn't home. He cuddles down onto the couch and waits up for Steve with Carmen asleep on his chest so that the first thing Steve sees when he walks in is his daughter and his husband, and no matter how bad the day went, how can Steve be in a bad mood after being confronted with that?
It's easy to put her to sleep actually. She lays her head over his reactor over his shirt and falls asleep to the thrum of the reactor lulling her to sleep better than any other lullaby could. He used to panic over it, but now Tony just rubs her back and hums Stairway To Heaven under his breath until she's asleep. He loses himself like he does on occasion, falling asleep as well, but to the sound of his baby breathing in her sleep.
Steve walks in an hour later to the sight, Carmen with one hand fisted in Tony's shirt the other hand curled under her head. Tony's asleep in a similar position, one hand under his head, the other holding Carmen to him gently, cupped around her bottom so she doesn't slide of his chest. The only glow in the room is from Tony's chest and Steve couldn't stop the smile from coming to his face even if he wanted to.
He sits and watches the video from earlier that day and other clips JARVIS put together for him and then he lifts Carmen off of Tony and he knows the only reason Tony doesn't snap out of sleep is because his subconscious knows it's Steve. He moves the baby to her crib, kisses her forehead and asks JARVIS to watch her. JARVIS as always is more than glad to comply saying that Carmen keeps him company, gives him something to do during the night and he'd do it any time.
Steve returns for Tony, helps his sleepy husband into bed. He loves it when Tony's like this, wiped out from a day constantly at the baby's beck and call. He's easy to maneuver and best of all, he actually sleeps. It's wonderful.
They're in bed soon, and Steve has Tony spooned up to his chest, his arms around him, and he kisses the shell of Tony's ear. Because this is a lot nicer than they had originally thought it would be. And honestly? If Steve could go back and do it all again?
He wouldn't change one damn thing.
No. I have no idea about baby teething. And I was walking at seven months, so it's totally doable if Carmen is walking at eight.
Reviews are much appreciated.