Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.
This one is for anyone who is still interested in the Adrianna/Pink Blanket storyline. I don't know about you, but I'm a little Sydrian baby-d out (despite that AMAZING quote released recently!). But the only stories I had close to finished all turned out to be baby stories! So I figured I'd put this one up for you guys.
I have another one shot completed in the Nick/Secret storyline that I can put up if anyone wants to see more of that. And I also have two stories that are, thankfully, baby free. I'll hopefully finish those pretty soon. Anyway, I'm done talking now. Enjoy!
A crying baby is never a good thing. But being alone with a crying baby is possibly the scariest thing ever. Especially when Sydney was still out at her coven meeting and wouldn't be back for awhile. It wasn't that I didn't love taking care of Adrianna, but I hadn't had as much practice as Sydney. This was the first time in months that Sydney had gone out for a few hours and I was already messing it all up.
"Oh, no, baby," I pleaded as Adrianna cried, rocking her back and forth. "Don't cry. Daddy's here. Daddy's got you."
My pleas didn't work, the crying kept up. So I decided to try a different approach.
"Are you hungry?" I asked, like maybe she'd actually answer me. "Let's get you a bottle." I brought her into the kitchen, bouncing her in my arms the entire time. She still cried—piercing sounds that went straight through my brain. I grabbed a pre-made bottle out of the fridge, heating it up a little on the stove. It was harder than I thought it would be, what with one hand still bouncing Adrianna.
How the hell did Sydney do this? Somehow she made this look easy when it was anything but.
Once the bottle was warm I tried giving Adrianna some, but she just kept crying. "Come on, sweetheart," I pleaded. "Just a little." She whacked the bottle away with a swipe of her tiny hand. I closed my eyes and sighed.
What could she possibly want? Then I realized what the problem must be. I put the bottle on the counter and slowly lifted Adrianna up in front of me. I inspected her diaper carefully. It didn't smell, but I knew that didn't necessarily mean anything.
"Is that what's wrong?" I asked. "Do you need me to..." I grimaced, "change your diaper?"
That was something I hadn't really done on my own yet. I'd assisted a few times, but all that meant was I distracted the kid while Sydney cleaned up the... mess. But it was just me here now so I had to figure it out. I took Adrianna in to the nursery and set her down on the changing table. I didn't want to do this. What was waiting for me in that little diaper? I'd seen the sort of things Sydney found in there. One time she'd screamed and I'd come running in just to see that she'd fumbled the diaper and gotten Adrianna's... mess all over her. I really didn't want to do this.
With one eye peeked open, I oh so carefully peeled back the diaper, holding my breath just in case. Then my other eye popped open. There was nothing there. Nothing. The diaper wasn't even wet! "Kid, what are you crying about?" I asked.
Her only response was another high pitched squeal. I quickly fastened the diaper back into place and picked her up. "Okay, okay, sweetheart. Daddy'll figure it out. Since you're not being helpful at all," I murmured under my breath. Just because the kid couldn't talk didn't mean she couldn't give me some sign for what she wanted. I'd seen Sydney coaxing reactions out of her. Sydney was so much better with her than I was.
Another lightbulb went off.
"Mommy?" I asked, picking Adrianna up so she was level with my eyes. "Is that it? Do you miss Mommy?" Adrianna kept crying, but I figured that must be the problem.
When Sydney'd left this afternoon Adrianna was napping. She'd woken up and I'd fed her and played with her, but then after a little while she'd started crying. I hadn't been able to get her to stop since. But now, now I had a plan.
I brought Adrianna over to the couch and sat down with her in my lap. My laptop was on the table in front of us. I leaned over and found the videos I was looking for and hit play.
"Adrian, what are you doing?" Sydney's voice came through the speakers. An image of her wearing one of my paint splattered T-shirts filled the screen. She was lying on our bed, Adrianna next to her.
"I already missed out on the first month of her life, Sydney," I was saying from behind the camera. "I don't plan on missing anymore."
Adrianna's ear piercing cries had started to die down the second Sydney popped up on screen.
"You're not missing this," she said, rolling her eyes toward me.
"I know," I told her, giving the camera a quick shake. "And we're going to have this video so we can remember it forever." She shook her head, but I jumped into bed next to her and pointed the camera at the baby. Adrianna giggled on screen, which made her giggle in real life. I felt a wave of pride course through me. I'd handled my first baby crisis all on my own.
On screen, Sydney and I were playing with Adrianna. She was giggling and laughing, her little arms grabbing for Sydney, then me. In my lap Adrianna watched with a happy toothless smile on her face.
After a little while Adrianna started to doze off in my arms, she was dozing in the video as well. The camera jostled a little and then I could see Sydney, still in my paint splattered shirt—and only my paint splattered shirt—smiling at me. "What do you say we put her in her crib?" she smiled at me suggestively. It was so sexy.
The camera jumped around again. I leaned over and kissed her. "Maybe we could keep the camera going for a little while..." I teased, sort of.
Sydney's eyes bulged out of her head. "Adrian!"
"What?" I asked, all innocence. "It was just a suggestion. It could be fun."
Sydney took the camera from me while I picked Adrianna up. The lens followed me across the room to where the crib sat. I placed a sleeping Adrianna down and tucked her in. "We're not making that kind of video," she said firmly. Then she flipped the camera towards her. Her brown eyes and blonde hair filled the screen. "At least not on our daughter's baby videos," she whispered into the microphone, giving the camera a smirk.
I actually laughed out loud when I saw that, then I quickly glanced down to make sure I hadn't woken Adrianna. I hadn't watched these videos since we'd made them. On the video I was still tucking Adrianna in and hadn't heard her. But now that I'd seen this I was going to be sure to play it back when Sydney got home. You know, just as a reminder.
Sydney turned the camera back around just in time to catch me climbing back into bed with her. I took the camera from her hand and for a moment all I could see was white ceiling. Sydney made a happy sound off camera and I could hear us kissing. The bed groaned under us and then I could see us again. I had placed the camera on the bedside table and it was capturing us from the waist up. I was on top of her, kissing her neck, and her hands were tangled in my hair. It was the sexiest thing ever.
"Did you turn the camera off?" Sydney murmured while I kissed her.
"Yeah." I kissed my way back up to her lips.
She sighed into me, but turned her head away, toward the camera. "If that's true, then why is the red light blinking?" she asked with a small smile.
"I think that means it's off," I tried, guiding her lips back to mine. She pushed up on my shoulders until I looked at her. I watched as we shared a silent moment on camera, her telling me to shut the camera off and me giving in. Somehow even that was sexy. On camera I reached over to shut the camera off at the same time I leaned down to kiss her. The screen went black.
I sat there for a few minutes, remembering how the rest of that night went. The front door opened, pulling me away from my thoughts. Sydney made a face when she saw me and Adrianna on the couch, and tried to quietly shut the door behind her.
"It's okay," I whispered. "I think all the crying she did this afternoon tired her out. She'll probably be out for a while longer."
Still, Sydney crept quietly over to the couch. "Did she give you much trouble?" she asked, looking apologetic.
I smiled. "Nothing I couldn't handle. She just missed you is all." I gestured to the laptop. "I played her a video of you and she went right to sleep."
Sydney sat next to me and kissed my cheek. "Do you want me to put her to bed?" she asked, leaning in to take the sleeping baby from me.
"No, it's okay," I said, carefully standing. "I'll do it. You relax and when I come back you can tell me all about the coven meeting."
"Ugh," Sydney groaned, rolling her eyes and plopping back against the couch. "I'll tell you tomorrow. I'm too tired to even think about it right now."
"How tired's tired?" I asked.
She grinned at me over the back of the couch, her whole face lighting up. "Not that tired."
I smiled back. "Good," I said quietly. "I've got a video for us to watch when I come back."
She looked a bit confused, but shrugged and slumped down into the cushions. I hurried into Adrianna's nursery and placed her gently in her crib, careful not to wake her. After a few more minutes spent tucking her in and making sure she was alright, I turned to leave the room.
On my way out I spotted the video camera near the changing table.
I grabbed it, just in case.