My apologies for the wait, but school is killing me. Shoutout to red lighting for this chapter: I hope it answers some of the questions you had regarding the events of Bobbi's first few weeks with Isabelle. Also a huge thank-you to VanillaAshes, who helped me with the baby conversation.
Memory Lane
"Bath time," Bobbi said, giving Isabelle a look. Her daughter immediately pouted from where she was sitting across from her at the dining table.
Almost immediately her pout morphed into the puppy-dog eyes. "Can we please explore some more first?"
"Love, we've explored this place top to bottom three times already," Hunter said, shaking his head. "Bob's right; it's time for your bath."
The girl squirmed in her seat. "Five more minutes?"
"No. March," Bobbi pointed. "You remember where the bathroom is?" Isabelle nodded unhappily. "I'll be there in a minute." The girl sighed and ran off in that direction.
"I'll do dishes," Hunter offered, standing up from the table and beginning to collect plates. He paused. "Or maybe I shouldn't and we can leave them out, so the place looks lived in, yeah?"
"Social worker's not coming for days, Hunter," she replied incredulously. "We're not leaving them out until then." She laughed. "That's not lived in, that's disgusting."
"It's what the apartment I lived in would look like."
Bobbi made a face. "Believe me, I know."
"I'm ready!" Isabelle called, voice slightly echoey from the tiled walls of the bathroom.
"Coming!" she called back, getting up. It was almost weird letting Isabelle have the run of the house after so much time escorting her everywhere. The house had turned out to be larger than expected but still very homey, and best of all, secure. Bobbi stepped over the grocery bags full of non-perishables on the way to the bathroom; shopping had been an interesting experience of having a four-year-old who wanted to buy pretty much everything that wasn't green and leafy, a man-child when it came to little kid toys, and her own propensity to give in to them. Combine that with an unlimited S.H.I.E.L.D. credit card...
Needless to say, on what was only their first outing they bought a whole ton of crap.
"Bubbles!" Isabelle demanded as soon as Bobbi walked in the door.
Bobbi laughed, pulling the liquid out from where Hunter had stowed it underneath the sink. "Okay, but this means no more complaining about bathtime." Isabelle happily clamored into the tub as Bobbi stepped over her clothes strewn on the floor and started the water running. She measured out the amount of cherry red liquid indicated on the bottle and poured it in, pink bubbles immediately beginning to appear. Isabelle happily sat down in the tub and scooped some up in her hands.
When bathtime was over, Hunter joined them in Isabelle's new room to get her to bed. It had, as Isabelle had said, a "big-girl bed" up against one wall and the window at its foot. The walls were mostly bare except for one Tangled poster that she'd insisted they'd buy. The window itself was too large for Bobbi's taste—three men could climb in at once at that size—but she knew intellectually that it was alarmed and made of shatter-resistant glass, and that this was a very safe suburban neighborhood.
Isabelle finished setting Hoppity and Thor at the end of her bed and crawled back over it towards her pillow. "Read me a story?" she asked, looking at them both.
"Of course," Bobbi replied with a smile, pulling the covers over her. Hunter held up the three book selections he had in his hands.
"What do you think, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, or Piggy's Pancake Parlor?" he asked.
"Little Red Riding Hood!"
Hunter grinned and looked at Bobbi. "You be the grandmother, I'll be the wolf?"
She frowned, teasing him. "Why do I have to be the grandmother? Are you calling me old?"
"You're the girl too, so it evens out," Hunter replied. Smiling, Bobbi sat on the bed next to Isabelle and held the book open for them while Hunter knelt on the floor. When they got to the part where the wild gobbled up the old woman, he leapt onto the bed with a snarl, tickling Isabelle and eliciting peals of laughter. Then he pulled Bobbi down onto the floor with him by the ankles, causing their daughter to only laugh harder.
By the time they had finished—"Little Red Riding Hood" having bonked the wolf over the head to finish him off—Isabelle was bouncing up and down excitedly. "Read it again, read it again!"
"Bedtime," Bobbi reminded her. On impulse she leaned down to kiss her daughter's forehead before pulling the covers up over her. "Goodnight, Isabelle. We'll see you in the morning."
The happy glaze faded from isabelle's eyes. "You're not going to stay?"
"We'll be just a room over, love," Hunter assured her. "This is your room. And the bed isn't big enough for all of us, see?" He patted it.
"I can make room," the girl replied, shifting over so that she was pressed against the wall.
"If you need us you can come and wake us up at any time during the night," Bobbi promised. "But for now we need you to try and stay in here, okay? Just lie here for an hour and try to go to sleep. We'll come check on you then."
"Thirty minutes," Isabelle said.
"Fine, thirty minutes. Want me to plug in the nightlight?" The girl nodded. Bobbi did, and once Hunter had said goodnight as well she turned off the main light. They exited the room. "Isn't the point of a bedtime story to make her sleepy, not rile her up?" Bobbi teased once they were a safe distance away.
"Oh, forgive me for making our daughter laugh," Hunter rolled his eyes. Back in the kitchen, she found all the dishes to be washed and in the drainer and the rest of the groceries put away—or at least, stuffed in the pantry where she couldn't see them, which would be a far more typical Hunter-thing to do. Their food supplies were a bit odd if someone were to open the fridge and look at them, given that they had all the staples like milk, eggs, and I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter, but not things they wouldn't be able to finish in the time allotted in this safehouse. But she trusted no social worker was going to do a thorough inspection of their refrigerator.
"So, bed?" Hunter asked.
"Bed," Bobbi agreed with a sigh. She checked her phone, answering a quick text from May. "It's only eight o'clock—we never go to bed this early at the base."
"And you wondered why I never left mercenary work for becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent," Hunter replied. She shot him a glance, shoving her phone back in her pocket. "So, uh...I guess I'll take the couch," he said uncertainly.
Bobbi looked at him askance. "Wouldn't you prefer the main bedroom? There's no reason we can't sleep in the same bed, Hunter."
He smiled. "Right, because we did it last night. But that was special circumstances, a child between us…"
"We did it plenty when we were married too," she told him. "And we're professionals, if you want to go that route. Barton and Romanoff do it all the time."
"Yeah, but Barton and Romanoff aren't ex-husband and ex-wife with a daughter to think about and maybe even a budding rekindling of their relationship." Bobbi walked over to him and gave him a peck on the lips complemented with a roll of her eyes.
"Come on, Hunter," she said, walking towards the bedroom. After getting ready for bed, she was under the covers first, sitting up against the headboard and updating herself of the goings-on at the Playground through her tablet.
Hunter climbed in beside her. "How could this have happened, Bob?" She placed her tablet down on her lap, looking at him. "I don't understand… Was it one of those nothing-is-100%-preventative-except-abstinence things or did one of us forget?"
She laughed, stalling for time to gather her thoughts. "Like the two of us could ever do abstinence," she rolled her eyes. He cracked a smile along with her but remained intent on the question. Bobbi took a deep breath. "With everything that was happening and the ugliness of the divorce, I missed my S.H.I.E.L.D. birth control shot. I was a week overdue," she answered softly. "And in that week..."
Hunter nodded. "When did you find out?"
"Hold on, I have to check on Isabelle," Bobbi said, sliding her legs out of the bed. She exited the room without a backward glance, steadying herself against the wall outside. It wasn't like she hadn't expected this line of questioning once they were here… Looking into Isabelle's room, she saw the girl fast asleep in bed, arms circled around Hoppity. Smiling, she closed the door and rejoined Hunter in the master bedroom, pulling a file folder out of her bag before crawling back in with him.
"She okay?" Hunter asked.
"Asleep."
"Good," he said, then eyed the folder. "What's that?"
"Everything I have from the first few weeks with Isabelle," she told him, one hand casually draped over it, keeping it closed. "But in answer to your original question, I suspected as much two weeks later. Didn't have it confirmed for another month. It...complicated things."
"Did you continue on with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"For a bit. When I told Maria, she went all Deputy Director on me and benched me," Bobbi revealed.
"How many other people knew?" he questioned.
"Mack."
"Not Hartley?"
"I never got the chance," she replied. "Mack was the one who stuck with me through it all; he was so supportive." She opened the folder and took out the first picture. "The first ultrasound." She handed it to him. Hunter gazed down on it, an almost tortured expression on his face.
"I wish you had told me, Bob," he whispered.
"I wish so too," she answered honestly.
Hunter met her eyes as he handed the picture back. "I know."
She smiled briefly, pulling out the second and third ones. "Here." He took them almost reverently, this time more happiness on his face than anguish.
"That's Isabelle?" he asked, pointing to the nearly formed shape of a baby in the third image.
"Yeah," Bobbi smiled.
"She looks like an alien, must be from your side of the family," he joked as he handed the two photos back almost hesitantly.
She punched him in the arm before, sensing his reluctance, promising, "We can make copies when we get back."
Hunter stuck his tongue out at her, then returned to seriousness. "How big was she when she was born? Do you have any pictures of her as a baby?"
"Of course," Bobbi said. "She was eighteen inches, seven pounds on the dot. This is her right after she was born. Mack took the picture since there was no such thing as a selfie back then." She withdrew a photograph of a baby Isabelle swaddled in blue snoozing on her chest. "Plus I was so tired from the labor that I wouldn't have been able to hold a phone up with steady enough hands."
"She's…tiny." Hunter commented lamely as he stared at the picture for a few moments. "Wait, why is she in blue?" He looked at her, confused. "I thought they color-coded the babies? Or did they not realize..."
Frowning, she took the picture from him and stared at it for a second, then burst out laughing. "Oh, I'd forgotten that part! No, the hospital ran out of pink blankets at the last minute, so they dressed her in blue. Confused Mack for a minute too when he first walked in." She paused, still smiling.
"The Mockingbird forgot something? Be still my heart," her ex-husband said, nudging her with his arm.
"All my memories of the time immediately before and after the birth are a bit fuzzy…" Bobbi added. "You know, from the pain."
Hunter chuckled slightly, taking the photo back from her to study again. "I'm not complaining about missing you in labor," he admitted. "You look exhausted."
"Thanks," she deadpanned.
"Although I am envious that you got to meet Isabelle as a little baby."
"She didn't do much," Bobbi pointed out lightly. "Slept a lot. Pretty much constantly wanted me to feed her. Besides, I'm not sure I would have let you in with me. Hospitals generally frown upon dads-to-be fainting in the delivery room."
"Hey!" She gave him a look and he deflated. "No, yeah, that's fair. How...how long did you have her for?"
Bobbi looked down, teeth suddenly clenching. "Three weeks."
"Three weeks…" Hunter repeated carefully. "What was she like?"
"She was...amazingly cute," Bobbi laughed. "Mack stayed with me nearly the whole time, so it wasn't too overwhelming." Her eyebrows knit together. "I wish I could describe the feeling to you, Lance… Looking down at her and realizing her entire existence depends on you, and that you love her more than you've ever loved anything else without even knowing why."
"Her entire existence depended on you…and you gave her away. Why?" Hunter asked, his voice low. He was barely asking the question out loud.
Her eyes flashed. "It was because she depended on me, Hunter. Because she depended on me and I wasn't the type of person a child-let alone a baby-could depend on. I loved her, so I let her go."
"I don't think I'll ever understand that," Hunter admitted. "I wouldn't have been able to do that; I would literally have changed my whole life to make that little girl happy, regardless of what I had to do to do it. I wouldn't have let her go to some stranger-but then again, I didn't get to make that decision. You should have given me the option to take her when you decided you didn't want her."
She ripped the picture out of his hands furiously, throwing off the blankets covering her legs and standing up. "This is why I don't tell you anything, Hunter. You take my words and you twist them. I already said I was sorry; I don't know what else you want me to do. But I'm not going to sit here and just let you attack me over it." She stuffed the file folder back into her duffel bag and swung it over one shoulder. "I'll be on the couch."
"Wait-" Hunter said quickly as he slid out of the bed, nearly getting caught in the covers in his haste. "You told Isabelle that you'd be in this room. I'll sleep on the couch." There was no apology in his voice as he grabbed one of the pillows. "I don't want her to come in here and not find you."
She stopped him at the door with a hand on his chest, not meeting his eyes. "It's not that I didn't want her, Hunter. You can believe me or not, but giving her up was the hardest thing I've ever had to do-and that includes our divorce."
"One day you'll learn that you don't have to do everything on your own," Hunter informed her softly. "You can ask for help; you have a lot of friends-although come to think of it, I still don't know why you would pick Mack to help you with a newborn baby. I'd be scared he'd crush her or something."
"I'm not doing it alone anymore," Bobbi stated quietly, closing the door and cutting them both off from the living room.
Hunter glanced at the door for a second before tossing the pillow back onto the bed. "Let's see what else is in the folder, yeah? There must be pictures of you looking like crap that I can use as blackmail some day," he joked feebly.
She recognized the peace offering and sat back down, opening the folder. "My hair's a mess in this one," she said, handing it over.
Hunter took the picture and examined it, "Yeah, you totally look like crap." He scoffed lightly before sitting down next to her, "She looks bigger in this photo; when was it taken?"
"The day I first met her adoptive parents," Bobbi admitted. "We met several times before I signed the papers. They weren't strangers."
Hunter looked at her silently for a moment before silently accepting her statement. "You know, I actually looked after a baby boy for two days a couple of years ago-it was for a SAS mate of mine. Changing his nappy was hell, I swear he was aiming at me every time." He shuddered at the thought. "I'm guessing you didn't have that particular issue with Isabelle?"
Bobbi laughed. "No, I didn't. But she always seemed to hate being changed, would start crying as soon as the diaper was off. I think it was something about security, because she loved being held too. Hated being in her crib." She paused. "Mack really did get the full up-at-all-hours experience."
Hunter laughed. "I'm sure he loved that." He looked at the picture in his hand again. "We should get some frames and put some of these pictures up," he suggested.
"Good idea. Lived in," she nodded, then yawned. "But for now, sleep. Weren't we saying at the start of this how tired we both were and how we never get to sleep this early?"
"Yeah," he agreed, slipping down and fully under the covers while she turned out the light. "What do you think the likelihood is that Isabelle'll sleep all the way through the night on her own?"
"I don't know," Bobbi murmured, joining him. "But we'll deal with that when we come to it. Matter of fact, I think it's your turn this time. I did enough of it when she was a baby."
He snorted a little in the darkness, facing away from her. "Fine, but I'm still waking you up the minute she says she wants Mommy. Also your department is wetting the bed."
She rolled her eyes before closing them, relaxing into the soft bed. "Go to sleep, Hunter." A few minutes later, she added, "But I am really glad you're here with me."
Who else is excited to see Mockingbird back in action this Tuesday? I can't wait!