Drowsy Mornings and Pastel Hair

"Shhh, Sweetheart. Daddy's trying to sleep."

"'Kay, Mama."

The familiar voices of his family briefly petered into his awareness before Connor felt oblivion take him again. Back-to-back shifts at the hospital had left him drained and in dire need of rest on a mattress that didn't compete with the floor for firmness.

He felt like he had only just shut his eyes when the high pitch whistle of a train snapped him awake.

They're two, they're four they're six and eight

Shunting trucks and hauling freight

Connor blinked in a confused daze as British children singing filled his bedroom. On the corner of the bed sat his baby girl, glued to her tablet. Her curls were wild and she was still dressed in her Frozen nightgown. A comb and her case with her hair clips and hair ties laid a little further up the bed. Distantly, he could hear the pelting sounds of the shower. Sarah...

Groaning lowly, he curled around his pillow for a second as he mumbled, "Ellie, baby, turn that down a little please."

Ellie barely even twitched at her father's voice, so rapt was her attention to the animated trains on the screen. Groaning again and knowing that her little fingers wouldn't be reaching for her volume button anytime soon, he stretched his arm across the bed and twisted his fingers into the back of her gown. It took little effort to slide her back towards him.

Ellie's responding giggle and lack of fussing as she was pulled backward testified to how frequently this act occurred. Her big hazel eyes twinkled at her drowsy father as he reached around her to hit the volume button himself. She pouted as the voices of her favorite characters became quiet murmurs, but surprisingly didn't complain. Instead, she flopped back against Connor's stomach, making him grunt a little at the sudden collision.

Connor eyed her fondly for a moment, "Want to snuggle with Daddy?"

Ellie smiled and nodded with a quiet, "Yeah."

He smiled gently and rolled onto his back, adjusting his pillow as he went. He barely managed to open his arm before his little girl tucked herself against his side. Her knees dug into his ribs as she rested her tablet on her legs and pillowed her head on his chest. He saw her thumb going to her mouth and barely managed to snatch her wrist back down. It was a habit that he and Sarah were trying to break her of, with mild success.

Ellie's responding huff signaled her displeasure, but it didn't take her long to become lost in her show again. Connor yawned and curled his arm around her waist as he felt sleep pulling at him once more.

When Sarah came out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, she couldn't help but snort at the sight that greeted her. Connor was well and truly dead to the world as their daughter clipped what looked like a small plastic purple butterfly barrette to his hair. It was one of several that she could see. Messy attempts at braids decorated his longer locks. She was mildly thankful she had left the mousse bottle in the bathroom. God only knows how much of that would have ended up in his hair.

The tablet her daughter had been enamored with moments ago was now discarded to the corner and her case with her hair supplies lay open and its contents strewn across the comforter.

Sarah bit the inside of her cheek as she eyed the mess. Maybe she shouldn't have spent extra time drying her hair. Still...

She quickly snatched her phone from the bedside table and snapped a couple of shots of the dubious hairstyling happening in her bed, "You making Daddy pretty, Ellie?"

The three-year-old hummed and nodded, intent on her work. Sarah snickered but quickly began gathering the clips and ties back into the hair case. Only when she reached for the comb and detangler bottle did she pull her daughter away from her father, "Come on, Ellie-bell. I think it's time we gave you pretty hair."

Ellie pouted as she eyed the comb in her mother's hand, "No bruss."

"Yes, brush," Sarah stated firmly as she soothed the little girl's curls with her fingers. She should have braided her hair last night before bed, "You have a pretty good rat's nest going. You don't want any rats crawling in there, do ya?"

"Yeah." Ellie drawled because anything was better than the comb pulling and yanking at her hair.

Amused, Sarah arched a brow, "Yes, you want a furry little creature with a long wormy tail crawling around in here? He'll gnaw away at these roots"

She lightly scraped her nails over Ellie's scalp and the little girl squealed, "No rats!"

"Then sit criss-cross apple sauce, so I can comb your hair." Sarah patted the floor in front of the full-length mirror, but Ellie continued to whine in protest. The high-pitch keening was something Sarah detested. She gave her daughter a stern look as she lowly warned, "Elowyn. Sit now, please."

Big crocodile tears gathered in the little girl's eyes, "No bruss, mama!"

"You can cry all you want little miss, but your hair is getting combed," Sarah said in the same stern quiet tone. She sympathized with her daughter, she really did. Getting her hair combed when she had been little was nothing short of a nightmare, especially since her mother had never had to deal with curly hair before Sarah had been born. A round brush had been stuck a few times in her young curls.

When Ellie didn't move any closer, Sarah was forced to reach over and plunk her down before the mirror after a minor struggle. She calmed slightly as the wet mist of the detangler caressed her forehead and the smell of lavender filled the air. However, the first shrieking sob echoed through the air once the child felt the teeth of the comb touch her scalp. Sarah could only shake her head, she hadn't even pulled the comb through her hair yet.

"Yes, I know I'm a mean mommy," Sarah murmured lowly as she gently pulled at the back of her daughter's tangled mess.

Ellie only cried louder.

Her distress was enough to rouse Connor again as he stumbled haphazardly from the bed to their walk-in closet where his girls were sitting.

"What's wrong?" Connor muttered as he tried to blink the room into focus.

"Her highness doesn't want her hair combed. She'll be fine in a few minutes." Sarah answered calmly before doing a double-take on her husband. He apparently hadn't felt the barrettes clinging to his hair when he got up. She grinned at the glimpses of pastel plastic that wavered in his dark mane, "Ellie look at Daddy. Look at him."

Tears continue to streak down Ellie's cheeks as she slowly swiveled to look at her father. A howl pitched from her lips until she caught sight of his hair and abruptly turned quiet. She stared fascinated.

Sarah bit back a laugh at her daughter's stunned expression, but took the break in the noise and quickly finished detangling the rest of her hair. Connor frowned in bemusement at his little girl's wondering expression as he reached up and touched his hair. His fingers collided with a hard bit of plastic and he pulled a green duck barrette from his strands in bafflement.

Ellie pointed, "Daddy need bruss."

"Yes, he does." Sarah agreed laughingly as she twisted her daughter's hair into two French braids.

"How many of these are in my hair?" He queried, as he felt more. Almost all were on the left side, but he didn't have the energy to figure out the clasps and left them in place.

"I don't know. Less than twenty, more than five." Sarah answered to his disgruntlement, "She was giving you pretty hair."

"Yeah, I feel like a real princess." He mumbled, slumping down on the floor next to the girls, "Where's Callum?"

"Probably still sleeping. It's barely seven-thirty. Early riser here got me up at six." Sarah answered as she finished tying off the ends of Ellie's plaits. She turned a critical eye on her husband's weary face, "Go back to bed, Babe. You don't need to be up."

He grunted nuzzling his face into her shoulder, "Kids will just get me up anyway."

She snagged a pair of matching barrettes from his hair and snapped them over the bands on Ellie's hair, "I'll keep the little monsters occupied. You need to sleep. You've been putting in a lot of hours at the hospital."

"Can I just sleep here?" He slumped further, draping half his body in her lap as his arms encircled her waist.

Sarah giggled and gently began removing all the hair clips and ties from his mane. She would be more than happy to let him sleep away against her, but then he actually wouldn't get any rest, "Then the kids really will get you up."

"Don't care. You're comfy and you smell good." He mumbled into her thigh, nearly purring as her fingers combed through his hair.

Ellie peered curiously at her father before leaning over and patting his scruffy cheek, "Aww, Daddy seepy."

"Daddy is very sleepy and needs to get up and go back to bed." Sarah agreed as she nudge him to move. He wouldn't cooperate, only shifting his weight to pin her down more firmly, "Babe, come on..."

"No."

She shook her head and caught her daughter's eye, "I think daddy needs kisses, Ellie-bell. Like Snow White."

"Kisses?" Ellie blinked as her mother nodded.

Connor pinched Sarah's waist in quiet chastisement, but before he could move his daughter was planting a sloppy kiss on his cheek before giggling as his scruff tickled her face. It was loud in his ear, but a grin stretched across his lips at his daughter's delight. He moved more swiftly than he felt as he swept his little girl into his arms and blew a raspberry into her belly, making her shriek with laughter.

"Daddy, no!" She cried still laughing as he tickled her.

Sarah grinned watching them as he trotted back to the bed. She stood, ready to get breakfast started once she retrieved her giggling princess. She'd be more than happy to help once she escaped from Tickle Monster Daddy.

"Mommy?" A weary little voice called.

"In here, Honey," Sarah called back.

She guessed all the noise had woken Callum. She picked up the hair supplies to return to the bathroom and exited to see her son climbing into her bed with the other two. Ellie had wiggled from her father's grasp and was slipping down the side of the bed under his watchful eye. Giggling as he made to grab for her, but she moved quicker darting to her mother's legs.

Callum wasn't nearly as lively as he fell against Connor. Only grumbling mildly as he was rearranged in his father's arms. It was obvious he was still half-asleep as he yawned into Connor's chest. Sarah's heart fairly melted as her boys snuggled up together and were fast asleep before she and Ellie could leave the room.

She raised her phone and took one last photo.