All familiar characters still belong to Janet. The new guys, Olive, and any mistakes, are mine.
"There's Mama's little Cuddle Cutie," Stephanie said, when we all walked into the lobby of the Rangeman building.
She had called Ella to see where Olivia was in her nap and to tell her we were on our way home, and we learned our baby was already up and on the move. We could hear her talking to Ella, Gene who's on front desk-duty, and our dogs, in her strung-together 'Buhs', happy screeches, and excited gurgles. Seeing us come in, our baby squealed louder and put her wiggling into overdrive until Ella set her down. She crawled over to her Mama, sat down with a decisive padded-butt-drop, and held out her arms to be picked up, which Steph did.
Not only is my wife proud of the fact that she can keep up with me and my men, she was ecstatic to find only the soles of her boots dirty from our time in the woods. She was able to scoop up our daughter without worrying about contaminating her with the filth or the evil we've encountered. Stephanie's days of rolling in garbage are forever over.
"We missed you," she told Olive, kissing her and giving her a hug that Olivia reciprocated with all four of her limbs. "I hope you had as much fun playing as Daddy and I did."
"I doubt that," Snare said from behind us.
"Hear that voice, Olive? Daddy and I left, but we came back with even more Uncles for you. Mo, Gunny, be nice to the guys. They come in peace."
Our dogs each took a man to inspect before moving onto the next. When both noses went over every inch of their quarry, they switched and did the same nose-scans on the ones they hadn't personally gone over yet.
"Jesus," Sampson said. "Airports have less security than these two provide."
"Maybe we'll lease them out on weekends," I responded. "As you can see, this is our daughter Olivia and her dogs Gunner and Ammo. You've heard me mention Ella and Gene."
They gave Ella and Gene a polite nod and focused on our watchdogs.
"They'd fit right into our team with those names," Snare told us, scratching Gunner behind the ears.
"And the skills they've learned since we adopted them," I replied, petting Ammo's flank.
"They have matured quite a bit since we brought them back from Miami." Steph looked down at Olive after commenting. "Wanna show your new Uncles what kind of kisses you give your RangeUncles?" She asked our baby, like she knows exactly what was said instead of only recognizing a word or two.
She tipped her head against her Mama's and kissed the palm of her little hand, folded all five fingers down to capture the kiss, and then she drew her arm back and hurled her affection towards Snare, Sampson, Slipdisk, Lincoln, Torch, and Vice.
"Olivia loves so enthusiastically, she doesn't blow her kisses," I informed my men, "she throws them."
Today is a good day for them to be brought to their knees. My daughter is wearing her giraffe outfit, which had pink leggings with red polka dots everywhere to match the pink and red baby giraffe on her shirt. What makes my mother squeal like her granddaughter, are the pink 'Mary Jane' shoes with the pom poms stuck to the sides of them. Olivia likes them because she can amuse herself by batting or grabbing the pink puffs whenever she's bored with crawling or attempting to get herself standing.
Luckily for the men's reproductive systems, she had been napping and didn't have on the complementary hat that has tiny ears or she would've killed them on sight. Vice blew her a kiss back ... and the men collectively groaned when her grin held nothing back and her baby tooth and dimples made an appearance.
"Holy sh ..." Snare started to say, but Woody interrupted him as he exited the stairwell.
"Watch the words," he said. "We've got a zero-swear tolerance in place here."
"We do?" Steph asked, as Olive threw him a kiss … which he caught like a seasoned pro.
"Sorta," Ram replied, having come down with Woody and Lester. "We were told Olive had some admirers we need to keep an eye on."
"Admirers? That's a word even Grandma Mazur won't use ... claiming it's too 'old-fashioned'."
"We couldn't use the word that was said in the control room," Santos added. "Zero swear-tolerance and all."
"If Kane wasn't able to make it out of the building with our baby, you guys should be able to relax around this group. I can't wait for Kane and Harper to have their little girl, then Olive and I can get a protection-breather."
"Not likely, Babe."
"I didn't think so. Okay, everybody, let's head up to seven and turn this into a real party ... well, a baby-friendly one."
"I think it's safe to say that Olive is the life of any party," I said, lifting our baby from her Mama's arms.
As expected, her mouth immediately collided with my cheek. Whether by kiss or by teething-necessity, it's a welcome feeling.
"Someone's got her Daddy hooked, reeled in, and already on a spit over the campfire," Snare commented.
Olivia hasn't reached the stranger-anxiety stage yet, and he knew I'd use multiple snares, hooks, and fires, on him if he did anything beyond make her smile, so I passed my daughter to him and let Olive work her magic on the smartass. Hopefully, she'll be so distracted by his wrist-to-elbow tattoos on both arms, she won't run the risk of falling for the pretty face and brooding look he's perfected. If I weren't who I am, I would've kept Stephanie far away from him.
"I give you five seconds with Olivia before you want a baby of your own," I told him.
"Kane will testify under oath to that one," Steph helpfully added.
His eyes shot back to my daughter as if she's an explosive I just threw at him with a friendly 'Catch!'
"You'll be fine," I assured him. "If you don't look her in the eye or let her kiss you. Elevator's this way."
My men, visitors and home team, separated and either took the stairs or followed us into the elevator set for seven. By the time we passed the fourth floor, Snare was shoving Torch away from him and Olivia with a boot-sole to the ass.
