Alright~ three-day weekend right before starting a brand-new job that still feels super surreal. Honestly, I'm still waiting for the "Haha psyche! Gotcha!" email. Since I haven't gotten such an email yet, though, let's celebrate with more content! This chapter may end up being a bit 'short' but the next two are going to punch hard, so enjoy some fluff. =v=
Song Suggestion: Celebration by Kool and the Gang [It doesn't fit the chapter, but it fits my mood lmao]
Disclaimer: Despite the new job, I'm still not affiliated with Capcom vnv I am but a humble fan fiction writer who likes lore. Capcom, please don't sue.
A little over two weeks had passed since Chris's conversation with the director. Ever since then, he'd started spending his Lunch breaks in the file room and evidence locker rooms to dig for anything he could find. Chris breathed a heavy sigh as he put another folder onto a small pile before picking up another to sift through.
Even after two weeks, it felt like he barely made any progress at all. If he tried going file by file, he'd be here for years. Instead, he begrudgingly took the director's advice to check people close to the two of them first. Starting with the director himself.
"Let's get one thing perfectly straight. While my moral compass may not always point due north, I have some self-respect,"
Chris rolled his eyes as the director's words replayed in his mind. Did the director really think that would be enough to keep him from being seen as a suspect? Frankly, the amount of evidence he found over the last few weeks showed pretty clear indications of bribery. Sudden 'gifts' of equipment from blue umbrella lined up ever so nicely with rejected audit requests and canceled check-ups on the company's activity.
Despite this, Chris didn't find much in the way of proof that he was leaking information. The director's schedule was plainly accessible to anyone in the company, and each meeting in his calendar was documented with recordings in the file room. Again, the only exception being when he'd meet with blue umbrella, and there was practically nothing that suggested blue umbrella was tied to any of the recent events.
Another frustrated huff escaped him as he moved to check the time on his phone. September 12th, Tuesday, 12:48 pm. Upon seeing that, he put his phone away, and closed up the drawer he was previously searching through before grabbing the collection of files that supported the director's corruption. It wasn't much, but it was something. Chris had just about made it back to his office with the files when he noticed Lobo walking towards his office from the other direction.
Upon seeing Chris the heavy weapons specialist smile. "Ey yo Alpha," he calls with a wave. "Are you skipping lunch again?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey. Yeah, I just had a bit of work to catch up on," Chris offers as an explanation as he moved to open his door.
"Did you and Emma get into a fight or something? I haven't seen you miss a lunch break in years now," Lobo asks with some concern evident in his tone as he waits by the doorway while Chris heads into his office.
"That's not it, I'm just busy with some old reports. Keeping Rose requires a bit of additional paperwork now," Chris says while he moved to lock the files he found away in his desk.
"Alright, well, the team's starting to worry about you. Try not to over do it, okay?" Lobo says while continuing to wait. "We still have drills in 10 minutes, right?"
"Yep," Chris confirms with a nod. "So you better get moving, if I get there before you, you'll be doing laps."
"Sir yes sir," Lobo replies with a slight laugh in his tone before moving to leave.
Chris waits for Lobo to leave before relaxing slightly. He took the file out from where he stored it while he was being watched and put it in his actual hiding place in the ceiling by moving one of the foam tiles. If his desk got ripped open later, then he'd at least know who the mole is... Once that was safely tucked away, Chris made his way to the locker room, changed into his workout gear and from there he went to the gym. Hound Wolf was waiting for him, and all 5 were talking amongst themselves as they waited.
"Hound Wolf squad, round up," Chris shouts as he walked further into the gym while looking over the results from their last workout. Everyone was on track and meeting the standards set for them, that was good to see after the last gauntlet of missions and the injuries that came with it. "We're still on standby, so no new missions to report, but that's no reason to slack off,"
"Sir, yes sir!" the all shout in unison.
"Tundra, I want you on weights for today, Umber eye spot her and switch out every so often. Use your best judgement," Chris says, before looking to the others. "Canine, I'll be with you this time. You need to work on your laps for the day. Have the dogs run with you. If you can't keep up with them, you're not running fast enough."
"Yes sir," Canine answers and Chris nods.
"Night Howl, Lobo, I want you two to hit the range," Chris stays and once more gets a call of confirmation from the two. "After an hour, rotate. Tundra and Umber eye to the track, Canine to the range, and so on. For the final hour, we'll be doing hand-to-hand combat. If that's understood, then get to work." The team gave one more call of confirmation before breaking out into their assigned pairs for the daily workouts.
The hours passed by, and each group completed their workouts. After the final hour of hand-to-hand combat sparing, the group regrouped. Night howl stretched out a sore shoulder with a short laugh. "Umber eye what the hell man you nearly took off my arm," he jokingly accuses.
"I figured I'd save you a visit to the chiropractor is all," Umber eye says with a confident smirk.
"Are you looking to start up a new career, then?" Canine asks while Chris downed the last of his water bottle.
"Maybe. It could be a good side hustle while we're grounded," Umber eye teased in return.
"It's always work with you, huh?" Lobo asks and shakes his head. "We should get together for poker night again now that we have the time."
"I'd be down for that, it's been ages," Night Howl agreed as his shoulder finally clicked back into place.
"Who's turn is it anyways..." Canine asks.
"Pretty sure it's tundra's turn," Umber eye says with a nonchalant shrug.
"Oh like hell I'm letting you guys into my apartment," Tundra finally speaks up and laughs. "Alpha you have a house now. You have the most space of all of us. We can crash your place, right?"
"I have the space, but I have two kids with an 8 o clock bedtime," Chris points out with a slight frown.
"All the more reason to hang out at your place then, we haven't really even gotten to see the newest munchkin," Lobo says with a shrug.
"He has a point," Canine admits, while Night Howl nods in agreement.
Chris gives a defeated sigh. "I'll check with Emma."
"Thanks cap," Lobo says with a wide grin.
Chris shook his head and moved to get his phone out of his gym bag. His expression soured as he read his screen. 3 failed passcode attempts. Someone had tried getting into his phone?
Trust No One... Whoever it is. They're close.
Chris frowned and moved to look the device over. Once he was sure that there wasn't a bug attached to it, he put in his password so he could text Emma.
[Chris] Hey Emma. Hound Wolf was thinking about getting together for poker night sometime.
[Emma] Oh nice! Are they coming over this week or next week?
A soft smile formed after reading that. "Alright, she says you can come over." Chris announces, earning a few cheers of 'yes' and 'woohoo'. "When did you guys want to do that?"
"Should we aim for Friday?" Tundra suggests in return.
"This Friday works for me," Canine confirms.
"Same," Umber eye agrees.
"I'll bring the deck," Lobo says with a grin.
"Don't forget the chips this time," Night Howl adds, earning him a nudge from Lobo.
"Sounds like we're meeting on Friday then," Chris replies with an attempt at keeping his smile that threatened to fall... Which one of them tried getting into his phone.
'*'*'*'*'
The next three days were spent with a new research goal in mind. While he didn't like it, it was becoming more obvious the mole was likely on his team. One hour of digging each day for Three days wasn't enough time to find anything concrete, or really anything at all, but despite the guilt it caused him, he collected what he could.
Friday evening eventually arrived, and the small home was peacefully preparing for their expected guests. Emma was checking over the kitchen island, where a sea of bowls and plates filled with snacks were waiting to be consumed.
"Are we having a party?" Rose asks curiously as she stares at the collection of treats and rather easily snitched a few chips from one of the bowls. It was still strange to Chris to see how much Rose had grown. From the tiny toddler that couldn't make her way up and down stairs, to the now four foot and a few inches tall child that was about at Emma's shoulder.
"Hound Wolf squad is going to visit for a few hours to have a few drinks," Chris explains as he makes his way over and sneaks a chip as well.
"So we're having a party," Rose repeats with a nod.
"No. You're going to bed," He answers and lightly bats at Rose's hand as she tried to sneak a few more chips.
"What? No fair," Rose openly complained before looking to Emma. "Mooom," She whined, hoping to get sympathy. If one said no, then just ask the other, right?
"Bed time is 8 o clock," Emma says to try and back up Chris.
Rose crossed her arms with a frown. "... Chris snitched from the snack bowl," she tattled before turning to walk away, causing the fatherly figure to look at her in disbelief.
He could feel staring eyes burrowing in the side of his head. Sure enough, as he looked over he found Emma staring at him with an unimpressed expression with her arms folded. "She started it and I only took one chip," Chris says in response.
"Yeah, and she's going to bed in 15 minutes. Do you want to do the same?" Emma asks to voice her amused irritation. "I put together snacks for your friends, and you're going to eat before they get here." Chris walks over to Emma to put an arm around her and give her a peck on the forehead. She rolls her eyes at this but smiles all the same and gives him a peck in return. "I'm going to tuck Piers in to bed. Try not to eat everything before they get here."
"Alright," Chris agrees as he watches Emma walk over to the 'living room' section of the open space and look around. It took her a moment, but she eventually walked over and picked up Piers and carried him away.
While Emma was upstairs taking care of the baby, the doorbell rang. "I got it!" Rose shouts and hurries over to the door and unlocks it to find Hound Wolf squad waiting on the other side. "Hi." She greets, this was the worst they were going to get to stay up after bedtime and have fun without her...
"Hey Rosemary, how's it hanging?" Lobo asks and Rose looks away while kicking at dirt that wasn't there.
"What's wrong?" Umber eye asks as he notices the child pouting.
"I wanna stay up and play with you guys," Rose admits while looking at the group with sad, doughy eyes. "But Chris says I have to go to bed now."
"Seriously?" Night Howl asks as if Chris hadn't mentioned 3 days ago that Rose's bedtime was 8 o'clock.
"Alpha, get in here," Lobo says and waits for Chris to make his way over before speaking again. "What kid goes to bed at 8 o'clock on a Friday night?"
"It's the weekend, lighten up a bit man," Canine adds in agreement.
"It's a little strict," Tundra adds with a slight wince in her expression.
Chris looked over to Rose who was all smiles as the more of Hound Wolf squad had taken her side. Little shit.
"Pack rules?" Rose asks with a hopeful grin.
"That is not how that works," Chris replies as his unamused stare stays firm before looking at the rest of Hound Wolf squad.
"That's not how what works?" Emma asks with a confused expression as she starts making her way down the stairs.
"Rose is trying to invoke the Pack Rules code to say she can stay up late," Umber eye explains with an amused chuckle. "I'd say I'm on your side but, the vote's 5 to 3."
"Rose," Emma says in a chiding tone as she made her way to the bottom of the stairs and over to the group.
"Please mom?" Rose asks once more with a hopeful pout.
"Come on now, look at the little bean sprout. I get the 8 o clock curfew when she was a tike, but she's grown a fair bit since then," Lobo offers as a better argument on Rose's behalf. "Give it a test run."
Emma gives a quiet sigh while staring at Rose with a contemplative expression before looking at Chris who shakes his head while holding up his hands to signal he was not getting further involved. She looked at the other members of Hound Wolf squad "Pack rules huh?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.
"If I remember correctly, pack rules was what got you into your first poker night too," Tundra adds with a slight smile.
"It's basically a rite of passage," Canine further agrees with a nod.
Oh for the love of- "Fine, Fine. I'll allow it this once, but going forward, house rules trump pack rules," Emma declares while looking at each person to make sure they heard her. Rose was smiling ear to ear as her loophole worked for once. "If I hear one peep of a cranky child in the morning saying she's too tired to be awake, I'm going to be cranky."
"I'll be good, I promise," Rose says, still as happy as could be.
"Alright, go to the table," Chris says and Rose happily hurries away from the group to go and take a seat. "I hope you all know you're doing laps for that stunt," Chris says with a frown, he hated pack rules when it was used against him.
"Yes sir," The group reply with smiles, smirks and chuckles.
With that established, the group made their way over to the table and each one places a pack of beer down on the kitchen island.
"Lobo, did you remember the deck?" Umber eye asks as he moves to put his jacket on the back of the chair he picked and took a seat.
"Gott'em right here," Lobo says as he tossed the 3 decks and punishment deck to the center of the table.
Umber eye quickly picked up the punishment deck and tossed it back to Lobo. "Not with the kid."
"Yeah yeah good point," He reluctantly admits as he pockets it again and takes a seat as well.
"Who did the least reps?" Chris asks as he takes his place at the head of the table.
19, 12, 17, 21, 15. They each listed off before looking at Emma.
"I actually did 10 today," she said with a proud smile even if she was still the lowest number. "Chris as my witness."
"Not bad," Canine says with a nod of approval.
"She's catching up to you Tundra," Lobo teased.
"You're not doing much better, 15," She says and shakes her head.
"What's that?" Rose asks with a raised eyebrow.
"It's the number of times you do a set of exercises like crunches or pull-ups," Night howl explains with a nostalgic smile.
"Oh," Rose says while thinking it over and holding up her hand. "I did five of those." she says with a wide smile.
"Not bad Rose," Canine says with a nod of approval which caused the child to giggle while Emma collected the decks from the center and started to shuffle them.
"So, no chips this time too?" Emma asks curiously.
"Honestly, I just thought the cookie chip thing was more fun," Lobo admits with a shrug as the others stare at him with amused disbelief.
"I mean he's not wrong but still..." Night howl says with a tired sigh.
Emma shook her head and moved to get up and go to the table to start collecting cookies that she had made ahead of time. Meanwhile Chris stared at the others, making a mental note to add more laps. They were going to have Rose stay up well past her bedtime and manage to get her a metric ton of sugar too? He was going to have to deal with a cranky child and a cranky wife.
When Emma made it back to the table, she started sorting out the cookies. "Rose, if you run out of cookies you have to go to bed okay?" Emma explains just in time as the child was about to shove two of them into her mouth.
"Wha? Why?" Rose asks annoyed.
"Because the point of the game is to get all the cookies. So if you eat all your cookies or loose them all, that means you're done playing, and it's time for bed," Emma explains, which causes Chris to shift to try and hide his smile. "You're allowed to eat them but choose carefully."
Rose grumbles to herself for a moment before putting one of the two cookies back and munching on the other with the smallest bites possible to make it last longer. Once the cookies were distributed, Emma gave each person two cards and put one in the middle for the game to start.
Rose stared at the two cards she was given and looked at the card in the middle. Each person went around the table putting cookies out and waiting, leaving Rose confused when it came time for her turn. "Are these good cards?" Rose asks curiously and in her attempt to show Chris, ends up showing everyone.
"You're not supposed to show your cards," Chris says as he moves to try and block them, even if it was already too late.
"I don't know how to play," she whines with a pout. She was going to lose all of her cookies and have to go to bed at this rate.
Chris thinks it over. "okay she's sitting out for this round because everyone saw her cards. Agreed?"
"Fair," "sounds good" "okay" "got it," "no problem,"
"Rose come over here and sit with me okay?" He instructs, which caused the child to get up and move so he could hold her in his lap. Chris pulled out his phone and looked up a cheat sheet while the others continued the round. "You're trying to make patterns with the cards. Some patterns are harder to make than others. The more difficult patterns are worth more points. You put out more cookies if you're confident you have a hand is worth the most points."
"Okay," She says with a nod before reaching over to pull her cookie pile over as well. She intently stared between her card's Chris's cards and the sheet on the phone while watching what everyone else was doing. She was going to get all the cookies and stay up all night.
"Alright, show your hands," Emma says and everyone that was still in for the round did so.
"Two pair," Says Canine with a shrug.
"Three of a kind," Umber eye says and puts his cards down as well. no one else mentioned a better set so the cookies were pushed over to Umber eye, along with the deck to start the next round.
Rose held her cards and stared at them intently. She could do this. Eventually it was her turn. Chris had already put in his cookie for the round.
"Do you want to play this time or sit out again?" He asks, which earns a determined nod in response. "Okay, push one of your cookies over to the pile."
"Okay," Rose says with continued determination as she does what she's told while Chris moves his hand to make sure she didn't show her cards again. Another card was added to the center and another cookie. By the time the final card was in place, only Emma Rose and Canine were left. Rose looked over her cards then over to Chris. "Two cookies?" She hesitantly asks.
Chris gave a short nod in response.
Upon seeing the confirmation, Rose scoots out two more cookies. It was scary only cause half of her cookies were already gone now, but Chris said it was okay.
"Three of a kind," Emma says as she puts out a hand showing three 5's.
"Three of a kind, sevens," Canine says causing Emma to wince. "Sorry about that.
Rose happily giggles and puts down her two cards. "I gotta Five, six, seven, eight and a nine,"
"The kid got a straight on her second hand?" Tundra asks stunned.
"Looks like she's a good luck charm. Hey Rose, why don't you come help me instead," Lobo asks with a laugh as Chris makes a shooing motion with his hand before picking up his drink.
"Woohoo!" Rose happily cheers and giggles as the pile of cookies were pushed over to her. With so many extra she allowed herself to eat two more.
While Rose was happily munching away on her treat, Emma looked at Chris with a raised eyebrow. Chris shrugged in response before chuckling to himself as he put the bottle back on the table. "Alright, I'll deal for her," He says and takes over the deck.
This went on for quite some time. Cookie piles grew and shrank, bottles were passed around and emptied. It took a few hours but as 10 o clock arrived Chris found himself holding a tuckered out Rose who had curled up and fallen asleep with a cookie in hand. "Alright, pause," Chris quietly says as he moves to stand up while holding Rose. "I'll be right back."
"Good timing, where's the bathroom?" Tundra asks curiously.
"There's a washroom just past the garage door. It's the first door on the left," Chris says as he walks past the table.
"Thanks," She replies as she gets up and follows behind him.
Chris stopped and turned as he heard a door open behind him. "Wrong door, that's the basement."
"Right, my bad," Tundra says with a laugh. "I guess that explains why there were stairs instead of a toilet, haha, I must have had one too many."
"Yeah," Chris replies and shakes his head as annoying warnings played in his mind once more. Chris waited and watched as Tundra made her way to the correct door this time before heading upstairs with Rose. The agent gently places her in bed and moves to take the cookie from her hand, which he puts on her night stand for now, so he could tuck her in. After making sure her hair was out of her face, he gave a tired sigh and made his way back down the stairs with a contemplative expression.
The games picked up once more. Everyone was smiling and laughing, yet he couldn't shake this irksome nagging in the back of his mind.
3 failed passcode attempts
Trust No One... Whoever it is. They're close.
... So which one of them was it...
'*'*'*'*'
While the nagging feeling never truly left, there wasn't much that could be done until Monday. The weekend passed by arduously slow because of this. By Sunday evening, Chris was practically counting down the hours until he could get back into the office and keep digging around without raising any sort of suspicion. He tried to sit and relax with a book, but instead found himself blankly staring at the page as the rest of the house was blissfully unaware of his mental turmoil.
Rose was still happily running around taking picture with her phone. There were so many cool things she could do with the camera now that she discovered the power of filters! Piers was just as content with watching Rose hurry around the living room while he tried chewing on a plush toy. Meanwhile Emma was pacing around in the master bedroom while holding her phone to her ear.
"Of course, I think that's a wonderful idea. We'd love to see you," Emma says with a content yet somewhat strained smile. "Mhm, I just need to run that by Chris first and make sure that we don't have anything coming up," She adds while nodding and listening to the individual on the other end of the line. "I'll let you know as soon as I know," She confirms. "Nonono of course we want you to visit," Emma says as her eyes went wide and panic became more evident in her tone. "We just don't want any surprises while you're here, so we can enjoy your company is all."
again there was a pause as she paced around. "Absolutely, nothing is wrong. We just need to see what our schedule is going to be like around then," Emma reaffirmed before her expression shifted to deadpan annoyance. "Yep. I'm aware, we still need to check," She restates and waits once more for a response. "Okay, Love you too. Mhm. Bye," Emma says and hangs up before taking a deep breath. She made her way down the stairs and passed Rose who was in a hurry to go to her room. Emma's smile returned for a moment as she saw Chris and made her way over so she could talk to him.
"You're going to put a hole in the floor if you keep pacing in the same spot," Chris says with a slight smirk as Emma took a seat next to him with a tired flop.
"I love my parents, but they are so stressful to talk with on the phone," Emma says through a defeated sound that was halfway between a groan and a chuckle.
"Oh boy," That was not who he thought she was talking to... "What happened?" He asks with more gentle curiosity as he moved to close his book that he wasn't really reading in the first place.
"They're very emote based, and they need facial expressions or else they always assume that they're bothering you or that they've upset you, and it stresses me out which makes them think I'm upset, which stresses me out more and," Emma stopped to give another tired sigh.
"it's a self-perpetuating ball of stress," Chris says with an understanding nod as he moves to put an arm around her.
"Exactly," She confirmed as she moved to rest her head on his shoulder.
"So what did they call about?" Chris asks with continued curiosity. If it had her this stressed, it had to be something important.
"They want to visit in November for Pier's first birthday," Emma admits with a slight smile. It would be nice to see her mom and dad again.
"Really?" He asks with a confused expression.
"Yeah," She hesitantly replies. "Is that a problem?" Emma asks as the confusions spread.
"No, they're always more than welcome here," Chris affirmed before bobbing his head. "It's just, they didn't exactly visit for Rose's first birthday," Chris points out with a slight frown.
"They didn't know Rose existed during her first birthday," Emma sharply rebuttals and returns the soured expression. "Because someone said I wasn't allowed to tell them until the week before, and they would have had to pay an arm and a leg for last-minute flights to get here."
He might have, maybe, forgot about that part... Open eyes, raised eyebrows and a scrunched frown... Yep, he messed up. That was her 'ready for a fight' face. "I'm just saying, it feels like they're playing favorites. Rose has had two birthdays since then, and they didn't visit for either of those."
"You only get one first birthday," Emma says in return with an ever present disapproving frown. If he wanted to dig up that argument after so many years for a round two, she would gladly shut that down. "They visited as soon as they could once they found out."
"Alright," he says while giving her a gentle squeeze to hold her closer. "I'm not trying to start anything. Some memories are still a bit fuzzy is all."
Right... Her frown lessened ever so slightly, but after a few more moments she was able to start to relax again and let go of the 'prepared to fight' mentality. "If they ask to visit for his birthday again next year, I'll tell them no. At that point, I'll agree that they're playing favorites."
"Fair," He agrees before giving her a peck on the top of the head. "... Maybe they can spend some time one on one time with Rose while they're here. away from the house. If they want to."
"Oh really?" Emma asks with a genuinely surprised expression.
It took Chris a second to double-check her expression to make sure that wasn't another warning for a potential fight, but he nods. "If it's not until November, I can talk to the BSAA about getting her an escort. She won't know they're there," He confirmed. Part of him had some hope he'd have the whole mole situation figured out by then as well.
That made more sense. "Alright. I think that's a good idea," Emma agrees. "I'll bring it up when I call them back... Later, I'm too tired," Emma admits as she moves to snuggle a bit closer to her husband.
Chris chuckles at that and breathes a sigh of relief at the unspoken signal that all was forgiven. He moves to adjust his hold, so they could sit more comfortably. It was hard to believe Piers was going to be a full year-old in just two months. Chris looked over to Pier's blanket to find that he'd crawled away again. Where did the little pup crawl away to now... Chris surveyed the room. Piers wasn't trying to get to Duke. he wasn't pulling on the coffee table for the remote or the couch. or the toy box... "Emma, where's the baby?"
Hearing that question caused her to instantly sit up and look around. "What do you mean, 'Where's the baby?'," She asks and came to the same conclusion that Piers was no longer in the living room. Emma quickly got up and made her way around the couch. he wasn't in the dining room either. She looked under the table, and he wasn't hiding under there. "Piers?" Emma calls and Chris got up to start helping her look.
"How far could he have gotten? He can't walk," Chris asks with a panicked, exasperated expression while trying to figure out if he managed to squirm his way into the pantry. Still no baby.
"That didn't stop you when you had a leg in a cast," Emma points out in return.
"I already knew how to walk," He rebuttals As he leaves the kitchen with Emma not far behind him. As they made their way into the main entry of the house, some quiet, determined grunts and grumbles got their attention. While the two had been busy talking, Piers had watched Rose leave the room and wanted to follow her.
"Piers!" the two shout in unison as they hurry over to collect the infant from the stairs. Somehow, some way, he managed to climb up six stairs and was halfway through climbing the seventh, making it about halfway up the staircase.
The infant openly complained in inaudible baby babbling as he was picked up at first. It wasn't fair, he made so much progress on his own. Oh, it was mom and dad. Never mind, this was fine. Just that quickly, his grumbling was replaced with happy gurgles and giggles as the two parent shifted to sit down on the stairs so they could hold and coddle him.
"We need to get baby gates," Emma says after catching her breath from the heart attack that the baby's misadventures caused her.
"Yeah," Chris wholeheartedly agreed as he held Emma, who was holding piers. "You, are a troublemaker," Chris says as he gently messes up the tiny mop of wirey brown hair.
"You know, they say kids just give you every headache you gave your parents," Emma says with a slight chuckle.
"We're doomed," Chris replies as his laughter allows a bit more of the stress to dissipate. "Almost a year old already... Has it really been that long?" Chris asks while looking at the child. "It doesn't feel real sometimes."
"It's hard to believe," Emma quietly agrees.
"Yeah. It seems like it was just yesterday that I came home, and found you two in the nursery. He could barely open his eyes, now look at him," Chris says as he nudges the child's nose with the knuckle of his middle finger, causing the baby to make a face.
"Crawling around, looking for his next adventure and trying to give us both a heart attack," Emma says as she moves to give the child a peck on the forehead.
"It won't be long now, walking, running, lots of screaming," Chris says with another quiet chuckle.
"He's at least sleeping through the night pretty consistently now," Emma offers while thinking over the sleepless nights of taking care of the child. Doubly so on nights where he was sick or had an earache or a cough.
"Yeah..." Chris agreed though he couldn't help but feel some guilt as well. He missed the more of that phase. Emma had to shoulder the brunt of waking up and calming tears while he was trying to get his mind back in order.
"Do you wanna try saying dad again?" He asks the child while letting them grab onto his fingers. " Can you say dada?" he coaches.
Piers remained more interested in the hand that was bigger than his face.
Emma shifted to hold Piers so he was facing her. "can you say Mama," She asks and the baby giggled while trying to reach for her hair.
"Mahmah" Piers parrots back.
Hearing that caused Emma to smile from ear to ear. "that's right, mama." she happily cooed.
"No, nono. That's not what he said. He said bahbah," Chris rejects with a slight frown. "When did he eat last?"
"Mhm," Emma replies with a slight smirk. She knew what Piers said.
"MAMA" Piers says again while continuing to reach for her.
Chris looked from Piers to Emma and back again before speaking. "He still said dad first," Chris says with a slight pout.
"Did he though?" Emma asks with a laugh.
"If a tree falls and there's no one to hear it, does it still make a sound?" the father figure asks in return as his half-hearted frown remained.
"Okay,"Emma relents for the more part before continuing. "His first word is without prompting. Deal?"
"Deal," Chris agrees. While part of him wanted to point out that Piers didn't need prompting before, he also did already know and understand at this point that in order for it to be a 'word' there had to be a conscious understanding and not just a babble that sounded like the word.
"We got this, we just got to practice is all," Chris says as he moves to take Piers from Emma.
"No prompting," Emma reminds him as she allows Chris to hold the child.
"Yeah yeah," He agrees before giving Emma a peck on the cheek. This right here was worth the stress, the headaches and homesickness. His home, his kids, his family, it was all worth protecting. He just needed to keep working a little harder.
Tadah~ got some good old fashion fluff =v= Piers is getting older and so is Rose. Something says Chris and Emma going to have their hands full once she's a teenager haha. Next up is October~ who's ready for Baby's first Halloween Piers edition X'D cause I can't not do that.
