by Aiden Bates
Viola.
“Like, from Twelfth Night. Because she’s due around Christmas?” I’d suggested one day, proud of my stroke of genius and the sheer subtlety of my pun.
“Hello there, sweetness,” I said as I held her close so she could hear my familiar heartbeat. “I’m your Papa, yes, I am! And there’s your Daddy.”
I looked up at Roman who stood beside me, his face full of awe. He slowly reached out and gently stroked a finger over Viola’s cheek.
“Oh my god,” he said as if he’d never seen a baby before. I smiled and placed a gentle kiss on top of Viola’s head while subtly counting all her fingers and toes.
“Okay, we have to get her weighed and cleaned up, and then we’ll give her back to you,” a nurse said as she carefully took Viola out of my arms. I wanted to protest, but I knew the routine so nodded slowly.
“An orderly will bring you to your room.”
I glanced up at Roman again who watched the nurse put Viola on the weighing scales. I don’t think Roman had eyes for anyone else right then, his protective instincts no doubt coming to the fore.
“She’s beautiful,” Roman said, still looking at his daughter. “Which means she’s going to catch some alpha’s eye in the future. Which is not happening,” he added, looking back at me.
I laughed and then threaded my fingers through his, pulling him down for a soft kiss. “Let’s see what she wants,” I said because I was making sure my baby girl got whatever she wanted.
It wasn’t much later that I was sitting up in bed with a freshly washed, powdered and diapered bundle of joy, cradled in my arms.
Roman had kept me up to speed on what was happening so I knew my papa Roland was still on his way and would be in later today if not tomorrow, but it was my dad I was interested in introducing Viola to.
“Dad, come and say hello to your granddaughter.” My dad stood up and slowly peeked over. Viola didn’t seem entirely too impressed as she blinked up at him with sleepy, half-lidded eyes. When my dad nodded curtly and stepped back, I glanced at Viola.
“That’s alright, sometimes he takes some warming up to. You’ll like him when you get to know him,” I said.
Roman looked a little dubious and I would have nudged him in the ribs if I wasn’t holding his daughter. My dad huffed but refrained from saying anything when Naomi bustled into the room with Lucy following closely behind.
“Did you submit your final line of code?” I immediately asked.
“Teddy!”
“What? It’s a reasonable question.”
“Yes, I did. Now, let me have a look.” Funnily she did the same as dad, just seemed to stretch over and peek at Viola. I got the impression she was trying to avoid giving Lucy any ideas about babies. Lucy, for her part, clapped her hands together softly.
“Que linda!” she whispered.
“Cute,” agreed Marcos gruffly from across the room. I hadn’t heard him come in, and I gave him a warm smile. It was good to see him, which I’d hardly done in months. He spent so much time at Pedro’s bedside I doubted many people saw him outside of a hospital.
I spent the next few minutes chatting with Naomi and Lucy who eventually said their goodbyes and promised us many postpartum casseroles up until the date of our departure to Montana.
Not long after, and before I had much chance of resting, Silas and Charlie entered, Silas in a complete fluster.
“I’m sorry, Teddy. Garret said he’s on his way, he’s just with the baby right now and…oh…oh, goodness…” As he came face to face with Viola he turned to Charlie. “Oh, Charlie, look. Come here and look, she looks like—”
Charlie, who had leaned over Silas to look at her, stepped back with his hand lightly clasped over his mouth and sniffled in agreement.
It was in the bridge of her little nose, snub as it was, and it was in her forehead. You could already tell. Something about her wasn’t mine and wasn’t Roman’s. Something high-browed and high-boned about her gave off the serious air my father had to him and he’d inherited to…
“Jason,” Roman said, quietly, which made Charlie quickly and discreetly wipe at his eye.
We all chatted in hushed whispers so as not to disturb her. Suggestions were made about the proper care and feeding of babies, which were then hastily disputed, re-discussed, re-proposed, settled, and then re-hashed. I was seriously considering asking someone to write a book, when Charlie said he had to go. Marcos had already left, so Silas said he’ll go with him.
I think I counted less than a minute when I heard feet running down the hallway and into the room. Who knew having babies could be so tiring?
“I’m so sorry, Teddy,” Benny said, with a look on his face that said he’d been mentally kicking himself for not being able to come sooner. “I couldn’t get off work any earlier. I tried. I about told them I was coming down with something contagious just to be let off. There she is!” Bennet said before focusing completely on Viola and forgetting the rest of us.
“Dad, you remember Benny. Maybe. He used to come over all the time?”
“Yeah, right,” Benny said, without looking up from my sleeping daughter. “The Sergeant won’t remember me.”
“Like hell, I wouldn’t,” Dad grumbled. “That scratch on the truck never completely buffed out after your little midnight test drive with Teddy.”
Roman snorted. “Well, now. You ain’t never mentioned that before, Mr. Goody Two Shoes. What kind of example is that for our child?”
“Don’t let him fool you. He’s no angel. It was his idea,” said Benny, adding fuel to the fire.
Dad’s tolerance for chit chat had evidently run fairly low, so not long after Bennet had arrived, he bent down to hug me as I sat in the hospital bed, exchanged firm handshakes with Roman, and he left.
“What’s up? What’s wrong?” Bennet asked, somehow feeling a minute change in the tenor of the room without taking his eyes off Viola for even a moment.
“I’m worried about the old man, that’s all,” I admitted. “He couldn’t hold off Roman’s transfer forever and when I’m in Montana… I don’t know, I felt it’s like he only just now developed a family and we’re leaving him again. Who’s going to force him to take his meds when I’m gone?”
“Who? Sarge?” Benny asked, laughingly. “You’ll figure it out. You could probably program a drone to deliver him a care package every so often or something.”
“Er…yeah, I was thinking of something like that,” I said, shrugging lightly.
Roman chuckled at his phone screen and murmured something that sounded like, “Good one.”
“Oh, nice, Teddy. No. I’m not going over. I barely know your Dad, besides, he scares me.”
“That ain’t a reason,” Roman replied. “He scares everybody, and somebody’s got to do it.”
“Why me?” Bennet protested. “Why not Charlie or Silas?”
“He and Charlie would just talk about Jason, which isn’t healthy for either of them, and Silas is busy with baby Jason. Come on, he doesn’t talk much, he just likes to have dinner with someone twice a week.”
“Oh, it’s dinner now too? Do I also have to entertain him? Take him out to see a movie bimonthly?” Bennet asked, sounding increasingly desperate at what was being asked of him. “Anyway, what’s in it for me?”
“You can come stay with Teddy twice a month,” Roman offered out of nowhere. He just knew to make arrangements for my best friend and my Dad because he knew I’d worry after them both being left alone. Roman must have also accounted for the fact that I wouldn’t have much in the way of support up there in the wilds of Montana. He was a genius, that Roman Carpenter.
Bennet seemed to think it over, or at least, he pretended to think it over.
“Fine. I’ll do it. On condition I get a bi-monthly, round trip ticket to Montana. I don’t even care about seeing Teddy. I just want to be able to fly out to see the nugget,” he said, and I don’t think he was completely joking.
“Uncle Benny is the best uncle b
ecause he’ll have dinner with mean old grandpappy just to be able to see his princess, yes, he will! Yes, he will,” he said tenderly until he threatened to wake her up with his cooing, prompting the nurses to ask him to leave as politely as they could.
“I’ll be back,” Benny threatened as he left the room. “I’m like family. You’ll see, I’ll be back, Vi. I’ll be back.”
“Well, hell, I thought they were never going to leave,” Roman observed as the curtain drew to a close and we heard the door to the room click shut. He took Viola from my arms and gently placed her in the bassinet beside me. The way he tucked her in, so gently, made my heart ache.
“They won’t. When one of them finds out Benny is allowed to come see us, it’ll be a revolving door at our place,” I said, shaking my head at the idea.
He huffed softly in return and hummed in a pleased sort of way.
“Our place,” he said, savoring the words. “I like the sound of that.”
“Yup,” I agreed, settling back into my pillows. Briefly letting myself dream of the future, I started running happy simulations in my head for once. “Our place.”
“Don’t go around Master Sarge Carpenter’s place,” I said, giving voice to one hypothetical. “He’s got the prettiest little girl in the county but he’s a hell of a shot and so are his kids. Even the little girl.”
“Especially the little girl,” Roman declared. “Why, I even heard that scrawny omega of his has the place rigged with cameras. You’re liable to get droned before you set foot on their porch. Best give the O’Rourke-Carpenters a wide berth, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, the O’Rourke-Carpenters,” I said, smiling and finding the outcome of this simulation very satisfactory.
Epilogue
Roman
Somewhere, someone was crying.
I woke up all at once. The habits of the Army died hard, and one of them was the ability to snap awake completely at a moment’s notice. It came in handy in times like these. What woke me was shrill cries, relayed through the baby monitor on the nightstand. I rolled over in bed to ask Teddy whose turn it was when I found the bed empty; Teddy’s side stone-cold and still neatly made. Hmm. Interesting.
The house in Montana was huge. All the space out here convinced everyone that everything could be double the size we’d been used to in South Carolina, which turned out to be a good thing. With Teddy working from home and the baby taking up more space than one tiny critter ever had reason to, we needed all the space we could get. Babies just came with so many…accessories. I scrubbed my face before hauling myself out of bed and making my way down the dark hallway to Viola’s nursery.
Her cries got louder as she realized someone was within earshot.
“Hey now, what’s all this about? Hmm? Shh, come on now, sweet girl.” I picked her up, snuggling her to my chest as she cried. I checked her diaper just to be sure, but the middle of the night feeding was routine at this point. “You’re hungry, aren’t you, princess?”
Her pitiful, little sobs seemed to get that much more pitiful as if in answer to my question. We got to the kitchen and before long I had a bottle warmed up and ready to go. Her hazel eyes, still shiny with tears, lit up at the prospect before I guided the nipple to her mouth. As she guzzled, I wandered the house. I was ninety-nine percent sure exactly where I’d find Teddy, but it helped wake me up a little more, and gave Viola some time to eat her midnight snack. I didn’t mind getting up with Viola, would have done it all the time except Teddy insisted otherwise. I guess he still felt guilty I had to be up at three in the morning for work. But I liked it. The house was calm and dark, and I had time to think about things at my own speed. Teddy spent most of the day with her, but I was stuck on base screaming at grunts and doing mountains of paperwork. These times at night were a nice way for me to bond with Viola, and it gave poor Teddy the opportunity to sleep. His job had gotten more and more intense now. Just like anything, success bred more work. I worried about him sometimes, but the excitement he felt when a piece of the project fell into place, the look of accomplishment on his face, was enough to keep me quiet.
The last few months had been a whirlwind. When Viola was born it felt like that alone was enough of a change for at least the next ten years, but the move had happened pretty quickly after that, as had Teddy’s new job. Montana was different, certainly. The base was smaller here, quieter. Moving in February to somewhere so far north had been…an adventure to say the least. Between spending my whole life either in the humid heat of South Carolina or the dry scorch of Malmur deserts, I thought I was going to freeze to death. Now, though, we were enjoying the benefits of a cool spring compared to the Indian Summer that had plagued Teddy during the second and beginning of the third trimester of his pregnancy. Things were finally feeling like they were falling into place now though. We missed everyone, but it was also nice to have this time for us, for our little family. Besides, Logan and Silas and everyone else were always just a video call away.
I headed across the living room and down another hallway to a closed door with soft yellow light pouring in from underneath. I opened the door to find Teddy fast asleep. His head was tossed back against the headrest of his office chair, a half-drunk cup of coffee by the keyboard where his hands were still placed. The console in front of him was filled with what I was sure were pages and pages of x’s all over the screen.
“See? Looks like even Papa has to sleep sometimes,” I said, hoping Viola would catch my drift and fall asleep as well, now that she was fed. Viola looked at me blankly, clearly unimpressed with the suggestion. “Little one, if you only get a sliver of your papa’s work ethic, it’ll be a good and gracious plenty.”
I stroked Teddy’s hair gently, whispering his name over and over again until honey-colored eyes opened blearily. He grumbled at first, moving away from my touch and pulling a face—not unlike someone else I knew—before he realized where he was.
“Roman?” he asked, confused. “What happened?”
“Hey, sleepyhead. You fell asleep is what happened.”
Teddy blinked a few times and moved his hands, stretching. His eyes scanned the screen in front of him, and he swore. He was reaching over to begin fixing it when Viola began reaching for him. There was no hesitation. Teddy took her, screen seemingly forgotten, snuggled her into his neck and kissed the side of her head before he stood up, rubbing her back as he did so.
“Hi, darling. Have you been having a good time with Dad?”
I hummed a yes. “She’s already eaten and everything.”
Teddy crooned at her—just gibberish in a low, soothing voice, and she settled down completely, happy to be in the arms of her most favorite person. I didn’t blame her. Teddy was my most favorite person, too.
They looked so perfect I was helpless to do anything but wrap my arms around them both. Teddy leaned his head against my chest, and I buried my nose in his soft hair. We didn’t really say anything, just stood there in each other’s company. After a minute or two, I kissed him.
“Come on. You need to get to bed and get some rest.”
In a testament to how tired he was, Teddy just said, “Okay.”
We took Viola back to her nursery, nestling her down in her white crib. Teddy had spent months researching every single thing in Viola’s nursery for age-appropriateness and brain stimulation. Well, almost everything. Asking Teddy about paint colors had resulted in a forty-five-minute lecture about color theory and emotional intelligence. I just told him I liked that light purple one because it reminded me of the name we’d picked for her. Violet, Viola? No? Teddy hadn’t been completely impressed with my argument, but when I’d come home the next day, two gallons of ‘Light Violet Fog’ paint had been waiting in the room.
We watched as Viola’s hand went up above her head, my own preferred way to sleep, and made contact with the soft gray elephant. Her granddad had sent it up with his latest box of what Logan called ‘supplies,’ and what we called ‘toys to spoil his granddaughter absolutely rot
ten with.’ Okay, maybe we didn’t call them that because that is a mouthful, but you get the idea. Logan tried to downplay it, but Viola was the apple of his eye. Maybe it was him getting older or maybe it was Teddy and him seeming to bury the hatchet, but he was tender with her in a way I’d never seen him be before. I would have given him hell about it if I wasn’t wrapped around her little finger, too.
Teddy turned on her mobile, and with her belly full, it was only a minute or so before her long eyelashes drooped shut against her velvet-soft cheeks. She was, from the moment I saw her, the prettiest baby I’d ever seen. Teddy said I was biased. I said she just happened to get the very best from both of us.
After her breaths evened out, I took my husband by the hand and led him to bed.
I lay on my back and waited for the routine. And sure enough, Teddy snuggled down against my chest. I waited for him to get good and comfortable before I tried, again, at having the conversation I’d first had with him a month or so ago.
“You know, we can afford a nanny if you need help during the day. I don’t want you throwing your back out in that office chair.”
Teddy waved me off. “No, it’s just I have the project deadline coming up, that’s all. Sorry, I really didn’t mean to fall asleep there. I just got in the zone and then I must have just passed out.”
“Well,” I said carefully. “Maybe having someone entertain Viola for a few hours a day would give you the break you need to really focus in on your work.” I’d meant every word of what I’d promised Teddy. Being a parent and a husband didn’t have to mean anything for his career. As much as I could help it, I was determined to make sure Teddy really did have it all just the way he wanted it.
