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Quill was just finishing getting dressed after his shower at the station when his Gaze started to take over. The crew at the station still didn't know of his godly heritage so he had to hang his head and cover his eyes so his galaxy eyes weren't seen while he tried to figure out who was in danger. Or potential danger. Scott was out of town for work and would be gone for a few days, but it didn't look like it was him that was in trouble so it had to be one of the girls. He did a quick check on Diana and Valerie, but they were playing quietly at home with paints under the close eye of Stephen. His last person to check was Cassie but she just seemed a little upset and relatively unharmed in--
Hold on.
"SHIT!" Quill curses and looks back up once his Gaze fades away.
He had never dressed and left the station so fast. His fellow firefighters gave him somewhat of a bewildered look when he tore out of the building, and he barely managed to say goodbye to them as he raced to his car. He drove home as fast as possible without breaking too many laws, and jumped out of the car when he parked in the tower's garage, taking the elevator up to his and Scott's floor. Quill taps his foot impatiently as the elevator goes up, and the moment the doors open he almost trips over himself when he exits.
Of course what he saw in his gaze would have been seen by the two AI's controlling the tower, because in the living room sitting on the couch was Stephen and Cassie...except the teenager was now a baby. The sorcerer must have been able to calm her down since the cries Quill saw before were now periodic sniffles.
"What happened?!" Quill wheezes out and both couch occupants look over at him.
Cassie immediately held her arms out for him. "Papa!"
"Baby girl...what happened?" Quill repeats as he takes his newly infantized daughter from Stephen.
"I believe Scott's particles might have had something to do with it."
Stephen motions toward the broken vial sitting on the coffee table and Quill raises an eyebrow at it as Cassie wraps tiny arms around his neck. The vial had obviously been moved from where it had originally broken, but Quill wondered why the entire tower hadn't been shrunk. Why only Cassie, and why was she around them in the first place? Maybe the tower was too big? He vaguely recalled Scott explaining something like this.
"Wasn't she in our closet?" The celestial asks and Stephen nods.
"Victor alerted me to her incident so I came down to check on her. I found her in your closet with a broken vial next to her." Stephen stands and brushes non-existent dirt off his pants. "She's extremely lucky. Under normal circumstances those particles would have turned her into a glob. It's only safe to use with the suit."
"Shit...do you know how we can change her back?"
"No. I can talk to Tony, but we may need to wait until Scott gets home."
Quill hooks an arm under Cassie. "I thought Pym gave in and let Tony know how to make the particles?"
"As long as he promised to make it only for Scott's suit and discs. Not experiment with it or use it for something else...but considering the circumstances, I'm sure Hank will understand." Stephen sighs as he walks to the elevator. "I'll keep you updated."
Quill nods and mutters his thanks before the sorcerer disappears onto the elevator, and the god gently rubs Cassie's back when she nuzzles her face into his neck. He was royally fucked. He really had no idea how to take care of a baby by himself, and since Scott was working out of town, that was exactly what Quill was stuck doing. Sure he helped babysit Valerie on a regular basis, and Diana was down here more often than not...but Scott was always home for Valerie and Cassie usually tended to Diana. Now Cassie was the one that needed to be taken care of and Quill was not looking forward to learning how to change a diaper through trial and error.
He didn't have a choice though. Quill wasn't about to dump the responsibility on Stephen, because Cassie was his. He just had to hope Tony could figure something out or Quill would be taking care of baby Cassie until Scott came home. As wonderful as Cassie was, he doubted Scott would want to raise her all over again. Even if he missed out on five years of her life. Those were early teen years...not baby years.
"Okay, Sunshine. We'll figure this out. In the meantime, how about we take a nap? Papa is burnt out." Quill asks, and to his relief, Cassie nods in agreement.
The stress of her situation probably caught up to her and left her exhausted. So after a brief check to make sure she was indeed wearing a diaper, Quill carries her up to the master bedroom and changes out of his station uniform and into a pair of shorts after laying Cassie on the bed. While he changed, she crawled toward the head of the bed and then under the covers to wait for her papa to join her. Quill yawns and crawls under the covers, and he smiles when Cassie immediately curls up against him once he's settled.
"Comfy baby girl?"
"Warm." The baby replies quietly.
They both fell asleep within minutes after that and Quill was able to enjoy a good two hour nap before Cassie was awake and patting his chest to rouse him. He groans from the seemingly very short rest and lifts a hand to rub the sleep from his eyes before looking at whoever had woken him. When big brown eyes stared back at him, he was immediately reminded of his situation with Cassie...and then a bit of a problem when she spoke.
"Hungry."
Quill sits up with a curse. "Shit! We're going to have to go upstairs Cass. Papa can't cook you anything edible and Dad isn't home."
"Kay." Cassie responds softly.
The celestial gets out of bed and pulls on a shirt before picking up the baby and leaving the master bedroom. Quill tiredly takes the elevator up to the penthouse, noticing with a grimace that Cassie's diaper was not dry, and sighs heavily. He would have to get some diapers and whatever else baby stuff he needed from Stephen and also try and figure out how to change the damn thing in the first place. As much as Stephen loved the kids, he would undoubtedly make Quill do the dirty work. Maybe the sorcerer would at least show him how to do it. The less time he had to spend changing diapers, the better.
He just hoped that Cassie wouldn't remember this like Peter didn't remember a couple times he had been miniaturized. She would probably be mortified and that in turn would make Quill uncomfortable.
"I was wondering when you two would come up." Stephen chuckles from the kitchen when Quill steps off the elevator.
"Do you have any diapers?" The god asks and the doctor nods.
"Harley, finish making the hamburgers while I help Quill please."
Harley laughs when he sees Cassie. "Oh man! Has Peter seen her yet?!"
"I doubt it. The hamburgers?"
"Yeah Mom. I got it."
Harley walks into the kitchen and takes over cooking dinner while Stephen leads Quill up to the master bedroom. As Quill sets Cassie on the bed, Stephen disappears into the closet for a few brief moments, mumbling to himself as he looks for the stash of baby items, and then comes out with an assortment. Much to Quill's relief, Stephen did show him how a diaper worked and how to properly clean Cassie before putting a clean one on. The celestial of course was already glad that this baby thing was temporary because when Stephen told him he was going to be changing diapers multiple times a day, he was positive that he openly grimaced. The doctor then sent some of the necessities down to Quill's floor through a portal after Cassie was all cleaned up, and they returned down to the kitchen to find the baby something to eat.
"Is that Sissy?!" Diana exclaims when she sees Cassie in one of Quill's arms.
"Yes it is." Stephen confirms. "She's only a baby until Daddy finds a way to fix her."
"Speaking of," Quill starts. "What has he said?"
"He said, and I quote, 'I figured out time travel. This is cake. Give me a few hours.'"
"Man I hope so. If this isn't fixable, Maggie is going to have a conniption and Scotty is going to be upset--"
"Quill. Relax. Worst case scenario, you have her like this overnight." Stephen assures.
"I think I can manage that."
Quill sits at the table and sets Cassie on his lap as Harley sets a plate with a couple of fixed hamburgers for the celestial in front of him, and Stephen sets a few baby safe foods next to it. Cassie was old enough to grab and eat what she wanted without Quill's help, so all the god did was keep an arm wrapped around her while he used his free hand to eat his hamburgers. Stephen, Harley, and Diana joined him at the table with their own burgers and even Tony came up to eat dinner as a small break before he returned to finding a way to reverse Cassie's predicament. Valerie was in her high chair eating some cereal puffs before Stephen was ready to feed her some of her baby food, and when Peter came back from patrol...he saw Cassie and actually froze. He stared for a good thirty seconds before doing exactly what Cassie had done to him when he was turned into a baby.
He ignored her.
Quill couldn't really blame the teen. He heard about when Tony and Stephen were turned into babies at separate times and how the other had to care for their significant other, and he sincerely hoped it never happened to him or Scott. Scott may have experience with babies and have an easier time, but Quill did not. Right now, Cassie was all the experience he was going to get and he wasn't keen on going through this again. Especially if it was with Scott. It just sounded weird.
"I should have something in the morning Porcupine. Can you take care of her until then or is Cassie going to be found in the middle of chaos?" Tony teases and Quill grumbles.
"Tony, be nice. He's doing just fine." Stephen says and the engineer raises an eyebrow at the sorcerer.
"I'm surprised she's not with you. You're usually a baby hoarder."
Stephen snorts. "I had my time with her this afternoon."
Valerie calls for Stephen softly to get his attention, and the sorcerer is successfully distracted by the actual baby by feeding her. Once Quill was finished with his dinner, he looked down at Cassie and huffs fondly when he found her face covered in sticky residue. That was cleanable with a washcloth and the rest of her (and him) were free of food so Quill wouldn't have to give Cassie a bath which he was thankful for. He would do anything for the girl, but the less he had to do for her as a baby, the better. He was used to parenting a teenager that could care for herself...babies and children (Diana and Valerie) were just played with and given to Scott if a diaper change was needed or if they got hungry.
That just made him sound irresponsible. Yikes.
"All done Cass?" Quill asks, and she nods. "What do you say to Mama Bear?"
"Tank you!" Cassie says with a smile in the sorcerer's direction. Stephen's eyes visibly lit up.
"Thanks Stephen. We'll go back downstairs and maybe watch a movie before heading back to bed." Quill says as he stands.
"Let me know if you need any help."
Quill nods and takes his and Cassie's plates to the sink before taking the elevator back down to his floor and walking into their kitchen. He grabs a clean washcloth and wets it, gently cleans Cassie's face of sticky residue, and then walks into the living room after throwing the washcloth into the laundry room.
"Movie and bedtime. Alright?"
"Kay, Papa."
"Alright. What do you wanna watch?"
"Snow White!" The baby says immediately.
Well then.
He sets her on the couch and puts the movie on after sitting next to her, and a few minutes into the Disney movie, Quill lays down. He was still exhausted from his shift at the station, and having a full stomach only made him more tired. Cassie moved so she was wedged between Quill's side and the couch, and the celestial fell into a light doze once he covered them both with the blanket resting on the back of the couch. The light doze soon turned into a heavy slumber once Cassie fell asleep toward the end of the movie, and they both slept on the couch until early the next morning. Quill had been too tired to move.
"...ey…Hey! Flash Gordon!" Tony shakes Quill's shoulder and the god jolts awake.
"What? What's wrong?" He mumbles and Tony chuckles.
"Nothing. Got your cure for Miss Sass."
"Oh. What do you have to do?"
"She just has to drink it."
Quill nods and rubs his eyes before checking the baby's diaper, surprisingly finding it clean, and then gently runs his fingers through her hair to gently wake Cassie up.
"Come on baby girl. Tony has something for you."
Cassie nuzzles her face into Quill's shoulder as she wakes, and then looks up to blink sleepily at Tony. The engineer hands her a small vial after opening it and she sits up to take it carefully. Both men laugh when she looks at the blue contents skeptically and Cassie looks back up at Tony suspiciously.
"It's not medicine. It's a special juice to make you big again. Drink it all okay?" Tony says.
Quill groans as he gets up off the couch, and watches Cassie drink the contents of the vial. "How long until she changes back?"
Instead of answering, Tony grabs the blanket and holds it up in front of the baby to block their view of her, and then looks away when the 'antidote' takes effect. Tony and his family had been turned into babies because of alien weaponry and magic so they retained their clothes when they turned back, but Cassie was technically shrunk down. She would not have her clothes when she was back to normal.
So when Cassie returned to her normal size, Quill had taken his shirt off so fast to offer to the teenager who only had the privacy of the blanket Tony was holding up. She takes it gratefully and pulls it on before grabbing the blanket and laying it over her lap to cover what Quill's shirt didn't, and blushes bright red.
"What do you remember kiddo?" Tony asks.
"I was doing the laundry and putting Dad's and Papa's clothes away in their closet. I think I accidentally broke one of Dad's particles...and then now." Cassie explains.
"You joined the baby club Miss Sass. I promise we didn't see anything."
"Uh...go get dressed Cass."
Quill and Tony turn away and cover their eyes after Cassie nods, and they drop their hands after the teen rushes up to her room and closes her door. Tony heads back up to the penthouse after Quill thanks him profusely for saving him from potentially turning that situation into a disaster (Tony laughed, the bastard), and Cassie comes out of her bedroom properly dressed a couple minutes later. She returns Quill's shirt to him and looks at him after tilting her head in curiosity.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Quill asks defensively.
"You didn't cook did you?"
"Do you see the kitchen up in flames?"
Cassie giggles and steps forward to hug him. "Thanks for taking care of me."
"Of course...just don't make me do it again. Those eighteen hours were more than enough." The celestial gripes as he returns the hug
"I'll be more careful next time. How about your favorite for dinner as a thank you?" Cassie offers.
"Skittles?"
"I said dinner."
"I heard dessert."
"Eat charcoal."