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“Come on Care Bear, say ‘Dada’,” Jake pleaded with Caroline, wanting to get his daughter to acknowledge him first. “Say ‘Dada.’ Or just ‘Da.’ That’s all I need. Just one ‘Da’.”
“No, say ‘Papa’, Care. ‘Pa,’ like your favorite parent,” Rooster stated from beside Jake, also wanting to get Caroline to acknowledge him first. Jake shot his husband a glare for the last bit, but Rooster was more focused on winning Caroline’s first word. “Say ‘Papa,’ Care. Come on, you can do it. ‘Pa-pa’.”
“You two are completely ridiculous,” Phoenix commented with a shake of her head. “I think getting married actually made you two more competitive.”
“If that was even possible,” Coyote sighed from beside her.
“She’s making noises, but she’s just not saying anything besides gibberish,” Rooster explained, tickling Caroline’s belly. She giggled and wiggled around in her little chair, but she didn’t say anything distinguishable. “Come on, Care, say ‘Papa’ for me.”
“She’s a baby,” Phoenix stated in a deadpan. “Are you expecting her to have a full conversation with you guys?”
“No, I’m just expecting her to say ‘Dada’ before . . . the other term,” Jake replied, not wanting to give an extra repeat of ‘Papa’ to Rooster for free. “Because that’s going to be her first word.”
“Unless she says ‘Papa,’ of course,” Rooster reminded his husband.
“Or neither,” Coyote pointed out. “My first word was ‘ball’.”
“Does it really matter?” Phoenix asked them, resting her head on her hand. “Either way, she’s talking. Who cares what she says?” When Rooster and Hangman didn’t reply, Phoenix sat up with her eyes narrowed. “You guys have a bet, don’t you?”
“Nat, how could you suggest such a thing?”
“We would never,” Jake added, placing his hands on his hips as he held out the word, “write it down if we did, so there’s no proof!” He gestured between him and Rooster. “It’s just a perfectly normal agreement between parents.”
“Really?” Phoenix sighed exasperatedly.
“What do you get if you win?” Coyote asked curiously. It earned a nudge in the side from Phoenix, but Coyote didn’t take back his question.
“Well, we—”
“—Can’t say it in front of our daughter,” Rooster interjected, cutting Hangman off. “We’re not saying it in front of her.”
“Why?”
“Because what if it’s her first word?”
“Technically it’s two words.”
“That doesn’t make it any better!”
“Did you two lose your brains after having a baby?” Phoenix asked them, glancing between the married couple. “I’m genuinely concerned.”
“Ha. Ha,” Rooster huffed to Phoenix, before turning back to Caroline. “Come on, little lady, it is time for your feeding.” Rooster unbuckled Caroline from her seat and scooped her up into his arms. He pressed a series of kisses to her cheek as he carried her into the kitchen. “Mav’s bringing over some fresh bananas for you too.”
Maverick showed up as Caroline was drinking her bottle. She laid in Jake’s arm, happily suckling, as the naval aviators caught up around the table. Mav greeted Phoenix and Coyote with a wide smile and big hugs since they were visiting from out of town, before joining everyone else at the table for lunch.
“She said her first word yet?” Maverick asked, smiling down at Caroline.
“Not yet.”
“She’s close though. I can see it in her eye,” Jake insisted confidently.
He shifted his hold on her as she finished off her bottle and Caroline immediately reached towards Maverick’s side of the table. Rooster and Jake assumed that she was reaching for the bananas—her favorite fruit—since it was feeding time.
“I’ll cut her some,” Maverick offered, getting up from the table.
Maverick walked into the kitchen and pulled out a little plate for Caroline. But as Maverick was cutting up the bananas for her, Caroline finally said her first distinguishable sound.
“Ma,” Caroline cooed.
“What did you say?”
“What did she say?” Jake and Rooster asked at the same time.
“Ma,” Caroline repeated, waving her little hand around.
“Ma?”
“Out of all the sounds, you picked ‘ma’ to say?” Rooster sighed, staring down at his daughter.
“Ma-ab!” Caroline said, adding a random blurt of nonsense to the end of the syllable.
“Well, guess that’s your first word, then. Congrats, Care,” Rooster cooed, tickling her stomach.
“You’re a big girl now,” Jake added, bouncing her gently. But then he turned to Rooster and asked, “Who wins now? Unless one of us wants to be called ‘Mama’.”
“Mab!” Caroline demanded, reaching out her little hands towards the kitchen. Jake and Rooster turned to see that she was reaching out for Maverick, who was still standing in the kitchen. “Mab!” she whined, starting to twist in Jake’s grip.
“Wait a minute. She’s trying to say ‘Mav’, not ‘Mama’,” Rooster deduced, bending down so that he was eye-level with Caroline. “Weren’t you, Care? You want to go see Mav, don’t you?”
“Mab!” Caroline repeated, reaching out for Maverick again.
Maverick stood, a bit frozen, as the reality sunk in for him. He was honestly a little nervous that Rooster and Hangman would be annoyed that he somehow stole Caroline’s first word, but instead Rooster out relieved laugh. And Hangman seemed a bit more relaxed too.
“I think she wants you,” Jake replied as Maverick walked over with the banana slices.
“Mab,” Caroline said again.
Maverick sat down and happily accepted his granddaughter. Caroline sat perched in his lap, half-eating, half-smashing the banana slices into her face as the group talked about their upcoming deployments, gossip within the Dagger Squad, and little Caroline Bradshaw-Seresin, who smiled happily as her parents and extended family cooed at her.
As for the bet between her parents, they decided to call it even. By making a bet on her second word.