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Rooster loved being a dad. He loved his daughter Caroline. He loved sharing a child with the man he loved his husband, Jake. And he loved the small family that they were creating together. And he knew that he was very lucky to be gifted with every single part of that.
But fuck parenting was hard.
Alright, he knew that it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t for everyone. And that was fine. He just thought that he’d be better at it. Or that he and Jake would have been a better team when it came to parenting struggles. Or that between the two of them, they could have figured out a simple solution, or at the very least, not been defeated by a month-old baby.
But little Caroline Bradshaw-Seresin absolutely refused to sleep. Which meant that no one in the Bradshaw-Seresin household got to sleep.
They tried everything that they heard or could find. And they were both on their last straw.
On three hours of sleep with four coffees worth of caffeine flowing through his veins, Rooster tried driving around the block with Caroline again. Jake was passed out on the couch, having been the last one to put her to sleep for one sweet, beautiful hour. And then she woke up. Again.
“Please, just go to sleep, Care,” Rooster groaned as he drove slowly through the quiet streets.
The radio in their family car—since the Bronco was not child safe and Jake’s truck was a pain in the ass to lug a baby car seat into—was playing the local eighties radio channel. Bon Jovi didn’t seem to soothe Caroline, however, since she was still crying in the back seat.
Rooster sighed, resting his forehead on the steering wheel as he came to a stop at a stop sign. Picking his head up, Rooster put on his turn signal and turned left, heading back to their family home. So much for Bob’s grand idea.
‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ ended and the familiar opening tune to ‘Take My Breath Away’ replaced it.
Rooster came to a stop at the next stop sign about thirty seconds down the road when he had a sudden realization. The music was the only noise in the car. Caroline wasn’t crying. Thinking the worst, Rooster spun around urgently and studied his daughter for any problems.
He could see her little chest rising and falling peacefully. There was no spit up all over her. Her head was lulled to the side and her eyes were peacefully closed. She was asleep.
“Holy shit,” Rooster whispered to himself.
Jake woke up to a sticky note on his forehead. Letting out a groan, he plucked it off of him and turned it over to read.
Tried taking Caroline out for a drive to get her to sleep. Shouldn’t be out long.
Jake crumpled up the note and rolled to his feet. Making himself a snack, Jake heard the garage door lift up. He made his way out to the garage. Rooster drove in as Jake stood on the steps, just munching on his half-sandwich. Rooster opened the door and Jake was about to make some kind of sarcastic comment when he realized something.
There was no crying. Caroline wasn’t crying.
“There’s no way,” Jake breathed out, walking down to Caroline’s side of the car. But there Caroline was, sleeping peacefully in her seat. “How did you manage that?” Jake asked his husband, staring at him like he was a god.
“Played some eighties music while driving around. And she just fell asleep,” Rooster explained quietly, looking so proud of himself.
“I have never been more attracted to you,” Jake replied confidently, causing Rooster’s eyes to widen slightly.
“Really?”
“Don’t question it,” Jake dismissed, before yanking Rooster into a steamy kiss.
“You’re sure that it worked?” Jake groaned, driving around their neighborhood again.
“It did the last time,” Rooster sighed, sitting in the back seat with Caroline. “Come on, Care, why can’t you just fall asleep for us?”
After twenty minutes, they gave up and returned home. Caroline was still whimpering as Rooster and Jake walked inside. Rooster put on an eighties playlist as Jake walked around the room with Caroline rocking in his arms.
Then ‘Take My Breath Away’ came on.
And then Caroline was asleep.
“Guess it’s not any song,” Jake pointed out, staring down at their sleeping daughter. “Just one.”
Rooster let out a gasp that Jake would have ordinarily made fun of him for, but he was way too tired to even summon the energy. Rooster held his head in his hands, seeming to have a mental breakdown, while Jake slowly moved Caroline to her crib.
“I can’t believe I played that song for her,” he murmured, causing Jake to scoff.
“Who cares? She’s asleep.”
“I care,” Rooster shot back, standing up. “We can’t play that song for her to fall asleep.”
“Why? It’s the only thing that works.”
“It’s a S-E-X song,” Rooster stressed, walking over to Jake and Caroline.
“Well, we’re never having S-E-X again if she never sleeps,” Jake huffed back.
“It makes us bad parents.”
“It shows that we’re desperate parents,” Jake corrected him.
“Jake—”
“—Shh,” Jake interjected, holding a finger over Rooster’s lips to get him to shut up. “Listen to that. It’s the sound of your daughter sleeping, which means that you and I get to sleep.”
“Jake, I’m being serious.”
“As am I.”
Before Rooster could reply again, Caroline stirred a little bit in her sleep. With the precision of one of the best naval aviators in the country, Jake snatched Rooster’s phone, hit play on the song again, and held a hand over his husband’s mouth to prevent him from ruining it.
And after a few seconds, Caroline settled back to sleep.
Jake shot Rooster a glare as he turned the playlist off again. Rooster looked like he wanted to argue, to try and not slip into a level of desperation that he never thought he would with parenting—at least this early in the game. But fuck he was so tired.
“We’ll figure something else out tomorrow,” Rooster conceded after a few moments.
“Yeah, sure, we will,” Jake agreed half-heartedly, pulling Rooster over to their bed. Within five seconds of their heads hitting the pillows, Jake and Rooster were also passed out.
And there was peace again in the Bradshaw-Seresin household.