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Moonlit nights were peaceful.
At least, when little Gloria let them be.
A wail awoke Hannah and Wheatley in the dead of night, the newborn having another late night fuss through the crackle of the baby monitor in their room.
Maternal instinct wrestled with the tiredness of the new mother, but as she stirred to get up despite her aches, the father instead settled her down.
“Shh, it’s okay luv, I’ve got this one,” Wheatley assured, giving a kiss to her temple. “Rest up.” He then arose from the bed to head to the baby’s room right across the hall.
He approached the white crib, scooping up the fussy infant and rocking her gently. “Alright, what’s all the trouble, dear Gloria…?” he asked with a sigh. “Shh… No smell, so it’s not that… Hope you aren’t hungry because I very well can’t help you on that front myself,” he joked.
As he talked and rocked, Gloria started to settle down, her crying reduced down to whimpers.
He nodded in understanding. “Ahh, I see. Just wanted some attention, did you? Very clever. Right then, attention you want, attention you’ll get, at the detriment of a normal sleep schedule for me,” he continued as he now settled down in the rocker beside the crib, tipping the chair back and forth by his heels.
“Always did calm down when you heard my voice, even before you were born. Yea, you’d be kickin’ up a storm in your poor mum, an’ then I’d go ‘Oi, you settle down now,’ and you did…! Kinda wonder if you were just pausing in shock, like, ‘now why’s this fella sound so funny compared to everybody else?’ Hm? Is that what you thought?”
Now completely calm, the baby looked back up at him with big round eyes as blue as his own.
“Hm. Yea, definitely. Can see it in your face,” he concluded with a chuckle.
In their bedroom, Hannah, still awake despite her fatigue, laughed lightly as well as she listened in with the baby monitor.
Wheatley, of course, didn’t mind to keep talking. He was quite good at it, and luckily, just like her mother, little Gloria loved to listen as well. “Yeah… Funny, funny guy I am. Everyone sure thought it was funny the way I reacted when I found out you were comin’ along. Your mother loooves tellin’ that one. But I mean, of course I fainted, I mean that’s huge! You just start lovin’ someone for years, get married, and then one day, bam! You’ve created an entire living being because of that love. Nine months later, there she is in your arms, and you still can hardly believe it…
“Y’know, you were an excellent birthday present, even if a day late,” he continued. “Pretty cool that you an’ I are gonna have birthdays so close to each other. I’m never gonna forget that day. Wasn’t like in shows and such where there’s all that dramatic pushing and screaming, just got you right out of there after a while. C-section, they called it, forgot what the C stands for… Either way…”
As he rambled, Hannah decided to still get up, if only to watch her husband and child as he handled her. Staying quiet and going unnoticed for a while, she leaned against the doorframe as she soaked in this picture-perfect sight. It really was perfect… It got her thinking about everything that had happened up to that point. How did we get here, she wondered to herself. It was a happy start at first, a nice meet cute with a coworker. But that was now decades ago, time frozen for them for so long. Pain, and loss, both of memory and of family.
But despite everything, they found each other again, by pure chance. Without that chance, none of this before her would have ever happened. And even after that, she still had the nagging feeling that their past would still haunt them somehow. But it never did, it only made them stronger and closer. And here they were, now starting a new family.
This reflection brought forth tears that welled up in her eyes, spilling over soon enough, and soft sniffles betraying her quiet sneakiness.
Wheatley looked up at the sound, seeing his wife standing in the doorway, tears shining on her face. “Hannah? Darling, it’s okay, I said I could--”
“I know… I just… You have no idea how happy I am seeing this…” she choked out, walking closer to him and sitting in his lap, resting her head on his shoulder. “We have a daughter… a family, even after…” She gently brought a hand up to Gloria’s face, softly stroking her cheek.
“Oh, luv…” he sighed, kissing her forehead and then resting his head atop hers. “I know… That's why we named her after my mum… Like she’s still here. God, she would have loved you…” Tears of his own pricked at his eyes, another shaky sigh escaping him.
After comforting each other for a moment, Hannah spoke again. “...Do you think we’ll ever tell her? About Aperture? About… everything?”
Wheatley considered it for a moment. “I…” Gloria then suddenly interrupted him with a small noise, prompting him to turn his attention back to her. “What’s that? You would wanna know ‘bout how mummy and daddy were scientists, and then robots, and then humans again, eh? Real interesting stuff, lemme tell you.” He laughed a bit at the lightened mood, as did Hannah, but he then looked back at her again. “Yeah. Maybe… When she’s old enough, and understands more… Whenever we’re both ready.”
She nodded. “Okay…”
After a moment of blissful quiet, Gloria finally settled to sleep again, so the parents got up and placed her back into her crib, taking their sleepy selves to their own bedroom once again.
“Hannah…” Wheatley asked as they laid down together, her head rested atop his chest. “...Do you think we’ll be good parents?”
She hummed in thought. “No… I think we’ll be great.”
“Heh… yeah. Good night, luv.”
“Goodnight, my moon and stars.”
“Forever yours.”