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The Sanctuary was supposed to be peaceful. It was a Sanctuary, after all. After night fell, one would assume that peace would fall when all the residents were safely tucked into their beds, resting for whatever hectic day came next.
That was not currently true.
In a room that was messier than anyone had intended for it to be, a baby was whimpering. Not crying their lungs out yet, no. But whimpering enough that sleep was a thing of the past.
Alice Foss-Meyers was two months, one week, and five days old, and no longer seemed content with her cradle and a good night's sleep.
Henry bounced his daughter gently, swaying with her to try and soothe her to sleep. Alice was having none of it. He frowned down at her as she stared back up at him, as if judging him for his lack of experience. She whimpered again and he swore it was simply to tell him that he downright sucked at this.
"What do you want, Alice?" he asked gently, still swaying, because it made him feel better, at the least. "I've changed you, tried to feed you, and I've been holding your for almost two hours! Why won't you sleep, huh?"
The baby ratcheted up her noise instead.
Henry genuinely felt that she was telling him he was hopeless. He groaned a little and walked her over to the window, looking out over the city as weak strands of moonlight filtered between the clouds.
The London Sanctuary was a very familiar place to him. It was the first Sanctuary he had ever been and it was pretty much home right now. He and Erika had initially agreed to raise the baby in England and Henry had been cool with that. He was all for it. His kid would have an accent! That was fine. That was cool.
Things had changed since the Sanctuary Network had changed. The Doc had told Henry that the Sanctuary Network would be no place for a baby and that had hurt. That had terrified him, really. He had wanted his child raised in the safety and family that he had been raised in. He understood it now. And now things were peaceful enough that he and Erika could raise baby Alice in the Network, if they wanted to.
But Erika had gone to the hospital where the other HAPs were still living and had decided to spend the night after some problems had arisen. Henry had talked to her over the phone and assured her that was fine. He could hold down the fort, spend the night with his little girl. Mommy could have a break.
He was kind of regretting that now.
Alice probably was too, because her whimpers finally reached the crying level. If Henry had had ears that could do it, they would have flattened on to his skull.
"Oh, no. No, come on. What's wrong? Is Daddy that bad at all this?" he asked, putting her to his shoulder to burp her, just in case.
All he got for his effort was a baby screaming in his ear.
Henry was at his wit's end. Nothing that usually worked for Alice was working. He had rocked her. Bounced her. Sang to her. Tried to feed her. She had spat the nipple of the bottle out as if it had offended her. He had tried kangaroo care, thinking that maybe that would do the trick. It hadn't.
He thought, a little broodingly, that the Big Guy could have just looked at Alice and the baby would have fallen asleep.
But the Big Guy was at the Underground Sanctuary right now and couldn't do a thing to help Henry. It was too bad, considering that Henry had seen him soothe all manner of fussy abnormals into rest. Including Baby Ashley, who had been a monster unto herself at times.
Alice flailed so much that she nearly flipped herself out of his arms and Henry felt a moment of sheer, white-hot panic at this. He clutched his baby girl close, heart pounding against his chest.
She screamed louder, really going for it now. At this rate, she would wake the entire Sanctuary.
Henry almost missed the gentle rap on the door because of the noise. But he looked and saw the head that was peeking around the now open door.
"Doc." he sighed.
"May I come in?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course."
The Doc stepped into the room. She was still fully dressed at this hour, make up still in place. She had come to the surface with Henry and Erika a few days earlier to do something with Declan that Henry didn't really know about.
She walked over to him and looked down at Alice. There was a fondness in her gaze as she looked down at her granddaughter. Henry wasn't feeling terribly fond of the screaming creature in his arms right at the moment.
The Doc looked up at him.
"May I?" she asked.
"Please, Doc."
Henry felt a little guilty at how relieved he was to pass his daughter off to her. Magnus took Alice and adjusted her, holding her close and murmuring something too soft for him to hear.
Within three minutes, the baby had been reduced to whimpers that were softer and fewer than before.
Henry felt an irrational sense of hurt at this and dragged his hand through his hair.
"She hates me."
"Oh, Henry. That's simply not true." Magnus looked at him with a gentle gaze as she spoke.
"I've been trying to get her to go back to sleep for hours. Then you come in and she calms down immediately."
"She doesn't hate you."
Henry snorted, a little skeptical. Alice certainly looked more content in the Doc's arms than his right now. Maybe it was the familiar shape? Henry certainly didn't have a figure that in any way resembled soft curves and breasts. Maybe that had put Alice off.
Magnus eased herself down on to the foot of the bed, expertly shifting Alice to one arm, and patted the bed beside her. Henry sat down beside her.
"She was picking up on your stress, Henry. That's all. The more she distressed you, the more distressed she became. It can be a vicious cycle."
"Huh."
Henry hadn't thought of that. He hadn't been panicking or anything, but he certainly hadn't been stress-free. Especially as the hours had dragged on.
Alice was still wide awake and blinked her big eyes at him. Henry reached out his finger towards her. Alice grasped it tightly and pulled it into her mouth. Henry let her suck on it, smiling a little.
"I hate crying babies." he confessed.
"It's a rare soul that enjoys them." the Doc smiled gently at him. "And they are best to be avoided."
Henry laughed a little. Alice let go of his finger and whimpered pathetically.
"I don't know what she wants."
"Her mother."
"Ah, Doc. You really know how to make me feel better."
"The first night away can be hard for both. You are now the only constant she knows. She doesn't know that Erika will be back in the morning. Infants don't comprehend time. One of the constants in her life--the first constant, in fact--has left. She doesn't know why. She just knows that it's not there."
That made Henry feel incredibly bad. He hadn't thought that Alice was just missing Erika. On a fit of inspiration, he got up and rifled through the mess of the room until he found the scarf that Erika had been wearing yesterday. He brought it back and tucked it into the blanket with Alice, near her face.
Alice immediately nuzzled into it and settled more.
"It worked." Henry said, surprised.
"Of course it did. You're her father, Henry. Trust your instincts."
Henry felt like his instincts were all over the place. He ran his hand through his hair again.
"I don't know about that, Doc. I'm just kind of stumbling my way through this. I don't think I'm good at it."
Magnus laughed. Henry stared. She stared back.
"You don't remember?"
"Remember what?"
"When Ashley was a baby."
Henry furrowed his brow. He did remember some of that, of course. The Doc had been pregnant with Ashely shortly after she had brought him to the Sanctuary. He remembered his insecurity about that. And his fascination with her pregnancy. He remembered Ashley as a baby. But he had no idea what the Doc was talking about right now.
"I'm not....a bit."
"Oh." Magnus laughed a little, adjusting Alice, her eyes far away. "You were so attentive to her, after she was born. And me, by extension. But it was all for Ashley, truly. The night she was born, you slept in my bed."
"I did?"
"Nestled right into my arms and better than any alarm clock. As soon as Ashley made even the slightest noise, you would be shaking me, telling me the baby needed me."
Henry frowned. He didn't think he remembered that.... Though, now that he thought about it, he did remember being pretty cuddly with Magnus for a while after Ashley had been born. And wanting to hold Ashley immediately.
"You even wanted to feed her, though I had to explain to you that I wasn't using bottles, so you couldn't. Oh, you were quite mad about that. Huffed and complained to my old friend about it. You were delighted after a few weeks when I did start pumping and you could warm a bottle for her if necessary."
"I remember that!" Henry said, surprised. That was a memory he hadn't visited in years. "She puked on me. It smelled...."
He shuddered. The Doc laughed and gently eased Alice back into his arms. He looked down at her. She slitted sleepy eyes at him.
"You were a natural with Ashely. You are with Alice. You just don't realize it."
"Huh."
"Do I need to remind you some more? When she was started crawling, you were so excited. Kept track of her when she went from that to running."
Henry smiled a little. He did remember that. When his little sister had been old enough to play with properly.
He looked down at Alice, who had drifted off now, nuzzled against Erika's scarf. He smiled at her and stroked some of her wispy dark hair. Magnus put a hand on his back.
"How are you doing, Henry?"
He looked up at her.
"Better, now. Being a father....it's amazing. I didn't think I could ever love anything as much as I love Alice. I mean, I would, like, throw Erika in front of a bus in a heartbeat if it saved Alice."
He felt a little guilty saying that out loud.
"I can assure you that Erika would allow your demise over her daughter's as well."
Henry laughed, accidently making Alice flutter her eyelids open. He quieted.
"Yeah, I think so. And I wouldn't blame her."
Henry lifted Alice and bent his head, kissing her forehead and breathing in her baby scent. As a HAP, he had a better sense of what she smelled like. And for all the avoiding he did when it came to the HAP stuff, he liked that. Except when he needed to change her diaper, anyway.
Alice cooed sleepily. Henry smiled, feeling a swell of love in his chest so big it felt like it constricted his lungs for a moment.
"All better?" Magnus asked.
"For now. But..." Henry shifted his arm to look at his watch. "Her feeding is in about seven minutes now."
"The cruelties of irony at work."
He smiled at this and looked up at the Doc. She was watching him with an expression he didn't recognize.
"What?"
"It's just.....my, how you've grown up, Henry."
Henry was shocked to realize that she was on the verge of being teary. It was something he rarely saw from her.
"Well, yeah."
"Despite all the years--for you and for me--it feels like just a short while ago I carried you off those moors. Took you to London. I....it shames me to admit it, but I thought to leave you there. I took you home with me and made you my son instead. And now you are a man, with your own baby."
It was really the first time that Magnus had simply called him her son. It was something that had always been between them, but neither of them had really said it. Henry had no idea why. Maybe Magnus had been afraid. Maybe he had been too. He had lost a mother he couldn't remember. He couldn't even remember how he had lost her.
"You're my mom, Doc." he blurted out. "You always have been, even if I never say it."
Magnus looked so touched that Henry thought she was going to dissolve into tears right then and there and that made him a little alarmed.
"Thank you for saying that, Henry. I've known, but to hear it..."
She smiled and leaned forward, kissing his forehead, like she had used to do when he was little. Henry felt teary himself. He looked down at Alice.
"You're the reason, by the way."
"For what?" Magnus said, puzzled.
"For me being a good parent."
She laughed, as if not believing it. Henry didn't need her to believe it. He just needed her to know. He carefully stood, keeping Alice cradled to his chest.
"I'm going to warm her bottle. Want to come with?"
"I most certainly would."
Henry juggled Alice and the bottle as he warmed it. He and the Doc weren't really talking, but they didn't really need to. He fed Alice. The Doc handled the burping so that he could call Erika. She was awake and seemed to be in the same emotional state that Alice was in, though a whole lot quieter.
Telling her that Alice was missing her and his own struggles with the baby seemed to make Erika feel better. Henry tried not to take it personally. He was suffering for a good reason and if that made Erika feel better about leaving the baby, that was okay.
All three of them returned to the bedroom, Henry gently laying Alice in the cradle, with Erika's scarf still swaddled in with her. She was sleeping peacefully.
Henry enjoyed the sight of his sleeping baby girl for a few minutes, then turned towards the bed, exhausted.
"Want to stay?" he said to the Doc, flopping on the bed and closing his eyes.
"Only for a little while."
She settled down beside him and Henry ended up rolling against her to get comfortable. This was something that he remembered from his childhood, from those early days with Ashley. Maybe it was weird now that he was older, but neither of them were exactly cuddly people and Henry had the feeling that they both needed it right now.
Now that Alice was asleep, Henry found it quite easy to go to sleep himself.
He had no idea how long he was asleep before he felt the Doc shaking his shoulder.
"Henry. The baby needs you."