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The phone call didn’t surprise Randall.
Hershel would call sometimes; saying he would be home late, asking Randall to bring him his cane, asking Randall to pick up Alfendi from the bus stop, saying there might be guests over later, and on, and on. The fact that Hershel called wasn't much of a surprise. Neither was him saying he would be home late.
However, him asking Randall to get supplies for a baby bottle was a first.
“...Just so we’re clear, you want me to-”
“The supplies for the bottle, yes. Oh! And could you pick Alfendi up? I still need to talk things over with Luke, I don’t know if I’ll make it home in time to get him from the bus stop.”
Randall’s head began to spin with each passing sentence.
“How long has Luke been in-”
The question died in his throat as he heard the muffled sound of crying somewhere on the other end of the call.
“Sorry- she just woke up, I have to go.”
“Wait, Hershel-”
“I’ll see you later.”
There was a click as the call was cut off from the other end. Randall still clung to the phone as if Hershel would come back.
“...See you later.”
~~~
To say he was overwhelmed would be an understatement.
Supplies for a baby bottle, Hershel had said, but how long would they be making bottles? How much formula did a baby even need in one day, anyway? Did they really only need food? What about other baby supplies?
Randall stared off into space as if the shelf full of food, all labeled from ‘Infant’ to various month ranges, had any answers. He glanced down at his watch again, just to make sure. Plenty of time to pick up Alfendi after he was done questioning his life choices.
A baby. A baby?
Hershel should count his blessings, Randall thought. If he had been taking summer classes, it would be midterm season. Then who would buy supplies for his suddenly-acquired-but-not-his infant?
Okay, maybe that wasn't fair. Hershel was currently in the middle of grading his own students’ midterms.
But there was still the sudden nature of it all. And the passing mention of Luke hadn’t gone unnoticed.
…Was the baby-?
It seemed to make sense. But, at the same time, Randall couldn’t help but immediately dismiss the idea. Even if Luke had suddenly had a child, why spring it on Hershel out of the blue? WIth no warning? Traveling all the way from America without so much as a telegram hardly seemed like the easiest way to handle that sort of thing.
Yet, if the baby wasn't Luke’s, then who-
“Sir, are you alright?”
Snapped out of his thoughts, Randall glanced over to a woman who had suddenly spoken to him.
“...Hm? No- no, I’m fine, thank you,” he quickly answered.
“Oh, pardon the interruption, then,” she said, “you seemed a bit confused.”
“It’s no trouble,” he assured her, wishing he could believe the words as he spoke them. As she turned and walked off, he wanted to reach out and ask what he should do. Surely someone would have the answers he was looking for. Of course, any passersby here would only be able to answer his questions about how to take care of a baby. He very much doubted any of them could tell him where it had actually come from.
Shaking his head, he sighed.
“Get ahold of yourself, Ascot. Sure, he’s bringing a baby home. That’s hardly the end of the world. It’s probably just for a few days, that’s all.”
Randall sighed again. He was getting too caught up in his own thoughts, he needed to be rational about this. If he just waited until Hershel came home, he could get answers then. Until then, he just needed to get-
Surely, a baby would need more than just food , right?
Hershel had to have planned for everything else if he had only asked Randall to get food…right? Sure, neither of them were exactly the most organized of individuals- Randall shuddered to think of the poor staff members at the university stuck tidying up Hershel’s office- but he must have thought that far ahead.
Maybe he should get a few other odds and ends. Just in case.
~~~
Her name is Katrielle, Hershel told him.
And she was going to be staying just a bit longer than ‘a few days’.
Hershel paced around the living room, cradling Katrielle to his chest while Randall attempted to set up a crib (and counted his blessings that someone had offered one to Hershel- he hadn’t even thought of a crib despite all his worrying earlier).
“I think that’s-” Randall backed away slightly, hands raised as he waited for the structure to fall apart. When it didn’t, he smiled. “There! Tada.”
“Thank you, Randall,” Hershel said, approaching his side.
“It was really no trouble, you just follow the instructions and-”
“No, I meant for agreeing to help. Thank you.”
Randall blinked up at Hershel in surprise as Katrielle was slowly lowered into the crib. She seemed to be sleeping for the time being, thankfully.
“You didn’t expect me to not help, did you?”
“Not at all, I just- I know this is quite sudden.”
Standing up, Randall stared down at Katrielle and sighed. Silence filled the space between the two of them, the nervous energy that had been keeping both of them running seemed to fizzle out all at once.
He had to ask now- if he didn’t, when else would he be able to? He had to break the silence, he had to know, he-
“...She’s not-” Randall glanced between the baby and Hershel, who glanced back at him- “she’s not…Luke’s, is she?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Hershel quickly answered, “if I hadn’t agreed to look after her, though, I fear she would have become his.”
“You don’t think he would-”
“I think he felt responsible for her,” he explained, “he…there was a shipwreck. He agreed to look after her. Her mother didn’t…Luke said he was forced to leave her behind.”
“I-” though one question had been answered, Randall felt himself left with hundreds more. He settled on simply nodding. “I…see.”
“I didn’t want to press him on it. It…”
“I understand, there’s probably a lot on his mind after all of that.” Looking around, Randall finally realized the boy in question was nowhere to be found. “Speaking of- you didn’t just leave him at the university, did you?”
“He went to the telegram office to inform his parents of his arrival,” Hershel explained. “I’m sure with the boat having sunk, they must be worried sick.”
A telegram seemed a bit old fashioned for a city as technologically advanced as Steam Bison, but who was Randall to judge? He was quite fond of old fashioned things himself.
Randall brushed a hand across the edge of the crib, glancing down inside but not reaching for the sleeping infant.
“Well, it seems she wore herself out after everything,” Hershel commented, collapsing down onto the sofa situated opposite the crib.
“Think she’ll sleep through the night?”
Hershel glanced up as Randall sat down next to him. “Most likely not. I don’t think newborn infants sleep that long.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll be a particularly well-behaved infant.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with behavior, Randall,” Hershel smiled.
Randall found himself staring across at the crib, innumerable concerns still floating around his mind. The nerves that overwhelmed him earlier felt distant, a whole new set having since replaced them. It no longer mattered where the baby had come from. She was here and, as far as Randall was concerned, that was all that mattered for the time being. However, her presence brought about a whole other multitude of problems.
“I just…” Randall nervously ran a hand through his hair, “how are we supposed to take care of a baby, Hersh?”
“...We?”
“Of course, we ,” he immediately responded as though the conclusion was obvious, “did you suddenly forget that I live here too?”
Hershel frowned, biting at the edge of his lip. “I…right. I apologize, I…hadn’t thought of that when I agreed to look after her.”
“And here I thought I was the one with memory problems.”
While the statement had been intended as a joke, Hershel shrunk in on himself. Randall resolved to quickly return to the point of the conversation.
“...Neither of us know the next thing about taking care of a baby, Hersh.”
After a long silence, Hershel finally muttered, “...I know.”
“Then why-”
“I couldn’t just leave her for someone else to take care of,” Hershel interrupted, his hands tightening into fists. “I can’t just…hope that someone might eventually look after her, not when I am perfectly capable of raising her.”
Randall opened his mouth to respond, but found himself cut off by a sudden cry from the crib. Without even realizing it, both he and Hershel leapt up to deal with the sound, with Randall gesturing for Hershel to sit back down.
“So, you heard him too, didn’t you?” Randall said, slowly reaching into the crib. “What are we gonna do about your dad, Katrielle?”
“I’m not-”
Careful to support her head, Randall raised Katrielle up and hugged her to his chest. He patted her back as her cries started to quiet.
“You’re not what? Her dad?” Randall asked, returning to where he had been sitting. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Hersh, but if you’re raising her that makes you her dad.”
At that, Hershel seemed to swallow any objection he had been forming. Randall sighed, glancing down at Katrielle as she calmed down, seemingly going back to sleep for the time being.
“What are we gonna do about him?” He muttered to her.
Randall held a loose hand on her back as she slept, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth across her shoulders.
“Why Katrielle?”
“Hm?”
“The name,” Randall clarified, speaking up louder, “why Katrielle?”
At that, Hershel looked away. “I…it just sounded like a good name, that’s all. We have to call her something for the time being.”
“Fair enough,” Randall shrugged as much as he was able without jostling Katrielle. “It’s a cute name.”
Silence filled the room once again, Randall still holding onto Katrielle, feeling the rise and fall of her breathing with a single hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hershel nervously folding his hands in his lap.
“The name was one Claire had suggested,” Hershel finally muttered, “for when…if we ever…”
Randall felt as though the room was suddenly about to collapse around him. His already loose grip on Katrielle slipped for only a moment before he returned his hand to where it had been resting. “I…see.”
“I needed to call her something and-” Hershel sighed- “it was simply the first thing that came to mind.”
“Well, I meant what I said,” Randall offered, “it’s a cute name.”
Hershel nodded, though didn’t respond. Randall quickly weighed the merits of swapping which hand he was supporting Katrielle with to offer Hershel some kind of physical reassurance, or maybe attempting to reassure him about the choice of name once again.
Desperate to break through the tension in the air, Randall spoke up again. “What about a boy?”
Hershel glanced up at that. “...Hm?”
“If you had a boy,” he clarified, “did you ever think about names?”
For a moment, the question earned a smile from Hershel before his mood seemed to dampen once again.
“It…the subject came up once or twice.”
“Well, come on then!” Randall teased. “You didn’t name Alfendi and it’s not like you’re going to stumble into taking care of another baby-” he glanced down at his lap- “probably. So what ideas did you have?”
“Randall.”
“Yes?” Randall glanced back up, meeting Hershel’s gaze.
“No, I- that was the name,” Hershel explained, “I had suggested the name Randall.”
A sudden warmth filled Randall, his face becoming flushed as he turned away.
“Of course, it was before I knew you were still-”
“You really would’ve named your kid after me,” Randall teased, quickly bouncing back from his initial response.
“At the time, it was the only name I could think of and-”
“You actually suggested that-”
“Well now I take it back,” Hershel countered, grinning.
“Too late,” Randall responded with a yawn, “you said it.”
“Here-” Hershel reached over, carefully lifting Katrielle off of Randall’s chest, his hands being left unsure where to go with the weight having suddenly vanished- “let’s make sure you both get some proper rest.”
“Only if you do too.”
“If you insist.”
Hershel sat back down on the couch next to Randall, setting his hat down on an end table just over the armrest before noticing Randall was still wearing his glasses. Smiling, he folded them and laid them next to his hat.
Closing his eyes, Randall decided to worry about how to take care of the baby tomorrow.