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Within minutes of her birth, it became a truth universally acknowledged that William Darcy – boardroom mediator, financial genius, and master of the single-eyebrow inquisition – was entirely reduced to putty in the presence of his daughter.
The first time it happens is almost the last. William is the one who wakes to Anne’s snuffly pre-cries, and lifts her out of her bassinet. He nudges Lizzie, who huffs at the intrusion into her dreams, but rolls onto her side and pulls down the flap of her nursing tank top. After the baby has her fill, William lifts her up to put her back in her own bed, but is dissuaded from doing so by the two-month-old’s gummy full-body grin.
An hour later, he is strolling through their neighborhood, with the baby snoozing in a sling (he is grateful that Lizzie bought one in brown, rather than paisley-spotted lavender, or a floral print). He has a backpack on, filled with all the essentials that a first-time parent thinks they will need on a short outing – six diapers, a pack of wipes, two bottles of breastmilk in a small cooler, two outfit changes, two different styles of cap, three blankets of varying thickness, three burp rags, a small first aid kit, gas drops – but what he fails to grab on the way out the door was his phone.
Charmed by his daughter’s slumbering companionship, William doesn’t even notice that he is missing the device, until he walks in the door of his condo to face his wife. Lizzie gently pulls Anne from the sling to cradle the baby tight against her chest, and then uses her free arm to whomp her husband in the head with a pillow so hard that his glasses clatter to the floor, as she whispers a litany of curse words at him. She does not let go of the infant for the rest of the day, and doesn’t talk to her husband until dinner. He learns a valuable lesson that day and loves his wife even more for the ferocity she lends to motherhood.
He never forgets his phone again, though it is several weeks before he attempts the outing again (and does so only after rousing Lizzie and telling her exactly what he is doing and when they will be back… and leaving a note on the bed next to her saying the same thing, in case she panics upon waking). He begins looking forward to his Saturday morning adventures with his daughter. In the beginning, it is little more than a stroll around the block, chatting to the baby about the sights and the people.
As the baby in the sling gets heavier, the pack on his back gets lighter. In time, he realizes that, for the hour or two they will be gone, he can get by with a couple diapers and a mini-pack of wipes stuffed into the pocket of his jacket (and his phone. Always his phone).
Lizzie is nervous at first, but grows to appreciate the chance to sleep in at the end of a busy work-week. She is usually awakened by William sitting down on the foot of their bed, he and Anne smiling at her with flushed cheeks from their outing. William always has a coffee in hand from her favorite café down the street, and Anne is content but getting hungry and sleepy, ready for a nursing and a nap.
One Saturday late afternoon, all three of them are shopping at the nearest farmer’s market when a leggy stunning blonde stops them and says to Lizzie, “Oh, Will and Annie belong to you? What a lucky girl you are!” The woman leans in to squeeze Anne’s bare tootsie-roll legs as they dangle from the sling on William’s chest, and the baby coos and kicks her feet in recognition.
For the next four weeks, Lizzie wakes herself up and joins her husband and daughter on their Saturday morning outings, and takes note that her handsome mancake does indeed attract female attention as he totes the baby around. Lizzie ultimately sees that William is completely clueless about the attention, and even seems annoyed when strangers interrupt his quality Daddy-Daughter time. Lizzie recognizes that she trusts her husband. Besides, her one morning of sleeping-in is far too valuable to waste on jealousy.
When Anne is eleven months old, William and Lizzie plan an anniversary get-a-way to San Diego. It is the first time they would leave her without both of her parents for more than an average workday, but Uncles Fitz and Brandon and cousin Mara Jade are so excited to have Annie come stay with them for the weekend, that her parents are too ashamed to cancel the trip when they have second thoughts. The night before their departure, after Anne is tucked away in her crib, William looks in on her and is saddened that they will miss their Saturday morning outing for the first time in many months. He goes into his office and proceeds to handwrite a five-page list of instructions for the care of his daughter.
When he hands the note to Fitz, Fitz responds appropriately by clipping the note on the front of his fridge. After waving William and Lizzie off, Fitz returns to the kitchen to find Brandon chuckling at the list. “Newbies…” he shakes his head at Fitz. The list remains untouched and un-looked-at for the next 48 hours. Anne enjoys her first Oreo – something that Fitz shares with Lizzie, but neither of them admits to William.
A few months later, Fitz and Brandon go on their first real couple trip since adopting Mara, and the preschooler stays with Aunt Lizzie, Uncle Will, and cousin Annie. William is excited to take both girls out with him on Saturday morning, but he overestimates the capacity that three-year-old legs have for walking. Lizzie fights giggles but rushes to help when he comes in the front door with his daughter sound asleep on his chest, and his niece sound asleep slumped over his head from her seat on his shoulders.
Eventually Anne graduates from the sling to the saddle on her Daddy’s shoulders. At two, she has his dark fuzzy hair, but is slightly built like her mother, so the weight is barely noticeable. Their adventures are sometimes longer now, and once in a while, they even take the cable cars, or their own car, and go to the zoo, or to see the sea lions. Lizzie is occasionally jealous, but copes with it because she was a Daddy’s Girl, and wants that for her daughter.
On one of these longer outings, Daddy and his girl arrive home to find Mommy retching over the toilet. William distracts Anne with The Backyardigans, and waits outside the bathroom door. Lizzie finally emerges and laughs weakly when she sees him standing there. “Surprise, I guess? I’m pregnant again.”
Despite the fact that morning sickness is actually all-day sickness, and Lizzie struggles to keep down tea and chicken soup and crackers for the rest of the weekend, William can’t stop grinning. When she stumbles into their bedroom after tucking Anne in on Sunday night, she catches him on his laptop, purchasing an extremely sleek and sophisticated and expensive double stroller. She points to the description on his screen, where it reads “Perfect choice for tall parents!” and tells him, “William, that’s not going to work for me…”
He smiles at the stroller image. “We’ll get you a different one; whichever kind you want. This one’s for me. For Saturday mornings.”