Archive of Our Own ^beta

The third time Angela has ever considered having kids was, coincidentally, the first time she and Shawn babysat their goddaughter alone together. 

Technically, Angela is babysitting Riley alone, though, she thinks, while Shawn has not let the phone out of his hands or off his ears for the past two hours. 

"Well, what is Eric sayi--oh shit, and what did Jack do? He did--no. Are you--"

Angela rolls her eyes a little at her boyfriend's shocked expressions. She shook the baby bottle perhaps a little too much and decided to voice her annoyance. 

"Shawn", she said. "I thought we were both babysitting Riley; I had no idea I'd be babysitting her and you'd be babysitting Cory through the phone."

Shawn gave an apologetic smile, but still kept the phone handle on his ear. "Sorry, babe, you know it's just--no, Cor, I was talking to Angela", he paused to listen and rolled his eyes. "No, Cory, of course you're my babe too."

Angela laughed and turned her attention to the gurgling baby, who looked like she was amused by the ongoing conversation.

"Well, at least, Smiley is enjoying this."

"Ang", Shawn said, casually. "Cory is saying that he wishes we do nothing family-unfriendly on the couch."

"Oh my God", Angela said, face-palming. "Jack told him that? Why doesn't anyone we know keep anything to themselves?"

Shawn shrugged. "I have no idea, but--yeah, Cor?", he laughed a little. "Cory says because family keeps no secrets from family."

Angela smiled and made a showy heart-clutching gesture. "Well, you know", she began, smirking mischievously. "That's just great. Now we can tell him we've done it on his couch, like, thirteen times already."

Shawn smirks back and raises an eyebrow. "Angela says--oh, you heard? Ang, Cory's screaming and making vague knitting threats."

Angela scoffs, shaking her head, and moved to Riley's crib.

"You hungry, Smiley?", Angela asked, cooing a little, like she usually did when talking to her goddaughter. "I bet you are. It's bottle time on your schedule."

Angela couldn't really say 'schedule' to a baby without the overt sarcastic tone. She mentally scoffed at Topanga and thought of telling her friend that no eight month-olds had schedules when she got back from school.

As she held Riley and fed her, Angela heard Shawn's voice getting louder.

"What the hell?!", he yelled, getting up in shock. "What do yo--well, what happened? No, no, that's terrible!"

"Shawn", Angela asked, walking over to him with Riley. "What happened?"

He looked at her like he needed a really long hug. "Shit happened, Angela. A literal shitstorm. What, Cory?", he asked, worriedly. "What do you mean they need the Best Man? You're Eric's Best Man."

He waited for the reply and shared a pointed look with Angela. "Oh, right. I'm Jack's Best Man. I'm on my w--yeah, here she is."

Shawn got up and put his jacket on. "He wants to talk to you", he said, jerking his head to the phone. "I'm going to need to go now."

He kissed her, a quick peck on the lips, and like someone dreading every possible choice he had made, walked out the door. 

"Yeah, Cory?", Angela said, taking the phone handle. 

"Hey, Ang. How's everything going?" 

"Everything's fine", she said in a deliberately slow tone. "Cory, what's going on?"

"I need you to call the Best Woman. She's our only hope. Jack is three seconds away from killing the wedding planner."

"What the--who's the Best Woman?"

"Rachel is, of course", he said, like it was fairly obvious.

Angela motioned incredulously with her arm. "Does everyone but Topanga and I have titles?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you're the Maids of Honor."

Angela nodded, although he couldn't see her. "Alright, I'm calling. She'll murder you, though."

After a tense two minute conversation in which Rachel explained how 'honestly fucking hard med school is, Angela, are they kidding? I have, like, three exams tomorrow', Angela had finally managed to get Rachel to at least call and talk to Jack and Eric.

"Well", Angela said to the baby sitting in her lap. "That was exhausting as hell."

Riley, who had been giggling since Angela mentioned Eric's name --a reaction very much worthy of Eric--, made a couple of baby noises in what Angela took as agreement. 

Angela had stopped caring a long time ago, six months ago to be precise, about having a full, complete conversation with a person who wasn't even quite born last year. It seemed, in some vague way, that Riley understood her.

She was in the middle of ranting about the boss at her new internship and one racist, but-I'm-not-racist media critique professor at her college when Riley uttered a strange word at her. 

"Ma", she said, a smile that was always on her face in place. "Ma, Ma."

Angela struggled to breath for a moment and for some reason, she was near tears.

She'd always figured the first word Riley would say to her would be a vague sound of her name, the same she'd said to the others. 

She'd call Shawn some version of Shawnie, and she'd call Eric something that was supposed to be uncle. Only Rachel, Jack, and Cory got a resemblance of their names: Rish, Jaa, and Ory.

Angela tried to recall what Riley had called Topanga and vividly remembered the latter crying to her on the phone at six a.m. because Riley had called her 'Mo'.

Laughing and crying now, because at this point it was too late to stop the tears, Angela hugged the baby in her arms. 

"Smiley, you're going to make a cute flower girl", she said later on. "You can probably tell those two aren't getting married before you can walk and throw petals around, right?"

It was an already terrible, shitty day before Angela got called to the principal's office. 

She'd just finished a fifteen minute argument with an editor for snubbing an idea of hers and agreeing to a male colleague's exactly identical idea, and was resting in her office when Yara, her assistant, came in.

"Angela", she'd said, peering in through the open door. "Can I come in?"

Angela nodded, letting out a little breath.

Yara set a bag on Angela's desk. "Brought us some bagels."

"Thank you", Angela said. "I could really go for bagels right now. I used up all my energy arguing with Derek."

Yara scoffed and added, with an appreciative look, "Thanks for that by the way; Derek is a sexist dick."

Yara fixed a fold in her hijab, pacing slightly.

"I've told him that more than once, but he always dismissed it, you know", she turned to Angela with a smile. "I loved that you showed him in front of everyone in that meeting."

Angela tucked a braid behind her ear. "Well, he's never going to dismiss it now. You know--uh, hold on."

Angela picked up her phone, more than curious that Jamila's school principal was calling her. "Hello?"

"Ms. Moore? This is Principal Wilbert."

"Oh", she said, worrying intensifying at his tone. "Is Jamila okay?"

"Oh, Jamila is fine", the principal said, stuttering a little around her daughter's name. "I'm calling about Riley Lawrence-Matthews; it's listed here you're her godmother?"

He paused. 

"I called Ms. Lawrence but her phone's turned off and Mr. Matthews called in sick today and excused himself from classes", Wilbert explained. "Can you make it?"

"Of course, I'll be there right away", Angela said. "Can I know what happened?"

There was a deep, exasperated sigh from the other end. "Believe me, Ms. Moore, I want to know too", he said. "Miss Lawrence-Matthews has said she won't speak unless she's in the presence of a lawyer or a parent."

"She said--", Angela struggled to hold her laughter; she could already see Topanga beaming with joy. "Okay, Mr. Wilbert, I'm on my way."

She turned to her assistant and handed her a flash drive. "Yara, can you get this to an editor? Anyone who's not Derek."

Angela had finished her bagel by the time she got to the girls' school and threw the paper napkins in the nearest bin before walking in.

The school seemed unusually quiet, but Angela was only thinking about what could possibly have compelled Riley to even say she required a lawyer.

When she had found the principal's office, Angela was met by Jamila and Maya standing  by the door.

She raised her eyebrows. "What are you two doing here? You're not in trouble too, are you?"

"Nope", Maya said, cheeks strangely puffed out.

"Never, Mom", Jamila said, breath a little heavy. 

Something didn't feel right. Angela scanned the girls and tried to figure out if they were lying, but they'd started twitching. 

They were laughing, she realized. 

"Whatever it is--", she began, but was soon cut off. 

"Mom", Jamila said, eyes wide. "It was unreal!"

"It was awesome, Ms. Moore!", Maya said, bouncing a little. 

Angela looked suspiciously between the two. "I'd appreciate a little more information."

"Riley decked this boy in the face", Jamila announced, proudly. "He even bruised!"

"That's not...why did she do that?"

"He was being really mean", Maya said, defensively.

"Okay", Angela said, knocking on the door. "Let's hope this goes well, for everyone's sake."

The principal's office didn't seem much, contrary with the rest of the school. It seemed quiet underwhelming, as Angela saw it. 

Even more underwhelming was Principal Wilbert, who rocked a toupee and an unfortunate 70's mustache.

"Ms. Moore, you're here. Finally.", he said, relieved.

He turned his eyes to the mutinous six year-old in the chair in front of him. "She won't say a word without someone else here."

"Sm--Riley?", Angela asked, deciding not to use nicknames. "What happened?"

Riley slowly turned in her chair to face Angela, completely poker-faced. "No biggie", she said. 

Angela looked from the principal to Riley and gestured the latter to come closer.

Riley walked over to her and Angela knelt so she could whisper to her. 

"Now tell me what happened."

"I punched Johnny Albright in the face, Auntie", Riley whispered very seriously. "I didn't want to but I did."

"And why did you punch him? Was he picking on you?"

"Yes. I told him to quit it, but he didn't listen to me."

She paused, an unsure expression on her face. "And then I told Mila about it and I asked her if she could help me since they were in the same class--"

Angela cut her off. "Wait, wait, this boy is in third grade?"

Riley nodded twice. "Yeah, and then, Mila went to talk to him and he said he'll stop picking on me and Maya, but he didn't", she stopped then, and put on a very angry expression. "And today he threw sand at Maya and pushed me down in recess."

"He pushed you?", Angela asked, irritably.

"And threw sand at Maya", Riley repeated. 

"Okay", Angela began, standing up to her full height. "I'm going to talk to Principal Wilbert now."

Riley nodded and walked back to her chair, struggling at first to sit properly. 

Angela took a seat in the chair next to her and fixed her eyes on the principal. "It doesn't seem there's a problem, Mr. Wilbert."

Mr. Wilbert's left eye twitched. "Johnny Albright is at the nurse's office right now and his mother is on the way."

"It wasn't even that bad!", Riley said and clapped a hand over her own mouth once she realized she spoke directly to the principal. 

The principal moved his eyes from Riley to Angela, tiredly. "Ms. Moore, I hope you understand--"

"Mr. Wilbert, I understand perfectly", Angela began, trying to keep exasperation out of her tone. "I understand that my goddaughter was being bullied for a while now and nobody has done anything about it."

Mr. Wilbert paled considerably. "Yes, but no one has physically hurt Miss Lawrence-Matthews."

Angela stared at him. "He pushed her down and threw sand at another girl."

Mr. Wilbert scratched his chin and adjusted his toupee. "Well, what do you suggest I tell Mrs. Albright, Ms. Moore? A girl punched her son and the school let her get away with it?"

"You can tell her that her son has been bullying my goddaughter and she decided to do something about it."

Angela and Mr. Wilbert had a staring contest for the next minute and a half, neither blanching, until Mr. Wilbert finally gave up. 

"I see your point, Ms. Moore", the principal said. "You're free to go, and if you'd like to take your goddaughter with you..."

"I would", Angela said, getting up and readjusting her bag on her shoulder. "I'd actually like to take Jamila too."

Angela tilted her head. "If you had a good reason, then yes, you'll get ice cream", she said. "What do you guys want?"

Jamila and Riley shared a look. "Rocky Road", they both said. 

"Angela", Riley added, guiltily. "Can we get Maya ice-cream too?"

"That's a nice gesture, Smiley, but it will melt before tomorrow."

Riley had just had another argument with her father before he left to run some errands.

It was a quiet day at Topanga and Cory's, very slow and unexciting.

Topanga was at court, Shawn was napping on the couch with Aria, and Jamila was setting up her bags in Riley's room with a curious Auggie in tow.

"It's going to be super crowded in here", Angela said, apologetically. "We totally forgot about the renovation."

"Ah, don't sweat it", Cory said, waving it off. "Renovation will be over and you'll be back there before you know it."

He took a bite of the banana he peeled and continued. "Besides, we're always together. Now, it's just a big sleepover."

Angela snorted. "We already have those."

"Yeah", he agreed. "You didn't change your mattress, right? It's unbelievably relaxing--you snore right away!"

"I know", she said. "I was sleeping right next to you."

Cory mock-scoffed, feigning hurt.

Angela was only in the bathroom for a little while, but there was a full-blown argument between Riley and Cory by the time she got out.

"Dad!", Riley said. "I just don't get why--"

"Of course you're not going to get why; you're eleven", he said. "You know what I got when I was eleven? Nothing."

He sighed, turned to Angela, and rolled his eyes. "I'm going to run a few errands, Ang. You want anything?"

Angela shook her head and Cory went out the door. 

Riley let out a little yell of frustration. "I don't understand Dad at all, Aunt Angie."

Angela shrugged. "Nobody understands their parents at this age, Smiley. Trust me", she said. "What were you arguing about?"

"I actually have no idea", Riley said after a pause. "It doesn't really matter, though. What matters is that he always ends it the same way."

"Care to elaborate?"

"He always says that I don't get it or that I'm still a kid or anything like that. It's frustrating."

"Cory's...way of showing it may not seem like it, but he's coming from a good place, Riley."

"Yeah, I know", Riley said. "It's just...I'm getting tired of living in my father's world."

She paused, then added with a shrug, "I'd rather live in you guys' world." 

"Our world?", Angela asked, a little surprised. "Why?"

"Well", she began, a little too casually. "You guys let Jamila do anything she wants."

"No, we don't", Angela said, shaking her head. "We have rules too. The only difference is that Shawn and I are a little...uh, I don't know how to say this."

"Cooler than my father?", Riley offered. 

"Well, we are, but that's not what I was looking for", Angela mused. "Anyway, you get it, right?"

Riley nodded. "When will he know that I'm growing up?"

"Sooner than you'll realize. Don't worry."

Riley hesitated before asking the next question. "Aunt Angela, do you think I'll...", she seemed to struggle with the words. "Grow up right? I don't mean literally but..."

She took a deep breath and continued. "Do you think I'll screw up?"

Angela took a long look at her goddaughter before she shook her head. "Even if you screw up, Smiley, you can always turn things around. Do you know how many people we know that screwed up?" 

Riley shook her head and Angela shrugged. "Well, we've got me, Rachel, Shawn, Cory, your uncle Eric, Jack, Topanga--"

"No, that can't be right", Riley said with an incredulous smile. "Mom would never screw up."

"Everyone screwed up at one point, Riley, even your mom. She might not like to heavily stress on that, though", Angela said. "The point is you can always turn it around, you can always do well in the end, know why?"

Riley shrugged. "Because I'm Topanga's daughter."

Angela shook her head. 

"Because I'm Cory's daughter?"

"No."

"Because I'm your goddaughter?"

"Flattering, but no, Smiley", Angela said, finally. "Because you're you."

Riley pointed to herself, silently asking, and Angela nodded, silently answering. 

Smiling, Riley hugged Angela. "Thanks, Auntie Ma", she'd said, reminding Angela of the slightly awkward encounter that happened at her daycare a few years ago.

She pulled away and asked, "How will they react when they know I'm growing up?"

Angela personally thought it would be hilarious. She tried imagining it. 

"Your mother is going to look calm and freak out in her bedroom and your father is going to freak out very, very publicly, but they'll manage."

"Wow", Riley nodded. "That'll probably be it, right?"

Angela shrugged and looked at her phone. "Topanga's supposed to be back by now. I should call her."

"Auntie?"

"Yeah?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Angela saw Riley mustering an exaggerated wounded puppy face.

"Can I can go with you on your next out-of-town assignment? Please?"

"You can, if you can ask you parents."

Riley threw her arms in the air in an over-exaggerated manner, groaning. 

"I'm never getting to go anywhere then!"