15 | Baby Fever

"I don't know what Christmas is, but Christmastime is here."

~ Old 97's, I Don't Know What Christmas Is

(But Christmastime is Here)

Cillian decided he liked when Sophie slept. She looked very peaceful, and also happened to be draped on top of him.

He couldn't help but grin as he felt her small hand move subconsciously around his middle, warm and soft. Her head found the crook of his neck and her legs intertwined with his. In seconds her body was molded to his own, making him stare down lovingly at her. When her arms wrapped right around him, it brought a peace that he's never known before. He could never let another person so close to him like this, but she's so different. There's a purity to her, a brightness in her spirit. She's the only flower in the meadow for his eyes.

He almost felt bad for enjoying this moment. Almost. He knew she'd wake up horrified by her subconscious actions. Whether she was a natural cuddler, or if this was the mate pull, he didn't know, but he definitely wasn't complaining.

Her eyes fluttered and her chest drew up with a sigh. She wasn't sure if it was being back in her childhood bedroom that made her sleep so well or- oh my gosh.

She practically threw herself backwards, nearly falling off the bed if Cillian hadn't reached out and saved her just in the knick of time. She sat back by her pillows, slightly disoriented, her hair all over the place. "I'm so sorry!" She gasped, a hand over her chest. "I didn't- I don't normally- I'm so sorry for invading your personal space, I-"

"It's fine, Sophie." He chuckled. Yes, chuckled.

His low morning voice along with hearing his deep quiet laugh for the first time had butterflies dancing in her stomach and heat rising to her cheeks.

Her sputtering ceased and she hid her face in her hands. "I swear I didn't mean to do that." Her voice came out muffled.

He heard her heart was going a million miles an hour at the moment and he felt bad for her. Gently, he reached out and carefully tugged her hands away from her face. "I know. It's okay."

She stared at him a moment, processing, before her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, you probably liked it, perv." She laughed as his jaw went slack. "I'm kidding, I don't think you're a perv."

Their teasing was cut off by screaming from downstairs.

"Mary Anne, you absolute walnut!"

"I fixed it! I made it look better than you did!"

"How!?"

"Puh-lease, I could eat all these ingredients and crap out a better pie than whatever you just baked!"

A baby started screaming in the distance.

Amused, Sophie shook her head. "My mom and aunt fight like they're still teenagers. And from the sounds of it, they're babysitting my brother's baby. I should probably get dressed and prevent them from strangling each other."

Cillian followed suit, following her down the stairs, and was immediately met with chaos. "Sophia! Thank God you're here." Angela exclaimed, covered in flour and batter.

"You thank God for your daughter, but not for my help, you ungrateful rat." Sophie's Aunt Mary grumbled under her breath from the stool at the island.

Though Angela was the one "baking," they were both covered in flour and batter. Mary had Maggie, Sophie's niece, cradled in her arms. Maggie was normally a great baby, not even one year old yet. With her dad and mom not around, she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Pass me the spoon." Angela ordered her sister over the baby's wails.

"No."

Angela's eye twitched. "At what point do you mature? I thought at seventy, you would have by now."

Mary's jaw dropped. "Seventy!? I am only two years older than you!"

"Could have fooled me." She scoffed.

"Stop making fun of my age! You know how it makes me feel."

"I don't have enough middle fingers to show you how I feel." Angela quipped right back.

"Okay, ladies! Break it up! Help is here." Sophie exclaimed over their fighting, chuckling at the sisters.

Mary stood with a huff and gently shoved Maggie into Cillian's arms. "Take her! I can't do this anymore."

Sophie held back a gasp and went to reach for her niece, but was surprised when Cillian accepted the baby, gently cradling her against his chest. Immediately, her cries ceased. She sniffled a few times before resting her head in the crook of his neck. Out of instinct, his hand lightly patted her back to soothe her.

"Close your mouth dear, you'll catch flies." Mary snickered smugly.

Her jaw snapped shut. "I wasn't- I didn't-"

She was cut off by her aunt's hand on her forehead. "I knew it."

Sophie drew back, flabbergasted. "Knew what?"

"You just got baby fever."

"What? No, I just... that's not how it works." She exasperated and secretly checked her forehead to be sure. She sighed to collect herself. "I just didn't know he was so good with babies."

"I don't think he did either." Mary chuckled.

She was right about that. While his body language seemed relaxed, his eyes were a whole other story. They were wide, searching for Sophie's as if to ask, "am I doing this right!?"

With a grin, Sophie shuffled over to her husband. She placed one arm on his bicep, the other on her niece's cheek. "You think you can handle her okay?"

He ducked his head down to ask in a hushed tone. "I won't hurt her, will I? I've never held a baby."

I won't hurt her... she processed what he said, her heart heavy. He didn't trust himself.

"Do you want to hurt her?"

He looked offended by the question. "Of course not."

"Then you won't." She smiled softly at him, guiding him to the living room so he could sit with the baby. "I trust you, Maggie trusts you..." she paused to plant a kiss on his cheek, and she swore it turned red. "Now you have to trust you."

He allowed himself to relax a tad, his brows still slightly pinched together in concern. "I'm doing this right?" He asked again.

Sophie ran a finger over Maggie's cheek. "You're holding her perfectly. I promise."

The doorbell rang, as did her mother's voice. "Sophie, will you let your brother in please?"

She stood from the couch, her hand lingering on Cillian's shoulder as she did. "My brother will relieve you of baby duty once I let him in. I'll be right back."

She scurried to the front door and opened it. "There she is!" Sophie's brother, Tommy, exclaimed. "Nice to see you, short stack."

"Yeah, whatever." She chuckled and hugged him back.

"Where's this man I gotta beat up, huh?" He joked, though there was slight truth to his words.

"Currently taking care of your daughter." She sassed back and hugged Tommy's wife, Lauren.

"You going to the banquet tonight?" Lauren asked as they separated.

"Banquet?" She questioned.

Lauren sighed and grumpily slapped Tommy's arm. "I knew you forgot to tell her!"

"Ow, what!?" He exclaimed.

She ignored him told Sophie, "some friends of ours are hosting a Christmas banquet tonight if you and Cillian wanna come."

"Oh that sounds nice, thanks for the invite! I'll have to see what we have planned." Aka, she'd have to see if Cillian would feel comfortable.

The brother and sister were heading to the same place, when an eager cousin stopped them. "Sophie, come play with us outside!" She begged, tugging on her sleeve.

She chuckled and ran a hand through her hair. "In one minute, I just have to tell Cillian-"

"I'll tell him, you go on." Tommy interjected.

She frowned and warned, "Tom."

He rolled his eyes and innocently told her, "I'm just going to introduce myself."

As their cousin started dragging her out the back door, she pointed a stern finger at him. "Be nice."

"I'll try."

"Thomas!" She scolded, but the back door closed behind her.

He made his way to the living room, pausing to watch Cillian. He was a hulking man, not just in height, but muscle. Despite his intimidating form, he cradled his baby as if she were made of glass, as if one wrong move, she'd fall apart.

Feeling another's gaze on him, Cillian looked up.

Tommy smiled tightly at him, sticking a hand out for him to shake. "You must be Cillian."

He stared at his brother in-law's hand, unsure how to shake it with the baby in his arms.

Tommy couldn't help but chuckle and took Maggie from him, holding her in one arm. Finally, Cillian was able to shake his hand. It wasn't as firm as Tommy expected, but rather gentle for a man his size.

"Sorry, I've never held one." Cillian admitted.

Tommy realized that Cillian was a rather timid man. Maybe that wasn't the right word, but gentle, in touch and at heart.

"Really? You look like a natural. You and Soph will be ready for kids in no time." He joked, secretly testing him. "You guys want some, right?"

They hadn't exactly talked about that yet, so he responded with, "whatever Sophie wants."

His brows furrowed. "But what about what you want?"

"I do want kids, but I am happy with whatever Sophie wants."

He pondered on his reply, skeptical. Cillian was incredibly eager to please Sophie, he wanted to make sure it wasn't an act. "Happy wife, happy life, right?" He joked.

Again, he nodded, readily. "Right."

He cleared his throat. "Well, I gotta change Maggie. Sophie told me to tell you that she's outside with the cousins."

He frowned, knowing how cold it was out there. Even still, he sucked it up and headed outside. The moment he stepped out the door, his heart sunk to his stomach. There was an awful amount of commotion for his liking. The small group of people parted like the Red Sea for the brooding man, only for him to find his mate on the ground, her eyebrow split with blood dripping down her temple.

He rushed to her, showing bis concern, but the look on his face was cold, angry even. It was barely there, but Sophie knew him well enough to notice now. "I'm okay, Cillian." She told him immediately.

Without a word, he knelt in front of her and helped her sit up. With a touch as light as a feather, he hooked a thick finger under her chin to get a better look at her face and the evidence of a fight. He delicately swiped his thumb over her eyebrow to wipe away the blood, but said nothing as he examined it.

After a brief pause, her heart skipped a nervous beat as he looked her dead in the eyes. His voice was low, quiet, and tense, his anger barely restrained, "who did this to you?"

"Umm..." she drawled, her eyebrows furrowing together, making her wince. "It's okay, it doesn't matter."

"Sophia." His deep voice urged in a warning tone.

Her head tilted to pull away from his grasp, but he just held on tighter. She sighed and reluctantly met his eyes.

He rose a brow, challenging her.

With a sigh she whispered, "One of the kids and I were playing around and accidentally nailed me in the face with a snowball. There was a piece of wood and it and it just happened to scratch me," she emphasized the 'accident' part, not pointing out the specific kid. "I'm okay. Promise. It was an honest mistake."

His eyes snapped up to connect eyes with a boy cowering behind the others. He was no older than eight years old and looked truly horrified.

Cillian released her chin to make a 'come hither' motion with his pointer finger. The boy winced, but had no choice but to do as ordered.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Alex." The boy responded in a small tone of voice.

"You hurt her?"

The boy ducked his head in shame and nodded.

"You have something to say?"

"I'm sorry." He mumbled, his eyes cautiously meeting his cousin's.

She gave him a soft grin. "It's okay."

But of course, Cillian wasn't done. He turned to the lot of the kids and said, "We have to be more careful. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Alex said, while the rest of them nodded their heads, respectfully.

Cillian immediately turned his attention back to his wife, and examined the injury once again. Her hand caught his before he could touch it. "I'm okay." She reassured him.

He grit his teeth, his thoughts seemingly elsewhere. She stood to her feet and tugged his hand to get him to rise too, though realistically, it did nothing.

"Hot chocolate is ready!" Angela called out to all the kids from the back door.

All the kids scrambled inside, leaving just the two of them in the middle of the field. Snow began to fall from the sky, making Cillian scowl. Sophie had noticed his hesitation to the cold and respected his boundaries. He obviously had his reasonings.

However, she decided he needed a good experience with the snow. Without him seeing, Sophie picked up a ball of snow and struck hit him square in his chest.

He stood there- shocked for a moment, not even blinking. Slowly, his eyes fell to the despicable white cold flakes on his chest, then back up to the culprit's face. She had to admit, she was concerned she crossed a boundary at first, his face remaining neutral- even though that was his face most of the time.

Then she decided, to heck with it! She threw another snowball.

"What are you-"

Sophie let out a fierce battle cry and ran full speed at him, snowballs ready to fire in each hand. He finally came to his senses and ran away- which honestly was a pretty easy thing to do.

He scooped up some snow along the away and threw the snowball back in Sophie's direction, hitting her square in the chest, the snow going down her top.

She squealed at the cold dripping down her top.... maybe she deserved that. "That was a douche move, you douche." She tsked, picking at her top to get the snow out of it.

"What did you call me?" He nearly laughed.

"You heard me." She didn't let him respond and took him by surprise, tackling him to the ground, landing on top of him.

For the first time ever, she heard him laugh. A true, genuine, belly laugh that warmed her heart, making her laugh along with him. "What was that about?" He managed to speak through his laughter.

Their laughter soon died down and Sophie looked at him a tad more seriously. In a soft tone of voice, she told him, "I just wanted to show you... you can be happy. You can find joy in the things that maybe you don't like at first. Because without the cold, we wouldn't have snow. Yes, the snow can be destructive, but it can be fun too. It's all in how you see it and handle it."

It was in that moment, that very second, something inside Cillian changed or maybe rather grew in regard with his feelings towards his mate. In that moment, he knew why he got this adorable dork for a mate. It felt like this was his once in a lifetime moment, and yet all they were supposed to be doing was goofing off in the snow.

"You make me happy, Sophia." He whispered, earnestly.

She bit her lip to fight back her grin, but no avail. She patted his chest and mumbled, "should we head inside for some hot chocolate?"

He smiled.

•••

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