AU: Baby Driver (Josh)

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I need to vacuum in this cabinet, which means I'm probably going to need to vacuum in all of them," Josh informed his partner. "But maybe we can wait on that, I don't want to interrupt you."

Sean's contributions were just as important as his own were, after all.

"Oh! We should. It's been too long since we've had a play date over there, anyway. I'll call Riley and ask if any upcoming weekend works for them."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean had begun wipe the dust off all of the surfaces in the room that he had begun cleaning, now that the floors had been cleaned. After removing the dust with a dry paper towel, he attacked each surface with the spray, followed by another paper towel with which to wipe them down. The task was repetitive, but the results were well-worth the effort. It would be nice to have a clean house, and it would also be nice not to worry about what Eleanor might ingest when touching a surface and then immediately putting her fist in her mouth.

“If you give me a few minutes to finish with this, I can pick her up,” the telepath promised. Once he finished this room, he could distract their baby while Josh did the necessary vacuuming. That would be a fair division of labor, and the least traumatic path as far as Eleanor and the vacuum cleaner were concerned.

“That sounds great,” he said with a smile. Eleanor would enjoy getting to see Michelle and Carwyn, even if they were a couple of months younger than she was. She enjoyed being around other children, without the need for too much activity, and since she was not allowed anything too small, whatever she might share with the other babies would not present choking hazards, if they reached that stage.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"All right," Josh agreed. As Sean was cleaning the counters he couldn't clear out he remainder of the cabinets, but he also didn't want to waste more time than was necessary.

"I'll go find it, then."

He thought he'd last seen the handheld vacuum cleaner in one of the guest bedrooms, when it had been used to vacuum up a spider. With this thought in mind he trudged heavily up the stairs. In a younger state he might have bounded, but bounding was difficult as a mildly out of shape fifty something.

The vacuum was not where he had thought he had left it, and after a search of the guest bedroom he had to begin sweeping through the others until he found it tucked away in one of the closets.

"There you are," he muttered with a laugh, "actually got put away, did you."

He returned downstairs with his prize, trying to keep it out of Eleanor's vision.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Eleanor continued to bounce in her swing, with her visual attention mostly on her Daddy as he cleaned the room. Fortunately, as she could recognize the vacuum cleaner when she saw it, particularly when it was plugged in.

Sean continued to wipe down and spray all of the counter surfaces. Soon enough, the older man had finished, and he had a pile of damp and dirty paper towels to prove that. He grabbed fistfuls of those to throw in the trash; as he had large hands, this only took two trips to the trashcan.

Finished, he washed his hands so that they were clean before he picked up their daughter. Then, he crossed to the doorway, bent down to unbuckle her, and lifted her into his arms. “Do you want to sit on the porch with Daddy for a few minutes?”

His question was largely rhetorical, as he intended to take her out there irrespective of her desires. She also was not yet verbal, so she couldn’t answer “yes” or “no.” Still, she gurgled and smiled, which he took as agreement.

The telepath hoped that the glass divider between the porch and the house proper would provide enough of a sound barrier to keep her from crying while Josh vacuumed.

“Good luck,” he wished his partner, as he carried Eleanor out towards the back porch.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh made quick work of the vacuuming, making sure that there were no more dead insects around and no rabbit fur drifted off into the corner before he turned his machinery off and put it away again. Once he had coiled the wires up and tucked it back into its place in the closet he made his way to the back porch, tapping lightly on the glass to get Sean's attention.

You can come back in now.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean closed the glass door to provide a sound barrier, and then he settled with Eleanor on the “outdoor” sofa. He settled her in his lap and proceeded to bounce her and make faces to distract her. She cooed and smiled for him.

When the vacuuming started, there was enough of a barrier that she did not immediately tear up and cry. For good measure, however, Sean cleared his throat and began to sing her a soft lullaby.

October winds lament around the Castle of Dromore
Yet peace is in her lofty halls, my loving treasure store
Though autumn leaves may droop and die
A bud of spring are you...

Neither pregnancy nor fatherhood had improved the telepath’s singing voice; it remained as raspy and off-key as ever. However, Eleanor didn’t know any better. He had sung to his baby since her first days as a newborn, and she found his singing voice comforting, not because of quality but because it belonged to him.

He wouldn’t sing for an audience, but if lullabies helped to calm his daughter, then he would sing for her privately until his throat went hoarse and his ears began to bleed.

At the tap and at the thought he overheard, Sean turned to face his partner. He offered the younger man a smile, and then scooped Eleanor back into his arms. “Let’s go back inside with Papa,” he suggested, although it was more narration.

Shifting her so that he could open the glass door, he remarked to his partner, “That was quick.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh smiled at Eleanor, waggling his fingers at his daughter as Sean brought her back into the kitchen. Without taking his eyes off the baby's he said, "Of course it was quick. I didn't want to leave you out there too long, we still have cleaning to do. And besides," he laughed, moving backwards so that his partner could shut the door again, "It would be just my luck she would finally realize she should be offended you sing to her if I tried to take too much time."

His smile was gentle and affectionate; the ribbing was intended as lighthearted rather than cruel. It was no secret that his partner had a terrible singing voice, and Sean often joked at his own expense.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean took no offense to the teasing. He knew that his partner held no malicious intent; moreover, the telepath could hardly deny the underlying fact that his singing voice was atrocious. One day, their daughter would have enough exposure to music to recognize that, although not for several years. Until then, Sean minimized collateral damage by singing for Eleanor alone, never in public. “Fortunately, I think we’ve avoided that for another day at least.” The older man smiled as well, to demonstrate that all of this was gentle teasing.

Eleanor smiled up at her Papa when he made eye contact with her. She cooed softly, wholly unaware that, mere moments ago, those same fingers that playfully waggled at her had held her arch-nemesis the vacuum cleaner.

The telepath shut the glass door behind them and then carried their baby through the kitchen into the den, in an attempt to set her down with her toys again. “Where did you want to clean next?”

They still had to tend to several rooms on the first floor (such was the byproduct of having such a large house) and then the entirety of the second floor. In addition to the basement, although that project might have to wait for the next day, depending on how long the rest of the house took to clean.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Why don't we try the living room?" Josh suggested, already turning to head in that direction.

The living room was, like the kitchen, one of the rooms that most often saw the family all together. Before Eleanor's arrival this had largely involved reading or watching the news together. Now that there was a baby, however, this involved trying to prevent a child who couldn't even walk from finding and eating all the dust bunnies.

Josh's vision wasn't what it had been in his youth, and he would have some peace of mind if he didn't have to worry there were dust bunnies he couldn't see.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded in assent. He was fine to clean the living room, since it, like the rest of the house, had lacked thorough cleaning since Eleanor had joined the family. He and Josh would still spend time in the living room together, although more frequently to play with their daughter. They stored some of her toys down there for convenience, as opposed to keeping all of them in her room and carrying them back and forth every time they changed locations.

The telepath carried their daughter into the living room, falling into step beside his partner. Once there, he handed her off to Josh, so that Sean could grab her play mat and the Swiffer from the other room.

Back with her play mat, he set it flat so that Josh could put down their daughter. Perhaps, after having the change of scenery and the time in her swing, she would stay put this time.

“When Ryan was her age, he would lick the floor for no apparent reason,” Sean remarked, shaking his head to himself at the memory. “My sister used to call our father every other day to make sure there was nothing wrong with him.”

There had been nothing wrong with him. Babies liked to touch and taste everything, and the floor was readily available.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh smiled at Eleanor as Sean went to fetch his tools, tossing her into the air and capturing her around the waist over. She gurgled and smiled at this game, and so he continued it even after his partner had spread out her play mat.

"Licking the floor. Hmmm, who do I know who does tha---ahhhh!"

His remark was interrupted by Eleanor spitting up in his face, coating his glasses. He lowered her to the floor, wiping the glasses regretfully on the front of his shirt. "I'd better go find some paper towels to wipe her off with. And," he touched his hair, fingers coming away with milky stickiness. "Me."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean stepped in when Eleanor spit up, crossing to kneel beside their baby in order to keep her from trailing spit-up all over the floor. “I put out spare clothes for us on the bed,” he told his partner. One always had to be prepared, as such were the hazards of babies. They leaked every natural substance from every orifice.

Eleanor could not help it; she was too young to have any control over her bodily functions.

“I can wash her off if you’d like, to cut down on the delay.” That way, Josh could take a few minutes to wash himself and change his clothing, while Sean changed Eleanor’s outfit and cleaned off her face and any other part of her that had become sticky.

Such as her hands, as she had reached up to touch her own face.

Babies.

She didn’t know better. And, fortunately, she was so mild-mannered that this had not upset her. Instead, she was smiling again as though nothing had happened. After all, she had been having fun up until that moment of spewing.

So much for getting right to work on the living room. However, the Swiffer could wait, and perhaps, just perhaps, enough stimulation would tire their daughter so that she would take her nap, and they could work around her then.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Thank you," Josh murmured, embarrassed that he had caused their daughter to spit up, thus delaying their project by even a few minutes. "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful in the future."

Not that care was foolproof against baby spitting; they were prone to bodily fluids.

He hurried up the stairs, peeling off his shirt and flinging it into the hamper almost as soon as he walked through the bedroom door. He stumped into the master bathroom, squinting at the mirror as he did his best to clean his hair without actually taking a shower.

That could come after the housework, when he and Sean would both surely be sticky with sweat.

Once he was satisfied that his hair was passably clean he tugged on the clean shirt Sean had left out before bounding down the stairs to meet up with his partner and baby again.

"Is she going to be all right?" He asked, worry etched across his face. She looked happy enough but he couldn't be too sure.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

While Josh went upstairs to clean himself, Sean scooped Eleanor into his arms to bring her into the kitchen. He wet a wash cloth and then set her down in the sink so that he could clean her face, neck, and hands before too much of her spit-up had transfers from the area around her mouth to her clothing and the rest of her body.

“Up until that, you were having fun with Papa, weren’t you?”

Eleanor answered his question with a smile and a soapy, wet clap.

Satisfied, the telepath toweled her off, reminding himself to toss that kitchen towel in with the next batch of laundry. He carried her back into the living room and set her down on her play mat, before jiggling her set of big, colorful, plastic keys in front of her to get her attention.

When Josh rejoined them, he nodded in the affirmative. “Of course she is. She won’t even remember doing that.” Babies spit up constantly; their stomachs were delicate, and activities could get away from them sometimes. There was no reason to worry too much about it; any more than there was cause to worry when she wet herself. Since this had a cause, she didn’t have a stomach bug, and that was what mattered.

“Did you want to take the cabinets again? Or did you want to switch jobs?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Sean had a medical background, and also more experience with children in general -- although Josh had several nieces and nephews, he still wasn't entirely confident about what was and wasn't normal for infants -- so the attorney was cautiously satisfied that Eleanor was, in fact, all right. He was glad that it was only himself and his partner in this cleaning spree, however; he knew that if their friend Dr. Jones were there, he would undoubtedly find some completely dreadful reason the baby had spit up.

Griff was a kind man, but his anxieties made Josh feel downright carefree sometimes.

"I don't mind doing the cabinets. I know it's hard for you to bend down for them."