Wellspring Arms and Meditation Center

She's here. She's chilling. Not unlike a villain.

"Morning, Rikku."

At least Rikku wasn't going to turn into any kind of argument. He was pretty sure. Which was why Cable was coming downstairs, baby-and-dog and all, offering her a nod as he surveyed the store from the doorway.

"Morning!" Rikku bounced over to him, already cooing. "Awwww, how's she doing? I meant to stop in but then the weird future kids showed up and I kinda got brain fried? How've you been doing? Is she still sleeping a lot? She's so tiny!"

No arguments. Just a wall of hyper and baby-related awwwwww.

"She's-- a little more awake. Now."

Cable wasn't completely sure why he liked talking about the baby's habits, but he didn't really get a lot of opportunities to, lately, anyway.

Couldn't keep calling Scott; the man would think there was an emergency. "She appreciates the toys." He thought.

"She's so beautiful," Rikku murmured happily. "Yes, you are, you're beautiful, suna payidevim dryh cihmekrd yht vmufanc, look at you, you're so little."

She resisted the urge to reach over and play with the baby's tiny hands. Not sure if Cable would be okay with that.

"I'm glad she likes them," she sighed. "Does she need more? I can get more. She's so amazing."

Just a tiny world, wrapped up into herself. Unbelievable.

He cradled her a little closer. Important. Always-- important. "She's got enough. For the time being."

And shot a look at the security panel, because, really, that's why Cable was here-- but it wouldn't hurt to wait with the check-ups, just for once. "She needs to get her shots this week. She's been doing well so far-- a couple more weeks..."

He trailed off. The baby made little cooing noises at Rikku.

"I bet you won't like that," she said, giggling, reaching over to offer a finger to the baby. To grab onto or chew on or anything else she saw fit. She wiggled the finger a little temptingly. "No, shots are ouchies, aren't they? Nooooo. They are."

"She seems good to me," Rikku said, without looking up. "I mean healthy and if she's sleeping and eating and playing, I mean, does she seem okay to you? Happy and all of that?"

"She's doing fine," Cable said, simply, despite all of the worrying and the poking and the does-she-make-too-much-noising and all that kind of stuff he really hadn't thought he'd spend time worrying about again.

The baby gurgled, one tiny hand reaching out for Rikku's finger and not quite grasping it, and then the other went. She giggled.

"It'll be a while before she hits the-- obvious-- stages of development."

"Are you gonna get it?" Rikku grinned, poking the baby very gently in the chest and pulling her finger away again. And then innnnn, slowly, and away! "You're gonna get it. You're ... gonna ... get it. Yes, you are."

Excuse her, she could be amused by this for hours. Especially when she giggled like that.

"They've got books, and stuff. And things online. I mean. You probably know it all, I'm just saying. What's normal when and what she needs and ... all kinds of stuff." She flushed, not wanting to admit she'd looked some of that up herself, and then resumed her finger-poking. "Yes, you are."

"I have the books."

A lot of books. His apartment was--

Decidedly not empty. "But thank you for the concern."

The baby responded by giggling more; it was causing something almost reminiscent of a smile on Cable's face, too.

"Any time," she said, poking her finger gently against the baby's hands. She blushed, and leaned back. "Uh. Sorry. I get all ... you know."

Rikku scuffed her toes on the ground. "She's incredible," she said. And she was. A little tiny universe waiting to happen.

There was no particular embarrassment on his part. "She is," Cable said, simply, "One of these days, she'll make everything better."

Which was a statement of a fact, if nothing else. "Feel free."

"I believe it," she said softly. Still blushing, she reached over again to press her finger against one of the baby's tiny fists. "You can do anything. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Save the world and then have nap-nap time."

She could, too.

"Yeah," Cable said, slowly, and he was still smiling, but tiredly so-- not that most could probably tell, just a tiny quirk of his lips-- at the baby. "Anything."

It was a Friday.

Therefore it was an excellent time to bother Rikku at work.

Which was what Romeo was doing that early afternoon. He waved, but his attention was diverted by a cabinet of weapons, where it would stay until she noticed him.

"Romeo!" Rikku waved, and then twirled excitedly. "Aren't those guns awesome? Guns are so cool. How are you? Did you know Cable has a baby?! Okay I think it's not quite his like that but he's watching her and she's so tiny, oh my gosh. I should pick up extra shifts!"

Rikku + Hyper = wall of words.

It took a moment, but the wall of words earned a huge grin. "The guns are gorgeous," he began, ticking things off on his fingers. "I'm well enough, and I had no idea about any of that. What is he calling it? And would he let you babysit?"

"Guns are always gorgeous," she grinned back. "I didn't get her name yet but I went on my lunch break last week and bought her all sorts of little fluffy toys and squishy things. Uh. Cable is awesome at a lot of stuff and I figure he got her all the really important stuff but he might have forgotten, you know. Little stuffed elephants that squeak when you hug 'em. So I picked up a few."

Or more than a few. It was hard to pick between things that damn cute so she'd gotten a lot. Shhhh.

"I dunno if he'd let me watch her. I think there's some big thing going on, like, she's in danger? Kinda scary to think about."

Rikku was more than slightly adorable about kids. "Awwwww," Romeo said, listening to the account of what had been purchased.

But his eyes darkened at the rest of what she said. "A baby in danger? That's ... not surprising for the island, but still, it must be hard for him. For him and for the child's birth parents."

"I'm not sure why she is, there's something about ... the future and her being important. And her parents ..." Rikku trailed off abruptly. "You know? I have no idea. He hasn't mentioned them. I hope they're okay."

And ... kinda hoped they knew he had her, and all? That was less pleasant to think about.

If they were, Romeo suspected, they'd be near the baby. Okay people didn't let children go far astray, the weekend had convinced him of that.

But he suspected Rikku knew that.

"Here must be one of the safest places for her to be," he said, not exactly answering her so much as trying not to make her worry. "So did she like the toys you got for her?"

"It must be," she echoed, not quite believing it herself. She shouldn't worry about it now, there wasn't anything she could do about it either way. She'd ask Cable later. "And ... he said she did. He might've been just saying that to be nice but he's not the type who usually does that, you know?"

"I've not met him," Romeo reminded her. "But I'm sure you got exactly the right thing."

Then, changing the subject, he asked, "Were you going to go to graduation tomorrow?"

"Oooooh, you bet." Rikku bounced on her toes. "Last year I missed graduation and aliens blew up the school. I'm so showing up early, this year. Just in case."

Okay, on the scale of weird, that beat "my former wife's double might be there."

"...blew up the school?" he repeated, eyes wide. "Did the aliens say why? And was anyone hurt?"

"No, apparently everyone got to kick some alien butt and I missed it," Rikku sighed. "I just know I'm gonna get all psyched up for this and nothing's gonna happen. But at least I'll be here, you know? Are you going? You don't want to miss it if things get crazy."

Romeo reached to pat her on the shoulder. "Maybe the aliens will come back for you to pummel," he said hopefully. He wouldn't mind some of that action himself. "And aye, I'm going. For Mel, if nothing else, and because I've done almost nothing this week. Though ..."

he stopped himself there. "I'll go."

"It should be fun either way," she grinned, leaning against the counter. "I mean, and I have to see Dawn and Luke and Mel and everyone else off, right? Ugh, so many people are leaving and they're not allowed."

She tilted her head at him uncertainly. "I didn't ... scare you off with the alien thing or anything, did I?" She didn't think so; Romeo seemed to enjoy a good scrap as much as anyone. "Or ... uh. Everything okay?"

"Mel thinks she will be permitted to leave next week," Romeo scowled, resting his chin on the glass. "This weekend Anders told me Juliet had a double and she's likely to come to graduation. I know it's just people who look alike, bu even so, it's going to hurt if I run into her."

"You mean ... there's someone here who looks like your wife?" Something was tickling at the back of her brain, dammit. "Do you ... have her picture with you? I mean, can I see it, again?"

There had been something oddly familiar about the girl's face, but she couldn't place it, last time, and had waved off the thought without mentioning it. Or else she was seeing things. This time she'd look closer, dammit.

"Always," Romeo admitted, following it with a quick, "Yurika might not know I do." She'd seen it, of course, but that had been months ago.

He pulled out the photo. "He said she graduated last year, the person who looked like her."

"I won't tell her," Rikku promised, taking the picture carefully around the edges so her fingerprints wouldn't smudge it. She looked at the face for a long moment.

Brownish hair instead of red, but the face seemed almost identical. "Oh my gosh. Angela."

"I'm not meant to keep secrets from her, but ..." he wasn't sure where to take that sentence, so he let it drop. But talking about my dead wife with my new girlfriend is a definition of agony, perhaps.

His interest was diverted by what Rikku said. "Is that her name?" Romeo asked keenly, and of course it would have to do with angels. "Anders didn't say and I forgot to ask."

"It's okay," she said, waving off his concern. Memories weren't disloyal, they were just memories, right? She might feel differently if Reno were carrying around pictures of his nonexistent exes, but still. "And yeah. She was on newspaper with me. Angela ... oh, wow, I suck at remembering second names. Started with a ch. Chance? Chase? Something like that. She's very sweet, we talked sometimes."

It was when she looked up again that she realized they were discussing, you know. A dead ringer for his dead wife. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Romeo shrugged one shoulder. "I'll be fine, especially if she's as sweet as you say. I may need to leave the room when she comes in, but that's a small price."

"Someone could tell her first, if you'd rather?" she asked, handing the photograph back and frowning. "I mean, just to warn her and all of that, so she understands if you're kinda weird? Not that that's weird. I mean. You know what I mean."

"But that might be odd too," Romeo argued. "There's this boy she's never heard of and might never meet, who was once married to another her? I appreciate the offer, Rikku, think I'll leave it to fate."

Mod your Zen.

Bow! Blam! Pew pew pew!

No world-ending before graduation.

Wellspring Arms and Meditation Center

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