scott x hope oneshots

let time stand still

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Hope hears her daughter's sniffles before they turn to cries, and she's already up and about from bed, lunging forwards to the side of the crib. Hope learns that she's attuned to Hailey's every whimper and cries, this is no exception. It had been an educational four months, and she's looking forward to learning more about her mini-me. She peeks into the crib to see that Hailey is wide awake on her tummy, not enjoying it, unable to roll over.

"Hey baby, it's alright," she coos, carrying her daughter out from the crib, cuddles her close. Scott, barely stirring, turns over and starts patting the empty space beside him, to which Hope raises a brow in response. It's absolutely comical, and she makes a mental note to tease him about it later.

Still, her daughter progresses to cry, exercising every bit of her tiny lungs, leaving Hope to wonder how a tiny human being could produce such a loud cry. Scott doesn't wake at all, instead mumbles something in his sleep and throws the covers over his head.

She couldn't blame him.

Despite the sleep-deprived nights and their hay wired biological clocks, both relishes in the loving glow of new parenthood.

Until the X-Cons scores a new security project that's more demanding than their other projects, forcing Scott to pull an all-nighter for the past one week. Though, usually, Scott isn't far away from them, can't bear to be, still insisting on taking turns to tend to Hailey, despite Hope's protests.

That is, until tonight. He is sleeping like a log.

She knows that he is beginning to sleep better, even years later, after The Blip. Hope thinks it's a silly word, too simple of a term to describe the impact and intensity of the trauma it had caused.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, mommy's here," Hope whispers, rubbing her daughter's small back soothingly in tiny circles, and placing a kiss on the side of her head. Her hair's not fully grown, but it's unmistakable that she's going to have a head full of fluffy, downy dark hair.

Hailey's arrival had caught the both of them by surprise, coming much earlier than Hope's intended due date. The first time she held Hailey, it had took her breath away. Soft and tiny, afraid that she'll break or drop her. Her heart swelling with love every passing minute as she cradles her in her arms. The moment Hailey scrunches up her face and cries, her heart breaks and it continues to break on countless occasions later, whenever it happens.

Hope checks off the usual suspects but Hailey is all well-fed and clean, and yet she's still letting out uncontrollable sobs. She looks at her daughter with a helpless smile, while Hailey fusses around in her arms, big, fat tears streaming down her pink dimpled cheeks.

She bounces her on her hip and sways from side to side, hoping the rocking rhythm will calm her down, and it does. Hailey stares at her, her eyes a shade of green just like her parents, quieting down, and resolves to tiny sobs.

"You want to take a walk don't you?" Hope smiles knowingly. "Alright, change of plans, we're going downstairs for a walk," she restrategises. She was more than capable of calculating complex equations and mapping out business plans, but Hailey is all about spontaneity, which is more of Scott's forte. Already determined to letting Scott sleep, Hope grabs Hailey's favourite blanket and walks out from the bedroom, closing the door quietly, but not before glancing at the bulge on the bed, Scott, still soundly asleep.

Juggling Hailey in her arm, who refuses to be let down on the play mat, Hope makes tea, not forgetting to turn on the bluetooth speakers in the kitchen, and a song from John Mayer plays on her Spotify playlist. Hailey calms down the moment they walk down the stairs, but now she's happy, waving her chubby hands about, as if enjoying the soft humming of the music, which Hope suspects she does. It's a trick that Scott and Hope had learned along the way, that their daughter seems to have an affinity towards music. Hope figures it's the causative effect of the music they feed her whenever Hope can't sleep when she's pregnant, Hailey somersaulting in her belly.