Ellen's birthday fic

[louiselux]

Happy Birthday ellen_fremedon! Have a goody.

A birthday fic:


'What in God's, excuse my French, name have you got there?'

'It's a baby, Crowley,' Aziraphale beamed, hefting the squirming bundle up for Crowley to see.

Crowley leaned back. 'Don't shove that thing in my face. It might go off.' Then he narrowed his eyes. 'Aziraphale, just what have you been doing. I knew you couldn't be spending so many nights in reading.'

Aziraphale stared at him open-mouthed. 'Oh! I would never-- it's not mine!'

Crowley sniggered. 'Relax, I can’t imagine you getting anyone pregnant.'

'What? Why not?'

'Just a hunch.'

'Crowley's a silly demon, isn’t he?' Aziraphale cooed at the gurgling infant. She dribbled back at him happily.

'Well, there you are with a bloody baby, I don't see you for months on end, you never call me. What am I supposed to think?'

Aziraphale's expression softened. 'She belongs to Beryl's daughter. You know, Beryl from the shop next door. Julie drops her off with me sometimes when she visits, so they can go shopping.'

'So you're a nanny? I always said you'd look good in one of those outfits.'

'Grumpy old Crowley. Do you think he'd like to change your nappy? I bet he would, wouldn’t he?'

'No way! Don’t bring it anywhere near me!'

Aziraphale advanced relentlessly with the baby, who squealed excitedly and waved her chubby arms in Crowley's face. She grinned toothlessly at him.

'Look, she likes you.' The shop bell tinkled. 'Oh, fancy that, I have customer. You'll have to hold her now. Her name's Kylie.'

'That's a nasty trick to play on a friend,' Crowley called after him, dangling the baby away from him as though she were a time bomb. 'Yuk. And she's sticky.'

Aziraphale came back from frightening his customer to find Crowley bouncing Kylie on his knee and hissing at her. She was cooing with pleasure and was trying to grab at his tongue, which he quickly retracted when he saw Aziraphale.

'Just keeping her entertained, that's all.'

'You’d make a wonderful mother.'

'Shut up.'

But he didn't hand her back. Later on, after feeding, multiple nappy changes and the ruination of Crowley's shirt with baby vomit, Beryl bustled in to pick up her granddaughter.

'Oh, you two look a picture,' she said happily. 'You do a lovely job of looking after her, Mr Fell, you and your young man.'

She patted his hand, beamed indulgently at Crowley and waved goodbye. Aziraphale turned round to see Crowley blushing bright red.

'Something the matter, my dear?'

'She thought we were-- that we-- '

'Yes, she did seem to, didn't she?' Aziraphale smiled and pottered into the kitchen. 'Are you staying for tea?'

Crowley looked down at his baby-stained shirt. 'Okay,' he said.

Comments

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

For some reason yesterday I thought they couldn't, but checking today a bill allowing gay and unmaried couples to adopt was passed just over a year ago in the UK. So, I'm afraid it was faulty research on my part.

Maybe Beryl's behind the times, or this story is set before November 2002.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I'll just chalk it up to Beryl being a tad behind the times. It's not as if you can't miss which bills are passed--that's quite believable. She seems to be a sweet person, regardless.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

On second thoughts I just deleted that line!