The Daughter of Venom

2.

On a normal day at 10 pm, Eddie Brock would usually be preparing to take a shower. He would make Venom leave his body so he could have privacy, trusting Venom enough to just sit in the living room and not destroy everything in sight or escape through the window. Eddie would clean himself, briefly enjoying the time without his symbiote counterpart constantly invading his thoughts. Or, if he had exercised earlier in the day and taken a shower after, he would be sitting on his couch watching the television.

But tonight was not one of those nights.

Because there was a goddamn baby laying on Eddie's couch.

Eddie had never been a parent before, obviously. He had no idea how to take care of an infant, much less even possessing the tools to do so. He knew the basics, like how babies need milk, they sleep a lot, etc, but Eddie had never attempted to do such things before. Poor Eddie was so inexperienced on the concept of taking care of an infant that it started to reach the point where it was mind-boggling. Eddie didn't even know how to change a diaper.

Eddie had been sitting on the floor in front of the couch, just staring at Alex for the good part of half an hour. Alex was admittedly adorable, her big blue eyes giving life to her fragile and abandoned body. She was still swaddled up in the messily folded cloth, her fist pressed to her mouth, gently sucking on her fingers. Alex never moved from her spot on the couch very much, she seemed content with just laying on the couch cushions as a stranger stared at her, his worry leaking from every pore in his body. One time, Alex turned her head and locked eyes with the man. She smiled a big, toothless smile and giggled, so unbelievably cute yet panic-inducing that Eddie had to keep himself from suddenly clutching his chest as his heartstrings were almost violently yanked right out of his rib cage.

A few minutes before 10 pm, Alex began to falter. Her chubby arms fell to the sides of her head and she yawned, her whole body stretching up. Her eyelids began to flutter, and then, not at all. Alex's head tilted to the side, facing away from Eddie, as her small chest rose and fell ever so slightly from sleep.

As soon as Eddie's brain registered that Alex had fallen asleep, he finally tore his gaze away from the infant. Letting out an anxiety-filled groan, he turned slightly to the side, allowing his body enough room for him to fall onto the carpet and rest on his back. He covered his entire face with both hands, trying to search every nook and cranny in his brain for some kind of way to escape all this, to not be having to deal with an infant right now. But he couldn't come up with an answer that didn't involve giving the kid away to foster care. Eddie had never been a foster child himself, but he knew it couldn't be good. Being forced through many different families, never sticking to just one was a horrible childhood for someone to endure. And yet, it seemed like that was Eddie's only option at the moment.

Besides the obvious, which was adopting the baby himself.

Eddie didn't say anything as he kept his hands pressed firmly to his face. After about a minute of him just laying there on his back, he felt something stir and roam inside him. He heard the goopy noises of a certain black symbiote making itself present outside of Eddie's body. He knew Venom was exiting Eddie's body slightly, but not all the way since Eddie could still feel a part of Venom still inside him. Eddie did not say anything, nor did he even move.

"Eddie."

The exhausted man groaned into his palms as a response.

"Call your friend."

"What friend?" Eddie was too physically and mentally exasperated to remember his social life right now.

"The female."

". . .Annie?"

"Yes. Call her."

Eddie moved his hands down to the sides of his face so he could see. Venom's face was staring at Eddie, a mere three inches away from his nose. The face was attached to a black tentacle which was protruding from the center of Eddie's chest.

"Why?" Eddie asked.

"She seems like she would know what to do with. . .that." Another tentacle appeared from Eddie's shoulder and pointed at Alex. "We are keeping it, loser. But we both are at a loss here. And you are the one who told me that babies are very sensitive and easy to kill."

Eddie dropped his hands down to his sides and rolled his eyes at Venom. Pushing Venom back into his body, he sat up. With a hand to his mouth, he thought about Venom's request for a few moments. Was it a good idea letting Anne in on whatever Eddie had gotten himself into? He didn't want to burden her with worrying about him, but he also didn't want Alex to end up in foster care, or worse, dead from a lack of care from Eddie.

Sighing, Eddie made up his mind. He withdrew his mobile phone from his pocket, went to his contacts, and clicked on Anne's name. Pressing the phone to his ear, he listened to the phone buzz. He was trying to keep his hands from shaking from how nervous he was, but he wasn't nervous about Anne answering the phone. He was nervous for Alex, and what the hell was going to happen to her once Eddie roped Anne into this mess.

After the phone buzzed five times, Eddie began to wonder if Anne would even pick up at all. Maybe she was getting ready for bed and just didn't have her phone with her. Maybe she shut off her phone so she and Dan could spend some quality time together.

Maybe she was ignoring the call because she didn't want to deal with Eddie's issues at this late hour.

Just as Eddie was about to pull the phone away from his face and cancel the call, he heard the familiar click of the line connecting. His eyes widened slightly, honestly surprised that Anne picked up her phone. Eddie exhaled, trying to find the right words to start with in a situation like this, but even though Eddie was opening and closing his lips, his throat felt dry, unable to produce any sound.

"Eddie?" Anne asked after the uncomfortable silence. "Why are you calling me this late?"

"Annie, I'm sorry, I just—" Eddie cut himself off as his eyes went wide as he caught Alex moving around in his vision. She turned her head and smiled at Eddie, thus confirming what Eddie was thinking previously: Alex had woken up. She had only been asleep for, what, like ten minutes? Why couldn't she just stay asleep so Eddie could talk to Anne without having to worry about her being awake?

"Oh, shit." Eddie breathed out the profanity as he scooted himself across the floor so he was sitting right by the couch. He brought his free hand up to Alex and extended his finger. Luckily, Alex grabbed it, making a happy baby noise, as she started to suck on his finger. Good, now she was distracted.

"Eddie, what's going on?" Anne asked over the phone. Her voice was filled with confusion, which obviously made sense, but Eddie also sensed worry in her voice. Anne was concerned for her friend, even though she had no idea why.

Eddie sighed, the breath coming out in light stutters. He tried to calm himself down by closing his eyes, but he got paranoid from not being able to see Alex. When Eddie spoke next, Anne could hear how exhausted he was. "Annie—oh, Jesus Christ—I'm so sorry but I can't tell you right now. I just need you to come over. Please, Annie." As Eddie listened to the silence that followed his words, he quickly added "It's an emergency" to his plead so Anne would feel even more complied to visit Eddie's apartment past ten at night.

". . .Alright, I'll come over tomorrow—" Eddie quickly cut her off once he heard her proposal.

"No! No, Annie, I need you here now. I know you probably want to go to bed, but please, I just got myself into a bad situation and I really need your help right now."

Anne went silent for a few moments, obviously contemplating Eddie's frantic request, if you could even call it a request. Luckily, since she knew Eddie very well, she could tell how worried and nervous he was just from listening to him talk. Eddie heard her sigh through he receiver, and he squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for Anne's frustrated scolding for messing with her at this hour.

"Okay, okay. I'm on my way."

Eddie's eyes shot open and his eyebrows rose. Alex started laughing at the seemingly funny face Eddie was making. Just so Anne didn't ask him why the hell she was hearing a giggling baby over the phone, he quickly started talking. "Wait, really? You're serious?"

Eddie could hear her open a door and shut it again. "Of course I am, Eddie!"

Eddie didn't waste another second leaving the phone without anyone talking. "Greatthanksbye," he said quickly. Just as he was about to hang up, Venom's face appeared from Eddie's shoulder, his head attached to a thick tentacle. As Venom shouted, the symbiote was vibrating from excitement. "WE HAVE A HUMAN!"

Luckily for Eddie, he jerked the phone away from his ear and very quickly hung up in the middle of Venom's sentence. Which meant that Anne had still been listening but had not heard Venom finish the word human. As Eddie mentally thanked Anne for not calling back because of how confused she probably was, Alex squealed in laughter and her big blue eyes scrunched up, locked on the black symbiote protruding from Eddie's body.

A baby laughing at a terrifying, murderous alien.

That's a first.

Venom thought this was extremely amusing. He chuckled darkly; he wasn't trying to be intimidating, that was just how Venom laughed. He had grown to have a liking to Alex as soon as they met, a mere thirty-eight minutes ago. He smiled, staring back at the Abby with his big white eyes. A smaller tentacle extended from Eddie's shoulder and slowly crept to Alex. Eddie rolled his eyes as he watched Alex grab the black goop, giggling as she felt its texture.

"What?"

Eddie shook his head a little. "Oh, nothing. I'm honestly just surprised that she likes you, and you're somewhat good with kids."

"It's not running away screaming once it saw me."