The Monster's Little Angel

Chapter 1

Seven months later

Archer woke up to the sound of crying. In an instant, he rose up and looked over at Quinn's crib. Her loud cries filled the room and he let out a sigh before heading over to her crib. He peeked over and as soon as her bright grey eyes met his dark brown ones she immediately stopped crying. A wide smile appeared on Quinn's face, showing her pink gums as she slightly stuck out her tongue. He chuckled at the joyful sounds that left her mouth as he wrapped the blush pink blanket around her tiny body.

He then carefully lifted his seven month old daughter into his arms and cuddled her close to his chest. Placing a soft kiss on her head, she squealed with joy at the gesture. He chuckled at her joyful innocence and walked out of his room, decending the black marble stairs and walked into his kitchen.

As he began to make Quinn's formula, he noticed the sun was barely even peeking out from behind the horizon. The kitchen clock showed that it was also quite early. He sighed, his voice still hoarse with sleep as he gave Quinn her bottle and she grabbed it, hungrily drinking the milk. As she gulped it down, her eyes stared intently at her father as if glued to his face. However, he was a sore sight to see, with large, dark bags under his eyes and extreme exhaustion was written all over his face. Though considering he had been up five other times before now, his exhaustion was understandable.

He had been up early for many days and had countless late night awakenings where Quinn would cry in the middle of the night. Now that she had learned to crawl and was now teething, the long nights without much sleep became longer.

Archer sat sleepily on one of the island chairs with Quinn cuddled to his chest. His eyes slowly began to close and his arms began to loosen their grip on his baby. The siren song of sleep was calling to him but just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt Quinn's tiny body begin to slip down his chest. She let out a scream as she nearly fell off his lap and he quickly grabbed her, holding her tightly to his chest. Her bottle fell to the floor with a loud thump and she began to cry, from the shock of nearly falling and also from being suddenly pulled up. She sobbed loudly as her father cuddled and swayed her in his arms, trying to calm her down.

"I'm so sorry, baby girl. Shh. Shh. Please don't cry, daddy's got you," he cooed as her cries continued.

Her bellowing sobs soon turned to soft whimpers and her father quickly picked up, cleaned and gave her, her bottle. She slowly began to gulp down the milk, fully forgetting the incident. Archer sighed in relief as her cries and whimpers slowly started to simmer down. He stood up and grabbed a microwave breakfast meal. As he placed it into the microwave, his right-hand man, Slade walked in.

"Morning, Arch," he greeted as he opened the fridge.

Archer looked over at him, seeing his dark hair ruffled and his dark eyes full of life and energy. How he managed to be so awake in the mornings was beyond Archer's comprehension. There was also the distinct shape of a lipstick stain on his neck. However, none of these things was anything new for Slade.

"Morning," he greeted back as the microwave beeped, indicating that his meal was ready.

He took it out and placed it on the island's dark wood counter. He placed Quinn in her highchair that had little pink and white flowers all over the seat. As she sat in her chair, slurping down the last of her milk, Archer sat on a chair next to her and put a fork full of food in his mouth. Slade took a seat across from Archer, with a bowl of last night's leftover pasta in front of him for breakfast.

They sat in a comfortable silence, with the clanking of their forks and Quinn's soft gulps as the only sounds in the room. But, the peaceful silence was put to a halt when Quinn threw her empty bottle on the floor, giggling at her mischief. Her father sighed as he bent down, picking up the bottle and putting it in the sink before going back to his seat.

"I wish you would stop throwing your bottles to the floor when you're done with your milk," he whined.

She just giggled at his pleas as she leaned back in her seat. He sighed, knowing he couldn't really be mad at her. Giving her little head a quick kiss, he continued to eat his food.

"Not to be rude, my friend but you look like shit," Slade stated as he put his empty bowl in the sink.

"First off, don't swear in front of Quinn," he warned, pointing towards his smiling daughter, "Secondly, I haven't had much sleep with her always waking up so forgive my less than model-like appearance."

Slade chuckled as his friend rubbed away the sleep from his eyes, "You should get some sleep. I'll watch Quinn for you."

Archer began to laugh hysterically at him and this caused Quinn to laugh as well. She had a tendency to copy her father's actions which could be kind of cute at times.

"What's so funny?" Slade scoffed as Archer stopped his chuckles and throwing away his empty microwave meal box.

"Slade, buddy, as much as I appreciate your help, there's no way you'd be able to handle my daughter. Besides, don't you have plans with Geneva today?"

"First off, she has help out with laundry today so our plans have been moved. Second, I could totally handle Quinn."

Archer sat back down at the island, giving Slade a snide smirk before looking over at Quinn, who was now whimpering with any trace of her smile now gone. He stared at her in confusion before moving closer to her side.

"What's wrong, Quinny?" he cooed and she began to cry, holding her hands by her mouth, "Aw, is it the teething. My poor baby."

He got up, going up to his room and quickly coming back with special pain numbing cream. He quickly washed his hands before rubbing the cream over her gums.

After a few seconds, the pain stopped and she was back to her cheery, little self. He smiled at her before turning back to Slade, "See what I mean?"

Slade sighed before nodding, "Maybe you're right, Arch."

They sat in comfortable silence once again and stayed that way until. . .

*Fart

Both men looked over at Quinn, who was holding both her small hands over her nose from the smell coming from her diaper. Archer sighed as he looked over at Slade, only to scrunch his eyebrows in confusion when there was no trace of the dark haired man.

He heard a noise near the doorway of the kitchen only to see Slade walk out and say, "It's your kid, man!"

Archer glared at the coward's retreating form as he helped Quinn out of her highchair and went to her nursery. He grabbed a clean diaper, bum wipes and a throw away diaper bag. He then laid his little girl on the changing station and when he opened up her diaper, he found a stinky present waiting for him.

Looking over at his daughter, he saw her with a big smile across her face, as if saying 'That's just for you, daddy.' With a sigh, he lifted her legs, grabbing a bum wipe and began wiping her bottom.

"You may keep me up at all hours of the night. You may throw your bottles and cry a lot. You may be stinky. But I love you, baby girl." he smiled at his cheerful girl, who smiled back at him.