Married to a firefly • Completed

(12) Easy target

Levi

The girls came back around 3 pm. Abbi was still wearing her short skirt and a tank top, but Poppy had changed. She wasn't wearing a longsleeved sweatshirt anymore, but instead had put on a summerly dress with some kind of cardigan on top if it.

I stared at her. "What's wrong with you? It's like 90 degrees out there and you're still dressed as if it was snowing any minute."

She just huffed making her way past me and upstairs, but Abbi came straight at me poking me in the chest.

"That's none of your business. Leave her the fuck alone", she stated when Poppy was out of earshot.

"'I'd do so gladly, but as you have witnessed just a few days ago, I got to marry her. Now it's my duty to make sure she's not some confused fool, who needs to be institutionalized on public behalf."

"Asshole", she hissed. "She's perfectly fine and you know it. I just don't have any clue why she would agree to put up with you dimwit."

"Back to insulting me again? Don't you ever get tired of it?"

"Don't you ever feel the urge to just keep your mouth shut?"

"Nah."

"Same here."

With that she followed Poppy upstairs. They didn't come back until later when Parker came over. The girls had finally been able to put a very grumpy Rose to sleep, when the doorbell rang and Rose woke up again.

Just when I left my room to open the door, I heard a muffled cry.

"I just can't...", Poppy sobbed and I instantly felt bad for her. She had been taking care of Rose since she came home and ever since the tiny little girl had turned into a nightmare.
I followed the soft crying from both Rose and Poppy until I came to a stop in Rose's doorway.

"Oh jeez", Abbi sighed, clearly not knowing what to do or whom to calm down first.

I picked up Rose and swayed her softly in my arms. She immediately stopped crying.

"You are a baby whisperer. Who would have known?", Abbi whispered.

I felt a smile creeping up my face. "Yeah, indeed. Would you mind letting Parker in, please?"

"Of course", she said scrambling to her feet and leaving the room as fast as she could.

"Coward", I whispered.

"I'm n-not a coward", Poppy sobbed behind me. I mentally kicked myself. Of course she wasn't.

"I didn't mean you. It's alright to be wiped out, Poppy. Rose is allowed to cry and so are you. Nobody said it was easy to raise a baby."

"Nobody said it was this hard either."

I chuckled. "If this became public knowledge, nobody would ever want to have children ever again. Humanity would be threatened with extinction."

She sobbed again and I couldn't help myself, so I went over, still rocking Rose on my left arm, and pulled Poppy in for a hug with my right one.

"It's okay, Poppy. It really is", I said over and over again while rubbing her back. Her tears trickled onto my shirt.

"Camila and Dakota make it look so easy", she whispered.

"Because they have each other. Plus Dakota can sleep it off during the day, while you are with her every chance you get."

"That's what millions of mothers do. Why can't I seem to handle it?"

"I'm sure they have some kind of hormones to get them through the rough first couple of weeks. Since she's not your daughter, you don't get these benefits."