Come Daylight: Smiles and Swimming
Title: Smiles and Swimming
Author: wanderingjasper
Rating: FRC
Characters: Morgan/Reid, baby!OC
Word Count: 2099
Themes: Fluff
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, but I do take liberties with them for no financial gain.
Notes: Part of the Come Daylight 'Verse.
Summary: Morgan takes baby swimming.
“There is nothing that moves a loving father's soul quite like his child's cry.” - Joni Eareckson Tada
Sam had been smiling for a week. Not gassy smiles, or purely physical smiles, but social smiles that were in reaction to her surroundings. She smiled most at her parents, at their faces, at Clooney. She smiled too at others she had regular contact with, at voices and faces she knew. At eight weeks old, she was a little ray of sunshine.
Morgan would never forget the morning he’d got up and gone to the nursery to feed her before she cried to demand it, and when she heard his voice at the side of her bassinet, she broke into a smile. It wasn’t a fleeting one, a smile that quickly faded, but stayed as he talked to her, picked her up and cuddled her. He talked to her as she smiled at him right until she began to fuss in hunger, and then he repositioned her and put her on the bottle. He took her back through to their bedroom to tell Reid that their daughter was smiling, bubbling with pride.
When she wasn’t smiling, she was spending increasing time making noises and pulling faces, trying to imitate those around her. That’s what she did as he sat in her carrier on the bench in the swimming pool changing room as Morgan stripped off his t-shirt and jeans.
“You’re a smiley, happy girl today, aren’t you?” Morgan said as he unstrapped her and took off her soft shoes and socks, then the loose blue dress they’d slipped on her. Morgan picked her up and transferred her to the changing table nearby, setting her down to take off her diaper.
“Now, you've got a good track record, little girl,” he said as he pulled open the velcro on her blue cloth diaper. “You've never pooped in the bath. And you're usually like clockwork after a feed, so please don't surprise poop, okay? JJ assured me that swim diapers won't help anyway, so we shouldn't bother.” Carefully he dressed her in a sea green one-piece swimsuit with shiny silvery fish design, now used to navigating her limbs into clothing. “You look the part, Sammie. You ready?”
She gurgled happily as Morgan picked her up and held her against his chest, and with his free hand he loaded her empty carrier with her towel and the locker key. It might have been a little easier if Reid had come too, but he had insisted that Sam’s first swim would be something for her and Derek to share. Morgan was grateful that Reid knew him well enough to know that was the best choice.
The swimming pool wasn't busy, which Morgan had hoped and planned for. He headed for the little heated pool, which was shielded from view of the main pool by a wall, and it was empty. Beside it a lifeguard sat up on her chair, and gave them a smile and a small wave of her fingers as Morgan approached the poolside.
Morgan set the carrier down at the edge and then went to the couple of steps that eased into the water, which was warm and only about a foot and a half deep - only just to Morgan's knees. Carefully, holding Sam against his chest, he lowered himself down to sit in the pool. The baby made a little gasping noise as the warm water covered her legs, and she wiggled as Morgan eased her away from his chest and into the water, thumbs hooked under her arms and supporting her head with his fingers.
“There we go,” he cooed. She blinked and turned her face towards his voice, and then smiled at him. “Hey pretty girl! This is nice, isn't it?” Sam gurgled and waved her arms, splashing the surface water. “I knew you'd like this, the way you like baths and showers with your daddies.”
He pulled her towards him slowly and then pushed her back, swishing her through the water. She smiled as he brought her closer, and of course he smiled right back. Her infant joy was infectious, and knowing he had caused it made him happier than he'd ever known.
“You like that, huh?” He repeated it, pushing her out and drawing her in, creating a small wave in the warm water. “I knew you would, Sammie.”
He changed the way he moved her, side to side through the water, crab-walking himself around the small, shallow pool. He let her focus on him, and the distorted colourful shapes under the water on the sides of the pool, decals of turtles, seahorses and other sea-creatures.
“That's green,” he told her. “Like grass, and most trees, and that awful sweatervest your clever daddy has been wearing I haven't told him I hate.”
Sam flapped her arms excitedly, and splashed herself in the face with water. She didn't seem to mind, though, so he spared one hand to splash a little more water at her face. She shook her head from side to side as he held her with both hands again, seemingly quite happy to get her face wet.
“I'm not going to dunk you today,” he said, amused. “I know I could, and should, to start getting you used to it. But really daddy's nervous. It's my first time swimming with a baby, and you're so tiny.”
He brought her up out of the water and to his face where he kissed her belly loudly - when he put her back down in the water she was smiling, so he repeated it several times. She seemed so natural in the water, so happy to be there, which he hoped meant she would learn to swim with ease.
Reid had known exactly why Morgan had wanted to take her swimming, know why he should insist he didn't join them, and had done him the courtesy of not mentioning it. Morgan tried not to let his mind dwell on the thought, but he couldn't help it. He held her in the water and watched her flexing her little legs, her red hair dark and damp, plastered to her head, her light brown skin shining wetly, grey eyes watching him.
“I'm going to take you swimming every week,” he said. “I'm going to teach you to swim, little girl. There weren't any public pools where I grew up, so I didn't learn. Not until I was twelve; and then it was at a price. Not money, something bigger-”
He frowned. He knew she couldn't possibly comprehend his words, but it still felt too early to tell his daughter that he'd been taught to swim as part of the cycle of sexual abuse he'd endured in his childhood. All he knew for sure was that he wanted Sam to be able to swim as soon as she could, and he would not have anyone else teach her.
He swished her about in the water more, letting her enjoy the motion, changing the way he held her so he could float her along on her back. Every so often he was aware of the lifeguard watching them, smiling. He knew she had to be there, and it didn't feel like an intrusion; it made him feel proud, for someone to witness just how at ease Sam was in the water, how calm and happy she was, smiling and making small sounds he was sure would develop into laughs in a few months.
“You're a proper little water baby, aren't you? No wonder, you spent all that time in your daddy's nice squishy womb.”
He heard the lifeguard giggle from behind him and grinned to himself, but didn't turn around. He held her along one forearm so he could use his other hand to grab at her feet below the water, teasing her little toes and making her wiggle.
He knew she had had enough when she started to fuss at water splashing her face, when she'd been previously unfazed by it. He scooped her up into his arms again and headed for the steps. At the poolside he bent to take the towel out of the carry seat, and wrapped her up in it just as she started to cry.
“Come on baby girl, it's okay, daddy's got you.”
The lifeguard gave him a sympathetic look as the infant crying reverberated off the walls, waving goodbye as he lifted up the carry seat and headed back to the changing room. A small group of teenage boys looked up at the sound, mildly interested in the presence of a baby in the locker room. Morgan gently bounced his arm, trying to sooth her as he used his other hand to pull down the straps of her swimsuit and extract her arms, and then wiggle it off her body and drop it on the bench. He wrapped the towel more snugly around her, bouncing and hushing her. She settled for the most part, but he knew she was getting hungry and was probably tired out.
He set her down gently in her carry seat snuggled in the towel, to give him a chance to quickly take off his trunks and quickly towel himself dry. Sam didn't stay quiet for long, objecting to being left without attention. He pulled his clothes on quickly, the materially catching on his slightly damp skin, and scooped Sam up into his arms again.
“Let's get you all dry, huh?” Morgan ruffled the towel over her head, making her hair spring up in damp curls. He took her over to the changing table to put her back in her blue dress and diaper, a jacket, socks and a hat to keep her warm. “Come on,” Morgan said as he gathered her up in one arm, holding her against his chest, rucksack over the other arm and carrying the seat. Sam began to cry again, jostled a little as Morgan left the changing room. “Don't cry, sweetie, I'll feed you in a minute. See, it's nice and dry out here.”
He settled down on a sofa in the lobby, and rooted around one-handed in his bag to find her milk. She let her hunger be known, crying loudly from the crook of his arm.
“Here you go,” he coaxed, slipping the bottle teat into her mouth and watching her latch. “You must be hungry from all that hard work in the pool. You'll be swimming in no time, baby. Your daddy is going to be so proud of you when I tell him about our swim. I'm proud of you.”
He was barely paying attention to the rest of the lobby, concentrating instead on his little girl. He was vaguely aware of people looking at him interacting with his child, but didn't care enough to spare any of his attention. Right then she was the only thing of importance in his world.
Sam went to sleep in the car on the drive home, and as Morgan carried her inside in her seat he tried not to bump her. Reid was looking over the top of a book on the sofa as he came in, craning his neck to peer at their daughter.
“She asleep?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Morgan dropped his bag and put Sam's carrier down on the armchair. “We can leave her in the seat for now. Keep an eye on her, don't want her to get too hot now she's in the house.”
As Morgan flopped down on the couch Reid got up, crossing to their daughter. He touched her face with his fingers, brushing her cheek. He leaned down and put a kiss on her forehead, murmuring words Morgan couldn't make out before he straightened and returned to the couch.
“Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah, it was good. She loved the water, Spencer. She smiled the whole time, kicking out her legs and flapping her arms. She's a proper little water baby.”
“I'm glad you had fun,” Reid said, scooting closer. He lifted Morgan's hand with both of his own and kissed the knuckles. “You hungry? What do you want for dinner?”
“You don't have to, pretty boy, you cooked last night.”
“Derek, I've done nothing all afternoon, I don't mind.”
“Okay, I'll have a think. C'mere,” he murmured, holding open his arms. Reid got the idea, and moved into the embrace. “Our girl did good today. She's gonna be a mermaid when she's grown.”
Reid laughed into Morgan's neck, curling into his touch, and a few feet away Sam snuffled in her sleep.
"To her the name of father was another name for love." - Fanny Fern