WHO: Finn McLaggen, Joy Diserafino, and CORMAC FREAKING MCLAGGEN, BITCHES!
WHAT: Sentimental baby stuff
WHEN: November 21, 1978
WHERE: St. Mungo's
He was beautiful.
Just... gorgeous, fabulous, amazing, fantastic, all kinds of fancy adjectives that she couldn't think of without having a dictionary, because really Joy had never been that great with words, but! But. Cormac Gianni McLaggen, five kilograms, 54 centimeters, born at 12:01 on the morning of Tuesday, November 20th 1978 didn't need words to describe him anyway. Even if his mum didn't have the greatest vocabulary, she was pretty sure that there was no word in any dictionary in any language that could encompass all the breathless wonder that was her son.
You just couldn't put into simple words what it felt like to sit there in that Mungo's hospital bed, cradling in your arms this little (or rather sizeable, in his case) boy that you'd carried around and taken care of for nine months, who you'd created and had grow from a little shrimp of a thing to an actual human being. A human being with dark, dark red hair and bright blue eyes and a face that even within hours of life already held his father's handsome features. He was half Finn, half Joy, all of their good and none of their bad all somehow extracted and combined into one perfect creature.
Within the last few weeks, Joy had anticipated this moment as absolutely terrifying, that she'd lay here and feel helpless and afraid and not know what she was doing, but now that it was here, the sigh that she breathed out whilst leaning back against her pillows was not one of despair--it was contentment. She was happy. She'd done it, and now here she was at the end of the road (and over twelve hours past, too, gosh she was good!) and it was fine. Great. Awesome. Fucking crazy, but awesome.
He was perfect.
Everything leading up to the arrival of Cormac had been everything but perfect, down to the long labour and his father having absolutely no idea what to do. His father. Finn was quite sure that he'd never get used to that, no matter how much his teammates had teased him, no matter how much Tibs had prepped him for it. He was a father and from his position at the end of Joy's bed, staring over at his son.
Bloody freaking hell---he hadn't dropped him yet! That was a record, he was sure, he'd probably cost Bell a few galleons by making it this long without dropping the baby, and Finn grinned. He knew he'd love his son, he'd been in love with the idea of Cormac for months, but to actually see him and have this love explode inside of him---oy, he felt like such a sap, but it was true, he'd never love anything more than he did Cormac Gianni and was damn fine with that.
"We did something right," he murmured with a grin, patting Joy's foot from over the blanket.
Joy laughed and looked up, for the first time in minutes (although she could stare for hours, she was sure) tearing her eyes away from Cormac's peaceful, sleeping face. The resemblence between father and son was even more striking when she looked between them like this, and just for good measure she did it again. Merlin, just couldn't get over this baby... He was going to be loads of trouble for his parents when he grew up, she could see right now. How could you say no to something--someone, he wasn't just a thing inside her anymore--like that?
"Yeah... yeah, we did," she said with a smile. And they were going to keep doing things right, at least Joy was determined to. Fuck what anyone thought, she was going to be a good mother to Cormac even if it killed her. "We did something right, though, not just me." She scooted over to the side of the bed, one arm (even if he was big, he was still small enough to hold with one arm, it was so crazy) motioning to Finn. "So come sit up here and hold your son, Daddy."
"Haa…" Finn slid off the bed and gritted his teeth in concentration as Joy passed Cormac along and his cheeks puffed greatly, holding a breath as he stood up with the baby in his arms. Looking back to it, he'd probably only held two babies in his life, the two Woods', and minutes before Cormac had been born he was sure he was going to faint because he hadn't practiced enough. Because that's how Finn's life went, practice makes perfect, there was a reason he was such a dictator with his team, they had to perfect their skills to be best and holy shit he had not held enough babies.
He didn't care what people said, about Cormac being a big baby. This kid was tiny. He could almost hold him in one hand! Finn ignored the jokes about being a giant, and rocked Cormac a little, not sure where he'd learned to make the silly faces or have grown the urge to speak in baby gibberish.
"You're gonna be trouble, aren't you?"
Joy reached up, her index finger brushing along the little boy's cheek affectionately and--damn right the kid was tiny. She hadn't exactly gone and measured all the babies in the world, but they couldn't be much smaller than him, could they? Of course, her thoughts when she was laying there and having to push him out of her were the polar opposite, but now that she could see him, it was like... how could someone that small function? It didn't seem possible, and it was even less possible to her the thought that he'd somday grow up to be as big as Finn was, which was big so... gosh, just unbelievable.
She skillfully hid the mistiness that came to her eyes at that thought, the thought of Cormac all grown up someday, going to Hogwarts, graduating, getting married (or not, she totally wasn't going to judge!) and having kids of his own and holy fuck she had just had a baby, she wasn't allowed to think about that yet, no no. No 19-year-olds needed to think of being grandmothers someday, she was just going to focus for now on being a mother, thankyouverymuch.
"You know, one of the Healers said that a lot of babies that are born with dark hair have it lighten over time," she said, bringing her hand down, content to just watch them. "He might end up being a blonde."
"Oh yeah?" Finn looked down at Cormac (well, his eyes hadn't exactly left the bundle in his arms, but), "Going to be breaking hearts and taking names? Of course you will, you're Cormac McLaggen---"
He turned back to Joy with a sheepish grin. He'd just rambled on to an infant who couldn't understand a word he was saying when there was perfectly adult person sitting right beside him. Nine months ago (had it really only been nine months?) Finn was quite sure he'd never see Joy Diserafino again (actually, he hadn't even known her name, so he had definitely not thought he'd ever come across her again. He couldn't imagine how different his life would be, probably would've found himself in a similar situation, but there was no way he'd be as lucky.
Not that he was saying Joy was the easiest person to get along with, but if he had to have a one night-stand and have it turn into having his life controlled by a son for at least the next seventeen years of his life? Then, well. He was happy he'd hit on Joy that night.
"Now, Cormac," Finn said, turning away slightly from Joy because there was no way he could say this to her while looking at her, "You have to promise me you're always going to be nice to your mummy, cause she's the only mummy you got. Got it? She whines a lot," Finn made sure he was out of arms reach by then, "but she's got a good heart, give her a chance, okay? And don't eat all her chocolate bars. You've got to share."
Finn bent his head low as if listening to the baby's whispers, "Excellent, see, you're a genius."
Joy laughed loudly, although she wanted to cry a little more at Finn's words to Cormac. For a guy that she had thought was completely insensitive and mean the first time (...second first time, that was) she met him, he sure had grown on her. And he'd gotten pretty good at showing that he had a sweet, soft side under all that Quidditch player brawn too. She was pretty bloody lucky she'd decided to have a night of reckless, drunken sex with him, all in all.
She covered her mouth quickly, not wanting to wake up the slumbering child (pretty sure not much would, though, he slept like a rock), until her laughter had calmed. With a sideways glance, Joy looked out the glass of the door. "Did Tibs and Elena say if they're coming around later?" she asked. "It gets bloody boring in here when Cormac's not around, I'm going to have to owl Erin and tell her to come. Maybe G--"
She had to stop herself before she said it, having forgotten for a moment that she'd fought with him not so long ago. Ugh, no... she wanted him there, but not when they were so mad at each other. Joy shook her head; she shouldn't even be thinking about him now, of all times. This wasn't about Graeme, this was still family time as far as Joy was concerned and he wasn't part of this. Forget him, she told herself, and the notion became a great deal easier as she looked back to Cormac.
"And when the hell are they going to let me out of here? Jesus, what I wouldn't do to get up and run around."
"Tibs is around here somewhere, probably still hyperventilating at the idea of being an uncle," he said, wondering how his brother was going to react to finally seeing Cormac. Jaysus, that was one of the things he was looking forward to the most. Cormac coming into his life had also helped his relationship with his brother; see, one night stands could definitely do a whole lot of good. "And Elena's coming later, she's just making sure our other children don't starve."
"And I put up a journal entry with pictures and everything, telling everyone to visit, so I'm sure Graeme'll swing by," he sent Joy a pointed look, something along the lines of 'don't even try to deny it.' In all the jealous (all right, he'd admit mentally that there was jealousy, it just wasn't of the regular, love-fest kind) moods toward Graeme, Finn knew that he made Joy happy, and would want to come and visit. "But if he makes you cry, I'm knocking his head off, I don't care if the baby sees."
He laid Cormac along his arms, the baby's head in his hands. He was so bloody tiny! "Right, Big Mac? We'll be the snot out of anyone who hurts your mummy!" Finn looked back to Joy, "And you've got two more days here, unless you want to put up a fight with these healers, right stubborn bunch they are."
Joy sighed, avoiding Finn's eyes when he mentioned Graeme. She just--even if he had been seeing (or whatever it was) this... Savannah girl... she still felt kinda guilty, especially right now that she was thinking about Graeme. She just--it was so hard to get her mind off of him, even though she'd had a lot of practice trying for the past couple of weeks, and maybe now that she wasn't... ugh.
Forget it, she reiterated to herself. If he came by, then... okay, then she'd probably burst with happiness and shock, but if he didn't, she didn't want to have gotten her hopes up. He probably wouldn't, and she needed to keep not expecting anything or she was going to go insane.
"You sound like that.. protective big brother I never had or something, with the way you talk," she commented. Joy turned her head back to him on the pillow to let him see that her expression was yet grateful rather than annoyed. She couldn't really admit to having ever had someone in her life before that would threaten to 'knock the head off' of a guy that made her cry and it was kinda nice, even though she wouldn't ever let him knock Graeme's head off. "I think with you and Big Mac around, there won't be any guys that dare lay a finger on me."
Joy yawned and closed her eyes for a moment. The whole... labor thing... they'd been serious when they named it, because she was still pretty tired. "Maybe I'll take a nap and eat some more of the free food before I plan my escape, now that I think of it."
Finn shrugged; it was weird to say that he felt like Joy's big brother after having slept with her and had a child with her (okay, REALLY weird now that he'd thought it all out), but it was the closest they could get to explaining their relationship. He stood and put Cormac back in his bassinet, knowing that one of the healers was going to come in and wheel him back to the nursery in about ten seconds, and Finn flicked Joy in the nose lightly, a grin on his face.
"You're a McLaggen, sweets, got to protect our clan," because that's what it was. Joy was forever a part of his family, and Finn had absolutely no problem with that. There was little that she could do to tear that feeling away from him, and Finn grinned over at the healer that had entered, crossing his arms proudly.
Bloody hell. He had a family all of his own. Fucking unbelievable.
