The Third Wheel Is A Baby

Posted on Wed Dec 24th, 2025 @ 10:57pm by Leiddem Kea (*) & Delaney O'Callaghan

Mission: Shackles
1925 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem smiled at the sight before him. He had not told Delaney about the babysitting duty but he had requested that she come to their quarters straight after her shift, he had laid out a blanket on the floor so the baby would would be comfortable and so would he as he lay there watching her. He could not believe how much she had grown in the last two weeks since her birth. He was enjoying the tangles of psychic connection even as she slept. It was like looking after his nieces but just stronger.

He had the good sense, at least, to only make the request as he left her to her self-imposed overtime. Anticipation was not a great recipe for patience where Delaney was concerned and it spared Leiddem, at the very least, the constant inquisitiveness that had made it very difficult to concentrate on what remained of the stocktake she'd previously been determined to complete before clocking off. She hadn't quite run all the way home but there was the familiar flushed exhuberance to her appearance as the doors opened to finally reveal her boyfriend's plans, enough to suggest there had been a decent amount of jiggling whilst waiting for the slowpoke turbolift to do its thing.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected; this wasn't it, though.

"Ohshi..."

A glance behind her made a rather comical overture towards trying to convince the door to close quieter, and almost immediately Delaney tried to drag herself down to an energy level that wouldn't disturb a sleeping babe quite adept already at reading those around her.

"Sorry, I didn't know you had company."

It was a tease that immediately mellowed to a palpable fondness. The past couple of weeks had been interspersed with enough of these little moments for her tough and stoic boyfriend's reputation to have plummeted entirely. Finding him such a softie around children was not an unwelcome revelation at all.

"Yes, hello, you," she murmured as she leveraged herself down on the infant's other side to sprawl out, head propped up on her hand. Caliea's bleary eyes fluttered with the idea of opening and then succumbed to what Delaney could only assume was milk-stupor. She had a similar response after food herself.

“Only company you’ll ever find me in.” The man told her, tearing his eyes away from the baby to look at the woman. He was not the type to cheat or do something untoward in a relationship. “And to be fair, she is pretty nice company. Only cried cause I was not quite quick enough in feeding her but sounds like the other woman in my life.” He teased her, raising an eyebrow, daring her to challenge him on it.

"Oh, sweetheart, did he take too long with food again?" Reaching out a finger, Delaney very gently smoothed the infant's feathery-soft hair, which was a decided improvement on her first introduction to babysitting, which ahd consisted of being mostly terrified she was going to break the child. Even though she was an aunt several times over, the newborn stage had never really been Laney's forte. Now, give her a toddler with destructive tendencies and the ability to move like lightning and she was in her element. "You know, I've tried my best to train him there, he's a work-in-progress."

"All the best boyfriends are," He said simply. "Bit of a fixer-upper." He added lying on his back, stretching out his back. He loved moments like this, and having a tiny baby there was just a cherry on top. It really made him think of what his future was going to be like. Did he want more moments like this? Did he want that with Delaney? Yes he did.

It was, admittedly, a lot nicer than Delaney would have ever considered prior to arriving on board. Parenthood, whilst a distant prospect not dismissed entirely, had never really been something she'd been able to picture for herself. Too invested in exploring, in dipping her toe into new experiences, the kind of lifestyle she currently covetted didn't seem suitable for domestic bliss and yet here she was, forced to admit that children had been raised amongst the stars for centuries without too many issues. It still possibly wasn't the best environment but, if nothing else, there were options that didn't involve the kind of tied-to-one location lifestyle she just didn't feel ready for.

A finger-brush against a tiny flushed cheek prompted a soft smile; kids were cute.

"Any luck figuring out where she belongs?"

The man's smile faded into a grimace as he lay back on his back and shook his head. He was trying, but laying the maps and routes over star charts was tedious and not something he was born to do. He missed Dixoho; the navigator would have worked the mess out a lot easier than he did. "No, it's hard work, but I will." He said softly. He did not give up easily.

In most things, this would have been the point where Laney spoke up in support, ever faithful of not only Leiddem's experience and skill but his tenacity. It was certainly true that, if it were possible to retrace the steps to find out where the mother and child had been snatched from, her boyfriend was the most likely to work himself to the bone to figure it out but Delaney was too pragmatic to allow admiration to get in the way of facing reality. Sometimes, that meant giving Leiddem the prod he needed to accept when to give up.

"Do we know yet what the plan is if the information just isn't there?" The phrasing was an intentional navigation around any form of personal failure. It wouldn't stop Leiddem from feeling responsible but that didn't mean he needed to suspect other people were disappointed in him.

“I do not know but I am sure Jaxx has thought of it.” The man said turning to lokk at her as she spoke. He glanced between her and the baby a few times before settling on the red head. “It has only been a few days and I am only through about 47% of the data.” He added showing there was still plenty of time before he gave up. He would give up when he had all the data processed but there had to be something.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Delaney echoed his thoughts, something she did frequently enough that the pair of them often got ribbed by the rest of the staff whilst on duty. Dropping her hand from the baby's head, she pressed an index finger instead into the tiny little palm and smiled as small fingers involuntarily closed around it. "Has there been any kind of decision about what we're calling her?"

“Caliea. It suits her so much though.” The man looked at the woman in front of him and just smiled. She was beautiful inside and out and the way the baby reacted to her summed her up. “You bring her joy.” The man revealed.

Unbeknownst to Delaney, and possibly the rest of the crew given Izriel's initial reservations, Evelyn had eventually suggested the name with her typical brand of dry wit; the very same guile the Betazoid doctor was still trying to decipher, with limited success. As a combination of the surnames of the two people responsible for bringing the babe onto the ship in the first place, it was the middle letter's tribute to the doctor who had taken things from there that Jaxx wasn't so sure was deserving. Blissfully unaware that her index finger was currently being throttled by her namesake. Laney would have been more inclined towards delight had she known, particularly since the end result paired her with Leiddem to produce a decidedly pretty name.

As it happened, she was more amused by the way it sounded like a transporter accident had combined both of their Romulan colleagues into one.

"Oh now, that's just her trying to charm her way in so she can steal my place."

Shifting to sit cross-legged, Delaney scooped the infant up gently and wrinkled her nose at the sleeping features that settled quickly despite the disturbance.

"How about we share him, huh?"

Leiddem let out a bark of laughter before covering his mouth so only muffled snorts came out. “Not the first time a beautiful woman has said that about me.” He said grinning as he moved to sit up cross legged with her as well watching her with the baby. “This lady is much more beautiful though.” He assured quietly.

A sideways squint was only playfully intended. Though she had once weathered the complexities of an unfaithful partner, and the subsequent emotional fallout, Delaney wasn't by nature a mistrustful person. It also wasn't really her style to covet jealousy, though that was significantly aided by the fact that Leiddem, for all his talk, never gave her cause for insecurity.

"I guess we can give him credit for a smooth recovery."

Though the remark was once again directed to her sleeping partner-in-crime, Delaney's smirk was focused entirely on the Betazoid sitting next to her, as was the stolen kiss she then leaned across to insist upon.

"So, what's the plan tonight then?" Gazing down at the bundle in her arms, Laney added, "Besides not getting enough sleep."

“I did not have much planned for tonight in all honesty.” He admitted with a shrug as he sat up better with the stolen kiss and stretched out his back a little more. There was a moment where he could not quite get the muscle to respond like he wanted to but the click of air escaping a joint helped cage him the relief he wanted.

"When was she last fed?" As much as their evening plans tended to be simple, it was still fast occurring to Delaney that taking their turn at babysitting was going to severely reduce the amount of options she could lob at her boyfriend until he caved and followed her out to find something to get up to. Time on the holodeck was standard, or hanging out in the lounge on certain nights to join in the card games and karaoke, but neither seemed particularly responsible with a baby in tow. That left their other fallback, but taking turns to pass out in front of movies also seemed in the realms of wishful thinking.

“About an hour. Why she is in a milk coma.” He grinned at the woman as he slowly stood up and stretch out his back for a moment until it clicked. He turned back around and offered assistance to get the woman and baby up. “I can go get food if you want to relax? Or we can all go get food together.” He suggested.

"There's no rush to head out." It was not always Laney's opinion of the way evenings should go, of course, but there had been a slight shift since their encounters with temporal shenanigans towards slowing down long enough to be content with the simplicity of what she already had. New experiences were great, new adventures had their place, but a 'night in' no longer felt quite as dull as it once had. Very carefully, she shifted the sleeping babe in arms into Leiddem's and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "If we're staying in, I'm going to take a shower though. Dinner's your choice tonight," she reminded, already disappearing into the bathroom.