#gleedsmassignment

The baby was oddly realistic, in an almost creepy sort of way. Summer was currently sitting on the couch in Nate's living room, cradling the small bundle and watching it breathe. Thats right... it fucking breathes. It added to the realism, she supposed. With real babies you had to make sure they were always able to breathe whenever you set them down or put them in a car seat. "I guess our first big parenting decision is what to name it, right? We can't just call it "the baby" all week..."

Nate walked back into the room as Summer held the baby, pushing down the imaginary memories he'd created in his head over the years. "I s'pose if we gotta pretend it's real, right?" he agreed. "Do we even know if it's a boy or a girl? Or is it a non binary baby?"

"I think its non-binary, so I guess we can pick?" She shrugged. "Got any suggestions?" Summer couldn't stop staring at it. It was surreal. It was a baby, but... not a baby. And it was hers, but... not hers. She had no idea what to feel right now.

"I'd prefer a girl," he said softly, hoping they could just bypass the whole re-hasing of old wounds. "Maybe somethin' like...Delilah? Or Savannah?" he offered, having literally no clue where to go.

Summer nodded. "Sure. She can be a girl..." she considered the names, but neither of them really seemed to grab her. "What about Phoenix?" She suggested.

Nate hummed as he thought it over. It was alittle weirder than he'd name an actual child, but there was certainly something profound about it. "Alright," he agreed with a nod, "Phoenix it is."

Summer smiled, starting to feel a little better now that they'd given the baby a name and personified her a bit. She looked up, finally. "Do you want to hold her, Sir?" She offered, not wanting to be selfish.

Nate licked his lip as he looked down at the baby in Summer's arms - more realistic than he thought was posisble. They were going to have to pretend this thing was real, and honestly, there was no time like the present. He nodded and leaned towards her, carefully lifting the baby from her mother and holding her against his chest. "This is...kinda crazy," he said with a soft scoff, but the smile soon took it's place. "She's kinda beautiful," he whispered, "Hey baby girl."

Summer gently relinquished the baby to Nate, and watched as he got her settled into his arms. She gave an awkward nod in agreement, it was kind of crazy... but when he smiled and greeted the baby so softly, Summer couldn't help but melt a little. That moment right there just made it feel so much more real than it was, and she wasn't sure why that was making her tear up a little bit.

"Alright," she said quietly with a deep sig, "So, we wanna do this totally realistically? Like, as if we were together in some way, with a baby? Or are we just focused on the baby raisin' part?"

"Oh. Um, I don't know." She said, caught off guard by the question. She quickly steeled herself against the emotions threatening to overtake her. "Um, I think maybe we should just focus on the baby raising part? I don't know how Sam will feel about us pretending we're together or something, and as fun as it is to tease him, I don't want to hurt him." She reasoned.

Nate thought over Summer's thoughts and nodded as he conceded to her words. "That's a decent point. I didn't really mean like sex or whatever. More like, rules or expectations or somethin'," he confirmed. "But I see you're point," he agreed as the baby in his arms started to cry. "Shh, shh, it's okay," he cooed softly, rocking the doll in his arms slightly.

"I know you didn't, Sir. But I think even use pretending like we're married or something might upset him... But we probably should have some sort of rules or expectations. Like, how do we divide up classtime with her fairly? And if one of us wants a night off to go hook up with someone or even just go out, is that fair to the other person or do we-" She cut off as the baby started to cry, and she swallowed. She watched as he shushed the doll and settled her, and once she seemed a bit less fussy she continued, this time with her tone a little softer. "Point is, we should definitely lay down some rules, I think." She concluded. "Do you think she's hungry?"

"Yeah, maybe that's not a bad idea," he agreed, "though I do think Phoenix has to be our number one priority. I mean, it's five days," he pointed out, "A break is certainly one thing, but I dunno that I wanna be the parents that leave her to go out and stuff." The doll settled a bit, slowly cooing when Summer brought up hunger, "Yeah, I think she probably is," he said looking at the clock, "Ya wanna feed her?"

Summer looked up, "I agree completely, Sir." She had brought up the break thing expecting he might want to take a break at some point, but was pleased that he seemed to be on the same page that they had to prioritize the baby. She expected, fully, that both of them would probably need a little space for an hour or two, but never far away from Phoenix. "Sure... um, where did you put the formula?" She asked. "You can keep holding her while I go mix it up."

Nate nodded in agreement, still rocking back and forth on his feet as he held the baby. "It's in the bag," he said, motioning with his elbow towards the school-provided diaper bag on the floor. As Summer got up to get it, the baby began to fuss a little more and Nate kept his rhythm of rocking on his feet while he rocked her. "It's alright, darlin', it's alright," he cooed quietly, "Mama's comin', shhh shhh," he said, almost on pure instinct and starting to engulf himself in this whole thing.

Summer stood up and walked over to the bag, searching through it until she found the formula. She took it to the kitchen to start mixing it up, and smiled to herself when she heard Nate referring to her as "mama" to the baby. She liked that. She'd always wanted to be a mother. It was a bit weird that her first experience with this was to a robot... but already, Phoenix was more than just a robot to her. She made sure to test the temperature of the formula before she brought it back out to where Nate was cooing at the doll, and reached out for her so she could feed her.

Nate did his little sway dance in the living room - which was all he had in regards to dancing talent. He shushed and cooed as the robot continued to cry. The sound was certainly getting to be a lot for him, and he could see how parents of infants got so upset so easily. But like a well-oiled machine, Summer appeared with the bottle and Nate carefully handed Phoenix over to Summer and waited for her to get settled for the feeding. "Alright, I'm gonna take a look at what's in this bag here," he said, grabbing the diaperbag and going through it. "What are our parenting stances on nooks?" he asked, pulling out a pacifier.

As soon as the baby had the bottle in her mouth and began to suckle, she was calm and content. She looked up when Nate pulled out the pacifier. "That's called a binky and our stance is that shes young enough she can have it as often as she wants." She said with a light smile.

He blinked at Summer a bit, "I'm sorry, a what?" he asked, "this is completely and 100% a nook," he said, taking an oddly strong, playful stance on the subject. "Alright that's fair. Hell, if she wants it when she's 12, who cares? I mean, she'll have to be able to stand up for herself but who am I to tell her what makes her feel better?"

"A binky." Summer repeated, emphatically. "She's a robot, if she wants it when she's 12 she can easily crush all the kids who tease her." Summer pointed out.

He slitted his eyes a bit, a small growl from his throat. Is this really what parents fought about. "Well, I mean, yes there's that too," he nodded. "So where do ya want me to set up her bassinet thing? Your room? Mine?" he asked, not entirely sure how they were going to co-parent and not act like they were together, though he understood why they were doing it this way.

Summer absolutely did not want to be apart from her overnight. Or ever. She imagined Nate might feel the same way though.... "we could take turns? Or... I can sleep on the floor in your room, maybe."

Nate thought it over, running his hand over his face as his inner boxes started to fight him. "I mean," he began, "For the reasons of this assignment, maybe...sharin' a room ain't the worst idea in the world. Knowin' that I don't normally do this and all that. But, I mean, ya ain't my sub for this assignment, your the co-parent. So, knowin' that," he trailed off, mostly figuring this all out in the moments he was speaking, "Maybe that's the best way to handle this."

Summer could see Nate was struggling with the concept a little bit, but She did feel that it was probably the best option so that neither of them had to spend any nights away from Phoenix. She looked down at the little bundle in her arms, still suckling away happily at the bottle, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable at all, Sir. But I don't want to be away from her and I don't think  you do either..." She pointed out. "We can try it out tonight, and if it's not working for you, we'll figure something else out tomorrow, okay?"

Nate nodded, “I mean ultimately we gotta do what makes sense. And what’s logical. And I think if I focus on that I’ll be okay. Ya just gotta promise ya ain’t gonna fall in love with me,” he smirked.

Summer scoffed. "Not a chance." She chuckled. "Got an air mattress or anything I can use to crash on the floor with?" She asked, not wanting to invade his personal space any more than was necessary.

Nate just hummed in a "yeah, okay," kinda way and ended with a short laugh. "I mean, the bed's big enough," he offered, "If you're alright with it. Otherwise we can pull the mattress out of Ry--uh, the spare room and pull it into mine."

"I mean, I can fall asleep anywhere to be honest. It's whatever you're comfortable, Sir. I'm the one invading your space." She told him. Just as she finished speaking, the baby finished off the last of the bottle. Summer set the now empty bottle down nearby and gently rocked her.

He gave a shrug, "it wouldn't be hard to pull the mattress in there," he said simply, as if he was actually making the decision. He watched as Summer went back to cuddling Phoenix and pulled a confused face, "Ya gotta burp her, Summer. Or she's gonna start screamin'."

"Then let's do that." She said, decision made. She looked at him, tilting her head, and then... "Right... I think I remember helping my mom do that when the Triplets 2.0 were babies." It had been a long time since then, but she carefully moved the baby up into position so she could burp her.

He chuckled at the 'next generation Evans' joke and watched as Summer set up to burp the robot baby. She was patting her back but nothing seemed to help. "Maybe try rubbing her back. I read sometimes that helps if pattin' doesn't do it."

Summer frowned, she'd only just started, Nate was already giving up on her method in favour of another? She kept patting, confident it would work.

Nate stayed quiet for a moment, but noticed that Summer wasn’t changing her tactic. The baby still wasn’t burping and now was starting to fuss. “Really? Is this really the time ya gonna chose to be bull-headed?” He asked rolling his eyes and going to the fridge for a drink. If she was going to be stubborn because she didn’t wanna take advice, that was her choice.

Summer's frown deepened, was Nate really doing this? She sighed, continuing to pat for another moment or two. Phoenix's fussing grew though and eventually Summer had to concede and change tactics. But Nate's idea didn't work either. "It's not working, Sir." She said, pointedly, as the baby began to cry.

His face frowned when his plan didn’t work either, figuring one of the two of them would have. “Alright, maybe she’s one of those super gassy ones. Law her across your lap face down and rub or pat,” he offered.

Summer hesitated, the idea seemed logical but rather harsh and she didn't want to hurt Phoenix. So she brought her over to Nate and offered her to him. "You try." She said.

Nate nodded taking the crying baby as she was handed. He moved to sit on a chair correctly. He carefully laid the baby acrossed his lap, keeping her head and neck cradled in his hand and against his thigh. He tried the rubbing technique first, rubbing over her lower back and up to her shoulders. He then started to pat her gently and they heard it. “Whoa! Good push kiddo,” he chuckled and carefully returned her to his arms, keeping her upright against his chest. “We got this,” he smirked.”

Summer breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the little noise, and the baby settled down as she cuddled against Nate. "Well, you've got this, at least." She said, realizing that she probably didn't know as much about babies as she thought she did.

Nate shook his head, "Nah, nah i said what I said for a reason," he said running his hand over the baby's back, feeling the robot start to settle against him. "I just...i was plannin' for a baby, Summer. I read everythin' there was to read. I searched everythin' there was to search. Some of it seemed to stick, apparently."

kelstiel11/23/2020 Shhh i was making the dream board and it took all morning lol. I'll do a reply on my break in a few hours.  and I have tomorrow and Wednesday off so ill be around lots then

----------------- It was later that night when Summer found herself sitting up in the bed, Phoenix tucked in her lap as Nate slept beside them. They had agreed to take turns for the night time feedings, and it was Summers turn m, but the feeding had ended about twenty minutes ago. She couldn't bring herself to put the baby down though. She was just content to stare at the sleeping doll, and she was feeling unexpectedly emotional about the whole thing. This could have been her life... her baby would be a year old some time this month, though the exact date would never be known. She sniffled, and wiped her eyes. The movment cause the baby to wake though, and she began to cry. Summer immediately tucked her to her chest to comfort her, "Shh... its okay."

Nate wasn't sure what was happening when he was suddenly awake. It took him probably close to a full minute to figure out what was going on when he turned to see Summer in bed with the baby who was now crying. "Everythin' alright?" he asked sleepily, sittin' up against the headboard and rubbing his tired eyes. He looked up to summer and noticed something - though he couldn't pin point what. "Hey....everythin' okay? Need help?"

Summer nodded, sniffling again. "We're fine, I think I just spooked her a little." She admitted, but already the baby was beginning to calm down with the gentle rubbing motion Summer was doing on her back. "I just couldn't sleep, so I stayed up with her and I was thinking and..." She trailed off, her breath hitching in her throat.

Nate was ready to take that answer and go back to sleep. But he heard the sad in her voice and sat up a little to move closer towards her. “Cmon,” he encouraged softly, “talk to me.”

She sniffled again, "I was just... I realized that this month would have been her first birthday." She said, and she knew she didn't have to elaborate on who, Nate would know. "I just started thinking about how different my life might have been..."

Nate nodded solemnly as her words hit hard against his ears. "I'm sorry," he said softly, knowing that was the worst and only thing he could say. "That's one way to look at it," he breathed out slowly, "Ya could also look at it like things would have definitely been different, but that doesn't mean they would have been better. Things happen for a reason. And we're only given exactly what we can handle. No more, no less."

Summer wasn't sure she bought into the whole "only given what we can handle" stuff, because who was doing the giving, really? But that wasn't a conversation she was going to get into right now, especially when Nate was only trying to comfort her. His words may have missed the mark but his intention was genuine. She kept rubbing the baby's back, holding her close, but her head came down to rest against Nate's shoulder, seeking whatever small amount of comfort she could in her moments of vulnerability.

He smiled softly as her head rested against him, and just let them sit in the silence for a few minutes. "Hey," he finally whispered softly, "ya both gotta get some sleep. Ya gotta put her back for now. But she'll be right there in the mornin'."

Summer knew he was right. She needed sleep and she'd sleep better on her back instead of in Summer's arms. As for Summer, well, she needed sleep too, but she didn't want to put Phoenix down. It took her another moment, but finally logic won out and she sat up, slowly so as not to wake the baby again, and gently laid her in the 'crib' that was set up next to the bed. She laid back down and took in a breath as she watched the baby sleep, "I'm sorry we woke you, Sir." She said to Nate, keeping her voice low and soft.