The Cookie Monster Who Stole My Beard

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 4:35am by Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD & Cailus Griffin & Eva Griffin
Edited on on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 8:04am

Mission: New Moon Rising
Location: Shae's Quarters
Timeline: The morning after "The Next Step"

Shae's ears twitched as she heard the sonic shower shut off. Cracking her eyes open, she peered over to the bathroom, its door open so Cailus could hear if Aoife or Shae needed him. Shae caught the rather delectable sight of Cailus in just a towel; mmmm, what a sight to wake up to! She watched him going about his usual morning routine for a moment before she finally stretched and turned over, rolling out of bed to check on Aoife.

"Good morning, little one," she said softly as she paused mid stride for another good stretch, but then she froze and her blood went cold when she noticed that Aoife was not in her crib. "Wha- Cailus, did you take Aoife out of her crib?" she called out as she looked around. The rail on the little bed was down and her largest stuffed animal, a big pink bear from her grandmother, was on the floor.

Halfway through the motion of reaching for his razor, Cailus frowned at himself in the mirror at such an odd question; where else would she be? "No," he said mildly in response, shaking his head in bemusement. It was too far too early in the morning for serious thought, not to mention before coffee...

"She's not in here," Shae said, her tone somewhat panicked as she started checking around, under the crib, beside the bed; their quarters may have been bigger than back on the Tornado, but they still weren't that big, there were only so many places this kid could get to! Unable to find Aoife in the bedroom, Shae went to the living room to continue the search.

The words took a moment to register for Cailus, carefully trimming his beard with the razor, before his eyes widened in sudden panic. He turned, prepared to sprint straight into the main room...and froze.

On the floor, smiling as if she did this all the time, was Aoife. As Cailus stared down at her blankly, with the razor greedily shaving a wide strip of his beard at his inattention, the younger Brennan held up a crumbling cookie, beaming up at him with pride.

"Found her," he said faintly, mouth open in dumbfounded shock.

In the living room, what Shae found only confused her further. There was a chair pushed up to the replicator, and a tin of her mother's cookies on the seat. Then she heard Cailus' declaration and she returned to the bedroom. Sure enough, there was Aoife on the bathroom floor with cookies in hand. "What..." Shae said, utterly dumbfounded. "But-" she started, looking over at the crib, then back at Aoife; the crib and the bear, the chair and the replicator, Aoife and the cookies. She could see all the evidence, but it was like her brain refused to piece it together or accept what she was seeing.

Glancing from Aoife to Shae, then back to Aoife, Cailus put the razor back on the sink, still somewhat flummoxed. "She was just...there..." he said dully. Looking back at Shae in puzzlement, he asked, "How-?"

"But she... she can't..." Shae said, still unable to believe what was so clearly before her. She stepped over to the crib and picked up the pink bear. "I can't believe it," she finally said with a grin and a shake of her head. "She figured out how to lower the crib rail, climb over, used her bear to soften her fall, and there's a chair pushed up to the replicator!" And if that wasn't enough, Aoife had apparently paid enough attention to what buttons Shae pushed on the replicator to get the cookies! Shae entered the bathroom and crouched down next to Aoife. "You little monster, you!" she said with a laugh.

"She replicated them?" Cailus said in amazement as he crouched down along with them, a disbelieving smile starting to form. Plucking the cookie out of Aoife's outstretched hand, he took a casual bite, considering her with amusement. "I think we can forget about Aoife having her mother's brains," he said inbetween chews as he glanced up at Shae playfully. "She's much smarter than that, apparently."

"Oi!" Shae exclaimed, then laughed. "Well then, she's smarter than you as well," she pointed out, reaching up to touch the patch of bare skin where beard should have been.

"Well, that's..." Cailus trailed off, frowning as he touched the bare patch along with her and realisation struck anew. With alarm he stood up again, examining the damage; a two-centimeter wide strip had been claimed by the razor, leaving the surly Security Chief looking like a off-kilter zebra.

"Son of a..." he muttered, glancing hurriedly at Aoife on the floor, and hurriedly amended, "...gun. I'll have to shave the whole thing. Ah..."

"Look Aoife, he's going to have a baby face," Shae said teasingly as she picked up Aoife so she could watch as Cailus shaved. "Hey now, what's this..." Shae said with some confusion as she felt around Aoife's pajama top. She set Aoife on the counter and lifted the shirt and out fell a mess of cookies. "We have seriously been underestimating your level of intelligence. Rebekah is going to have one hell of a laugh at this," Shae commented as she picked up the cookies, giving a few to Aoife to eat now; might as well, she earned them!

Shaving carefully, the thin razor's laser soundlessly doing its work, Cailus glanced at them wryly. "At first, maybe...but just wait. Now that she can walk, she'll be terrorizing us in no time." Finishing, he rubbed his now smooth jaw with a sigh. "Case in point."

"No, she's not walking yet; have you never seen her scoot herself across the floor on her backside? But her legs are still too bowed and her pelvis misshaped, she doesn't have the balance to stand without something to hold onto. Though that shall be changing very soon! I intend on having a word with Rebekah and the doctor about getting that taken care; if she's strong enough to climb out of bed and up chairs, then she's ready for the next step." There was more than a hint of pride in Shae's voice at this. Shae picked up Aoife and they watched as Cailus finished shaving. Aoife looked at Cailus with a confused expression, and then to Shae's surprise, she started growling.

Bemused at that odd sound, Cailus turned fully to Aoife and crossed his arms, answering her growl with his most disgruntled look, scrunching up his face. "It hardly seems fair to be annoyed with something you caused, little one," he said with mock seriousness; it was taking everything Cailus had to restrain his grin at the growling toddler. At a passing thought he raised his hand to Aoife's nose, hovering in front of her tiny nostrils.

Aoife's ears drooped when she saw his finger coming towards her nose. Shae would give Aoife's nose a little tap, just a gentle gesture, to express her displeasure; it wasn't really a punishment, just a means of maintaining discipline with a child who couldn't talk, and Aoife did not like it when her mother was disappointed with her! Seeing Cailus' finger now, she thought she was about to get a little tap and she wondered what she had done to deserve it when both Cailus and Shae had been laughing only moments earlier, but then Cailus just held his finger there, waiting. Well, it smelled like Cailus... She looked at Cailus, growling again at the strangeness of his face without the extra hair, but the finger under her nose clearly smelled like the man who made her mommy smile! Aoife looked down at the finger, then at Cailus, then back, before finally raising her arms for Cailus to pick her up. Cailus obeyed, and once she was closer, she could really get a good smell of him, as well as to explore this new strange face. But it was definitely him! Another good sniff of him and she finally accepted that this was indeed Cailus, and her tail began to wag happily. But what happened to his face?! Her hands were on his face as she wondered just where the fuzzy hair went.

Tolerating her patting in good humour, Cailus gave Shae a light, happy look, before bouncing Aoife slightly into a more comfortable position. "Come on, you," he said, easing her around Shae towards the door. "Mommy needs the bathroom, and you need breakfast that isn't cookies..."

"Make sure you put some pants on before the towel falls and you're flapping in the breeze," Shae said with a grin. She picked up the pink bear and tossed it back into the crib, then picked up the rest of the cookies Aoife had squirreled away. "We're going to have to figure out how to child proof the replicator if she keeps this up."

As Cailus placed Aoife on the bed so he could get dressed, he snorted. "You mean you're going to figure it out, Shae. I knew my way around computers back then, but these modern computers are impossible." After pulling on his uniform pants, he glanced with exasperation at Aoife, who was merrily attacking half of a cookie that she had somehow smuggled past her mother. "We'll have to child proof everything, I think..."

"Well, we can't set bio locks because that would lock me out as well," Shae said with a shake of her head. "What are we going to do with you, little monster?" she asked Aoife rhetorically. Aoife could tell they were talking about her, though not exactly sure about what, but it made her smile to be the center of attention. "You keep smiling, my little imp, we'll figure out how to deal with you," Shae said with amusement, then disappeared into the bathroom to shower.