St. Louis/Kansas City, Friday Afternoon into Evening
A few hours later, Bay, Angelo and the adoptive fathers were gathered for the world's most uncomfortable cookies-and-coffee summit. Toby had found a bookstore to wait in, probably for the best.
"So her name is Abby?" Angelo asked, into the awkward silence that had been filling the room since they got there.
"I love that name," Bay jumped in. "It's not too trendy ... it's not too weird... "
"We actually named her after Victor's grandmother Abigail," said the more talkative of the fathers, Leo. (The other one, Victor, had been all but glaring at Bay and Angelo since they walked in.)
"Awwwwwww," Bay cooed -- and then, when no one else said anything, she spoke again. "The brownies are delicious."
"That's unusual," Leo said. "'cause I'm usually the anti-Midas when it comes to cooking. Everything I touch turns to char."
"Angelo's a great cook." That ... was a stupid thing to say. Bay knew it was stupid even as she said it, but if it helped convince the men to give custody to Angelo --
"Growing up in France, I couldn't help but learn," Angelo put in.
There was some more awkward small talk, into which Bay shoehorned praise for Angelo's driving because, again, she was nervous, before they were mercifully interrupted by a baby's crying.
"She's up early," Leo said, sounding grateful for it. He turned down Angelo's offer of help with stiff politeness.
"Could I -- would it be okay if I saw her?" Bay asked, fighting the urge to hide behind her hair as she did.
"Abby doesn't always do so well with strangers," Victor said firmly.
"Bay's not a stranger," Angelo protested. "She's her sister."
"Um ... c'mon," Leo decided to end the stand-off. "But be warned, when she burps it is not unlike Mount Vesuvius."
A moment later they were on the baby's nursery, with Bay awkwardly trying to get a good look at Abby while Leo bounced her around to soothe her.
"She has Angelo's eyes," she commented.
"I saw that too," Leo admitted softly, and offered Bay the infant. "I think she's ready for you. Good girl..."
Abby burst into shrieks instantly.
"Did I do something wrong?," Bay asked, panicked, and handed Abby back.
"It's okay, Abby, I'm right here. It's okay. Shh. Daddy's right here." And through the door, Bay could hear some kind of conflict between Angelo and Victor.
It wasn't any surprise when they left shortly after.
*****
"Well, that one guy sounds like an ass," Toby said later, over sodas in the hotel bar. "But it can't change the fact you're Abby's dad."
"Yes," Angelo conceded darkly, "but now it's going to take a whole lot of money and time to get her back."
Bay offered, "She seemed really happy there." She'd been preoccupied by that all afternoon.
"They had four months to bond with her," Angelo said, still in a sulk. "And the longer this drags out, the longer they'll have."
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing," Bay said in a small voice, twisting her glass between her hands. "I mean ... they seemed to really love her."
"Bay," Angelo barked, "I love her too."
"Leo was saying they had a really hard time getting a baby, y'know, cause they're gay, and-"
"Why is this my problem?" Angelo asked, with a wide gesture of disbelief. "She's my daughter, and I didn't even get the chance to name her."
Bay held up a hand, feeling like she'd gone too far. "Wait, I -"
"No, I can't believe it -- you think they should raise her?" Angelo sounded both angry and deeply hurt.
"I don't know," Bay said, her tone rising to match his. "All I know is that she started crying the second I took her out of Leo's arms. How is she going to feel when you take her away from them forever?"
"Are you taking their side?" Angelo demanded.
"No--"
"After all this time you spent looking for me, you said it always felt like something was missing."
"I did, but my parents ... are my parents." And that was quite possibly the first time Bay had thought of it quite that starkly, let alone expressed it to Angelo or Regina.
"I thought you were supposed to be helping me," Angelo said harshly, then added a disbelieving, " Did you say any of this to Leo?"
Bay shook her head. "No, it's just really complicated --"
"No. Not to me it isn't." Angelo slammed back the rest of his drink, dropped some bills on the table. "I'm going to wait in the car."
Toby, who had been silent, dropped a consoling arm around Bay's shoulders. They sat in silence for a moment before Bay cracked, "... that went well."
The worst part of it was, she'd planned to stay overnight with Angelo and Regina because it had been a while since she saw her birth mom. Bay didn't want to punish Regina because she and Angelo were fighting, so they had to ride back to Angelo's apartment in silence.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Regina asked hopefully when they came though the door.
"Ask him," Bay said, and went into the spare bedroom to drop off her bag and get herself back together.
She could hear Angelo and Regina talking through the door, could hear Angelo vowing to get Abby back even if Bay was somehow making it about the Kennishes.
She was very glad she had a Fandom to go back to. It tended to wreck her less than family drama did.
[OOC: Post 2/2. Still based on 2x17, ""Prudence, Avarice, Lust, Justice, Anger." NFB due to distance. Open for calls/texts if anybody really wants?]