Alcuin glanced over at the bag at the foot of the bed while they exchanged the little fiend and then leaned down to pick up his whimpering twin. “Come on then, little one. Let us go on an adventure, shall we?” He suppressed an anxious shiver at the distinctly unpleasant feeling of her icy gaze at his back while he bounced lightly on his toes toward the bag, though he found that the baby fussed and whimpered for him. It always surprised him how many little bits and bobs went into the care of infants, but after a bit of rifling through the bag he soon unearthed a small pair of sky blue pacifiers. He held one of them up for the babe to see with an air of exaggerated triumph. “Voilà!”
“Would you like one, my sweet?” Alcuin lowered the nipple of the pacifier to the mewling infant's lips while Allison took the other to be changed and was pleasantly surprised when the babe accepted the comfort of the pacifier, squeezing his little eyes shut with what he liked to think was gratitude. The majority of the crisis had seemingly been averted by the time she returned – until they both remembered the elephant in the room, that is. “Scott is still working at the clinic at present. Here, try to see if the culprit will not take it,” he answered, walking along the edge of the bed to hold out the remaining pacifier for her.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to suppress the urge to succumb to nervous habits. “I am good at many things; however, cooking is unfortunately not amongst my finer points, I am afraid,” he explained, flushing slightly with embarrassment. “I wished to fetch him something – edible this time.”