InsaneJournal

It wasn't like he wasn't prepared for it, but Teja wasn't expecting his younger self to show up for another two years. When he went in to inspect the barracks that morning and the klokateers informed him of a small 'issue', he wasn't ready to come face to tiny, rounded face with a small, cooing baby. A baby with blue eyes and strikingly red hair. He wrapped the baby in the blanket that was on the bunk and picked him up, and Teja cradled the bundle in one arm, glaring at the men. "I'll deal with this, go about your business." That said, he went back to the main building of Mordhaus.

In his arm, there was the small version of him, fussing due to hunger, and looking all too much like he recognized that the man he'd become. "Shush, baby," Teja whispered, and ran a hand through his own hair, trying to catch up to the events. Who would the child go to? Who could he trust with his upbringing? It was a chance to make things better for himself in some regard - something that nobody he could think of had the ability to decide. On one hand, his father was alive here, living with Skwisgaar; he could take care of his own son and provide a more gentle atmosphere than Teja had grown up around. He'd be raised with the young Soren and perhaps they wouldn't have the same kind of barrier between them. On the other hand, Teja didn't figure his upbringing was entirely awful. He was well educated, healthy, had a comfortable living in a comfortable, if sheltered, home. He rocked the baby slowly and shushed him in a placating, low tone. "We'll get you some food. Torii has got to have something for you. She babysits all the time."

Once he texted Torii, and got to her bedroom, they discussed what to do with the baby as Teja fed him a bottle of formula and rocked the child back to sleep. Torii called their father, who said he was no good with babies, so that struck him off the list, leaving only one more reasonable solution - Sadako. Teja considered for a moment that he could raise this baby on his own. Gaz would shit herself, certainly, but Teja didn't want the baby to grow up feeling cast out from anything. He called a klokateer and sent him off to buy baby supplies - formula, diapers, toys, clothes and a crib, and he brought the baby to his room. He laid the child in his bed, in the center of it, where he wouldn't accidentally roll off the edge, or suffocate in the pillows. While the child slept, Teja got three other employees to take over his duties, and then sat down, staring at the sleeping little-self on his bed. "Thumbsucker," he muttered quietly with a small smile, shaking his head and turned to his desk, to start working this problem through on a piece of paper.

It wasn't a hard problem to figure out. Charles could take care of a baby if the needs called for it, but Teja didn't want to bother the CFO. He sighed and rubbed his face, trying to think of what to do. He wrote to Sadako. If anything, she could help him, at least for morale, and in the end, he figured if anything, she could take care of the young one. She was loving and dear to him, and always had been. If she found herself struggling to take care of the baby, she could age him up. Teja's brow knit - no. He wouldn't want that to happen. Losing so many chances to learn in formative years could stunt his development. However, Teja wasn't ready for a child, and never would be. He knew that when he saw the baby for the first time. He lost the only chance he'd had, and it was all his fault. He'd been purposefully negligent in Lilo's prenatal care, to spite Sadako. "Oh, hell," He groaned, rubbing his face again and sighing deeply. "Don't bring that up again, brain."

He looked over at the bed and smiled faintly again, before standing up and sitting down on the edge of it, brushing his calloused fingertips over the child's cheek, nodding, "I'll figure something out. I'm not as stupid as I let on. You'll see." In the meanwhile, however, Teja waited for his mother.