With Hearts to Hear| ✔

|34|

The next time the pair saw each other was not until a few weeks later. Rachel was two seconds away from pulling her hair out. Diana had been clingy, throwing tantrums and clearly intent on driving her mother up a wall.

It had been a few weeks since their first date, they had tried to plan their second, Killian more than eager to bring Rachel back to their pack however, each time they had arranged a day and time, life got in the way.

Ai had to work, and her mother and stepfather had decided at the last minute to take a week away, so Rachel had no choice but to call Killian. She had two assignments due for her apprenticeship that she had yet to start on, and with Diana trying her hardest to be a distraction she could hardly focus on getting anything done.

She hadn't wanted to call him, knowing that he was probably busy. She knew how much time he put into being an Alpha, he had practically lived in his office when she lived with him. However, her choices laid between failing part of her apprentice course, or Killian having to take a day off, the stakes seemed skewed in her favour.

When she finally called, Killian had dropped his work immediately, arguing he could get it done at any point because he wasn't under a deadline.

"Okay well, I'll just be in the other room." Rachel handed Diana off to her father. "Bottles are in the kitchen, I left instructions on what to do."

She waved bye-bye to Diana— even though she was just leaving to go into the next room, she found that the baby seemed to settle a lot better when she knew that her mother was leaving than if she just snuck off.

Killian struggled, it felt like she screamed forever— that there would be no end to it. Just when he was convinced that he could take no more, when he was about to throw in the rag and call for Rachel to comfort her, Diana finally settled down. Though Killian knew it was nothing more than sheer exhaustion, and not being able to cry any longer he was far too relieved than anything else.

He sat with her on the floor, playing with a few of her toys with some TV show on in the background. She, it would seem, had inherited her mothers love of music and would dance whenever anything with playful music started— her favourite was an ad for a new clothing brand.

Killian couldn't help but be particularly triumphant when she waddled over on her chubby little stubby legs, grabbed his hands and began babbling as if telling him that he had to dance with her.

Rachel could hear the two of them getting on well in the other room, and with Diana distracted it was the first time she had been able to sit down and complete some of her work. She was somewhat tempted to go have a peek into the room, to see what was going on, but she knew that if Diana saw her they would be back at square one.

It took everything she had to stay planted in her chair in front of her laptop and notebooks; she even considered tying herself to the chair— then realising how ridiculously insane she was being, buried her nose back down into her book to finish her work.

The arrangement lasted long enough that Rachel had been able to finish most of her prep work, and to actually write some of the report too! She definitely wouldn't mind sending Diana off with her father more often so that she could get some peace and quiet every once in a while.

When she emerged from her bedroom where she had barricaded herself in, Killian was somehow wearing a tiara on his head. The tiny piece of plastic stretching to its very limits to fit on his adult sized head.

Diana was rummaging through her little toy box pulling out more things for them to play with. She turned around shrieking happily, until her gaze fell on Rachel and she ran her face crumbling into upset at realising she had been gone the entire time.