The baby was crying. Rodney McKay was trying to sleep. His wife apparently was able to sleep through Merry's increasingly louder wails.
"Jennifer, go get the baby." he mumbled, patting her side of the bed. "Jennifer!" he said, a little louder, when he couldn't find his wife in bed. Then he remembered she had taken a nightshift and wasn't in their quarters at all.
Rodney groaned and rolled out of bed. The baby's crib was tucked into a tiny alcove by the window, which was cracked open.
"Meredith Rose McKay, it is two in the morning. You should be asleep. I should be asleep. Now go to sleep." He stood over the crib, looking down at the little girl who was clad in a pink fleece sleepsuit. Vaguely, he remembered Jeannie had sent it though he didn't know why that mattered at two in the morning.
Merry continued wailing. "Oh, come on, kid." Rodney sighed and reached into the crib to pick her up. "You have to go back to sleep. Your mother will not be happy to come in and find us awake. Me, maybe. You, not so much." Merry quieted as he talked to her. "You weren't alone in here, little girl. No, you weren't. Daddy would never do that to you. There is always someone here. Daddy or Mommy or Teyla or John or Ronon, one of them will always be in here with you."
The baby snuggled into his arms. She looked like Jennifer, he decided but she definitely had his eyes. "It's a good thing you look like your mommy. Mommy is very pretty and so are you." Rodney realized he felt like an idiot talking baby talk and crooning like a fool. On the other hand, maybe it was just what dads did at two in the morning. He liked that theory.
"All right now, we're going to come over here to the big bed and lay down. You're going to shut those pretty brown blink'ems and let Daddy sleep,too." Slowly he got back in bed, holding the baby in one hand and pulling the covers over them both with the other. "See, isn't this nice, Merry? You and me, sleeping when Mommy comes home." Merry cooed and kicked her feet. "No, sleepytime now. Playtime later." Rodney tucked the blanket around his daughter. "Another thing, Merry, no more crying like tonight. You've probably woke up the entire city of Atlantis, which come to think of it, is quite a feat for someone who can't even roll over but it needs to stop. Some people actually like to sleep. Like Daddy. Daddy likes to sleep. You like to sleep,too." he pleaded with her.
Merry just blinked and cooed again. "Meredith Rose, don't make me call Mommy. She'll never let me forget I couldn't handle you for one night. So please, please go back to sleep." An idea struck him and he moved her closer to the middle of the bed. "How about some music? One of those baby cds your Aunt Jeannie sent you?" Briefly, he wondered where Jennifer kept them but then he spotted a familiar white case sitting next to the cd player Jeannie had also sent with the cds and sleepsuit.
"You stay there. Daddy will be right back." Rodney hurried over to the cd player, inserted Baby Mozart and pressed play. Soft classical music began to fill the room. "There, Merry, just like Mommy does for your naps. Now, can we go back to sleep?"
Merry began to fuss and Rodney went back to the bed. "You don't need a diaper change, you aren't hungry, and it is very late, little girl. Let's go back to sleep, shall we?"
He pulled her close to him, her tufts of brown hair sticking up and tickling his chin. He smoothed them down. "We're gonna have to tell Mommy to get you some ribbons of something for your head, okay?" he mumbled sleepily as they dozed off together.
When Jennifer came to their quarters a few hours later, she found daddy and daughter, curled up together, Mozart still playing in the background. She just sighed, kicked off her shoes and joined the two in the bed. It had been a long night for everyone.